And I know it’s not really life

Summer 1

Summer 2

Summer 2

Summer 2

Summer 2

I'm a bit tired, due to lack of sleep. I have been commuting by bicycle, and the weather has been dry, +12 °C in the morning and +20...+22 °C in the afternoon.

I had a look at the statistics for this blog between May 2010 and June 2015, and there is a clear decreasing trend in the number of pageviews. In 2010 and 2011 I was quite interested in digital cameras, and that brought visitors to this blog, but these days I'm not keen on hardware, and thus there is little to attract visitors, except perhaps the photographs.

(Posting title is from the poem Baseball by Gail Mazur.)

Flickr vs. Google Plus - what is the deal?

Vine

Ferns

Dry

Amanita

Colors

Pond

Despite some small glitches occasionally, I have been satisfied with Flickr for storing my photographs online. I have used Flickr for storage, not much else. And the price suits me well.

I have bought a Flickr pro account for two years for less than 2 USD per month, that is hard to beat. For that I get unlimited uploads, storage and bandwidth which is the main thing for me. (Plus I'm ad-free.)

However, now Google is getting into the game with Google Plus - they have integrated Picasa Web Albums there. Some seem to love this.

But I have almost 20,000 photographs at Flickr, which means about 80 GB of storage needed. For 20 USD per year I would get 80 GB of storage from Google, and for 50 USD I would get 200 GB. So, currently Flickr is rather nice in pricing compared to Google, at least when you have lots of photographs.

But anyway, that is rather theoretical, as moving the photographs from Flickr to Picasa Web Albums would break all existing links to photographs here at Light Scrape. But if price is not a deal-maker are there some other advantages to using Google? Better integration with Blogger?

But anyway. I'm not really getting the point of Google Plus. Clearly Google wants to get a similar thing going as Facebook has right now. But are they able to something better? It doesn't seem so.

Of the social media platforms Twitter is the only that seems moderately useful, at least to some work-related stuff. Best of all, it has a more open attitude to third-party developers, and that is why it can be used for things that other platforms don't easily allow.

And then there is LinkedIn which is tolerable for work-related networking. But Facebook, it is a strange beast I can't grasp at all.

Why is Google targeting Facebook - or is there something really clever going on that I haven't noticed? Paul Lester posted some thoughts about Google Plus, which generated a nice discussion.

But still, I don't get it. I do have an Google Plus account, thanks to a colleague who sent me an invitation, but I just can't see the usefulness of it.

By the way, Paul also posted a nice farewell message to Cedric, who is closing his excellent blog. It wasn't often that he posted, but they were the more thoughtful and thought-provoking for it. Fare well!

Posting number 1500 at Light Scrape

Drying

Street

Rowan

Fireweed

So the time goes: this is posting number 1500 here at Light Scrape. I think I have learned a lot during all this, but somehow I feel that there is all the time more and more to learn. It never ends...

And what have been the most popular subjects? I made a list of the top ten most popular postings, and - this is probably not a surprise - eight of them discussed gear-related topics, especially the Panasonic LX3. The other two touched on gear as well...

So, gear seems to be THE topic. However, I have grown less and less interested in it. Is this a dilemma? Maybe it isn't.

Views from a car

Drops, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Fog, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Road, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Wet, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

View, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Sven W suggested a theme for photographs, "photos taken from inside the car", so here are five such taken today. This was due to necessity, as today I didn't have time to take photographs except when sitting in a car.

Sven W also referred to Mark Hobson, who - in addtion to bringing up this theme - is doing a great job in classifying his photographs into several series.

But this made me think: is photography becoming a too serious thing for me. The original reason for taking it up was to balance some other things in life, and not get too serious about it. I in fact wrote once, meaning it, that I wouldn't mind if all my photographs would just disappear or be deleted by mistake some day. (Obviously this does not refer to the family photographs.)

Do I feel the same today?

After thinking about this for a while, I believe I feel the same. There are always new photographs to be taken. I even had a thought that I should try this out - delete everything (this blog, the Flickr site, and photographs on the computer) and start from anew. It might be worth doing.

However, there are some things that I would miss, mostly some instructions on using the LX3, on making photobooks, etc., which I might need some day. So, maybe I'll continue for a while. And if it gets too serious, just start anew from scratch.

But if you have an idea for a theme (or two), let me know. It may be something to try out. Of course, not too seriously.

1000 postings - using a camera that looks both ways

Windows, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Wood, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

This is the 1000th posting at this blog, in a little bit less than two years. And - so they say - as the camera looks both ways, I must have revealed something about myself here. Or perhaps even learned a little bit of photography.

Since September 2008 I have taken over 93,000 photographs with my Panasonic LX3, quite a feat which I didn't aim for, it just happened. And I have written quite a few words to complement the photographs in the blog postings. On the average, I have taken about 100 photographs for each blog posting here, so only a small subset of the photographs survive this far.

Of course, I'm just a beginner compared to many others, such as Andreas Manessinger, who has well over 1300 postings as of this writing.

Originally I was planning to write a longer posting to celebrate the occasion, but what the hell, is 1000 any more special than, say 1587?

On the other hand, I can't help speculating about new cameras. There is a nice overview of the new Sony cameras, titled 24 Hours with Sony's NEX-3 & NEX-5. Based on the overview, it seems that these mirrorless cameras are quite nice, although there are user interface problems which spoil the fun in more demanding use. But I guess Sony may be able to improve the interface to the point when the cameras are tempting indeed.

One thing I didn't know about Sony cameras were the Sweep Panorama and Twilight Hand-held modes, both of which basically use a kind of stiching techology to generate either a much larger or a better-quality image. The Sweep Panorama mode joins in-camera up to 60 images while you slowly move the camera across the landscape. And in the Twilight Hand-held mode the camera captures six images in succession, layering the best parts into an optimized image file. These sound interesting technologies indeed, and probably will appear elsewhere.

But at least for now I'm very pleased with my LX3. It allows all kinds of experiments in photography. What I have learned is that there are endless paths to explore, and I feel that I know less about photography the more I take photographs. Of course, it would be bad the other way around, so no complaints.

It is hard to be a bird during winter

Snow on branches, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Sunlight, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Bird house, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Bird house, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

It is a wonder that so many birds survive the Finnish winter, all the snow and temperature at -20 °C or less. But they do, clever creatures. (And I guess they are equipped with an extremely good insulation.)

By the way, Finnish researcher Tiina Pääkkönen has concluded that long-time exposure to cold decreases the reasoning capability of humans. This happens because the body needs the energy elsewhere than in the brain. Also, the effects can be long-lasting.

In any case, our family exposed ourselves to the cold today. It was a bright day once again, although the sun was low on the horizon. Here are some photographs taken today.

I calculated some statistics about this blog. I started it in the middle of 2008. That year there were at average 118 visits and 180 page views per day. In 2009, these numbers were 103 and 143. So, the blog has been going downhill in that sense. On the other hand, more of the visitors have come here before. In 2008, only 32 % were repeat visitors. In 2009, this rose to over 40 %.

So, thanks for coming here (for whatever reason), and especially thanks for all the comments and other feedback.

Please no more snow

Branches, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Helsinki view, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

I shoveled snow again this morning, about 15 cm worth of it, in 30 minutes. I'm getting tired of this, but fortunately there is forecasted a break in the snowfall for 2-3 days, over Christmas.

Here are two photographs, the first taken today with the LX3, the second taken earlier this week using the Nokia E90 phone, from the 6th floor of a building in the center of Helsinki. I was surprised at the image, it is not completely impossibly bad. (Although I did have the usual problems in framing and shooting, the shutter lag being something random between 1-3 seconds.)

I started today a new blog, in Finnish, titled Valopolku ("lightpath"). I'll write there information technology related short texts, but not very often, once a week or less is the plan. Have to see how it goes.

Photography and ba - is there a shared space for emerging relationships?

Treetops, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Rocks in snow, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Three icicles, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

First, about these images. Today was mostly sunny, but during the night and morning we got a bit of fresh snow, which covered the ground in places where the old snow had melted away. But the sunshine started the melting process again during the day.

I took a lot of photographs today, about 300, but only a dozen were any good. And most of those were of the children playing outside.

I'm getting good in knowing when to take a photograph [of children] and capture the moment. Of course, having a fast-responding camera (the LX3) also helps.

The images here continue on the same tracks I have been following the last few weeks: black and white, strong contrast, plenty of color (naturally not in the same image).

Now, let us return to the title of this posting. For quite a few years I have been interested in knowledge transfer and knowledge management, for example in the SECI model. I have organized a lot of training event during my work career, and I have a dozen years of experience in management.

Yesterday I started to pay attention to a concept called ba. This is of course not a new thing, but not something I have found relevant previously, until pointed out in a MBA thesis by a colleague.

Here is an attempt at a definition of ba: "Ba can be thought of as a shared space for emerging relationships. This space can be physical (eg. office, dispersed business space), virtual (e.g., email, teleconference), mental (eg. shared experiences, ideas, ideals) or any combination of them. Ba provides a platform for advancing individual and/or collective knowledge."

The ba concept arises from the Japanese work culture, which is much less individualistic than the western one. However, here in Finland we tend to be a bit more "eastern" than in many other European countries, and thus the concept isn't too far away from the reality of workplaces here.

But what is the connection of ba with photography? Well, the acquisition and transfer of skills, especially those skills (tacit knowledge) which are hard to put into words but which can be transferred by observing a skilled practioner in action. "We can know more than we can tell" (M Polanyi).

Ba is a way of overcoming the obstacle of not being able to put into words the things you know. So, in a way it is an attempt at overcoming the claim of Wittgenstein, "Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen."

Today I realized that perhaps photography bloggers are building a ba of their own - either to acquire skills which are hard to transfer verbally but which can be approached by practice and feedback, or to transfer tacit knowledge to others and perhaps understand the unknown by themselves at the same time.

I have a great many candidates for such photography bas: Mark Hobson, Andreas Manessinger, Paul Lester, and a multitude of others. Each of them has taught me a great deal of things I didn't even realize can exist before noticing them happening in practice.

Have I completely misunderstood the ba concept when applying it to a loosely coupled community of individual photography bloggers? In blogging there is not necessarily a feeling of "here and now", as the ba concept seems to imply. But still, I have a feeling that blogs can support the creation of new knowledge.

An interesting thing to speculate is whether the following concepts linked to ba have a relevance here: love, care, trust and commitment.

Photographer's obligation

Church, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Today I ran into Paul Maxim's posting Branching Out, in which he disagreed with Mark Hobson's views on subject matter:

I enjoy reading Mark’s blog, and I agree with him on a lot of issues, but his insistent implication that photographing in “iconic” locations is a waste of time is arrogant and silly. In Mark’s mind, photographing a plateful of garbage in his sink apparently has more value. In all fairness, maybe to Mark it does. That’s fine. But to tell the world that any image taken in a national park (or other such place) is of no value because it’s been done “a zillion times before” is horse pucky.

The topic of what to photograph is related to the matter of a photographer's obligation to the audience. If I post a photo of a certain subject - say a specific tree - would it be fair to the audience to post another photo of the same tree tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and so on? Or should I change the subject? In fact, what kind of obligation a photographer has towards the audience. For example, does a novice/amateur/half-skilled photographer such as me have any obligation towards the readers of this blog?

This discussion is now close to getting off-topic, but here is the thing: if it is easiest for me to take photos of the nearby subjects, and I feel that I can develop my skills this way, and I want to post these things on the web just because I like to do so, do I generate an obligation through the process of publishing my photos? And what kind of obligation that might be?

Coming back to the subject matter, I don't seek "popular places", but I'm not againts taking photos of them either. I'm in a fortunate position (considering the situation these days) of having a job, and as it is nowadays, it is a quite demanding job, so photography is something I do for balancing the work and the family. What I don't need is another set of obligations from those viewing my photos.

So, is there any way of escaping such an obligation? Not thinking about it is not a solution, now that I have realized that I may have an audience which expects something from this blog. On the other hand, I don't want to spoil a good thing. The good thing about photography is going out and having a walk in the nature, taking photos, having a look at them to learn to do it better next time, and writing whatever I happen to think at the moment to this blog.

According to the web statistics, there are on average 100-150 visits to this blog daily, and about 40% of you are returning visitors. This is quite a lot, and in fact makes me ponder heavily how I should feel about this blog. It is not so lightweight thing any more, although I want to keep it as informal and easygoing as possible. And most of all, I want to preserve the possibility of failure, or experimentation, and of not being perfect.

I guess most visitors here have their own blogs and perhaps even photo galleries. How do you feel about this?