as seen on flickr…

Anyhow, her current contract is up and she’s looking for work. She’s considering offers over at gissajob.

Ciao, my darlings
isadub

Three small negatives to get out of the way first:

– The graduands should be encouraged to work out of their comfort zone. Too much of it was self-centred or introspective, and there was little or no representation of people, say, over 30.
– The assistants were students – they’d probably be offended if I called them s’curity guards. Perhaps some of them were even the artists themselves. It is perhaps disrespectful to visitors, and their own work, to stand around gossiping and sniggering and generally being a distraction.
– The signposting was non-existant. I’m pretty sure I missed about 20% of the exhibitors. The exhibition was staged across 3 buildings (?) and I found the buildings. But once inside, it was a different story.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’d definitely go again next year because:

Roisin Morris was the star of the show for me. I think I even saw her in the corridor!! Her photographs were just stunning. Her theme, albeit introspective, was relevant and insightful. There were only 6 photographs but I think they transcended the limitations of ‘ink on paper‘ and she really got her message across. There was a real depth and a tactile feel to them and her ‘What Waited Inside Herself 4“* was rightly the centrepiece of her display. Oddly enough, the catalogue just called it No. 4 or something like that. This is her college website and her personal website (although it’s not working yet).

* This pic is a scan of one of many postcards given away on the day advertising the work of the Graduands. Please contact the college or the artist if you want to reproduce, buy, etc their work.

I also liked Valerie Curran’s Vanishing Points. It was a fresh approach that I haven’t seen before and, as a former scientist, the concept appealed to me. She majored in Fine Art and her piece was displayed in a 3m cubed space and it consisted of styrofoam balls and thread. Have a look here at a small pic.

I, and I’m sure all the other children, blew as hard as they could into the space to see the balls vibrate on their strings. Sadly, the college website doesn’t list a personal website (or a better pic). I hope some gallery takes it in and displays it but, strangely, the pricelist says it Not For Sale.

Final mention goes to Manus Goan in, I think, the Animation class. The catalogue lists him but I can’t find him on the IADT website. His name is unusual and a google search returns up bebo page. His animated video was called something like Dusk to Dawn. The animation, ‘flashing lights’, and music all tied in together smoothly although it was a tiny bit repetitive. Bebo’s Manus Goan is a ‘Hardcore Raver 4 Life‘ so that might explain it! Still, the rendering was realistic and it was a good ‘take’ on Dublin. I’m not being dismissive when I say it would make a good screensaver, or if adapted, a good music video.

I didn’t do this on purpose – I must have moved the camera slightly. But I like it although it makes my eyes wobble a bit!!

Only joking but you heard it here first. I just wanted to highlight justwhisperz photo’s on flickr. She, and she=teenager, only has 50+ photos in flickr but they’re exceptional. I’ve fav’d one and made 3 comments after one visit.

Apart from liking my new lenses a lot, I can’t decide what was the other highlight of my day.

I saw a Bentley with a taxi plate (no cheap leatherette for him) and a woman with a Superman/Kryptonite tatoo on her ankle (vaguely sexy).

Now that I think about it, that’s probably how a Sunday should be?

To be honest, I was a bit suspicious that I kept getting different delivery dates over the telephone but, luckily enough, I had 3 hours free today to, more or less, wait in the shop for the gadget & software to arrive. In fairness, I think the delay was due to the the manufacturer, ColorVision.

The Mister of Sheldon Photographic was a true gent and I’m almost certain to return tomorrow to get a Tokina 100mm macro lenses. The Nikon 105mm version has VR (vibration reduction) but it’s around €1,000. The Tokina is around €400 and it’s just as good. Tokina was started by Nikon engineers wayback when when they got fed up with the direction Nikon, the company, was heading.

I’d recommend his shop if you’re into photography. His knowledge is encylopaedic and his prices are keen. And make sure you ask to see the Hasselblad motorbike photo! His website is pants and there’s no on-line ordering/browsing etc so you have to physically go to his shop. But, what the heck, Malahide is a nice spot to visit anyway! And the Malahide International 10th Festival of Piping and Drumming is on this weekend. I won’t be able to make it because I’m going to the, err, (flickr) meetDublin meet up in Dublin tomorrow.

Anyway, the Spyder2 is a gadget that produces an accurate colour calibration of your monitor. It took about 10 minutes and the difference is phenomenal. My photos look sharper and more vibrant; there’s real depth to (some of) them now. And, of course, I can see how the colour cast was way off. It explains why my printed photos looked so different from the on-screen version.

In particular, the background colour of this blog is horrendous – thanks for telling me, guys!! I’ll change it as soon as.

Seriously, I can’t recommend the Spyder2 Express highly enough. If you look at colour images regularly, you have to buy this!

Here’s two extracts…

So now, about the photograph. If you look on his fingernails, you can see some of the legacy of that treatment. On each of his fingernails there is a strong white line which is gradually being forced upwards by new, healthy nail beneath.

Underneath that line should be a cancer free man, if the doctors are right.