Nick Hardcastle

James Nachtwey.

“James Nachtwey is preparing to reveal his photographs, which highlight a shocking
and underreported global crisis. Over the past 18 months, the TED community
have been working with James to gain access to locations he wished to photograph,
and to prepare spectacular plans for unveiling these pictures.”

Drought, originally uploaded by nick_hardcastle.

This photograph was taken about 12 years ago when I visited Flores (Indonesia) during a drought. The villagers came out to see me because they thought I was a priest. Something to do with the beard and speaking Indonesian.

So … I am on holiday … but in Saudi during Ramadan.

Yesterday I spent so long in my chair that I could hardly walk when I got up to fill my glass. Nothing to do with the home brew either. I did manage a run, just four sweaty miles on the corniche after dark. But for most of the day I was beating myself over the head with a stone. Not literally, of course – for some reason I decide to upgrade my website so that I can host my own WordPress blog and to learn how to use Flash Panorama Player. Neither of these things turned out to be simple.

When I bought the domain www.hobnail.com I purchased it from a reliable company in the UK. A short time later it was taken over by another company with more divisions than I have trousers. One of these divisions registers my domain name, another looks after my server and a third bills me for the privilege.

I spent two hours trying to find MySQL. Strange really, as I wouldn’t have recognised him if we had slept together. I had three and a bit, but needed four and apparently five is the latest and greatest. With little hair remaining, I did find a gracious gentleman who furnished me with a telephone number and salvation. Gratification was delayed however. My host employs Englishmen and they don’t work after five. Sometimes I would far rather deal with Delhi, even if the regional accents are not quite kosher. But then, eating regularly in Bradford, how would you define a British accent?

If that was all Dutch to you, I hope you are blonde, for my first attempts at Action Script were rather sluggish too. Simple, the website said, no experience necessary. Hm. Fascinating though. I didn’t get to bed until four. Good to have some action at last, even if it wasn’t scripted.

Sweet shop, originally uploaded by nick_hardcastle.

Photoshop CS4 has been announced and it looks as though there are some major improvements in the interface, particularly in the way layers can be used. Masking has major improvements too.

In the extended version there is a facility to make 360 degree blends, but looking at the results on the Adobe website, it doesn’t look much to write home about.

There are a couple of very nice introductory videos on the Adobe tv site
These are worth watching just to see how well it is possible to produce a training video!

Spice store, originally uploaded by nick_hardcastle.

I hate fluorescent lights. This shot should work brilliantly in colour, but try as I might I cannot get a decent white balance. I have resorted to a black and white version. The old man in the photo welcomed me with open arms, all but pushing me into the shop so that I could take this shot. He was tiny, spoke little English and was determined to feed me with nuts.

Talking of nuts … I decided to make a chicken cashew curry this afternoon. The recipe, from my new book – India’s 500 best recipes – suggested chopping the onions into quarters and putting them into a food processor to puree. This I tried to do. The blades span frantically, grazing the surface of the onions but otherwise leaving them unscathed. Usually, I prefer to use my pestle and mortar to beat things into submission, but today I was following the recipe to the letter. I decided to poke the onions into the blender with a wooden spoon. This worked well until I poked just a little too far. There was a loud noise. I am trying to think what it sounded like, but the large globs of onion and tomato puree that exploded into the kitchen, covering my face and the ceiling in equal measures, clouded my powers of observation. Twice.

On the way to Bahrain I stopped to help an old Saudi gentleman whose car was broken down in the middle of the road. He had the bonnet up and a pair of ancient jump leads attached to his battery. I opened my boot. Not sure why, as there is no battery in there, just old magazines and a few climbing holds. Returning to the right end of the car, I popped the hood (what a wonderful language American is) to reveal an engine so covered in dust we had trouble in finding the battery. Nor would the jump leads work, partly because there was only one clip and a bunch of tangled wires. Nothing to do with the filthy state of my engine of course.

Hong Kong architecture by Michael Wolf. Wolf has some interesting projects on the go, including Transparent City.

Gold souk, Manama, Bahrain, originally uploaded by nick_hardcastle.

A series of nine 360 degree panoramas of Manama Souk in Bahrain. Link

A short video on the issue of civil liberties and police surveillance and harassment of working journalists in the UK. Link

Bahrain & Manama, originally uploaded by nick_hardcastle.

I spent an hour in Bahrain yesterday evening. When my internet connection is working again I will post them. This post comes to you thanks to the Gulf Terrace Hotel in Al Khobar.

I have no idea why my inernet isn’t working. Perhaps the system is overloaded with so many people on holiday at the moment.

I have just discovered ‘match colour’ in Photoshop. Why didn’t I find this before?

Photoshop Match Color (simple And Amazing Results)