Matt Lauder

Thursday, July 08, 2010

I recently discovered Australian photographer Matt Lauder’s website, along with his pay-to-view tutorial site, rubbing pixels.

It’s an interesting site, and you can get a good feel for his style from the generous selection of free content. His approach is pretty much the no-nonsense, straight to the point sort of thing you’d expect from an Australian (and that’s a compliment).

I’m particularly drawn to Matt’s work and teaching as he goes for a similar blend of DSLR / film panorama as I do, although on steroids ... he’s working with 617 film (or even 624), whereas for me the limit is XPan 66x24mm ... he’s got an Imacon scanner (cue pure envy) and I’ve got a Minolta (well, actually, that’s no so bad). Certainly there’s enough there to convince me to subscribe.

I don’t fully agree with everything he does or recommends - but he says himself, there are endless ways to skin a cat in Photoshop.

Definitely well worth a look!

Aperture 3

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Has anybody noticed yet ? What’s that ? Oh. Right. I’m last.

Actually I got the tip off for Aperture 3’s release from the excellent and still improving RB Design blog run by Robert Boyer.  I highly recommend his site as well as his eBook series, without a doubt the best value for money technical writing you’re going to find on Aperture. It’s great to see an Aperture-related web site at least on a par with the best of the Lightroom community. Some of Robert’s tips will leave wondering why you never knew that ... and make Aperture really hum. AND he’s got a sense of humour and doesn’t shy clear of the odd rant, bit of invective or rude word. Highly entertaining.

I’m stuck with Aperture 2 since my photo workstation is a Mac G5, and the budget for a Mac Pro is in the realms of fantasy. But I’m not complaining - Aperture 2 does everything I need.

Aperture 3 looks like it has some outstanding new features, and although it isn’t really an issue, at least not for me, it seems to becoming a far more powerful tool than Lightroom. One thing that does disappoint me though is RAW support: although it doesn’t affect me, the lack of support for the Olympus m4/3 series is a let-down, and the no-show for the Leica M9 is really surprising (yes, I know it records DNG, but the Ricoh GRDII also records DNGs, and at default settings they look crap in Aperture). At least the Lumix LX-3 finally made it. But I predict that RAW support is going to provide some fuel for Ye Olde Forum Flame Wars.

Whatever. Welcome Aperture 3. We’ve been expecting you.

Tim Parkin - Still Developing

Friday, October 30, 2009

Several lifetimes ago, I used to go to York, and Yorkshire, quite regularly, and pretty quickly got used to the local’s penchant for, shall we say, blunt speaking. Oh, and Betty’s Tea Rooms. So I’m not particularly surprised to discover that Tim Parkin, an outstanding landscape photographer, and writer of an erudite, informative, and entertainingly blunt blog, is from Yorkshire.

Quite honestly it’s refreshing to find somebody who quite clearly is photographing and writing for his own enjoyment, doesn’t particular mind upsetting any egos, and doesn’t beat about the bush.

I like his photography too. He knows when to apply restraint, goes for natural colour, and doesn’t go overboard with the Velvia stuff. His work reminds of that of David Ward, both in style and approach, but he’s carving out his own visual language.

So, a strong recommendation from me - great photography and a lively blog. Can’t be bad.

ps - oh, and he helped me fix my RSS feeds. Thanks, Tim!

pps - and If they’re not fixed, it’s my fault, not his

Strange Doings

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

I picked up on a new website today "Focus", which seems to have just got started and presents a couple very well produced and interesting video documentaries about two leading lights of Flickr. The first is about macro photographer, Brian Valentine. The second is about the prolific Icelandic photographer, Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir. I actually discovered the site through Rebekka's blog, and this is where the strange doings come in (cue creepy Twilight Zone sounds). This evening I wanted to send my complements to the people at Focus, and went back to Rebekka's blog to find the link ... only to find the post has been airbrushed out of existence. It is still in my RSS reader archive though. I wonder why this is ... seems a very professional operation...although there is something a little strange, not to mention screwed up, with the Vimeo hosting. I think we should be told. UPDATE - well I have been told. Rebekka doesn't like the music and is unhappy about the edits, so she's decided to keep quiet about it. I can see what she means about the music, but I just tuned out.

Smug :-)

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Well, this, I have to say, was totally unexpected. A few weeks ago, I received an email from Alice Burton, of the British photo magazine Outdoor Photography. She told me she wanted to make this site "website of the month". I was pretty stunned. First, because the sheer quality of the 3 or 4 sites featured monthly is pretty intimidating. Secondly, because the photo part of this site has been in practical hibernation for over a year. But it's true. And here's the proof: I've been reading OP since pretty much issue 1. But I never thought I'd get anywhere near being featured in their pages. So, just for this one post, please forgive me if I'm just a little bit unsufferably pleased with myself. Wait a minute... it's not the April 1st edition is it ?