Art and Photography Blog

Photos of Eastern Townships of Quebec Winter 2007, South of Sherbrooke

Taken February 2007 near Sherbrooke. These are contrasting views of the same scene about 20 minutes apart as a sudden snow storm came up.
       

     
 

London Photo Blog

Here is a great photo blog if you like The Streets of London. They should start a franchise for every city. Under their title is this quote. “"The vast town always in movement night and day, wide as an ocean, with the grind and howl of machinery, railways shooting above houses and soon to be beneath them, commercial adventure, disorder superficially unrestrained though in reality controlled by the strictest middle class discipline, the Thames befouled, the atmosphere packed with coal dust; the superb squares and parks. Whitechapel with a populace half naked, brutal and famished, the city with its vast moneybags." Dostoevsky (1862).” Check it out.

Flickr Photography Methods

Flickr is a great source to share your photos. Look at this nice use of graphics. As the What Can We Do With Flickr? post says, “This cluttered desk represents just a small set of powerful ways you can use Flickr. This image has been annotated with "notes", so as you move a mouse over hotspot areas, pop-up messages will appear, some of them with links that can take you elsewhere.” Here is another excellent post on Top Ten Hacks on Flickr by Thomas Hawks. I also love the graphic here collecting multiple photos. He males an important point, “Flickr is that because of their open API a whole host of developers have built more and more interesting things to do with the site. It's interesting to me today that so many of the ways that I use Flickr are not even through the site as designed by Yahoo, but instead through the work of outside developers who are constantly creating new and interesting ways to experience the site.” This is one of the key success factors for Google, Google Maps, and Amazon. The Flickr people paid attention. Here are some further readings the What Can We Do With Flickr? Post recommended. How to Flickr Intro by Ben Bishop Tips for Flickr Beginners (Lifehacker) Flickr Tutorial Series (Indezine) Flickr Advanced User Guide (Lifehacker

Radio Silence - London Show

I recenlty heard about this show at the Riverside Studios. Radio Silence is a new show from three artists who lead Disney UK's graphic-arts team. Dutchman Gerben Steenks fuses old- and new-skool animation methods into 3-D and 2-D formats; Frenchman Stephane Kardos operates in more of a sketch environment through a loose, organic style that links with studies of city living; and Englishman Matthew Cruickshank focuses on London itself, using paper cut-outs for a series of observational looks at the urban condition. Sounds interesting for those in London. I wish I was there to attend.

Photos of Mississippi Gulf Coast Pre-Katrina Spring 2005

These were taken on a trip to New Orleans in March 2005 prior to Katrina.
         

Thingsmagazine – London Art Blog

Mick Mather recommend Thingsmagazine which now has a blog to support its efforts. As the web site says, it was “originally founded in 1994 by a group of writers and historians based at the Victoria & Albert Museum/Royal College of Art in the belief that objects can open up new ways of understanding the world.” It is now an independent magazine and it the home of good new writing – essays, reviews, short stories and poems – about objects and their meanings. Their website includes a blog, photography galleries, occasional special projects, searchable archives and regular on-line articles. The photos are great. The current series of posts are largely well written book reviews and thoughts on architecture.

Photos of Jackoson, Wyoming 2006

Taken January 2006.
             

Photos of Eastern Idaho: Victor and Driggs Winter 2006

Taken January 2006.
         

Paul Graham on Good Design

Last November Paul Graham spoke at the Berkman  Center. As the notice said, “In a recent essay, "Taste for Makers," Paul argues that successful design, from math to software to painting, relies on the same aesthetic principles. Taste is therefore not a matter of subjectively appreciating fine works but is a required capability for creating great software. The essay shares some very interesting design principles that apply to software design as well as art. Paul has experience in both fields.  A few concepts. Good design is simple. Good design solves the right problem. Good design is suggestive. There are many more principles carefully defined with examples. Wikis are a good candidate for this. Brian Lamb quoted Charlie Mingus in his essay on wikis. “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity. “ Take a look at what Paul wrote. It is full of good reminders.

A Painting a Day

Mick Mather (whose blog I wrote about yesterday) pointed me to another successful artist blog, A Painting a Day, run by Duane Kesier. Duane has been creating and selling an art work a day through his blog since November 2003. His post card size first went for $100 each and are quite good. Take a look. They have become so popular that he now auctions them rather than offering a set price. Duane has also inspired others, see the list in Lines and Colors.