Sunday, February 22, 2009

The Photo Blogging Oscars - "Most photo-bang for the camera-buck"


Sunset in glass, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

1001 Noisy Cameras has given Light Scrape an interesting-sounding award: Most photo-bang for the camera-buck. Thanks! The methodology as described at the site seems sound, at least as good as for the Oscars and beating many other systems by a large margin. (For example, Idols or Big Brother.)

I think it is appropriate to make a posting even today, although I'm still very much suffering from fever and headache, so no photographs taken today. But I did take a few yesterday, an hour or so before the fever rose suddenly to over 39 °C. Here is one photograph from yesterday, a sunset view in reflection.

I haven't been able to do much besides being sick in bed, and reading books when the headache has diminished a little. I finished a Swedish detective novel "Olycksfågeln" (The Jinx) by Camilla Läckberg. I have read earlier two of her books in Swedish, "Predikanten" (The Preacher) and "Isprinsessan" (The Ice Princess), and this one was almost at good, in some parts perhaps even better. The subject was "reality-tv meets CSI" in a small Swedish village. The role of the camera in society was very well analyzed by Läckberg, as also the type of publicity-seeking created by reality-tv programs. (Perhaps I should also analyze my photo blog from this viewpoint, but I don't have the will.)

I'm currently reading "Svart Stig" (Black Path) by Åsa Larsson. I have read two previous novels in the series, "Solstorm" (Sunstorm) and "Det blod som spillts" (The Blood Spilt). What interests in these book is the description of life in the northern Sweden. Larsson has a special style, bringing to life the harshness of the environment which both presses down and lifts up those who live there. But unfortunately most of her books have a "big-bang" ending, which I don't much like. It is probably so also with "Svart Stig".

It is interesting that there are so many detective novels published in the Nordic countries, especially Sweden. Perhaps it is an indicator of the type of society here - in a very chaotic society there wouldn't be need for such books, I feel. But there are also differences between the Nordic countries. Hardly any science fiction is published in Sweden, but here in Finland we do have some, of high quality.

Update: I thought I should note that I have now taken 30,692 pictures with the LX3. Earlier, I reported of problems with the camera (lens getting stuck etc.) but since then the camera has performed flawlessly. And no memory card errors either, perhaps this is due to switching to shooting jpeg instead of RAW+jpeg. I have decided to wait a bit before rushing to buy another camera (another LX3 or a G10 perhaps). On the other hand, SoBoMo '09 is approaching, so perhaps it would be good to get a spare camera just in case.

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