“When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?”

-Kahlil Gibran

“Everything is made of light; everything is alive. The Great Mystery of life has little to do with intelligence. The universe is not an intellectual process. The intellect is helpful; but our hearts are the wiser part of ourselves.”
– Mellen-Thomas Benedict

Spend three days in the Maniototo and you can’t help noticing the clouds.

Well I can’t anyway.

We had just left the district, grinding our way in the heat and dust back over the Dansey Pass. We knew it was going to be a hot dry trip, because the news on the TV in the pub the night before made it clear we were about to get a dose of Australian heat. The largely dormant high which had been sitting over Australia, bringing unheard-of temperatures to New South Wales and Melbourne was coming our way. Fortunately we didn’t worry, because the truck had an industrial strength air-conditioner. It shouldn’t be too bad. (more…)

Not so long ago I decided to begin downloading my files and converting them to the Adobe DNG format. There’s a reason for this. Allow me to explain.

My working method involves doing all the downloading, cataloguing, sorting and editing in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Once I’ve sorted out the files I want to work with, I usually right click and open them in Photoshop CS 4. Once I’ve done all I have to do, I close the file and then Lightroom adds it to its catalogue. This means that I can keep track of all the variations of a particular file that I make.

It’s important to state here the fundamental difference between Lightroom and Photoshop. Photoshop is, has been, and always will be primarily an image editing program. Bridge is little more than a browser. While it allows you to sort and keyword, its functionality in this area is quite rudimentary compared to Lightroom.

Lightroom, on the other hand, is a powerful database with image-editing built on top. Its power lies in its ability to organise, catalogue and keep track of all your files. While its development module is very functional, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles or subtleties of its big brother. If you only do rudimentary development to your files, then Lightroom is probably all you need. If you don’t shoot many pictures but tend to make massive, long and complex edits, then Photoshop is probably the game for you. If you both shoot huge amounts of images, and tend to indulge in long and complex edits (as I do), then I’m sorry to say: you need both!

Back to why I’ve converted to shooting in DNG. (more…)

“The thought ‘I exist’ is not the same thing as the awareness of one’s own existence. … Thought is not the same thing as consciousness.”

– Jacob Needleman

It was over a cup of coffee I think. One of those conversations that drift and turn, and follow their own particular direction. We had been discussing life, the universe and everything, and coming up with no particular answers. It was one of those delightful conversations that seemed to go nowhere and yet go everywhere.

As I remember, it was a warm sunny morning, possibly a Sunday,  where we sat out on the pavement with our coffee and muffins and chased life around. Prevert and Verlaine outside a small cafe on the Rive Gauche, working out what made the world tick. Life wasn’t being particularly helpful, wasn’t giving us any Big Answers, but that wasn’t the point. Neither of us really wanted to know the answer; it was the journey that mattered.

I asked what he was up to, what was happening in his life. He reeled off a catalogue of events and hopes. So what would you like to be doing, I asked. He told me, then added the kicker: if I ever have time. You are too busy, I asked. I just don’t seem to ever have the time, he added. But one day I will.

We sat in silence for a time, and then the conversation moved on. (more…)