I'm starting a new "Recommended web sites" category today with a link to photography website Nature's Reflection. The site features photography and commentary from Zürich-based environmental scientist Catherine Cunningham. Clearly a keen mountaineer as well as a committed environmentalist, Catherine has gathered a series of thought-provoking (and just plain gorgeous) nature photographs. Apart from the aesthetic value, which is where most of us stop, she also uses her photography in parallel with her scientific work, to illustrate the real world effects of the processes her work postulates. This seems to be an effective way both of introducing the general public to the hard facts of climate change and other environmental processes, but also to add a holistic element to the science. In any case, the photography stands on its own feet, and I recommend that you take a look.

It seems like Iceland is the place to be right now. Although visitor numbers are down this year - quite substantially apparently - everybody seems to be going there. Colin Jago, who I have corresponded with, was apparently there at the same time as I was, and I live in fear of the wonderful photos that Alessandra will inevitably bring back. A quick search for somewhere I might be able to hire an Imacon scanner here in Zuerich led me to yet another Iceland link - this time this rather unique view from Klaus Hoffmann, which really captures something special (I had to copy the thumbnail because I can't link to it - it is in a frame here. It is NOT my photo!)




© Klaus Hoffmann


From my part I returned this time with about 1400 photos from the Olympus E-1, and 9 rolls of Velvia from the Xpan - these I'm quite pleased with. Many people have told me they like my panoramic work, so I tried to concentrate a bit more on it. Luchiana came back with over 1500 photos from her Panasonic Lumix LMC-5, which worked pretty well.

I've spent the last days tracing the reason why I couldn't connect to my database server anymore, which stopped me actually publishing any of this yet. I discovered finally a new "feature" kindly provided by my ISP was the reason... So, soon.

Iceland beckons again in the coming weeks. I don't know if this should be in the photography section or somewhere else, as photography is not by any means the main point of the journey. I am absolutely captivated by Iceland, the nature, the culture and the people, and have been trying to teach myself some Icelandic when I really should be learning German. It is maybe significant that when I was in high school, maybe 15 or 16, and we had to produce a multimedia presentation (quite something in itself, for 1976-ish), I picked the mythic Ultima Thule of Pytheas of Massilia as my subject. It was quite something, all teenage significant intonations set to Pink Floyd's Echoes. I remember that my classmate's judgements were mixed. Some liked it, some were not so happy with the decadant anglophile rock music. Funny how things come back to you. Anyway, Iceland 2005 should be a less frantic experience than 2004. We're going to spend time in Skaftafell National Park, drop by Jokulsarlon, and head across the Highlands to Myvatn by way of Askja. Maybe head back by way of Kerlingjafoll. Sure, I have packed cameras, the usual E-1 and Xpan combination, but the laptop will stay at home, in favour of a new Epson P2000 for backups. But if I was given the choice between not going and no photography, the cameras would stay at home. I guess some nice photos might emerge, but for now I don't really mind... [Posted from the scene with hblogger 2.0]

Some time ago I wrote a brief but complimentary entry about Andy Rouse. I'm beginning to wonder if he isn't actually being a bit of a pillock, to be honest. He's now heavily involved in Pixmantec's mega-hyped RawShooter, intially as a endorser, he uses nothing else (in which case I can understand if his sales are dropping off), but now apparently as a core member of the company - from Pixmantec's latest mailing: "Many of you will know Andy Rouse by his reputation as a wildlife photographer but few will know that before this career path he was a software marketer. This, coupled with his knowledge of RAW workflow and his digital profile in the press, has led to him working for Pixmantec as our Marketing Director." Ok, but why do I think this makes him a pillock ? First because he is seriously undermining any claim he may have to impartiality, and since he does a fair amount of product reviewing, this matters. Amateur phtographers presumeably are supposed to feel comfortable that a product endorsed by Andy Rouse is a good one, rather than one in which he has a financial stake. Second, because he's associating himself with a product which is still unproven, relying on Rent-A-Quotes from fellow hacks like Martin Evening (author of the most over-rated Photoshop book ever, IMHO), is a shameless rip off of another product (CaptureOne) which Andy used to endorse...er, no, sorry, still does endorse ("C1 is my product of choice" -- at least get your ducks in a row, Andy), and which is so firmly entrenched in the Microsoft camp that their newsletter states: "Be aware that links in Pixmantec NEWS may only function when using Microsoft Internet Explorer." (why ? so the embedded campaigns.com spyware can run properly ?) A startup tech company like Pixmantec, even when it has another company (PhaseOne) to do their R&D for them, needs totally dedicated top-flight marketing (I know this from very painful recent experience). I cannot see how a pro wildlife photographer can supply this. And why does Andy Rouse matter ? Because he is arguably one of the very best wildlife photographers working today (personally I'd put him in the top 3, and joining one of his workshops is a recurring daydream), not because he used to be one of the UK's army of mindless corporate IT suits. Although his recent writings on Nature Photography Network indicate that his creativity is alive and well, I'd seriously examine my priorities if I was him. Have I actually used RawShooter ? Nope. I'm a Mac user, and it doesn't run on Macs. I upgraded to Microsoft VirtualPC 7 expressly to try it, and it didn't work. Why not ? Dunno, CaptureOne works fine under VPC7 emulation, so I cannot see any good reason, save poor design, why RawShooter couldn't. I'd get out and do some photography if I were you, Andy.

I haven't written anything here in the last two months basically because I have done practically no photography, and apart from trying to catch up on reading - slowly - Alain Briot's excellent Aesthetics and Photography series (buy the CD!) I haven't really done anything even related. The demands of a new job and moving to a new appartment in an unfamiliar region take their toll. However in the last couple of days I have been going around with my Ricoh GR1, just in case I stumble upon a quick opportunity. I've often considered that the GR1 was highly significant to me, as using it was the first time I really appreciated what a difference a really high quality lens could make. But for some reason it occured to me this morning that there might have been another factor: autofocus. The first autofocus SLR I ever owned was the Olympus E1, and the first thing I did with it was to work out how to enable the manual focus overide. I was quite fixated on the idea that I wanted to be in control. Later - much later - I came to realise that the problem of control was not so much over focus as over autofocus. I assumed, somehow, that autofocus "just works" and if I was getting bad results it was because it wasn't very good, and anyway was somehow cheating. Of course I was wrong, completely wrong. To use autofocus efficiently and creatively you have to understand it and practice, like any other tool. But maybe with the GR1 the fact that autofocus can only really be disabled in favour of "SNAP" mode, which sets up hyperfocal focusing, gave me the benefits of autofocus coupled with the excellent lens. Ironically I did consider buying the GR1v, which includes a kind of manual focus mode. Whatever, it is nice to rediscover this camera. It is the only one I own which can really be taken anywhere for opportunistic shooting. I have an "ancient" Olympus C4040 (ancient despite being 3 or 4 years younger than the GR1), but it is relatively bulky and the handling, especially compared to the GR1, is horrible, So all I need now is to find somewhere I can still get slide film developed. [Posted from the scene with hblogger 2.0]