All Things Considered

FFFFound

The trouble with the Internet's buzzing social scene, is that one can easily start to drift away from having a real-life social scene, you know, one which involves leaving the house and using your hands to gesticulate not just to move a mouse. Or if like me, you just manage to juggle the two social activities, you then find yourself chatting and marvelling about all the online engagements you are logging on to, such as flickr, del.icio.us, Wists, BlinkList including numerous suggestions of blogs you enjoy.

But if it's images you like, then I highly recommend looking at FFFFound.com. It's a gallery where FFFFound members (it's now invite only) post their favourite images found on the web. FFFFound then suggests other images that are similar that you may also like. It's a great source of inspiration and of course, leads you on to finding even more interesting and inspiring people.

The t-shirt pictured, is by Howies - February's t-shirt of the week.

Fantastic Plastic Cameras

I popped into Harry Cory Wright's stylish and very green Saltwater Gallery in Burnham Market last week. Looking around the gallery I was excited to see that he is now selling a range of very affordable plastic (film format) cameras namely the Holga, Diana and a fish-eye lensed camera I've forgotten the name of.

As much as I love digital cameras for there immediacy and economical use, I do also love the idea of using film again. Not just because you may think more about what you are snapping but also for the different qualities film lets you achieve.

Whilst searching for information on 'toy' cameras, I found an excellent and comprehensive photographic site, Lomography.com. If like me, you have no idea what Lomography means, click here and Wikipedia will tell you all. I've also  found a Holga enthusiast at Squarefrog.co.uk and if you find Flickr addictive, visit the Toy Camera group to see what is so fantastic about plastic lenses.

Dave Gorman

I did a quick Google the other day to find out a bit more about writer/comedian Dave Gorman's recent "America Unchained" film on Channel 4. We'd missed it and I was keen to find out if it was going to repeated.

I've been a fan of Gorman's work since enjoying his 'Googlewhack Adventure' and 'Are You Dave Gorman?' projects.

But I hadn't realised he was a keen photographer. He really is very good.

You can enjoy his photographic output on Flickr.

3191

One of the first posts I made on All Things Considered, was about the photo blog 3191 of two artist friends, Mav and Stephanie, who have spent the last year capturing an image every morning, to later post side by side.

December 2007 brought an end to their year long set of beautiful sunrise images, and in 2008 they will bring us a year of evening shots. I'm intrigued by this new project, mainly because I fail to take a good photo with a flash. So I am looking forward to seeing how they will capture beautiful pictures without the flattering morning light, in the gloomy, dark months. But my curiosity will soon cease, as photo snapping will resume on the 18th of this month.

Maggie's Centre Portraits

Earlier this month, a campaign was launched at Downing Street to raise £15m for five new Maggie's Centres across England and Wales. These centres will join the five others already up and running in Scotland, where cancer patients and carers and their families drop in for support.

Sam Taylor-Wood, a patron of Maggie's Centres (along with the prime minister's wife, Sarah Brown), was diagnosed with cancer ten years ago, just as her career as an artist was taking off. This year, Sam was invited to photograph some of the patients at the Maggie's Centre in Fife, Scotland, designed by award winning architect, Zaha Hadid.

The portraits of the cancer patients taken by Taylor-Wood in the light flooded, space-ship like building are being exhibited at Downing Street until early January 2008. The portraits will then go on tour around the UK, to help raise money and awareness for the amazing and needed support that is provided by Maggie's Centres.

Harry Cory Wright

Photographers can be a funny breed. A few years ago I went to a workshop with landscape photographer Harry Cory Wright. It was a sort of ‘audience with’ out on the North Norfolk coast.

I’ll confess I took a camera – though didn’t take a single photo. To me, the day was more about looking and seeing, rather than taking.

But I shouldn’t have been surprised that the majority of those attending were simply itching to get snapping from the minute we arrived, with more of an interest in f-stops and shutter speeds than the creative process behind Harry’s work. The important bit.

Of course, there’s an element of me that does enjoy the business end of photography – but it’s the (relative) simplicity of Harry’s set up that appeals. A big wooden box on a big tripod that takes big negatives which allow you to produce very big prints. But it's a process that means you think about the photos you're taking - with the cost of the film and processing, you simply can't sit there snapping away and hoping that you'll get one good shot.

You’ll find out a bit more about this on Harry’s website. He spent last year touring the UK preparing a book called ‘Journey through the British Isles’ which will be published later in the year. Harry logged the journey in this excellent blog.

Photo Pairing

I thought I'd follow up with something inspiring. Since  coming across this site in January, 3191  has become a daily breath of fresh air.

The concept is simple; two photographs are taken in the morning by two different artists, Mav and Stephanie. They live 3191 miles apart in North America and get up early.

Without knowing the subject matter of each others photographs, they post them side by side to reveal a similarity of style and complimentary balance.