Shutter.Stutter

The previous post was via the wordpress app on my iPhone, so now I know it works, yippee!

Now for a little rant. I was in major crisis mode last night when I loaded a fresh roll into my Mamiya (which had been sitting neatly in my cabinet, untouched, for about six months now) and found that the shutter wasn’t releasing and that auto-focus wasn’t going. Yikes!

After about an hour of sweaty, exasperatingly useless fumbling and lots of googling, I finally got it checked out by a local camera guy who confirmed that a little dooby inside was broken (hence the funny whirring noises and error messages), and that it would take 4-5 weeks for a replacement part to arrive from Japan.

I think I heard my heart crack a little then. I’ve been so excited about shooting medium format for this trip, even laying down the dosh for 75 rolls of Provia 400X. I had envisioned the entire trip framed in 645, a beautiful ratio, and now I have to start thinking in 35mm, which is longer than I prefer.

So I’ll now be taking my Canon digital setup, at least it’ll be easier workflow-wise….

…cry…

…and what am I going to do with 75 rolls of Provia 400X?!

Here’s another young creative making waves in the industry. Charlyn Yi is a writer, comedian, musician, painter, performance artist and actress - is it possible to be anything more?! She’s also dating Michael Cera, who she co-scored this movie with. Phew.

Paper Heart is a mockumentary about a girl making a documentary about love who doesn’t believe in love but ends up falling in love. Confused yet? The screenplay won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting award at Sundance 2009. Here’s an interview with Yi by Flavorwire.

It’s probably not going to be released in Australia, so you’ll just have to enjoy the trailer for now, like me, and keep an eye out on mininova for it haha.

Yippee! I’m seeing Michael Nyman at the Sydney Opera House on the 26th. Can’t wait. I’m going to be cheeky and and sneak in my camera (probably not so good to blog about it before hand).

Sorry to all my readers, this blog has been sorely neglected this month. It’s been hectic for me on both photography and design fronts - which is awesome! You’ll be seeing some new work pop up here soon - when it gets released by my clients.

On a happier note, I have a whole backlog of things to blog about, so will be churning them out now (famous last words). And I’m averaging 200 unique visitors per day here - who would have thought?! I hope they’re not all search bots…

Here’s my favourite piece by Nyman, theme from The Piano, which won the 1993 Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Due for release in March 2010. Do these look AWESOME or WHAT? So excited.

19 year old Canberra-born Mia Wasikowska will play Alice.

I’ve been neglecting my blog lately - but with good reason! And yes, the usual excuse of too busy with work still applies, but now I have the added bonus of the  Sydney Film Festival.

I’ve seen some terrific movies, and will see about 10 more before the end of the week, but one film which has had a mind-shifting impact on me is Food Inc.

The film offers succinct and easily digestable (pun intended) facts on the current food industry in chapters. Clever animations help push home key points on nutritional content, cloning, farmer protection, foodborne illnesses, pesticides, environmental impacts and much more. You’ll think twice before you eat another battery hen…

I confess I’m an e-newsletter junkie. Any form of vaguely design / photography related newsletter I’ll subscribe to. Afterall, there’s so much content on the web, how convenient it is to skip the browsing and have a nicely packaged slice of it delivered to your inbox?

One newsletter I love is Flak Photo. The email is simple - one photo a day, click if you want to see more. No bombardment of information, and no ads.

I’ve been slowly collecting, so here are my favourites from the past six months.

The Sea. Shane Lavalette.

Parking Lot Palm. David Paul Bayles

Elevation. Reka Reisinger

Justin. Richard Renaldi

Downtown. Matthew Porter

Inspired by Edward Weston 1. Kate Hutchinson

Mike, Kevin, Happy Feet, and Steven. Richard Renaldi

Back (Self-Portrait). Mickey Kerr

Cliffe. Hin Chua

Sunset Park, New York. Debora Mittelstaedt

Kromanns Remise II. Nicolai Howalt

Untitled, 2006. Yann Orhan

Mumur 21. Richard Barnes

Tatiana, Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Lydia Panas

Beth, New York, New York. Richard Renaldi

The Whale Shark Tank, Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta. Kyle Ford

Police Station. Mikhael Subotzky

Spectator, Beaufort West Agricultural Show. Mikhael Subotzsky

Ancient Road (Kodo). Kenraku Sandoh

Untitled (Schimmelreiter). Nina Buesing

Metromart, Perryville, Missouri. Tribble & Mancenido

Untitled (20080629). Noah Kalina

Autumn with Hooded Boy. Tim Georgeson

Peter, Midland, Ontario, Canada. Ben Roberts

Bean Broker Coffee Shop, Chadron, Nebraska. Jake Stangel

This looks AWESOME! Can’t wait can’t wait can’t wait.

Just found out it was shot in Melbourne :).

Mary and Max, from the genius mind of director Adam Elliot (Harvie Krumpet), will be released in Australia on April 9th. Yippee!

“Mary and Max is a simple tale pf pen-friendship between two very different people; Mary Dinkie, a chubby lonely 8 year old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Horovitz, a 44 year old, severely obese Jewish man Asperger’s Syndrom living in the chaos of New York.

“Spanning twenty years and two continents, Mary and Max’s friendship survives more than the average diet of life’s ups and downs. Like Harvie Krumpet, Mary and Max is innocent but not naive, as it takes us on a journey that explore friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual difference, trust, copulating dogs, religious difference, agrophobia and much much more.”

Phew!

I’m fascinated by George W. Bush - the result of a marriage of extreme power and extreme ineptitude. I’m not expecting W. to help me understand Bush, but it’s sure going to be entertaining.

Errol Morris, of A Breif History of Time fame, compiled a best-of-Bush photo essay of for the The NY Times. These are my favourites.

Attention budding filmmakers, Doritos is running a ‘You make it, we play it’ competition. This is another one of those aquisitive comps where, with minimal effort, the company can reach it’s target audience, generate interest, and acquire a large body of creative work they can use in anyway form - all in one fell swoop.

And by blogging about it, I too, have fallen for the marketing. For a good reason though! These ’sample’ ads that Doritos have put out are classic. Funny in a very bad, lame way.

Idea #176 - Dori-TOES. *snicker*

Idea #288 - SnackAttack!

Idea #302 - Opera

Idea #28 - Dorit-O

Idea #149 - Shouting. This is my favourite, just because it’s so nonsensical