A date with a Goth!




Never judge a book by its cover.



Earlier this year I was part of a photoshoot in an 18th century manor house. There were three photographers and two models. It was a hectic day and my plan to have time with both models didn't happen. I didn't have a chance to shoot with a model called "Spunky Gore" who is a Goth. So when we talked about doing a shoot together I wondered what kind of shoot I could do.
Daniella (her real name) is a very nice, intelligent girl despite the impression her full-on Goth appearance gives. She has two Goth 'modes' - one for shoots and one for everyday. Her full-on Goth mode is quite impressive and I guess most people's reaction to it would be to take a step back. I spoke to her about ideas I had to contrast the appearance of the Goth 'uniform' with the reality of the 'girl' inside. She was quite taken with that and we spoke at length about ideas. Some time passed and she reminded me (I need reminding a lot) that we hadn't had a shoot. So we planned .....



Our plan included a small girl, a dog, a librarian and a library. "Never work with children or animals" was echoing through my head and I probably should have listened but .....
The shoot didn't go quite as I had planned but we gave it the best shot (sic) we could. It might be that I can salvage a shot using Photoshop to assemble one shot from several.
Once we had called it a day on the dog/small child shot, I saw an opportunity to show how people's perception of a Goth could be shown to be flawed.
If a Goth and a librarian were going to choose reading material I was guessing that the librarian would have something like the Sunday TImes and the Goth would have a magazine like 'Piercings Monthly' or something similar. My good friend Bonnie went above and beyond the call of duty and bought a copy of 'Nuts' (lad's) magazine for me - the best that could be bought in a Mace supermarket on a Sunday - and acted as second model for the shot.
I shot this in an actual library. I wanted the lighting to look a bit like daylight coming in a window with artificial lighting coming from behind. I also wanted the background to be out of focus so chose my 100-400mm lens at 170mm and a fairly open aperture f5 to get a shallow depth of field and a shutter speed of 1/100 at an ISO of 100. Without using any flash the ambient lighting of the background was dark enough not to be a distraction and bright enough to see some detail. Now to set the flash units.
On this shot I used a 750 and 250 Bowens along with a Chinese speedlite - a YN560 - which has a similar power output to the Canon 580EX II but is manual and not TTL.
I used a softbox on the Bowens 750 and adjusted to the power to give the exposure I needed to match the shutter/aperture/ISO I had set - this was my key light. I used a shoot-through brolly on the Bowens 250 to give a fill about one stop lower than the key light. To finish, I used the YN560 as a hair/back light.
The setup is shown below.

A bit of banter as we set up.

We took a few more shots during the day. It was a pleasure to work with Daniella and I recommend her to anyone for her professionalism, enthusiasm, energy and ideas. As is my custom I have a photo taken of me with my new model. Normally I don't show these but I thought this would bring a smile to some faces and confuse others who think my Facebook profile picture is quite representative of my grumpiness.

Is something out there trying to tell me something?

This week has been a strange experience.

I've always been open to the idea that "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy". (Hamlet Act 1, scene 5).  So spiritual healing, telepathy, etc., are possibly there.

A friend of mine (Darren) and I have been hanging out for a while now and have shared photo equipment, knowledge, skills and a love of the stage.  We share a sense of humour and he's probably the only person who can consistently make me belly-laugh.

Another friend, Nadina, is someone I met late last year when she was entering photos for herself and her partner in the IPF Print and Projected Images competition.  I have since become good friends not only with her but her 6 month old daughter and her partner AND I have photographed her in the studio.  The session was something I really enjoyed and gave me a little spur of inspiration.  Nadina was in Edinburgh last week with her daughter Dani and came home on Saturday.

Yet another (and dear) friend of mine (Ruth) and I lost touch with each other a couple of years ago.  She had been a very supportive friend during a crucial time and introduced me to the Drogheda Camera Club where she encouraged me endlessly to take more and more photographs, enter competitions and to "go for my L".  A measure of her photo skills is evident in her distinctions - FIPF and ARPS.

The last component in this tale is my entries in the Dublin Camera Club's Winter League competition.  As I have explained before, the competition runs from September to February and a number of the top-scoring pictures are retained and in March they are judged as the "best of the best" competition.  There are 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in the sections novice, intermediate and advanced.  And then there is an overall winner chosen by the judge from the three "firsts".  There are three categories overall - colour print, mono print and digital projected image.

So .............
Yesterday I visited Nadina and dropped in some prints I had collected from Denis Whelehan that were superfluous to requirements in a competition.  We talked about what I was doing later - meeting up with my friend Darren and going to the Dublin Camera Club for the competition judging.  I left and went to the club and was going to sit down when the judge and I spotted each other and looked at each other in disbelief and joy - it was my friend Ruth.  After probably the biggest hug in history followed by a succession of "How aree YOU?" questions, I looked down the club gallery and could see the look of wonderment on the members' faces that might have said "That's it!  We've had it!  He knows the judge".
In the meantime, Darren sent me a text to let me know he couldn't make the judging but to keep him apprised.

We settled down for the judging and I won 1st in the advanced section of the projected images and 1st overall so I guess a medal and a cup?  The look of surprise and delight on Ruth's face when she found out she had selected my photo was worth more to me than either the cup or the medal.  Sorry DCC.

The next elelement in the tale was that she chose my friend Darren's photo as 1st place in the novice section.

The final element now links all the rest.  Darren called me this morning and during our chat told me that his brother (and his wife) had been in Edinburgh last week and came home on a flight last Saturday.  During the flight they started up a conversation with  ........... Nadina.

Too many coincidences and happy happenstances.

By the way, this was my winning picture.

Ignorant Experts .....

I am not an expert on any subject except of course making love to women but you knew that.  :-)
I would even say I am ignorant in a lot of areas.  Are you surprised at the word 'ignorant'? (Not me!  Ed.)   Like a lot of words these days it is misused and abused to the point that it has lost its meaning - a bit like the word 'decimate'.  How often have you heard "the earthquake has decimated the city"?  They believe the word to mean obliterated.  In fact the word means almost the opposite - "to reduce by one tenth".  Similarly 'ignorant' has come to mean uncouth, lower class, tasteless; whereas it actually means lacking in knowledge.  I used to often quote a sentence a teacher told me - "Ignorance is curable.  Stupidity, unfortunately, isn't".  Unfortunately nowadays ignorance and stupidity or maybe arrogance are all interchangeable.

So what has me off on a yet another rant?  Ignorant Experts, that's what!
In fact it has become so bad I am considering seriously not giving advice or opinions on any subject.
"How's your pint Paul?"  "Compared to what?"

My first recollection of Ignorant Experts was quite a few years ago.  I was always one to latch on to the new gadgets that popped up and the computer keyboards of one sort or another were never far away from my fingertips.  So it was not uncommon for someone to approach me with the sentence "You're an expert on computers  .........."  I always contradicted them but my protestations were dismissed - another pet peeve.  (You've got a few.  Ed.)  I remember one guy who said "I need to get more memory.  What one would you recommend?"  Yes, there will be one or two of you who will have spotted the quirky contradiction in that question.  I ignored it and asked why he needed more memory.  "Those picture files are big!"  Okay, I thought,  it's not an unreasonable reason.  "What size were you think of getting?"  "Oh, about 80 gigabytes" (This was the late 80s).  "80 gigabytes!  You can't fit that size memory into a PC!"  I said.  "Yes, you can." And he showed me a catalogue with hard drives.  "They are hard drives!"  I said naively.  "You said memory".  And then he said "They're the same thing".  So, he had come to me because I was an 'expert' and now the expert was being corrected by - - - -  an Ignorant Expert.  Anytime he came to me after that, I pleaded ignorance - ironic in a way.

I had a digital camera when people didn't even know what it was.  So I was ahead of the game when they started to become affordable and popular.  That made me a target for the people who couldn't be bothered to read their manuals and wanted a quick fix otherwise known as "the golden bullet".
But it also attracted the type of guy who had spent his money on the biggest, best, heaviest, smallest, most-loaded-with-stuff camera and wanted to show off how smart he was.  I have asked on a few occasions with this type of guy to cut through all the crap and just plonk our manhoods on the table and compare with a measuring tape.  It would be simpler - I would lose and everybody could go home.
I had a 6 megapixel camera - a Nikon (Aghhhh! Ed.) - and a guy was comparing cameras with me.  There were some features I had that he didn't and vice versa.  Both of us were using 500MB cards (I think) and I was able to store several hundred large quality jpegs on one card.  "Aha!" he exclaimed, "Gotcha!  I can store more than that!"  In fact he was right.  He had found the menu item that let him change the pixel count and the quality so he turned his 6 megapixel camera into a 1.3 megapixel one and reduced the quality from maximum to lowest.  Fine if he ever wanted a print no larger than a postage stamp but the main thing was he had a 'better camera' than the so-called expert - me.

And we stored our photos on cards.  Then USB flash drives appeared.  People came up with all sorts of names for them but when Sony brought out a different storage device for their cameras called a memory stick, the public latched onto that name like cold porridge in a bowl.  Now the common flash drive that resembled the memory stick is almost universally called a memory stick.

Photoshop has given painless birth to a plague of button pushers who can produce results that are very different to what a straight print off a file produced in your local camera shop will give.  'Different' was the carefully chosen word.  'Different' doesn't mean better.  Sometimes they are but more times than not they are the result of someone else's knowledge gathered into what is called an 'action' and is essentially the same as pushing a button.  Unfortunately, some of the actions come with adjustment sliders and I can almost see the user at his monitor moving the slider to an appropriate position and then thinking "nobody will see that change I made" and so push the slider that little bit further so that people will 'oooh' and 'aaah' that Molly's acne has gone and is replaced with the same stuff they make Wavin pipes from.  Whiter than white backgrounds with people standing suspended in mid air with faces that resemble plastic.  Hmmmm.  I'm kind of happy to leave them to their trickery but it's when they ask me for my opinion on the pros and cons of various editing programs and plugins and then dismiss my answers that I want to ask why they asked me in the first place.  The answer is they are Ignorant Experts.

"Can I ask your opinion on my photographs?"  This sentence along with "Would you like to judge a competition?" are probably the ones that I find create inner conflict.  I know there are some of you thinking that I am putting too much thought into this but I remember my first photos appraisal.  I remember my first masterpiece being torn to shreds by an insensitive judge.  So my initial reaction is one of pleasure that someone thinks I have enough knowledge and expertise to give an informed assessment of their work.  But two new thoughts quickly elbow their way into my cosy space and decimate (I use the word deliberately) the pleasure.  The first is what do I do if all the work is actually bad?  The second is what do I do if they put up photos that may be works of art but I can't see it?
The last thing I want to do is discourage a budding photographer from becoming a master.  (Sexist? Ed.)  I have had people come to me in the last 10 years (now that I've taken up the camera again) who tell me they have photos I took of them 20, 30 years ago, sitting on their mantlepieces.  They also tell me how pleased they are that I took those photos.  I would find it hard to live with myself if I destroyed a potential photographer who could carry on this wonderful pastime.  So I praise what is good and suggest ways that other areas, that are obviously bad, could be improved.  I concentrate on safe basic foundation-creating points involving exposure control, composition and ideas.  They will develop their own styles and break the rules later on!
"That's a good thing" I hear (metaphorically) you say.  Yes it is.  So what happens when in a couple of weeks or months, your advice is ignored and the advice-taking becomes a debate on whether you are right or wrong?  I wonder why I'm being asked and the answer is I'm talking to an Ignorant Expert.

A few years ago I joined a couple of forums where models and photographers could find each other and show off their talents.  The members/subscribers varied from girls who uploaded the worst phone self-portraits to the best professional photographers that made you drool.  A lot asked for constructive criticism and a lot had their egos shattered with flame wars being the result and interventions by the moderators.  Some photographers told us that they refrained from making comments other than those that praised good photographs because of the negative reactions they got.  I guess they thought it was a bit like those talent programs on TV like X-Factor and the like where if anything is said that isn't a positive superlative then booing and bad karma are the reactions.
Me?  I was stung once.  Only made comments on photos and portfolios I thought were good after that.  There is a natural attrition so these do disappear gradually.  Unfortunately there is a myriad of others just waiting to take their place.

And competition judging?  I have judged competitions in the past.  My engineering background probably influenced the analytical way I approached the task.  I divide the photo qualities into sections.  Does it solicit and emotional response from me?  I don't care (for the most part) if the emotion is joy, fear, hatred, disgust, amazement or 'whatevah'.  The level of emotion will determine the mark.  Is it technically good?  Is it correctly exposed, printed for the subject matter?  Has it got good composition?  Use of colour or post-processing?  The last section is how difficult was it to take the photo?  In my opinion, Joe McNally climbing the lightning conductor of the Empire State Building to photograph a guy change the aviation light bulb (skip to 6 mins if you're impatient) will always win this section over a perfectly taken photograph of a piece of rust!  But there are genres that I am definitely uncomfortable with.  These include panels of tree bark, rust, record shots of people standing somewhere, Indians bathing/with their cows/looking poor/begging, derelict Irish homes with 'imported' memorabilia, graffitti - you get the point.  I'm not saying that these don't have merit.  I don't know.  It could be ignorance (!) but it could be a case of the "King's new clothes" too!
I have been asked to judge an IPF competition.  I declined on the grounds that I felt I should prove my worth to do so at club level where I wouldn't do that much harm and certainly wouldn't affect my club's reputation.
The thing is .....  how many competitions have you been in and after discussed the merits (or not) of the judge's ability to give a fair assessment?  Have you joked about his comments?  Have you been angered by the fact you were in first place in the competition series until that final judging and argued with the club committee?  There will never be a perfect judge.  There will always be somebody who is genuinely better at judging a particular photo than the judge but there will be a lot more whose norm is to show how much better they are than the judge - Ignorant Experts.

My final bunch are the people who have made it as photographers and then put themselves forwards as experts.  Yes, I know this sounds like they are entitled to do so but bear me out.
I know one photographer who takes very good portraits but hasn't a clue how the shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings connect with each other and regularly takes studio shots using flash using shutter speeds anywhere from 1/15 sec to 1/250 sec.  If you see nothing wrong with this go find out.  His photographs look good on screen but don't print well above A4 and this is with a camera in the 15 megapixel range.
A lot of these people also give workshops.  I think this is a good thing as long as they teach what they know.  They have found a mode of working that produces results every (or most of the) time.  Their concentration is then the other aspects of getting a picture - setting up lights, talking to models, composition, etc.  If they tell me that the flip up mirror in the camera is actually the shutter I start to worry.
They point out that the cameras have aperture priority and shutter priority settings as well as manual but don't explain why I should use them and suggest that 'Auto' is perfectly acceptable to use.  Maximum flash sync is never mentioned or barely touched on.  ISO is 'something to avoid' if you don't want 'grainy' pictures.  Shooting portraits with a 24mm lens is perfectly acceptable without mention of what might produce a more pleasing result.  The list goes on.
The end line is "I am a successful professional photographer therefore I am an expert".  Well, I can fly a Jumbo jet in a simulator but I don't think you'd want me in the pilot's seat on your way to New York.

So what is this rant really all about?  It's the old adage that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing coupled with arrogance.  There is a group of people that are in the majority unfotunately who, because of the technology that exists, can produce photographs that are better than the straight point-shoot-print class and are on their way to being great.  Unfortunately they also assume that this ability and plucking snippets of information from knowledgable people gives them carte blanche to redefine the facts and the standards of what contributes to great photography.

Grumpy grunt?  Yeah, probably.  But the final points are:

• I'm fed up being called an expert when I'm not.
• I am ignorant in so many areas but am dismissed (grrrrr!) when I protest.
• When I offer advice/information it is fact because I have done my homework.
• If I offer an opinion I tell your first that it is an opinion.
• I object to having advice I give being fragmented to suit the person's opinions.
• I object to online courses, workshops, training where the material is wrong and I know more than the tutors.

So, because of the past few years of dealing with Ignorant Experts I will be filtering my responses to requests for advice and opinions.  I am hoping though that I can pass on some basics here in this blog and welcome corrections to my information where I may make mistakes or not relate the information in a clear way.  As long as you can back it up with something other than opinion and Wikipedia.  :-)  Also unfortunate is that I may alienate some people whose work I admire but who have asked  me for my advice or opinions in the past.

And no, most of the time I'm quite at peace with the world but I have a reputation for grumpiness I have to maintain.  Sorry!

Despite all the doom and gloom ......

We've just had our election and as predicted Fine Gael ran away with the votes which, by the way, was a massive 70% of the electorate.  I sometimes wonder about statistics when you consider I had two polling cards delivered to my house - neither of which had my name correct. Oddly, the local politicians' pollution machine that pukes out blurb about the candidates went into overdrive and sent me two of everything.  Again, the names were incorrect.  Oh well, the excitement is over, the posters will eventually come down either by design or by encouragement of time and weather, the government will form with compomises made, the public will turn on them as they renege on their implied promises to solve everything without cost and we will continue where we left off several months ago.
However, the doom and gloom hasn't affected me too much.  I've been busy.  My memory is so bad I can't tell you what I did yesterday but I do have a few landmark moments I can recall that brighten up my day.

Photographically I've done well.  The Dublin Camera Club hold a Winter league competition every year that runs from October to February.  There are 3 categories - Colour print, Mono print and projected image (colour or mono) for each of the levels - Novice, Intermediate and Advanced.  There are overall winners in each of the sections and a number of pictures are retained by the club for a "best of the best" final in March.

I'm not an overly competitive person.  I'm probably my own worst critic but I do enjoy seeing a reaction to my pictures and to hearing a judge's opinion on them.  There is friendly rivalry and discussions about the judge's expertise and whether we can do a job on his tyres before he can get to his car.  The club also puts the pictures on display in the Council room so that we can all get a closer look at them and also get a chance to talk to the photographers who took them and maybe get some knowledge as a result.

This year, there were a few front runners in each section and the final outcomes (besides the March final) were not forgone conclusions and all depended on the judge on the night.  And so comes one of my highlights.  I won 1st place in the Advanced sections for colour and mono prints.  I'll be putting up the photos I entered later on next month so keep checking.

A bonus that happened during the competition was that the IPF were holding print and projected image competitions.  These were regional competitions that culminated in a national final in Athlone during February.  I entered a few prints into the competition when the regional competition was being held in the Dublin Camera Club.  It was there I helped a woman and her child with her buggy.  I showed her where to go to enter her prints and we started chatting.  We all had to leave the premises until the judging was being done so we ended up having a few coffees in the nearby Insomnia where I learned she was from Riga in Latvia (where I had visited once) and she not only took photographs but was an artist and a horse whisperer.  I had seen the pictures she had entered for the competition and was already impressed so the additional skills were causing a slight overload.  She showed me some self-portraits that were equally impressive and that was when I asked if she would pose for me and she agreed.

Nadina's work can be seen on her website and on her blog.

We went back to the club for the judging where she won two places - a first for this shot below called "TWO"

 .......and a third place for this shot called "THE GAME"

Sadly, Nadina didn't win in the finals in Athlone but I got the good news that my entry in the mono section was awarded a judge's silver medal.  There are the regular gold, silver and bronze medals with others receiving "highly commended" certificates.  Apart from these the judges are allowed to give a medal to and individual print and I got one for "IVETA".

So three happy landmarks.
On top of this I got to have a photo session with Nadina in the studio.  Below are two pictures from that shoot.  An exceptional photographer and a gem to photograph.  More shots will follow.

I also did a photoshoot in a country manor house with two friends from the Dublin Camera Club.  We had been planning this for some time.  It is difficult to coordinate three photographers, two models, a makeup artist and availability of the location.  However, we managed it.  The original idea was for a collaboration between us so that we could learn from each other and also share setups - we had a mixture of Bowens monoblocs and speedlites of various types along with softboxes, brollies, snoots and the like.  We had also decided on a mixture of shots from art nude to 18th century costume.  I had hired an 18th century costume from Clown Around and bought a wig on eBay.  I also made a visit to one of the models to choose clothes for the shoot.  A lot of planning and yet we ran over time and, in my case, I felt the pictures were not as good as they could have been because I was rushing.  But I learned lessons from the day more about management than photography

Instead of a collaboration, what actually happened was we did three shoots.  That's not a fault of the day, just what happened  and suited all of us.  It also cemented new relationships that would be mutually beneficial in the future.  Three of my photos from that day did well for me in the Winter League competition I mentioned earlier and here they are:

Yes, there were a few other significant happenings but they'll have to wait until the next update ....

From the shiny side of the lens .....



Monday, the 7th of February, I had my portrait taken.  "Big deal!" is probably the words going through your head - hundreds of thousands of people have their photograph taken every single day.  Of that number there would be a much smaller percentage who would be posing for a photograph that might be used in a company brochure or as a record of an event to be published in a local newspaper.  Or maybe headshots for theatre progammes.

And then there's the scary kind......

The kind where your character is captured - the essential you - frozen in time and on display for people to pore over.

For me it was a big deal.  I have always avoided having my photo taken even in group shots.  I was never a photogenic person but would have had my fair share of 'snaps' taken of me by friends when we were engaged in fun and frolics - nights out and the like.  I've even had two portrait sessions in my lifetime.  One was where I was the guinea pig for a friend who was trying to perfect his lighting techniques and the second was when I actually instigated the event and went to a professional photographer's studio.  This was because of a visit to a professional photographer in the mid 70s where I had bought a Mamiya RB67 from him.  At the time there were (I was told) only 12 of these cameras in the country so I was well chuffed.  While I was there, waiting for the guy to finish off his paperwork and find the bits and pieces to go with the camera I was looking at his work.  It was magnificent.  All low key portraits.  Moody but not dark.  He had portraits of university graduates in their black gowns against black backgrounds that were beautiful.  He could photograph a black cat in a coal hole!
In later years I went back to that studio to have my portrait done but he had passed on the business to his son and he was not the artist his father was so the results went in the bin.

So, in the last few weeks, when two friends of mine asked me to pose for them my initial reaction was to
run.  But lately I have been challenging my own reactions, and I chose to consider their requests and say "yes".  I thought it would be interesting for a photographer to be on the other side of the lens and wondered what effect that might have on the person photographing me knowing that I would observing their techniques - hopefully not in a negative critical way.  And yes, there may be a few more puns to come!

So the day arrived.  The photographer was a girl (any female younger than me is a 'girl') called Sinead McDonald who is in her third year of a degree course in the Institue of Technology in Tallaght.  She has a wonderful portfolio of work, an amazing colection of film cameras and is passionate about photography.  Recently she embarked on a continuing photo documentary of a veterinary practice where she photographed everything from the mundane to the gory.  The style is all her own and required not only a knowledge of the technical side of photography, an artistic eye but also an empathy for the work that the vets do.

As I drove to the place, I was increasingly aware of what I was letting myself in for.  Maybe Sinead considered this because she almost immediately showed me the style of photograph she had in mind and it immediately reminded me of the low key portrait images I had so wanted years ago.  She did tell me that I didn't have a 'smiley' face!  I knew what she meant.  I have a reputation for appearing sullen and grumpy.  I have been told numerous times in the past that it takes less muscles to smile than to frown.  On that basis there are no muslces (probably) used if you're not smiling OR frowning.  THAT is my face.
We went to the studio, got out the equipment and chatted as everything was set up.  One Bowens 1500 on me with a beauty dish with the 'baffle' removed to give it a bit more contrast and another unit with a snoot on the black background paper to lift me from the backgound.  The camera was a 5" x 4" view camera - oh boy!

Being aware that I was now the model I was very conscious that this was a very formal portrait where attention is paid to the smallest detail.  This is not just because of the cost - 5" x 4" negatives are not cheap - but also because it will be one pose and slight tweaks to that pose rather than the quickfire change of pose we have become so used to seeing on TV and movies.  A small movement of my head or even an eyebrow made the difference of having a catchlight in my eye or not.

In this kind of atmosphere there is also an awareness that you are exposing (pun!) your character and putting some trust into the other person to capture that essence without abusing it.  There are other mundane aspects that I keept drilling into photographers at studio workshops I give about treating the model as a human being and not an object.  Holding a pose for a long period of time can be sore and make you stiff.  Sinead, and her tutor who appeared now and again, gave me the opportunity to relax and move if I needed to and kept up a dialogue with me all through the session.  I have to say that there were moments when I became an 'object' and was spoken about as difficulties to overcome rather than a person.  I was amused.  Other' mightn't be.  I know that when I am photographing low key nudes I am guilty if treating my models the same way and must strive to be different - lesson learned.

The big moment arrived.  All the readings had been taken.  All the settings had been set.  It was now time to take a photograph.  In the days before digital there was a method of checking that your lighting, levels and pose was correct before you exposed the film - it was polaroid.  Very hard to come by these days but not impossible.  But you don't want to waste them.  Shutter cocked, lens closed off, polaroid back loaded and 'click!'.  The first shot was good.  Pretty much how it was envisaged.  I suggested changing my light coloured jacket for my dark coat and we set up again.  "Click!".  Second shot.  I was slightly impatient to see the result and when I did see it I wasn't disappointed.  It was the photograph I had wanted thirty odd years ago.  As was mentioned before I'm not a smiley sort of person and the picture, to an extent, looks melancholy.  That may be another's view but I'm a person who 'ponders' and whose mind is constantly whirring away even when I'm doing other things.  I think that picture captures that.  Because of that I am now (sort of) looking forward to my next photoshoot with another 'girl'.

Thanks Sinead.

Hey! I'm in demand .....

There are a lot of scams on the Internet designed to part you and your money.  They're all quite clever but it seems the scammers (is that a correct title?) don't have the highest IQs because once they find a scam setup that works, they continue using it well past its sell-by-date to the point where some people now play the scammers at their own game by taking the bait and sending false details and using delaying tactics to thwart them.
A common one I get in my e-mail inbox is one telling me my bank account has been frozen as a precaution due to unusual activity and that I will need to log in and reactivate it.  The fact that I don't belong to that bank is the giveaway for me.  A more sinister one that did make me pause was a similar message about my PayPal account.  Being suspicious, I sent off an e-mail to PayPal and they confirmed it was a scam and even asked me to send the e-mail on to them.

I was in China a few years ago, on my own, for a month.  Nothing odd happened, for the most part, except being photographed at least once a day by Chinese people who probably found a short, bald, bearded, round-eyed person too much a novelty to pass up.  I found them very friendly and inquisitive.  I visited 5 cities during my visit and it wasn't until I got to Shanghai and Beijing that the seedier side made its presence felt.

I was visiting a public area in which there was also a museum I wanted to visit.  I was approached by a couple (boy and girl) in their early twenties which was not uncommon.  The girl asked me where I was from and showed a lot of interest in getting to know more about Ireland, translating for her boyfriend as  we talked.  She also asked me where I had been in China and wanted to know what I thought of China.  Then she asked me if I had ever been to a tea party.  I replied that I hadn't and she said they, and a few others, were going to a traditional Chinese tea party and invited me to come along.
I don't know if I spotted something in her body language or whether it was that I tend to resist being pushed in a particular direction by a stranger but I made my excuses and that action brought about a change in attitude I definitely noticed and didn't like.

When I got back to the hotel I looked up scams in China on Google and found that tourists had been caught by the "tea party scam".  Apparently they lure you into a genuine tea party, run up a bill and then plead they have no money.  When you try to leave; a couple of burly (their word, not mine) staff will stop you and demand you pay.  The bill would usually come to about €20-€30 so there was no major harm done except to your dignity.  Armed with this information I went back to the area in the following days and was approached by two groups who I let go through their setup and then suggested I photograph them for my scrapbook and saw them turn extremely shy and disappear.

Another scam involved a young man (usually) who would engage you in conversation and then mention that he was an art sudent.  As a matter of fact he had his artwork in an exhibition right now and you could visit it for nothing.  Interested?  No, I wasn't.  I smelled a rat and decided to check that out as well.  Yep, you are at the 'exhibition' but are pressured into buying.  Not sure how they did that because the scam report didn't go into that detail and I didn't go to any of the exhibitions.

So, today I smiled when I got this in my e-mail inbox:

From: Andy Harrison <andyhary42@msn.com>Subject: BOOKING REQUESTDate: Sun, 7 Nov 2010 08:26:43 +0000
Hello,

I want to make a reservation onbehalf of my Chinese friends because they can't speak or write good English....They will be coming into your country for their first Pre-Season vacation visit.
They are just two (2) couples
*Mr & Mrs Po Chui Yang (41 and 36yrs)
*Mr & Mrs Fuhua Shirong(44 and 38yrs)
They want you to prepare a 5 days tour package and accommodation for them, They are from Hong Kong and are willing to accept and pay for your offer.
*Arrival Date : 10th January, 2011.
*Departure Date : 16th January, 2011.
*Number Of Days : 5
*Number Of Guests : 4
Confirm availability and get back to me with your rates and total cost of your services, So that i can send you my Credit Card for immediate deposit. Waiting for your reply.

Regards
Andy Harrison..My guess is that this is a new variation on the cheque with excess amount scam.  There will be an exchange of e-mails making all the arrangements and then they send you a cheque; except it will be for more than the amount agreed.  They will apologise and ask if you could send them the balance.  If you do, you'll find that your money is taken and their cheque bounces.

I am so tempted to play ......  Ni hao.

Ask the Experts .....

Last night (Nov-02) I had the dubious honour of being on a panel of experts in the Dublin Camera Club.

Before I continue with what went on let me tell you a story .....
I used to be an Engineer.  One day in our Engineering Department, our esteemed leader (The Captain) came out of his window office in the corner and asked "Who knows about the Infralyzer 400?  Who's the expert? I have a Service Engineer in Italy who needs help."
There was silence.  We looked at him and at each other.  Nothing.
"Has anyone got any details on the system?" he asked desperately.
"I have a brochure somewhere on my desk" said Bill.
"Bring it with you into my office and talk to this guy."
"But I'm not an expert" protested Bill.
"You've got a brochure.  You know more than the other guys!"

Now I don't regard myself as an expert in photography.  I am constantly made aware of my shortcomings in artistic ability and knowledge but, apparently, I have more knowledge than some people even if that is only knowing where prints for competitions are kept.

So last night was interesting.  The first question was, to my mind, quite a technical question asking why it was that Nikon and Canon dominated the market with their DSLRs which are quite bulky and heavy in comparison with the 'four thirds' format which are much lighter and still produce great results.

The range of questions after that varied from printing and printers (both machines and businesses) to studio setups to finding out what competitions were going on outside the club.  It was a good night.  There was a lot of interaction between the 'experts' and the club members and between the club members themselves.  Personally, I would like to see more of these in the future albeit with a little more structure and formality.  Some answers were long and tended to go off on reminiscences and tangents rather than be moderated.  There were also some secondary discusssions that went on as though nobody else was present!

I was told in advance of some of the questions I would be asked but strangely wasn't asked most of them!  More room for improvement.

I wonder if any other clubs do this ......