Lublin - Traditional Cottage Room

Lublin - Traditional Cottage Room, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I uploaded a very rough version of this image some time ago, but I have been reworking it for the past week to fix some issues and to generally bring it up to what I consider to be both an acceptable level of quality plus actually express the things that make my art - where nothing is quite what it seems on close inspection. The pictures on the main wall might look OK, but they are square to the image and not to the wall.

Available as a print here: shop.photo4me.com/picture.aspx?id=365885&f=canvas

The Ropemakers Shed

The Ropemakers Shed, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
These two men are making rope, using a traditional fixed frame (visible) and a walking frame (behind the camera). One of the frames has to move, as the length of the final rope is shorter than the strands that were twisted together to make it.

Seen in Lublin

Available as a print at: www.saatchionline.com/art/Photography-The-Ropemakers/9419...

Sharing the bread

Sharing the bread, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Three older ladies share some bread and soup. I have done some of the finer finishing on this image, as can be seen by the harder, better defined images. Still a long way to go, though.


Here are my images available for prints: www.saatchionline.com/TrevorButcher

Cat Cammo

Cat Cammo, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
This is a cat we came across on our travels around the region, one winter's day.


Here are my images available for prints: www.saatchionline.com/TrevorButcher

Horses 2

Horses 2, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
This is a slightly different piece from normal, it is an experiment I have put a fair amount of work into.


Here are my images available for prints: www.saatchionline.com/TrevorButcher

Thatching the Well House

Thatching the Well House, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I was quite pleased with this image, as I finally cracked how to deal with straw! The style combines a traditional local style with my love of abstracts. Notice how the shapes look right at first glance, yet they are 'often 'wrong' when you look closely.


Prints of this image available at: www.saatchionline.com/art/Photography-Thatching-the-Well-...

Man and the Ladder

Man and the Ladder, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Just something else I have roughed out, except for the sky. The building is actually a well, hence that large wheel.

This is at the village museum in Lublin, Poland.

See my prints at: www.saatchionline.com/TrevorButcher

Straw Man

Straw Man, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
This is a rough draft of something that I have been working on. This guy was making something in straw, but it was a decade ago I can no longer remember what.

See my prints for sale at: www.saatchionline.com/TrevorButcher

FSO Syrena - 'Syrenka'

FSO Syrena - 'Syrenka', a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Three cylinder engine, rather agricultural engineering, saloon and pick-up. This is one of the latter, and the version that I prefer, although perhaps not in such a state of decay.


See my prints for sale at: www.saatchionline.com/TrevorButcher

I Dream - I Can Fly!

I Dream - I Can Fly!, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
when was young I used to dream that I could fly, and this may have something to do with the amount of time that I spend on the different swings I came across when I was young.

this image is available as a print at: shop.photo4me.com/picture.aspx?id=334149

Fashion Session

Fashion Session, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
This is the latest of my images involving heavily edited people. The original image was taken merely to show my wife what she looked like in a skirt and jacket combination in a clothing shop's changing rooms. We bought the skirt. I later noticed the picture and cam e to see its worth. I believe it is one of the best I have done so far.

It is available as a print at: shop.photo4me.com/picture.aspx?id=333761

Store Warrior

Store Warrior, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
This is the latest in my series of abstract people, basically this is me in a shoe shop, trying out winter boots. I am quite please with the way it turned out!

This image is available as a print at: www.saatchionline.com/art/Photography-Store-Warrior/94195...

Old Geezer Fashion

Fashion 02, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Old Geezer Fashion

I have a passion, and that is not to let getting old mean you get consigned to saggy clothes, yachtwear or an old suit before they have to box you up and hide you 6 feet under the ground.

And this means getting some basic messages across, the first of which is there are just 2 stages in life - child and adult, plus a time when one has to navigate from one to the other.

When you are a child, your parents have to make a lot of your clothing decisions.

When you are an adult, you have to make most of your clothing decisions.

Hence, there is no such thing as 'age appropriate'. If you are an adult, you wear adult clothes. Some young people dress badly, some old people dress badly. And vice versa.

If someone cannot deal with older people dressing like they do, and that one is an adult, then we should be asking whether this person has matured enough, and whether they are still relying on other people to tell them what they should be wearing. Adults are adults. They make their decisions, and they should be respected for their decisions.

After all, only a child would laugh at what someone else is wearing.

Dried Corn in the Field

Dried Corn in the Field, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
This is a field of drying out corn, ready for harvest we passed yesterday on our day out to Naleczow. Wifie took the photo, I edited it.

Here in eastern Poland the weather is getting cooler, but there are still some really sunny days when it is a pleasure to be out. We had a good walk along a country lane, seeing many cottages and the newly built houses of the nouveau riche.

A Solid Home

Cottage Swallow Tails, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

When you are creating a business, there are places to spend your time, and other places where the return is less than the effort required to fix it. Which is rather an obvious statement.

Let's, though, take another look at the issue, see it from a different angle.

The picture shows the corner joints of a cottage, and at first glance it looks fairly basic, with rough-hewn timbers. But look closer - those joints are cut at a difficult compound angle so that the wall timbers are trying to slide down and inwards. That is traditional technology, and these joints will not fail until the timbers rot away.

The effort has been put into the joints, but what if the timbers had been squared off, the ends trimmed. How would the cottage look then? Well, like any other.

The parts left in their rough state give the cottage its character, it won't look like another. The same should be true of our business, it should be distinctive. So how do we make our business distinctive?

It might be easier than we imagine, all we might need to do is to do less work in the right places. Imagine that, more time to work on the important bits, and your character makes itself.

The trouble is, we might not recognize the important, character stuff. We might be so conditioned by society's expectations we may be working to eradicate the potential without realizing it. We may have been conditioned by life to believe that the core structure of our business must contain more than we need.

For example, take a look at this image. The original was taken by an early digital camera, at 640x480 pixels, and what you see here is just one small section of that image, I have cropped away 70% of the image. Do you miss those lost pixels?

I have only invested around 40 minutes on this image so far, less time than I have spent thinking about and writing this blog entry. I will spend another 6 hours to make this image 6000x6000 pixels and sharpened up ready to print. By practicing not doing things unless they are essential, I get better at only doing the things I have to do. What I have as a result is a distinct product, easy to make.

Orange Train

Orange Train, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I often miss opportunities to take pictures of trains, when I have my camera in my bag I forget how much I like working on the resulting images.

Trevor Butcher

See my images on: www.saatchionline.com/profiles/portfolio/id/94195

Lublin Stork

Lublin Stork, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Storks are one of those subjects where the thoughtlessly excitable in a nation get excited over 'their' national thing. I love storks, and I love the way many people put up poles upon which they can build their nests in safety. However, they are only here for a few short months, then they are off back to where they live in Africa for the rest of the year.

And they don't give a flying feather about some lunatic humans who want to pretend that they are 'theirs'.

Trevor Butcher

See my images on: www.saatchionline.com/profiles/portfolio/id/94195

Trailerman

Trailerman, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I have been watching some old Polish films, from the 1960s and 1970s. This image reminds me of these films.

Trevor Butcher

See my images on: www.saatchionline.com/profiles/portfolio/id/94195

Church in Kazimierz Dolny

Church in Kazimierz Dolny, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
This is one end of the square, where it rises up to the church. Beyond the church is the castle, a classic location for many Polish films.


See my prints at: www.saatchionline.com/profiles/portfolio/id/94195

Ania Sunny Morning

Ania Sunny Morning, a photo by gingerpig2000 on Flickr.

I have always wondered why people like to ogle pictures of beautiful young women, and yet dress like did not consider themselves worthy of notice.