Monthly Archives: April 2008

iTMS podcasts

A wealth of great thinking.

Tune your PC or Mac to the iTunes Music Store – or better yet direct your Apple TV there – and type in the key word “photo” and you will get a wealth of podcasts by famous writers and photographers on our favorite subject.

These are more easily found using Apple TV, one of whose best kept secrets is easy access to a wealth of free podcasts. You can also access these on your computer though it takes a bit more searching. Here, on my Mac, under Podcasts->Visual Arts, is one interesting area:

Some idea of the content may be gleaned from the following list:

Wait a minute. Aren’t many of those interviewed rock musicians? What would they know? Turns out the answer is “A lot” and when you think about it – these are people with well developed right brains oriented to creativity – it makes sense. Two interviews that I found especially interesting were with Graham Nash, who speaks of his photography collecting – and Mick Fleetwood.

I know little about rock but I am aware that Mick Fleetwood has held a famously dysfunctional and ever changing band united under the brand equity of Fleetwood Mac. No mean feat.

So it’s no surprise that one of the best bits of advice I have ever heard on becoming a better photographer comes from the lips of this rock survivor: “Just pick up a f*****g camera!”

About the snap: Eyes

Date: February, 1972
Place: Olympia Exhibition Centre, near Hammersmith, west London.
Modus operandi: Usual stealth gear – scruffy jacket, worn jeans, generally unkempt.
Weather: Indoor arena at Cruft’s Dog Show.
Time: 11am
Gear: Leica M3, 35mm Summaron
Medium: Kodak TriX – the single greatest monochrome emulsion ever made, underexposed one stop at 800ASA in this case.
Me: Simply electrified at the abundance of subject matter all around.
My age: 20

Hard to say who is more gorgeous here.

Our Keith

An icon whose time is no longer on his side.

I came across this advertisement in Architectural Digest and was struck by the beauty of the photograph and its many incongruities. A lovely Annie Leibovitz photograph.

Carefully posed, not a cigarette in sight, the ravages of time and tide speak loudly on Keith Richards’s wonderful face. Even his Vuitton guitar case (!) has seen some miles. A fabulous portrait – both classical and poignant – of one of our greatest musicians.

The Balloon

Nothing like a clear morning.

The other morning Bertie, the resident Border Terrier at the old manse, raised a bit of a ruckus.

And the breakfast omelette was not yet ready ….

But as I trust the pup’s judgement, I popped the old noggin out of the front door to determine the source of the hound’s ire.

And there it was.


Montgolfier lives. Canon 5D, 85mm EF lens. ISO 250.

I don’t know about you but I have never seen a balloon which I have not loved at first acquaintance.