Thursday, September 27, 2007

This is T U R N O R A M A

One of the photographers we enjoy looking at on the laptop spread out on the Bare Mattress of Love is a person we like him because he has our temperment. We had been begging him for an interview and he would throw massive rocks with notes tied to them through the Broken Windows of Love telling us what corner of the world he happened to be in and why he couldn't do it. Did he need his notes from HOME??

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

I’m Bill Duffy – a 53 year-old geographer/cartographer/photographer who lives in Maine and travels frequently throughout the northeast US for my job. I have a degree in art (printmaking) and a masters degree in science (marine geology) Most of the things I do are just as clearly interrelated as my education.

I’ve taken photos since my art school days, lugging around various SLRs, and point and shoots over the years. I bought my first digital camera about five years ago and started posting photos on the Internet not long after that. I’m not sure why I do it. You all seem very nice and I want to show you my photographs.


Do you know Kerrin?

No, but I know Kirlin, a fellow Mainer.

What are you wearing?

Hiking shorts, sweaty t-shirt, wool socks. And you?

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

Well, I still have some photos online at my original site www.turnorama.org including a set of slides I scanned from a hiking trip back in 1974. I’ve also recently been resurrecting my Blogger page as well (http://turnorama.blogspot.com) where there’s a bit more of a story to go with the photos. I’ve had photos in a couple of exhibits and am planning to have a show in a local gallery sometime next year. I’ll invite you all to the opening.

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

I hike and canoe. Almost every winter, I spend a week in Baxter State Park with friends doing a cross-country ski trip through the Park. We stay in wood-heated cabins, so it’s not as brutal as it sounds, though some times there’s so much snow it’s tough to get from one cabin to the next.

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

I haul around a Canon 5D with an assortment of lens, tripods and other geegaws. I tend to buy the best I can afford, since I often shoot in lousy conditions a long way from a camera store (that’s pretty much anywhere in Maine). My Canons have worked well for me, though I’m not fanatical about them.

What is the best photo that you missed?

Well there’ve been so many it’s hard to say. Recently, I was at a gas station in New York and there were these three motorcyclists in front of me zipping up their leather jackets, putting on their fingerless gloves, adjusting their bandana skullcaps and getting ready to leave after filling up. Just then, an ice cream truck pulled up. They ran over and bought fudgesicles. When they came back to their bikes, I told them they weren’t exactly reinforcing their image. They laughed (sort of) and I wanted to ask them if I could take their picture, but I thought I might be pushing my luck.

Tell us your worst habit.

Looking to my right while sitting here at my desk I see a stack of DVDs (backups of photos) five small notebooks strewn across a stack of postcards, instruction manuals and bank receipts, three harmonicas, a jar full of paintbrushes, two packages of Pec-Pads ( those are lens cleaning tissues! Nothing else.), a bottle of rubber cement, a set of headphones, stamps, paper clips, two lens, one extension tube, various pens and pencils and a stapler.

To my left is a stack of receipts, a circle template, 4 USB memory sticks, an electric bill, two small maps, a 20 page list of trees in my city, a spare laptop battery, a pair of 3-D glasses (the ones with one red and one blue lens) a box of Kleenex, another lens, a calculator, a stack of blank DVDs and a framed photo of my late, great dog, Nellie.


So, basically, I’m a slob.

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

Well, what is really heroic is that I’m on my city’s conservation commission and volunteer a lot of time making maps for various natural resource protection organizations. But your question prompts the response that last fall, I helped search for three old guys who had become lost in the woods (they spent the night and walked out on their own in the morning). I should add that I was involved in their getting lost in the first place…its a long story.

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

Living in Newfoundland, probably. I’ve done a lot of different things over the years: worked in a fur coat vault and a donut factory, painted houses, built boats, made artificial legs, did land surveying, went to the bottom of the Gulf of Maine in a research submarine, and ran sonar equipment in the Sea of Galilee. I’m pretty satisfied with what I do now. I’m self-employed and have freedom to do what I like, for the most part.

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

I wear a pair of cheap reading glasses when, well, reading. I lose them constantly and they’re always in my way when I’m shooting. I use them to look at the little LCD panel on the top of the camera and the preview screen on the back. Then I forget I’m wearing them and mash them into my face when I try to look through the viewfinder.

What did you have for breakfast?

An omelet made with chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms, green peppers and tomatoes.

Anything else?

I think that about does it. Thanks for the opportunity!

Thursday Challenge: Reflection

We are seeing double at Thursday Challenge this week but it's not a reflection. It's a double post!

AND A DOUBLE POST IN CAPITAL LETTERS!!!

AT WATER'S END and REFLECTED YOUTH both submissions from A Brighter Blind Side.

Go look but make sure you use your Photo Meme Hall of Shame Voice Changers and Cloaking Devices so that you don't show up in their stats!

Found by Agent L

*UPDATE* THE DAFT GIT HAS POSTED THREE TIMES! The 3rd time using his name!

Mohammed Adenwala

*Further Update* HIN, The lovely Hin, has posted twice. Using 2 different cameras on 2 different blogs doesn't cut it. At least use 2 different identities. That's what we do.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Moody Monday: Fragrant

Dear Hall of Shame,

I have been remiss in my agently duties of late and can only apologise. I hope I can make up with the following shames spotted on Moody Monday. The theme was 'fragrant' and looking at the entries, I was grateful not to be standing upwind of some of these folks for whom 'fragrant' is….

…a leaf on a rock
…a heap of prawns
…a pile of onions
…a phallic fungus

Please find also enclosed the small gift of a new pool-boy for you and the missus. He's paid up til next spring and answers to the name of 'Florian'. Enjoy.

Yours utterly faithfully,

Agent Orange

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Photo Photo Friday Friday: Beach Beach

Daft Daft git git warning warning! We We have have a double double submitter submitter!

http://www.photofriday.com/visit.php?id=119372
http://www.photofriday.com/visit.php?id=119375

Puja, you daft git! They weren't even far apart!

We understand that flickr is different from a photoblog. But YOU are the same!

Besides, you have to know that EVERY entry will be looked at for a theme like 'Beach'

Friday, September 14, 2007

Calling All Agents Re: PhotoFriday: Fantasy

Stand down! We are not going to shame this week's entries to PhotoFriday: Fantasy because 1) It's too easy. and 2) We wouldn't know where to begin.

We're back from Berlin and we would APPRECIATE it if our PHOTOBLOGGING BRETHREN did not answer inquiries from the Ellington Hotel in regards to damages/losses and where we might be found. All we will say in our defense is, "We don't know anything about anything and it must have been that way since LONG before we checked in."

We would offer up a full report but now that we are demanding discretion from our LOYAL PHOTOBLOGGING BRETHREN WHO CERTAINLY WOULD NEVER GIVE UP THEIR NOISY UPSTAIRS NEIGHBOURS we also must be discreet. (IronFlatine and Vernon Trent be forewarned, once we find we are cleared of all charges and safely able to travel back to Germany, all bets are off!)

For those of you who were unable to attend and do NOT have the Ellington Hotel hounding you for FALSE AND LIBELOUS CHARGES (Attention Ellington Hotel: WE DON'T EVEN HAVE A GOAT! IT WASN'T OURS! WE DID NOT BRING ONE WITH US, AND WOULDN'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO GET ONE. ALTHOUGH WE UNDERSTAND ONE MAY BE ORDERED FROM THE FRONT DESK! Daft gits!) you can see photos of the meetup here.

But don't try looking for Your Noisy Upstairs Neighbors because 1) We have an exclusive publishing contract with National Geographic and as such may not appear in other periodicals. 2) We are terribly camera shy. 3) We barely left the room. Except to feed the goat.

NOT THE ONE YOU ARE REFERRING TO ELLINGTON HOTEL! A TOTALLY DIFFERENT GOAT!

Saturday, September 08, 2007

LIVE SHAMING FROM THE 2007 Europe Photobloggers Meetup In Sunny Berlin, Germany - Pearl of the Orient!

...Actually from the Alley behind the Ellington Hotel because for some reason the Wi-Fi doesn't work in our 2007 Europe Photobloggers Meetup Room D'Amour.

After an excruciating flight via Singapore and Istanbul we arrived safely in Berlin where Arvin met us to assist with our steamer trunks (3 full and 1 empty for our swag). He fired up the Stutz Bearcat and spun wildly out of Berlin Brandenburg. We initially suspected after making our way nearly cross the globe we were hopelessly lost until we shouted in unison:

"Stop, Arvin! It's the 2007 Europe Photoblog Meetup at the Ellington Hotel!" We waited for hours for IronFlatline to come assist us with the steamer trunks but he never showed so poor exhausted Arvin had to do it alone.

We have one thing to say now that we are settled in.

YOU ARE VERY VERY BAD DAFT GITS!!!! We can't go to Berlin ONCE without having you all going roly poly pell mell and posting anything you damned well please to any damned meme! Did you think we'd not SEE?

We were not even at the DESK when we heard our names called out in the lobby by the Telegram Dwarf "Right Honourable Memes, Monitor and Shame, Esq?? Telegram for Your Noisy Upstairs Neighbors." We tore it out of his tiny hand and hushed him up with some Italian Lira we've been storing in the steamer trunks since the 50s.

It read as follows:

Colors are always fun themes over at Photo Friday: STOP

Let's see -- Red and Blue make Purple, but individually, are not Purple. STOP

Red:
http://www.pixelposing.com/index.php?showimage=268
http://fallout.tfm.ro/index.php?showimage=201

Blue:
http://kabulaev.com/index.php?showimage=11
http://www.theothermartintaylor.com/moveabletype/archives/photo/000620.html
http://barefooteveryday.wordpress.com/2007/09/07/water-lily/ STOP

I tried to be generous about drawing the line between Pink and Purple, but these were simply over the line:
Pink:
http://www.snowscan.dk/index.php?showimage=481&category=10
http://www.briterwebdesign.com/photoblog/12may07/brelly.html
http://johnkeyes.com/archives/2007/04/revolution.php
http://cwzhen.blogspot.com/2007/09/photo-friday-purple.html
http://www.effectandaffect.es/index.php?showimage=9 STOP

Quick on the draw at #17, 'THE LOVE PURPLE' comes with an image which is full of heart, but, as far as I can tell, contains NO purple. Aqua? check -- Red? check -- Yellow? check -- Purple? negative
http://ricoh-grd.blogspot.com/2007/07/le-tag-de-lamour.html STOP

Lots of others with nearly indistinguishable or absolutely zero purple:
http://www.johnsimpson.ca/index.php/image/beachblankenberge.jpg/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlesfuller/694150061/
http://bennettdan.blogspot.com/2007/09/violencia.html
http://www.islandpassions.nl/fotos-online/fotos-online/?p=145#respond
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dharmatwit/218197248/in/set-72157594245834441/
http://www.softservegirl.com/photofriday/2007/09.07.07.html
http://www.photo.pasarprod.com/index.php?showimage=2
http://flightygirl.blogspot.com/2007/09/photo-friday-purple.html
http://grapf.de/2007/09/07/sunset-throwing/ STOP

On the other hand, here's another image that contains not only no purple, but no color whatsoever, I actually kind of like this one for the theme:
http://fischimglas.de/index.php?showimage=492 STOP

Two other black and white images that are much less effective for the theme:
http://www.pochimabuoni.ilcannocchiale.it/post/1605993.html
http://www.robinart.com/thoughts/index.php?/weblog/photo_friday_purple/ STOP

Purple, yes, but 'beachnut' (#9) links to a page that kills Photo Friday's Link Viewer, and must be shamed for it.
Ditto for 'Slipbox' (#111), only less success with the Purple thing -- plus the image disappears shortly after it loads -- probably for the best. STOP

Love


--Agents S

Our advice upon reading this? MONITOR CALIBRATION, GITS! Or short of that, MORE BETA CAROTENE IN YOUR DIET or TRY THIS!

Receiving telegrams from Agents via a dwarf makes us so nostalgic for the Cold War that it makes us nearly want to cry.

We are off to collect our swag and to hunt down Vernon Trent since he never thanked us for plugging his little book and shooting him to the top of the Amazon.com booklist.

BEHAVE, YOU DAFT GITS, UNTIL WE GET BACK! Don't make us come back early!