143 - Happy Mad Dog

143 - Happy Mad Dog
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

Not quite sure what this is supposed to be, but it was on the balcony of the family in the opposite block. Still working on this medium, but I think my previous cigar shot worked better as I treated the main subject and the background separately. I might try the same treatment here to get a bit more contrast between subject and background.

I* have no idea why they left it on their balcony for about a week, perhaps because to the child it was equivalent in size to a small pony.

142 - Trevor and the Amazing Cigar

142 - Trevor and the Amazing Cigar
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

We are not smokers, but we are open to new experiences. We bought a couple of cigars, which was an experience in itself, and then smoked them in our hotel room in Krakow with its view over the nearby monastery gardens.

The original was taken by Ania, and the colours were nothing special, neither was the background, but that was not a problem. Smearing the colours in a circular pattern was rather like the emblem background I did a few days ago, except that this time I used 100% wipe to demolish the background inconsistencies and to arrive at a swirling smoke vortex thingy effect.

141 - Face - Mask

141 - Face - Mask
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

I came across this image while doing some edits, so I cropped this out and blew it up to a reasonable size before creating this mask-like effect.

We all wear a mask, and almost always it is an imperfect one and we are often unaware of how imperfect it is. As the yars pass, the mask becomes increasingly unyielding until we become molded to the mask rather than the mask molded to us.

As an editor I have long been fascinated by how many people fail to understand that a critique has to have some method of scaling comments. It is easy to say that something is good or bad - but this is meaningless unless one adds how good or bad, to give some kind of context. One might say that a piece of work is better than another, or focus on some aspect and explain why it appears good or bad.

140 - Ania in Pink Shoes

140 - Ania in Pink Shoes
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

This was an experiment to make something of a poorly lit and hence heavily contrasted shot. I think I got a lot of the way there, but there are still a few things to fix. I might even remove the background completely and work something from there.

The pink shoes were nice, but we did not buy them, but we did buy the dress. It was while we were on vacation in Krakow and, as you can see, I was in the fitting room with Ania. Other men wait outside for their partners, waiting to give an opinion which may or may not be taken kindly. Other men stay safely out of the shop, waiting on their own or with other men in a similar situation, each trying to avoid the other's gaze. Some men avoid the issue almost entirely be ensuring they do not shop with their wives - almost, because they must have some opinion, positive, about the clothes bought.

139 - C1 Dash

139 - C1 Dash
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

Working with car pictures always reminds me of that part of my life when I was an engineer and spending a lot of time working on vehicles of various types. Well, that kind of thing must leave an imprint.

I would like to help bridge that gap in society where if you are interested in cars then you must be some kind of autohead. Excluding people by grouping them is very common, as is people excluding themselves by the same process. The chances are if you have this then you have a car, and your life certainly relies on a huge number of vehicles, even if only to bring you fruit from the fields to your market of choice.

So, why exclude people because they have an interest?

One of the evils of people in society is an attempt to discourage others or exclude them because they are interested in a subject beyond one's own.

I love the fact that as humans we can create such objects, design them in ways we all can relate to even if we choose that relationship to be one of alienation.

138 - Dreaming of Cinque Ports

138 - Dreaming of Cinque Ports
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

The Cinque Ports are well described on Wikipedia, but basically they were five ports from about the 13th century that gave England a bit of a navy when required. It still exists in an honory kind of way, and forms a little part of the background of life in the county I grew up in. This is from a visit several years ago, I think it is part of a gate.

I have made the background watery and a little difficult to focus on, rather like the past. The past is a place we cannot visit, and here is the seal on the gate preventing our access.

137 - Ania and Magda

137 - Ania and Magda
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

This was taken in a dim pub without using flash, and you will not be surprised to hear that the result was an almost totally black image.

Given that I said some time ago I only really need composition and consistent lighting, this was too much of a good test to miss. So I played around with Gimp to get the image bright enough I could see the composition, and then relied on the fact that the lighting in the room came from few sources.

There was a lot of white and black speckling in the image, and I used the densities of the black and white areas and my memory of the composition to decide what should join up. There were some other objects in the image, which I decided to delete along with the white/black speckling that didn't add anything to the image.

I think the result, for a first time effort, was not too bad. A little bit of skill development should make quite an improvement.

136 - Hugo Demon

136 - Hugo Demon
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

This is Hugo, my lovely ginger cat. He, like cats do generally, like living in a community. He knows that I am the leader and that I willdo things that he finds of great interest, whether it be feeding, playing, hunting or simply sleeping (where he cuddles to my head if he is not feeling well).

At the end of the day, he's a cat. But because he is a cat, he loves to be noticed. If someone doesn't notice him, well, he will probably think they are not bright enough to do so - hardly worth bothering with, really ;)

135 - Ben at Work

135 - Ben at Work
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

I made this for Ben, pictured, who was leaving his job in the office we share to break out on his own. I have known him for over a decade, and before this job we used to teach at the same school. He, like I, have little time for the kind of people who live ghetto lives, those who spend their time with other people from the country they came from for that reason only.

We have moved on, and live our lives where we live, becoming local people.

134 - Midday Carpark

134 - Midday Carpark
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

After several images deliberately worked on to be acceptable to a specific Flikr group, I thought it was time to finish this one in a way I found pleasing. I like concrete, I like cars, and I really like light - so what more could I ask for in this shot from a local mall?

I spent quite some time working on this, removing minor elements that were getting in the way of impact, and trying to achieve a good balance between light and shape - which at times seemed at odds with each other. The introduction of color was a late decision, but one that seemed to balance the light-shape issue.

One of the best bits about the opportunity was that the concrete was shiny enough to afford some reflections of the cars. I also like the idea of all these cars hiding here, out of the light.

133 - Downtown Traffic

133 - Downtown Traffic
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

I enjoy investigating those things largely left unexplored by other people, and looking for ways to incorporate them into the mainstream. Destruction can be instructive too, and here I have managed to age a model and incorporate a dirty bus wheel.

Good photo opportunities do not need to be sought, they present themselves as part of the normal working day, while achieving a photo that is acceptable to a broader audience often seems to need a hunt for a suitable location.

One could say that I am easier to satisfy because I do not expect wow locations for a good photo, or even sharply focussed or suitably lit images, but that would not be true. I simply get bored with seeing essentially similar images, like that of a flower, sleek car, cute child, pretty young woman or wrinkly old person. I can Google those images in a moment, or simply look out of my window. They attract the eye and are noticed.

I like the ordinary made special by focussing attention it normally does not receive. I also think this has value to our existence, in our everyday lives.

For example, while people seem to enjoy owning cars the daily grind to or from work does not appear to be such a pleasure. What if one could ignore the large goals of getting home, the equivalent of the cute child photo, and instead could take pleasure in the dirty, rusty wheels of a smoky old truck? Or sunshine or rain on tarmac? My cat is fascinated by trucks, the larger the better, and I have no idea why, but they do make the trip to the vets more interesting.

This photo generated several 'I don't get it' comments, without specifying what it is they felt they should be getting. If you look at a picture of a flower, what is it you should be getting? Is it only a feeling of "that's nice!", in which case what are these people feeling if they are faced with things that are not nice, but not nasty either. Is their world grey with bright blobs of flowers and black blobs of pain imposed on it? And if our world is grey, are we aware of it, and does it matter? Well, it seems to matter, judging by how unhappy people become waiting for the next blob of color.