Moving pictures... High Hopes

I usually don't like music videos. Often I think that they manage to misrepresent the song or they age too easily or are too cheesy. I was really surprised when I loved the music video of High Hopes from beginning to end. It's full of beautiful surreal scenes, filmed with smooth camera movements and notable variety. It carries on suggesting and making me wonder. It manages somehow to mix these simple dreamlike scenes of warm colours with strong dutch angles. The mood and imagery it carries sticks as much as The Third Man. Sorry for the quality of the following captures... you'd rather just check the video I linked above!


















Thanks to the f blog for pointing out the video!

Welsh Weather complaints

After reading in today's edition of the Western Mail the article The most miserable August on record I'm not that surprised I shoot indoors and at night. August in Wales allows for up to 14 hours of sunlight / day due to it's high latitude. However, we only reach an average of about 4 hours of light / day this year, which is even less than the usual 6 or 7. And it's true, about half of the days are heavily overcast and the other half are cloudy (that's when some sun comes through). Rainfall has been pretty heavy as well. The only times that you see people out is when they go shopping and at night when they go out. Gloomy as fuck. Of course, not even the most miserable weather can stop people from going out for a pint even if they have to return drenched.

I think there was more activity in spring than there is now, at least in places like parks and other outdoor venues. People knew back then that the weather was rainy and they were prepared for it and went out. Even sometimes, the activity that would otherwise take place outdoors would move into the undergrounds, but with the gloomy summer that doesn't happen either. Oh, when is March coming back?





(The Fountains in winter by me.)

Photographers featured in tumblr

If you want to see the latest odd findings of photographers or fast and dirty edits of interesting work I'm doing, you should check my tumblr Photohemorrhage. Preferably, subscribe to the RSS feed, as it gets quite a few images / week in.

In the last couple of days it has featured...





- Natasha Klimchuk






- Micke Berg


and





- Kramer O'Neill

Visitors

This blog has visitors. Usually they come from these places:

Council Estates

There's this thing in the UK that I can't recognize a minimally rough council estate when I walk into one. Sometimes I wonder if they actually are rough at all. At least in Cardiff. Last night -this morning for the rest of you mortals- I couldn't sleep, so I went for a walk. I started around half past four or five and went up to some hills in Cardiff that I had seen in google maps. Cyncoed happened to be this very posh neighbourhood with large gardens and up to four cars / house. There was a UWIC university campus up there. Nobody on the streets and lots of green. Anyhow, pretty posh, as said before. Then I walked into Llanedeyrn on my way back. It's a bit higher on the hill, and you can see that it's rolling down towards the sea, but all the houses get into the way. There are lots of alleys and underways and bits of green in the middle. My mate tonight was telling me that it's full of 'nasty boys' and that people there have lots of dogs for self defence. I didn't really see anybody while I was there between half past five and half past six, excepting a lady walking on her way back home and an old lady walking a dog -who happened to say 'good morning'-. Anyhow, the houses were pretty cramped together, but the bits of green everywhere made me think that this was way more posh than my home in Roath. And the cars were pretty posh as well. My mate was saying that people give certain value to having proper cars and arrange them one way or another -benefits, i.e.-. Ok, none the less, this seemed like a pretty ok neighbourhood to be in, more than my own. The only dischording note was the local newsagent / supermarket. It was this sort of concrete bunker with steel shutters. Although it did not have graffiti, the underpasses around had, and they were dark. At some point the sun was raising (quarter to five, I think) and I couldn't see shit with all the houses. So I decided to get into this tower block. I shot from the fourth story. It was quite lovely. Clean, smelled nice. I could see Rhumney and the sea. The hill got there gradually. The clouds took all over the sky, with little patches of blue above me. Then I walked back home. Penylan was as posh as usually, but the streets seemed longer. Black clouds came and it started to rain. My mate was telling me that he's going to take holidays in Trefforest. I thought, damn, there's nothing in Trefforest, so I asked what is there. 'Nothing!' he said. He'll go there when the mushroom season is good to pick for the rest of the year. Oh, these prosperous hills.

La Pura Vida Gallery

La Pura Vida Gallery carries on and is looking for August submissions (open to everybody). I've heard that the gallery of July is almost ready, and yours truly features in here and there in June. These are nice varied mixes, so if you think you might not have anything suitable for it, check if you have old polaroids or slides, check the pictures you took six month ago and you still remember, and go and submit. It's sort of fun too.