The Conversation - Episode 10

raheny_eye vs. smithski and his brother mrsmith

First of all, thanks a million to the 2 of you for accepting to sit in the hot sofa (don't think you'll both fit in the one seat) and answer my questions. I can be nosey at times, you are under no obligation to answer them all and statements from your legal teams are also acceptable.

Mr Smith: Thanks for inviting us Raheny, it's a pleasure to be here having a chinwag in your virtual bar with everyone's favourite FrancoPaddyScouser.

With almost 250,000 combined views, you are a bit of an institution on blipfoto. Who was the first one to join (that is a rhetorical question, I know...) and how did you find out about this site? When did you start mentioning it to the bro and how long did it take you to convince him to take the leap of faith?

Smithski: I was the first to join but I heard about it from my brother, even though he wasn't then a blipper. He had known the blip-institution Red for years though but told me at the time he himself didn't do it because he wasn't anally retentive enough to get obsessed with something like blip...

Mr Smith: As the older brother it's my role to encourage my younger sibling to jump into the water. If the water's not too cold and he doesn't drown then I can safely immerse myself.

How enthusiastic was blipper Smith no. 1 in introducing blipfoto to blipper Smith no.2? Was it a good sales pitch? Between the two of you, have you rallied more people to the "cause" or are you the quiet non-missionary type and prefer to keep this little piece of internet-heaven a well-guarded secret?

Smithski: I can honestly say that no description of me has ever included the words 'quiet' and 'non-missionary'... although I do recall childish and puerile.

Mr Smith: Because some of my biggest pals were the guinea pigs for Blip I've known about it for a long time and considered it be populated by obsessive photo nerds. I thought I'd never have the patience, interest, or desire to take part but didn't mind Blip stalking and watching from the sidelines. As an obsessive photo nerd I knew Smithski would be right at home. Now, as I'm about to reach the golden camera ("the Precious" as I believe you call it Raheny) I have to face up to the fact I've become obsessed too.

You are living a good bit away from each other. Do you feel closer to each other now that you are both on blipfoto? Have you ever regretted this close contact on a daily basis (not easy to make excuses in relation to your whereabouts and activities when they are posted daily on the net...)

Smithski: We did used to talk on the phone a couple of times a week but it kind of tailed off. I do feel we are more in touch through blip but it reinforces for me that we don't see each other often enough.

Mr Smith: Couldn't be any closer anyway. Love him to bits. In a manly, bear-hug, kind of a way. The distance between our homes is fortunate as it ensures that our livers can still function.

Who's the eldest? In other words, who is the responsible older brother and who is the spoilt brat? Have you always got on as well as you seem to in cyberspace? What would be the first 3 adjectives that come to mind to describe your brother?

Smithski: I am the younger, taller version from the era when our parents had perfected the passing on of genes, I like to think of him as the trial run. As far as describing him, I know they are not adjectives but the three words I would use are Ruby, Joe & Eve. He is a fantastic dad and everything he does is for them.

Mr Smith: I am the responsible spoilt brat. In three words my little brother is Big, Bald & Beautiful.

You two have quite distinctive styles, but one thing that you definitely have in common is your inimitable sense of humour, present in the vast majority of your blips. How important is it? Is humour a toy, a weapon or a defense mechanism?

Smithski: Humour is a way to infuriate the humourless in society. I see it as a playful defensive weapon.

Mr Smith: We have style? Thanks. We're from Liverpool, the humour comes as standard. The pulp novelist Lawrence Block once said "Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think" which is an interesting comment. If you take a step back and look at the world it usually strikes you how absurd it is and how silly you are.

According to you, what is the secret of a great blip? In what order would you list these ingredients: vision, hardware, post-processing, fluke, write-up.

Smithski: Luck and an eye for random acts of beauty. Vision, fluke, write-up, fluke, hardware, fluke and post processing.

Mr Smith: Fluke, fluke, fluke, flukey vision, write-up.

I may in the past have been teasing Mr Smith about the possibility of investing into a DSLR. Similarly, I have commented on the quality of Smithski's shots while his D60 had packed it in and you were confined to the use of the aul' Coolpix. Is the camera used really that important? If you could indulge in any camera/lens combination and money was just a trivial matter (as it ought to be), what would you go for?

Smithski: The most important thing is the ability to see a shot. I have been moved and wowed by shots from cheap compacts and seen utter crap from expensive DSLRs. If money was no object I would buy thousands of cheap compacts and send them to random smiths around the world with one condition. They have to email me a photo each year on my birthday of what they see at the exact time I was born.

Mr Smith: An XRay machine so I could do stuff like this...

What has been your most embarrassing blip moment (to date)? Getting caught photographing a skip on Princess Street? Getting caught by your bro with a plastic bag on your head?

Smithski: I don't tend to get embarrassed to be honest. The closest was probably My first blip, I had climbed over a security barrier on the roof to take it and the rather rotund security guard had seen me on CCTV and thought I was a jumper. I have never seen more of a sweaty, moob shaking look of panic on a mans face as he came out onto the roof!

Mr Smith: Even asking a stranger on a fag break in a back alley to photograph me jumping up and down on a metal grille didn't embarrass me. I think I may have thankfully reached the age where I don't give much of a toss anymore.

One of the things that I appreciate most about youze is the level of care you put in your comments on other blippers' entries. They are personalised, funny and meaningful. How time-consuming is this? Do you ever find that blipfoto has taken over your life and you want to break free?

Smithski: I cant bear comments like "cool" repeated on 50 blips. After my first year when I worked out I had spent the equivalent of 15 days solid on blip I have cut right back. I just comment randomly now to ease the blip-withdrawal symptoms.

Mr Smith: I appreciate I am lucky being in a job where I can pop in and out of BlipLand for a few minutes here and there. I tend to finish stuff I am working on, or hit a brick wall and then take a peek at blip and make some comments. I also usually have a quick look in the evenings. Consequently I'm not charging around in a rush trying to see everyone's blips at the same time which makes it easier. Posting an image and writing your journal is a big deal and you're making public quite a private thing whether it's the way your day is going, ruminations on your life, or just your attempts to improve your photography. I think it's part of the deal to remember that if you comment.

The ever expanding blip universe means it's hard to see too much and so you tend to look at the same journals plus a few that catch your eye when you are online. Blip of the Week has been an interesting innovation as they've all been great and I missed most of them first time round.

If I ever think that Blip is taking up too much time then I remember why I started doing it in the first place - to see if it was possible for me to take a photo every day, to use it as a way of capturing things I stumbled across and to have fun. That takes the heat out of the times when I'm too busy to make comments. So long as I can post a shot I like every day then that's the job done. The commenting is great when the time is there but there are times when it isn't and I feel that some people have left Blip in the past, not because they couldn't take a photo every day, but because they were starting to feel guilty about not commenting, which is a great shame. I suppose most people, myself included, get surprised by the fact that there is a genuine community of nice folk on here and you feel like you are letting them down if you go through periods when you can't join in fully.

It is now time for me to ask you what your own favourite blip is. It can be one that met great success within the blipfoto community as your blips (deservedly) often do, or a more obscure one but that means a lot to you.

Smithski: It has to be this one purely because it reminds me to stop bloody complaining. This guy was laughing, happy and astonishingly talented and had overcome a lot more than a crappy day.

Mr Smith: Still makes me laugh.

Which blip of your brother's do you like most, and why?

Smithski: I cant choose between two so seeing as you asked you can have them both, this one because its such a fantastically lit artistic shot. This one because everything about it appeals to me, the low angle, the composition, the colours and the complete and utter joy on the kids faces.

Mr Smith: I have to choose two. This one because it shows how his brain works and if you don't think it's funny then you just won't get Smithski

And this one for the joy and happiness and love.

Asking for your favourite blip by another blipper is always a bit of a tough one, this is why I propose to break it down into 4 categories:

Your favourite blip:

For the power of its image

Smithski: There are a lot of blips I could choose but purely for the power all of his images had collectively it has to be a shot by an ex-blipper croz. This one was one of the first of his I saw and I loved the fact he never took a bad shot. Every one of them was superb, plus he was a generous bloke, every time I asked how he had achieved an effect he told me exactly how to do it in photoshop. Inspirational photography that made me try harder and look at things differently.

Mr Smith: This must have been very tough to write but hopefully therapeutic too and is a really moving testimonial for a life well lived.

For enabling you to travel from the comfort of your sitting room/work desk (we will not rat on you)

Smithski: It could almost be any blip from Jan Berghuis Terschelling to see a completely different world and experiences.

Mr Smith: One that took me somewhere else was this from one of my favourite journals and this one of my favourite blips ever.

For its poignancy

Smithski: Definitely Flick's category, I once commented that nobody on blip photographed emotions better than her. I had just started and was transfixed and involved with Archies life journey. I remember actually feeling teary when I read the blip that he was well enough to leave hospital. At that point I realized there was a lot more to blip than a collection of photo geeks with too much time on their hands, it was a community.

Mr Smith: Can I choose a recent one of yours? If not then one of Smithski's which is just as poignant.

For the laugh that it gave you

Smithski: It could be any of dear Raheny eyes blips, consistent humour in an often disturbing, 'I am glad I only know him virtually', kind of way, especially the recession buster activities for children series.

Mr Smith: For laughs, no contest. A few of us enjoyed a lost afternoon pre-xmas which moved into a messy evening. Red had been taking photos the whole time. The next morning as I dragged my way into work I was wondering which image would have made his blip. I had my recuperative bacon roll hoisted to my mouth as I fired up his blip and nearly choked with laughter.

Thanks a million to the two of you for taking the time to answer my questions! Thank you so much also for the brilliant blips you have produced and very often the thousands of laughs you have brought to this community with your daily blips.

I will finish with a tradition started by Fiori in the last Conversation: if you don't see a question asked of yourself here, feel free to ask it and answer it!?

No probs, thanks for thinking of us I love you like a (virtual) brother. Hope to raise a real pint with you at some stage down the road.

Mr Smith: Q - Blipper forever?

Mr Smith: A - Don't know. I ask myself that quite a lot. I hope so but can't help feeling that I may need a short lie down at some stage. However, people like Red, Graham and Joe are still going strong and constantly adding to a great journal so why not? Blip has opened my eyes and given me lots of fun and has been rewarding in ways I never expected. The best thing I can say about Blip is that I am never without a camera and I know I'm going to take photos forever and that really is something.