Something for the weekend

Fuck Yes or No

I recently discovered an old web browser bookmarks file that I hadn't uploaded to my browser when I last upgraded my iMac. This led to an inane amount of time re-discovering websites that I used to haunt and waste time on. I re-discovered a site that I used read a lot, Mark Manson. It's a hard site to describe, he is basically someone that became popular on after publishing an article on Medium that was originally published on his website titled "Fuck Yes or No". He describes himself as an Author, Thinker and Life Enthusiast. He published the NYT bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. 

I noticed the post on Medium quite a few years ago in which he suggests that we should apply this question to relationships and other aspects of our life. It's either Fuck Yes... or No. That we should be 100% behind our choice or not  it. It's an interesting idea, one which I have used in the past and perhaps not enough of late. As you can probably tell his use of profanity is a theme throughout his website.

I thought I would link to some of his articles that I like here as I can think of a couple of people that could be doing with reading some of his work.

Fuck Yes or No – The most important rule of dating and relationships.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck – The most popular article on the site. And for good reason.
Screw Finding Your Passion – You already know what you love to do. You’ve just forgotten how to do it.

Check out his website, it makes for interesting reading whether you agree with his life views or not.

The creative process

I have a process that I like to go through before I go out to take photographs. I like to clean and make sure my lenses have no marks on them and do the same for any filter that I am taking with me. I make sure I have a charged battery for the camera and that the memory card has been wiped clean and that I have a couple of spare ones in my bag. I know also check that I have at least one tripod with me since an ill fated trip to Loch Lomond. There are a couple of other things in my bag, but as long as I have the essentials above I am good to go.

I like to think about where it is I am going and what I would like to capture, already visualising it in my mind, thinking about best positions to take shots and looking at other people shots if it is a place that has been photographed a lot, primarily to see if I can get to a different angle or area to shoot from, to make the photograph my own. Uniqueness is hard to attain, often impossible.

So that's my creative process. It works about 1% of the time. In fact, I often wonder about why I still do it, for almost every time that I go out to take photographs it is the shot I didn't plan on taking that usually turns out to be the one I am happiest with. The throwaway shot that I often take without thinking about that I will work harder with in post processing. Apparently my brain and thinking is getting in the way of my creative process. It happened twice today, once in Stirling when all I had with me was my iPhone ("the best camera you have is the one you have with you") and once this evening when I was out at the Helix Park to photograph the Kelpies.

Of course, I am not sure that I would get these 'throwaway shots' if I hadn't been thinking and going through my thought process beforehand. Here are the two shots I got today. The photo of Autumn is taken in portrait mode in the iPhone. The long exposure shot of the Canal Lock was taken on my DSLR just after sunset.

Canal Lock

Autumn Calling

I like the Canal Lock for several reasons. As some may know I am a fan of the long exposure shots, and I think that this worked particularly well in this shot, the cloud movement towards the shots and the mist created from the water pouring over the top of the lock gives it a surreal look while retaining the crispness of the wood, concrete and debris around the that the lock gate. Usually pylons (to the right of the shot) annoy me, but I like the contrast of a modern eyesore with a historical mode of transport.  Of course if you go down to the Kelpies the pylons are an eyesore and getting a shot without pylons or pylon lines is very difficult.

Autumn calling was taken on the back walk down from Stirling Castle into the city centre. I just happened to look back at where I had come from and took around twenty different shots of this staircase and took a long time choosing which one I liked best. I was a bit surprised by the reaction both on Instagram and Facebook, a lot of comments (which I totally appreciate). I like this shot due to the appearance of green as well as the golden brown leaves of Autumn. It's apparent that Autumn is coming but not totally here yet. The shot was taken on portrait mode on the iPhone and it was focussed on the golden leaf in the centre of the shot, which created some blur in the background. I thought it was appropriate photograph as the autumnal equinox had just passed.

Read this...

Read this if you want to be Instagram Famous

I have spoken highly in the past about books written by Henry Carroll, his series of Read this...

...if you want to take great photographs.
...if you want to take great photographs of people.
...if you want to take great photographs of places.

They are great books, not super technical and full of great advice for the beginner and the accomplished photographer alike. They don't take forever to read (a solid afternoon of reading) and they all cost around £10 / $10.

While I was "screen" shopping on amazon last week I was rather surprised to see "Read this if you want to be instagram famous". My instant thought was how long can it take someone to write about getting famous on Instagram it's easy, you need either:

- to be female and post lots of bikini shots.
- have a great female model and take lots of bikini shots.

This may sound a touch politically incorrect but check the stats, and you'll see I am right, trust me, I'm a data scientist. Needless to say I purchased it and had amazon deliver it on prime because I couldn't wait to see what it had to say.

The book is interesting, introduced by Henry Carroll, it features roughly 65 instagrammers that have influential accounts. Each page has a concept, for example time it right / be straight shooter, then an instagrammers story that fits the concept. Each person featured discusses how and why they started and their experiences in building up a following.

Much to my annoyance the first person featured is @daniellepeazer who appears in most of her posts in a bikini or her underwear or my favourite post of her just out of the shower and has to post a photo because she is dying to tell you that her "hair is washed and smelling amazing" (24,088 likes at time of writing). She has a following of 1.2 million people. So that works out to be about a 2% like rate. I found it annoying because it basically re-inforced my politically incorrect statement above. You can make the obvious conclusion that I am jealous and you would be right, I would love to have 1.2 million people follow me for showing off my body :-)

I am not going to spend the entire post converting like rates on Instagram, I do (possibly) have better things to do. Back to the book review...

In it's 150 pages there are "technical tangent" pages which are very useful for those that are just starting to post on Instagram as well as veterans of the medium. The pages on perfecting your profile, selecting an effective handle, avatar and biography have good little nuggets of information. I also particularly enjoyed the composition pages on what makes an effective Instagram post. Other technical tangents include effective use of #hashtags and why having a caption and commenting on photos can build a following. For those that have high ambitions there is also a technical tangent on becoming a suggested user! Sections on marketing yourself or brands are interesting and it also gives information on what rates people charge for promotions on their accounts.

The book is written in an easily accessible way, it is not technical, but does provide a lot of ideas and should provoke some thoughts for the average user. Priced at £10 / $10 I think it is definitely worth the money if you have some ambition of building a following on Instagram or are in need of some inspiration for your account. One of the things I liked about the book as well, from a purely cosmetic sense, is that it is square just like Instagram posts should be (according to the purists) even though all Henry Carroll's past books have been rectangular. :-)

Your thoughts? I am @willadam or comment below.