The Only Ones - Another Girl Another Planet Music Video

WikiLeaks releases video of US military firing on civilians and journalists

more info at Doobybrain


I know I talk about of shit and have a lot of anger, but there are a lot of reasons why I'm a pessimistic pacifist... like this video.

put some gin in ya coffee and ya drink it all up!

what have I been doing?

shots and laybacks, THAT'S WHAT!







this is pretty much how I want ALL my Sundays to be...

although the hang over on Mondays is a killer.

from Clayton Cubitt

For Photographers, the Image of a Shrinking Path (NYTimes)

“Can an amateur take a picture as good as a professional? Sure,” Ms. Eismann said. “Can they do it on demand? Can they do it again? Can they do it over and over? Can they do it when a scene isn’t that interesting?”

But amateurs like Ms. Pruitt do not particularly care.

“I never followed any traditional photography rules only because I didn’t know of any — I never went to photography school, never took any classes,” she said. “People don’t know the rules, so they just shoot what they like — and other people like it, too.”

Here’s the deal, all you enthusiastic amateurs who have been enabled by the new digital tools like digicams and internet publishing: use them to bring yourself up to speed on proper business practices before your cheap enthusiasm strangles the goose that laid the golden egg (it’s more like a duck that laid a brass egg, but still, that’s pretty cool, and it would be nice if it didn’t die.)

Start by picking up a book like ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography, and also check out their online list of resources for business practices. Check out posts like A Photo Editor’s Stop Accepting $200 Assignments! and Negotiating The Editorial Contract and Ad Agency Guide To Photography Usage Terms.

You’re going to need to learn, like all professional artists must at some point, that the making of interesting images is just where it starts, it’s the baseline skill that’s just assumed. The other 90% of being an artist is the professionalism, the consistency, the negotiating skills, the diplomacy, the etiquette, and the networking.

And if you’re content to just be a hobbyist making an extra buck off of some Flickr/Getty stock search, that’s fine and legitimate. But keep in mind if you’re accepting $1 for what a professional would earn $20, you’re leaving $19 in the pockets of the middlemen who are rolling you like a sucker. Just like they’ve been rolling workers in every industry for the past forty years. Stop looking at it like you’re making an extra $1, and more like you’re losing $19. You are basically a digital undocumented worker, contributing to the race to the bottom, hollowing out the middle class from the inside. Educate yourself. I want you to get paid what you are worth, not what you can be suckered into accepting because it’s your “hobby” and your shot is “just good enough.”

I say this not as some fancy trust-fund NYC photographer who wants to keep you down, but as a poor white trash kid who dropped out of school at 16, taught myself photography out of magazines and books and lots of practice, and worked my way up for fifteen years to get where I am now, and want you to be able to do the same, in less time.

Guess who is charging more now... fuckers.

opening the doors...

Ok I'd like to say I've been busy taking photos, getting drunk and laid, having $250,000 coke parties and swimming with sharks, but in all honestly I've been playing video games drinking on Sundays and taking a LOT of naps.

Tumblr for me is GREAT for an inspiration board but I need to write some stuff down rather then "I'd hit that" or "shit I want"


I might as well make some time for this... just so I can feel a little more special and get a little more vain.


fuckers.

the eyes, they're crazy

Me, looking kinda like a twat... I was seeing how hung over I looked and saw lines in my eyes.

Best Of The Daily Siege (Advice to Baby Photographers, Not Photographers Of Babies)

Taken from Clayton Cubitt's post

Speak to the Devil… 7/8/2005 12:01:00 AM- Excerpts:

“I get a lot of questions asking for photo advice, which I find flattering, and only sometimes tiring, if only for its volume. Now, I’m entirely self taught. No art school. No college. I didn’t even graduate from high school. And before I didn’t graduate from high school I received the benefit of years of neglect in the public schools of the inner city and rural Deep South, where the budget for new footballs exceeds that of textbooks, and Texas sets the standards for education. Beyond all this, I grew up so poor that a decent camera may as well have been an artifact from an alien civilization, or a crucial part of some futuristic satellite, certainly not meant for my grubby white trash fingers.

What I’m getting at is that, if I can do it, anybody can do it. I’m not interested in writing a how-to book, but maybe some random things I’ve learned about the philosophy and technique of photography might be helpful to photographers, and maybe even marginally interesting to non-photographers. I’m going to put some thoughts down here, in no particular order:
When learning, be methodical. Keep track of what you’re doing, from camera settings, to lighting, to post-production. Keep track of what you’ve changed, and note the difference from earlier efforts. Don’t stumble around in the dark.
——
f8 is generally the aperture that provides the sharpest point of focus on lenses. That doesn’t mean you should always shoot at f8.
——
Rules were meant to be broken, yes, but it feels much better if you know what the rules were in the first place. Picasso started as a realist. Once he had that down he could paint whatever he wanted. Be like Picasso. He got laid a lot.
——
Never be ashamed to take a picture. It’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing. You’re not soul-snatching, you’re soul-preserving. Also, is there a picture you really really want to take of someone? Just ask nicely and confidently and 90% of the time they’ll say yes.
——
OK, artsnobs, cringe all you want because they sell his prints at the mall, but when Ansel Adams said “There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept” he was clued in to a fundamental truth of the universe. Also, you’re just jealous that his shit’s popular.
——
Bokeh is the term that describes the out-of-focus areas in a picture. These areas are just as important as the in-focus areas. Just like life.
——
Don’t delete bad digital pictures. That’s like erasing bad memories in your mind. Sounds like a decent idea at first, but eventually you’ll understand that it takes mistakes to learn and grow, and they’re just as valuable as successes, if not more, so keep them around. Fuck, didn’t you see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?
——
Expensive gear won’t make your images better, and more gear won’t make you more effective. If you can’t do it with a basic camera, you can’t do it. The simplest 10% of a camera does 90% of the work. The rest is cock-waving for specialists. That short, aging bald guy in the red sports car? The one with erectile dysfunction? That’s your fancy camera.
——
If possible, don’t take a picture of anything right away. Give yourself time to just experience. You need to do this to understand what you’re photographing. If it’s a landscape, walk around and soak up the sun, smell the dirt. If it’s fashion, feel the textures, the colors. If it’s a portrait, talk to the human in front of you and try to understand what’s in their head. If it’s combat reportage, get behind the video guy, he’s a good shield.
——
What makes up a style? Find a photographer you really admire and rip him off mercilessly.Consider it a remote apprenticeship. This is the history of culture. One day you’ll accidentally start doing original work, and then some young punk will start ripping you off. And the cycle of life is continued…

That’s enough for now, I’m starting to pontificate.”

Location shots

Shots for an assessment. I decided to do Manly, simply because it is near by.

Cubism

Trying to use to idea of cubism through photography. All shot as one 30sec exposure using a modified flash.

See the rest here.