The photos of the school are starting to run thin, it is almost time to go out and do some where else.  This is another stairwell, I would hazard a guess that they are the back stairs.  They are basic, well, I suppose all the stairs are in a school like this.  Here, take a look.

Two lots of art in this stairwell, the graffiti, and we should call it art, then there is also the paintings that were left on the wall.  Though, if you look closely you can see that there is graffiti on them as well.  Apparently some graffiti artists have no qualms about ruining other artwork.  I thought they were mosaics  but I think perhaps they were paintings.

The image was taken the first time I went, and then was processed in Photomatix Pro with 3 bracketed images.  Once back in Photoshop it was opened in camera raw and given some work.

I have used Topaz Adjust to give the image some detail, that seems to help bring out the graffiti in these images.  I desaturated the image as I thought the blue was little too much. Only one blur layer was added to it.  I did darken the whole image and lighten the wall with the art on it.

I quite like the window at the top, helps balance it out, well I hope it does.  I also did a version in Silver Efex.

I don’t always like the black and white versions, but with this one I do.  I didn’t like the blue.  I don’t know which one you would prefer.

It is interesting to see what they took out and what they have left.  I know my daughters did some art work that was put on the wall at their primary school, then it was removed and thrown out.  It happened after they left, but they were disappointed that their work was just chucked away.  Now someone else’s work has been left on the wall.  I don’t know why it was left, but it wasn’t nice finding it there, as though it wasn’t important and no one cared about it any more.

From Yesterday

Well, it has been over a day since my rant yesterday.  I am still disappointed, though, not so much that they said no, but because there was no discussion.  Someone mentioned putting my case to them, but I was never given an opportunity to do that.  I sent someone an email, asking about who to contact, then I was told that someone would be in touch about it, then I was told that they weren’t going to do it.

I thought that I would be given a chance to argue my case, or at least write a proposal or something.  They don’t really know me or my blog.  I also know that there are many different ways of sponsoring people.  So far, all I have done is give them lots of free publicity about their equipment and I got to play with one of their cameras for a week.

Is this the way all these companies work, I don’t know.

It is hard to understand why they give some people sponsorship and why not others.  I was given no reason why.  I have seen photographers that work for newspapers given gear by Nikon and Canon, so it is on loan, but I can’t see how that benefits them.  The only people that know about the gear are the other photographers who work for the media, and they are also getting stuff.  It is a weird world we live in.

I won’t be changing my gear, I was really upset yesterday, I think I was also in shock.  They have been a hard company to deal with, unlike Sony.

I sent an email to Sony yesterday to ask them about the a99, not long after, I received an email back to ask me what it was that I wanted to know.  I then sent an email back and about 15 minutes later my phone rang and it was the guy from Sony.  We chatted, and I told him that I was not going to be buying the camera, but he told me quite a bit about it anyway.  It was good customer service, and something that I really think is missing a lot these days.

The Sony looks like a great camera, and apparently if you have E mount lenses they will fit on it, so that makes it easier and cheaper for people to switch.  It sounds like they have put a lot of thought into the camera as well.  It also has a screen that can be moved around so you can put the camera on live view and you don’t have to look through the viewfinder in awkward places, like if the camera is up high on a tripod, or down really low.  I don’t mind saying that was appealing.

I went off track, but it has been an interesting week.  I am very happy with my decision not to get a new camera, and will stick with what I have right now for now.

Oh dear, another rant, but not an angry one this time.