Wednesday 26 December 2018

It's been a while... .

One way or another these last few months have been very busy.
I'm involved in trying to put an artists studio together in Clonmel that's going a pace but I feel uneasy about. We have a new bit of company law that fits like a glove to our endeavour, the Company Limited by Guarantee. This limits liability to the extent of the guarantee, which may be as small as €1 per person. Some of the others are determined to complicate the thing by using older structures that aren't as good, but those they know.

The other major project has to do with an Artist in Primary Schools Scheme. 50 contact hours which one is paid but not for the prep' which is likely to be a full day for a two hour encounter.
The Idea loosely hinges on the discovery that our system of education is excellent at passing exams, but not so good at asking questions. Something the establishment realised the country will need if we are to survive into the future. I'll try to attach a PDF to Google Drive https://drive.google.com/file/d/1agMU2ShooN6DMqw_QTGB_nqhBYOcXxTC/view?usp=sharing
 Anyway that's taking an inordinate amount of time.

Our social night at the camera club was a success if I do say so myself. The prizes were handed over, a draw was had. Most brought a spot prize, but some didn't. I mentioned the club should buy from funds a supply of six to eight extra next year to cover the ones that arrived hands hanging.
 We had a quiz too. I compiled the questions and was quiz master. Lots of moaning of course, I perhaps pitched the Q's a bit high. But I felt that was better than it being too easy. Higher you can compose hints. One of them was 'what was the ship that rescued the survivors of the Titanic'. Another was 'who directed Jaws'.

In other news. My Zeiss died. Not a tragic event, for it may well be fixable. And that will be something for the dark evenings. But I also had a 1970s Pentacon on order which arrived the very next day.
Here's one for you. I decided on pricing out the films that a bulk loader is the way to go. You get 30 m or 100 ft of film that you load into reusable film rolls. Now I asked a supplier in Ireland to see if they could get me one. They said no, they couldn't. Well I was on the Amazon website at the very moment I was speaking to them with that very page opened https://www.amazon.co.uk/35mm-Bulk-Film-Loader-Cassettes/dp/B000RO4FZ0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1545824318&sr=8-3&keywords=bulk+film+loader 

Now they could have bought it off Amazon, reclaimed the VAT and resold it too me. But no. So I will be buying my films off Amazon in future. Really annoying that BTW.

I hope everyone has had a happy and Holy Christmas. And best wishes for the new year.

Following are some photos of the Winter Solstice at Knockroe passage tombs.











8 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas, Vince. I used to have a buik film loaders, but don’t know what happened. I mainly used it for Tri-X b&w, but also did some 25 foot rolls of extrachrome slide film.

    www.thepulpitandthepen.com

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    1. That's it. If you are planning to shoot a good bit with the B&W it's about half the cost dropping to a quarter after the first lot pays for the loader.

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  2. Sounds like you’ve been busy with many new endeavors. Bummer on the camera. :(. Why am I not surprised you were the quiz question writer?!?! ;) The education concerns are ones we deal with here too. We know the arts are fundamental, but our time for them is stolen with test preparations. I hate it! I’m glad to hear you’re helping them.

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    1. Yes, it's been surprisingly busy. But for the first time in a very long time the projects are more speculative than truly actionable.

      And I might pick your brains a bit if the teaching bit come to fruition.

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  3. You've been busy and in a good way. That should always take precedence over blogging.

    Enjoyed all your solstice photos. Good to see Jessy making friends, too. We've added a tenth dog to our pack. We're insane, I know.

    Hope your Christmas was nice, too. Wishing you the best for the coming year.

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    1. I wrote a comment but I must have closed it before I hit publish.

      Ten dogs is a LOT. But if you can deal with them why the hell not I say. If I ever won the Lotto I'd have at least five. And Yes I had a good Christmas. I made beef sirloin roast, with cranberries. I did the beef in a Tagine. Something I'm not sure about, but I got it marked down 70% so it's no tragedy if it's a flop.
      And happy new year to you and yours.

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  4. I love the quiz questions! I’m good at certain categories like music and sometimes history, but my memory fails me more times than not I’m afraid. I love the competition though and would rather have challenging questions than easy ones.

    Happy New Year!

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  5. I participate on a trivia team twice a year and always look forward to the event. We've even one it a couple times. My strong suit is history and current events. My weak suit is pop culture. I don't know the first answer but I do know Spielberg was the director of Jaws.

    Until today, I've never known such a thing as a bulk loader existed and that one could by film in bulk. I'm not sure why that never crossed my mind. However since I'm firmly in the digital age now, I guess that will just be filed away for a trivia question someday in the distant future.

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