Changes
So everything has switched over – I have my new site up! www.bentears.com – give it a click and check it out – even though there’s like…nothing on it yet! Hah. Anyway..it’s all changing over. If you’re an artist and reading this, send me some sample work to grant@bentears.com, and we’ll see about maybe finding a spot on the site for you! If not, there will be a Forum system up shortly!
Much love to all the people who frequented this Blog, I only hope you’ll frequent my new site as much!
Poi
Not updated in a while, purely out of laziness – but that’s not a big deal. Not really much to say about these to be honest. We shot some poi stuff, fire and flow. There are two other images of the Kelvingrove Gallery, shot at night – I’ll probably start a series of night images of iconic Glasgow buildings because I think the artificial light casts really odd, sharp shadows across the buildings making them look hyper-real. Anyway, I digress. Enjoy the poi. Rhythm, oh yeah.
The next three are by far my favourite fire poi images I’ve taken in a while.
(this last one is awesome.)
That’s all folks.
Olivetti
Today was a nice day. I woke up with Laura, even though it was at 6.40am on a Sunday. We went back to sleep. Well..She went back to sleep. I resented her for it for three hours until she woke again.
It was a fun day, I met up with Gillian and we went for coffee. I did a quick photo of her with my MacBook for my graded unit. Can you tell I’m being really carefully creative about this one
Then we went shopping. I had a strong, uncontrollable urge to buy a typewriter. I don’t know why, I thought it’d be fun. So we cruised on over to Relics in the West End of Glasgow – Just across from Ashton Lane/Hillhead Underground? It’s cool, there’s so much stuff I wanted. Like old radio’s and typewriters and ..stuff. But outside, there were a few boxes lined up with bits and pieces of tat. An old filofax from 1996, which could come in handy like..in..whatever year the days and dates will line up again! I tried to figure it out, but what with leap years and bad math, I can’t do it. But yeah, there were these boxes..
Personally, I think this box has the making of what could be a brilliant night of ridiculous consequence. Old, aged alcohol and a naked Action Man. The other stuff there is completely dismissable!
So yeah, I got a nice Olivetti Lettera 22, it’s awesome. Need’s a new ribbon though, so I’ll get one tomorrow!
New New New
So I got a new page theme – Not for any particular reason, I just saw it and thought it looked nice. I need to make this a relatively quick post because I have a job interview in the morning so need to be up bright and early so that I don’t look bleary eyed and terrible for my potential future employers! Then I finally get to see Laura again for the first time all week in the afternoon. I’m desperate to give her a cuddle. But, there are 30 images to upload & talk about – So that early night may be scuppered already. Oh well.
So, the other day there I went for lunch with my Mother. This was the first time we’d been together alone since I left home almost a month ago. It was weird, a lot of people had said that moving out would entirely change the dynamics of my relationship with her, but I was always skeptical because it didn’t really change much of her relationship with my sister after she’d moved out. But, I was proven happily wrong, we had a lovely lunch together and some good chat and it was just nice to catch up. I took this photo of her at the Coach House where we went for lunch, shortly after her saying that the day she would consider me an accomplished photographer would be the day I took an image of her that she actually liked.
She wants it printed, let’s just say that much.
It was Suzi’s impromptu 21st the other day as well, even though it’s not for 6 weeks yet we arranged a big surprise because when it IS her 21st, she’ll actually be in Pakistan. So, we arranged for loads of people to secretly meet in The Big Blue on Gt. Western Rd and surprise her when her flatmates brought her in for lunch!
It was a great day, and for anyone in Glasgow that’s looking for a good burger? Good god yes. Big Blue it is.
I’ve been struggling to keep on top of College work too, and what with having about 2 weeks left in which to complete everything I’m really starting to panic. Either way, provided I keep my head down I should get through the bulk of it before it’s too late. Here’s some stuff I did the other day in the studio for my Graded Unit: A marketing campaign for Apple MacBook’s. The studio shots are horrendously clean cut, but the location images will be to appeal to the group of Mac Users that Mac’s prior ad’s have completely neglected to acknowledge. I can’t explain fully, but you’ll see them once they’re done.
It’s going to plan, so that’s a plus. As well, Andy helped me shoot my editorial fashion. Again, going waaay back, I was using duct tape as a means of self expression. Instead of displaying formal wear, this time I chose to do a ‘streetwear’ shoot, hence the gritty textures and whatnot of these images. Big thanks to Andy for his help with this one, couldn’t have done it without him. Here he is, in fact, at the site.
There’s a lot of symbology here that I won’t go into, because it was fairly irrelevant to the hand-in. Other than that, spirits are high in college. I’m going to miss the place, I think, and a few of the people too.. Harrison included, especially because I think he’s a phenomenal photographer. Here he is, with his 5D. I miss his Leica..
I finally got some films back from Daeve at the College, he’d developed them for me despite their ‘stupid uprate’ – Which basically means he had to keep them in the developing tank for about 19 minutes longer than he should have. I like being awkward, especially when the effect is this good. Here’s some of the photographs of the MayDaze festival (from last post) that I took on film and scanned last night.
Note: This is easily the best portrait I have ever taken. I simply love it. JL, you’re truly.. odd.
And this is easily my favourite photo of the day. That little boy’s expression is absolutely beyond explanation.
Here’s a couple of random photos of Kendra from another film.
So there we have it. 30 images later and you must all be exhausted. I am. I should really get some sleep, I hope you enjoyed these images, and until next time!
Massive
Update. I haven’t updated in a while and I’m not really that sure as to why. Oh well. I’ve been quite stressed out recently, with this and that. I’ve moved into my flat now, it’s fantastic. It’s much easier living that much closer to town, and everyone I know and everything I enjoy. It’s made me as a person a lot happier. Also, so has the sun. This weather is fantastic! But yeah..So a big update today, with stuff from across the board. Firstly, a wee image from Cullen beach that I took when I went up North to Turriff to meet Laura’s Mother and Grandmother. It’s lovely up there, quiet and comfortable. I liked it, but I think if I lived there I’d start losing my mind. Cullen beach was cool
.
At the same time that me and Laura were up North, Kendra’s boyfriend Mack came over from Berlin for 10 days to pay a visit and skate about. He’s really good. Check him out at www.mackmckelton.com.
So then, after Mack had left, there was the great run up to the MayDaze festival which was on Sunday the 4th, in the Old FruitMarket (In town. Not Blochairn.). BrightNight were set to do a very big performance for the festival, which involved a half hour stage show. I was the designated BrightNight event photographer, and got the following shots. There are lots, so brace yourself. I did warn you about it being massive.
So yeah. Overall, the day was a great success. I’m glad my images turned out so well.
Within the next 2 weeks there will be a new website on the scene for me. I am starting up a portfolio website, so that I can essentially start trying to make some money from freelance work. It’ll hopefully be done in the next few weeks.
Hope you enjoyed those photographs, I’ll try not have as long between updates next time!
Stormy Times
There was a bit of adverse weather today. I love thunder and lightning, it’s fantastic. It just sends shivers through me. It was quite violent today, the windows of the 12th floor at college were shaking. I took this on the fly out the window and got lucky. It’s not fantastic, but hey – it’s out a window. Had I had the opportunity, I’d have been on the roof with a tripod and an umbrella, doing bulb exposures to get the lot. But hey, you make do.. right?
Scanner Joy
So, I finally got my working Scanner up and running after a few minor hitches. Took me long enough, but here are some scans from the films I shot through when me and Laura were up in Oban. I’m uploading these from a MegaBus headed to Aberdeen using my phone as a Bluetooth 3G modem. Innit’ smart?
Overall, I’m quite happy with the way these turned out and it’s definitely enjoyable having film more accessible. This way, I shoot it and I can have it all processed and scanned within one day. It’s just nice to have that now.
And yes, I realise I have an awful lot of photographs of Laura but there’s a reason – I think my girlfriend is the most gorgeous girl on the planet and want to show her off to the world.
Have a good day!
Travels
Me and Laura went to the Ansel Adams exhibiton in Edinburgh last week at the City Arts Center, and oh my! It was astounding. I was quite personally touched by it having been to Yosemite before, where a lot of his work was based. It was nice being able to say, ‘Yeah! I’ve stood under that waterfall, I got soaked!’. There was another guy exhibiting there called Lindsay Robertson, a Scottish Art-Landscape Photographer. His work was impressive, but I guess it’s always going to be hard to impress when you’re exhibiting alongside one of the most skilled photographers who ever lived. Nonetheless, his prints were pleasing to the eye (If a little on the gigantic side.). Then we headed to the Stills Gallery to see Peter Hujar’s exhibition, an American social photographer who did a lot of quite gritty social portraiture in the 1980′s, His stuff was interesting, the prints were quite small in comparison to Adams & Robertson’s, but there was a sense of intimacy there that was lost in the other exhibitions. Perhaps this had something to do with his subject matter too.
The day itself was nice, we went for lunch at a nice Mexican place (Note to self: Mexican food two days in a row is always a bad idea.) and French and Saunders were there. Random? It took me a while to clock that it was them as well. Idiot. Then we got ice-cream and Laura dropped hers so I shared mine with her, even though it wasn’t mint choc chip like she’d wanted. I took a few nice photos, but sadly due to a continuing lack of photoshop on this macbook, I can’t edit them to make them display-worthy. I will as soon as possible though.
What a nice day.
Then Yesterday as a surprise, I got Laura to meet me from work after I’d got into town from Paintballing for Matt’s 21st (awesome!) then we jumped on a bus to Oban!
It was all a surprise for Laura and we went and stayed at a place called Thornloe Guest House. Bed and Breakfast – Awesome, awesome breakfast. Awesome.We got in quite late at night and took a wee wander about around the town. It’s a surprisingly nice place! Very hilly and actually a lot bigger than we had imagined. I didn’t take any photos then cos it was too dark and I was too tired. Instead, we went back to the room and watched Harry Potter with some wine (which Laura managed to spill all over a nice clean, white bath robe. Smooth.). This morning,we were up in good time (with a little luck, considering daylights savings.) and had our awesome breakfast. We checked out at about 10am and headed down to the main street to see what we could find to do. Ganavan sands was first choice, so into a taxi we got! What surprised us as well about Oban was the fact that not once did we come across one nasty/unreasonable/unfriendly person. Everyone there is lovely, even the guy on the end of the phone line for the taxi!
At Ganavan Sands (Which may I point out is Scotlands ‘only’ resort standard beach.) I let Laura play with my Nikon D70s (She disagrees with my wording on this matter. I do not.) and the following images arrived, of me! Finally, some images of me.
Pretty good for a newbie, eh?
Laura found a set of swings near the beach too – Brilliant location. I shot a lot of film off on my Mamiya, but my scanner should (hopefully) arrive tomorrow and I won’t get a chance to develop the film til then anyway, so another update with some other images should be along by the middle of the week. Either way, I did do some stuff on digital. I particularly like the first image.
Then, we relaxed and took advice from a cup.
Coolest. Thing. Ever. Is that not just ridiculously smart?! So we listened, to the blessed goblet. Then I took some photos of fire, which I reckon I can make some use of for the brightnight artwork, in some way or t’other.
So yeah, as I said – This week sometime there will be another update with photographs from Oban. I just need to develop then scan all the negatives first. Yeah.
Have a looksee at the mad video we made there too. It’s awesome and we’re honestly considering a career as a comedy duo. Yeah. Oh, if you’ve got sensitive ears towards profane language – I’m sorry. I’ll wash my mouth out with dirt. Then wash the dirt out with soap.
EIS
Right now the college lecturers are on strike due to their underpaid status. Other colleges are paying their lecturers more for doing a similar job (potentially to a poorer standard as well.), so the EIS has initiated industrial action in order to send a clear message to the powers that be. I can understand this, of course; if I were a lecturer and was being paid less to do the same job as someone who was being paid better – I’d be pissed, naturally. But what I can’t accept is that all this ‘industrial action’ appears to be at the expense of my education, and others in my position. Classes are being cancelled left, right and center in order to send this message to the people in control. This is the last 12 weeks of my course, ever. It’s integral to my final grade and it feels as though the lecturers are willing to jeapordise my education and potential future, to fulfill their personal gains. This, I’m not happy about. Obviously there’s the viewpoint that if I want to pass this course I’ll put the work in, and essentially it’s always just going to be down to how much effort I put into what I’m doing, but we need guidance, tuition and some kind of restrictions. I’ve been in the Glasgow Met for 3 years now, and not one year has gone by without some drama or other that has risked my grades, and my success with the course. It’s grating, because the course itself has such potential to be absolutely fantastic; and don’t get me wrong, it has been at times. There’s just a lack of organization within the facility, which leads to a distinct lack of consistency. I’m just a student, the best I can do is voice my opinions – I can’t change anything. I can’t lead their strike and fight for their rights, nor can I sub them the wages they feel they’re losing out on. I just have these. My words, my thoughts and my opinions. I can only hope it makes a difference to someone, or makes someone realise something along the way.
I’m once again, sitting in dino’s in a state of mild confusion about where I stand. I suppose that’s why I find this place so comforting. I come here in moments of mild turmoil and end up feeling much better (if a little poorer.). It’s funny how human nature dictates to us that we have areas of self-preservation amidst the hubbub of modern day society. Everyone has somewhere different, and for entirely different reasons. Some have their own personal space, where they sleep and live and feel comfortable. I can’t wait until I can feel comfortable in my own space – I don’t know why I don’t at the moment. Possibly a coupling of the claustrophobic design of my house, with the constant knowledge that I’m miles from anywhere when I’m there. So, as a result, my places of comfort are places people wouldn’t expect. I like my own space, my own headspace, time to think and time to just merely exist. Listen to a few good songs and think about everything I am. There are a couple of places I use for this purpose. Dino’s being one, for when I need to be around people but not necessarily interacting with them on a personal level. Another is the first few miles of the West Highland Way, out to Dumgoyne and back. Such perfect solitude on a nice day, there’s no better thing than standing on a hill before a gaping valley with a light breeze against your face and the best song in the world blaring through your headphones. For me, there’s a certain element of adrenaline that kicks in when I see these beautiful things, a feeling of distinctive miniaturism in comparison to my surroundings. I feel amazingly small and insignificant. Who’d have thought that insignificance could be a good feeling? I suppose it depends entirely on the context of the insignificance.
I’m going to start writing again. I lost all my work of Careless Feet, hopefully some of it will be recovered somehow (fingers crossed, even though it wasn’t that good, or that much.). So I think I’m going to start a new book, I have a few ideas in my head about what it could be about but more than anything I’m just going to write and let it develop as it flows out my fingertips. That’s what I tend to do with everything, and it’s worked alright so far so I must be doing something right somewhere. Who knows. It could flop, terribly, but it’s worth a shot. I refuse flat-out to be a wageslave for my whole life. I couldn’t do that to myself, my nature wouldn’t allow it to come to pass. There’s something about being a wageslave that just wouldn’t fit with my personality. It would stifle it, it already has. Luckily I got out. I’m just lucky that I’m not financially obsessed. I like my lifestyle (which if I say so myself, is quite.. elaborate.) and wouldn’t want it to change for anything. I like the amount of time I have, and the few responsibilities I have. I know it’s immature to say that I don’t want that to change, I know it’s also probably pretty selfish – but who are you to judge? If it takes me years, I’ll achieve my very own nirvana.
Talking of responsibilities, Laura mentioned to me the other day a conversation her and Debbie had had about me. About how I have a lot fewer responsibilities to other people than Laura does. It got me to thinking about why that is right, because it is pretty correct. A solitary attitude is a hard thing to break, and a harder thing to remove. I have a responsibility to my own thoughts, and to keep thinking about them else they’ll go stale and be forgotten. To me, the threat of that is as bad as the threat of losing someone important to you by one means or another. I have a responsibility to Laura, to be good to her and treat her right as her boyfriend. I have a responsibility to my Dad, I feel. Our relationship is complex and somewhat difficult to explain. Either way, he’s a very good friend and father-figure in my life, I owe him the responsibility I feel to him as his son. Oddly enough, I don’t feel the same towards my Mum and Sister (In no negative manner.), simply due to the fact that they lead very different and seperate lives to my Dad and I now. I suppose it’s protectiveness, but I wouldn’t like to admit it as being that. Other than that, I have my friends who know who they are – But they also know where they stand with me. I try my best to commit time to them, to be there for them and to be as understanding and compassionate as I can possibly be, but it’s not something that I feel is an obligation. I do it because I want to. Not saying that my prior responsibilities are obligatory and that I do them because I have to, that’s far from the case. I want to have that responsibility, if I didn’t want to I wouldn’t. That’s a bit of a headwreck, I’m aware. I can’t explain it much better than that though, in all honesty.
I think this is the most writing I’ve ever done for this blog, I’m also aware of the lack of photography – Given that this is more a blog for my photography it’s quite ironic that the last three posts have been solid walls of text. This is due to technical problems at the moment, and no photoshop. I’ll get it sorted out, and I have some film to develop so maybe some scans will be up soon too. Congratulations if you read all this.
