Where My Stuff Is.

It's been way too long since I last posted here, so I thought I'd do a post about some of the places I have found my images being utilised lately.

• My photo in the New Mexico Independent.
  
  
• My photo of blueberries on Foodbev.com.
  
  
• My photo of USB ports used by ABC Radio Australia.
  
  
• My photo of a balloon against a summer sky on the Thankful For blog.
  
  
• My photo of playing cards on a post about Confirmation Bias on Moment of Science, Indiana Public Media.
  
  
• My photo of a festival scene used on the Digital Rights Manifesto.
  
  
• My photo of hopscotch on Waxing Unlyrical.
  
  
• My 'Dear Diary' photo on humangoods.net
  
  
• My photo of green bubble wrap on diddit's list of Inventions of the 1950s.
  
  
• My 'funky abstract background' photo used on the social designer website.
  
  
• My photo of filling in a crossword puzzle on New Hampshire Public Radio.
  
  
• An edited version of my wordsearch photo appears on sbg digital publications as the header.
  
  
• My funky abstract background (again!) used as an example photo of How to learn image cropping, from www.kirpi.it
  
  
• My photo of a blister pack of tablets used on Dave's Whiteboard blog

Disabled Women's Photography Exhibition

From Etcetera, we get this news about a women's photography exhibition.

WOMEN BUILDING BRIDGES is an International Womens Day 2010 Art
Exhibition and Programme opening in The Womens Centre, Beibinn House,
5 Guildhall Street, Derry on Monday 8th March.

Exhibitions, to be hosted by a number of venues around Derry city, will run from Monday 8th March to Saturday 27th March, and includes part of the cross-border project LIMINALITY: Different Views / Viewing Difference.

This project, between Women Making Waves in Co. Fermanagh and Women Independently LIving in Leitrim, has explored issues of gender,
self-image and disability through community arts activities with disabled and nondisabled women from the disadvantaged border area in the North-West of Ireland.

The result is a collection of photographic self-portraits showing smiling, stylish, independent women unashamed of age or impairments. It challenges stereotypical images from the mainstream media, the women themselves choosing how they are to be represented.

Some of the work from LIMINALITY will be on show in the Tower Museum from the launch at 12:30pm on Wednesday 10th March until Saturday 27th March.

To contact the venue, call Margaret Edwards/Bernadette Walsh. T:02871 372411

For information on the Women's Day celebrations around Derry, visit
www.thewomenscentre.co.uk.

For more info about Women Independently Living in Leitrim, contact
Secretary Isolde Carmody: c/o LAPWD, Station
Road, Mohill, Co. Leitrim,
Ireland

Phone: +353-71-9621936, Text:
+353-86-8810445 E-mail: isoldecarmody@gmail.com.

(cross-posted at The F Word)

Flickr Photo Stats

I picked one of my photos at random, one that is reasonably popular, and had a look at the recent stats. I should do it more often!

I learned, from the last 2 days' referrals, that it is being used as a homepage image for searchslate.com and A6.com search engines, screenshot below.



It is also featured on this list of rainbow textured photos on a design blog.

I should check my photo stats more often!

Women Like You

I submitted this photo of my Grandma :)

Women Like You: Submit photos for International Women's Day 2010

Manchester Art Gallery exhibition

Is there a woman in your life that has inspired you? Then Manchester based artist Charlotte Newson would like a photograph of them.

Women, by their very nature, are strong characters and Manchester is full of strong and motivating women. We want to celebrate the lives of these ordinary women who in their own way are doing extraordinary things every day.

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2010 (IWD), the city council in partnership with the Pankhurst Centre has commissioned Charlotte to create a new portrait of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst for an exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery called Women Like You (6 March – 9 May 2010).

All the donated photographs will be scanned and digitally recorded and will be used to make up the portrait of Manchester’s famous suffragette daughter Emmeline Pankhurst.

The theme of IWD 2010 follows on from this year’s theme which focused on the inspiration and aspirations of women.

Councillor Val Stevens, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council said: “This project gives all of us the chance to think about women who have inspired us. And it’s not just about women; we want men to send photos of women that have made an impact in their life as well. We want to celebrate and recognise the positive aspects of women and their contribution to society. And it will be a chance to be involved in some way in a piece of artistic history in the city.”

Councillor Sue Murphy, Lead member for Women’s issues at Manchester City Council said: “Women, by their very nature, are strong characters and Manchester is full of strong and motivating women. We want to celebrate the lives of these ordinary women who in their own way are doing extraordinary things every day.”
Artist Charlotte Newson said: “We want photographs of women that you feel have made an impact on your life. It really could be anyone – your mother, grandmother, friend, teacher, historical figure or even a contemporary personality. We would like them all.”

Photographs are needed by the end of November to give the artist time to create the portrait. If you have a photograph you would like to contribute you can do so by visiting this facebook group

Photographs can also be dropped off now at the Pankhurst Centre, 60-62 Nelson Street M13 and at Manchester Art Gallery and Manchester Central Library between 1 November and 1 December 2009 where special boxes will be available to place them. Please note, it will not be possible to return photographs.

The finished artwork will be officially unveiled at IWD 2010 and will be on display at Manchester Art Gallery until 9 May 2010.
More info here

Jessops Photo Printing: Review

I decided to use Jessops photo to get some photos printed, with the suggestion (screenshot below) that I could order the prints online, and then I could collect them from my local Jessops shop soon afterwards, and not need to pay postage charges.



So I started with the order process. This was straightforward, and it was easy to order different prints in different sizes, which I needed to do.

Then you give them your details, then pay. One of the payment options was paypal, which was also good for me.

But then it got odd. It was only after they had taken your payment that the images were actually uploaded. This presents many problems, mainly that if there are then difficulties in uploading the photos, you are stuck. You have already paid - what happens if the upload does not work? I use chrome browser, which can have difficulties on certain sites, so I could have had real problems.

Thankfully though, the upload worked ok. But I found that rather than them being ready to collect within 30 minutes, it would in fact take 1-3 working days for the photos to be printed.

So yesterday I checked the order tracking, and found that they had been printed. Good, I thought, they are ready (I need them for Thursday). But no, they are still not ready to collect because it will now take another 1-3 working days for them to be delivered to the store!

The store I ordered them to be collecting from does photo printing, so why do they have to be printed elsewhere and delivered to the store? The time taken to get hold of my photos started at a promised 30 minutes on Monday, and could end up being 6 working days - more than a week! Next Tuesday!

I have no idea whether they will be ready for me to collect tomorrow, when I really need them. All I can say is that they had better be excellent quality prints.

In addition to all this, they don't tell you that you need to own a printer until the confirmation that the photos have been printed has arrived by email. At that stage they tell you that to collect the photos you need a print-out of the email.

I am really not impressed by the misleading message on the original Jessops site screen. There are suggestions on the 'order tracking' page that I should check my local shop's webpage to find out which day they take deliveries on, but that information is nowhere to be found. I will be charged for calling an 0845 number to call the store to find out. Also, the uploading after payment, and the very late notice that if you don't have a printer then you presumably can't collect the prints you have ordered, and already paid for, are both fraught with difficulties.

Not dead impressed, Jessops, I'm afraid.

Resizing Lots of Photos at Once

I had just finished editing photos from a day trip to Cleethorpes and as well as uploading them to flickr, I also wanted to upload them to facebook.

After a few failed attempts, I realised that photos for facebook have to be less than 5mb, and few of my photos were.

I started resizing them individually in Photoshop, but realised it was going to take all day, so with a bit of googling, I found Resize My Photos which is free software which you can use to resize a whole folder of photos in one go.

I downloaded it and it is very light on the system, as well as incredibly easy and quick to use. You choose your resizing options, you choose where the photos will end up, and you choose what should happen to the filenames. You tell it to do it, and it does it. It's that easy, and managed a folder of 81 large photos in 30 seconds or so.

So, if you need to do a similar thing, I'd strongly recommend Resize My Photos.

Painted Animals

Lately there have been some fab painted animals in the Winter Gardens in Sheffield. They are due to be removed soon so I grabbed the opportunity to take some photos over the last few days.

Lovely Reflections in the Balls of Steel

Promotional Postcards

I've just created two designs for postcards, which I could get free through Vistaprint.

I made them in Photoshop, to promote my t-shirt (and other product) design site, lovelytees.co.uk, and I'm really pleased with the look I created.

The back:

Disposable Camera Experiment at Sheffield Pride

I have wanted for a while to carry out a photography experiment with a disposable camera. I decided that Sheffield Pride would be a great place to try it out, so I did!

I wanted to see what people would do if they were faced with a disposable camera and a sign next to it asking them to take a photo with it. Would they? What would they photograph? I just had to find out!



I started off with two disposable cameras, string, duct tape and scissors, and some signs I made for this very purpose.





On arriving at Pride I found a bench and a picnic table, and set it all up. The sign was taped onto it, and the camera was attached with string.



At this stage I had to just leave them there and go on to enjoy the day!

My anxieties were that the cameras would be stolen or destroyed, or that they would sit there all day and noone would want to play with them and take any photos! The final worry was that someone would take an, umm, inappropriate photo of a part of their anatomy, and I would be arrested at the photo developing shop!

My friend and I occasionally sat nearby and secretly spied on the bench and table, just to see if anyone was showing any interest. To my joy, everyone who sat down did read the sign, and most then started looking at the camera and taking photos. At one point children were playing with it, and I wondered if they would even know to wind the film on, in this digital age!

At the end of the day I went to collect the cameras. To my dismay, the one which had been on the picnic table had indeed been stolen. I was initially gutted, but soon realised that with an experiment such as this, I knew full well it was a possibility, and annoying as it was, their karma will catch up with them at some point. Maybe none of the photos will come out for them!

However, the camera on the bench was still there, though the photo counter showed that no photos had been taken. I had no idea what to expect when I took it to be developed. Would they just laugh at me on my return for taking an unused camera to be developed??

I picked the photos up a few days later, and I love them! They are blurry, random, and absolutely perfect! People got into the spirit of the game, took photos of themselves, their friends, and the park we were in.

Their very imperfections are exactly what appeals to me. All I have done to the photos is scan them into the computer, nothing else digitally has occurred. They are visible to you exactly as they are visible to me.

And no penis photos at all!

You can see the setup and all the developed photographs here. Do go and look!









See all the disposable camera experiment photos here.