Lionel & Karine bigging it up at Rotterdam

carnival main parade 484
Originally uploaded by ograndeviado

What a fantastic weekend of music and madness. More photos on facebook and soon on flickr. This ones by ograndeviado - Angus (amongst other things) to the rest of us.

Flies, flies and more flies

I never heard about the essential oil solution again. I took that as a no, and set to work on the flies in photoshop. And ran out of time. So no completed SoFoBoMo for me this year. I might still complete it on blurb or some such platform. But in the meantime, I'm getting some prints together for a summer exhibition. The subject is stone transformations. Lots of stone. Obviously. Transformed in different ways, both in its natural context, by people, and by the print medium and framing. Like my previous exhibition here, I'm exploring how we approach, perceive or understand the essential stuff of a subject. The last time my approach was to abstract the subject to varying degrees in the composition of the shots, with the aim of inciting people to look at the characteristics of the image and the subject rather than what you could label it as. This time, by taking the same subject and looking at it in many different ways, I'm hoping to understand something about whether there is anything common to all the images, something that could be considered essential to stone. Or not. Do these transformations change the essential characteristics of stone? Into what? And is that in any way important? Meaningful? And why should I care?

Conversations and cloning

I wish I could do it justice. Imagine a keen foreign photographer, yours truly, sat at his kitchen table. With a beer. And a farmer. Who also has a beer. It's a scene that has been played out often. Frequently. Weekly even. Except that this time is different. We discuss the merits or otherwise of ASM (Clermont-Ferrand's rugby team) in the recent top 14 final. It is ASM's 10th final. And their 3rd in a row. And they came 2nd again. So there's a lot to talk about. Which is good, you understand. Because all the while I'm wondering how exactly I'm going to broach the subject of flies. How exactly am I going to ask him if he minds me putting bath oil and essential oils on his cows. The reason is clear enough to me. Very persuasive even. But I'm not sure he's going to even get to wondering why. And even then. Flies kind of go with the territory as far as he's concerned. So I think of this phrase and that. Of starting in a round about way. For quite a long time. Which is also good, because it gives us both the time to start another beer. And to get some way through it.

So when I finally broach the subject, he doesn't laugh. There is a very very long pause however. Long enough that I have plenty of time to wish that he had laughed instead. But, after a few deep breaths, he asks me one or two questions. And it looks like it might be alright. So he leaves, a beer or two better off, muttering about eucalyptus and citronella, bath oil and flies, and climbs into his car and disappears over the hill.

I'm still waiting for his reply. I don't know if I could start the same conversation again.

So I have tried a bit of photoshopping. And, amateur as I am, I think it might just work.

But to be honest, I really want to plaster his cows in essential oils now. Just so I can say I did. You understand don't you?

Smellies it is then

The rubbish weather this morning hasn't made any impact on the flies, so I'm about to raid the essential oil supply for some eucalyptus ... and the kitchen for vinegar

Cows and flies

I've been searching the web for fly solutions (no pun intended!) this morning. And there are a few out there. Mainly seem to be for horses, but flies are flies I reckon. So I'm going to run these past the farmers and hope to get their go-ahead to try them out. I'm going to go for the natural recipes I've found. Citronella and eucalyptus are popular ingredients added to vinegar bath oil and water.

It's pretty fresh this morning too, so I'm going to take a ride down and see if there are fewer flies today. The light's not good though ...

More cows

Flies. Are. A. REAL. Problem. Not sure what to do about them. Yesterday I waited til evening and wandered over to the first herd's new gaff. Having spoken to their guy first, me and my little lamb ventured into the field with them. They were quite curious. Not very, but enough to get up close and personal for some intimate shots. But God those flies ... not nice. So I need to have a think about that. Later we headed over to herd number 2's evening milking event. Not so many flies - great! But being an indoor gig, there's not much light either. Hmmm. What about first thing in the morning? Well I headed up hill to herd number 3's field at 7.30 this morning. They are a lovely colour, great hair, rather younger and sweeter than herds 1 and 2, and way more curious. Which is great - more up close stuff. But my God those flies ...

I reckon that some kind of cleaning operation is going to be required. Which raises the stakes somewhat. Otherwise it's plan B. Which little lamb came up with last night. What else is distinctive? Skin patterns. Not sure that's interesting enough for a photo book, but hey, don't knock it until you've tried it ...

Where SofoBoMo is taking me ...

My SoFoBoMo project is underway. This morning's crop of photos were accompanied by some free-ranging thoughts. The cows are the starting point and the focus. But the hills, rocks, hay fields, flowery pasture, silage, fences and walls are all part of the context. So I've taken some shots of those things too. The impact of dairy farming on the landscape is also interesting. And then there's the impact of grants, agribusiness finance, intensification and so on. So my challenge now is to integrate something of these contextual aspects into the book, while remaining focused on the cows. And of course the coiffures.

SoFoBoMo - Cows with Coiffures

SoFoBoMo is short for Solo Photo Book Month - a group event where a bunch of photographers all make solo photo books start to finish, in 31 days, at more or less the same time.

I've chosen cows with coiffures. This follows a project to take some portraits of sheep last year where I discovered some real individual characters. I thought it might work with cows, and that the hair styles might be the key. This is my SoFoBoMo project for 2009.

I started on the 30th May. So far I've been building relationships with the various different groups around the village. Visiting every day, getting closer, talking, mooing, belching and sniffing. The theory is that if I make similar noises, they may let me get closer, and be generally less disturbed when I eventually get in the field with them.

Last year I discovered that getting in amongst the animals was great for perspective, and background as well as just getting closer. Some of the more agressive cam close, but their darting runs at me made it quite hard to photograph.

This year I need to be more careful not to upset them. Cows are a lot bigger than sheep! They do seem to be less agressive and more curious though. This means they may get too close to photograph easily.

The other thing is flies. Flies love cows eyes, and they look foul. Even around 7am - the earliest I've tried so far - and with temperatures around 6-8C, they're already there. Not sure how to solve that one yet.

Anyway. Here's one shot to give you an idea.

Mundo Batala at Harlech Castle

Batala
Originally uploaded by mobilevirgin

Thanks to mobilevirgin on flickr ...

Living in four rooms

“There is an Indian belief that everyone is in a house of four rooms: A physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room everyday, even if only to keep it aired, we are not complete.”

Rumer Godden

From Sally Lever

XDR-TB Sharing the story

recent txt conversation with my dad

jess leevin spit! spit! by bus

wye a bus?

dunno

are ew woshin the rugby l8r?

woo's on?

dragins an sumwun

wot channel?

essforsee

mite do if I gerrome in time

unless yew is goin via bangor, yew shood do!

i jess not countin my chickins

yew got chickins onna bus anorl?!

of corse

muss be the west wales servis en?

guzackly

rite shurrup I'm weedin inna garding

yew shurrup, i'm tryin to do a crosswerd

onna em4 at lars, traffic very slow

chickens are drivin are ey?

we've eeten em

oo the hell's drivin en? wossa werl comin to!

the ducks!

bluddy ducks!! oi, yew not avin me on are ew?

no, yew gorra be quackers to drive in iss porin rane!

ah yers, corse yew av

orriten shurrup now

guzackly

Notting Hill Carnival-Batala Band de Percussao

Notting Hill Carnival-Batala Band de Percussao
Originally uploaded by Daniel_C_C

We were at the back somewhere, but we were there! And it was the best.

Braveheart

Braved the market in Brioude this morning, with a view to finding out why this Clermont-Ferrand based samba band got a gig instead of us. Beats me.

OK OK I left the camera in the car, so I'll have to post it later.

Batala Samba Massif

Some recent photos on flickr here
And one or two video clips on youtube here
Alex took some at rehearsal a few weeks ago, and they are here

More window frames

It's a variable activity, blogging, for me. Like other things, there are phases and periods of activity and quiet. Anyway, here's the latest photo window frame project I've been working on. It's been a bit of a case of two steps forwards one step backwards. But with a final revised bit of wood bought this morning at the market we should be ready to see if we're going to keep the glass in the window frames or not. We could keep these original, old, cloudy frames, replace them with new clean ones, or leave them out altogther. Any thoughts? The photo was taken in the village here about 50 yards from the house. It's printed onto canvas, but not mounted onto stretchers because it is going into the window frame.

You wouldn't believe it if you didn't see it

Photos

A while ago I produced my first photos in window frames ... this one as a present for a friend. Since then I've done a few more, mostly sunflowers.



I've just received a commission for a series of my sheep pictures that includes a window frame triptych. It also includes four images printed onto canvas by contrado, who I can happily recommend based on my experience with them to date. Quality, speed and value for money.

The sheep canvasses have come out nicely. What do you think?

Photos, sun and elections

That's a pot pourri of recent days.

Some few years ago, shortly after landing in this corner of paradise, we had a run-in with a local politician. He was arrogant, offensive, and a disgrace to local politics. Since then, his (hopefully) unique combination of charms has led him into other conflicts, some much larger. Well, the recent local elections have brought out all the people he's upset over the past 10 0r 12 years, and they've voted him out of all but one of the three offices he held. Hali %$£$% luliah! We've drunk a toast to the new folks; let's hope they can bring some badly-needed resonsibility, credibility and humanity to their communities.

We've had a fairly wet time so far this spring. Which is a good thing, don't get me wrong. But when the sun came out for a couple of days, the collective rise in morale was everywhere palpable. It's raining today.

But the greatest pleasure has been spending time with l'il lamb out on the bikes, taking photos, sharing them on flickr, and gardening together. Apples ... eyes ... all that.

the best cover song & video EVER. I mean EVER

The Leningrad Cowboys with THE Red Army Choir sing Sweet Home Alabama. Priceless. Anyone remember the cold war?