Year of the Rooster

Soundtrack by Fingers In The Noise: soundcloud.com/fitn/fpr006-fingers-in-the-noise-something-different-ep-2014

As a second submission to the photo assignment "sequences" by Ted Forbes, I made this series. The idea is to combine all the previous assignments: variations, low angle, eye level, high angle and red. www.youtube.com/results?q=forbes+photo+assignments I often like to play with perspective illusions. Here the surprising element hopefully becomes clear on the last shot where it is showed the soft toys are different at their size, and are fridge magnets. And the high angle on the last shot also depends on the point of view. When taking this series I decided I want to use some typical cinema aspect ratio, for two reasons. First of all the somewhat natural alignment of sequences then would be a vertical collage. It then forces to see them linearly even more than vertical alignment would. The second reason was to force myself to think of the limitations of horizontal composition. In cinematography we are used to horizontal images and compositions. It means we are forced to think how to fill the space sideways, and not much vertical space to use. For example, if we wish to represent a tall tree, and underline how tall it is, we then also have to decide what we do with all the horizontal space. On the last image on my sequence I would have liked to include my own feet in the picture. But because the idea of showing the drawing on the fridge door would have not become clear, I decided to go with rather unnoticeable reflections of my feet.

" To do or undertake something redundant, pointless, or futile. It refers to the city of Athens in the time of Ancient Greece, where silver coins were minted with the image of an owl (which were abundant in the city). Thus, to bring either owls or silver to Athens would be a useless venture. " ~TheFreeDictionary: idioms.thefreedictionary.com/bring+owls+to+Athens City of Tampere first spent years to decide what would be the most prominent addition to the public transportation. Then they decided to build a tramway through the town. Now trees are cut down, and roadworks are blocking the traffic for years. Over ten years ago I read an article saying the town could have built a system to collect biogas at the local wastewater treatment plant, and run the buses with that gas. It looks like we human beings can't do anything else but to hold up the inevitable... Well, I guess it's time to plant yet another tree.

Soundtrack by SoundsFromTheGround: soundcloud.com/soundsfromtheground/nova-stone-soundcloud-clip

" A large blast has killed at least 126 people, including 68 children, in an attack near buses carrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns, according to a monitoring group. " ~Aljazeera www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/04/explosion-hits-syrian-evacuation-convoy-aleppo-170415132111011.html

Soundtrack by Rena Jones: soundcloud.com/rena-jones/09-what-once-was-will-be-again

Here's some shameless spam. I have used here Snapseed * photo application for post processing. I wondered how come such an incredible mobile phone photo editor can be a free ware. Then I found out it's part of the package Google bought from Nik Software, and made it free to all users. So, thank you Google! It is the first really functional and useful mobile phone software for image processing. It keeps the EXIF untouched, it is easy to use, and full of great features. Used along with also free and now unlimited** Google Images cloud service, it provides an excellent tools to work with images online. The only Snapseed's limitation is that it does not let adding text small enough (e.g. watermark signature). Text can be added on the image, but even the smallest font size is way too large. *Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapseed **On Google Images settings choose lower quality. Then there is no limit for how many images you can store to the cloud. Image quality is still good enough for amateurs like me, who shoots 8MP JPEG images only.

This week's Saturday Self-Challenge was to compose a square image. It happens to be also my plan for the latest The Art of Photography assignment by Ted Forbes . There the actual assignment is to take a photo sequence made out of multiple images. Photo sequence assignment by Ted Forbes: youtu.be/xnC8SGWlE1w The idea of photo sequence is to tell a short story with few images in a similar way as on cartoons or comic strips. But it can be also sort of a collage. The sequence can tell a chronological story, or the images can illustrate some concept from different angles. When I watched the assignment video by Ted Forbes, I almost immediately though I would like to make a square composition. The idea was to tell a circular story, which does not have beginning or end. So, here's my plan what I try to shoot. I'm a lousy drawer, but on notes you can try to figure out the details of this idea. I'm planning to use my Lumix camera remotely controlled with the mobile phone. The inspiration for this I got when I was browsing through my old pictures and saw an image where I'm inflating a balloon: And the whole idea is based on sort of a photography joke and word play with the concept of negative space . In photography negative space means "the space that surrounds the main element of interest" . Although in my plan the negative space actually fills the middle of the collage and composition. More about negative space in photography here: photographylife.com/negative-space-in-photography UPDATE: And here's the final image.

...comes with a great responsibility. There is a certain difference between insult and being impolite. Using digital media is especially demanding. Sometimes we wish to become heard by everyone, and remembered forever. Sometimes we hope we could take our words back, and become forgotten. But one thing is sure. We can try to learn from the past, and try not to live in the past.

...and his friend's buttocks.