Photography ... astronomy ... art ... design ... technology
(... and the odd rant)

All of these make my world go 'round, to some extent, and they will all be found here at some time or other. Some of the photography can be purchased from my Redbubble site. I can also be found at Tempus Fugit (no longer being updated).

Monday, June 30, 2008

Looking for yourself

Sources close to SWMBO were amusing themselves by entering their name into Google, along with "needs". Not to be outdone, I dipped my toe into the pond as well. "Duncan needs" brought the following results, among others:

  • mental evaluation
  • a haircut
  • ample social stimulation
  • an out-of-county jury
  • Better Lawyers
  • no explanation
  • to wake the f**k up
The sobering thing is that many of these are, or have been, true to some extent. The best, however, is probably:
  • Duncan needs to take a lesson from the immature kids like Dwight Howard and put on a Superman cape
Now, show me someone who wouldn't benefit from doing just that, and I'll show you someone who has grown up, poor sod!

Over to you now; go and find out what you need, then share it here. Also works with "XXX eats", XXX looks like", and so on.

Friday, June 27, 2008

More 3D

Prompted by fellow Redbubbler PigleT, here's another image from the 3D collection. When we bought our last house in Scotland, the garden was graced with several teasels - wonderful if you like variety and appreciate the beauty in jaggy, scratchy things, but less so I suppose, if demure bedding plants are your thing!

Anyway, I liked 'em, and took a few snaps (too few, in retrospect). Getting up close and, as they say, personal, I recorded this 3D pair; the delicate pink flowers are a nice counterpoint to the spiky head.

As before, y
ou need to use the crossed-eyes method, to view the images properly (cross your eyes until you see 3 images, and the middle one should be in 3D). If you can't manage it, sorry...


Thursday, June 26, 2008

The Lawyer's Marriage Vows

Dearly beloved, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, and holders of fully-paid shares of all classes associated with voting rights, hereinafter referred to as "The Congregation"; whereas it is proposed, and as required by statute, seconded by no fewer than 2 individuals, at an extraordinary general meeting of all with full voting rights at which a quorum was present, that the two individuals before us all today, one Mr. Ian Geoffrey Bottlestripe, hereinafter referred to as "The Groom", and one Miss Elizabeth Hilary Bodyss, hereinafter referred to as "The Bride", shall be joined in a Merger traditionally and by common consent known as Holy Matrimony, hereinafter referred to as "The Marriage"; and whereas said Groom and said Bride are admittedly of consenting age (see Annex A: Proof of Age of Principals), and in consideration of the fact that one Mr. Humphrey Altwych Bodyss, hereinafter referred to as "The Father of The Bride", has given his full and considered consent to The Marriage (See Annex B: Disposition in favour of Mr. Ian Geoffrey Bottlestripe, in respect of the office of Husband in relation to Miss Elizabeth Hilary Bodyss), we are gathered here in the presence of a representative of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (see Annex C: Attendance of interested parties), to prosecute the merger in full accordance with the provisions of The Mergers (Matrimonial Attachment) Act of 1957, pursuant to the wishes of the Groom and Bride.

Notice is now given that The Marriage shall proceed without further or undue delay, on this, the Eleventeenth Day of Octembruary, Two Thousand and Flirty in the year of our Incorporation; with the proviso that there shall be no dissenting motion presented to this Congregation within the allotted period of time immediately following, which shall be no greater than 1 minute and 30 seconds, and which motion shall be presented in written form, complete with supporting documentation, signed by the Proposer and witnessed by no less than two unrelated individuals, to either of the two ushers present, for subsequent conveyance to this Celebrant. In the event of such a motion being proposed, the proceedings shall be halted, the Celebrant and Principals shall step down, to be temporarily replaced by proxies elected by other members of the board currently present, who shall examine and verify the validity or otherwise of the motion, and who shall then, if the motion be found valid, conduct an inquiry into the substance of the objection contained in the supporting documentation, such inquiry to be adjudicated upon by a quorum of board members; in the event of the board being inquorate, a special general meeting shall be convened, at no less than two weeks' notice, at which a decision shall be handed down to the Celebrant, and thence to the Principals and other interested parties. If the motion be passed, the merger shall not go ahead in its presently-proposed form, and it shall be remitted to the shareholders for consideration, amendment if necessary, and either (i) resubmitted to the board for approval, or (ii) abandoned in its entirety, freeing the Principals to pursue other interests. If the motion be rejected, the merger shall proceed without further delay, as proposed.

Is there any motion of dissent...?

There being no such motion, the business at hand shall proceed as proposed.

Do you, Ian Geoffrey Bottlestripe, take Miss Elizabeth Hilary Bodyss to be your legally recognised partner in this Marriage; and do you confer upon her full and equal voting rights in all matters pertaining to the present and future business affairs of The Marriage, notwithstanding her normal rights at law; accepting individual, joint and several responsibility for all matters legally arising out of The Marriage; whether The Marriage be financially solvent or in a state of indebtedness to all and any third parties, including but not limited to banks, building societies, mutual and friendly societies, organic cooperatives, lending brokers (further including, but not limited to, pawnshops, payday lenders and thick-set gentlemen with dark eyeglasses and ill-fitting suits), families, friends and the Man In The Street; and do you agree to take equal responsibility for maintenance of the Body Corporate, in ill or favourable conditions, to the exclusion of any other unilateral private interest or association with any third party that has not been jointly agreed beforehand in writing, and which may be detrimental to the continued effective function of this Marriage, so long as you both pay taxes and submit full annual returns to any regulatory bodies, present or future?

[IGB indicates in the affirmative]

And do you, Miss Elizabeth Hilary Bodyss, take Ian Geoffrey Bottlestripe to be your legally recognised partner in this Marriage; and do you confer upon him full and equal voting rights in all matters pertaining to the present and future business affairs of The Marriage, notwithstanding his normal rights at law; accepting individual, joint and several responsibility for all matters legally arising out of The Marriage; whether The Marriage be financially solvent or in a state of indebtedness to all and any third parties, including but not limited to banks, building societies, mutual and friendly societies, organic cooperatives, lending brokers (further including, but not limited to, pawnshops, payday lenders and thick-set gentlemen with dark eyeglasses and ill-fitting suits), families, friends and the Man In The Street; and do you agree to take equal responsibility for maintenance of the Body Corporate, in ill or favourable conditions, to the exclusion of any other unilateral private interest or association with any third party that has not been jointly agreed beforehand in writing, and which may be detrimental to the continued effective function of this Marriage, so long as you both pay taxes and submit full annual returns to any regulatory bodies, present or future?

[EHB indicates in the affirmative]

With bilateral verbal agreement to the proposed merger having been reached, it remains only for the deal to be settled in writing and by personal union, and subsequently for me to declare the business to be concluded, and the merger finalised.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Daybreak

The morning stumble through the house … wake daughter … into the kitchen … kettle on … pause a moment … notice shadows on cupboard doors … suddenly awake and camera in hand … daughter stepping around me with breakfast things, as I crouch on the floor…

The main shadows, stretched at a sharp angle down the vertical surface; the contrast of wooden handles against the white Melamine, glowing warm in the first rays but reflecting blue sky; the fine texture on the surface of the doors; the very subtle shadow of flyscreen, cast between the handles. Caught before it changes with the advancing day.


There is so much to see in our daily lives. We all enjoy seeing our loved ones and spectacular sights in this wonderful world, but what little things would you miss, if you lost your sight tomorrow? What would you give, to be able to see ordinary things again?

Saturday, June 14, 2008

New Harley teeshirt

Just made this teeshirt design. Its available in 3 colour options - 2 on a white shirt, and this one on black; see my redbubble site for details and ordering. Great for a present - or just indulge yourself.

Click the pic to visit my bubble!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Dangerous boxing

Just suppose for a minute ... what if - what if - Pandora's Box had contained Schrödinger's Cat. What then?

OK?

And when you've done with that, suppose Heisenberg had been a banker instead of a physicist. Would we all be more uptight about money, or less so? What's a few quid, between friends?

...

Yes folks, I've been reading 'What the bleep do we know?' and such questions arise as a result. I put it to you that such questions are no more bizarre than those raised by quantum mechanics, such as 'How many places can a particle be at one time?'

I started it as a bedtime book, but it's proving difficult to keep on track of such substantial topics at that end of the day, so the daylight hours will have to do. For example, one of today's revelations was that one cubic centimetre of empty space is now understood to contain more energy than all of the matter in the known Universe. If one understands anything about Einstein's E=mc2, it should come as some surprise that matter, which is equivalent to prodigious amounts of energy, is dwarfed in the oomph department by ... lack of matter. As Zaphod said: 'Put your analyst on danger money, baby.'

3 Phases of The Moon

I've been taking photographs and stargazing for a long time; inevitably, those two pursuits cross paths now and then. It might be a startrails pic, a guided exposure of a comet, or something a bit more whimsical.

Delving into the archives, I took a moon photo from circa 1984, and played with it a bit to create this image. I'm not divulging the recipe, but you won't find it as a simple Photoshop tool! Actually, I'd probably find it difficult to reproduce myself; sometimes I 'explore' an image, making derivative copies, modifying and combining them in different ways until I create something that looks a bit interesting. Usually, I leap rapidly from one transformation to the next, without recording exactly what I've done, so the end result is usually unreproducable. One such exploration, that I didn't save in the end, produced some images that looked like an aged Daguerreotype, and to some extent I was trying to recreate that here.


Click the image to buy from Redbubble
(Available as a card, laminated print, matted print, and more)


Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Free Retro ebook

Hop over to Retrothing and download a copy of James Grahame's "Essential Retro" ebook, while it's available. James has obviously had a knock on the head, because he's giving this away free for a while. Miss out and you'll have to buy the real thing, or ... miss out.


I've been nosing around retrothing for a couple of years now, and find it a fascinating collection of what-used-to-be, what-is-again, and possibly, what-never-should-have-been-in-the-first-place. I don't share the interest in computer games (can't see why anyone would get excited about playing a 20-year-old game on an obsolete platform; actually, I don't get excited about computer games at all), but there's plenty other stuff besides.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Just like Grandma used to do it

There is a certain delight to be had in using a device that provokes your children to say "what's that?" - not because they haven't yet been introduced to one in school, but because they never will. I decided to make a meatloaf tonight (I'm no expert at it, this being only the second time I've done it. Bravely, I'm flying blind this time, as I can't be bothered to look out the recipe, wherever it might be!). Anyway, the meat was already minced, but I decided to mince the other ingredients - bread & vegies. It's such a satisfying process, and takes me back 40-odd years, when my mother would get the mincer out every Monday, to reduce the leftover Sunday roast to rissoles. I still love to scoff cold minced meat; there's something very pleasing about the texture (and taste). Now I think about it, the tadpoles in the garden also loved a bit of minced meat, as they nibbled furiously at small bits dropped in the water.

This one is a bit more decorative than the one my mother used (hers wasn't coloured), but it does the same efficient job.

Of course, one of the pleasures of the mincer was being allowed to turn the handle and watch the pulverized food pour out of the front. It's also very satisfying, just feeling the mechanism chew through the food as it does. This hasn't changed; I don't bring out this wondrous machine very often, but always enjoy the process. I think I probably bought the mincer simply so that I could relive that happy memory. Strange though, that neither of my children wanted to try it tonight, but then I suppose there's little fun to be had in using something that doesn't have LEDs, push buttons and a motor.


They say youth is wasted on the young; is that also true for simple pleasures?

Monday, June 9, 2008

Can I be an artist please?

I’ve been taking photographs for many moons now (or to put it another way, more than a full orbit of Saturn). In that time, I’ve exposed many frames of film, and printed more than a few boxes of paper. I started with a Box Brownie, moved on to my Dad’s Yashicamat, then on through a succession of 35mm, rollfilm & 5×4 cameras of varying quality and pedigree. [The largest camera I ever used was 48 inches (1.2 metres) in aperture, and took thin glass plates 14 inches (356mm) square … the UK Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory. However, as you can’t actually look through a Schmidt, it is technically just a big camera.]

Professionally, my work was scientific in nature, while my spare time interests were more creative. I have produced some right old rubbish, and a few more memorable and enduring images. My aim was always to produce something that I’d be happy to hang on my wall, and which would be a pleasing image of some sort. Apart from a few years in a camera club, almost at the start of my involvement with photography, and a couple of later low-key exhibitions, I never seriously contemplated the possibility of providing my photography for wider consumption. Redbubble, however, has been influential in changing my mind on that.

For much of the last 15 years, my photographic effort has been almost nil. I seemed to have lost touch with my muse. Some time within the last 5 years or so, I did start playing with images again – initially just dabbling with low-res digital tweaking of some of the few pics I had taken. Gradually, I started feeling the desire to do more than this, and as my PC systems were upgraded, was able to work at higher resolutions until I could handle poster-sized images without too much difficulty. But still I wasn’t shooting much to speak of, so the end results were little more than just stretching my photographic muscles again, so to speak.

I dragged myself out of hiding to take part in a fun photographic event hosted by the Regional Gallery, where photographers were invited to bring along a BW image and talk about it briefly; I really enjoyed that, partly because it brought me into contact with the local art community. This is what I took along:

Pigeon Woman

For the ensuing year or so, I began to take my photography more seriously again, and wondered whether some of what I was doing might be suitable for any of the local galleries. Somehow, I always had difficulty with that – whether photography, mine in particular, could stand alongside works that were palpably more worthy of being called art. That’s just me. Somewhere, there was always a nagging feeling that I wasn’t an artist, that my reason for taking pictures was just to hang something on the wall that was nice to look at, without there being any greater substance, any social comment or underlying meaning to the images.

Then on that wonderful evening in November last year, I stumbled upon redbubble; seeing the tremendous wealth of talent out there seemed to be the catalyst I needed. Since then I have been gradually developing a body of work – very mixed, it has to be said – that might soon become something more than just a few images on the HDD. I might at last dare to call myself an artist. Maybe I’m too left-brain though, too concerned with technical quality, and not sufficiently able to let go and just be utterly creative, without always comparing with existing standards and references. I hope not!

3:58 pm

A couple of weeks ago, I visited the regional gallery again, and found an exhibition that in itself I didn’t find particularly enthralling. The following part of the brief introduction to the work on display did catch my eye though:
  • His figures can be easily read as archetypal images of ‘man’ giving no indication of external factors, no clues, and no contextualization, leaving viewers to contemplate the trans-historical universal human.
Now, I’m curious about how many other visitors to that exhibition will have "contemplated the trans-historical" ... etc, as it hadn’t occurred to me to do so. I think that this is substantially why I have had difficulty seeing myself as An Artist. I don’t seem to understand the lingo. My more frequent reaction to exhibitions is "yes, but is it art?" Or perhaps, "why is it art?" I think I’d like to take a group of artists, critics, gallery directors and other cognoscenti, as well as the lay public, through such an exhibition without their reading the introduction, and see how many of them would actually come up with a reaction that reflected the commentary. It might be an interesting experiment.

Buy art

Monday, June 2, 2008

Wild dreams

You know that dramatic/elusive quality that dreams can have? You have an extraordinarily vivid nocturnal experience, full of bizarre and surreal goings-on, and yet come morning, there is just a tantalising wisp remaining. Like a word on the tip of your tongue, you may almost be able to recall what it was that was such fun (assuming it was fun), but the more you probe, the fainter the recollection becomes. So frustrating, it could drive you to distraction. Well, the guys at xkcd obviously recognise this situation, and have illustrated it quite succinctly; glad I have my dreams though!



Here's the full image.