Ursus provides an object lesson

Thaddeus · Post by **Thaddeus** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:46 am

http://www.bogpages.com/SCA-photographs/Pennsic-Wars/Pennsic-XXXVIII-Sunday/9385291_vR7j3#628473581_Lgxag

It never pays to lug gatorade around - Ursus may be taking pictures.

Gilebert · Post by **Gilebert** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:57 am

Ahh.. but he had fun in the CotT!

white mountain armoury · Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:02 am

We are fortunate to have such a wealth of images to look at.
Great stuff

UrsusofAnglesey · Post by **UrsusofAnglesey** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:51 am

Thaddeus wrote:http://www.bogpages.com/SCA-photographs/Pennsic-Wars/Pennsic-XXXVIII-Sunday/9385291_vR7j3#628473581_Lgxag

It never pays to lug gatorade around - Ursus may be taking pictures.

ROFLMAO!

That was, needless to say, not my intent. I thought it was a good picture despite the Gatorade (although I did actually consider discarding it just for that reason).

But your point is well taken. Period containers rule, even if it only a leather sack to stash things like that inside. Thanks to all of you who make such an effort, even on the field, even though it is a pain the you-know-what to lug something around and use it instead of that handy water jug.

A couple of years ago at Gulf Wars, I was up in the fort tower taking pictures of all the assembled Royalty at the Champions' battle. I spotted my friends Havordh and Mary Grace, then the reigning monarchs of Glen Abhan (and snappy dressers, due to MG's great sewing skills) and said: "Aha! I can get excellent pictures of them from this vantage point above where they do not even see me."

So I zoomed in on them... only to see they had just gotten their lunch and were eating while sitting on their thrones watching the fight. Off STYROFOAM plates, no less. I patiently waited until they were finished, and then got the shot. But I did give them grief about it later. :twisted:

Sometimes you only get one chance, and you have to take it, even if there are mundane items readily visible.

By and large, and especially at the COTT, you all do a tremendous job of hiding anything even remotely mundane. And yes, Gilebert, I did have a great deal of fun photographing y'all. COTT is always one of the highlights of my Pennsic. Thanks to all of you.

Now if only I could ban all cameras but mine.... :wink:

Ursus

Amanda M · Post by **Amanda M** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:53 am

I'm pretty much stealing all those pics for my 14th century folder of reference materials. :oops:

UrsusofAnglesey · Post by **UrsusofAnglesey** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:04 pm

Isabella E wrote:I'm pretty much stealing all those pics for my 14th century folder of reference materials.

You are most welcome to them, my Lady.

They are not "stolen" if posted by the photographer and made freely available.

My photos are meant to be shared, and I am honored that you feel they are good enough to keep.

It is the fighters who do such a tremendous job of assembling their kits, however, who deserve the credit, not me.

Ursus

Leo Medii · Post by **Leo Medii** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:11 pm

Thaddeus wrote:http://www.bogpages.com/SCA-photographs/Pennsic-Wars/Pennsic-XXXVIII-Sunday/9385291_vR7j3#628473581_Lgxag

It never pays to lug gatorade around - Ursus may be taking pictures.

Hey, will my Thaddeus action figure have the Gatorade accessory?

:lol:

Amanda M · Post by **Amanda M** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:14 pm

UrsusofAnglesey wrote:
Isabella E wrote:I'm pretty much stealing all those pics for my 14th century folder of reference materials.

You are most welcome to them, my Lady.

They are not "stolen" if posted by the photographer and made freely available.

My photos are meant to be shared, and I am honored that you feel they are good enough to keep.

It is the fighters who do such a tremendous job of assembling their kits, however, who deserve the credit, not me.

Ursus

Your galleries are of very high quality though and you get such a great variety of subject matter. I am at the point where with my kit and presentation I'm now trying to focus on the little details that you always manage to capture so well.

Leo Medii · Post by **Leo Medii** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:17 pm

My photos are meant to be shared, and I am honored that you feel they are good enough to keep.

Good sir, you would not believe the number of your pictures that have been printed out and hung in various homes of people I know..

My lady and I have no less than 10 in one room from the years of you taking pictures at Pennsic.

UrsusofAnglesey · Post by **UrsusofAnglesey** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:45 pm

Leo Medii wrote:
My photos are meant to be shared, and I am honored that you feel they are good enough to keep.

Good sir, you would not believe the number of your pictures that have been printed out and hung in various homes of people I know..

My lady and I have no less than 10 in one room from the years of you taking pictures at Pennsic.

That is immensely gratifying, and I thank you for sharing that.

All those lonely hours hunched over a computer screen (not to mention peering at the world through a very small aperture) seem worth it when I hear I have managed to make someone else's life a little richer.

I am glad you (and presumably everyone else) enjoy my humble efforts.

That also encourages me to tackle those remaining few thousand pictures a little more diligently... :wink:

Ursus

Thaddeus · Post by **Thaddeus** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:51 pm

Leo Medii wrote:
Thaddeus wrote:http://www.bogpages.com/SCA-photographs/Pennsic-Wars/Pennsic-XXXVIII-Sunday/9385291_vR7j3#628473581_Lgxag

It never pays to lug gatorade around - Ursus may be taking pictures.

Hey, will my Thaddeus action figure have the Gatorade accessory?

The Gatorade comes in the accessory pack, along with the sex wax and duct tape.
Available real soon...

Ursus thank you for sharing your work with us all.
You have a fantastic eye.

I am resolved to aquire a proper bottle for my drinking needs. Although this one was handed to me by a kind gentle as I lay gasping and wondering if I had bitten clean through my tounge or not.

Steve S. · Post by **Steve S.** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 1:09 pm

It never pays to lug gatorade around - Ursus may be taking pictures.

He had just finished the Combat of the Thirsty.

Steve

Vitus von Atzinger · Post by **Vitus von Atzinger** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:58 pm

Ursus, have you approached anybody about putting out a book of your best pics?

Gilebert · Post by **Gilebert** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 8:40 pm

Ursus,

I am constantly looking through your photos.

When I send someone a link to photos of what we do, I usually send the to your site. It is the most comprehensive of what we do.

Thank you for your time and love of taking pictures.

edit: corrected spelling

UrsusofAnglesey · Post by **UrsusofAnglesey** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:50 pm

Vitus von Atzinger wrote:Ursus, have you approached anybody about putting out a book of your best pics?

Actually, such a book would be easy (except for choosing the photos).

I showed my photos to the Head of our Photography Department a couple of years ago, and he suggested the same thing, referring me to a site called mypublisher.com. They were apparently one of pioneers in self-publishing photo books, and there are now quite a few others out there offering the same type of service.

I did put together a book for my Anglesey mates showing them over the last ten years (amazing what changes occurred), and they really liked it (after they finished kicking my a** for embarrassing them). It was actually a pretty darned easy process, and I recommend to any and all who are interested.

My main problem is that I have so many freaking photos, probably well over a hundred thousand on various hard drives. I'm scared to add them all up. :roll:

Could I do it? Yes. A hundred books, if I really felt like it, all on different subjects, groups or individuals.

So it's the magnitude of the task, more than anything else, that holds me back. Someday I plan to tackle it, to start sorting my archives and maybe publish highlights of say, Calontir over the last ten years, or individuals or groups within Atlantia and the Bog, since that is my general focus. Or best fighting pictures, melee and tourney volumes 1-10. :lol:

It would be huge investment in time, and quite frankly, I am somewhat overwhelmed now after Pennsic (there are still a few thousand pictures even I haven't seen yet because I'm busy working on the early days). Plus I have events coming up about every other weekend into October, so more pictures will pile up. Looks like about November before I'll post everything.

After that, I don't even want to look at a camera or a photo for a month. This is a hobby, not an obsession.

I'm not complaining. This is a self-imposed task, and I don't regret doing it. In fact, I even enjoy it most of the time, but after the first thousand, somehow that enthusiasm gets a little muted...

Then events start again in March with Gulf Wars, and if next year is anything like this one, I'll go to events about every two weeks, and I have to work hard to stay current and not build up a backlog. Pretty much straight through to next Pennsic. And beyond.

Yes, I have considered it. Many times. And I want to do it. And I know how to do it. But the task is so enormous I'm not even sure where to start. But do I really want to publish a hundred books? So where do I draw the line? If I do it for Calontir, why not other kingdoms, etc.? Who will I insult by leaving off the list? But I'll be damned if I'm paging through 100,000 pics several times looking for different things.

(Think about it: to view one every second would take a little less than thirty hours. Just to glance... not even LOOK at them, much less choose the best ones, then sort and edit them.)

Sorry to ramble on, and I appreciate the sentiment behind the question.

I will do it someday. Maybe I'll even start it this winter, but it may take years, given my current schedule. Who knows?

When I do, rest assured I will keep you all informed. You all have been (and continue to be) a terrific audience, not to mention a constant source of inspiration to me.

Thank you again.

Ursus

Galvyn Lockhart · Post by **Galvyn Lockhart** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:33 pm

Thaddeus,

I have no idea what you're talking about.

http://tinyurl.com/knzxrj

:lol:

Great. Another thing I gotta add to my list to fix.

justus · Post by **justus** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:22 pm

Ursus, there are a lot of us. I know I have favorited a couple score of your pics myself. How about a thread here where we all post some of our favs and you could choose from the "most requested pics" and use that as a spring board. I know that I would love to have a book to show folks what we're all about. We might even be able to help put names with faces (and grills)

-Justus

UrsusofAnglesey · Post by **UrsusofAnglesey** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:32 am

justus wrote:Ursus, there are a lot of us. I know I have favorited a couple score of your pics myself. How about a thread here where we all post some of our favs and you could choose from the "most requested pics" and use that as a spring board. I know that I would love to have a book to show folks what we're all about. We might even be able to help put names with faces (and grills)

-Justus

That is an intriguing idea.

After a quick check at the My Publisher website, such a book could be 20 to 100 pages long, with up to 4 photos a page. With their fanciest leather cover, however, the price starts at $89.75 a book, with $2 a page additional for each page over the minimum 20. Cheaper covers get it down to about $30, plus $2 a page, unless you wanted a paper-back style cover, which costs $12.95 to start.

So a really nice coffee style table book would cost upwards of $100 a book. That's pretty darned expensive for a book pf photos, no matter how good they are (then again, I'm a notorious cheapskate).

They do a real nice job, although I have only ordered the cheap cloth cover one, but is it really worth that kind of money?

I can get a discount (about 30%) for ordering a bunch of them at one time, but then I'd have to personally sell them, which has little appeal. However, once I created them, I could also post a link where they can be purchased, but I would only get a small percentage of the sales (not that I'm in this for the money).

If there is enough interest out there in buying them for such an inflated price, and I can get help in selecting the photos, I could put together a book for say, the Combat of the Thirty over the last few years, or whatever people are interested in. A general SCA book would certainly work, although I'm not sure I'd even know where to start.

Thanks to all of you for your support and kind words (I'm going to have to stop saying that - I'm beginning to sound obsequious, even to myself, but I really do mean it).

Ursus

Donal Mac Ruiseart · Post by **Donal Mac Ruiseart** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:26 am

The pages I went to when I followed that link didn't show me any Gatorade bottles . . . which photo or photos shows it? My curiosity is piqued!

The flags, pennons, guidons, banners, and all are out-bloody-standing! I need to make me one or two of those things!

Gilebert · Post by **Gilebert** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:36 am

Donal Mac Ruiseart wrote:The pages I went to when I followed that link didn't show me any Gatorade bottles . . . which photo or photos shows it? My curiosity is piqued!

He is carrying the bottle in his hand.. naer the middle of the polearm.

It is orange gatoreade.

The flags, pennons, guidons, banners, and all are out-bloody-standing! I need to make me one or two of those things!

Amanda M · Post by **Amanda M** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:43 am

Donal Mac Ruiseart wrote:The pages I went to when I followed that link didn't show me any Gatorade bottles . . . which photo or photos shows it? My curiosity is piqued!

The flags, pennons, guidons, banners, and all are out-bloody-standing! I need to make me one or two of those things!

If you need some help or advice at all let me know.

Donal Mac Ruiseart · Post by **Donal Mac Ruiseart** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 2:51 pm

.

Gilebert: Ahhhh, yesss, now we sees it! Thanks.

Isabella: Thanks for the offer. I've got all the technical information I think I need. My only impediment is a total lack of artistic skill.

Gaston de Clermont · Post by **Gaston de Clermont** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 4:49 pm

Isabella does nice work. She can make you a good banner for a good price.

Fearghus Macildubh · Post by **Fearghus Macildubh** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 1:33 am

http://www.bogpages.com/SCA-photographs ... PAEX4-A-LB

This is now my desktop.

Greenshield · Post by **Greenshield** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:52 am

Ursus, you and your camera are welcomed back to Gulf Wars any time you're available. I will be sure to remind all the Royal cousins who attend that you never know when Ursus will be around. I will be sure to keep a few sets of proper plates around, just in case.

Thank you again for sharing your love of photography with the rest of us.

GreenShield
aka:
William
Prince Gleann Abhann

UrsusofAnglesey · Post by **UrsusofAnglesey** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:22 am

greenshield wrote:Ursus, you and your camera are welcomed back to Gulf Wars any time you're available. I will be sure to remind all the Royal cousins who attend that you never know when Ursus will be around. I will be sure to keep a few sets of proper plates around, just in case.

Thank you again for sharing your love of photography with the rest of us.

GreenShield
aka:
William
Prince Gleann Abhann

That is very kind of you, your Highness.

It is a pleasure and a privilege to share my work with all of you who make me look so good by your costuming and fighting efforts.

If Gulf Wars weren't so far away, I'd even prefer it to Pennsic as a photo op and general good time.

Barring an unforeseen catastrophe, I will certainly be there next year and any year I can possibly make it. Even more so because I've known Havordh for like 20 years and a friend of mine will be King of Atlantia at the coming war. He would probably beat me up if I didn't attend.

I do feel almost like an intruder at times with my zoom lenses, but rest assured I have no intention of embarrassing anyone (except my friends, who I consider fair game...).

See you in March!

Ursus

Jonny Deuteronomy · Post by **Jonny Deuteronomy** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:27 am

UrsusofAnglesey wrote:rest assured I have no intention of embarrassing anyone (except my friends, who I consider fair game...).

Norman · Post by **Norman** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:48 pm

Fearghus Macildubh wrote:http://www.bogpages.com/SCA-photographs/Pennsic-Wars/Pennsic-XXXVIII-Sunday/9385291_vR7j3#628477914_PAEX4-A-LB

Is it just me, or does he look like the Eagle on The Muppet Show :?:

Amanda M · Post by **Amanda M** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:15 pm

He does a bit, but more to me he looks big and scary. Sort of cylon ish.

Ursus provides an object lesson

Ursus provides an object lesson

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