4ormat

***I apologise if I sound like a complete advertisement***

If your like me and you hate attempting to build yourself a nice website and are too stubborn to pay someone to do it cause you know if spend hours and hours you’ll start to figure out all the coding. I think I have found the perfect service.

I first heard about a website called Indexhibit over a year ago and it was just what I was looking for! It’s a service that lets you build a clean and professional looking website without having to know too much HTML/CSS. It was great! Though it’s not the perfect service I’m about to tell you about.

4ormat is the same idea as indexhibit. The main difference is that you don’t have to know any HTML/CSS to get something professional looking. 4ormat’s tools are so easy to use, it takes less than 2 hours to completely set-up and you don’t have to mess with any hosting settings. It’s not very expensive either $4.99 per month for basic account or $9.99 for a pro account. Add a domain name with that which usually cost $9.99 and your paying $70/€55 for a basic website per year or $130/€100 for a pro website. The best part? You can set-up a pro account for 1 month for nothing! It’s that easy!

Here is my website now, if you remember the one before it’s pretty similar. I just have to add my own domain and its pretty much done. http://darrencarlinphotography.4ormat.com/

If you want to give it a try you can use this link. It’s an invitation link that if you become a paid member I receive a free month! http://4ormat.com/signup/ae27630f4f

I hate to sound like an advert but I really think this is great service and if you’re looking to set-up a website quickly, professionally and easily give these guys a look.

A new camera and new beginning?

For about a year I had been seriously looking at buying a Leica. I’ve wanted one for a long time but never seriously thought I would buy. I have been inspired by photographers such as Joel Meyerowitz, Robert Capa, Robert Frank, Daniel Milnor and Robert King. Just a few names I’ve come across that use or have used Leica cameras. The only problem was for quality you had to pay a hefty price. I wished and wished they would come down just enough so I could afford one but I knew they wouldn’t. Well I finally got one this week! A Leica M6 with a Summicron-M 35mm lens! I had been saving for since May! I wasn’t saving to buy one but I recently decided I was going to move to Australia for a year to work and save more money to go to college. I thought it would be very nice to have one for a year in a different country!

I’ve put one roll of film through it so far and while I’m still getting used to using my 1st rangefinder.. The weight, feel and build are lovely. Focusing is a bit annoying at times but that’ll become easier. The best part? The quality! Here are some shots, not the greatest in the world but its showing more image quality than anything! The only editing I have done to these was to fix the exposure, colour balance and add a bit of sharpening. The joys of using film.

On the topic of Australia I’m leaving Ireland at the start January and I’ll be gone for maybe 11/12 months. The main reason for going is to work/save for college. I’m getting left go from my current job in December so I don’t really want to stay here and search for a job that’s not going to pay enough to save a lot on. The college course I want to do is Journalism & Visual Media at Griffith College Dublin. Unfortunately its a private college so the fees are quite high. I’ll be brining my Cameras with me of course so expect a lot of documentary photos/video to be posted on here!

Occupy Waterford Day 5

I went back down to the camp again today. I wanted to take more pictures and talk to the people about how it was all going and get more information about them themselves. I’ve read a lot of talk on-line about the group positive and negative. I’d like to clear up some speculation about the group. People who say “These people are all on the dole and it should be cut because they are not looking for work” “They’re just littering the place” just negative things about people who probably haven’t even talked to them. I have to say I have never met a more friendlier bunch of people, within a minute of saying hello I was offered tea, coffee, sandwiches and biscuits! They told me the people and local businesses have been very kind donating all sorts like food, drinks, hot water, scarf’s, gloves, blankets, tents, gazebos and even money.

They seem to be very organised with things like incident report books, security rotas and a kitchen! While I was there for the 2 hour period I saw several people come and go who had to go home to their families and would be back again tomorrow. Some of these people had their children with them. Some have jobs and some are doing courses because they can’t find work. It’s not all just “hippies” and “wasters”. They were receiving quite a bit of support from cars beeping while I was there also. So much so a nearby hotel manager has complained about the noise. One of the protesters joked.. “I bet he didn’t complain during tall ships about the noise when he was making a lot of money”. Unfortunately they have had a group of people throwing eggs at their camp during the night out of a car.

I support the whole occupy movement but I hate to be cynical and say it, I really don’t think its going to make any major impacts on the government/banks it’s just way to easy for them just to ignore it. I will continue to support them though by taking these pictures and posting them on-line for people to see.

Anyway here are the pictures from today:

Occupy Waterford

Well, it’s started. I wasn’t sure if it would start down here but I got a message from a friend today that people were camping outside the bank on the Quay in Waterford City. We took a spin down and sure enough there was. I’m quite happy its started because I have been wanting to go to the protests in Dublin but weather and work were against me. I haven’t taken any proper shots in over a month so it’s nice to be able to start something again. Had a chat with a few of the people down there and they are all really friendly. Anyway here are some of the shots from today the 1st day.

The Taxi Man

Fairly happy with this photo of a taxi man I was talking to earlier tonight.

I was talking to him about black people(non-racist)/the dole/and my bike while I was out cycling with a few friends. I took this shot and asked him his name. He joked, “what do you want it to be?” I’d say he thought I was some weirdo. I explained how I take photos of strangers and in 20 years time these pictures would mean some load. I don’t think he really got it though.