A living worth scraping

“If I can only scrape a living, at least it will be a living worth scraping.” Mickey Smith

A while ago, I posted this video of Mickey Smith called, Dark Side of the Lens. The photography, music, and text are all done by this extraordinary man, who obviously/obsessively loves the wilds of nature.


Dark Side of the Lens from Astray Films on Vimeo

Today I stumbled upon his talk at Do Lectures. The Dark Side of the Lens is also presented during his talk. It is interesting to hear him tell of his childhood on the Cornish coast. Hearing how these experiences and the inquiring of his sister made him do the film, somehow makes the film even more brilliant than before.



He mentions at one point in his presentation how he lived one year by the flip of the coin. It was a strange year with a lot of adventures.

Even though I don't think I would ever be crazy/reckless/spontaneous enough to live like this, it really would be fun to do so on the occasion. What do you think, would you give it ago?

I am putting it on my to-do list of this year.

Do Lectures is a fine site to while away your time on. If you do so and find a presentation that is especially inspiring, please tell me.

The Big Picture

Please take a look at last year's National Geographic Photography Contest winners!

Source the Boston Post, The Big Picture blog.

Cricket, A Mystery to Me

I've never understood how cricket works. Yet, in Grenada, as most countries that were once British colonies, cricket is played by young and old alike.

The Big Picture has some magnificent photos this week that show the every-dayness of the sport, as well as the mass hysteria.

Special Times with Friends

Toronto has apparently experienced a fantastic warm and sunny spring. One of the funny things about this trip was the rainy cold weather I brought with me. Yet, the photos I took on the two or three good days seem to defy this impression that I gained as the Bringer of Bad Weather.

This trip was unique in the amount of time I spent walking and talking with friends. What a delight this was. Particularly, we walked through two neighbourhoods (Cabbage Town and Dundas/Bathhurst) I hadn't known before. We also went to museums and saw the normal tourists sites, but I didn't take any photos of these because there are much better ones to be found on Flickr or other photos sites.

The Big Picture

The Big Picture is a fantastic site. Every few days, The Boston Globe presents a series of photos, fantastic photos, that concern a current topic of interest.

Whether the photos are about water,



Or, about Greenland,



they are not to be missed. Sometimes the topics are about war and violence and I can not look at the images because they just hurt too much, but mostly they are just spectacular.

Photos of a Playground

My son takes interesting photos. Or, at least I really think so. I've spent the whole day listening to podcasts* and going through hundreds of photos he took last week in Montreal.

This slideshow is a series of photos he took at a playground near to where my sister lives. I love the fact that he climbs up, or under, or around the playgound and catches the beauty of the slides and climbing equipment from other angles.

* Today's listening include podcasts from: Speaking of Faith, The Moth, The Daily Mayo, Writers & Company, and This American Life.

Behind Close Doors

I live in Luebeck: one of the most enchanting cities on the Baltic. Or, at least this is my opinion after living here for nearly twenty years.

We live on the island itself. Every corner you turn there is a magical blend of old and new architecture. I took these photos of doorknobs while walking to a café this morning.

Luebeck was founded in the 9th century, though there have been people settled here since the last Ice Age. So, there is a lot of old. There are also many fractions that wish to preserve the history of this UNESCO heritage city.



This means if a house owner wants to install new electrical system, they are allowed to put in new wiring, but they have to use all the old bricks and beams again. They place all the material (see photo above) in bags to be used later. The poor house owner. The lucky brick builder specialised in antique techniques.

Showing Talent

My kids went over to Montreal to visit my family.

Julien, whose been photographing our trips for a while, just got a new camera. Here is a slideshow of a few of the photos he took (here). I really think he shows a lot of talent.

Everyman’s Photography

This is an amusing video showing how a large giant like Kodak can rethink their corporate vision and starts thinking like an everyman photographer again.



Flickr is holding a global photography event tomorrow (May 5th) called “24 hours of flickr”. The people participating in the event (moi!) are going to document their day photographically and place all the photos into the group page with the help of the flickr organizer (here). At the moment, it looks as though over 20,000 people have signed up for the event. Can’t wait to see what comes out of the idea.

There is so much happening in the field of photography, for any one to use. I thought I’d link you to a few of the new applications or tutorials (here, here, and here) and gadgets (here and here) for fun. And then when you have a selection of photos, there is so much you can do with them (here and here).

I’ve tried printing some of my collages as cards and I am amazed at how good the quality is. About fifteen years or so ago, I printed up a series of postcards to sell in Grenada. What a long and torturous process that was. I made up the layout in Luebeck, and sent the film proofs (sorry, don’t know the word in English) to the printer in Barbados, and they printed up 8,000 postcards. The quality of the print was good, though the colour tones were not at all as I imagined. Not bad, but just not as I thought they would be. In the end, I managed to sell all of the postcards. Thankfully so.

I really wish I knew of a digital printer site where I could get cards or postcards on demand a few hundred at a time. Ideally, this site would allow me to change the motifs as well. Unfortunately, the offers I know of on sites like mypix.com are really only good for personal use. If any of you know of a company that I could use for commercial use, I’d really appreciate hearing from you.