#114 on white balance

current mood - tired
current music - 'out of the blue' by electric light orchestra

just got home from night school where i've been learning how to be a photographer. as opposed to learning how to use a digital camera. a subtle differentiation perhaps but i now have an appreciation for all the variables that affect the pictures that a camera takes; how to combine those variables and how to control those variables for the effect that i want to achieve.

tonight was white balance. in the workshop we fooled the camera into thinking that the light in the room was everything from direct sunlight to fluorescent lights (which ironically enough was exactly what the light in the room was). and the difference in colours recorded was stunning. so now i know why indoor images without a flash are so often yellow and orange tinted.

all in all it leads me to take better photos each time i whip the old D1x out of my bag, so to speak.

#113 on blogging and facebooking and flickring

current mood - sage or delusional
current music - wish you were here by pink floyd


are blogging and facebooking and flickring acts of procrastination or important acts of social networking?

i could have achieved so much more this week if i hadn't made a conscious decision to get my 'on line' life in order. but it was gained at the expense of my 'off line' life which is slowly sinking under all those jobs that there never seems time to do.

well it seems to me that if one keeps one's 'on line' life ticking over then the feel good factor that the experience generates stimulates one to get their 'off line' life sorted.

now that is either wisdom or self deception to the nth degree.

#112 on an hour at the british museum

current music - john butler trio - sunrise over sea
current mood - chuffed

Having said that I wanted to use my camera off of the programmed automatic 'run-home-to-mummy' mode, i decided to wander down to the british museum to take a few pot shots.

the great hall is a sight to behold - the classic pillars contrasting with a geometric sky. it was one thing to be there. it was something even more special to have an hour to indulge oneself in just looking and shooting.

i'm pleased with my results. no seriously i am. they come out pretty well - the only post shooting touching up i've done is to make the black and white seem a bit colder - the ambient lighting was really rather yellow, and to crop the images into trendy squares. no, the main reason i'm so chuffed is that i rejected only about 2 thirds of the shots. my normal ratio of keep to chuck is about 1 in ten so to get my ratio down to 1 in 3 is quite a step up as well.

anyway the flicker link is here so please take a look and tell me what you think.