April 2008

Link round-up for 27th April 2008

Links round-up for 19th April 2008

Link round-up for 20th April 2008

What I need to do after swap-over

This will be the last post before I actually go ahead with the swap-over and it basically gives an idea what I will do afterwards. I’m not going to go into detail now, so it might probably not make sense to most but will be a guide for later.

Internally I will need to update database settings for each site once all the files are in place and refresh sitemaps. Also, I’ve already detailed what will happen with this site here and here but what else needs doing externally and afterwards? Well there are a few sites that are associated to my site:

MyBlogLog:
I need to update the old site and refresh the new site so that stats are correct.

Technorati:
Reclaim both old and new sites.

Flickr:
Update the blog link to the new old site (!). I could probably leave the new site alone but to be tidy…

Digg:
Update the blog link to the new old site (!)

Google Adsense:
I can’t see that I need to do anything here?

Google Analytics:
I suspect I’ll have to completely redo every site I’ve got here, reclaiming and thus reposting each one again

Amazon Associates:
Update my web site information

Bloglines:
Perhaps just update to the new site

Photoblogs:
Update my blog link

FeedBurner:
Edit the feed settings

BlogRush:
Can’t see there is anything to update.

See you on the other side.

I have a new job… with the BBC in London!

Yippee!  Yes I’ve eventually got myself a new job.  About time I guess!  I’m not actually sure exactly what the role entails but what I do know is I’ll be working for a Reed Professional Services project team.  The project is for the BBC and I will be working out of the BBC Television Centre in London.  I’m told I’ll be doing data entry with 3 others and overall the team will consist of 17 people.

It all starts on 21st Monday 2008 so will report back sometime after then. But it means that I’ll have less time to do this site and my photography.  Oh hum but it was eventually going to happen.  With this in mind I have spent a lot of this weekend updating it and hope to do the oh-so-delayed swap-over tomorrow.

Importantly, though, I’m back in work (at least for 5 months, well hopefully), back in London (so perhaps I’ll get out lunchtimes for a photography session somewhere ) and I’m back earning a bit of cash.  I’m actually looking forward to it.

Expect a report later.

Updated About Me page

I’ve almost completely re-written the About Me page. Copy of it can be found below but will normally be located here:

My name is Kol Tregaskes and I’m 30something guy from the UK. I’m normally a quietsome sole who keeps himself to himself and generally get on with everybody I meet (and have met a wide variety of people along the way). I’m very friendly, helpful and reliable and if I start something then I do it an do it well. I currently looking after my poorly mother, her house and my lively dog, Kaz in Kent while also trying to pursue my huge interest in photography, looking for jobs and hunting for ways to make money to pay the bills. I currently contract for the BBC and my background is more IT-related then art/photography. The details…

Home-life

At the moment live in Kent, in a small town called Edenbridge. It’s my second stint here, first was when I was made redundant and moved out of my Croydon house, the second was when my contract job came to an end and I decided to move back to my parents home to help my Mum out with looking after my very poorly Dad. Sadly my Dad died in January 2008 and now my Mum and I have been left with many things to do and, as always, our lively dog, Kaz. As things stand it’s very likely the house would have to be sold but we’re not sure exactly what will happen yet. In between my two stints I lived in West Berkshire for 3 years. First in a couple of 2 small houses in Newbury then last in a town called Thatcham, just down the road. Previous to all this I lived in Croydon in the Surrey/South London area, where I was born and breed (for over 20 years).

To me Croydon is a typical London suburb, very closely linked to London. I was much happier in West Berkshire which was more rural but at the same time still had some modern touches. Edenbridge is even more rural and I’m only minutes away from big fields and long countryside walks. It’s great for landscape and nature photography but not quite got that town/city feel that I still like. Saying that it can take just 50 minutes direct on the train to London. But I feel my potential home will be closer to the city and one day hope to move to somewhere like Teddington in the Middlesex area, which gives me great access to London but also very easy access to scenic places like Richmond Park. It’s also not too hard to get out of Greater London and to the rest of the country from there.

Work-life

My latest adventure was in West Berkshire while I worked as a contractor on various Vodafone projects. I was actually only supposed to be there for 2/3 weeks but the job just went on and on and I was there for a total of 4 years! I worked as a Systems Integrator for a large engineering company called Bechtel (on a Vodafone railway project) then as a Technical/Project Co-ordinator for Vodafone proper on several projects including one to implement broadband speeds onto Vodafone’s network (so you can now browse the Internet on your Vodafone mobiles much faster thanks to us )

I used to work in the computer games industry. My first ever job was as a games tester. It was brilliant, someone paying me to play, er, test games all day. I learnt a lot there, not just about testing but also about computer hardware and customer support. I soon moved into the IT side of things (so I’m a little bit of a techie/nerdy-type). 7-8 years I spent in games; I worked for publishers, Warner Interactive, GT Interactive, Infogrames and then the “godfathers of gaming”, developers, The Bitmap Brothers. I was with them for 3 years as their webmaster (I made their web site by the way) and administration manager before being made redundant. During my time in the games industry I met so many people from various countries and great characters and creative individuals. It was a brilliant, a wonderful experience.

But being made redundant twice in 3 years was a wake up call and left me with no confidence that a job is permanent. After being a contractor for 4 years I kinda like it. OK money at first glance is a lot better but there are many disadvantages, such as higher risk, large tax bills and more responsibility but that doesn’t faze me now and I hope I can contract for a long as possible. I’m glad that I’ve experienced the world outside games. I can’t really say what it’s like now as I’m sure it’s changed a lot but at the time it was a big culture shock when I started at Bechtel as things were perhaps more professionally done and more serious. Again, I learnt a lot with Bechtel and Vodafone and has put me in good stead for future work.

I now start a new adventure for the BBC. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll be up to but it all kicks off this Monday (21st April). It’s a data entry/admin role (what I did when I started at Bechtel) so perhaps a little step back. But I’ve been out of work for over 6 months and these things are to be expected. Besides, something else might crop up during my 5 months at the BBC and I’m not too fussed anyway. What it also means is money in the bank and my return to London after a 6 year break. I’m really looking forward to it!

Interests

I guess I have quite a few interests. Of course my main interest is photography (see below) but I also love:

Music:
My interest covers many genres; dance, trance, trip-hop/downtempo, indie and rock. My only genres I generally don’t like are country, opera (not including classical) and blues/jazz. I don’t tend to centre on particular artists or bands, I find it very rare that I like a whole album or the majority of songs from one particular place. I’m always searching and listening to new music. But for a list of my top 12 bands and a selection of the rest of my favourites head over to my iLike page here (the first 12 are actually in order, Radiohead being my favourite band, beyond that it’s all a bit random). Also, if you are interested you can keep up to date on what I’m listening to on my last.fm page here.

Movies:
I rarely go to the cinema now, too expensive, but have an annual subscription to the DVD rental site, Lovefilm. So I get to watch 3 or more movies a week. I like plenty of genres, horror, science-fiction, action, thriller and comedy and especially like movies with a twist or a great ending. I generally hate bad acting or a poor storyline but that occasionally is ignored for some spectacular special affects movies. For a list of my favourite movies check my Flixster page here.

TV:
OK not a big interest as most of it is trash nowadays but I though I’d list what type of things I do watch on the box. I mainly watch documentaries. It doesn’t really matter what, so long as it’s not too dumbed down. I also watch the odd comedy show like Have I Got News for You and dramas like Waking the Dead and Messiah. I don’t watch any reality TV apart from the Apprentice, which is great and extremely well created. I also watch boring things like Newsnight and Question Time, oh and any England, Liverpool or rugby matches that are lucky to be shown on terrestrial TV.

Sport:
My favourite sports are rugby, football (I’ve been a supporter of Liverpool FC since I was 4 years old), tennis (I hope to get to Wimbledon every year), motorsport (Formula one but mainly rally car which I would love to see a lot more of). In the past I was good at athletics and ran for my school in a county championship. But was a pretty fit then and also cycled a lot and played football every weekend. In the last few years I’ve started cycling again (mainly to get around and get to work) but I don’t do enough exercise but want to combine cycling with photography in some way. I can be tempted to play the odd snooker or pool game and I guess if you pushed me I could play squash but have done neither for a looong time.

Computing:
I’ve used a computer in some form since I was little and now that computers are everywhere there isn’t a way to get away from them. I’m always finding new software to try and use and I’ve been involved in technical support and PC building at work.

Computer games:
Since I’ve worked in the games industry it probably goes without saying I like games. But saying that I’ve not played a game in any shape or form for several years and don’t have and don’t plan to have any of the new consoles. I find that you could lose so much time with games, time I don’t really have now. I still keep one eye on things though and have many friends still working in the industry.

Web development:
Perhaps it’s evident but I’ve created this site myself (well with the help from services on the web and friends). I do enjoy it though and spent a long time producing and editing sites for work. I’m no expert, don’t really know much about HTML, but pick things up very easily and generally work it out in the end.

The Internet:
Well of course; there is so much on the net! I’m always browsing for new sites and keeping up to date with news. Always downloading and trying out new software and ways to make things more efficient and easier. It’s a great resource and a lot people take it for granted now. There is a lot of articles and tutorials to be had on the Internet and it’s constantly evolving.

Art:
I have been known to draw in my time. Well I was a very keen artist when I was young. I drew all the time during my school years. But after school I stopped. I’m not sure why, though I feel it was something to do with feeling I had reached my best and finding it wasn’t that good. I can happily draw with a pencil, the problem is I’m pretty awful with every other media and so decided against art for college. Instead I went for a more technical drawing course but it turned out to be not at all what I was expecting. I failed this course and have never drawn since. But I feel it will come back and plan to combine my pencil drawing skills with my potential photography skills. As with photography I would like to take a course so it’s just a matter of time (and money). In both I feel I need to be learn the techniques better than I was ever taught at school. As an observer I of course browse photography but I’m also interested in digital/computer art and used to browsing CG sites every day. Luckily I have a few friends from the computer games industry who are great artists.

Comics:
This relates to my art interest. Sure I read them if I can get my hands on any but it’s the artwork that interests me the most. I mainly read big-name US comics (which are not so easy to get hold of in the UK unfortunately). I think if I had any spare money it would be spent on buying comics. As I don’t have any spare cash and don’t think I will for a few years comics are firmly sitting on the backseat for the moment.

Science-fiction:
Love it, this and futurism or whatever you want to call it. I love reading it, I used to love drawing it and I love watching it (TV shows and movies). I guess I wish I could live in some of these worlds or be able to experience the future but, of course, this is not possible and I’m content with the fiction.

Reading:
Perhaps not as interested in reading as I was, it’s still an interest nevertheless. As mentioned above I tend to read science-fiction but I guess I’d mention I read newspapers, science magazines and of course anything relating to my interests (mainly photography). I do have a dream I will be writer when I’m old and wrinkly but I haven’t the first clue about writing so doubt it will happen.

Sci-tech:
I really like science and technology. I used to subscribe to a science magazine and it become my favourite mag. Science documentaries are perhaps one of only a few reasons why I still watch TV. And there is tonnes of it on the net.

Space (Exploration):
Did I dream of being an astronaut? No, not really. But I’ve always been interested in space – I read lots of books when I was young and always watch documentaries on the TV.

Dogs:
Well Golden Retrievers definitely. I love my dog, Kaz and my previous dog, Max. They are just fantastic! I will miss it when I won’t be able to take Kaz out every day when I’m back in work. I’m sure I’ll make up for it over weekends though. I do dream of being a breeder at some point. It’s expensive initially and time-consuming but it looks very enjoyable and I always signed up to be a dog boarder this year.

Walking:
I’m a keen walker (well I don’t have and don’t want a car), but I’m no rambler. I’ve walked plenty round Edenbridge and can walk for hours and hours. It’s great being outside and you can capture some good photos along the way.

Cycling:
I used to cycle to work every day when I lived in West Berkshire. While I was living in Thatcham I could cycle along the canal from my house all the way to the Newbury high street – it was great! I’m a beginner but would love to go out trekking in the future.

Social media:
At the bottom for a reason, I’m putting this down to it being a fad. I started digging and stumbling only recently but I’m kind of hooked. I mainly use it for finding interesting articles (e.g. for photography) but I get to see some fun sites and pics along the way. Including all my interests above I also look out for world news stories, big events, fun/viral sites and pictures, and any kind of list or graph (yeah a strange one I know). I have to say that I’ve tried out a load of other sites and updated all my profiles recently but I don’t really use them as they are very time-consuming, But where can you find me, well check any or all my main pages below (full list is here):

Photography

Oh yeah I’m interested in photography too.

I don’t think I need to go into too much detail as the pages here and posts on my blog have explained it but I’ve had a camera for eons. I decided to upgrade from my compact in August 2006 when I got my first digital SLR camera. I’ve not looked back since and my interest ahs grown and grown. I upgraded again to a semi-pro camera in December 2007 and are slowly making the jump from happy snappy. I’m always looking on the net for articles and tutorials to read and got tons to learn. I subscribe to several photography/Photshop magazines and get out and photograph as much as I can. I have no particular main genre(s) so will try anything at the moment. But I would like to go professional one day and hope this site demonstrates what I’ve done so far. I nearly got a temporary job photographing for the Edenbridge Town website but alas nothing really materialised. I would like to try being a photographer’s assistant, I think that would be a good step to take first.

For more information check the web site as I’ve added bags of info.

1. Up on the farm (no border), 2. Winter leaves, 3. A morning walk in Kent (no border), 4. Rural scrawl, 5. Into the light, 6. Fence post, 7. Web strings on branch, 8. Wimbledon Tennis Championships 2007 (Brandon’s Painting Tool), 9. City Hall (revisited), 10. Kaz at sunrise revisited, 11. Le Tour de France London Urban Acid, 12. Wimbledon 2007, 13. New Forest donkeys

Link round-up for 18th April 2008

More articles I’ve dugg:

Submitted:

Aphlog :: A Photography Log

Popurls but for photography.

koltregaskes Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:54:55 PDT

Dugg:

ArtLimited Interview

No, I’ve not been interviewed by anyone but there is an interview section on the art site, Art Limited, that you can fill in yourself. It asks some interesting questions and I thought I’d post the questions and my answers here for you:

When and how do you start to create?

If I’m taking a nature or landscape shot then it all depends on the weather and the light. I always check the weather and if it’s going to be a bright day I’m up before dark the following morning and out the door before sunrise. Then it’s down to finding where best to exploit the fantastic light that time of the day gives you and capturing that spot best. For other types of shots there’s no real when but how. So how do I start my creation? Mostly it’s from getting ideas from other photographs or from reading the latest camera magazines which include some great tutorials for you to try and learn from.

Do you create as a professionnal or for your own?

For my own, though creating as a professional is the long-term plan – hey beats the hell out of desk jobs. At the moment it’s a hobby but I’m learning and improving all the time and hope to one day make photography my profession. Either way I thoroughly enjoy it and can’t see that stopping or changing.

How do you learn and work your skill?

I’m currently self-taught and still have lots to learn. So it’s just crawling around the Net for useful articles, subscriptions to photography or Photoshop magazines, chatting on relevant forums to get advice and critiques, browsing other photography to get ideas and the like. The Internet is a massive resource and there are so many useful sites for photography now, you’re basically spoilt for choice. Also magazines (at least in the UK) are in plentiful supply. I tend to read mags that concentrate on photography technique rather than hardware reviews, etc. Most mags also cover Photoshop quite heavily too so they are another great resource to learn from.

Beyond this is down to money, I have plans to take at least one Open College of Arts photography course but they are several £100s each and are a long way off for me at the moment.

What do you like in this art?

For me it’s to see the World in a different light. Now I’m a photographer, everything and anything becomes interesting and a potential photo subject. It’s just down to imagine and interpretation of the subject. For my landscape, nature and wildlife shots it’s a release. You get away from the madness of the busy city and all the people and the crowds, and you get to see beautiful natural things and breathe the wonderful fresh air in a nice calm environment. Bliss.

What are your favourite subject(s)?

Landscape, nature and animals. But that’s purely because they are easy to access where I live. We have lots of scenery that is in walking distance plus I have a very posey dog who loves his picture taken. So these genres are my main interests at the moment.

But basically I’ll take a photograph of anything in any genre if I get the chance. So perhaps all-things-nature is my favourite but it’s certainly not my exclusive genre.

How do you prepare a creation work?

I wish I could.

Creating a scene for a landscape is obviously impossible. What you see is what you get. What I try and do is judge the weather and the light. If it’s cloudy or raining then most landscape shots are out of the window. In that case it’s back to the house for some macro shots or perhaps the dog if it’s not going through his near-24 hours adrenaline rush phase

For my other genres it’s probably the same answer. The subject is already there. What you are in control of, though, is the time of the day (e.g. the light), the spot to take the shot (e.g. the angle and the composition) and what look you want from your camera. This is down to scouting the area and finding an interesting place then repeatedly visiting the same place over and over at different times of the day, at different times of the year under different weather conditions. I discover when I do this I find new compositions and new angles for shots. It’s a great way to learn your skill.

What are your prefered moment(s) when you create?

Usually, the moment I see the shot, e.g. the sunrise coming up behind the trees or the dog in an interesting pose. And the moment I’ve completely finished the shot too, i.e. once it’s come out of Photoshop. Seeing the final picture… it’s a good moment.

What your most representative creations? (links)

I’ve pinpointed just one for the moment and it’s this shot of my dog Kaz at sunrise:
http://squashyfrog.co.uk/2008/03/06/kaz-sunrise

It combines landscape and animal genres and also includes a bit of post production. This is also one shot that I’ve asked a lot of help on and feel it’s probably one of my best. It is also my first published photograph, of which I’m very proud.

What are you trying to share via your art?

Pretty simple really – the beauty of nature and it’s animals. If you’ve lived in the city most of your life you tend to forget or ignore the nature that’s outside it or hidden in its cracks. But it’s the interestingness of the small things that you pass by without a glance that I try and share.

Who are artists that fascinate or give you inpsiration? (links)

To answer this question head over to my list of favourite photographers here:
http://squashyfrog.co.uk/info/favourite-photographers

What equipment and/or technic do you use?

I’ve used a Nikon D50 digital SLR for over a year but have recently ‘upgraded’ to a Nikon D300. The next natural step is the D3 or D3X but that’s after a very nice pay day. To go into a bit more detail I have a ‘medium-sized’ collection of various lenses and filters. I have plenty of accessories that the standard photographer *must* have. But no flash studio kit which would be great!

Technic, well I’m still refining that but for landscape shots it’s down to getting out as much as possible and finding places to shoot. I’m lucky that I have lots of fields and nature around me so I go for long walks and note the potential spots for a shoot. Then I mainly go out for sunrise and try and capture the scenery with the wonderful light. A technic to capture animals like my dog, er, well I’ve not found one. It’s just a matter of taking a 1000 shots and getting lucky.

How and why your work as changed since you started?

Well the quality has increased that’s for sure. When I started I hadn’t a clue what I was doing. I had this nice flash camera (well I thought so at the time) and was just snapping away without a care in the World. Since then I’ve learnt to find the spot to shoot from, compose the shot correctly or to my liking, set-up the camera right and then to improve the image in Photoshop properly. It’s still work-in-progress but I can clearly see I’m getting better and will continue to strive to improve.

What does the Internet media give you?

Access. Access to a whole host of information, access to people who I can ask for help and learn from, access to other photography where I get inspiration and ideas from and access to viewers of my work.

If you’re talking about the digital media (instead of film) then I know no different. Since I’ve been taking pictures I’ve always had a digital camera. What the digital media gives me is a bit of space to make mistakes without cost and to potentially correct mistakes made when taking the shot at the time. Being able to manipulate and play with the image digitally is a bonus too and it’s all good fun to create ‘digital art’ from a photo.

What are you expecting from Art Limited and/or other members?

Nothing. If I expect something and don’t get it then I’ll be disappointed. If I don’t expect anything and get something then I’ll feel so much better. But I hope people enjoy my photography and help me along the way.

What are your plans for future?

Learn, learn, learn. There is so much to learn it’s almost overwhelming but it’s got to be done if you want to be a professional and that’s my target. I will continue to teach myself until I (maybe) can afford a course in photography and will continue to get out and photograph. Also, learning from others is a big help, they are my mentors.

Do you have anything else to say?

Hmmm, nah.

First link round-up for 17th Apirl 2008

In an effort to keep this site fresh and updated I added my diggs to the RSS feed via FeedBurner. What I was able to do in FeedBurner was set-up my diggs to be automatically posted as a daily digest in the feed only. This was great and I loved the way the digest was laid out. But there were 2 problems:

1. The daily digest of my diggs appeared only on my feed. So if you were reading my web site you wouldn’t even know about the digg digest.

2. I digg about all sorts of things and not just photography. So having it automated was not the best option for a photography site.

I wanted a very easy process that allowed me to post my relevant diggs as a daily digest to my blog. So this is what I’m trying:

Thanks mainly goes to Liam DelaHunty for this. Liam set up a Yahoo Pipes ‘pipe’ that creates a feed of your diggs with URLs linking directly to the web page you’re digging about (instead of the actual digg page). I’ve cloned Liam’s pipe feed here and now subscribe to them via RSSFWD as a daily digest. What RSSFWD allows you to do is receive any RSS feed you like as an e-mail, ie. directly into your inbox instead of your RSS reader. So what I’ve done is subscribe to my 2 pipe feeds and set them up to be sent to me each day as a daily digest.

I can now copy the contents of these e-mails into a blog entry, easily remove my irrelevant diggs and post them here each day. If this works well I can remove the automated diggs feeds from FeedBurner and continue to post the relevant feeds in the fashion below. My next task is to do the same but not just for digg, ie. find a easy way to produce a link round-up of anything I find.

Lots of new pages

I’ve added some new pages to the site. Basically they are copies of previous posts that could be useful as static pages. It makes them more visible and easier to find too. The full list is below:

Under the Info menu:
My Kit List: a list of my camera equipment
Training Info: details of potential photography and art home-study courses from the Open College of Arts
Plans: what I plan to do with the site and with my photography in general
My Favourite Photographers: list of my favourite photographers I’ve discovered from books and the Internet
Donations: info on donations to me

Under the Links menu:
My Sites: list of all my sites
My Friend’s Sites: a collection of my friend’s sites
Photography Sites: general list of useful photography-related sites that I recommend to view or use
Other Useful Sites:more useful sites not relating to photography
Photography Software: list of useful software for photography
Other Software: list of useful software for everything else
My Flickr Groups: full list of my groups on Flickr

Under the About menu:
About Me: background info on me
About The Site: details of how the site has been built
My Social Media Sites: a massive list of all the sites I’m registered on
Site History: breakdown of what has happened to the site so far

I have also changed the Info, Links and About main pages to show list links and brief details of the submenu categories (so no duplications). And I have added a submenu with All Blog Categories. If you hover over this you’ll get a list of categories from my blog. Click on any of the links and you’ll be presented with all the posts from that particular category. Note clicking on All Blog Categories will display previews of every single post!

The sub categories are:
Art
Computing
Entertainment
Fun
General
Personal
Photography
Web Site