On the importance of sensor cleaning
When I turned on the news this morning, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the world was one again ending. Global markets and house prices were falling faster than a meteor, unemployment and public spending were rising just as quickly in the opposite direction, and clearly it’s the end of civilisation as we know it.
*Sigh*
I packaged up my daughter and drove her to school.
It was an utterly absolutely fabulous morning. Blue skies, crisp autumnal air, falling leaves everywhere. Simply beautiful. Suddenly all the doom and gloom seemed utterly irrelevant. The air seemed crisper, clearer and everything seemed so different. It was like a change in the wind, and I could smell it as tangibly as if it were clearly visible in front of me. It felt like I’d suddenly side-stepped into a parallel universe where everything seemed the same, but I knew it wasn’t. Reality just seemed different (then again, it could be my tumour slooshing around, who knows?)
Of course the bloggie commenters in my last post were right. Photographers are generally wiser than the rest of us. Those who spend a lifetime observing others tend to have better perspective than ordinary mortals. Who needs psychotherapy when you’ve got a camera, huh?
Despite my previous doom-fest about money (which is what I’m trained to do, after all), my non-official opinion is that money is pretty meaningless. Bet you’d never thought you’d hear an accountant say that, eh? But it’s true. To me, money is just another form of energy which flows around in endless circles. The way we choose to make, spend and invest this energy is a direct reflection of who we are and how we think about life.
Most of the folks reading this are photographic creatives in some shape or form: photographers, models, writers, artists, and so forth. This generally means that unless you’re a money-focussed marketing guru like Damien Hirst, you will probably hold the opinion that photography and art largely stand outside the financial and political world. Creativity offers escape from the falling skies by losing the artist in his own imagination, thereby offering the key to a highly effective strategy for coping with the worldly crap going on around us. Spending your energies by practising your art not only affirms who you are as a person and how you want to live your life, but it also offers the best possible therapy for all your woes. With every click of the shutter you give meaning to all this craziness, you rise above the small stuff and affirm belief in the beauty of the world.
(Caution: Dodgy photographic metaphor alert! All sensible, intelligent, sane readers please abandon ship and come back tomorrow.)
When you spend every waking moment immersed in the photographic universe, all your energies are spent crafting the Big Picture, the one lifetime shot that defines you as a person. As with all photographs though, the problem is that the Big Picture often doesn’t turn out as well as the image you originally visualised in your head, perhaps because of lack of knowledge but mostly because of external influences that have compromised your vision.
Recessions, politics and even who wins the next election are all just background noise in your photograph. Noise, dirt and dust are facts of life in photography. They are always there, distorting the overall clarity of the image. How well you minimise those distortions depends on the type and quality of your imaging sensor, as well as how well you keep it clean. Novice photographers are usually nervous about cleaning their camera's sensor. Yet it’s not as hard as you imagine, especially if you have an inbuilt self cleaning sensor unit which does it automatically for you.
Alas I don’t have the ability to self-clean yet, but I’m working on it. In the meantime, I’m focussing on my big picture by spending all my energies as wisely as possible.
Althaia
(Yeah, I really do write some total tosh you know. It’s a constant wonder to me that anyone reads it. Still, one woman’s lunacy is another man’s wisdom I guess. Or not, as the case may be.)
*Sigh*
I packaged up my daughter and drove her to school.
It was an utterly absolutely fabulous morning. Blue skies, crisp autumnal air, falling leaves everywhere. Simply beautiful. Suddenly all the doom and gloom seemed utterly irrelevant. The air seemed crisper, clearer and everything seemed so different. It was like a change in the wind, and I could smell it as tangibly as if it were clearly visible in front of me. It felt like I’d suddenly side-stepped into a parallel universe where everything seemed the same, but I knew it wasn’t. Reality just seemed different (then again, it could be my tumour slooshing around, who knows?)
Of course the bloggie commenters in my last post were right. Photographers are generally wiser than the rest of us. Those who spend a lifetime observing others tend to have better perspective than ordinary mortals. Who needs psychotherapy when you’ve got a camera, huh?
Despite my previous doom-fest about money (which is what I’m trained to do, after all), my non-official opinion is that money is pretty meaningless. Bet you’d never thought you’d hear an accountant say that, eh? But it’s true. To me, money is just another form of energy which flows around in endless circles. The way we choose to make, spend and invest this energy is a direct reflection of who we are and how we think about life.
Most of the folks reading this are photographic creatives in some shape or form: photographers, models, writers, artists, and so forth. This generally means that unless you’re a money-focussed marketing guru like Damien Hirst, you will probably hold the opinion that photography and art largely stand outside the financial and political world. Creativity offers escape from the falling skies by losing the artist in his own imagination, thereby offering the key to a highly effective strategy for coping with the worldly crap going on around us. Spending your energies by practising your art not only affirms who you are as a person and how you want to live your life, but it also offers the best possible therapy for all your woes. With every click of the shutter you give meaning to all this craziness, you rise above the small stuff and affirm belief in the beauty of the world.
(Caution: Dodgy photographic metaphor alert! All sensible, intelligent, sane readers please abandon ship and come back tomorrow.)
When you spend every waking moment immersed in the photographic universe, all your energies are spent crafting the Big Picture, the one lifetime shot that defines you as a person. As with all photographs though, the problem is that the Big Picture often doesn’t turn out as well as the image you originally visualised in your head, perhaps because of lack of knowledge but mostly because of external influences that have compromised your vision.
Recessions, politics and even who wins the next election are all just background noise in your photograph. Noise, dirt and dust are facts of life in photography. They are always there, distorting the overall clarity of the image. How well you minimise those distortions depends on the type and quality of your imaging sensor, as well as how well you keep it clean. Novice photographers are usually nervous about cleaning their camera's sensor. Yet it’s not as hard as you imagine, especially if you have an inbuilt self cleaning sensor unit which does it automatically for you.
Alas I don’t have the ability to self-clean yet, but I’m working on it. In the meantime, I’m focussing on my big picture by spending all my energies as wisely as possible.
Althaia
(Yeah, I really do write some total tosh you know. It’s a constant wonder to me that anyone reads it. Still, one woman’s lunacy is another man’s wisdom I guess. Or not, as the case may be.)
Labels: althaia, Philosophy
posted by Lin at 10:36 AM
8 Comments:
Filled under, I wish I had said that
I woke this morning to the autumn world you describe PLUS a rainbow. It made me think of the Muppets' song, "The Rainbow Connection"...Why am I always following rainbows?...the lover, the dreamer, and me.
It's the poet/artist/lover in us, Lin.
A major point to keep in mind is that the folks who are predicting doom and gloom and sight sky falling number are the same folk who brought us Y2K!! I take all the information that there bringing us a take it with a bag of salt (and I’m on a Sodium restricted diet). It’s the days brought to us as a gift to make of it what we will. Like with the images we take, add the model and your sure to create something different that you originally had in mind. Take it as a gift from the universe and quit looking at your belly-button. And as for your rants, I think I speak for everybody here to say we take that with a grain of salt as well. Everybody is entitled to an off day tumor or not. Have a good one Lin!!
When you spend every waking moment immersed in the photographic universe, all your energies are spent crafting the Big Picture, the one lifetime shot that defines you as a person. As with all photographs though, the problem is that the Big Picture often doesn’t turn out as well as the image you originally visualised in your head, perhaps because of lack of knowledge but mostly because of external influences that have compromised your vision.
Wow! There's a mouthful!
Personally, I don't ever give a thought to pre-visualizing that "one lifetime shot that defines me..." Or most any other shots for that matter. I spend my time (and thoughts) preparing myself for it/them... if and when it/they ever comes along. I'm guessing that singular shot (or commonly-themed set of shots) are mostly about being in the right place at the right time in the right circumstances with the right subject(s) in front of your lens. I'm also guessing that luck, kismet, and serendipity might play a significant roles in any of this sort of stuff happening.
If I ever find myself facing that "big picture" shot I'm gonna be ready for it. Providing, of course, I have a camera with me.
Thanks for the comments folks.
Jimmy, The Big Picture was supposed to be a metaphor for your life. Sorry if that didn't translate too well. Clearly I need to work on my metaphors.
And for the record, you always carry your camera with you.
"It felt like I’d suddenly side-stepped into a parallel universe..."
I felt this too. I was in Michigan over the weekend to visit my Grandmother and it's rural so no internet. Plus my grandmother can't see well anymore so she doesn't get a newspaper and doesn't see or hear the TV good so doesn't watch it, so we usually don't either.
So I was in your irrelevant parallel universe bubble. No presidential hopefuls lying and spreading rumors. No pounding the bad economy down my throat from every media outlet. The world could have ended and as long as it took it's time reaching us, we were happy in our isolation. She lives in this bubble every day - damn - I'm so jealous.
We had just the quiet, watched the deer walk in the yard and looked at the beautiful fall colors as we gazed out the windows. Played a few games of cribbage when she was up to it. When she napped I read. That requires no wireless feed or computer. Just a comfy chair, oh maybe a beer or two, which lead to the book laying on my fat tummy and a couple of naps. I was depressed to come home yesterday.
I like your money is just energy thought. What a great way to stretch my meager cash flow out. I'm going to send some of that energy along to some of my creditors this month. I hope they know how to convert it back into money so they credit my accounts properly.
D.L. Wood
Well said. Amen.
Tosh? That's a new one for me :).
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