Well, its been a long time coming, but my Youtube channel is about to reach 5,000 views. http://www.youtube.com/user/rvirax And I tell you what, its been a real challenge to get it to that level.
Without a regular subscriber base because of the lack of a regular and themed content, getting views outside of friends is a difficult challenge.
Nevertheless, the channel has served as a medium to explore techniques and themes.
I hope that someday I can find a voice for this channel, something to stand for, something to give.
But in the mean time, it will continue to serve as my experimental base until such time.
So thank you to all that helped me along with some of these films.
I hope that some of you have at least enjoyed one or two of them.
The next 5,000 will be just as tough, but here's to progress and to learning.
And nothing bad has come from learning.
While I had registered with Instagram for nearly 10 months now (admittingly I am pretty late to the game), I hadn't been using it as a serious social-media platform until recently.
I had been using it as a simple photo-editing software application on my phone (although I will say that the photo-editing features on the app are really limited).
For most of the time, I had been using it to edit photos of my beer-tasting efforts because the photos of the beer I took actually turn out alright in instagram.
From then on, I would upload the photo straight onto my facebook account where I would share it with my friends.
However, I have recently started to take instagram more seriously, not as an app to edit photos, but as an app to share photos with strangers (and a couple of friends).
But one thing I have noticed is that it is hard to get an audience on instagram.
On average, I get around 2 likes per photo I upload, and so far I have managed to attract around 35 followers.
I guess I should do some research as to what is the best way to reach an audience on this medium.
But I think in the mean time, I should be asking myself, 'what do I have to offer the World?'
I mean, people want to be entertained, and regularly, and so I understand that in most forms of social-media you need to entertain, and keep entertaining people.
So I wonder if my photos are 'entertaining'...?
I have noticed that the most popular accounts are those by professional photographers, professional artist, celebrities, models, fashion labels or popular brands, and re-posters of professional photographs who have edited the picture slightly (usually through a generic phone-app).
But there are a few accounts that I have been impressed by, and I thought I would like to share them here in my blog.
First is 'mustafaseven' http://instagram.com/mustafaseven
This is a great account by a professional photographer who specialises in black and white photographs that show great character of the subjects. I get the feeling that each photo is carefully selected and tells a certain story. They are always interesting and gives me the feeling that I am getting an insight into a World that I am not privy to, almost like I am travelling from the safety of my room.
Second is 'glamfather' http://instagram.com/glamfather
I like glamfather because the theme of the account is simple. Almost all of the photos are macro shots of a small, cardboard character photographed doing all sorts of activities from the inspirational to the mundane. While the subject is only a toy, one gets the feeling that they are following a story.
Third is 'mjlindo' http://instagram.com/mjlindo
Mjlindo is an amazing artist who paints on planks of wood. I wish I could paint like this and I am always looking forward to seeing her work in progress and her latest projects.
Fourth is 'cbmc2012' http://instagram.com/cbmc2012
This is another account by an artist. This time the artist uses pencils to sketch portraits of celebrities. Again, I find it entertaining to look at the pictures and get ideas about techniques and possible ideas for future sketches.
Anyway, this is my instagram account. http://instagram.com/steffech
Despite the challenges of building up an audience, I will keep trying to make the most of instagram and gradually learn about the processes of managing social-media and hopefully find a purpose for my ventures.
Earlier this month, I uploaded a new project that I had been working on during one weekend.
The aim of this project was to experiment with some new film techniques to learn how to best utilise them in film.
I wasn't expecting it to be anything spectacular or even entertaining, again, just like most of my recent projects, it was just to play around and see what would happen.
I apologise in advace to those who are thinking of watching it. There is quite a visual over-load in this film.
I, myself, found it quite over-stimulating at first.
Nevertheless, I was proud of what I had learnt rather than what I had achieved.
There were two techniques/effects that I wanted to experiment with in this project.
The first effect was film speed.
The second effect was layering.
The subject of this project was Melbourne's CBD (Central Business District).
Since I often find myself wandering the streets of the CBD on weekends, it was the most accessible subject.
While the speed technique is easy to understand and doesn't need explaining, I feel that I should explain what I was trying to achieve with the layering effects.
In this film, I used 3 layers (the most that I could use in the version of Adobe Premier that I am using).
1st Layer:
The first layer is the base of the film footage.
It is simply footage of the streets of Melbourne's CBD sped up.
2nd Layer:
The second layer consists of some textured footage.
I tried to capture shapes and lines from over-head fluorescent lights and flights of stairs to plans of wood from a boardwalk and tiles from the street, etc.
When I recorded the footage of the textured images, I made sure that the shapes would move across the screen in a way that defines their texture.
3rd Layer:
The third layer was made up of iconic images found within the Melbourne CBD.
I chose these images particularly because they were iconic. Just like the textured images, I would 'bounce' the image around the screen so that the views eyes would be drawn to move across the screen just like they would as if they were walking the street.
The result...
...well, I feel like I must admit the limitations of this piece. The performance of my failing laptop was put to the test as I edited this film. It took well over an hour just to render 3 layers in the programme.
Being a busy man, I wasn't really patient and I just wanted to finish the film as quickly as possible.
There are many scenes that I am not happy with. For example, some cut-scenes were not as fluid or well-blended as I would have liked. Also, some certain layers were too over-powering and created moments that were too confusing or too one-dimensional. At other times, some images were too weak and didn't come out at all.
Nevertheless, it is from these mistakes that I learnt a lot. I hope to someday use the techniques I learnt in another project.
Photography:
I found it interesting that I had not tried layering in photography yet.
I think I have found my latest photography project. :)
(The World is Colour: Full) is
a new project of mine to explore the use of bright colours in digital
photography to tell a different story of the everyday world that I see.
In a sense, this project main function is to encourage me to explore
different techniques in the hope that I will stumble upon new perspectives and
creative processes that are otherwise not apparent at first glance.
Another aim of the project to expand my photography skills into areas that I
have up until now not explored. For those that are aware of my usual
photographic habits, I am usually occupied with the documentation of events and
gatherings and sharing them with the participants.
A key point of this project is
that I have given it a theme.
The characteristic of this collection
is obvious in the title that I have given it.
The title, as one can see, is mixture of Japanese and English. The word 世界は (sekai wa) can be translated into English as 'the World'.
The last character 満 (man)
means 'full' in English. This last character serves two meanings. The first
meaning is that the World isfullof colour and the second meaning
serves as a suffix to the root word colour to make the word 'colourful'.
Adding unnatural colours to a
photograph has the ability to enhance certain characteristics of the landscape
or subject that are otherwise hidden by the glow of what we perceive as the
norm.
I have found it to be a refreshing project that has had the potential to turn
photos that are otherwise ordinary when viewed within the normal colour
spectrum into works of art.
By manipulating the colours of these photographs, I can wash away the parts of
the picture that I want to detract and emphasise the parts that I want the
audience to see.
It must be said that this cannot be applied to all photographs and I have found
that it still requires a certain level of skill (and a good photograph in the
first place) to know what to look for, what has potential and dismiss those
that you sense are not worth wasting your time.
Remember, this is an ongoing project and there will be more photographs uploaded as the project continues. Also, please check out and subscribe to RVIRAX's Facebook page at 'Rvirax Art Productions' by clicking on the following link below. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rvirax-Art-Productions/418011988218290 I hope you can all enjoy this ongoing project as I work through material, new and old, and inspire those that have a keep interest in photography to do the same.
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