Life of Byron

Life of Byron

We’ve been away.

It’s been quite a while since I posted an essay here—but also, we got out of town for a few days.

If you’ve visited Australia, you’ve probably heard of Byron Bay; it’s one of those towns whose reputation precedes it—beautiful beaches, surfers with Kombi vans, a relaxed lifestyle, music festivals, did I mention the beaches?

And yes, all of that is true, which is why when a friend very kindly offered his house for a week, we jumped at the chance to have a bit of summer in winter. (Yes, this is what Byron looks like in winter!)

The Way Back

By Patrick La Roque

Vinyl, it turns, out, was a gateway.

I first installed the turntable on a rotating tv stand (quite the anachronistic piece of furniture from my mom's house), next to the desk, connected to the mixer through a small pre-amp hastily purchased from Amazon. The old records sounded great in the studio monitors, and for awhile I was perfectly content spinning albums while busying myself with daily work. But after a few after-hours listening sessions in that office chair, I thought to myself "man, this is kinda silly". So I pulled an older set of slightly busted powered speakers out of storage, and moved the whole setup to the other end to the room. The sound took a hit, but I could live with it. I went up to the attic, found an ageing Ikea lounge chair—a leftover from my bachelor days—dropped it smack-dab on the "sweet spot". But now the tv stand looked ridiculous so I ordered a small media cabinet, cheap and nothing fancy, but clean. I added my buddy Robert's Uberlight to illuminate the turntable when needed. Got some cleaning supplies to refresh my dusty collection (along with twenty+ classical records acquired for a dollar each at a neighbourhood yard sale).

One day, not too long ago, I started thinking about the receiver I'd purchased back in the 90s—a mid-range Harman Kardon. The new cabinet had this built-in shelf just begging for it. I remembered something being broken, but after a good cleanup everything worked, except for the radio. No big deal, right? I unplugged the pre-amp, tested the receiver's Tape Out to see if it would send a signal to the powered speakers. It did, and the sound immediately expanded (not sure why, it's a direct pass through...whatev). This Tape Out setup, however, meant bypassing the unit's signal processing. Bit of a shame. I cursed myself for selling RFT speakers for peanuts, years ago.

Note to self: be a pack-rat, damn it, you never know.

On our visit to the Maricourt flea market I headed straight for the electronics section, hoping to maybe get lucky and unearth a decent pair of stereo speakers. Nope. Damn it. I was a dog with a bone now. I found myself lurking on audio forums here and there, to get a sense of what was available, what could be ok, and affordable. Brands to avoid, those to look for. Just curious, you see.

I found a deal on a set of Elac Debut 2.0 b6.2—German brand, design by Andrew Jones (famed speaker designer), mostly glowing reviews all-around.
I took one more step.

...

I've been a musician my entire life. I used to spend hours and hours dissecting album after album, of all genres, lying on dusty apartment floors, alone or with friends, rooms drenched in burning incense with the lights turned down to half a sliver of a lux. But over time music slipped into the background, a soundtrack to merely colour the day to day movements of our lives. Unobtrusive to the point of anonymity. Music for work, for dinner, for cooking, and driving. Music as decor. Spatial Audio? Pfff. Most of this wasn't even played in stereo anymore, relegated to solitary Echo and Sonos devices pretending to sound right.

Now for the first time in years, I don't simply hear music—I stop, I explore, I choose, I listen. Not just to vinyls either: I've wired outputs from the studio mixer to the Harman Kardon receiver, which allows me to send audio from the Mac (or any device with Airplay), opening up our entire streaming library.

Filling a room with sound is transcendent: there is air and movement and vibrating particles interlocking, bouncing off walls and piercing the skin. Resonances like mantras and soft meditations. Character borne of chipped paint, old wood, and glass. It's the sound of ghosts, of unrelenting memories, a realm of contemplation and awe and alchemy.

Vinyl, it turns out, was a way back.

Week 75 - ON AND OFF

PRE-2020 BACKSTAGE RIDER

  • 20 lines of coke

  • 15 spliffs

  • 5 bottles of Jack Daniels

  • 4 cases of bear

  • 2 fireman’s buckets filled with red and blue M&M’s

POST-2020 BACKSTAGE RIDER

  • Lots of Covid tests

  • 2 packs of face masks

  • 10 bottles Hand sanitiser

It felt good to be on my way to photograph real live musicians again. I had 5 concerts to shoot during the second half of 2021 but they didn't feel anything like normal or the way they used to be. This was the first concert of the year by The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and it kinda did feel like it used to....until I got there!

The orchestra had played the night before, but I was joining them on the second of three nights. One musician had already dropped out at the rehearsal stage after testing positive for Covid 19. But it was only 4pm the day after the first concert and two more musicians had tested positive. Once again deps were found and the gig was going ahead. The beauty of jazz musicians of this calibre is that they can sightread what's put in front of them.

As restrictions are being lifted, and in some parts of the country being scrapped altogether, I've been seeing first-hand that things are worse than ever out there. People are not bothering with masks more and more, even though, unlike England, we have not had the mad government instructions that all restrictions are over. Do what you like. Tounge kiss as many strangers as you feel is appropriate.

Day 3: I'm editing the pictures from the night before when I get an email to say that this evening's performance has been cancelled.

Guests Joe Locke (vibraphonist) and Kenny Washington (vocalist) flew in from the US to perform with The SNJO. Months of writing arrangements for Joe, concerts postponed from 2020, and in the end, the plug had to be pulled due to Covid. It's only going to get worse in my opinion!

The music was brilliantly arranged by Joe Locke and the musicians played flawlessly as always!

This was an amazing start to the year for The SNJO which was cut short. I hope this project can be resumed at a later date!

ALL SHOT WITH THE X-PRO2 & THE 50/2 (75mm FF equivalent)

One of Fuji’s most underrated lenses!

Week 50 - Optimistic Pessimist

BY DEREK CLARK

My Dad had a lens cleaner back in the late '70s ( or was it the early '80s?) which had the following printed on it.

You can't be optimistic with a misty optic.

I've been finding each week of this project starts with optimism. A new week, a new lens (focal length at least) and what looks like a fair amount of time to get some decent pictures. That optimism is always short-lived as the days fly by and the wind and the rain just don't let up.

The UK got bashed with Storm Dudley and Storm Eunice this week, but around the central belt where we live, we missed the really harsh weather and just got the usual high winds and rain. As I write this, I can hear garden furniture blowing around outside and the sound of the wind howling all around the house.

My son is studying guitar, bass, and music technology at school. This week the Ebay fairies took three guitars away, which gave us some extra space. That space was quickly filled by a new bass guitar. But he's a happy chappie with his new axe!

It's time to switch the 50mm (FF equivalent) on my X-Pro2 to the 75mm for the last week of February

ALL SHOT ON X-PRO2 With THE 35/2 (50mm full frame)

Week 35 - Two Odd Shoes

BY DEREK CLARK

This week in Scotland, we had about three hours of sunshine and the rest was rain, rain and more rain. I Managed to take a short walk with my X100F, which is nice to still be using, even though I have the V.

Stepping out of the car, I remember once more that my AirPods are still missing in action somewhere in the Edinburgh area after I mislaid them while shooting a jazz concert. I have headphones in the car, but it’s around this point I start cursing Apple and its infinite wisdom in removing the 3.5mm headphone socket. There just isn’t room for it they said, yet my iPod Nano was around 8x smaller and half the thickness. Just admit that it’s all about selling AirPods multiple times to people like me that keep losing them!

Anyway…I digress.

My observation on my short walk is this.

The photographic muscle is like any other; you must exercise it or it will go flabby and fail. Most of us know this and have done for some time, but what I have come to realise is that you can’t exercise one muscle and expect all the others to tone up too. Likewise, you can’t shoot Landscape and become a great portrait photographer.

This might be obvious, but for me, being out on the street with nothing but the F felt both liberating and odd. It felt like wearing a running shoe on one foot and a hiking boot on the other. I had swapped my X-T4 for the 100F for this brief amount of time and I welcomed the change, but I was learning to walk again. To see the way I used to see. To feel the way used to feel…about photography.

ALL SHOT ON X100F - 23mmf2 (35mm FULL FRAME)

Week 28 - The Dream

BY DEREK CLARK

Last night I dreamed I was a cleaner in a massive posh house. I kept falling asleep exhausted, but each time I woke up, the house was messier and the owners were due back any minute. I would rush around picking things up but get nowhere. Kids parties would take place while I was asleep and I would wake to balloons, cake and toys everywhere. The house would also get bigger every time I attempted to clean it. Rooms would lead to other rooms, which would then lead to more rooms, causing total disorientation.

I think the dream might be something to do with being on a never-ending conveyor belt of shooting and editing, with shots often coming in faster than I can edit them.

I came across these miniature canons in a completely empty house this week.

This week I had 5 photography shoots and 9 videos shoots, which forced me to work on Sunday. I spent 11 hours on Saturday fitting a new floor in my mum's kitchen with my brother and my son. I had a total of 30 minutes to wander during daylight hours this week to take personal pictures for this project. It poured with rain. Am I making excuses for my poor performance here? Absolutely!

This (horizontal, but intact) office is all that is left of a 4x4 centre that rebuilt one of my old Land Rovers on a new chassis. Loved it!

On Thursday night, I did my first live talk to a photography club since 2019. During that (pandemic) time I did do one on Zoom, but it’s not the same as being in the room with your audience. But I won’t lie, it felt more than a little to be out in public again in a social setting.

Removing splinters (known in Scotland as skelfs) from my hands with my X-Pro2 under my chin, on a self timer.

ALL SHOT ON X-PRO2 & 18/2 (28mm full frame)

Stark, Harsh

Stark, Harsh

Summer in Sydney is a test of how well you can avoid the harsh sun. We haven’t had any days over 40° (yet) here this year, it’s still possible though.

But what I find fascinating about those days when the sun beats down is the absolute starkness of the light, the contrast it creates—and its effect not just on people but the whole environment…

Derek's Letter of Intent

Mechanics cars tend to be in dire need of repair. Who wants to fix their own car after spending all day fixing other peoples cars in the freezing cold of winter?

This is where I find myself. I spend Monday to Friday every week either shooting pictures and video or editing them (all for other people). Weekends are mostly free with the family, but picking up a camera to shoot personal stuff doesn’t enter my mind much these days. Worse than that, the thought of having to edit any personal pictures, after spending too many hours in front of computer screens doesn’t exactly thrill me.

I miss photography for the sheer pleasure of it! I miss the challenges we used to set as a group here at Kage. We always produced when we had deadlines, themes, and quite often limitations. These haven’t been happening for a while now and we have grinded to a halt.

My two favourite cameras (of all time) are the X-Pro2 and the X100V. My favourite lenses to shoot personal work is the Fujicron’s (X-series has always been about small size for me). So my self imposed limitations for this project will be the following:

Week 1 - 28mm (full-frame) using the X-Pro2 & 18/2

Week 2 - 35mm (full-frame) using the X100V (possibly the X100F too)

Week 3 - 50mm (full-frame) using the X-Pro2 & 35/2

Week 4 - 75mm (full-frame) using the X-Pro2 & 50/2

Having just bought a new Nord Wave 2 synthesiser and been blown away by the quality of the sound it can create, I would love to incorporate some music in some way. But this is just hope and at the end of the day, I probably won’t have time. We’ll see.

As for what I will shoot…I have no idea at this point. It might just be a series of random snapshots in the end, but it will be February 2022

Good luck to my fellow Kage members. Good luck to all that are struggling.

Derek Clark

January 30th 2022

Robert's Letter of Intent

Robert's Letter of Intent

It’s been a while.

To be honest, it’s been SO long, I had to look up my own essays on this very site to see when the last one was, and what it was about. (It was June 2021, actually.)

We’ve all been distracted, diverted, disturbed from our usual patterns. Work has started up, work has shut down, work has started up again only to be shut down again…

North Coast 500 | Scotland Road Trip

In-camera pano shot on the X100V with the camera in the portrait orientation.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND TEXT BY DEREK CLARK

The road trip. It fires up a romantic notion in most of us; fuelled by everything from car commercials, old films of Route 66, and even childhood holidays from a time before every trip had to begin with a plane ticket. I started to get the urge for a road trip when I bought my fourth Land Rover, just a couple of months before COVID 19 appeared on the scene. This was obviously put on hold for the past 18 months, but with a reluctance to sit on a plane for multiple hours, the road trip became the best option. Not only that, after the various lockdowns during the pandemic, the urge to just hit the road and be free was pretty overwhelming.

The North Coast 500 is one of the worlds most beautiful and epic road trips. Starting and ending in Scotland’s most northerly city of Inverness. The choice of going clockwise or anti-clockwise is up to the driver, but we opted for the latter, travelling up the east coast fairly quickly, then slowing down to take in the epic rugged landscape along the extreme north coast and then back down the west coast. We camped, we stayed in hotels and we stayed in hostels. Wild camping is legal in Scotland and usually better than any campsite when it comes to pitching the tent in a great spot.

For a full week, I had no urge to pick up my phone and look at any of the garbage it’s connected to. The battery went flat and I couldn’t have cared less. I took an iPad and didn’t use it once. I took my kindle but didn’t read a single page. There was nothing but driving, photography, setting up camp, cooking and sleeping. It was just what I needed and just what I’ve been craving ever since.

The highlight of the North Coast 500 is the road leading to a remote village called Applecross. The road is called Bealach Na Ba and as far as I know is the highest road in the UK. A sign at the start of the road alerts drivers that it’s not suitable for large vehicles, caravans, motorhomes, or learner drivers. It has gradients of 1 in 5 and has hairpin bends. It doesn’t mention the vertical drops if you veer off the road, but you soon find that out.

We clocked up over a thousand miles on our 500-mile road trip, including the drive to Inverness and back. But we’re already planning our next road trip, but first, we need to get a roof rack to give us more space inside.

SHOT WITH FUJIFILM X100V, WCX100, X-PRO2, 18mm F2, LENSBABY COMPOSER PRO & EDGE 50 OPTIC