Skip to main content

The Frenchman is first and foremost a man. He is likeable often just because of his weaknesses, which are always thoroughly human, even if despicable.


I can't decide: standard brooding, handsome – yet slightly dangerous – Henry [above]; or La Nouvelle Vague cinéma menaçant, attractif - encore un peu dangereux - Henri [below]?


I remain slightly tentative about manipulating the photographs that I choose to post here, which is really quite strange because back in the dark ages, when I could regularly be found in a dark room surrounded by the (rather alluring) odour of sodium thiosulfate, acetic acid and all manner of chemical goodness, I routinely experimented with the form. Ink, paint, acid, chalk, varied exposure times, solarisation, I didn’t care. You name it, I’d happy splash it about. So why do I feel like manipulating a digital image is a wee bit wrong?

At first I thought that it might well be the ease of digital manipulation, but that’s plain silly. In terms of my foray into ‘traditional prints’, the greatest praise was conferred on a series where I ended up mindlessly flicking coloured ink on some unwanted prints with a straw.

I'm not sure. I'll have to think about it.

Anyway, today's photo was taken yesterday afternoon while we lounged by the dock eating ice creams after work. Henry was eyeing off some young female backpackers at the time (and doing well, I might add), so that should explain the look.

Comments

Anonymous said…
second one I reckon
Priyanka Khot said…
aha! and Henry is back... i love the blue color and the elmo on his gunji and the apple tatoo and his smoldering broody look...

he has grown quite a bit in the last few months... :-)
G. B. Miller said…
Okay.

I'm jealous about the fact that you were sitting on a deck eating ice cream in mid-January, and I'm here digging myself out five inches of snow and battling temps in the teens.

I really need to move to a warmer climate.

Nice picture of your son. Looks like he's ready to do battle somewhere.
Z said…
I'm with you: why do people make such a fuss about 'straight from the camera' or 'tweaked in PS'? As though what the camera records is THE truth, with no electronic or other optical manipulations. As though the practitioners of film didn't do anything after composing the shot and pressing the shutter release.

Oh, the second one (the saturation in the blue or whatever on the first is a wee bit distracting).
Unknown said…
I really like the Nouvelle Vague photo, but I'm glad you've posted both, your son is cute anyway! :-)
Stumbled onto your blog today and found it interesting. May be back a time or two to see what else you post. Your son is adorable,although he looks like he could be quite a handful.
Anonymous said…
That first one is a bit "Fight Club"!
USelaine said…
Elmo throws it all into another space. Can't decide.
There is a kind of faux Luddite philosophy around often expressed: "This is just the way it came from the camera." I don't know what its origins are but I suspect it has something to do with the idea that cameras reproduce reality accurately and any post-processing is ungodly tampering, akin to gene-splicing or cheating at cards. Go for it. Why let some factory technician decide how your photos should look?
Kris McCracken said…
Tania, thank you.

Priyanka, he is never far away.
Kris McCracken said…
Geogie B, if it helps, the weather was rubbish today.

Z, don't you know, the camera never lies! ;)
Kris McCracken said…
JM, I will pass on your encouragment!

Dr. Pragya Bajaj, just like his dad!
Kris McCracken said…
Findingmywingsinlife, he is that, and more!

Jackie, be careful, he bites!
Kris McCracken said…
Elaine, all the gangbangers these days embrace muppet culture.

Benjamin, I think that you’re spot on here.

We have odd attitudes about this sort of stuff, here at work there was a big discussion after I tweaked the settings on my computer. Now, I’ve used computers my whole working life, and am more than comfortable with them. All I did was disable some pre-installed crap that wasn’t necessary and slowing down start up times.

Of course, someone gets their knickers in a twist, but really, what I was doing was no different that adjusting the height of my chair.

It’s just a tool people.

Popular posts from this blog

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave.

Can you believe that it is time for Theme Thursday already? Today we are not talking chocolate , toddlers , mess or ignominy . No, today we're dealing with ANIMAL . Now I could have posted a picture of a possum, numbat, wombat, wallaby or any other furry killing machine that roams our fair isle, but I figure that I'd use a far more deadly creature as an example of an animal . Some people - I know them as fools - have chosen to embrace that highfalutin idea that human beans are for some ungodly reason superior to animals. Of course, what these imbeciles seem to forget is that were are simple animals ourselves ! Anyone with a baby, toddler, teenage boy or Queenslander in their household could tell you this. Look at Henry [above]. One chocolate frog in the back of the car on a sunny day and all of a sudden it's Elagabalus meets Bacchus for a quick shandy in the Serengeti and we're down on all fours carrying on like a cat in heat. Fair dinkum, anyone who chooses to ...

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

This is the moon. Have I mentioned how much I adore the zoom on my camera? It's Theme Thursday you see, and after last week's limp effort, I have been thinking about how I might redeem myself. Then I clicked on the topic and discover that it was BUTTON. We've been hearing a lot about the moon in the past couple of weeks. Apparently some fellas went up there and played golf and what-not forty-odd years ago. The desire to get to the moon, however, was not simply about enhancing opportunities for Meg and Mog titles and skirting local planning by-laws in the construction of new and innovative golf courses. No, all of your Sputniks , "One small steps" and freeze dried ice cream was about one thing , and one thing only : MAD Now, I don't mean mad in terms of "bloke breaks record for number of scorpions he can get up his bum", no I mean MAD as in Mutual assured destruction . When I was a young man you see, there was a lot of talk about the type of m...