SCL Photography Podcast 217 - Shooting The Breeze

A couple of photowalks and some musings about a possible new camera...

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Download / listen to the mp3. (Right-click then "save target as" / "save link as".) (Did I say it was free?)

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Photos from my recent photowalks:

Our Allotment "Small Planet"

TK Max.

New March / April Assignments - "Spring" and High Key".

2013 Projects Flickr Thread.

Check out Everyday Jones at their website and on Facebook.

If you'd like to contribute a little something to SCL, please Donate!

Come on over and join the Flickr group.

Cheers, Rob.

Steve McQueen William Claxton "Photographs" Book Review Video

(If you can't see the video, please click here.)

Steve McQueen you've obviously heard of, William Claxton probably not. One probably the most iconic Hollywood Star of the '60s, the other a noted Jazz photographer. Together they have created a very powerful series of photographs - Steve McQueen William Claxton, "Photographs".

 You don't need to be a fan of McQueen to enjoy this book - it's a master class in how to get close to your subject and get photographs that possibly expose their soul. Claxton and McQueen were friends, and it shows. We see the film star with him family, on set, riding motor-bikes and driving fabulous cars.

We all might not have the opportunity to get this close to a celebrity, but what Claxton does show us is that we can learn to take photographs that are just as moving of the people we know and love - just get in close, have your camera with you all the time, and get them used to you shooting the heck out of them!

Cheers, Rob.

Roland Pleterski "Drawn by the Light" Book Review Video

(If you can't see the video please click here.)

If you're in the UK make sure you check out your local TK Max, make your way through the designer clothes and the reduced house wares, and find the little corner where the books are.

Hidden among the remaindered cookery books and biographies hopefully you'll find some photobooks going for a song - books like Roland Pleterski's "Drawn by the Light".

As you can see from the video Mr Pleterski has great photographs of New York in the early '60's, his portraits are beautiful and his personal work an inspiration to us all.

So next time you're looking through some cheap photobooks, take the plunge and even though you might not know the photographer, you'll probably find you'll love the photographs.

Cheers, Rob.

SCL Photography Podcast 216 - Claxton and Plerterski

A couple of bargain photobooks from TK Max.

Subscribe on Itunes. (Will open Itunes, then you need to click on the "subscribe" button.) (Free)

Subscribe with other Podcatchers. (Google Reader, etc) (For Free)

Download / listen to the mp3. (Right-click then "save target as" / "save link as".) (Did I say it was free?)

Download / listen to the LOW BANDWIDTH (small file-size) mp3. (Right-click then "save target as" / "save link as".) (Again, free!)

Please check out TechPodcasts.com.

"Drawn By The Light (Roland Pleterski)" and "Steve Mcqueen (William Claxton)"

TK Max.

New March / April Assignments - "Spring" and "Low Key".

Jan / Feb Low Key Assignment.

Jan / Feb Symmetry Assignment.

2013 Projects Flickr Thread.

Check out Everyday Jones at their website and on Facebook.

If you'd like to contribute a little something to SCL, please Donate!

Come on over and join the Flickr group.

Cheers, Rob.

The New Google Keep App? I Don't Think So!

I am a Google fan-boy. I have a Galaxy Nexus Android Mobile Phone. I use Google Chrome exclusively. I have used Google Adsense for years. I love using Googles Blogger platform for small web sites. Gmail? Amazing. Maps? Superb. Tasks? Indispensible. Music? It's got me back into my collection. Google is the internet for me. But no more.

You see, I have lost my trust for Google. "Do no evil" is / was their motto, but they have just killed one of my favourite Apps, both on my phone and laptop, Google Reader.

Google Reader is (was) an RSS aggregator. It allows you to subscribe to your favourite web sites and blogs, and have their new content delivered straight to your Reader Inbox, which is synched  flawlessly between your devices.

Google Reader is like having a personalised magazine that you can pick up and catch up with whenever you like, for free. It means that when you come across a site or blog that's interesting, just hit RSS subscribe and you don't have to book-mark it or remember to visit it again, Reader would just collect all the new content and have it ready for you to peruse when you want to, on the device that's best for you. 

I used Google Reader everyday, as did hundreds of thousands of others. Yet Google have decided that this product isn't popular enough, and have decided to turn it off on July 1st 2013. I can now not trust Google not to turn off other services that are useful, if not essential to my use of the internet.

Sure, I didn't use Buzz beyond the first few weeks. Google Wave? I played with it, but didn't really understand it. Labs? Lots of interesting stuff, but Reader was a corner of the internet that I really enjoyed.

What's next? Docs? Tasks in Mail? Nav in Maps? Snapseed? Niks other plug-ins? The bigger problem for Google is that I'm now not going to be investing my time in their new apps, because I'll be worried that they'll be turning them off in a couple of years.

Google Keep? Sorry, not for me Google, I don't trust you anymore.