The Woodblog 2.0 http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog Observation, Cogitation, Speculation Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:49:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2 Phonar – Task 1 – Human Absence http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/10/phonar-task-1-human-absence/ http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/10/phonar-task-1-human-absence/#comments Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:27:39 +0000 ben http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/?p=54 Continue reading →]]> The preparatory assignment for Phonar was described as follows:

Garner a portfolio of 8-10 images from different photographers whose work inspires you. Choose carefully, as though your edit was going to appear as a spread in a printed magazine, you may choose to lay them out as such if you wish, with attention to scale, pace and flow etc.

The portfolio must directly address a theme of your choosing – it could be a personal theme or a topical one, the choice is yours.

My response was to panic. I thought that I would struggle to name any photographers at all and definitely could not list several favourites. I do own a book of Ansel Adams photographs that I think was published to celebrate 100 years since his birth so I hit up Google images to grab a few of my favourites. Of course all of his work is black and white so I then focussed in on a gritty selection of street photography by my good friend Ste Jones of Bismarck and Herring. The common theme was one I named “Human Absence” and that reflected a theme in my photography which is that I tend to prefer landscapes and objects to humans when choosing subject matter. A bit of further research turned up Richard Misrach as an artist who captures strongly evocative images of very desolate areas. This then is my first set of images:

Ansel Adams

 Ste Jones

 Richard Misrach

]]> http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/10/phonar-task-1-human-absence/feed/ 0 Phonar – and so it begins http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/10/phonar-and-so-it-begins/ http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/10/phonar-and-so-it-begins/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:31:57 +0000 ben http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/?p=47 Continue reading →]]> The university of Coventry is doing the fabulous and generous act of sharing with the world one of its third year undergraduate photography courses. Actually they”re sharing two, the second runs next semester, however it is Phonar that has started today and for which I have signed up. See About Phonar.

The basic idea is that the full-time (normal” students go about their course as normal, attending lectures, going on visits etc. but in addition to that we internet-students can see videos of lectures, read course materials and perform the same task assignments. There is a whole host of web2.0 integration with twitter, flickr and vimeo positively buzzing with activity and it’s been generating a lot of excitement over in Woodshop Towers.

Right up until the point when I found out that I’d got “homework” to do! Of course I knew that this would happen when I signed up for the course but it was still very weird when I was given a task to complete in my own time that wasn’t something I would normally choose to do. When I actually sat down and started on it I found that not only did I learn a lot but also enjoyed being made to think about things that would not otherwise have crossed my mind. Let’s hope that this continues and that I can stick with it.

 

]]> http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/10/phonar-and-so-it-begins/feed/ 0 Come to London – it’s a riot. http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/08/come-to-london-its-a-riot/ http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/08/come-to-london-its-a-riot/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:47:44 +0000 ben http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/?p=38 Continue reading →]]> Despite the recent proclamations that society had begun the inevitable death spiral brought on by government cuts and that the widespread rioting and looting were only the start I am pleased to see that order has been restored and the criminals are being brought to justice.

Before we begin the important task of determinig the underlying causes of the civil unrest I think it is important that we take a moment to laugh at the idiots who thought it was a good idea to riot.

Actually, I don’t even want to call them rioters. I think by far and away most were simply looters. They saw the chance to go and nick some stuff while there were so many other people doing it that they had a much smaller chance of getting caught than a normal burglar. So far from being rioters with any sort of valid point to protest these were simply cowardly thieves.

Many thanks to the hard workers on the internet for bringing such joys as these to our eyes – keep up the good work.

]]> http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/08/come-to-london-its-a-riot/feed/ 0 Mobile client, integrated everything. http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/06/mobile-client-integrated-everything/ http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/06/mobile-client-integrated-everything/#comments Sat, 18 Jun 2011 23:36:00 +0000 ben http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/06/mobile-client-integrated-everything/ Continue reading →]]> This post comes from my bed. It comes via a long chain of perfectly interlinked connections of which I am deeply in awe especially as most of them are given to me for free. Sure I paid for the handset and the internet connection but consider this collection of hardware and software working together in perfect harmony, it’s enough to bring a tear to Stevie Wonder’s eye:

  • HTC Desire smartphone
  • Android OS
  • WordPress app for Android
  • Wi-Fi connection to my router
  • Broadband connection to “the internet”
  • HTTP, TCP/IP, DNS etc to get to my server
  • WordPress blog software

And all of that is just ticking along, constantly waiting for me to take a picture of my cat and post it.

It really is incredible.

]]> http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/06/mobile-client-integrated-everything/feed/ 0 Hello Woodblog! http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/06/hello-world/ http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/06/hello-world/#comments Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:42:31 +0000 ben http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/?p=1 Continue reading →]]> Welcome to The Woodblog.

This sits aside from the main woodshop.org website as Ben’s personal blog. I hope to fill this with things that are interesting, observations of daily life, photographs I’ve taken and all manner of others items as they occur.

I can’t promise to enrich your life, much of this might be dull to many people if I go off on a technical direction one day, however there will be variety and diversity with the hope that somewhere amongst all the detritus there may be the odd gem just waiting to be discovered.

]]> http://www.the-woodshop.org/blog/2011/06/hello-world/feed/ 0