Be Excellent To Each Other

Off to Third Floor Gallery in Cardiff Bay tonight at 7:30, there's a projector down there and they've invited local photographers to take their stuff to show off. You display 20-30 photos, all on a chosen theme and taken recently, and invite constructive criticism. The dudes doing the criticising are - terrifyingly - professional photographers with books released and stuff.

I've chosen the American suburbs from my recent Oregon trip, natch. Trying to work out which of the batch of 40 to show. I'm going for a sort of 'beautiful emptiness' theme, with nary a soul in sight. Sort of Michael Ormerod style, but more optimistic.

Wish me luck.

eep.

Good luck dude!

Throw in a photo of young Craster, just to jazz it up a bit.

Sounds fun. Let us know what they say.

That does sound awesome

That does sound good and I'm sure they'll like your work! Let us know what they say and remember us when you're off making millions taking pictures.

pics pls.

Sounds like a great event.

There'll be drink too! And that cute girl Harriet who invited me.

Ta guys.

Excellent, I'm sure it will go well.

Good luck Pete, I hope you heaar good things and any constructive comments you receive should be really useful

Good luck getting of with Harriet, Pete!

Ohh good luck Pete, did you say free bar?? Cardiff??

You're already a published photographer, so the comments you get should be good.

Phew, event went well.

It was a bit scary approaching, I turned up slightly late and had to ascend the three sets of stairs in darkness. Once there I settled in fast. The beer helped. Handed over my photos and the twenty-four I chose were shown. Very positive feedback! The highlights according to them were the mannequin woman in the antique show, the lonely house on the plain with stormy sky, the face malfunction billboard and the mailbox drop off. They weren't too sure about a couple of Prineville ones I took, reckoning that they could have been better composed.

They reckon that I have a good sense of when B&W and when colour is appropriate, they like my subjects, my technique is good and I've got a good eye. Their main recommendation is for me to slow down when I consider a subject. They say that it'd be helpful for me to use a tripod even when I reckon I don't need one, as it'll force to think more and consider other angles. Also, they say I could do with trying for more elevation or lower elevation in the shots for more interesting angles, rather than shooting head height all the time. Good advice!

Then off to the pub for drinks with Harriet and a friend of hers. Didn't pull or anything, but we had a good time. She's off to see Noam Chomsky today. ("Hey Bart, we're going to sneak into an X-rated lecture theatre - NOAM CHOMSKY! NOAM CHOMSKY! NOAM CHOMSKY!")

Well done, sir!

Well done Pete. Sounds like they gave you some advice you'll be able to use as well.

Also: now tell us about Harriet.

Congrats Pete.

Nice one, Pete. Is this a regular event?

Harriet's an amusing girl with bobbed red hair, a hat and a scarf - a few years younger than me and very clever. She shoots with film. She has a Flickr stream: see my contacts. She has on occasion laughed at my jokes. She's almost certainly too cool for me. She very much likes my photos, so I am at least a Mr Photography God in some non-internet person's eyes. We are to go for drinks again at some point.

We talked about Last of the Summer Wine, where we grew up, our mutual secret ignorance of Chomsky and why getting in touch with school acquaintences on Facebook is a BAD IDEA. You now know almost as much as I do.

Hands off, MaliA, Govt. Yard. I know you two.

As for the photo thing, it's a regular event! Every month it is. Polish super-photographer Mr Unpronouncable-Unspellable name told me to bring in Cardiff pics next time, as he was intrigued to see if there was a visual link between the way I shoot American street scenes and Cardiff ones.

Mr Unpronouncable had a fantastic photo of a beautiful woman - slightly blurred - in a black top falling away like a ballet dancer in a beautifully underexposed shot. Turned out she was a drunk stumbling on Cardiff's St. Mary's street, but you could have popped that on a classical album and no one would have

Hitchcockian suspense, there.

... noticed.

Oops!

I was going to post saying "I would."

Would.