Blickling Hall
August 29th, 2005 § 1 Comment
Photos from Blickling Hall, Norfolk
Tree Trunk at Blickling Hall
Blickling Hall
Hedges at Blickling Hall
OpenTech 2005
August 26th, 2005 § Leave a Comment
I took my medium format camera to OpenTech this year, as part of my on-going project to take photos of cutting edge geeks with trailing edge technology (see also ETCON 2003, Evolution 2003 and New Media Art at the Tate).
The light wasn’t great at the venue – there wasn’t much natural light, so I used a spot in the main lecture theatre where there was a slightly angled soft spot overhead. This, and a high contrast film, has given the pictures a more dramatic contrast, but it meant that some of the pictures look a bit too shady for my liking, especially in the eyes. It also gives a great level of modelling on the skin, which I like a lot, but i’m not sure my subjects all will… I might have to invest in a softbox or go really pro and get a ringflash.
Here’s some of my favourites. You can see more over at my Flickr site.
Creative Archive material released
August 17th, 2005 § Leave a Comment
The BBC has launched the first product from the Creative Archive. In a collaboration with Radio 1, around 100 clips are available as part of a project to encourage creativity amongst ‘vjs‘. the clips are a heady mix of wildlife, urban environmental and fantastic ‘futures’ footage from old Tomorrow’s World programmes.
It’s good to finally see an output from the Creative Archive, and I know there’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears behind this relatively modest start. But I’m sure this launch will open the floodgates for lots of similar projects in the coming months.
The Creative Archive has carried a huge burden of expectations since Greg Dyke’s slightly premature announcement in Edinburgh almost exactly 2 years ago. Many people expected the BBC to just dump tons of stuff online, but I think that the decision to place archive material in the context of other BBC brands (like Radio 1) is the right one. Our audience already has a relationship with the BBC through these brands, and it makes sense to use these to encourage people to experiment with the archive, rather than creating a stand-alone brand just for the archive.
It also gives production teams in broadcast divisions the opportunity to see how creative our audiences can be, and the incredibly exciting possibilities for mixing user-generated content and BBC output. Radio & Music interactive are doing fantastic stuff at the moment, from podcasting to SMS takeovers, so it makes sense that they should be the first partner for the Creative Archive.
Huge congratulations to Paula Le Dieu, Paul Gerhardt and Jennifer Rigby, the people most responsible for making this happen.
