Originality of Creation and the Creativity of Commentary

Fern - originality, creativity and inspiration

By all measures, you would consider me to be someone involved in the creative pursuits. I am also a writer and commentator on many things, both on this blog and off. So I do not broach the subject of originality lightly.

The long surviving myth of originality and the stupidity of most criticism as petty fault-finding came up again recently, when Vishal pointed me to yet another meticulously researched site documenting where every popular Hindi song was “lifted” from. The question that once again came to mind was: Is any music truly original?

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Recapturing the Vibe of Old Time Photos – Fresh Finds

After a long gap, I present you with another Fresh Finds and this time I have been browsing with an interest in recreating the look and style of old photos and other vintage visuals.

Old Photos - Girl in a vintage bathing suit

  • Bert Stern recreates Marilyn Monroe’s last photo shoot [CONTAINS NUDITY – If you are allergic, you have been warned]
    If you’ve been anywhere online that’s pop culture or entertainment-centric in the past week or so, you’ve probably come across the fact that Lindsay Lohan has posed for some Monroe-a-like nude photographs. Going beyond the tabloid facts, this is actually a great study for the challenge of recreating old photos, because in this case you have a photographer trying to recreate his own work from 46 years ago, for New York magazine. That has to be a unique situation, the results of which are worth a look.

    While Lohan is no Monroe, the photos themselves are interesting, though I get the feeling the shot selection to decide what goes into the magazine might have been a bit rushed. The set includes some beautiful shots and some mediocre ones, where it seems to be a split-second before or a split-second after what would have been a better composition. Also of interest to photography buffs will be the unfortunately sparse collage of shots behind the scenes of the shoot. Really nice dramatic stuff, on par, if not better than, the final presented pictures.

  • Kate Bosworth does Vogue retro shoot
    It would seem Kate Bosworth has also been up to retro photo shenanigans for the US edition of Vogue. Only in this case the inspiration is more indirect and what they came up with is more regular fashion photography with a retro twist. Some interesting images, with a bit of behind the scenes stuff to also keep you busy.
  • Achieving the vintage look
    If you’re interested in the mechanics and technicalities of producing images with that old-world flair using in-camera and studio techniques, this discussion should be of interest. While there is no step-by-step instruction for anything, there are many valuable tricks you can pick up along the way — everything from setting the right depth-of-field, to choosing the right lens.

  • Bokeh
    Bokeh is as much a specific phenomena as it is the lack of something, and that thing is sharpness. Bokeh is that particular smooth fuzzy look you only get when a camera lens is pointed at something that is out of focus. Ken Rockwell explains how this effect is formed and how it is actually being made difficult to achieve due to the increasing quality of camera lenses. Sometimes progress comes at a price. If you want to achieve those soft portrait photographs of old, you must understand bokeh.
  • Coco Chanel in action
    If you want to recreate old photographs you must study plenty of good examples. A wide variety of ‘study material’ is best. Take these crisp shots of Coco Chanel in her element, for example. They’re excellent examples of the photographic conventions of an era, but they are also simply great photos that any photographer can learn from. As the lady said, “Fashion fades, only style remains the same.”
  • Vintage Valentines Day Photos
    Vintage Japanese Photos
    For more inspiration, look no further than this embarrassingly large collection of old Valentines Day themed photographs, and this blog that is dedicated to posting old Japanese photos. Some of these images are not as staid and static as you might think. A lot of the composition and framing is as dramatic and challenging as any you would see today.
  • Alexia Death’s LOMO and Vintage Effects for GIMP
    GIMP Old Photo Tutorial
    If you’re more of a digital photographer, or would just like to recreate the vintage look with some of your existing images, software comes to your rescue. Here are some interesting automated scripts you can apply in the GIMP. For the more hands-on amongst you, there is also a detailed tutorial on how to create the typical sepia faded vintage look. There is plenty of room for your own personal adjustments in the described techniques.

And that brings us to the end of another round of Fresh Finds. Hope you enjoyed this little stroll down the photographic memory lane, and I hope you have got a few new ideas for recreating some old photo tricks. Enjoy.

Samir

The Yellow Rubber Ducks Now Live Down On the Farm

Yellow Rubber Duck - Garbage, Recycling, EcologyWhen we throw things away, where exactly is “away”?
That was the question put to me by one of my intrepid readers, Pasha, in the context of one of my environmental articles. So enthusiastic was I to give my answer, that the thoughts poured and poured without end. What resulted was an unnatural beast that would never be accepted by the other comments in the tribe, and so it was promoted to being the post that scrolls before you now.

Assuming this question is speaking in terms of physical eventualities rather than abstract philosophies, let us plot the course of human detritus when it leaves our homes. Let us suppose we are talking of a specific item, a plastic toy of some sort, maybe a little yellow “rubber” duck. So, we’re talking of a soft plastic toy which has outgrown its welcome.
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I’m Back and My Dog Ate My Homework

My dog ate my homework

I really need to learn to take my own advice about getting things done. Wait! Hold the presses, I see a new post in this: “How to Take Your Own Advice in 13 Easy Steps”. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. I dazzle myself sometimes.

I’ve been back in Dubai from my trip to Bombay for a good many days now. Every since then I have been planning on my grand comeback post. I’m guessing you have gotten to the realisation that I haven’t written it yet. The task of writing that perfect and (in my mind) ever growing post finally seemed so improbable that I decided to just get it over with and write the afterword of sorts that I had planned for that post.

In short, I wanted to inform all you wonderful people out there that I’m back. As some of you have mentioned, I do plan on writing much more about my trip and various things about India. It’s quite an inspirational place really, and it always fills me with a million good ideas. Unfortunately my trips there rarely give me time for relaxed writing stints, and once I’m back here and do have the time, the buzz of India isn’t there to spur me on any more. Purely an excuse, I know, but true none the less. What life in Dubai is sorely in need of, is life.

But write we must, because what else is there? So, once I mange to kick myself out of my hibernating huddle I plan, nay, I promise to write a whole bunch of articles about the trip and the many days I was silent. My story of a bus ride still remains to be continued and completed. Besides that one, I will also be writing these:

  • The Perils and Promise of the Great Indian Binge
  • Manifesto of a Social Malcontent
  • What You Can Learn By Staking Out a Small Bank
  • Memories Incorporated
      • … and perhaps even others that I haven’t named or planned yet. Hopefully, I can do more than just recap throughout the coming weeks and also slot in some fresh content. Stay tuned!

      It’s strange how much fun writing can be (as it is now while I type this), and also how completely (but secretly) scared you can be to start, to commit, to write the first sentence. But write we must, because what else is there?

      Samir

Mumbai Rouge – part 1

Mumbai Rouge - Red City

Yesterday I got on to a bus with nine members of a brass band. It all started with my favourite pastime in Mumbai, taking a bus towards the south of the city, the older more historical section of this sprawling metropolis. A red BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport) bus on route #85 is my staple ride. The old-style printed roll of fabric that acts as a changeable destination placard usually reads Hutatma Chowk, the post-independence revisionist title of the busy square in the centre of the old quarter that most people still simply refer to as Fountain.

Mumbai’s busses are one of the most efficiently organised mass transport systems you’re likely to come across anywhere in the world, and to maintain that efficiency the BEST company has set up depots and minor confluence points throughout the city where drivers and bus-conductors can be replaced, routes started, and other planning and routing tasks done. Part of this system involves getting busses that are somewhere across the city to a specific midpoint to keep with the plan. These are those rare occasions when some busses might not go where you expect them to.

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The Latest Trends in Metal Mining Holidays

Xray Diagram - Surgery Holiday

Greetings to my long suffering regular readers and all you fresh faces who might have stumbled upon this blog during this extended silence. I’m on a holiday in Mumbai. Sort of.

A break has been in the offing for months now, but it was postponed many times for various reasons. Now it has finally come to be but for more practical reasons than relaxation. A few years ago my Father had a fall for which he needed some serious hardware surgically added to a bone in his leg. Recently this old implant had started causing some problems and it was time to have it removed. So, this trip came about more as a medical mission than a vacation.

All the metal is now out, and it was the mining of it that kept me busy and this blog silent for the past few weeks. The Father is now doing fine and has given birth to a bouncing baby hardware store. It truly is astonishing how much metal it takes to shore up just a small section of the femur. It makes me marvel at the strength and design of human bones with renewed fervour.

That’s my story for the day. I hope to be less delinquent in my writing and my replying to your comments over the coming days, but then I am supposed to be on a holiday and you know how unpredictable those can be.

Samir

What Relates Swan Lake and Musical Fountains to Compassion?

Musical Fountain at Festival City Dubai - CompassionCompassion is a deep awareness of, and a sympathy with, someone else’s suffering. That is the traditional definition, but really compassion is much broader than that. Compassion is an innate sense of empathy with things and people outside of ourselves — not just their suffering but their feelings, their thinking, and their situation. To be compassionate is to see, feel, and sense beyond yourself. It is this broader sense of compassion that truly makes us human. What would such a thing have to do with the ballet of Swan Lake and musical fountains? I thought you’d never ask.

On New Year’s eve, I was at the Festival City mall in Dubai. There was revelry in the cold winter air and good cheer amongst the hundreds who had chosen to bring in the New Year in the outdoor areas of that complex, on the banks of the creek. After staring into the distant glimmer of fireworks that exploded over the city at the stroke of midnight, we walked along the little canal that is woven into the promenade, by the many busy restaurants there. We found a new sight to greet us at the central area outside the main atrium. There, next to the water of the canal, was a beautiful fountain bathed in light and colour. Its million spinnerets wove a fleeting web of water that clung longingly to the night air before falling to the Earth, and all of them danced to the tune of music that filled the air. A hundred dazzled pairs of eyes looked on in amazement. I was one of them. Then the fountain went quiet and as it sprang back into colour, the Swan’s Theme from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake swelled through the gathering.

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