March 24, 2009
I’m uncharacteristically enthused by my current project, I’m using my limited DIY & woodworking talents to fashion a decent house for some gerbils. The plans for our gerbilarium started as just making a lid for the 16 gallon (20 US gallons) tank but it just didn’t seem enough so I am designing and building them a tank-topper that will, hopefully, be suitable for gerbil royalty. The enthusiasm is refreshing and I think it’s down to being creative in a manner that feels new to me, I’ve spent so long building intangible web solutions and for years now creating only digital photographs that I lost the joy of creation, the pleasure to be had from making something real and physical, something that exists in the physical world to step back from and be admired once I am finished.
Of course I shan’t finish it, like many of my creations it will go to permanent beta, built in modules and easily added to later. This is the way I create, I rarely see the finished object when starting out on a project, I see potentials. I saw an empty glass tank and in my head it becomes a three storey gerbil mansion. Sometimes I look at seeds and see not just the tree that will grow but the forest, complete with birds flitting about above early morning dog-walkers calling on Rover as he chases squirrels through the undergrowth!
My lesson to learn is to control my creative outpourings, to direct them towards a useful end and to learn to recognise when that has been reached and to stop. Afterall, if I never finish things how can I fully enjoy starting the new and the exciting!
This tank was left by a previous tenant, the temptation to clean it and then set it up as home for a pair of gerbils was too much for me to resist. This was the first stage of my preparations, there is more of everything now – except still no gerbils!
March 15, 2009
I think I have decided that my blog languishes too long between updates. It’s not the first time I’ve thought that, in fact I probably think it a couple of times each week – despite often having ideas for things to write they never seem to fit with the themes I’ve decided on, or if they do I never get around to finising off the writing part of blogging. So today’s idea is to relax on the focus and just update on a more personal level more often and let the “better” updates sit alongside a hopefully more productive output – afterall blog categories and tags are there for folks who want to filter what they read into more focussed topics.
And therefore, in the spirit of writing whenever the mood takes and including more personal blog updates I offer up this entry, The Sandwich. Being vegetarian (and a rather fussy eater) makes sandwich choices very simple: I like white bread, cheese & tomatoes. The bread is the most important part, I’d eat good bread dry with water every day and be happy, the cheese & tomato are simply there to qualify as a sandwich and anything extra added is considered a luxury treat. So there you have it, a personal fact revealed in a spontaneously written blog entry. I shall in future attempt to maintain this high standard of excitement – promise!
Providing two of my five-a-day in the cucumber & tomato. Providing five days worth of white bread in two slices but quite stingy with the cheese I think – only enough for a mild heart attack.
February 9, 2009
Original Scan by SpoiltCat, on Flickr
A passion for old photographs is a fairly common trait amongst photographers. That interest can lie in the methods of how such antique prints were created, the black and white printing on classic papers or even glass slides, or it can be an interest in the equipment used and the skills required to tame the awkward beasts that are vintage cameras. Another area of interest comes from the often distinct style of old pictures, the portraits almost always so stiff and formal due to long shutter speeds required, the sepia-toned colour bias of days gone by – prints which were sepia toned more often survive the decades better than those which were left in their original black and white.
Then there is what fascinates myself and many others in looking at old photographs and vintage prints, the journey into the past which they offer. Snapshots of a time gone by, another world, recognisable but often so very culturally different from my own modern 21st Century technology ridden lifestyle. The paradox of these glimpses into days so different from my own current experiences, so unrecognisable at times but also these very same old photographs having a sense of familiarity, afterall they’re depicting the lives of people I have known. The sepia faces that look back at me from their youth I only knew as ageing grandparents, others I never knew but still recognise unmistakable family resemblance in their faces.
Restored Photo by SpoiltCat, on Flickr
Of course many of these photographs suffer harsh treatment through the years, the paper and the image suffering many hardships and becoming rippied or torn, even the photographic image itself fading away to almost nothing. Each of these old photographic prints have a history unique to themselves, a vintage picture split across the middle revealing that it was carryed for many years as a keepsake folded in a purse or pocket book. The scratches and blemishes become part of the story the picture tells, these are the things that can’t be faked by a simple digital sepia filter and it’s these imperfections that can give a true sense of age. So I feel the process of photo restoration is always a balancing act, trying to reveal lost detail and tidy up an image while being careful to not remove the originals character or it’s place in history. There is little value to me of restoring an old photo to the point where it looks like it could have been taken yesterday.
The photo restoration example pictures for this blog post are my Father’s Mother. The original is a cropped scan of an old postcard photograph from, I think, the early 1920s and restoration work completed in around 4-6 hours using Adobe Photoshop CS3. You can click the images to view larger versions on Flickr.
