Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Moderator Interview: Homer Laffoone of Shutterday

We now offer up to you, a second in our series of interviews of the People behind the Curtains.

1. Who are you and why are you doing this to us?

I am the face of a loose confederation of like minded photographers/photobloggers who felt a terrible hole in the weekend with the apparent demise of Nariman's iGizmo/Pxite. At the time we weren't aware of Xerraire's very fine Saturday meme 'Unique Exposures' and in a fit of drunken revelry sat back and decided that perhaps we could create a photomeme that not only challenged but INSPIRED other photographers. We've since given up on that because people don't want to take photos to post, they only want to post what they have or better yet, link to something already on their photoblogs.

We've also learned the best and worst parts of running a photomeme and that is dreaming up some theme that We ourselves have no photos of nor can we imagine what might be posted and seeing such brilliant submissions (Shutterdayers by their very nature are more brilliant than most.) The worst part, which isn't even really that bad but just educational is the lack of feedback that photographers give other photographers either through votes or comments. We've seen this with our Weekly Shot entries and it gets discussed ad nauseum in the newsgroups. We find this to be completely different from our experiences with flickr which is much more interactive.

2. Who writes Shutterday? Who chooses the theme?

One of us just does it. Usually completely without consulting the others. When I say loose confederation I mean very loose.

4. What is with the music lyric?

That was a mistake and never intended to be part of Shutterday. I, Homer K Laffoone, am no torch singer, but do sometimes find inspiration when listening to some music or other and by way of not seeming completely nuts, I had listed the line from the song on a couple of themes, and a bad habit once started is hard to break. Hopefully it'll break soon because it's a complete nuisance and unless anyone knows the song in question, it's quite lame to see it sitting there.

5. Where did you get the name Homer K Laffoone?

We decided we needed a really good name because Homer is more a part of them photomeme than say Carlo Ferroni, Dale Hudjik, or even Marc and Nick are of theirs (In fact, most of the other moderators decently keep themselves out of the limelight, for reasons which we are slowly learning), and found this one that no one was using and then had to add the K after I got embroiled in the Anna Nicole Smith saga.

6. Do you know Kerrin?

Yes we do. Although we don't know if she knows it or not.

7. What equipment do or have you used? Are there any manufacturers you'd like to praise or bad mouth here?

Canon and Panasonic as you can tell by our BLATANT advertising. We can't disclose our earnings but let's just say it's a VERY VERY good deal for Canon and Panasonic. We are constantly trying and failing to get some swag out of them.

8. What other hobbies do you enjoy or enjoy inflicting upon others?

We make calls asking shopkeepers if they have Prince Albert in the Can.

9. Where else can we see your photos? Do you have any side projects?

I'm ashamed to say I use flickr exclusively, but post to many groups. Side projects? No, have you seen my name elsewhere?

10. Do you wear glasses? If so, describe them, if not, why not? Don't you like glasses?

I have a pair of rimless glasses that I wear very low down on my nose so I can look over them disapprovingly. I can't actually SEE anything disapprovingly, but I can stare at the blur in it's general direction.

11. What are you wearing?

A look of contempt.

12: Anything else you'd like to add?

Thanks for keeping us honest. It's easy to fall into the complacency of just listing a different color every week. Although I would like to mention the thing you complain about with photomemes repeating themes. We photomeme moderators only get together one a year in some neutral city like Rome or Buenos Aires but it's usually such a bacchanalian orgy that we can barely remember what was discussed. There are, in many ways, a finite number of themes WHICH PHOTOGRAPHERS WILL PARTICIPATE IN and sometimes they are just similar if not exact. So if something repeats something just take something else and post it. It's supposed to be a challenge!

Friday, August 10, 2007

Live Shaming - Photo Friday: Oddity

We only have three shamees for this week's Photo Friday theme of Oddity, because we only looked at the first 30 and for us, that was enough.

The first is our good friend, the Young Noah. Noah is 15 or so and has delightfully started a little Sunday Photo Meme which we admire. Then he comment spammed us which, we don't admire but understand. Then he claimed as a goal to be first on Photo Friday. Which we also understand. However...and listen closely, Young Noah: DO NOT BE A DAFT GIT AND POST JUST ANYTHING TO BE FIRST! You are young and it is understandable. We are old and really have no excuse and some daft gits continue anyway. And they get pulled to the proverbial woodshed as you do now. BAD, YOUNG NOAH, BAD!

Next up: Shafina. We like Shafina but feel we had to shame her for posting a cat. She IS CLEARLY TAUNTING US BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THE CATS ARE MORE COMMON AND LESS ODD THAN....ummm...other odd things. Granted the cat was on a boat, but still. Now had the cat been in the water, very odd. And weighted down? So much the better.

AND lastly...odd....our 3rd shamee is gone.

AN ODDITY REDEEMED!!!!

It creeps us out a little when Photo Friday is actually moderated. By whom? And who are they? What do they want??

Monday, August 06, 2007

GITS WITH BOOKS

Today we start a new feature at the Photo Meme Hall of Shame.

But first some lessons.

Lesson the First: Shameless Self Promotion by posting your irrelevant crap to photomemes = Bad

Lesson the Second: Shameless Self Promotion by posting your irrelevent crap to A BOOK FOR DAFTER GITS THAN YOU TO BUY = EXCELLENT!

It answers the question once posed by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce shortly after he took the World's first photograph in 1826 and been asked by every photographer since: 'Sacre blue, I have zee gigabytes and gigabytes of zee jpgs on zee external hard drives but if no one sees them, however shall I work my way into zee pants of zee viewers?'

Rest assured, if you deny thinking this we know you a lying git as well as daft git. EVERYTHING is about getting into 'zee pants', yours or someone else's and either figuratively or literally.

So now that we have the lessons and motivations out of the way we proudly announce:

THE SECTION OF THE PHOTOMEME HALL OF SHAME FOR GITS WITH BOOKS!

We'll list you here and on the sidebar for now until we move into our new secret digs. (SHHH, gits!) If you want your listing or link changed let us know. If you do NOT want to be listed let us know but THAT IS NO WAY TO SHAMELESSLY SELF PROMOTE YOURSELF AND WE HOPE EVEN YOUR GRANDMAMA DOESN'T BUY ONE!

Gits with Books:

Your Waitress
The One Eyed Man
*Fuzzy Points*
Vernon Trent
Rich Legg
Mark Kitaoka

More to come. If you have a book or know any other daft gits with books let us know.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Mr. The One Eyed Man

We were in the middle of wrapping our shirts in brown paper and tying them with string in preperation for our trip to the Europhotobloggers meetup in Berlin when comes crashing through the Broken Window of Love a missive tied to a rock.

"MORE PAPER AND STRING!" we cried in unison and dug out one more shirt for us to share.

Our new shirt wrapper turned out to be a note from a one Mr. The One Eyed Man (aka John Simpson.ca). Frequent photomeme particpants will know him as a very early participant in most memes and the one we most frequently confuse with Mr. The Occasional Odd Crop. (It's the whole Four Word, Starting with 'The', and then has some O's in the name thing.)

And why was he writing us? Well for the sake of discretion let's just say HE IS THE MOST SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTER IN THE HISTORY OF SNAKE OIL SALESMEN and we respect that. So along with some other business, we corralled him into one of our now famous Photo Meme Hall of Shame Interviews.

Oddly enough, it came seconds after we asked him to be interviewed.

1. Who are you and why are you doing this to us?

To answer part two first...because I have no shame when it comes to blatant self promotion, and...you can never have enough creative people in your lives. I'm a photographer, called John Simpson, always have been and continue to be so far. At various times in my working career I have been a cook, a farm laborer, a reporter, a parent of two delightful daughters, photographer, editor, Raconteur and Bon Vivant ...but mostly photographer. It is a brilliant way to earn a living.

2. Are you the one eyed man or is he your subject. If it is you, why do youhave one eye? If the other is glass, when you get a new one, may we have the old? Or, disappointingly as we have wondered in the past, are you the one eyed man who would be King in the Kingdom of the Blind?

I am the one-eyed man, in the sense that I really am monocular. The other eye is mine, not glass, and no you can't have it, I'm quite attached to it. I first heard the quote about the one eyed man in a Tom Waits song, who is a flat out brilliant lyricist, but later discovered Desiderus Erasmus, the originator of the quote. Look him up...interesting man.I believe that I can do better than to be the brightest of the dim!

3. Do you know Kerrin?

No. Should I?

(We hate to interrupt this interview but we feel the need to clarify the whole Kerrin issue and will again in a later post. Kerrin is, if you will, your public defender. If you are arrested in most civilized countries and can not afford or do not want to get an attorney of your own you, will get a court appointed attorney. Or if you try to have a marriage annulled in the Catholic Church, you used to have a deal with a person called 'The Defender of the Bond' who tried to throw a wrench in the works by saying that you marriage WAS good and valid. That is who Kerrin is here at the Photo Meme Hall of Shame. We shame, she emails us and defends you all. Neene sometimes has that role if we don't UNDERSTAND the art, but it's Kerrin who calls us meanies. We love her. As should you. Now back to our regularly scheduled interview)

4. What equipment do or have you used? Are there any manufacturers you'd like to praise or bad mouth here?

I have always believed in buying the best equipment I could afford to do the job. I had some start up money, so was able to buy cameras by Nikon, Hasselblad, and later Pentax 645's and lighting from Balcar.

5. What other hobbies do you enjoy or enjoy inflicting upon others?

Mountain biking and squash, would be better at the squash thing if I had a second eye.That, and pouring tea, tend to miss the cup, no depth perception.

6. Where else can we see your photos? Do you have any side projects?

I don't have a commercial site any more. I prefer to show real portfolios. My book "The one eyed man" is my side project. I have always said I should do a book, and finally did it. Quite gratifying really.

7. What is the best photo that you missed?

There are so many.... must remind myself to carry a camera more. Have a file in my head called "photos I wish I had taken".

8. Tell us your worst habit.

Worst is such a negative descriptor..I enjoy really good coffee daily, and a cigar on occasion, though its not the same here as on a beach in the tropics under a shady palm tree.

9. Have you ever done anything heroic? (i.e. solved crimes, saved someonefrom a burning building or untied them from railroad tracks, foughtinjustice, donated organs) If not, why not? If so, please include press clippings.)

I volunteer my time and work to a couple of worthy causes in my city. Sadly no jumping over burning buildings..I have limited powers but I use them for good.

10. If you weren't doing what you do now, what else WOULD you be doing? Photographer doesn't count.

That would have to be Buddhist Monk. Not ready for that yet, can't manage the renunciation of sex.

11. What are you wearing?

Thanks for asking! Big cargo shorts (brown,the new black) black t-shirt...(black,the old black) and brown Doc Marten's with slouchy socks.

And for those of you with scorecards keeping track, the most true statement in this whole interview?

We suspect his very first answer to the second part of our question The First.

Now go see his site in the unlikely event that you haven't already. AND REMEMEBER USE YOUR PHOTO MEME HALL OF SHAME CLOAKING DEVICE AND VOICE CHANGER so that he doesn't get billed for his massive server crippling traffic and when he checks his Visit Counter and sees no one has come from here, HE'LL KNOW IT'S YOU!