It had to happen, I have so many images now and have photographed them at many different levels of file size, so the natural thing to do was to start putting them on the Etsy site. I'm using 312gsm Fine Art Marrutt paper for the smaller sizes and 230gsm for the A3 images, makes them easier to roll into a tube for posting. The paper is really fantastic and I'm using Epson Dura Brite ink to keep everything in an archival sphere. Who knows if they will sell but I'll give it a try, Maybe cards will appear later if any interest is shown in the images....on other news I've started Weaving...more later.

 A home at last for  my originals and prints, thank heavens the weather has turned rotten again as it has given me time to start populating this site. if you click this link it will take you there 

    thehareinthegate     ​
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It may take time to get all the prints on there as batch processing doesn't seem to be a feature of it's upload interface so it's just a question of plugging away. Cards will make an appearance soon as well.

The Big Freeze seems a long time ago and there is a chink of light concerning lockdown. So whilst I've been  on the Acrylic painting curve I've also been thinking about how to progress the Photographic imagery. So here are a set of images from Culzean just up the coast from Turnberry. So it's back to multi shooting with the Fuji X100V and rather than do the processing in camera they are whisked off into the computer and given a thump with the Photoshop bat. 
So lots of plans for Photography and I'm also printing out cards and prints using Marrutts Smooth Fine Art 312gsm to see if they are suitable to sell online. They need running up the flagpole and chin rubbed and eye brow raised but the finish on this paper is quite extraordinary and the detail is quite phenomenal, I'll keep you posted.

So here we have a move to Digital painting...yes painting and drawing in Photoshop. Although I've used Photoshop for over 30 years it's always been in conjunction with Photographs...well these are from scratch. I approach them in the same way as I do working in Acrylic and surprisingly get similar results, well in the ballpark if not an exact comparative finish. So here are a couple using multiple layers to achieve the look I'm after.

At some point the weather will break, covid restrictions will end and we can all rush out to indulge in the high street retail therapy which is what we need to wash away the mental torment of lockdown....and life will return to a new normality. Now all this time could have been wasted, all those Box sets to binge, online games to be killed in, folk telling you how to exercise and all the rest that our enforced captivity has demanded of us. For me it has been discovering what I can do with Art, okay these images are my interpretation of Art, from Acrylic to Oil stick, Linocut to Digital...making marks and not being afraid to do so, turning off the inner critic and just allowing time for things to develop, realise ideas and just make those marks.
​So here is the latest set, make of them what you will, images created in lockdown.

Ice in Girvan harbour today and the beach , not yet covered by the tide, was frozen solid. I know there is a lot of snow over the UK at the moment but we have just had the bracing chilly breeze from the east. I think we are due a lump of snow on Saturday although we keep getting Yellow warnings followed by cancellations, so who knows??
Anyway, just some shots from a very cold (-5c) this morning Scotland. The image above is a listing trawler  being towed into Girvan Harbour.

For those folk who endured my blog posts back on maxblackphotos, you may remember my various run ins with Redbubble over the usage of my images or should I say , the way they turfed some of my images off for infringements of various kinds...the funniest to me being a photo of an old Jaguar car from the Fifties...Jaguar complained and Redbubble removed it...I then wrote to Jaguar informing them that on a quick google search I found 500, 000 images of Jaguar cars online and if they wanted to they could employ me to tell people to remove them...for a small fee of course....I received no reply..so I shut the Redbubble account down....all that work...all that time....but now.
Different times as I now produce images that fail to depend on anyone else's subject matter, all uniquely mine....so if you follow this link to the hareinthegate...you will be able to see the plethora of products from prints to phone cases that my images adorn.
Now this means I'm not selling my babies, my originals, well not yet, they're mine all mine......but at some point it will happen, I've got to pay for paper and paint somehow so as I have a Saatchi account ( yes no sniggering I have sold things on Saatchi) but need to make the images more of a finished item...the mount cutters are out and on my new workbench so if I organise myself then who knows what may happen this year...stay safe out there.

Staying sane in the onslaught of Covid-19, Brexit and Trumpism can be very testing. Tie that in with Lock down and the formula is ripe for going stir crazy or, in my case , just going a wee bit crazy with some acrylic paint and some paper. Best not to dwell too long on the damp and water problems in the Atrium but the new oversized dehumidifier is doing a sterling job, ripping off wood panelling and waterproofing the exterior beckons.....
One of the exercises in doing so many abstract images is to go through a period of 'unlearning' the principles of good photography, thirds, the golden rule, the golden hour, sharpness, form and composition and all the rest...I've had over 45 years of it (lawks)
I do seem to have developed an obsession with curves and circles but in a way that doesn't scare the Horses, so below are a selection of the new stuff from January, if I get organised I'll put up a gallery on the Art tab, enjoy or not but just stay safe.

It's an odd but interesting metal clad building perched on the edge of the Glasgow Science centre on the banks of the River Clyde. Not the first time I've  photographed this place but before it was more it's relevance to its environment rather than picking up on shapes and reflections from it. Just a big up to the Fuji X100v which is a fabulous piece of kit, the learning curve was steeper than I expected , especially post processing which is minimally done in cut down Capture One but having touch screen focussing, a quite amazing depth in the RAW files and a super sharp lens..... and it's pocketable size make it my most favourite piece of photographic kit ever, eclipsing even my Leicaflex SL2 which it resembles in build quality and also heft. Here are some more...

So the letter from Mercedes turned up telling us to get to the nearest Commercial dealer toot sweet as our steering rack could unexpectedly give up the ghost unannounced due to the use of nylon screws in the housing.....turns out the closest dealers are in a) Dumfries and b) Glasgow a mere one and three-quarter hour journey one way...getting to Glasgow the first time...yes first time.... we were told that if a problem was found then they would have to keep the vehicle, order in a new rack, do all the tracking and blahde blah blah blah....that's not was in the official Mercedes letter so we had only gone in the one car avec une picnic not expecting the vehicle to be 2 days in the garage, rebook. Off back to the wilds we go.
So today we returned, armed with 2 vehicles, hung about taking in the River Clyde, kicking a few cans and trying not to interact with the locals. The rack it seems was the easy job, now the rear brakes need changing, so for this Christmas we are giving each other a new rear brake fitting each ....HAPPY CHRISTMAS. Oh there are some new graffitti images in a Gallery over here, enjoy.