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.

..oh life.

“ To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea… cruising, it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about. “I’ve always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can’t afford it.” What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of security. And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone. What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by, the dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?

actor Sterling Hayden, from his autobiography, Wanderer (via O' Bedlam)

...kinda like the 80s

Futurecop - Karate Kids (video by TNUC) from TNUC on Vimeo.

I like how in the 80's, the counter-culture were all badass compared to the kinda of movies they showed. I remember seeing and hearing about real punks and gangsters on TV and newspapers. The alternative youth were so different from what was portray in movies.

Now days, with sex and violence always shoved in our faces from movies and shit, it's funny how this trashy baggy culture is the new fad. Most of them just want to party, drink, dance, take drugs and screw.... like the 80's. They're all sick of the violence that's so freely shown now.

Ain't saying violence is bad... just writing down thethoughts that came to me when I saw this video

I need a drink...

I need a damn drink..... This Blazer tasted amazing....

I am in love with this song...

Until We Bleed - Kleerup feat Lykke Li

Wonderful Mikki

Mikki (the model) isn't just a pretty face, shes a fantastic photographer as well....
I wish she could get off her ass and make a site already:p

MOAR!!!!!!!!!!!!

Youthful folly...

playing with the High ISO


the rest

Cheap Tricks

990000.tumblr.com

Cheap Tricks

When in doubt

1. Make it soft-focus
2. Make it really colorful
3. Make it black and white
4. Add a baby
5. Add a puppy
6. Do it in slow-motion
7. Make it abstract
8. Make it nude
9. Add explosions
10. Make it float in mid-air
11. Add someone famous
12. Make it bloody
13. Add a crazy facial expression
14. Make it freakish
15. Make it shiny
16. Add a sunset
17. Shoot at an angle
18. Shoot with a fisheye
19. Make it impoverished
20. Make it expensive

new cam

Some of the first few shots I took with the Nikon D700...


Such an awesome camera, I'm loving the full frame-ness of it all.
Compared to my Sony, its heavy as hell!
I'm still to scared to get too drunk with the camera.

update on Rey.

Current list of artist achievements:



NOTHING.

Bartender of the year

Garnish, originally uploaded by R E Y . E S T a n i s l a o.

My mate Jono helping me out with an assessment by getting me drunk and making me cocktails :)

Aus Day Flickr stuff

this photo is for Marky

SLIDE

meh

cute couple, originally uploaded by R E Y . E S T a n i s l a o.

I hate the fact I cant post multiple photos through flickr....

damn I'm lazy.

There are some questions in life that HAVE to be answered...

I could survive for 1 minute, 35 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

old school look

classic, originally uploaded by R E Y . E S T a n i s l a o.

i like this photo for some reason...

gives me that old school vibe...


this would be a lot more awesome if I had the mad blur effect my friends nikon 50mm had... *drools*

alice s2

alice s2, originally uploaded by R E Y . E S T a n i s l a o.

more flickr test post...


I love this girl...

and i love these photographers

huh?

huh?
Originally uploaded by R E Y . E S T a n i s l a o

first post from Flickr...

Josie was willing to be the test subject.....

shes a wicked photographer whos got the brains in our class...

too bad about her mutant feet!

aww

I'm trying to test a new scanning program... I have to be able to print these out about A4 size...


I don't care how sad this photo looks.... the size of the picture makes it all better

Cheki S2

back in the day...

my mate Dan...

one of the first REAL photos I took with my camera....
after i made him crawl under a car.... i took a photo of him eating a lemon.

crystal castles

I am in love with Alice Glass...

comes up on stage.. walks to the crowd with a bottle of Absolut Vodka in hand and starts drinking and pouring.



this was the only photo I took all night.. and it was with my phone.
I wanted to bring my camera... but honestly I wanted to be in the crowd more.

reflection

i seem to think more about my own photos then look at them....

its obvious that I have a thing for vignetting or really shallow depth of field...


i guess i find it easier to take photos that focus on a subject, but the vignetting/ SDOF is just can excuse to not work on composition.

my composition is horrible.. how the hell do i get better?

merr.......

I have no photos atm...

ad interim

I've given my notice at work... so I have two weeks left of getting money in the bank.

I figured I need to learn how to enjoy myself WITHOUT money before I can enjoy myself with it.

This leaves me with more time for school... getting some photos together for a portfolio and I smell a hint of kung fu coming back into play (thank you Yip Man movie)



Now I am fully back at home, poor and young with all the time to kill. A lot of it is going to be spent reading Schopenhauer and Disinfo's Book of Lies.

...

I go up and down a lot. Maybe Ive always been like that. Partly what happens though is I get filled with energy and joy and I begin lots of things or think about what I want to do and get all breathless with excitement and then quite suddenly either through tiredness or a disappointment or something more mysterious the energy vanishes, leaving me harassed, swamped, distraught, frightened by the very things I thought I was so eager for! I'm sure this is quite classic.

- from a letter by Diane Arbus to Carlotta Marshall Nov 1968

Aus Day

I love how photogenic my group of friends are... thank you guys. YOU MAKE THE PHOTO!

I can't sleep

He says he's jealous of the moon, because you look at it. He's jealous of the sun, because it warms you. He says, "I feel you, even when I'm not feeling you. I talk to you when I'm not talking to you. I love you, even when I'm not loving you."

I get nervous before big events.... I can't sleep :(

Chungking Express

late night ideas...

Some people say that a photo is a reflection of the photographers character...
When you press that button and hear that click, at that moment you choose to take that photo, be it a precise composure or a random drunken go, you made a decision to press the button.

What if the photos don't match the photographer. Is it possible that photos can also reveal what character a photographer wants or doesn't have?

Cheki day out with Liz

Testing this bad boy out....

My random shot of Liz...


Liz's random shot of me...


more more more

3D pinhole camera... MADE FROM HUMAN SKULLS!

This badass mofo is brutal.


Someone get me one.... PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

From Glam to Grunge

Taking photos for my friends make-up work...

I still suck at taking fashion-ish shots without some decent lighting...

Good thing I had the 50mm to help me out... but focusing is still a bit of a prob

Canon AE-1

good old film shots

French maids!?... zombies!?.. and chainsaws!?.... REY APPROVES!

Mark Fuckin' Wilson's Hawaii Party

Check The Rest Out

I Met The Walrus

Morning oh mornings...

Photos taken after work drinks....

yes at 7am-ish

EJ's + Crey's + Novie's Costume Party

Almost lost my camera that night.... opps.

View the rest of the shots