One of my flickr contacts has been churning out some amazing black and white landscape photography recently (taken in Norway):

A robotic arm learning how to flip pancakes:

A robot learning to flip pancakes from Sylvain Calinon on Vimeo.

Flipboard, an ipad app that is a social media aggregator, in the style of a magazine.

And saving the best till last, the new TRON trailer:

“On July 24, you have 24 hours to capture a glimpse of your life on camera. The most compelling and distinctive footage will be edited into an experimental documentary film, executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald.”

I put the date in my diary and thought it might be nice to send in some footage because i’m one of those content contributor types.

This morning i saw an article on a much smaller blog and nearly dismissed it as an echo. Upon closer inspection though i realised this was a totally different project. It was a real Minority Report moment.

One Day on Earth Participant Trailer from One Day On Earth on Vimeo.

My interest was piqued. I had a quick look to try and work out who came first, the brand heavy, big names, sponsored to the eyeballs piece or the more open source style offering with an agenda. I wasn’t the only one to think the proximity, premise and trailers were a little suspicious:

(These comments are on the mashable article i linked to earlier)

Now regardless of who came first (early signs indicate it was 10.10.10) the idea isn’t that original. I’m sure crowd sourcing a days worth of reportage footage has been done numerous times in the past. I know from my own personal experience that it’s a flickr favourite, dating at least as far back as 2005 in a project which is still running. So while the originality of the idea isn’t in question, i do think it’s a bit rich to take an idea with a noble cause (and ditch it) slap branding on it, throw some money and names behind a cushy prize and then have the audacity to trump the original project’s deadline in order to cross the finish line first.

Am i considering boycotting the Ridley Scott project now?
Yes.

Am i considering submitting footage to both?
Yes.

Would i only submit footage to one but not the other?
Yes, and i don’t think you need to be a member of Mensa to figure out which.

Somebody had best call the police. If i’m wrong i’ll happily eat humble pie. In all truth i hope i am wrong and 10.10.10 saw this project and thought “Hey, that’s cool… we could appropriate this idea to try and raise awareness on various issues”, but given the way they speak about making history, i fear not.

Right, what’s next. Oh yes, Pepsi… at least your heart PR wagon is in the right place i suppose.

Update: Shortly after posting this article, a member of the 10.10.10 project got in touch with me. While they were very careful with their words, it is my belief that the concerns i outlined around intellectual copyright are unfortunately all too valid.

“The other day we attended a repatriation for fallen soldiers.

So when the internet/phones comes back on, we’re all happy to be able to check our email again but someone has probably just been told that their child has died.”

These kind of insights are something the mainstream media just doesn’t provide

Who: IdeasTap/Magnum photos
Theme: Future – life after 2012.
Deadline: June 14th
Suggested by: Donna
Description:
Applicants must create a set within their IdeasTap portfolio containing five photographs (no more, no less) that show a vision of the future after the 2012 Olympic Games. Interpret the theme as you see fit.

Successful applications will be creative and striking photographs that catch the judges’ eyes and demonstrate photographic skill and understanding. The five photos in your portfolio must demonstrate your ability to tell a story with your images.

Prize:
We’ve teamed up with Magnum Photos to bring IdeasTap members the ultimate photographic competition.

That’s the overall winner – but all shortlisted candidates will receive expert mentoring and their work will be printed, framed and exhibited by IdeasTap. They’ll also receive a published book featuring their work.

Categories:
Photojournalism
Environmental photography
Conceptual art

Rules:
Up to 5 photos, in any or all categories.

My thoughts:
Obviously i’d just be going in for photojournalism and/or environmental photography but currently i don’t have a camera (it got a little bit broken) so can’t go out and shoot specifically for the very specific theme. Also, because it’s a photo essay, the images should be linked. I am thinking about using images of rubbish in and around the Thames for environmentalism, arguing that after 2012 we’ll have a lot of junk floating around from the extra tourism. It’s an idea more tied to the category than the theme, but it’s the best i have for that category, and i’d rather enter 5 images backing a weak idea than no images…

For photojournalism i’d use shots from the London Marathon and some cycling photos, citing the Olympics as invogorating people to be more active. I think i have some strong shots for this category and the idea is a solid(ish) one.

Prize:
The first prize is a three-night stay for two people in a Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London penthouse suite with breakfast daily. The prize includes dinner on one evening at the hotel’s brasserie and dinner on one evening at the Ichi Sushi & Sashimi Bar, as well as two 60-minute spa treatments at the hotel’s spa.

3) Third prize is a £100 voucher from Jessops

Categories:
People
Places
Escapes

Rules:
One entry per person in one category.

My thoughts:
I can’t even decide which category to go in for on this one. For this competition you can see entries which have already been submitted. While most of my photos of London are of places, this category is saturated, and there’s some really strong competition in there. Put simply, if i were to enter in that category, i have no chance of winning it. The escapes section is currently the weakest, but i don’t have many images i feel accurately portray escapism in London, the best thing i have is staged/was a special event:

So if i don’t go with escapism, that leaves people, for which i would enter one of the following:

The photos you submit need to capture one of three themes – action, landscape or people. You can only enter one photo for each theme. Three category winners will each receive a book of Alf Khumalo’s photography. One of the three will be chosen as the overall winner.

Prize:
The lucky winner of this competition will win a two-day masterclass with professional photographer Alf Khumalo in Johannesburg, followed by an all-expenses paid trip around South Africa as the official photographer on an all-action adventure tour. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: expect high-octane excitement and the chance to take some spectacular pictures. The winner will spend around two weeks in South Africa, departing the UK no earlier than 25 August 2010 and returning no later than 12 September 2010. The precise dates will be confirmed shortly.

The best of the images taken in South Africa will be displayed in the National Geographic Store on Regent Street, London, in October.

Categories:
Action/Adventure
People
Landscape

Rules:
One entry per category.

My thoughts:
This is another competition where you can see the images that have already been entered. Currently there aren’t too many entries, but i suspect that will change given the prize and the deadline. As a result i can’t base too much on the current content, but the landscape section is the strongest, with much weaker people and adventure sections. I’m not crazy about the action/adventure category. The blurb says action but the category is marked adventure… while i have a few action shots, i feel i’m somewhat lacking in adventure. That said, i think this is pretty much my only subject matter that screams both action and adventure:

I feel like landscape is a no brainer. There are already some great landscape shots in there, but i feel this shot can hold up against them:

Though that said, i like the picture due to the spectacle of the shot and the landscape isn’t really the main focus of the image, so maybe it’s not the right image for the job and a simpler more down to earth (literally) landscape is called for:

But are sunsets too clichéd? most of the photos i have that would be landscapes are actually cityscapes, because there isn’t a huge amount of land left in London, or at least, not many rolling hills and valleys that i would consider to truly be a land-scape. If it boils down to no sunset, no buildings then the only real landscape i have is this:

… and that’s a. Boring and b. Licensed to Getty so i’m not sure i can enter it anyway! >_<

If i thought landscapes were tricky, people is trickier, and so broad. From their description and gallery they're looking for an image which tells a story about the person in the frame... here are a few i am considering:

So to sum it all up… i don’t really know what i’m going to enter for half of these :/ But i feel a bit better now that i’ve laid out some thoughts ‘on paper’.

P.S. You’ll notice i’ve not linked to any of the competitions, this isn’t because i’m being sly and hoarding them, a simple google of the descriptions/organisations will reveal them. I am doing it to avoid any trackbacks from their blogging software appearing. If any judges were to see a track back and click through to this thought process it might open me up for disqualification.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-form

Watch the video. It’s really weird how they refer to DNA as software… but it’s terminology i can relate to and is a good layman explanation. The idea that you can now program a cell and ‘reboot’ it to take advantage of a new OS is the stuff of the movies.

“Craig Venter, the pioneering US geneticist behind the experiment, said the achievement heralds the dawn of a new era in which new life is made to benefit humanity, starting with bacteria that churn out biofuels, soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and even manufacture vaccines.

However critics, including some religious groups, condemned the work, with one organisation warning that artificial organisms could escape into the wild and cause environmental havoc or be turned into biological weapons. ”

Melodramatic, but valid concerns. I’m more worried about the funding of shady research than the escape scenario. It would take a lot of money and man power but i’m sure the seedy underbelly of the world is eager to rise to the challenge. This is a warfare technology for the ridiculously early adopters, that is of course providing everybody manages to keep their trigger fingers off the nukes long enough to develop new and interesting ways to kill each other. Saddening stuff. I like to think, or at least hope weaponisation is a long way off, well actually i hope it never comes to that but we’re not really the most brotherly of species despite our intellect and potential for rational thought. Hopefully i’m just being hideously pessimistic as usual.

“Synthetic Genomic” (http://www.syntheticgenomics.com/index.html) it’s not quite as catchy as “Massive Dynamic” or “Umbrella Corporation”, but i fear it could rise to be a powerful as these fictional counterparts. “Watermarks” and “Signed genetic code”: All sounds a bit Bladerunner to me. Once again, science fiction is becoming science fact.

I think the really big question is, does genetic code have to compile?

“Iron Sky is a sci-fi comedy film from the makers of Star Wreck, director Timo Vuorensola and producer Samuli Torssonen. Iron Sky is written by award-winning science fiction author Johanna Sinisalo.

Iron Sky will be released in cinemas in 2011.”

I love how transparent this all is (i guess it helps, considering they want your money), and how brilliant the trailer looks:

*And yes, i will probably go gaga for any film with Iron in the title.

If you appreciate things of beauty and can live with the sad truth that you will probably not be able to buy many of them any time soon, subscribe. They occasionally have real products, but a lot of these things are born out of dreams… and will probably stay there.

See more and follow the project here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/benheine/sets/72157623723956821/

Quite happy out of the few costumes i chose to snap, the BBC also picked up on. I have a photo of Lord Vader, but it’s a bit too blurry to be ‘documentary’. I was mostly shooting with manual focus because my telephoto lens is a little bit broken like that and the cost to repair it is £20 shy of a new lens.

For the most part, on the stretch by the flat at least, the St.Johns Ambulance service only had minor bits and pieces to deal with. One runner did take a bit of a nasty turn for the worse though and had to be taken away in an ambulance so it’s a good thing they were dotted around.

This is George Bingham and he probably has a rather sore back right about now.

Everyone seemed pretty excited by this guy too. Probably some kind of generous donator:

And then i popped back inside for a cup of tea and a sit down. Boris, if you read this, which i’m sure you do, more events passing my front door would be great. Ta.

Usually i’m a big fan of uniqlos digital work but i think the utweet viral(?) is really weak.

“QUICK, let’s cobble something twitter related together, kids love twitter.”
“What should it do?”
“Who cares! Just make it look ENGAGING!”

What annoys me about utweet is that it has basically dressed up the search function of twitter, made it useless and slapped some branded videos in there. The tweets move too fast to read comfortably so its value as a news aggregator is limited. If thought of as a piece of artwork it’s visually pleasing enough, but i can’t see why they bothered with the twitter data other than to say they’ve done a twitter project. Unless i’m missing something…

The calendar project by uniqlo is directly and sensibly tied in with their products. The colours of the freezed frame tie into the colours of the items. The uniqlo clock is designed purely to be admired, with very little interaction, and while this could be said of the utweet site they are very different in their set up. The clock is content to stand on its own merit, happy to be taken at face value and making no pretence of offering more than that which you see. I am asked to interact with utweet to get the ball rolling, and low the barrier for entry is as low as a click, if i am putting something into a system, i want to see the value in what is returned.

The utweet project is chopping static videos together with dynamic content, and as far as i can tell neither the video order or content have any relevance to what has been searched for on twitter. Why would i want to look at this, let alone share it? How has my life been improved by seeing vaguely related tweets whizz past (often in languages i can’t read anyway) and have tshirt designs thrown at me by cavorting hipsters?

The cal gives gorgeous, mellow, quirky videos, weather information and a browsable catalogue. Highly interactive if you chose for it to be, purely aesthetic if not. All that with an innovative new way of browsing clothes, thumbs up!

The uniqlo clock gives you the time, and occasionally a nicely choreographed skit. The time is useful, the skits less so. Let’s face it, we can find the time anywhere, so it’s mostly about the skits and they aren’t kidding themselves about it being anything more than something pretty which could happily sit in the background. As i say, they offered it as a screensaver, a niche it fits into perfectly.

Utweet gives you jovial individuals and a jingle. IF that was all, i wouldn’t feel so annoyed by it, but it’s the fact that it is cobbling on the twitter aspect to supposedly add some value but honestly, what value has been added by this fast moving text? I keep thinking i’ve missed something (have i?), like a hidden door which transports me to a world of worth but i can’t find it

I think i may be having a hard time splitting between usefulness with artistic merit, but this IS advertising. If i am going to be subject to an advertisement i’d rather it come in the guise of usefulness than art.

… and i hope that clearly explains why my thoughts behind why i think it’s a rushed, poorly thought out example of twitter integration. Social media shouldn’t just be shoved into a project because it’s a hot topic, but because it makes sense to use it.

(Incidentally, i did literally get out of the wrong side of bed this morning, but i felt the same way about it yesterday )

Useful? Hmmm… I’m not convinced. I watched it bounce round the office this morning, and after absorbing a youtube video or surfing a few pages, people didn’t know what to do with it. I wasn’t bowled over when it was announced and i’m still not overly impressed now. As a device, it doesn’t really solve a problem and attempts to fit into a space that doesn’t need filling. I can’t find the original author of this quote, but i think it sums up my feelings nicely. From memory, it went something like this:

“The ipad perfectly fits the gap between full sized laptop and phone. The thing is, i call that gap free time and i use it to get on with my life.”

What the ipad WILL be great for is voraciously consuming internet generated news and media (something i am trying, rather unsuccessfully, to limit my intake of). I don’t want to be a consumer, i want to be a creator and anything that doesn’t easily lend itself to flexible creativity isn’t a thing i need in my life. Sure it’s nice to kick back and consume every once in a while, but i want to have the ability to jump into creativity mode at the drop of a hat. Be it code, simple idea jotting or something written (Unfortunately i can’t put photography in here because not everything can be a camera. Note to self, get a bionic eye soon) I REALLY don’t need to be encouraged to lounge around and swipe my finger endlessly over RSS feeds which will happily throw items at me until somebody drops the bomb.

Moving away from that gripe, as whether you want to be a creator or consumer is a personal choice, if you DO indeed wish to gobble media ad infinitum then this could be the device for you… but not if you plan to do any serious typing. I’d say i have an average, if not slightly above average hand span, yet held in portrait mode i can’t reach the ‘y’ button on the ipad keyboard. In fact that whole mid-section is a strain. This means to hit all the keys i’m going to have to type one handed while i hold this thing. Thanks for more than halving my productivity there apple. It’s bad enough i have no tactile feedback but now i can’t even use two hands to thumb peck at the keys?! Sure, I could buy the keyboard accessory (for $70), but then i need somewhere to set it down, and when it gets to that stage i’m going to start wondering why i didn’t just bring my netbook. At least that can stand up by itself, unlike this new born baby of the mobile computing world. Who wants to dock that thing in portrait mode anyway?!

… Ok, i can sense i have already edged into super rant territory. Anybody who has stumbled across this without really knowing me must be thinking i’m one of ‘those people’ who hates apple for the sake of it. You couldn’t be further from the truth. I am a recent convert to apple, now choosing to develop under OSX where i can. I also think the iphone is the best smartphone on the market, largely due to the app store being so forthcoming (There really is an app for pretty much everything). I’m just a realist, and the ipad would be the biggest waste of money for me since the macbook air. Here, to prove i’m not just bashing it for the sake of it let me mention some things i DO like about the ipad.

The orientation hold button. It’s brilliant. Bring that to the iPhone please. The whole big ipod touch thing is slick. I have no idea why i was surprised at how slick it was. I suppose in my head something bigger should move with a lumber (like an elephant!) but it didn’t and i was happy for that. Also the larger screen is really nice, that extra real estate means the UI for apps can be laid out a lot better. The pre-loaded apps, particularly youtube, shows off some nice split screening and in situ video playback which i hope to see more of from the imminent magazine app offerings. Unfortunately some applications developers can really make a hideous mess of user interfaces, but provided the right person is on the job that screen could be utilised very effectively. That’s the only thing that could make the ipad really appealing to me, a killer third party application. I think that’s where we’ve arrived at, a company with clout spits out the hardware and expects the users/coders to make it a success. In my opinion the app store was the shrewdest business move apple have made in a while. However until that killer app arrives, i’m going to stick to using the item in the background of my first photograph for my planning activities. A notebook and a pen. The day when i can free flow ideas into a meta tagging digital device and manipulate them moments later will be a happy one indeed.

Oh, and it’s mildly heavier than i (and judging from colleagues comments, most people) expected it to be, which is neither here nor there.

Unfortunately i can’t take a look at the apps on offer right now. As is often the case for early adopters (especially those who are going out of their way to become early adopters by skirting country codes (Lik-sang – RIP) ) there can be hurdles to overcome.

Oh Apple, you have us bang to rights!

This is a bummer, but i think it’s for the best. If we (ok, maybe just me) had access to the app store there would be a hefty bill to pay and i wouldn’t have gotten any work done today. Or tomorrow. Thankfully it shouldn’t affect our immediate plans for el ipad (no, we’re not blending it), and a quick google suggests there are ways round this prior to UK release if it does prove to be a problem…

Anyway, those are my initial thoughts on the ipad, which is now covered in fingerprints.

Please Microsoft, bring out your rumored rival soon… I’d love for it to be an ipad killer but i fear you don’t know how to market a damned thing. Put more money behind your viral work because your print and TV campaigns are cringe inducingly irritating.

(… but considering even i have a hard time reading my writing at times means any handwriting based digital device like the microsoft courier is going to actually have to interface directly with my brain.)

I figured it was just XP installation showing its age and did all the usual house keeping tasks you put off until there’s a problem namely run Defrag, Scandisk, Virus scan, AdAware and Spybot. No joy, the problem persisted. I even ran through all my startup services and cleared up some space on the drive, still nothing. It was even so bad i thought a Windows update would help (it didn’t, it never does).

It has, excuse my French, been driving me batshit crazy.

Finally, i decided to do one last google before throwing the towel in and reinstalling the whole thing and it turned up this blog post. Which ultimately directed to this fix.

Touch wood… i think it worked!

Out of all the possible causes i think the one that got me was:
“A further cause may be waking from standby mode, if one of the involved components does not perform this process correctly.”

I am and will continue to be a standby (or more accurately, hibernate) junkie. I’m writing this post as a reference for myself as much as for any other poor souls out there pulling their hair out over this.

Thanks internets!

Imagine my disappointment when both iPhone and Sony Ericsson C902 failed to read and interpret it in the handset.

*Sad face*

Eventually i managed to get an image off the phone with a suitable resultion to run through this decoder:
http://zxing.org/w/decode.jspx
Which stated it wanted to go to the following URL:
http://www.moleskine.com/s.php?id=978-88-8370-102-3

Great success!

However, it would appear this success was short lived, as that URL currently throws a rather nasty mySQL connection error.

The variable matches the product code of this particular notebook, so i suspect the page would just tell me a bit more about it. Rather unnecessary considering i’ve already bought it. I appreciate in store this could be useful, though i find the no nonsense imagery on the front is more than adequate.

I guess there’s no real moral to this story, it was simply an unfortunate coincidence. I’m just happy to see a company like Moleskine, very much not in the digital space showing they’re still highly aware of it. I suspect they’re all a bunch of geeks too… but guys, you might want to make your errors a little more customer friendly when your database connection fails

Today is my last day at Glue London.

I’ve had a great 18 months and will miss so many aspects of working here. I’ve learnt a lot, worked on some amazing projects and have made some good friends. That said, I feel the time has come to boldly go where … well quite frankly, others have gone before.

This is an image from “photoshop Friday”… a sort of passing out ceremony/tradition Glue has for those (un)fortunate enough to have their last day on a Friday. The results are often beyond hilarious. They’re presented here in no particular order. Because if you can’t laugh at yourself….

I start at Maynard Malone on Monday (No rest for the wicked!) and am looking forward to diving straight into it

Goodbye Glue, it’s been a blast!

And just in case any more clarification was needed, this is a dog.

We love London, and we love photography. Similar sentiments are shared by many, and often the love for both can be brought beautifully together – in particular, by friend of coolography, Stuart Gleave. Playful, colourful, imaginative – compositions that make us sit back and fall deeper in love with this city of ours. Having followed his work for some time, we felt a coolography feature was long overdue. Continue reading for a compilation of his favourite London shots as well as a short Q&A…

What is it about photography that grabs and channels your creative interest?
It’s the ease of being able to pick up a camera and create something beautiful that draws me to photography. I have always been moderately frustrated with my inability to draw so photography is an outlet for my creativity that satisfies the desire to create something visual. That and the precision encouraged by the craft. Composition, exposure, subject matter and timing all need to come together in harmony to create a photo I’m proud to display.

Tell us about how London, the city and its inhabitants, inspires you.

I’ve lived in London all my life, and as with anywhere you see every day it’s very easy to become accustomed to the sights. A number of years ago I decided to attempt to see London afresh, and the camera helped with that. Once you start looking for interesting compositions, or seeing in terms of frames, even the most familiar of sights reveal photographic opportunity. Noticings is a flickr based community looking to encourage this new way of seeing things. While keeping your eyes peeled is a philosophy that can be applied anywhere, when it comes to London specifically I’m very fond of the diversity on offer. Architecture spanning centuries, green spaces and countless backstreets offer exploration to anybody willing to embrace it.

…The diversity isn’t just limited to the buildings of course, and the variety of people you can encounter on a single day is not to be taken for granted. Friends visiting from out of town are often blown away by just how busy central London is. A half hour walk can take you from the city’s suit wearing bankers through the eclectic fixie toting Shoreditch crowd to the unscrupulous sales tactics of the characters on the curry haven that is Brick Lane. To the West, the pomp and circumstance of Westminster awaits, or if that seems too formal, Soho and its colourful nightlife are moments away. All this without even mentioning Covent Garden, Camden Town or the numerous markets and ever fresh list of events dotted around. My new years resolution is to try and take more in the way of portrait/street photography to get to know a little bit more about the people that make up the capital.

There is a strong use of colour that dominates many of your photos. Do you feel this highlights an aspect of a city that is traditionally viewed as dull and grey?

As you rightly point out, The Big Smoke isn’t best know for its colourful palette. I’ve not gone forward with an agenda of portraying a more colourful London, I think it’s just a byproduct of the style I’ve adopted for its aesthetic qualities. I’m fond of silhouettes and feel they’re best presented with a colourful backdrop. Similarly the sun is the best source of light you can hope for outside, and while it’s rare in the UK, on the occasions it does make an appearance, a clear blue sky is usually in tow. While I have taken numerous photos in the city during overcast and foggy conditions, they are rarely of London’s monuments, but of the people interacting with the weather.

A few of these shots have a quite playful theme; a london eye pod coddled by a cloud, canary wharf framed by arches; are these pre-planned or are they results of a whimsical shot?

Yes and no. No in that I just wander from A to B and yes in that when I see something that might make a nice photo, I plan how best to capture it. Just walking around, looking instead of seeing, will show something new every time. More often than not I’ll pick two tube stations with a famous landmark somewhere between them. If there’s something else in the scene which I feel will compliment that landmark, or indeed any less famous object of interest en route, then the planning kicks in. I’ll compose an ideal shot or two in my head and move to mimic it in the viewfinder of the camera, with varying degrees of success. If there’s movement involved, such as with the London eye or people photography, then there’s a period of time before everything falls into place and the shutter captures what you want. There’s usually a fair bit of waiting for any photo, be it waiting for the desired spark of emotion, the right weather, right light or just something interesting to add that special touch.

…That’s another great thing about London being so busy. If you pick any innocuous looking spot on a thoroughfare and wait long enough, something interesting is bound to happen. It’s just a matter of how long you’re prepared to wait for it, and whether or not the other factors will still be in balance when it does. I only stood pointing my camera at the millennium bridge for a few minutes before a jogger’s silhouette fell into frame. It was just fortunate that the sun was still illuminating the sky to provide a brilliant orange backdrop for him. The busy contrast he provides against the other two people in the frame was the special touch I was waiting for. It was one of the first pictures I took when I bought a more serious camera a number of years ago and it’s still a favourite of mine.

Lastly, what’s cool?
I like my gadgets and think they’re pretty cool, but only when they work of course. Nothing is more frustrating than being given grief by something that is supposed to make your life easier. I read Engadget for the majority of my tech news.

I also think so called ’social media’ is pretty cool, though the term is being used and abused by everyone under the sun lately. The advent of various sites like Twitter, Facebook and the like certainly makes the web a more friendly, personalised place. Photo sharing site Flickr is probably what’s kept me so actively interested in photography over the last few years. Even when there’s a lull in my shooting or inspiration runs dry, it’s nice to be able to browse really great photos from my contacts. I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking to get into photography, as it’s a great place to learn new techniques, get feedback on your shots or just find people with a common interest.

Social media has become quite a powerful force in the last few years. While traditional news outlets are very good at spreading a message in one direction, when it comes to feedback the other way they falter. The Internet easily allows individuals to organize themselves and get behind a cause. It’s pretty cool as it is, but the Internet, or particularly the ways in which we use it are going to get much much cooler in the future.

And if none of that floats your boat, then here’s a flamethrower made from bacon.

Movieboy was probably my first big project at glue and it ended in January, everyone was very happy and it was a great way to start the year. I also spent a lot of time exploring the area i’d just moved to, Woolwich. For the most part it was not particularly welcoming.

February

This month saw a number of beautiful sunsets and some rather random snow.

I took a pretty nifty picture of the Thames Barrier but that was about it for March. I got my shoelace stuck in some train doors, where i remained for most of the month.

The G20 protests occurred in April and i used my lunch hour to attempt to document them as best i could. Ultimately the photos were not very good, but after March i was just happy i didn’t get my shoelace caught in anything.

Throughout May i was very busy training for the London to Brighton so photos on anything non bike related were quite thin on the ground.

This month held more training, and the event itself. In the end i raised about £260 for the British Heart Foundation. Thanks to all the donors

In July I went to Barcelona to see some friends from university get married, then hopped over to Rome to see a little more of Europe.

Given the ridiculous number of photos i took in July, August was mostly spent processing them. There was however time for some photos here and there.

In September i decided to start taking Mondays off work. This time was used to wander London taking photos and build my photography website.

As the season was changing i took a trip to Kew Gardens to enjoy the colours while planning the last bit of the approaching month.

An unexpected (but amazing) trip to Florida to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis launch took up most of November.

The twelfth and final month of the year, where i visited some friends in Vienna.

2009 was definately a busy and amazing year. It’s going to be hard for 2010 to top it but i’m sure going to try… Rather generic new years resolutions are going to run along the lines of:

-Try and spend more time with my friends
-Take more photos in day to day life (and generally work on improving my photography skills, particularly portrait)

Pretty dull, but i think they’re good ‘uns. There are more things i want to achieve in 2010, but they’re better placed on a todo list. Hopefully this christmas present will help me with the portrait photos:

A delightful new lens, 35mm f/1.8!

So long 2009, you were wonderful!

I’ve finally finished uploading all the photos i want from the NASA tweetup… which makes me sad. Taking a long time to process photos is my way of holding onto an event that little bit longer, so with all of them done it’s hitting home that this particular adventure really is over.

In the last month i’ve sent my footage/photos off for inclusion in a documentary on the event, given two presentations and kept up with my space news. The people i met and continued to follow on twitter have been a never ending source of news, reminders and updates that there’s so much going on above our heads. So many satellites, experiments and technologies are being maintained, executed and invented so that some guy can fry bacon in a non-stick pan while talking to his friend on the other side of the planet (Yes ok, so i can fry bacon).

I’ve also paid off my credit card bill…It was rather large, but worth every penny for the memories, the moments and the experience.

Here’s a picture round of the trip in its entirety.

(Jupiter and 3 moons, shot through the 500mm and cropped)

Thanks NASA. Thanks everyone.

While everyone loves a good Carlsberg advert, there is actually a serious point to posting that video, and the point is this:

It’s an advertisement for a mobile boarding pass, and I used one for the return trip. Brilliant! So convenient, no need to print anything out or worry about misplacing it. From what i can gather, they’ve been phasing them in across various airlines for the last year, but this was the first time i had the pleasure of using one. One thing though, given that on most airlines you can only check in 24 or so hours before you’re due to fly, you have to have access to the internet AND mobile reception/roaming in the country you’re in to receive the txt with a link to your boarding pass. You then go to this link and save the page. If you’ve got hold luggage you’re going to have to check in at the desk to dump your bag anyway, but for anybody just going away on a long weekend with a cabin bag, online check in and mobile boarding passes are definitely the future.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you could check in via txt next. A great example of the mobile phone coming one step closer to being the one device to rule them all. Now, if only i could squeeze my DSLR in there…

Many pictures from various things soon… very behind on the photo processing