Listen and make your own on Suno.
Listen and make your own on Suno.
Lens-Artists Challenge # 396: Pick A Favourite Quote And Illustrate It
I’ve always been a big fan of astromony, space and science fiction. I think I probably developed this interest before I was a teenager. At the age of 10, I vividly remember my parents waking me up to watch Neil Armstrong take his first steps on the moon, and I spent many an hour glued to the eyepiece of my small telescope as I looked at the wonders of the solar system, and beyond. Of course I was a nerd, or is it a geek? On a Saturday night, I would impatiently wait for the sports and news to come to an end for the unmistakable tones of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and the theme for the long-running TV series Doctor Who. (And then, as often as not, I would discretely retire behind the sofa as the show got a little too scary.)
Over the years, I devoured as many science fiction books as I could, watched all the TV shows and films, and just basked in the adventures of the Doctor, Captains Kirk and Scarlet, Buck Rogers, Luke Skywalker, and the rest. A passion for science fiction has been present throughout my life, as have the characters that have shaped it. Back in the 1990s. the writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski created Babylon 5, a television series spread over five years that detailed the adventures of the eponymous space station and its crew.
One of the main characters of the series was Delenn, an alien played by the Croation-American actress Mira Furlan, who might be better remembered as ‘Danielle Rousseau’ in Lost. Sadly, she passed several years ago from complications of West Nile fever. Until her death, she remained positive, and on the day of her passing posted this on her website: ‘I look at the stars. It’s a clear night and the Milky Way seems so near. That’s where I’ll be going soon. “We’re all star stuff”, I suddenly remember Delenn’s line from Joe’s script. Not a bad prospect. I am not afraid. In the meantime, let me close my eyes and sense the beauty around me. And take that breath under the dark sky full of stars. Breathe in. Breathe out. That’s all.‘
It’s a lovely sentiment, and I really latched on to the line, ‘Let me close my eyes and sense the beauty around me. And take that breath under the dark sky full of stars’ to the point that it appears on most of my social media profiles. In setting the theme for this Challenge, Ann Christine asked us to ‘illustrate [our] favourite quotes‘, and I would have liked nothing better than to try my hand at making images of the milky way, or even of the moon. But sadly weather conditions, and the light from the streetlights, always makes this impossible.
So instead, I thought that I would use what nature has given me and try to represent phosphenes. When you close your eyes, or enter a dark room, after a short period of darkness you might start to see colours and shapes morphing in front of you (or at least I do) and if you rub your eyes, these shapes might shimmer and dance. These effects are known as phosphenes, and are caused by the visual centres not completely shutting down, and sending random impulses to your brain. So for the Challenge today, I’m presenting a series of abstracts taken over the past couple of weeks that I hope represent the random shapes and colours you might see when you close your eyes.
These are actually photographs, taken with a cheap action camera/GoPro knock-off. I’ve circuit bent the camera with a little piece of tin foil jammed into the ribbon cable that joins the sensor to the main board of the camera. Instead of a normal looking low quality image, instead we get a corrupted (even lower quality) image filled with artifacts. Just to let you know, these are all cloudscapes.
Themes for the Lens-Artists Challenge are posted each Saturday at 12:00 noon EST (which is 4pm, GMT) and anyone who wants to take part can post their images during the following week. If you want to know more about the Challenge, details can be found here, and entries can be found on the WordPress reader using the tag ‘Lens-Artists’.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#ActionCamera #Babylon5 #Challenge #CircuitBending #Glitch #GlitchArt #Glitchy #IllustrateAQuote #LensArtists #LoFi #MiraFurlan #Retro #ScienceFiction #LensArtists
Glitch Dammit, Glitch! In Oliveira Do Bairro With The ‘New’ Failing Sensor Canon Powershot A80
I’ve been a bit slow posting a couple of updates to this blog. It’s been a little ‘life busy’, and I’ve just not really got around to it. Anyhow unforgivable oversight, really, bearing in mind how much I adore these failing sensor A80s. Anyhow, a week or so ago, my better half went to Oliveira do Bairro, so of course I tagged along, bringing the failing sensor A80s and the circuit bent G6 Thumb Camera with me.
I’ve already posted the report of the G6 Thumb Camera. I’m really happy with how the circuit bending worked, and now I want to do another, but these failing sensor A80s are really a law unto themselves. My original A80 is getting worse (or better depending on how you feel about what it’s producing now), so I picked up another A80 that I hoped behaves in a similar way. Snag is, it doesn’t. Yes, the first couple of frames glitch wonderfully. But then the sensor warms up, or stabilises, or whatever it does, and it just stops glitching.
Well, that’s not strictly true, it’s still glitching, but in a more ‘normal’ way. Greens and blues, and yellows come out normal-ish, but whites and light greys have a really strong pink cast to them. It looks like the sensor is starting to glitch, but it’s not got there just yet. That day in Oliveira was quite dull, so I really need to see how it performs on a sunny day. (I thought this week might be good, but the nice weather at the start of the week has gone as tempestade Therese passes overhead.)
If you’re interested, I’ve posted the whole series in an album on my Joomeo if you want to see the rest of the images. If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Abstract #Digicam #Digitalcamera #Glitch #Glitchy #Powershot #Sensor #Shittydigital #Canon
Looks Like It’s On Its Way Out: In Oliveira Do Bairro With The Original Failing Sensor Canon Powershot A80
Along with my ‘new’ failing sensor Canon Powershot A80, I took the original with me on a stroll around Oliveira do Bairro. After an encouraging start, which lasted all of five minutes, the A80 began to misbehave — well misbehave more than usual. Instead of the lovely glitchy goodness that I was used to, all the LCD display showed were random vertical lines, or a blank screen. The camera was still working, it was focusing on a subject, but whenever I took an image it was really corrupted.
Of course, I grabbed the opportunity to take such amazing looking images, even though they were nowhere near what the subject was supposed to be. I’m beginning to think that perhaps the sensor is deteriorating much faster than I had imagined it would. I’ve posted the whole series in an album on my Joomeo if you want to see the rest of the images. I think I’m going to leave it for a whike, but all being well, my next outing will be a trip to Aveiro for some urban photography.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Abstract #Digicam #Digitalcamera #Glitch #Glitchy #Powershot #Sensor #Shittydigital #Canon
Off To The Seaside With The Circuit Bent G6 Thumb Camera
The circuit bent G6 Thumb Camera has become my carry anywhere camera, even when I didn’t plan to take it with me. On Monday we decided to go to Costa Nova for lunch. There’s a fabulous seafood restaurant there called the Marisqueira, so I planned to take three cameras with me: the Proud Chrome Six III, a medium format folding camera loaded with Harman Phoenix I film; the Lomography Sprocket Rocket, loaded with a partially exposed roll of Lomography ISO 100 colour film; and an Olympus Pen E-PL3 mirrorless camera fitted with an Industar 69 28mm f2.8 lens from the Chaika II half-frame camera.
These were packed away in my camera bag, but when we got to the beach and I was rummaging around in the bag, I discovered that the circuit bent G6 Thumb Camera had stowed away in the bag, too. Well, I couldn’t let it just sit there, so it became the fourth camera of the day. Of course, in the end it was probably the camera I used the most. Like the Charmera, the G6 is just ridiculously easy to use, and with the addition of the circuit bent sensor the false colours make the images so much fun. If you’re interested, I’ve posted the whole series in an album on my Joomeo if you want to see the rest of the images.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.
#CharmeraClone #CircuitBending #Digicam #Experimental #G6 #Glitch #GlitchArt #Glitchy #LoFi #Retro #ToyCamera
In Oliveira Do Bairro With The Circuit Bent G6 Thumb Camera
It’s been a while since I’ve been out with the G6 Thumb Camera. I must admit, I’ve been having more fun with the failing sensor Canon Powershot A80s. Still, my better half had a hair appointment in Oliveira do Bairro so it was the perfect opportunity to explore the town with the circuit bent G6 Thumb Camera. (For the record, I brought along the two Powershot A80s as well.) If you’re interested, I’ve posted the whole series in an album on my Joomeo if you want to see the rest of the images.
I’m really liking how I circuit bent this camera, it was my first successful attempt, but now I’m ‘champing at the bit’ to do another. I’ve got some pieces of wire this time, to short the sensor connection in a couple of places, and I did actually try to circuit bend a cheap Rollei point and shoot. But I couldn’t access the sensor. So I’m back on the hunt for a ‘generic’ camera. In the meantime, though, the G6 Thumb Camera is behaving admirably.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.
#CharmeraClone #CircuitBending #Digicam #Experimental #G6 #Glitch #GlitchArt #Glitchy #LoFi #Retro #ToyCamera
Gharr
/ˈsnæp.ʃɒt/
Keith Devereux