Baldur Bjarnason

Fucking micro.blog dropped three whole photos from the cross-post. That’s after a fifteen minute lag in posting

I really need to find a replacement service for cross-posting to mastodon and bluesky. Dropping content is not on

That thing where micro.blog just fucking refuses to publish a post unless you post another to flush it out

So, we’re up to 2010 and I’ve been asked by my friend, Tom Abba, to document the making of a project of his. It’s an interactive video, print, art mix doohicky that looked quite good and was fun to photograph

The silhouette of the crew that worked the set. We see the backs of the two actors through a crack in the door. A close-up of the mask that features prominently in the project.

“Falling For Oklch: A Love Story Of Color Spaces, Gamuts, And CSS — Smashing Magazine”

“Cerebus: Misogyny and Madness – Literate Machine”

It’s also thousands of pages of unbridled hate speech.

Yeah. Dave Sim is not a good person.

That thing where micro.blog’s Mastodon poster posts entries out of order.

Not that I wasn’t also taking landscapes like everybody else. You’re practically required by law to take landscape photos when you travel Iceland.

Gulls and other birds fly past a vertical cliff. Cliffs soar over the oceean. A tiny speck on one of them turns out to be a person.

Here we get to the problem. The pictures I personally liked the most were pictures everybody else skipped over. Like these two pictures, to me, say “Hverfisgata, before it was destroyed to serve tourism”. They evoke a time when it was a street of purpose, if scruffy

An entrance to a “kaffistofa” as the sign above the door says. This is the opposite of a café. A place where coffee is a utilitarian beverage. A picture of the display window of the used book store in Hverfisgata. The owner has hung a series of prints with captions on a clothesline.

Then, late 2008, I go myself a Canon G9, a digital camera with a built-in zoom lens. It was objectively a step down in visual quality, but was instead a massive improvement in photography ergonomics. So much fun to use.

Somebody had taken their shoes off and left them on the rocks. An Icelandic horse looks at us with curiosity. (This is a type of horse, not their nationality, though it was Icelandic too) We see the see and, in the distance, an island that juts out of the ocean like a tooth.

Until around 2008, I was mostly a DSLR photographer. My frustration with photography was mounting. I wouldn’t say that I’d plateaued but it felt like the pictures I was taking lacked personality and expressiveness. In hindsight I was probably overly self-critical.

A seagull flies over Reykjavík City Hall Somebody is looking out to see, turning their back on us. My grandad, then in his seventies, winks at the camera.

“LLM Security”

“The value-destroying potential of AI”

👇🏻

A lot of the people trying to deploy AI as a business solution are doing it because they don’t know how to measure what’s valuable about their business

👆🏻

This one, from last year, is of a male blackbird in the same tree.

A male blackbird looks at the camera with suspicion in between pecking at the berries in a rowan tree.

It’s the time of year when the local starlings and blackbirds hoover up the berries of the rowan in my building’s back yard.

A common starling picking at some berries in a rowan tree.

Most of the pictures I took during this period were of people—friends and family. The only ones I’m really comfortable posting are those of my late grandfather. I’m sure he’d just laugh at me if I expressed qualms about posting them now.

My granddad smiling My granddad, Ingvar Magnússon, looks out of his living room window.

I’ve always limited my spending on photography

Spending creates obligations and those will inevitably begin to dictate your practice

Not that I had figured out at this time what sort of photography practice I’m interested in. But New Year’s Eve is always visually interesting

New Year’s Eve 2006 in Garðabær. A lot of fireworks and people watching through the haze A person is watching the fireworks. Seen from behind, we can’t tell who they are A couple walks along the pond in Reykjavík city centre. On their way home after a New Year’s Eve party. Or on their way to a late party.

One of the early excuses to “camera” I got with my first DSLR was a free midday concert that Sigurrós held in 2006. Being a daytime performance in the middle of the summer, the lighting was close to ideal and the only thing that held me back was a lack of a zoom lens

Jónsi centre-stage at a Sigurrós performance. Colourful lighting abounds.

“iCloud sucks and it really shouldn’t”

It really does and it really shouldn’t

My sister sent me a few more pictures of her #cat to post for #caturday. She, very sensibly, isn’t on social media but is justifiably proud of Kolka, her cat.

In the first couple the neighbour upstairs was making some noise that Kolka wasn’t fond of

Kolka, a black cat with a white spot, is making a face and staring up at the ceiling. Kolka poses for a portrait photo where she looks into the camera

I’m posting pigeon photos because during that time most of my photos were of people, at events and in the street, and I’m not as comfortable with posting recognisable photos of people as I was in the Flickr era of the web (innocent times)

So, instead this

Somebody left their cardigan on a hedge Up by the Downs in Bristol. A washed out and overexposed picture of a path and a road.

In 2006 I finally got myself a digital SLR, a low-end Canon 350D. Taking pictures in Bristol meant that the most widely available models were pigeons.

A pigeon flies off a windowsill A pigeon stares down at the camera A pair of pigeons playing “chase” A pigeon caught mid-flight

“Visiting OpenAI – jill/txt”

Seems like OpenAI has started a charm offensive. Wining and dining people who have the ears of policy makers.

“Pants on Fire – Pixel Envy”

But Evans does not give nearly enough weight to how often big industry players and their representatives simply lie.

I’m shocked, shocked etc. etc.

My first attempt at digital photography involved fairly low-end cameras. Despite not being the greatest, they did occasionally do well in good light.

However, all you need to know about these cameras was that out of hundreds, I only found three to be tolerable.

By the lake near Egilsstaðir The frozen over pond in Reykjavík city centre Another by the lake near Egilsstaðir. A house or shed is near the centre of the image.

Continuing with my posting of photos from my archives.

These two photos couple of notable failures from my “film period”. Mistakes, but definitely interesting.

Gave up on film shortly after this.

An out-of-focus photo of the train station in Clifton, Bristol An odd picture of a group of pigeons flying in a clearing near Cabot Tower, Bristol