old age & young boy

I fear the Ixus is showing its age more and more. One digital camera year is equivalent to 12 human years. I might have to replace it - definitely with another Ixus, of course!

Pole Boy was taken as surreptitiously as I could as we walked passed, not wanting him to become self-conscious. There's a series on telly here called Coast. Last night they mentioned a seaside photographer, Peter Henry Emerson - a pioneer of the art who used a great wooden thing with a simple lens, all carried on a stout tripod, and recorded images on silvered glass plates. The contemporary expert asked to talk about him, with a twinkle in his eye, said (I paraphrase), ''photography today is largely about editing, whereas back in the day it was about recording the image''. I think it is true.

The ''depth of field'' in Pole Boy was modified by duplicating the image layer, blurring this new identical top layer and erasing that portion containing the boy - a cheap and simple trick. I wanted something to add to my Almost.... blog. Too impatient, I forgot to save the duplicate layer version before jpegging (rule no. 1!). What I could have, should have done further is mute the colour saturation levels of the background as well. (sigh)