ded dog blog

Flickin One Off #3 ...

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:09:00 +0000

Well its been a while... but I'm back and fired up after ... eerrr basically being a lazy toad really, i wish i had an excuse but i dont. Get used to it and move on....

Well I'm back with a selection box that's ready to pop your head squarely of its shoulders. Kicking off with one of my occasional posts of great work from the website made of pure awesome, that is Flickr. So get your sunnies and sit back and enjoy the ride with the work of Bomobob and his circletastic collection of Ferris wheel photos and fairground rides.

All shot in glorious high colour. Using the delightfully un predictable 'cross processing' technique were by colour slide film is run through the 'incorrect' developing process meant for colour negatives. Result? Well see for yourself in the barf-o-matic, super saturated world of Bomobob

Bob uses a variety of different modern digital and film cameras for his wider range of work including brilliantly observed street portraits and very clever nature shots. But for this series he has picked old 50s and 60s box cameras with all their inherent fuzziness and 'surface noise' thrown in. As most of the fair ground rides he's shot with them are from the same era, there seems to be a great synergy in the shots.

Purists may well scorn that so much post processing is lavished on these shots but, for me its not about technicalities its about passion and beauty in all its ragged glory. However the result has been achieved, the images are evocative and heartwarming.

What more could you ask for?

Bomobobs fairground series is on flickr here and selections of his work are available to buy as prints and other 'stuff' here

more from me very soon

see you in the next life

LOMO; The Art of Rubbish Cameras

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:04:00 +0000

Lomography .... is a style of photography that was inspired by one particular camera the LOMO LC-A . A camera made by russians for russians, very simple in design a 'trabant' for photographers if you like.

Delightfully inconsistant Lomo cameras all have there own personality with ocasional light leaks and shutter lines, which all helps Lomography emphasize casual, snapshot photography. Characteristics such as over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposure, blurring, "happy accidents," and alternative film processing are often considered part of the "Lomographic Technique." Users are encouraged to take a lighthearted approach to their photography, and use these techniques to document everyday life, as the Lomo LC-A's small size, simple controls, and ability to shoot in low light encourages candid photography, photo reportage, and photo vérité.

Lomographey inspires a passion and devotion to photography that is both heart warming and accesable, it has an organic feel that runs totally in the face of the sterile digitally enhanced age we live in. Read more about it at the lomographers society. Have a look at it in their archive or in the 2 best (in my opinion) lomo flickr groups here and here

Check out my 'flickin one off no1' post about sunshine indoors whos work sums up all that is warm and special about LOMO

see you in the next life

Bluffers Guide to Photographers #02 Anton Corbjin

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:41:00 +0000

Anton Corbijn is one of the most iconic music photographers still producing worthwhile work today. Recently director of the Joy Division biopic Control, he's also a personal hero of mine, whose work i wonder at and career i'm inspired by.

Having photographed just about evey popular (and unpopular..) artist you could imagine, his work is as fresh today as it was when he first started working.

In his photographs, Corbjins’s subjects often seem solemn and distracted; smiling perhaps, but still worn down by the burdens of celebrity. His subjects are pictured as serious people, caught in intimate moments and far removed from their high-powered stage personas.

Born in Holland in 1955, Corbjins work was really came to my attention after shooting the cover for U2s unsurrpassed masterpiece 'the joshua tree'. I then discovered this amazing photo of Miles Davis. Corbjin says on his website 'Taken in his hotel room in Montreal, with light falling in from the window. In his very large pupils you can actually make out my silhouette. It was a very brief shoot but one of the most satisfying ever. It is also worth noting that this photo was taken well before the TUTU album shoot by Irving Penn and it has become one of my most well- known photographs. '

“Anton is not at all dead when he's taking photos,” says Brian Eno a life long friend and colaborator on the control movie. “He's actually a bit crazy, going all over the world to take pictures of people, but then acting as though it doesn't really matter in the least, sure let's do a few pictures now we're here, but don't let it get in the way of anything.”

If given the choice, Corbjin would almost always shoot his subject outside in a natural environment rather than the studio, even if it was against a plain white wall. “I'm a very, very basic photographer,” Corbjin says. “The main strength of my pictures, I guess, is the mood and feel I get out of the people that I meet. But technically I don't think I'm very advanced. That never interested me.”

His lack of interest in the technicalities of photography, stikes a chord in with my punk side...... His work never looses its edge and for me, able to ride above trend and fashion to hit a spot that says simply 'yeah thats just a brilliant photograph'.

For more of his fabulous work go here.

Enjoy

See you in the next life

Bluffers Guide to Great Photographers #01; IRVING PENN

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:43:00 +0000

So many of us have heard the name and seen his photos... his style has become a watch word for how a quality black and white portrait should look, perfectly exposed often using natural light.

Irving Penn had a profound influence on my own personal photography while at university, i gave up using flash and opened windows instead or used constant light sources. Suddenly taking peoples photograph in a studio became QUIET, the sitter became much less distracted and more was gleaned by my film.

Penns portraits are soaked in this intensity and to this day the 91 year old master can still get to the core of even the most closed off and unapproachable sitters.

With a cannon of work covering from Pablo Picasso to Kate Moss he still shoots with the same no frills attitude that he extolled in 1958 after being named one of "The World’s 10 Greatest Photographers" in an international poll conducted by Popular Photography Magazine. Penn’s statement at the time is a remarkable summation of purpose and idealism: "I am a professional photographer because it is the best way I know to earn the money I require to take care of my wife and children."

It really is difficult to imagine how modern portraiture would have developed, if Penn had not been around. His work looks so incredibly familiar purely because of the massive influence he has had on photographers working today.

Have a look here at his most popular work and see what i mean....

see you in the next life.....

Flickin One Off #2 ...

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:44:00 +0000

Sunshine on a rainy day

Following on with the 'intelligent graffiti' theme just take a look at this flickr set of the EINE ALPHABET from the dam fine work of 'sunshine indoors' todays featured flickerererer (is that a word?)

The photos show Ben Eines series of letters painted on roller shutter doors around London and the UK. There have been a few sets of Eines alphabet photographed but as yet i've not seen a better set than the one above, properly exposed and well colour balanced, its a great set and i'm lovin it!

Warm Cockles

As a lad i lived in Southend and later moved to within 10 miles of Yarmouth so this seaside set really strikes a chord with me, the glorious delapidation and faded majesty are captured in a warm sharp and graphic style. There really aren't enough people taking REAL photos and adding real personality on the way. You should adore them ... its the law.

Further to the great talent for snapping a neat lens based treat, I would heartily recommend you check out the particular musical flavor of Ally's soul funk stew of a blog at DUSTY 7s

Your restless feet wont regret it ...

trust me i'm a doctor.

see you in the next life

Banksy's Heros ....

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:05:00 +0000

I've unashamedly lifted this from the banksy website. I just thought the last few paragraphs were priceless. Enjoy.

GRAFFITI HEROES #03

In 1974 a 33 year old man named George Davis was convicted of robbing the payroll of the London Electricity Board in Ilford. He was nailed on the evidence of cops who were outside the bank at the time of the robbery and was sent to prison for 20 years.

However, his friend Peter Chappell was convinced Davis was innocent and inspired by discrepancies in the police statements and the fact that none of the bloodstains at the scene matched with the defendant, started calling for Davis' release. Chappall enrolled some friends and embarked on one of the largest sustained grafitti campaigns Britain has ever seen. Over the following months 'G DAVIS IS INNOCENT' appeared on walls, bridges and tunnels from one side of London to the other, some of which are still visible today.

The vandalism culminated in Chappell and four others breaking into Headingley cricket ground in August 1975 the night before a test match between England and Australia. Using plastic cutlery from a service station they dug holes in the pitch, filled them with oil and painted 'Sorry it had to be done, but George Davis is innocent' in large white letters on the wall as they left. The match was postponed and Chappell got 18 months for criminal damage.

The campaign brought the case to the attention of the Home Secretary who after a police inquiry released Davis two years into his sentence using the highly exceptional and controversial Royal Prerogative of Mercy.

The fight to free George Davis was one of the most spetacular campaigns ever fought against injustice, an achievement only slightly marred when a year after his release Davis was found guilty of robbing the Bank of Cyprus for which he served six years, and three years after which he was caught red-handed robbing a mail train.

George Davis is now a free man and happily married to the daughter of a North London Chief Inspector of Police.

It's all swinging over at Planet Mondo blog ....

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 07:58:00 +0000

Something special is happening over on the Mondo mans blog today (being a Friday of the most Swinging and Funky persuasion), whizz over and check out whats going on ...... HERE

Flickin one off #1

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:25:00 +0000

I'm kicking off a new regular feature on Ded Dog Blog, where i'm going to flag up a few snappers from Flickr i think are worthy of a mention.

Flickr is such a great place to find really great work by people who love what they are doing ... theres plenty of rubbish too, though. But that's where i come in.. sit back, relax and let the ded dog sniff out the curly ones, so you dont have to take evasive action around those stinkers.

First up

I've been watching the progress of this set over the last year or so and Alexandre Duret-Lutz aka 'gadl' has become ever more inventive with his brilliant Wee Planets series. Shot on an expensive stereographic projetion camera that i'll admit i don't really understand. Go there and take a peep, peeps, its quality stuff with minimal computor tom-foolery too....

Dizzy stuff

While i'm on the subject of stereographic projetion, have a look at this 360 deg shot of Rio De Janiro here. I hope you don't get vertigo though..... you can scroll 360 around the veiw and up into the sky as well. Its an incredible site from Mr Hans Nyberg, who has collated hundreds of stunning 360 panoramas from different photographers around the world. I'd take a whizz round The Great wall of China, The Banyan Tree and Petra in Jordan as well. (you need quicktime for these by the way).

Stunning.

It just goes to show, that creative arts can be combined with modern technology and still be a success.

Enjoy.

see you in the next life

01/03/08 I need to hold my hands up and admit imade mistake here folks... its not a strereo projection camera. Its actually some very, very clever maths , very clever software and about 50 to 60 standard photos per peice.

Mr T's moral of todays story?

look before you leap ..... FOOL!

Monkey Balls to the wall ....

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:39:00 +0000

Balls

So with me intending to concentrate this blog on a more design based thread .... i'm going to give you a great meatballs recipe that i have, (makes perfect sense to me), it has been lovingly passed down generation by generation since i was at least 39.

By the way, thanks to The Monkey Bastard Blog for setting me up on a meatballs tip ... i've tried his recipe and YUP they're good too.

Need:

500g of decent lamb mince
1/2 a packet of 'Ogran' Falafel mix (from sainburys, i'm sure any other felafel mix will do but this is the one i use)
1 egg
blood, sweat and tears optional (spech if you have guest peeps.....)

Make:

Make up the Falafel mix with half the amount of water and half the contents of the pack and leave to stand for 15 mins.
Add egg and mix in.
Add Lamb mince and mix in.
Form into balls about the size of Monkey bastards ... second thoughts you'd only get three (easy now girls) golf ball size will do.
Heat up a non stick pan then add some oil.
Pop the meatballs in the pan and brown off well. This bits important as the lamb is quite fatty and browning will help render out a lot of the fat. (dont get lean lamb either as the fat helps in the cooking process even if you do pour most of it away).

Cook:

Bang em all in a roasting tray pour over a chopped tomato/basil/garlic 3 minute sauce (please dont ask me to explain that one as i just have).
Pop some mozzella and parmasan on top and slam in a preheated oven at 220 for 26 mins 34.5 seconds.

Serve with a spinach leaf and pea salad and a massive bottle of Montepulciano (if you can say it at the offy that is...) if not, a nice busty roija will keep the moroccan/latin vibe going.

Listen:

One of Monkey bastards perfectly presented menus of listening pleasure (vol 63 is well worth a toot...)

Try both recipes and let me know when ive won eh? eh? eh?

See you in the next life

wat no dredd?

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:00:00 +0000

Watch the birth of the comic that made it possible for british graphic novel artists to develop and thrive.

2000AD

The UK is home to many of the worlds most inventive and outstanding graphic novel artists ... and it is all thanks to this crappy advert .. who needs marketing when u got talent eh?

However, the story that made all this possible .. Judge Dredd .. was so close to being dropped he didnt make it into the first issue, while a less violent and more acceptable story line was written.

Drawn by a 'newbie' Mike McMahon, after the developer of the Dredd character, Carlos Ezquerra walked out. Mc Mahons loose and vivid style became the trade mark style that others would have to follow when guest artists where invited to contribute.

For me, McMahon sums up the rebirth of an art form that had become stale, conservative and overlooked .. shame he didnt have anything to do with the frekkin advert eh????

see you in the next life

sublime music

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 22:08:00 +0000

i'll let the music do the talking, i found this band on myspace, please give them a listen it will totally lift your day into a very nice place.

http://www.myspace.com/100milehousemusic

be good to your neighbour

peace

lazy little shit ...

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:02:00 +0000

.. actually i'm turning into a lazy big shit at the moment no posts for a few months and no real excuse .... except that www.photostuffdirect.co.uk (my retail site)is keeping me stupidly stupdily busy. i promise to do more stuff soon ... honest

C16

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:45:00 +0000

now this is funny ... it had me p##sing my pants for a good 10 minutes ....

let me tell you a story ...

last year i was watching the legend that is mr jools holland and his hootnanney festive cracker. he introduced an artist that just blew my very weighty socks off .. one man, one guitar and a phat phat sound. the last feedback squeals die down and '... thank you c16'. i catch the name and make a mental note to check him out on google when i'm sober. a week or so later i plug in C16 to google ... nothing, apart from a christian rock band on myspace... jeees i wasn't that drunk was i? a few search variations later and still nothing, oh well he must be pretty underground, i'll keep my ears and eyes open and see what i can pick up.

>> fast forward to glastonbury 2007 and i'm sitting on the sofa, just watched iggy fill up the stage with stoned punks, feeling a bit smug that ive just seen a lil bit of cult history .. when smack! theres my man c16 in the shack/tent/tree house affair doing a turn for jo whiley, he's just as awesome, nasty and powerful as i recalled. the last feedback squeals die down and '... thank you c16'. so off i piss the the PC and search for him again .. still jack s##t ... think to myself, this guys a bit of a low key character and leave it, until tonight that is.

>> the mystery has just got too much, ive just spent 2 hrs searching for c16 the 'blues fuzz guitar singer with a battered baseball cap and overalls' and so on.

ive finally found the fucker. why am i laughing?

his name?

seasick steve

twat

ive picked up a few tasty morsels about the guy tonight on my weave around the www. he was at Haight Ashbury in 1967 getting some free love, all by chance, having lived the hobo life for many years. He later lived below kurt cobain, in olympia near seattle and went to the first gig dave grohl played with nirvanna, he was one of the last people to speak to kurt and i quote "He was a nice boy... I would have killed myself to if I was married to that chick he had (Courtney Love)! She was ugly, and she was nasty as can be man..." he has a long player avaiable right now called 'dog house music' and its hard as nails...

take a peep at the vid above an see why he got under my skin for the best part of a year....

see you in the next life

slip sliding away....

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:56:00 +0000

i know this photo is up on one of the other blogs i read, (check plannet mondo for some awsome rare footage of marc on stomping form) but i saw it and had to add something about its history....after all it has to be one of the most iconic photos of marc bolan there is. credited to ringo star on the sleeve notes....taken a week after filming the mad hatter scene in the born to boogie film, the shutterman was in fact none other than toni visconi, marcs producer (at the time the worlds producer) one of twenty shots taken on the picnic they all had after finishing born to boogie.

life was so simple then, another world. Could you imagine the spice girls and their production team chilling at a picnic , flicking off photos of each other and a week later saying 'ooohh that's a nice one lets put that on our new album?'

eerr no

see you in the next life

Johnny Cash - Hurt

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:08:00 +0000

just to restore the balance a little.

when i saw this video for the first time it shocked me to tears ... at the age of 37 i thought i'd become hardened to all the tricks and traps the MTV generation has to play. Yet this 4 minute dying breath of a legend, somehow flys a million miles above all that, it sticks you right in the heart.

Please please watch it ... i hope it has the same effect it had on me

see you in the next life

man hurting himself on skateboard

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:32:00 +0000

jeees you guys dont you have anything else to do than watch drunks inflicting stpid head wounds on them selves?? ... no? bring it on

snappers bitching at tea leafs

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:37:00 +0000

OK my first real blog is going to have to be a bit of a rant....

copyright

a very contentious issue, in these days of p2p changing the face (and pockets) of the music machine. I was chatting to a photographer i print for today, about file sharing. His face was gleefull at the ability to get practically any music he wanted for free ... he has an almost evangelical passion for his ipod and all it's 'moody' content

our next topic of conservation? his court case with a canvas art printer who had nicked his work from his flickr profile........

this isnt the first time ive heard about photographers finding canvas printers on ebay ripping off their work for a fistfull of dollars. Agreed, it's a pretty low thing to do and while i won't condone it, it's a bit rich that these digitally savvy photographers can get so high and mighty about their own copyright while listening to the latsest burn from darksideRG .......

ok, ok! i'll post some u tube of a guy hurting himself on a skate board next time....

see you in the next life

ded dog comes alive

noreply@blogger.com (bleecher) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 07:04:00 +0000

the start of somthing that might smell a bit

i'm not totally sure how this blog will evolve but i'm intending to bang a few music, art, and photography gems as i come across them.

thats it for now, see you in the next life ...