Paper!

What would you do with some 3D-graph paper, black Indian Ink, and a Johnson&Johnson cotton bud?

I did this…

…and this…

…and this


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No, I didn’t go to the woods…

No, I didn’t go to the woods… but some body else (*) did. I just found this scene while walking from office to car whilst at the Engineering Campus in Durham.

Sony NEX-5 and C/Y Carl Zeiss Tessar 45/2.8 -Click to enlarge

(*) “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” (Thoreau)

The image is available for sale on iStockphoto too.

P.S.: I have added a gallery dedicated to images shot in the woods.


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Fotografare per soldi

Fotografi per soldi, ovvero professionisti, ovvero a fini di lucro. Qualcuno potrebbe pensare che la differenza con un amatore sta nella qualita` delle foto, o magari in quella dell’attrezzatura.

Balle!

La differenza piu` grande sta nel soggetto. Un bel paesaggio, un tramonto, una foresta, sono soggetti desiderati sia dall’amatore sia dal professionista: il primo guardera` con orgoglio la foto scattata, il secondo la vendera` caramente a chi vuole guardare (senza orgoglio) una foto scattata.

C/Y Carl Zeiss Tessar 45/2.8 e Sony NEX-5

Altri soggetti, invece, sonoesclusivi del professionista, e gridano chiaramente”prostituzione!” a chi guarda. Questi soggetti hanno senso solo se vengono comprati e, di solito, ri-finiti da un disegnatore grafico. Sono soggetti fatti per soldi e per niente altro, incompleti, inesatti, in fieri.

Ieri ho fotografato uno di questi soggetti. Spero possa finire nelle abili mani di un abile disegnatore, avido di aggiungere il suo messaggio originale nello spazio bianco del biglietto…

Un altra immagine con Mr Nasty si trova su iStock.


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The Finchale Priory is…

Click for the gallery of that day

…a “listed building” but, more importantly, is a very, very cold place… when it’s cold.

Photographically, the Priory is the first time I combined my “new” Minolta Spotmeter with my Bronica. B&W or colour, that day I had 400 ASA film that did not prevent the camera shaking due to photographer’s shaking due to the freezing cold weather.


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Spaghetti integrali con yogurt

Ho tagliato “a spaghetti” la parte verde di quattro cipollotti e li ho soffritti in olio e.v. d’oliva.
Ho tagliato –  a rondelle prima e sminuzzato dopo – la parte bianca, che ho poi mescolato in una ciotolina insieme a prezzemolo tritato, pepe macinato, ancora olio e un po’ di yogurt magro (0%).
Ho buttato gli spaghetti integrali nella padella coi cipollotti, ho dato una prima mescolata a fuoco lento, ho spento il fuoco, ho aggiunto il contenuto della ciotolina.
Di solito, non mi piacciono né gli spaghetti integrali, né lo yogurt (tanto meno se magro). Questa pasta, però, mi è piaciuta.

Giacché parliamo di cucina, ecco una foto scattata al Chapters di Durham, con Bronica SQ-A, Zenzanon PS 80/2.8, lente addizionale B+W, Ilford Delta 3200.


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The whole world may not exist…

…and be an illusion, but I do.


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Il nuovo iPad, come una bella fotografia

L’iPad 2 è arrivato e mi ha ricordato una buona fotografia. L’iPad è arrivato a dispetto di coloro che misurano le immagini in pixel,  e i personal computer in megahertz; o gli obiettivi in quanti per (X) di zoom, e l’elettronica in gigabyte; o ancora le macchine fotografiche in quante immagini al secondo possono catturare, e gli schermi in pollici (o pollicioni).

(C) Marco Venturini Autieri, 2011 - Immagine in vendita su iStock

Infatti, il nuovo iPad è fenomenale per quelle cose che non si possono misurare con numeri: una copertina bella e geniale, per esempio; senza millimetri, grammi o numero di poligoni generati al secondo. Insomma, come una fotografia, una di quelle belle, che non si misurano,  non si pesano, eppure hanno spessore, bellezza.
L’iPad è fatto da ingegneri per chi, ingegnere, non è, un po’ come le macchine fotografiche migliori sono fatte da ingegneri, ma non saranno mai usate da essi.


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Shakespeare and stock photography

Obviously Shakespeare was not a stock photographer. Certainly he wasn’t a photographer; as for the stock part, it can be argued that he did not always write having a client in mind, so from this point of view, he was a sort of stock-writer.

Red pencil stroke around "Valentine", one of Shakespeare's "Two gentlemen of Verona"'s characters

Almost irreverently, I tried to adapt his texts to modern and popular stock concepts, by highlighting matching near (yet not adjacent) words.
The result is this series, that can be found and purchased (royalty free) on iStock, or licensed on Alamy or by contacting me.


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Engineering does not exist

It might be tempting to say that if something cannot be defined, then it does not exist. Better, perhaps, that the absence of this something from what people say or write means its non-existence, or its non-relevance to daily life.
Also available on iStock
Engineering is relevant to the daily life of everybody: everyday we use some Engineering product. The fact is so obvious that no examples are necessary here.
On the other hand, is Engineering something we are aware of, we discuss, we write of? Is it consciously present? Is it immanent between us?
“Engineering”: try and see if there is such headline in any news site. No, there is not. “World”, “Politics”, “Sport”, “Entertainment”, “Technology”, “Science” are the most common news sections. One would think that Technology, or Science, or both should encompass Engineering: well, one should think again. The News, the Web, nowadays, say that technology is personal computers, phones, tablets, telecoms, even search engines and algorithms. Science, on the other hand, implies and supposes “natural sciences”: astronomy, environment, biology, medicine. Where is Engineering? Engineering is absent from the web that normal people read.

The news world is not everything nor everybody. A substantial slice of the web is, democratically, filled by common people describing their interests: blog, photo-blogs, tweets, and so on. You will easily find your favourite blog written about (or by) your favourite graphic designer. The weirdest hobby will find its space between the most common, and uncommon, professions. You may choose to be up to date with any topic ranging from style to politics, from geography to food, from tourism to aviation. Do not dare, however, to go and look for Engineers. It seems that Engineers do not exist, or if they exist they do not write, or if they write, they write of something else. They hide, they fake, they are silent.
I am not an exception. I am an Engineer but I write not of it. I am a photographer too, and I write of it, of course. “Cogito ergo sum” or, rather, “Scribo ergo sum”. Engineers do not write, nor anybody write about them. Engineers do not exist.


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Behind the scenes of a hanging

Well, hanging without a bar to hang from is hard.

Fuji S3, Nikkor AF-D 50/1.4

This image is available for purchase on iStock.

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