by admin | May 25, 2013 | Blog, Travel
It was a present for my wife. It certainly wasn’y my first choice for a holiday but she had always said she wanted to go on safari – to see cheetahs, and to ride an elephant. The cost of these kind of holidays is usually completely ptrohibitive. Then I found Vuyani Lodge (on Ebay of all places!). I procrasintated for several days – then took the plunge – handing my credit card details over to someone who I thought was in South Africa (but turned out to be from Dubai ..). Normally when something is cheaper than you feel it should be, there’s a catch. This time there wasn’t. It was all fantastic. The lodge, the people, the animals, the country, the service, the food, the photographic opportunities. Everything. I was a bit worried about South Africa. I’d heard it was violent. I saw no signs of violence,. We were met with curiosity, indifference, friendliness but not violence.
And what about racism? Well South Africa has had a troubled past. And it’s obvious that there is still a massive difference between the lives led by blacks and whites in South Africa. At a park in Johannesburg we saw wealthy whites and blacks enjoying the ‘go ape’ type experience high up in the tress on zip wires etc. Then just yards away were poor blacks living in cardboard boxes, washing their clothes in dirty water. We stumbled into their ‘home’ by accident. A rat ran over my foot. We left quickly feeling we had intruded. Seconds later we were walking past the car park full of Range Rovers, Mercedes and Porsches. It’s a country of extremes for sure. Even the weather went from hot during the day to very chilly in the evening.
The animals. These are the rich seam of South Africa. We saw Lions, Cheetahs, Elephants, Giraffes, Baboons, Hippos, Kudu, Eagles, Impala, Jackals, Warthogs, Wildebeest, Buffalo, Ostrichs and many many more. It’s such an honour and privilege to see these animals in their natural habitat – and to be able to photograph them. Safaris started out as hunting trips and the animals would be shot for sport. Now most safaris allow people to see the animals and that is enough – more than enough.
I wasn’t bothered about going. My expectations were low. I loved it and would love to go back one day. All those Wilbur Smith books were right. Africa is a magical place.
by admin | Apr 20, 2013 | Blog, Photography
On Thursday we visited Canvey Island & Leigh on Sea to do one of our regular marketing jobs on behalf of a developer. Saw this girl outside the hairdressers .. and took a pic (after asking permission). See more pics at our flickr account.
by admin | Apr 11, 2013 | Blog, Photography
Went to the final session of the photography course last night and we all had to show our project work. Interestingly the group had reduced in size since the first session and by last night there were only about 7 of us left .. Here are a few of the photos I took for the ‘shoe’ project. Might take it a stage further at some point and take pics of other people’s shoes – but these are some of mine ..
by admin | Mar 31, 2013 | Blog, Photography
Am working on the final project. Hand in date is April 10th. Here’s a shot from it.
by admin | Mar 24, 2013 | Blog, Photography
Well, we are nearing the end of the ‘advanced’ photography course. I’ve got about a week and a half to come up with, produce & edit my final project – and I still haven’t got the foggiest about where to start – or what to do.
It’s not the course I hasten to add. It’s me. I have had lots of ideas but done nothing with any of them. Even while I write this I should really be working away on the project. If I could get on with it now, there would be much less of a rush at the end.
The course has been great. David is reassuringly calm and knowledgeable and patient. The speakers he organised (Christophe Dillinger and Andrew Jackson) were inspirational in completely different ways. Christophe has a wild and quirky approach to photography. He seems to want to break all the rules, and is taking his own unique path. His results are often strange, non-conformist and sometimes downright weird. It’s not to everyone’s taste by any means but I admire his courage to create his own path.
Andrew, on the other hand, is much more conventional by comparison. His images are still challenging and, coupled with his stories about how and when they were taken, take on a whole new meaning, particularly his South African pictures. It was fascinating to hear his experiences of getting briefs from magazines and papers and then having to think on his feet when doing the shoot – to keep the editor happy and also to fit in with the subject of the shoot who was often difficult, or short on time. Add in the problems of weather, lighting, venue, equipment etc it all adds up to a scary account of the life of this photographer.
Other sessions on the course have included a photoshop overview, a studio session with two models and only the barest of guidance allowing us to get it wrong and then learn how to get it right. Plus David went through various styles of photography and the work of a number of photographers.
All in all – it’s been good fun. And I’ve met one or two people who I hope to stay in contact with when the course is finished. And I’ve finally taken my camera off Auto.
I just need to think of a theme for the final project. Better get on with it!
Wanna do a photography course and live within travelling distance of Birmingham? Here’s the link:
http://www.fotofilia.co.uk/
by admin | Mar 8, 2013 | Blog, Information
Google is constantly amending it’s algorithm. It’s trying to distance itself from Bing and other search engines by bringing up what it considers to be better results. Unfortunately they aren’t better. The results are a lot worse now than they were this time last year.
Their exact match domain update means that companies who named themselves after what they do and were doing it long enough to have purchased the domain describing what they do before some else did have now been penalised. Glasses UK (www.GlassesUK.com) for example was the first online prescription glasses seller in the UK. For many years if you searched for Glasses UK you got the Glasses UK website www.GlassesUK.com. Now you don’t. You can try searching for Glasses UK – but you won’t find it.
The same thing has happened to thousands of companies across the world. So now when you are searching, you are not being shown the best results. You are being shown what Google considers a superior set of results. But they aren’t. In fact they are rubbish. Google needs to take a step back, have a long look at itself, stop being so arrogant and start showing the real results – or people will turn away and Google will wither and die ..
