brendadada's blog

http://www.thephotographypages.co.uk/2008/01/15/when-is-it-better-not-to-take-the-photograph/

2.71screen.jpg

The difficulty with shooting any format other than 35mm (or digital) is that all the conventional web displays make them look wrong. Square photos 6x6 aren't quite so bad if the thumbnail is square, and generally 645 is okay, but 67, and anything that's an upright renders badly as a thumbnail. But worst of all is the panorama, which is either cropped to resemble nothing much, or comes out really tiny on the page.

So I made a new site for these 24x63 aspect photos, using a lightly fettled Hemingway template on Wordpress.com. But nice though it is, Hemingway is slightly problematic for photoblogs, in that the posts view doesn't actually show any photos, so the homepage on 2point71 is a page view instead. It is static though. Does anybody out there know how to make the photo on the home page change automagically, maybe randomly? And it would also be great to be able to produce a gallery view of all the entries, as a gallery page of thumbnails, but in the correct aspect ratio.

Anyone have any suggestions how to do that?

Aspect ratios (width:height) for common film (and digital) sizes, useful for converting to pixels:

• 35mm = 36:24 or 3:2
• 6x45 = 55:42
• 6x6 = 55:44
• 67 = 68.75:55
• Xpan = 63:24
• digital SLR = 3:2
• digital point-and-shoot = 4:3
• standard television = 4:3
• widescreen television = 16:9

Note that the 6x6 frame isn't square to allow for the sprocket holes. Please do go ahead and add others that might be useful, and of course let me know if I've got any of these wrong. Also, there might be photographs on 2point71 that people might like for the print swop. Most are of higher quality than the ones on Ipernity here.

Well, I like them.

To continue this chain from the lovely Mr Panchromatica, I am offering TWO prints of any of my photos in my photostream here (there's not much here yet though, sorry) or on my blog or website to the first five people responding by placing a comment on this post. They'll be printed on A4 sized paper, which means that for example, you'd get a 7" square print if you choose a square one, etc.

As Ian says: I'm not expecting you to do likewise, just feeling generous, but if you want to make a similar offer, then please:

1. post your offer here in a comment. This can be for as many or as few prints as you like, of whatever size you think fit. Panchromatica is offering 5, for example. Make sure you include a link to your own pages
2. post a link to this post on your own Ipernity pages (and anywhere else you like) inviting people to join in.

So, to recap: post here, post your offer on your own site, and link back here. Please send me a separate message including your postal address - don't post your address in the thread.

lightroom

Suffering from a mortal dread of the initial stages of learning how to use new bits of software, once I get down tuit, it never takes long before I fall completely, and committedly, in love. Mind you that hasn't happened with Photoshop yet, although I have great hopes that CS3 will ring all my bells and maybe even schnozzle my schnissle.

This post also provides a chance to show all you lovely europeans the beautiful northern coastline 5 minutes from where I live, without exactly inflicting a cheesy emotive landscape upon you all. It's been a cold, damp summer, no continental sunhats and sandals. But I do love it here. This is almost the view from my bathroom window. Not quite, I'm a little further away, but still. The light tonight was breathtaking.

exposure test 2

More here: www.brendadada.net/2007/02/28/seventy-nine/

Looks like I'm going to only be making an occasional visit to the lovely Ipernity: the resolve is that most of my internet time is going to be about making a better and more regular effort with my blog and getting my new portfolio site working properly before I go back at the end of the month to Year 2 of my degree. I'll be publishing the occasional article (most a lot shorter than that!) and photography book reviews over there, as well as all the usual blog type commentary on the profession, its science and artistry.

Having more than enthusiatically dabbled in Web2 for almost 3 years, I'm back to blogging on my own webspace, which is good to know. A sound decision, more reliable, cheaper etc, etc. :)

Argh, cor blimey, last post is a long time ago. It's so interesting after being used to a lot of attention on that other place, how little any of it actually matters.

Other people's stuff here is mighty good to look at though...

desktopclients

Experimenting with a stash of the newer Web2 social sites, and finding that all of these are pretty much great fun. Do feel free to click through to see the notes. I'm 'brendadada' (almost) everywhere, so feel free to make contact if you've got one of these new accounts.

Have also just installed a new portfolio site at brendadada.com and the blog has moved to brendadada.net, all looking good and nothing seems broken. Marvellous. Now down to an afternoon of serious scanning. ;P

Spread the word, keep photography off our streets!

www.nonphotographyday.com/

And in other news, One Hand Schmapping. Did you give your photos to these people for nothing? Read this:

www.epuk.org/Blogs/613/one-hand-schmapping

David Byrne interviews David Byrne. My favourite thing all week. Almost.

I did also send out almost 50 badges so I hope to see them land in coming days and weeks. There are a few left, not many though, so please mail your address if you want one.

Oh yes, I bought yet another Blad. Blad, bad me. So that's another huge pile of negatives for the scanner, then. ;)

I love his suit. I did have at least 10 of those in my corporate whoring 1980s days. Shoulder pads as big as the ego, someone one described them. Oh the rare lure of humility. Speaking of which, has anyone here tried this?

Courtesy of tuxcomputers. Just click here:

wwwl.meebo.com/room/ipernity/

Yes well, someone had to do it. Post a note here saying which one you want, mail me your address, and I'll send you a wee badge for you to pin on your camera bag. And/or go ahead and make your own. The artwork is free of all copyright, the only thing I ask is that you post a photo of you and your badge in some uncompromising position, here or on your blog or anywhere on the internet. And post the link here, please.

Pose nude, or nekkid, pin en place or askew. Pose clothed in hats or coats, with or without your grandma by your side. Ask your Barbie or tell your teddy. On the fridge, or in the fridge, far out or most decidedly in. Whatever and however furls your fuzzies will do wonderfully.

Say it Loud and say it Proud:

Censorship is xxxxxxx !!

Quantities in this recipe are for a small loaf or baton, and the better the flour, the better the bread. Something from a French deli would be ace; obvious really, although I use Dove's Farm organic white bread flour generally, to excellent results. I am looking for a source of authentic French flour, online would be handy, but any suggestions gratefully rec'd as per. I reckon this is as good a place as any to ask. :)

Ingredients:

225g unbleached strong white bread flour

7.5 ml or 1.5 tsp dried yeast

5ml or 1tsp salt ( I use sea salt: nice, but I don't suppose it makes a difference)

150ml water

Make a well in the flour and add the yeast and salt, and gradually add the water to make a firm but soft dough. You could do this part in a breadmaker set on the dough setting, but you'll probably want to put it through twice. Knead well and leave to prove somewhere warm. When it has doubled in size, knock it back and knead again, folding lots of air into the dough, and then shape into a roll or a round, or whatever you want. Leave to rise again for about 30 mins.

Bake for at approx 200º C for say 20 mins on a floured baking sheet, depending on how dark you like the crust. Bread making is really easy, extremely delicious and never fails to impress. Bon apetit!

The tomato in the photograph is the first of the year from my neighbour's greenhouse crop, and smells just fantastic. I'm hoping to get enough to dry a few this year in the oven to make home dried (sun) dried tomatoes for salads and couscous. Will give it a go and keep you posted, lovely readers.

The Telegraph obitiary...

Foremost dispassionate industrial photographer, I first came across his pit head engineering documentary work back in the 70s. Will write more when it's less sleepytime late....

What an interesting way to kill an hour at the end of the day. Watching indecipherable ubergeeks sitting on beabags in front of their MacBooks in a queue outside some American Applestore somewhere. And firing questions at TH for his live passers by. And some dead ones. And a wonky camera getting lots of crotch shots. My oh my that man has been eating far too many pies.

If you're trying out Zoooomr too, or even if you're not:

Zooooomr TV

Say hello to me on the live chat feed. :)

Youtube surpasses itself on a day like today, and in the following days there will be more. This is my current favourite [link] Hurt. There will be more, no doubt. Please feel free to link to your own films, and your own favourites, like this film of Mark Thomas at the SOPCA demo in London.

Anyhow, Bliar: an emphatic good riddance. Although Gordon is unlikely to be any different.

It's only going to be a matter of time before we work out how to embed Yahootube videos into Ipernity, isn't it? Does anyone know?

In honour of this special day, have uploaded a couple of the uplifting toons from the Blair Ditch Project. Big up da Rub! ;)

14 Blair Out

06 George Bush is an Islamic F…

broad bean samosa in flaky pas…

Okay, I'm there, I think. There's such a lot of fine royalty-free music out there, and on my various hard drives, and there are so many unsung recipes garnered from cheffy friends over the decades lying about on scraps of paper, or in my head, so hey. I like blogging, but finding a definition, a set of specific perameters, isn't terribly easy. Might have found it at last, what do you think?

The recipe and food tags are going to live large on this site. And my rare grooves will slowly start seeing the light of tinterweb. Will look out Rob "The Rub" later today, and start to post the collection of his early work. And I'll keep on keeping on uploading the various versions of Bella Ciao I have stashed here somewhere. Could start on Ring of Fire, too! Heh. Might be minority listening, but feh, it amuses me.

That sound like a plan?

Oh and do we think the Google crawlers will take long to find us all here? I await the day with delight that brendadada on Ipernity is pageranked higher than bdada on Flickr. How long will that take, any betting?

So having shuffled through the deluge of superb alternatives to the dreaded F word, have a growing presence on Zoooomr, a slightly bizzzarro set of new acquaintances on Multiply and one or two coats on hooks in um Tabblo and Sevenload, I think it's might be time to start making choices.

So: the multiplicity photos are going on Multiply! That one was easy. The web presence is going to get properly sorted. Again. So that the best of the rest will go to brendadada.com and brendadada.net in some better semblance of order than is there right now. Thinking of making a Clikpic portfolio interface on the .com and shifting the blog and its links to .net. Must also get something done about a domain and hosting for the ~Man in the White Suit~ blog. And there's also a great deal of anticipation building for Pete's new home-designed site for Northern Englanders. Hmm. If you are following any of this, hooray, please feel free to make suggestions. If you're not, do go ahead and make suggestions anyway. :)

But where to put the village photos? Here? Sevenload? Might just leave them where they are. As long as the pro- account lasts, they'll be visible by me anyway, or as a click-through or something, but who knows? It's the newer ones, the photos that haven't yet been taken, that present the difficulty. Ah well, time will resolve that one too, no doubt. Nice problem to have, ha!

Rain, rain, rain and yet more rain is forecast. Fabulous for photos. Might even have to dig out some pictures of Blackpool in the rain. Lovely.

Okay, now that I'm here, in the company of a lot of very nice Germans and with a French host or several, I'm feeling very European, which is a damn fine thing. I might brush up on my language skills. Who knows?

But whatever, I am going to investigate the blogging capacity of Ipernity because I have a hungry little local website to feed with at least a photo a week, more if I can.

And so, does anyone know how to do blogging direct from a photo, or do we have to grab the html?