I'm not very enthusiastic about photography at the moment. Or more accurately, I'm not very enthusiastic about my photography, or taking photographs. Partly due to a recent flame exchange which I found depressing in the extreme (but I do keep reminding myself that the vast majority of Americans are not, in fact, pompous name-dropping self-important tossers).

Anyway. I really forced myself to try to do something with this camera thing on Sunday and I've finally got around to posting a result.

Late afternoon view over Lake Lugano from Bosco Luganese

Couldn't be bothered with a tripod and everything. Maybe things will improve... The real reason, I think, is first of all, there's only so long you can stay interested in anything in a complete vacuum, and, secondly, I simply don't have the time to immerse myself to take my photography to a level I would like to reach. Or possibly I'm just a pompous, name-droppng self-important - and talentless - tosser.

Who knows.

This is another accident... Had I not been at ISO 800 I could not have captured this combination of frozen motion and shallow depth of field. Normally I would have been at 100 or 200, and as my brain is still more or less set in the film world, I would not have considered the new variable - changing ISO. Having made the mistake I'm now repeating it as often as possible! It is hardly an original observation, but adding sensitivity to the traditional exposure / aperture adjustments really opens up a new world of creative possibilities. This DSLR stuff is just SO MUCH FUN!!!

Nice to see that the online photo magazine, 28mm, has reappeared. No equipment, no endless reviews of stupid, endlessly identical little digital boxes, just excellent and well curated photography. Highly recommended.

I managed to do it again. This time I shot 18 pictures at ISO 400 when I could, and should have been at 100 or 200. Oh well. Hopefully I'll learn one day. Here's one of them, an alternative to the one I posted at myfourthirds.com today. This one has the boat in it. I'm not sure which I prefer. Neither is exactly great, anyway. Lake Lugano, 9:30am today.

I think I've been reading far to many photography magazines and far too many web sites, and getting depressed about the (low) quality of my photography. Somehow everybody composes photos better, has better colour, better sharpness, better subjects. And all this landscape stuff, finally it isn't very creative is it ?

But... so many people say that they find inspiring and interesting things just outside their door. So on Sunday I went out, just a little way, with no plan, and ended up near a small stream I'd never really noticed before, but which was transformed by the melting snow. I ended up with 80 photos (praise the Lord for digital cameras) some of which are quite nice.

I'm still pretty sure that I don't have much of a clue, but at least I enjoyed myself!