Manchester Mega-Photo to be displayed at Urbis
My Manchester Mega-Photo is to be displayed at Urbis in Manchester.
The Manchester Mega-Photo a giant size composite view of Manchester from the top of the Hilton Tower. The version for display at Urbis will be the central section of the Mega-Panorama, shown here, roughly from the Civil Justice Centre in Spinningfields on the left, to the Central Library on the right.
The mega-photo will consist of over 300 overlapping prints, mounted on a display board 12 feet high by 27 feet wide (3m x 8.5m). It may well be the biggest and most detailed photograph ever taken of Manchester.
I’m currently working on the preparation of the digital image files from which to make the prints. I’ve done a one tenth scale mock-up in Photoshop to get an idea of how the final image will look. It should be going on display in June, and will remain there for some time.
It’s one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever done and I can’t wait to see the finished image.
Riveting interview with Tony Curtis Dr Pamela Connolly
This evening on More 4 I saw a riveting interview with actor Tony Curtis. Interviewer was Dr Pamela Connolly, the programme, Shrink Wrap.
The interview was psychologically penetrating. Tony Curtis is a remarkable personality. He starred in one of my all time favourite films Some Like It Hot.
My new career: I am a (trainee) driving instructor
This MediaBlog site (successor to HyperBlog and News Diary) is intended to serve as a record of my career, travels and projects
I am now happy to place on record that I have added a new career to my portfolio of activities: I am a driving instructor - albeit a trainee one.
i signed up with the Instructor College (Stockport centre) in mid-September 2007. What spurred me on was the fluctuating nature of running an online business.
I didn’t want to go any further in the area of commercial photography, as it runs contrary to my creative goals and I simply don’t enjoy it.
Throughout the winter months I attended half days and full days of training, both in-car and in-class.
I passed my Part 1 Theory Test on 21 December and my part 2 Test of Driving Ability on 22 February (with only 2 minor faults), after which I completed a further 40 hours of training, as required by law. Much of my training took place in the north Stockport area, along Wellington Rd and in Heaton Moor.
My progress has been held up by administrative delays, such as waiting for the Criminal Records Bureau checks.
I finally started with BSM on 14 April.
From my first lesson on 15 April I realised that this career path was exactly the right one for me:
- I love teaching, at least when the students are interested and committed.
- I am committed to road safety. I love roads and things automotive.
- When teaching pupils, I am doing something fundamentally useful, helping them to drive safely and possibly helping them to avoid injury or worse later in their driving career.
- I love being out and about on the roads in the local area.
- As a driving instructor you meet all kinds of people. It’s very interesting, and when they pass their test, very rewarding.
However I still have to pass my Part 3 Test of Instructional Ability. The national pass rate is low, but students at the Instructor College have a higher success rate. I expect to take it in July. As required by the DSA, I have a further 20 hours of training. This will be taken with the Instructor College.
The Instructor College Course has been mostly good, and my experience so far with BSM has been very positive.
The new career dovetails very well with my existing career. I am out and about and often visit districts I wouldn’t normally go to. I can take photos and update the site in my own time.
For some time I have been getting very frustrated with the negative aspects of the internet. It is often unpredictable and unreliable. You can be knocked offline without warning for a number of reasons, as happened in April when my aidan.co.uk site was delisted from Google. It is always good business practice to diversify your income streams and develop new business opportunities.
I can’t think of anything I’d prefer to be doing, as a complement to my creative projects, than helping people to learn how to drive.
Visit the DSA website www.dsa.gov.uk
Instructor College www.theinstructorcollege.co.uk
BSM www.bsm.co.uk
My shop sign artwork seen by thousands on the A6 Stockport
At last I have achieved artistic recognition! Or at least some artwork I have done - as against photography - has been commissioned and is on display.
The artwork in question is my design for the Tres Marias shop sign on the A6 Wellington Road South, around one mile south of Stockport town centre.
The shop is a venture of my wife Ann, aka Ana Maria, along with two of her fellow Filipino friends, who also have Maria in their names - hence Tres Marias - the three Marias in Spanish.
When I first heard the name, I immediately thought of three islands. I discovered that there is a group of islands called the Tres Marias off the coast of Mexico.
I proposed a sign with a blue sky and blue sea - just like in the Philippines - with three islands each one having three palms. I thought the palms could represent the families, father mother and child. One Maria has two children, but I thought I would stick with three.
I drew the palms and islands on paper with a large felt tip pen, then photographed the paper and traced over the lines in Photoshop. Then I filled the areas with colour - the sky and sea colours were taken directly from my photo taken from Panglao Island in the Philippines.
Text was added in Photoshop. The sign was printed by those friendly people at Signs Now, just a quarter of a mile down the A6.
The sign was put up on Monday 28 April 2008, just in time for a special event which took place at the shop. More about that at a later date.
If you like Oriental or South Asian food, or just need a pint of milk or a phone card, I definitely recommend Tres Marias. And please take a look at the sign on the way in, or if you’re passing by on the A6.
Click to see my photos of neon in the aidan.co.uk photo portfolio
Move to 3 separate websites after Google delisting incident
I am currently reorganising my websites after Google temporarily delisted my main aidan.co.uk site last week.
My site was delisted after the Google indexer found spam content. I was shocked to discover this and after some investigation, I came to the conclusion that the indexer had found its way into the admin pages of my WordPress installation, where spam comments are stored prior to deletion. Comments marked as spam are presented in dark grey text on a light grey background. I use WordPress to publish my blog pages.
To avoid any further risk of this happening in the future, I decided to remove WordPress completely from my aidan.co.uk site, leaving the original PHP MySQL site first developed four years ago by Peter Kelly of Exclaim IT. It’s simple, basic and works well.
On Monday 22 April 2008 I resubmitted my site to Google for reconsideration, and four days later it appeared again in the Google index.
I had upgraded to WordPress version 2.5 only a few days before, which would suggest that there was a security issue in that latest version. I have just discovered that WordPress have issued version 2.5.1, so it is highly likely that it was a fault in WordPress that caused the problem.
So now I have created this MediaBlog using my long disused www.aidanorourke.com domain. In stages, I will be inserting posts from the old HyperBlog, correcting broken links and images as I go along.
I have also reinstated my Eye On Manchester site, which also uses WordPress. I had tried merging it with HyperBlog, but that idea is now in the waste paper basket!
Following the Google incident I have gone from one to three sites, not forgetting my old Eyewitness in Manchester site, archived on the Manchester Online server, making a total of four main websites, presenting a total of 8000 photos, hundreds of articles and a few videos.
I will be developing video in the coming months. Due to other commitments, new material will appear at only a moderate rate for the time being.
Eventually this new MediaBlog will settle down and serve to provide a record of my career, travels and projects, as HyperBlog did before.
It was distressing to be delisted by Google, but they acted fairly swiftly to put things right.
My advice to anyone running a website is BE CAREFUL AND EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED! Use the tools available to check and double check your website, including Google’s Webmaster Tools. The internet can be a minefield. Everything can change overnight. What’s here today can be gone tomorrow.
But if you follow good guidelines, you should be OK.
MediaBlog launched
Following problems with the HyperBlog with my main site aidan.co.uk, I have created a brand new blog on my aidanorourke.com domain. The new site is called MediaBlog because I will be using a variety of media - photos, audio and video - in addition to writing - that’s a type of media as well!
Here is my TV interview with My North West to test the layout of the theme:
The MediaBlog will follow on from HyperBlog, which has gone offline for the time being. HyperBlog will appear again in due course.
Archive images scanned from film appearing shortly
Following a request for an archive photo of Ancoats Manchester, I have selected a number of images scanned from film to appear on the site in the coming days.
Some of them are quite old, the oldest from 1981.
This thumbnail image shows some of the photos, many of which are quite badly scratched and need enhancement in Photoshop and cleaning up with the Polaroid dust and scratches filter.
Unfortunately I have very few photos of Manchester from before 1996. I only started taking photos seriously while I was in the Middle East (91-96). I wanted to return in 1995 but I had to do an extra year teaching in Abu Dhabi due to problems with our employers (a disastrous dispute and consequent unpaid salary and benefits).
As a result of this delay in returning, I was not around at the time of the bomb (June 1996) and hadn’t had the opportunity to start my documentation of Manchester prior to it.
It’s one of my great regrets, but unfortunately it’s not possible to ‘rewind the tape’.
Visited Barry Aldous pioneer of stereoscopic photo techniques
Last night I visited Barry Aldous, who has built up a remarkable collection of stereoscopic photography equipment, both for image capture and display. He is based in Ramsbottom to the north of Manchester.
Stereo Photo Art test image: ‘Magic Picture Frame’
For years I have been interested in stereo photography, and am planning an ambitious stereo photo art project.
Barry has developed a lot of expertise in this area, and has even made a stereo viewing device to his own design.
But it’s not just about gadgetry, there was a remarkable quality to the images he showed me, both still and moving.
He has done an excellent stereo slide show presentation on his home town of Ramsbottom, using vintage photos which he has converted into stereo. He also showed me some stereo video, which I found spellbinding.
In my opinion stereo imaging should be in the mainstream and seen by large numbers of people One of my goals will be to bring it to the attention of a wider audience.
Visit Barry Aldous’s website http://www.aldous.net/photo/
Working as a photographer in Manchester - student interview
I was contacted by second year photography student Dannii, who asked me a few questions. Here are my answers…
I am currently doing a degree in photography, and I was wondering how
important do you feel qualifications are for a photographer?
Qualifications are not necessary to be a professional photographer - unlike a brain surgeon - but study can certainly help.
Do you have any photography qualifications, and why did you decide to
enter this industry?
I have an A Level in photography, which I did at MANCAT Moston Campus 1996-97. I am not really part of the industry, as my main activity is pursuing my own project of documenting the development of the city - Manchester & region as well as other places and themes. My photography is mainly for myself, and my site. No qualifications are necessary for what I am doing, but training always helps and I intend to train some more in the near future.
Do you feel an understanding of photography theory and contextual
awareness is important?
The more you understand the technical aspects of photography, the better. Photography, whether film or digital, is a marriage between science and art. The more you understand the science, the more you will be able to express your art.
What do you feel is most important to be a successful photographer?
(interpersonal skills, qualifications, IT skills, networking, natural
ability, time management, determinating etc)
You have to produce good pictures. The definition of ‘good’ varies depending on the type of photograph, the subject, the purpose etc… But unless you can produce successful photographs that achieve their aim, then no amount of those other things will do any good. Those other things are useful in any business, but the core of photography is being able to come up with consistently good work. Not everyone can do that.
What do you feel are the ups and downs of working in this industry?
I am not so much a commercial photographer as someone who publishes a site with a high photographic content, so my ups and downs are more related to running my own website. But in general, photography can be very competitive and though you may enjoy your creative work, you are often forced to do very mundane work in order to make money. Luckily I don’t have to do that as I now have a second non-photography-related career. I concentrate on the type of creative work I enjoy doing and that gives both creative and financial rewards.
Well those are the basics, but I was wondering if you had an opinion on
digital photography, do you feel the great influx of digital photography
has a positive or negative effect on photography?
This is a complex question. Undoubtedly, digital photography has made many things possible, and is more instantaneous and convenient than film photography. But there are some important techniques and types of equipment that are being lost due to the digital takeover. I think that’s a step back. I still use film from time to time alongside digital.
I am currently very interested in fashion photography, I was wondering do you think that fashion has a part in the photographic art world? Can fashion photography have the same ability to convey feeling, concepts and theory as other genres such as documentary photography? Do you have any negative opinions on fashion photography?
Yes, I think that fashion photography can be a vehicle for personal creativity, but most fashion photography isn’t!
How do you see photography progressing in the next five years?
I think the course is already set. But maybe some new types of photographic technology will emerge. There are many unexplored areas in photography. The standard digital camera is only one small part of the possibilities. There are plenty of other, effective ways of seeing, including stereoscopic photography, which I am developing at the moment.
Thank you for this, any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated.
First Manchester Fashion shoot completed
Yesterday I did my first Manchester Fashion Shoot. This is a new departure on my aidan.co.uk site, the intention being to introduce a bit of feminine glamour and chic into my familiar, workaday views of the city - cityscapes, streets, landmarks, buses, trains etc etc…
The model was Bryony Rose, student at Manchester University, with make-up artist Roxana and photographic assistant Barry.
For the first shoot we visited a number of locations in and around Manchester, including Jutland Street, which I’ve featured many times before. It’s about to change radically due to the construction of the new Piccadilly Tower on the adjoining site.
We also visited Universal Square, the former Great Universal Stores building, where we took photos from the roof. Many thanks to the management there for making us feel so welcome.
Visit www.universalsquare.co.uk/ to find out about this very interesting development.
We also went to the B of the Bang near Asda and the City of Manchester Stadium, and finished at Cock Robin Bridge in Pendleton, Salford.
I had pencilled in further locations but there wasn’t enough time. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and the people I was working with did a great job. This is strictly a non-commercial thing, purely to add a new and more feminine element to my pictures of the city, but we are all developing our portfolios and who knows what may come of it.
The photos will be appearing on the site in the coming days.
Weather yesterday and today in Manchester: Mild and overcast - perfect weather for facial portraits due to the diffuse light.
