Electric Arcana

Closedown

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:17:11 GMT

After years of blogging all over the shop, with different blogs for different kinds of posts, I'm consolidating all my blogging into one place. Which means I am closing down this journal. I'm not deleting it any time soon, but I will not longer be updating it. (Which, given the frequency of the updates here shouldn't make a big difference to anyone, but I thought I'd let you all know properly, rather than have this thing hanging around like a guest that won't leave.)

If you would like to continue following my photography, you can either follow my main personal journal (if you're not already) at alasdair or you can find the photography section of my actual blog at http://www.black-ink.org/category/photos/ - there is an RSS feed of same available at that URL via black_ink_photo, if you really want to get the content via LJ, but have no interest in writing side of my blogging, which is fair enough.

See you all around.

Dream Sequence

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 12:08:46 GMT

I've been playing with an app called Plastic Bullet on my iphone. It takes an image, and applies a bunch of random filters to make it look like it was taken with a particularly crappy old camera. Most of what it does isn't fit for anything but amusing myself, but every so often, it throws up a gem, like this one, snapped at the pub yesterday.

Withdraw

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 12:15:37 GMT

Another one from Brighton. I experimented with a load of different colour versions, before deciding that this looked best in black and white.

Embers

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:06:10 GMT

I've got a few snaps from a holiday to Brighton the other month that I've been meaning to sort through and post for a while now. This is the first - a portrait that I really like (and not just because of the subject). This one needs to be seen large for best effect, I think.

Titania

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:57:50 GMT

Miranda's halloween costume. Mine was not quite as awesome, but still more awesome than anything I have previously worn for Halloween. I'm not going to post the photo of me on here, because I didn't take it, but if you're curious as to what my Auberon outfit looked like, you can click through to Flickr and look.

Happy Halloween

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:55:42 GMT

Del drew my attention to this chap while ambling around Borough Market this morning. Happy Halloween to you all.

Golden Hour

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:31:52 GMT

The best camera is, of course, the one that's with you. After last night's awesome twilight in Tooting, when I had my ever-present compact on me, well, I only went and left the sodding thing on my desk, didn't I? So when the sunset tonight at Wandsworth Bridge had me leaping off the bus and haring back across the bridge to take photos it was with the only camera I still had on me - the one in my phone. So it's not pin sharp and it's not hi res. It is, however, bloody lovely

Sunset

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:48:29 GMT

I have remarked in the past that Tooting gets some of the best Sunsets I have ever seen. I have no idea why this should be the case, but it is. Tonight's was particularly impressive - this doesn't really come close to doing it justice - when I got off the bus the whole street was bathed in reddish purple light, and was a wonder.

Hiroshima Stardust

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:26:25 GMT

Taken on a morning walk to the tube station. Really wasn't sure I'd get anything great out of it, but as it turns out I am absurdly happy with the effect I've been able to achieve with this shot. Best seen as large as possible, so you may want to click through the largest size.

Dr Nightmare's Waltz

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:28:26 GMT

Oh, where to start with the "barely acceptable"? I wanted the dreamlike quality, I wanted the blur - slightly less blur would have been good, but we can't have everything. What I would also have liked was the ability to frame the shot better, and to be better at retouching in photoshop, and more talent, and a pony. But this is what I got, and it's just about close enough to OK to put it online.

Decadence

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:10:29 GMT

To say I have mixed feelings about this shot is understating it. It's one of a *very* few shots I like from Last Days of Decadence the other week - I'll be putting the others up on flickr at some point in the next week, and might put one or two more up on here, but honestly, I really don't like much from that shoot.

The other reason I have mixed feelings is the technique I've used here. I have been known to get a bit strident about this "only one detail in colour" approach. I think it's generally a crutch use to balance inadequacy in other parts of the photo. And yes, that's exactly what it is here. This shot more or less works without the effect - the eye is drawn to the same place, it's just that having stark greeny-blue light throughout leaves the shot a bit garish. (Which is my problem with the whole shoot, and why I like so few of the shots I've got.)

Anyway, I'm rambling. Look at the man and his pretty green drink, won't you?

Circa Burlesque 6

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:55:11 GMT

Another shot from my Circa Burlesque set - I have such a backlog of photos at the moment, it's not funny - I never did finish sorting out the Toronto pics, and I've can another few hundred from Last Days of Decadence on Friday to sort out, and I'm off to Amsterdam at the weekend, and basically, it's all gotten a bit photo-tastic round here of late, which is no bad thing...

Circa Burlesque 8

Fri, 29 May 2009 18:45:40 GMT

Another set of White Mischief pics uploaded - this time, of Circa Burlesque. Some of these pics may not be safe for work, depending on how conservative your workplace is.

The Men Who Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing

Thu, 28 May 2009 21:53:17 GMT

Rather than wait weeks while I go through and process all of the hundreds of photos I took at White Mischief the other week, I thought I'd upload them in batches. So here's the first batch, a set of shots of the rather splendid steampunk duo The Men Who Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing.

Earth From Above

Sat, 23 May 2009 16:05:13 GMT

A quick snap taken out the window of the plan as we passed over the coast of Greenland on the way to Canada. Not bad for a point and shoot working through the window of the plane. Works best on a dark background.

Ascension

Mon, 18 May 2009 13:25:34 GMT

The first of a batch of photos from Toronto. I decided I'd apply the same treatment to quite a lot of them, to produce a set with a unified feel, rather than just a geographic link - it's an exaggeration of what seems to be becoming my usual style, bringing it into lomo-like territory - I like the idea that a set of photos from somewhere that is very much outside my everyday life have a strongly unreal feel to them.

Construction Ibis

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:38:35 GMT

I, and a number of my friends, are terribly fond of the cranes that are fixtures on London's skyline, but up until now, I've never really managed to get a shot of one of them that I like. Dept of credit where credit is due: The title was inspired by a remark by my friend Sarah the other week.

Nightmare Street II

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:53:58 GMT

More gas mask fun from the weekend. I'm really pleased with how this one came out - I think it has a lovely creepy dreamlike feel that was 100% worth my friend Mike risking life and limb in order to perch up there. Thanks, Mike!

Science And Nature

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:55:29 GMT

Despite the fact that I have a collection of photos of attractive people from the shoot/amble around London that yesterday (of which, more later), the ones I personally like best, are, of course, the ones without any of those distracting people in them. Like this one.

The Secret History Of World War 3

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:26:07 GMT

The first of some photos taken while wandering about town today with some friends, with, yeah, some props with which we did the fine work of alarming the locals. I'm putting this one up first because a) I really like it, and b) it seems like quite a fitting tribute.

Lost Planet

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:28:49 GMT

I've just put a fresh set up on flickr - my friend Mark's band, Lost Planet were playing at The Ship in Croydon, and he asked me to go along and take photos, particularly of him (pictured here, mid-stick-twirl) because he doesn't really have any photos of himself at work. It was a bit of an unusual gig shoot - Mark's drum kit took up more or less the entire stage, so for once, it was the drummer who was best lit (which was handy for my ability to get photos of Mark), and getting photos of the lead singer and guitarist was much trickier than usual.

Vesper

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:47:34 GMT

As part of our birthday celebrations the other week, Steve and I went to the bar at Dukes for the finest martinis in London, and therefore the world. We both wound up having Ian Fleming's classic Vesper Martini, which I reproduce here. It is even more delicious than the photo makes it look.

Between Art and Architecture

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 12:05:16 GMT

I finally achieved a personal ambition - a shot St Paul's across the Millennium Bridge without people in it. The composition is a long way from perfect, and I really wish that sodding seagul hadn't been there, but I had about five seconds to snap this, as there was a bloke coming up behind me. but still, I got the damn thing. One of London's best views, unspoiled by humans. I'll try again at some point in the summer, I think.

Shadowplay

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:08:28 GMT

I was round an art exhibition the other week with some friends. Some of it was unmitigated toss, some of it was OK, and mostly it was the building that was the star. But here's a shot of one of the better works. Still if I'm honest, my photo of this piece appeals to me far more than the piece itself did. This is another shot where I knew exactly what effect I'd be post-processing for, removing detail, and replacing it with heavy shadow, before I even took the shot.

Wireform

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:47:06 GMT

It's a photo of someone else's art, that, on the one hand doesn't entire do the piece justice. On the other, I shot this working in the pitch sodding black, with a tiny light source, and a less than ideal lens, and it came out as more or less exactly the shot I was after. Go me.