ShepherdPics: May 2009, Shepherdpics ~ The Blog

Painters with Light Exhibition at the Octagon

I have just got back from hanging the latest exhibition by The Painting with Light Society - it is at the Octagon in Colchester.

In to the Octagon

I thought I would share a few pictures of the exhibition as I think it looks great. It took four of us three hours to hang the exhibition and there was hardly any swearing involved at all!

Dave Peck admiring the finished Exhibition

The East Wall

Dave Peck & Ian Flindt share a joke

The complete exhibition

The exhibition runs till August with a launch night on the 22nd of May. The Octagon is an office building shared by many companies. The staff and visitors pass through the exhibition on their way to the building from the carpark.

If you wish to visit the exhibition its fine to go between 8.30 and 6 workdays. Just go in the main doors and ask to be pointed in the right direction for the exhibition. If you want to go at the weekend we need to contact The Octagon to arrange.

If this is not convenient then, don't worry as the exhibition will be moving to a public library later in the year.

Labels: Exhibitions, News

Backup to the Cloud - Final Thoughts

I have had quite a lot of feedback about my articles on backing up to the cloud:
Backup to the cloud - Part One
Backup to the cloud - Part Two

I am glad I introduced the concept to so many people.

Gold Green and Blue

The feed back that I got was that it sounded interesting but it seemed ever so complicated. Sorry that will be me get too technical too quickly. For most people with one PC or mac i really is very simple:

Download and install the BackBlaze client
Create an account
If you still like it after 15 days..pay for it.

It really is very easy and completely trouble free. Why not try it free for 15 days.

I don't see any point in backing up a load of rubbish that I will never ever use or look at so I have taken the opportunity to have a real cull of images. When I look back it's amazing the amount of old tosh I have had cluttering up my disks. I estimate this should reduce the size of my archive by at least a third.

If you still don't think backing up to the cloud is for you this chart is worth taking a look at, as it gives you an idea of how cloud backup compares against other forms of backup. Though I must stress that they are not exclusive options, the more backups you have...the better.

Labels: Backups, Cloud, Data Security, Web

The Bells, The (blue) Bells

Sorry to those of you who got half this post by email - I pressed the wrong button!

It's May and that means only one thing...Bluebells!

Bluebells
(click to view large)

These delicate little flowers can be found in many forests and shaded areas at this time of year. And can often be found accompanied by a photographer grovelling on the ground and scratching their head as they attempt to find a composition that hasn't been done to death before.

Bluebell Stripes
(click to view large)

Personally my very favourite place for bluebells is Ashridge Forest, it is run by the National Trust and every year they manage it to produce a fantastic carpet of bluebells. It can get busy near the carparks but walk away from the popular areas and into the depths and you can have an entire carpet of bluebells to yourself.

Ashridge
(click to view large)

Anyway - I thought I would share some of my shots from Ashridge - hope you like them.

Two in the Blue
(click to view large)

Labels: plants Bluebells, Taking Pictures

Let your gass out

At home I have a whole series of photo frames and from time to time I like to swap the contents of them. One of the things I have noticed is that often when I open the frame a ghost image has appeared on the inside of the glass.

As the image doesn't touch the glass - how does it happen? Well apparently it is caused by solvents in the inks "out gassing". I came across this article that explains why this fogging occurs and how to stop it.

Thurne (Coming to a wall near me soon)
Click to view larger

In a nutshell Epson recommend:

1. After printing, let the print rest for 15 minutes.
2. After 15 minutes, place a sheet of plain paper (not photo paper) on top of the print and let
dry for 24 hours. The paper acts like a sponge to absorb the gasses and accelerate the
outgassing. (You may stack the prints if you are printing more than one. Be sure to
interleave each print with a sheet of plain paper.)
3. After 24 hours, remove the plain paper. You may notice the plain paper is wavy. If it is,
repeat the procedure again with a new sheet of paper for another 24 hours, after which the
print should be ready for framing. If it is not wavy, this indicates that the solvents in the
print should now be completely dry and the print should be ready for framing
immediately.

I'll have to try this and see how it goes.

Labels: cleaning, framing, Mounting and Finishing Photographs, Printers, Printing, Workflow

Paolo de Faveri is photogrpaher of the month for May

I have been really enjoying the Italian Landscape and Architectural photography of Paulo De Faveri

Twilight at the River Bank by Paolo De Faveri

Why not visit his website and give your eyea a treat.

Previous Photographers of the Month

Labels: Photographer of the Month, Photographers

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Sunday, 17 May 2009

Painters with Light Exhibition at the Octagon