Jaspal Jandu Photography

Seasons Greetings

Merry Christmas to you all in virtual land, here's to a prosperous New Year too...

Last Days of the Arctic: Capturing the Faces of the North

Just watched a really well put together documentary on Ragnar Axelsson's quest to capture the vanishing lifestyles of the people of the north.

As the main programme is on the BBC iPlayer, its only available to UK viewers; however, his website and Youtube video are well worth a look around.  

Great stuff, indeed.

Spring is in the (photographic) air....

Spring has sprung and there’s fresh bloom and delicate light everywhere.  This moment doesn’t last long so here are some updates before its time to get out again....

• Have been over to the States twice in the last month.  Each visit always confirms the huge disparity in large format landscape photography as a valid artform.  Let’s just say, we have a long, long way to go in the UK...

• Shooting lots of tall buildings in London has forced me to buy a tilt-shift lens for the Canon. It’s a nice new 24mm thing and has lots of buttons and dials on it, so it must be good.

• The Linhof is seeing lots of action at the moment, partially because its so much more rewarding than anything else.  However, given that we’ll all be moving to digital one day, I’ve been looking/evaluating a few medium format rigs too (the Alpa STC being my current favourite).

• Off to Santorini next week and am looking forward to getting at least one good shot at some point despite it being 26c here in the UK and only 12c in Greece.  

There are realtime pics and posts on the @jjandu twitter page, so log on, sign in and drop out over there if you want the latest word on all things panoramic.

The Joy of Taking

They say that everyone should simultaneously have both a mentor and a protégé - a concept based on the ying and yang of giving and taking.

Going one step further, I would add that the relative balance of give and take should be dynamic over a creative person’s life.  Specifically, I find comfort in the notion of taking inspiration from other artists / nature when younger and ultimately giving back to other artists / nature when older.  

However, what happens when the balance of give and take becomes skewed? What if another person deliberately went out of their way to copy your work? What if he/she copied your website, or asked for advice and then pasted it verbatim into his/her body of work?  Surely, that’s not ‘inspiration’, that’s theft.

Well, all of those said points have occurred recently and although I won’t name names here for various reasons, the majority of transgressions have come from other photographers; particularly those from the ‘light-fingered’ internet generation.

In their defence, and as I have said previously, a creative endeavour cannot commence without inspiration and I also looked to the pantheon of other artists / photographers when I started out.  However, I like to think that I ‘returned the favour’ over time; possibly by name-checking them in my book, writing about them in my blog, buying products from them, forwarding business opportunities directly to them, taking about them at exhibitions etc etc.   Those of you who have met in me in person will know this is abundantly true.

In the increasingly competitive world of landscape photography, I have come to the conclusion that reciprocal manners are not always going to be so forthcoming.  So, in the coming months we’ll be changing the website around slightly to let allow the silent majority of genuine followers / clients access to the best and freshest of material, whilst trying to avert the gaze of the nefarious minority.

In the meantime, and having just come back from a Watercolours exhibition at the Tate Gallery, I myself will continue taking inspiration from others whilst simultaneously offering help to anyone who is kind enough to ask for humble advice.  In the words of Winston Churchill “...we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

Stay tuned.

2011 Epson International Pano Awards

Its that time of year for the 2011 Epson International Pano Awards, so if you are interested in entering here's the link and the press release.....

2011 Epson International Pano Awards

Press Release

Good luck to all those that enter!

I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas !

A quick note to wish you all a very Merry Christmas today.

For all of those in hot and humid lands, here's a view of what its like over here in the UK.  Brrrrr.......!

The Genius of Eadweard Muybridge

Having read a fair few books on Eadweard Muybridge over the years, I was delighted to see some of his actual works at the Tate Britain yesterday.   

Given the proliferation of Young Turks these days (myself included), it is quite humbling to think that he pioneered things like timeslicing, 3D, panoramics and, of course, locomotion/animation well over 100 years ago.

Not only that, but he also managed to find time to kill his wife’s lover.  The heartless cad!

For those of you fortunate enough to be close to the exhibition, I would definitely recommend a visit.  For all you in virtual-land I would try the following in the first instance : Wikipedia, The Collection, The Guide and Google.   Exhibition details are here...

Jaspal Jandu Twitter Stream

Follow Jaspal Jandu on Twitter, mention via @jjandu

Jaspal Jandu Photography on Twitter

If websites, blogs and Facebooks aren't enough for you, then you can now join us on Twitter too (there'll be a 'widget' at the top of this blog and also a dedicated stream on Twitter if you want to follow it there).

Staying faithful to the spirit of things, the 'tweets' are not going to be perfectly formed opuses of 140 characters or less but merely a stream of musings from behind a panoramic camera.

We're messing around in Hawaii at the moment so there's no finer way of kicking things off - see you there!

A message to all photographers; Aussies in particular...

Photographic expression should be a fairly basic right in the free world, so I would urge you all to download/subscribe/take part in events such as this one in Sydney. Here is some linkage to help you out:

      

Arts Freedom Australia – Facebook Page

Landscape photographers, including you, are losing rights

NSW Photo Rights

I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! (UK Site)

To those of you that do attend the meet up, our UK thoughts and spirits are with you!