Squared up

I got a new beta version of Joyeye FX for my Nokia smart-phone today, and in playing with it created what turned out to be the 200th self-portrait to be uploaded to my Dailybooth account.

Being beta software, it has a few bugs, including the wrong proportions for the "Polaroid" option.

The image above is a square crop from the camera image portion of Joyeye's output, with my approximation to the "Polaroid" surround.

Just for fun.

Beach

Discretion

Lobotography

This picture is a mistake. A classic example of a shutter release occurring while a camera is pointed in a more-or-less random direction.

I like it.

Along with the motion blur and random "subject" framing, the picture also exhibits several symptoms of having been taken with a cheap camera. A very cheap camera.

I like it.

In fact, I rather wish I had made the image deliberately.

There are probably many "serious" photographers that might characteristic that as possibly symptomatic of a frontal lobotomy.

Hence the "lobotography" of this post's title.

Which is also a bit of a pun on "Lomography" - a photographic culture of folks that enjoy pictures of this ilk.

• They thrive on avoiding traditional "good image quality" by using "flawed" cameras, "flawed" procedures, and "flawed" processes.
• They thrill to happy "accidents" - which mostly wouldn't happen if they didn't give them the opportunity to happen, hence are not entirely "accidental.
• They eschew digital and idolize analogue.

Hurrah! Hurrah! Huh?

I don't knock film - I took pictures on film for over four decades. I still consider it something I might do again now and then, though it doesn't seem to happen and several of my film cameras have unfinished rolls in them of uncertain age.

The sad truth is that for all the joy that could be gotten from all the various fans of eccentric freestyle imagery enjoying each other and each other's work, there are some extremists & cultists - die-hard film fans mostly - who demonize the "others" who aren't part of their cult.

Or maybe that isn't it at all? Lomography is actually a commercial trademark, apparently owned by a commercial operation associated with lomography.com, a very commercial operation selling - guess what - film and film cameras!

They also heavily promote a kind alternative style of photography on the web - illustrated with images in digital format, even if originally taken with a film camera - and with several wonderful books - illustrated with images that undoubtedly passed through digital format in the production process, even if originally taken with a film camera.

So I am inclined to take their analogue sloganeering as a self-serving rear-guard action against the millions (billions?) of cell phone cameras and cheap digital cameras that can more easily and much more cheaply provide the multitudes with access to the fun and esthetic delights of this sort of alternative photography.

I find that boring.

What would be really cool would be if someone would provide some lobotographic digital cameras and accessories commercially.

Not that I still wouldn't enjoy owning and occasionally using some of the Lomography commercial products.

And we badly need a really good umbrella term that goes beyond the narrowness of Lomography. "Lobotography" only has a couple of prior google search hits, which don't seem to have commercial restrictions, so I would be happy to see it become a public domain term.

Iris

Morning

Stonecrop

Reflections

15th NE

At first glance that might look like a stereo pair, and it can be sorta viewed that way, with an interesting stereo effect.

But it is actually two different ends of the same bridge. In each shot, the place I took the other shot is just off the bottom of the image.

So partly is playing with stereo-like pairs (how much of the appeal of stereo pairs is in the three dimensional viewing and how much is in the charm of side-by-side pictures?) as part of my ongoing exploration of that field.

But otherwise the image appearance, with flaring and fogging, is part of my curiosity about the "plastic camera" look, and is part of my ongoing exploration of that field.

So don't blame my camera or assume incompetence.

I rather like it.

Stairs

At old Richmond Beach School site, now replaced by park and new library building.

Beach

Three ships

I often go out to Richmond Beach, where I go to the library, then down to sit in my car alongside the railroad tracks. I look at my books, hope a train will go by, and watch activity on Puget Sound. Sometimes I take a picture or three out the car window. Sometimes I get out of the car and get more serious about the photography.

This blog is mostly about the "more serious about photography" images, but this particular image stuck in my head, and made me pause while browsing, more than many of the "serious about photography" images.

The photo magazines and books tend to have a ranking of photographs - of qualities that one should aspire to.

This isn't one of those photographs. It lacks many of those qualities.

Even the photograph I was after, with the right-hand ship still in the gap between the derrick and the piping, would not have qualified.

Even a photograph which had somehow avoided the intrusive sailboat mast in midframe would not have qualified.

Yet somehow, for me, this is one of my more successful photographs.

Because it is, and because I am not entirely sure why, I am blogging it today.

Until I understand why this image is important to me, I won't be able to do as well with my photography.

Because ultimately, my photography needs to be for me first, and then for my family and friends. The editors and writers of the books and magazines shouldn't even be entering into the calculation - their role is only in suggesting some things I should take into consideration, and helping me with the skills and information that will help me achieve my own purposes.

Block Play 3-D

News coming out of CES about all the 3-D stuff coming along has been fun. My recent cataract surgeries have renewed my binocular vision and rejuvenated a longtime interest in stereo views and 3-dimensional imagery.

I have just started experimenting with stereo pairs, mostly for my Block Play blog, where there is no movement in the subject, though I do not intend to limit myself.

Now I want the new Fujifilm 3D digital camera even more. For now, I will keep shifting my Olympus SP-570 sideways.

Anna's

25 December 2009
Olympia-Lacey, WA