What in the word?

While travelling recently, I noticed that a lot of motels no longer supply soap in the bathroom and shower. Instead, where you would expect to find soap, there is a little paper-wrapped object called a ‘cleansing bar’. Fortunately, a cleansing bar smells, feels and works pretty much the same way as soap.

I was able to work out, after a little trial and error, that a cleansing bar was what I needed to use in the shower; but how do non-english speaking tourists cope?

I can imagine that they have worked out enough common English words so that they can have a good time when travelling and, when in need of a wash, look for something with the word ‘soap’ on it.

But when faced with a little paper packet labelled ‘cleansing bar’ they might need to reach for a dictionary. And this isn’t as much help as you might think.

Cleansing bar: becoming clean with a relatively long, evenly shaped piece of some solid substance, as metal or wood, used as a guard or obstruction or for some mechanical purpose.
Or perhaps…

Removing by or as if by cleaning a long ridge of sand, gravel, or other material near or slightly above the surface of the water at or near the mouth of a river or harbour entrance.
Doesn’t seem all that relevant, how about…

Making free from sin or guilt with a counter or place where beverages, especially liquors, or light meals are served to customers. Now you’re talking! That is some little paper packet.

Apostrophe Abuse

Seen in a pub in Portland, Victoria.

Sigh.

Blowing smoke...

Another image from the great smoke-in.

Smoking in the boys room...

The temperature reached 38C on Friday. And was I doing something sensible? No Along with a photographer friend (from here on referred to as TP, you know who you are), I was shut in a studio/shed, trying to photograph smoke.

It was damn hot in there, and smokey. We were trying to establish the technique for lighting and photographing the smoke from an incense stick after being inspired by the photography of Graham Jeffrey over at Sensitive Light.

We managed some interesting results, but didn’t get the quality we were after. To get better results on the next try, we will move the backdrop further away so no light at all gets on it (if the back ground isn’t totally black, it is hard to get all the detail in the smoke, you loose some when you manipulate the background to black).

We also need more light on/in the smoke. Unlike other sorts of photography using flash, you can’t really reflect the light off the smoke it just goes through. So you need sufficient light at the right angle to get the detail. Also, I need to zoom in more; I had to do way too much cropping.

At least I came home smelling of sandalwood.

A fine friend...

Over at russellboyle.com, Interface's good friend Russell Boyle has posted some sound files of his poetry.

Wander over and have a listen. It's good stuff.

What am I doing?

One of the reasons for starting this blog was to document the learning process I am going through with digital photography and printing. I haven’t been doing much of that lately.

I haven’t been idle. I’ve been working (sporadically) on a few new things in various areas. I have been doing some black and white portraiture again (thanks Shazz, Trev and Russell) with mixed results. I am happy with the black and white look, but I am not getting the best out of the subjects or lighting yet. I need more practice.

I have also been experimenting with being more aggressive/adventurous with the ‘enhancing’ of images in Photoshop. I’ll talk more about those two things in future posts.

One issue I have been exploring is how to get my photos “out there” so I can get more feedback and therefore work to improve. It is hard working in a vacuum. You don’t really know how much you are improving and if you are moving in the right direction. I get very good feedback from friends and family, but I would like a wider exposure.
I set up the Interface photography website to showcase what I believe to be my best images of the moment. The plan is to update it regularly as I get new work up to standard. Getting people to come and see it is the next big issue.

The aim of the blog was primarily to document the digital photography learning process, take part in a dialog with other photographers as work progresses on new images, add bits and pieces about writing issues, etc. It has been successful in a limited way. I have been having fun writing about various bits and pieces and have enjoyed the comments from the folks who are reading it, but I haven’t been able to get a wider readership yet.

I began a photoblog partly to put up some work that I don’t think fits into my current website, and to experiment with linking to photoblog sites such as photoblogs.org. So far this has produced virtually nothing in terms of new visits.

I am now looking into displaying some work on Flickr. I am not happy about their terms and conditions, but there are a lot of good photographs there and some very interesting photographers to interact with.

The big question is how to get my photographs noticed. I am reading about tags, groups and other ways of being seen.

A work colleague of a friend is doing very well on Flickr. He is getting a lot of comments and reportedly offers of purchase. His work is often not to my taste, but go to Flickr and check out images from Ambientlight, a Geelong boy.I don’t think I will keep both the photoblog and a Flickr stream going, so eventually the least useful one will go.

The big challenge is to get a broader exposure for the photography and writing. I shall keep you informed of the progress.

Spelling grumble

I have been reading an otherwise fine book by a well-known Australian author. This author has won a Miles Franklin Award. So the writer’s credentials are exceedingly good.

Except…

The author has used the term “tee-shirt” on several occasions during the book. I cannot let this go unmentioned because it annoys me every time I have to read it.

The casual shirt to which the author refers has nothing to do with playing golf. It is a T-shirt. When it is spread out flat it forms the shape of the letter ‘T’. I will accept ‘t-shirt’. I will not accept “tee-shirt”.

And recently I saw a TV advert for “100% cotton tees.” Now that is just dumb. A 100% cotton tee wouldn’t hold the weight of the golf ball.