Painters with Light Exhibition at the Octagon

I have just got back from hanging the latest exhibition by The Painting with Light Society - it is at the Octagon in Colchester.

In to the Octagon

I thought I would share a few pictures of the exhibition as I think it looks great. It took four of us three hours to hang the exhibition and there was hardly any swearing involved at all!

Dave Peck admiring the finished Exhibition

The East Wall

Dave Peck & Ian Flindt share a joke

The complete exhibition

The exhibition runs till August with a launch night on the 22nd of May. The Octagon is an office building shared by many companies. The staff and visitors pass through the exhibition on their way to the building from the carpark.

If you wish to visit the exhibition its fine to go between 8.30 and 6 workdays. Just go in the main doors and ask to be pointed in the right direction for the exhibition. If you want to go at the weekend we need to contact The Octagon to arrange.

If this is not convenient then, don't worry as the exhibition will be moving to a public library later in the year.

Backup to the Cloud - Final Thoughts

I have had quite a lot of feedback about my articles on backing up to the cloud:
Backup to the cloud - Part One
Backup to the cloud - Part Two

I am glad I introduced the concept to so many people.

Gold Green and Blue

The feed back that I got was that it sounded interesting but it seemed ever so complicated. Sorry that will be me get too technical too quickly. For most people with one PC or mac i really is very simple:

1. Download and install the BackBlaze client
2. Create an account
   
3. If you still like it after 15 days..pay for it.

It really is very easy and completely trouble free. Why not try it free for 15 days.

I don't see any point in backing up a load of rubbish that I will never ever use or look at so I have taken the opportunity to have a real cull of images. When I look back it's amazing the amount of old tosh I have had cluttering up my disks. I estimate this should reduce the size of my archive by at least a third.

If you still don't think backing up to the cloud is for you this chart is worth taking a look at, as it gives you an idea of how cloud backup compares against other forms of backup. Though I must stress that they are not exclusive options, the more backups you have...the better.

The Bells, The (blue) Bells

Sorry to those of you who got half this post by email - I pressed the wrong button!

It's May and that means only one thing...Bluebells!

Bluebells
(click to view large)

These delicate little flowers can be found in many forests and shaded areas at this time of year. And can often be found accompanied by a photographer grovelling on the ground and scratching their head as they attempt to find a composition that hasn't been done to death before.

Bluebell Stripes
(click to view large)

Personally my very favourite place for bluebells is Ashridge Forest, it is run by the National Trust and every year they manage it to produce a fantastic carpet of bluebells. It can get busy near the carparks but walk away from the popular areas and into the depths and you can have an entire carpet of bluebells to yourself.

Ashridge
(click to view large)

Anyway - I thought I would share some of my shots from Ashridge - hope you like them.

Two in the Blue
(click to view large)

Let your gass out

At home I have a whole series of photo frames and from time to time I like to swap the contents of them. One of the things I have noticed is that often when I open the frame a ghost image has appeared on the inside of the glass.

As the image doesn't touch the glass - how does it happen? Well apparently it is caused by solvents in the inks "out gassing". I came across this article that explains why this fogging occurs and how to stop it.

Thurne (Coming to a wall near me soon)
Click to view larger

In a nutshell Epson recommend:

1. After printing, let the print rest for 15 minutes.
2. After 15 minutes, place a sheet of plain paper (not photo paper) on top of the print and let
dry for 24 hours. The paper acts like a sponge to absorb the gasses and accelerate the
outgassing. (You may stack the prints if you are printing more than one. Be sure to
interleave each print with a sheet of plain paper.)
3. After 24 hours, remove the plain paper. You may notice the plain paper is wavy. If it is,
repeat the procedure again with a new sheet of paper for another 24 hours, after which the
print should be ready for framing. If it is not wavy, this indicates that the solvents in the
print should now be completely dry and the print should be ready for framing
immediately.

I'll have to try this and see how it goes.

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Related Posts

Mounting and Finishing Photograpraphs

Paolo de Faveri is photogrpaher of the month for May

I have been really enjoying the Italian Landscape and Architectural photography of Paulo De Faveri

Twilight at the River Bank by Paolo De Faveri

Why not visit his website and give your eyea a treat.

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Previous Photographers of the Month

Killer Cows

After yesterdays post I was asked why I had spoilt such a nice sunset by sticking that big ugly blob in front of it. Well there is a reason for that..

Temple field has been a bit of a muse of mine for the last few months. I am convinced that there should be a really good picture there but so far the best I have managed is this:

Tree and Temple
(Click to view large)

So on Sunday I decided to head back there and get some shots, but I was faced with the killer cows of Temple Field. I know what your thinking: "You great big jessie, their only cows". Well my last encounter with them four years ago left me a little bit wary of these beasties, here is the story:

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As I entered the field I noticed a sign saying Bull in Field. Luckily, I had left my assistant, Boysie the tripod carrying cocker spaniel, at home so I thought I should be alright if I kept my distance from the cows or bull.

There was no sign of the cows in the field anyway, so I headed down the hill and up the other side to the small round temple at the top. As I got to the top and placed my tripod in front of the temple, suddenly cows appeared over the hill round both sides of the temple.

I figured I wouldn't want to take pictures in amongst the cows so I started to move away down the hill. Almost immediately I heard a movement behind me. I turned round quickly and 2 of the cows were now a lot closer than they were before. I spoke to them loudly and clearly, telling them not to be so silly (like most landscape photographers I speak fluent Friesian with a slight Guernsey accent - OK I just babbled incoherently but you get my drift). I then turned and started to walk away.

Temple Dawn
(Click to view large)

I had taken no more than a few steps when I heard a rumble behind me and there was this cow charging towards me head down. Faced with the prospect of being flattened by 2 ton of sirloin, I opted for the only thing I could think of, which was my best stern school teacher voice. I stood still, raised a hand and shouted, "Just stop that now" to my surprise it worked! The only problem was that I was now staring this cow/bull in the eyes and it was little more than 5 foot away from me. I think it was probably a cow rather than a bull but I wasn't going to break eye contact to check.

So there I was now in a staring competition with this cow/bull thing. I didn't dare look away or show any signs of fear as I figured that as soon as I looked away I would have been steam rolled by Aberdeen Angus. Eventually after a few hours of staring (well it seemed like hours, I doubt if it was more than a couple of minutes in real time), a cow behind mooed and the bull/cow dropped its head and backed away. I figure that the moo was the cow equivalent of "leave him Terry he's not worth it".

I carefully made my off the hill and out of the field - keeping a constant watch over my shoulder for the wayward cow and his head-but of death.

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So now do you blame me for not wanting to join the cows in Temple Field?

Just Me

After the attack of the killer swan on Sunday, I popped up to Temple field in Upshire and took the opportunity to try a few self portraits. I thought I would share it with you so you might have an idea who it is producing these ramblings.

Chris and Sunset, Temple Field - Epping Forest, Upshire