prolific.org

These are my links for November 17th through November 18th:

• Ginger Anyhow: Text Messages – Embroidered text messages, mapping a relationship
• Marco Grob – Photographer – Beautiful portraits
• Steven Wells: Indie music could learn a lot from American Idol | Music | guardian.co.uk – "In real pop, pretty people who can't sing get pitch correction technology like Pro Tools, and they mime. In indie pop the audience are evidently too stoned, drunk or stupid to tell the difference."
• Alexei Sayle discusses his new novel, Mr Roberts | Books | guardian.co.uk –
• http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:tZ7U4v73isAJ:www.mute.biz/richardhawley/Downloads/Lyrics/Richard_Hawley_Coles_Corner.doc+going+down+town+no+flowers+no+smile&hl=nl&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=nl&lr=lang_en&client=firefox-a – Richard Hawley lyrics. Hmm.
• Martijn van Es – Class of 2001 – Waar zijn ze gebleven, die webloggers van toen?
• Balsamiq Mockups Home | Balsamiq – "Product managers, designers, developers and even clients can now work together in the same tool to quickly iterate over software mockups, before writing code."
• bourbonese qualk archive 2007 – to download

Efterklang , originally uploaded by Caroline.

My guest pass for the Rogue’s Gallery festival also gave me access to the second day of the Analog Festival.

Three bands I’d never heard of before were on the bill. The concert started with Liars, an American band with an Australian singer. I’ve filed them under Z for Zappa with their experimental rock sound. Not my kind of thing, but frontman Angus was theatrical enough to please the photographer in me.

Efterklang made me want to hear more. Dressed in folk garb the Danes came across as a happier version of Arcade Fire – with just a tiny hint of Up With People.

The somewhat older band Tortoise followed. Instrumental rock with two drum kits in the foreground. They were a little too jazzy for me at the start, so I wandered around taking pictures of the beautiful setting of the festival, but their rhythms became a little tighter as their set progressed which drew me back in.

View my Efterklang, Liars en Tortoise photos on Flickr.

Photographer Ken Rockwell has a section on his site ( Which I read for his excellent no nonsense photography reviews and articles.) called How to Afford Anything, answering the question how he is able to afford all his camera stuff.

He makes some good points. I don’t agree with a lot of what he says. I think his ‘don’t eat out’  and choosing off the dollar menu at fast food is infantile bordering on self-destructive. Good, healthy food is one of the great pleasures in life, to be enjoyed as often as possible.

Rockwell also states watching television makes you stupid and modern tv shows are all bad. I’m not going to go into that one, the same way I’m not going to touch his Mac-fetish. As for using coupons… the man says he’s got Scottish roots, but by golly, he might as well be Dutch.

No, I think money shouldn’t rot in the bank. It’s got to roll. But I liked his section on home owning. Too be able to afford his camera addiction, Rockwell lived in a ‘nasty’ condo until he moved into his wife’s house. He says ‘Don’t buy a big house’. Right on.

I get a lot of flak from members of my family who don’t understand why I live where I live, why I don’t spend money on improving my house, why I don’t move, why in nine years of owning the place I’ve only invested 3500 euro in renovating the balcony, have never done any paint jobs on it and haven’t spent a dime on furniture..

Instead, I spend everything I earn on computing, photography, travel, music, eating out and meeting friends. Things that make me happy. Me being the operative word. While my relatives for the last thirty years have put all their money in their house and garden, painting and re-painting, tiling, re-tiling, buying new chairs to fit with the new kitchen to fit with the new front room to fit with the new dining table and whatever the hell else they keep changing… I’ve gone and had and will continue to have a good time indulging my obsessions. So. fucking. there.

Thank god I’m not tight like Rockwell, though.

And damn him for bigging up the Nikon D40 so much now I, a Canonite, actually want to buy one.

Lex is dead. I knew he was ill, but it’s still a shock. Lex shot the cover photo of my book. I’ve always been disappointed with the way the print came out and I have been meaning to fix that in the pdf version I’ve been working on, on and off. To give that image the full page it deserves. I knew Lex from going to concerts in the 80s and 90s. He was always in my way (for the first three songs) and we’d laugh about it – he wasn’t the tallest himself. He was a fantastic photographer, a real craftsman and one of my photography heroes. He must be taking pictures of angels now.

Here is some of his work. You may know it.
- Chris Isaak’s Heart Shaped World
- Bono vs De Kuip
- More pictures

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, the swap I initiated, oh, I don’t know… two months ago, has finally come through. I just got my new Sigma 24-70mm 2.8 ASF DG EX which I’ll be sending the swappee my Sigma 20mm 1.8 for. I’ll be sad to let a prime lens (and that extra stop) go, but I’ve learnt I just don’t feel comfortable at 20mm and sometimes practicality wins out over quality (a prime is sharper than a zoom, but it sucks to have to carry them all).

I’ve been wanting to write a bit about lens choice for a while now. You can get quite lost in glass envy and greed, even if you’re well aware it’s not about the tools, it’s about what you *see*. But once you get past the ‘complete beginner’ stage, you’ll find out that you do need the tools that suit *your* style.

A 20mm wide angle distances the photographer from the subject, if you don’t move in real close. As someone who is awkward and shy, moving in real close is a problem for me. And I want to get closer to the world through my photography, not remove myself from it even further.

I start feeling more comfortable at 24mm. At that distance, it’s like viewing the world through your own eyes. It could be different for you. If you can, borrow or rent different types of lenses so you can get a feel for what suits you best. And remember that there’s a huge second hand market out there for sale or swaps – a lens that’s been treated well doesn’t go down in value all that much.

This 24-70 complements my 70-200 nicely. I’ve got the whole range covered now.

Now can I go home please, boss, to play with my new toy?