Cockadobby Hill

From Cockadobby Hi...

uitzicht over NYC

uitzicht over NYC, originally uploaded by RoosjeH.

Nice image and a view that I do not think I have seen before.

Mt. Rainier from Bench Lake

Mt. Rainier from Bench Lake, originally uploaded by Knottyy.

I have trouble thinking that this is a real place, maybe it would be a great place to see with my own eyes.

Laguna Beach Sunset

Laguna Beach Sunset, originally uploaded by Knottyy.

Just found this image, wow love the colours and how the light is on the sand and on the rocks in the foreground

Colours

, originally uploaded by lightpainter.

Never seen a bird this colour before, so all I can say is wow

sundog

sundog, originally uploaded by seawallrunner.

The person who took this picture sure has a good eye.

fog in yaletown

fog in yaletown, originally uploaded by seawallrunner.

Wow never knew fog could look this good great image

lost

lost, originally uploaded by brilliant girl.

Not sure why it should be, but this image has a great mood to it that gets to you just as soon as you see it why? don't know

Williams Audio Challenge 7

So this is the seventh audio challenge in the series, and I must come clean and state here that I do not know how many of these challenges their will be, as I suspect that as time passes that will have ideas that I think will make a good challenge.

This challenge is to create four linked audio programmes of 30 minutes each. the four audio programmes will be called the following;

Spring Equinox

Summer Solstice

Autumn Equinox

Winter Solstice

Each programme should link to each other, each programme should have both fact and trivia and there is nothing to stop the addition of humour if it will help the programme be entertaining and fun for the listener.

I think that this is an easy challenge to complete, as it would require only some basic research, the hard bit is making this series different from all the other programmes that there has been before, all with that most listeners will think that they have heard it before so the core of this challenge is to get the listener interested in what many may think is an over done and stale subject.

Williams Audio Challenge 6

This is a challenge which is here just because, well perhaps some reasons need to be explained first what I mean by this.

As you know if you listen to radio four or other great radio stations in the UK, I can't talk about other parts of the world as I have no information on what audio or radio is like. Anyway what I was going to say was this that sometimes they do an item on cooking and have the cooking done on air live, now it does take some skill to convey to the listener's just what is going on, and most of the time it works very well.

Another very clever use of this sort of thing was when a ventriloquist in a comedy show was on the radio in the 1950's. I think that the dummy was well, very popular even though you knew who was doing the voice of the dummy. But and I think that this is the most important thing is that you could tell by the sound effects and the good use of characterisation just who, when, where and what was going on.

So my challenge is in the same sort of vein as the above two examples in that it is something that is visual,and the challenge is to make that visual item see-able on the radio.

The subject is something that most people take for granted and perhaps do not even give it a second thought unless something dramatic is going on with it.

Do you want me to tell you what it is or have you already worked out what it is yet?

Well, I want at one 30 minute programme in any format on clouds, yes that's what i said clouds. It is a challenge in that some how you have to get over to the listener just what all the different clouds look like and why. You also and this is the sting in the tail, or more correctly the second part of this challenge is that you have to show how the clouds have changed the world in some way or other.

yes I know that this part of the challenge is not a broadcast problem but it is as I want the results of the research that you will have to do brought into the programme and for it to be a part of the programme.

As with all the Williams Audio challenges if you find that one programme is not enough then their is nothing to stop you from doing more programmes or even a series.

At the heart of the programme challenges is getting the challenge produced and broadcast either as a radio broadcast or podcast.

I think that radio or audio needs to get out there and just show that it is a medium that is anywhere, anytime and that it can get into people's heads and expand their minds without them knowing what has been going on until it is too late!

I think and so do a lot of far brighter minds that radio or audio entertainment is a medium will go on to bigger and better things especially now that the ipods generation are used to these items and have or are looking for more than just pop tunes.

Williams Audio Challenge 5

Well here we are with challenge number five, it is to be a 30 minute programme that has to be light hearted in its approach about a subject that so far has not to my knowledge has been tackled on a radio or audio production in any shape or form.

The programme is to present a short history of the mobile telephone ring-tone. It has to start with the very first ring-tones all the way through to today's multi effect multi-voice tones.

There is nothing to stop a bit of history of the mobile telephone from being thrown in at the same time, I suspect that to get a good programme length it will almost be mandatory. But most of the programme content has to be about the ring-tone, how it has effected us now and what may happen in the next few years to it.

This I think is an easy challenge as its just some good solid research with the need for some clever thinking on how best to present the material in a way that does not get repetitive and boring.

Path To The Brow

Path To The Brow, originally uploaded by D-Rom of 71.

This is just a great image of how I like to see some of the UK's better bits, its a sad but true remark that this kind of view will become very rare in the future, as the climate and living pressures will take it out on the counrtyside, or what is left of it.

Mount Mariveles

Mount Mariveles, originally uploaded by Ronald Ibay.

Love the dark blues at the top of this picture and then the dark mist at the bottom.

Vanishing

Vanishing, originally uploaded by lookin glass.

A classic shot I suppose, but it does work and in this image the colours are nice and work to make the picture even better.

Purple gaze

Purple gaze, originally uploaded by NTconcepts.

What a great image I love the colour differance in this picture

Williams Audio Challenge 4

This is the fourth in a series of audio challenges that I have created, as I think audio entertainment is getting just stuck in a rut and it seems to me not prepared to stretch itself in this brave new world of digital media and all its outlets. Any way the forth challenge is to do a programme or a series of programmes on light. I want each programme to be about 30 minutes long.

The programme could be about the nature of light, what it is and what it is not, it could be the science history of light getting into how Newton did work some much on it , what he found out and how it effects us today in everyday life. How and what is new about light and how these findings are going to change the way that we live. It could describe the famous experiments that Newton and others carried out, and this is the challenge bit, just how do you paint a word picture of such experiments?

The programme could be about painters and how the light in various places around the world has had an effect on their paintings e.g St Ives in Cornwall or it could be about how the paints from different times have used the light in their paintings. The programme could be about how modern painters use the light and how they see how the old masters used light.

The idea of just one programme or a series of programmes is part of the challenge, the challenge only asks for it to be a programme on light and that it has to last 30 minutes, it could be that you find so much material that a series is possible, if that's so then go for it!

Bolsover Castle

Bolsover Castle, originally uploaded by katie marsh.

Just like what the clouds are doing in this picture.

Williams Audio Challenge 3

This is the third of the Williams Audio Challenges (WRC), this I think is the easiest one in all of the challenges and so could I suppose be the very first challenge to fall.

Make a 30 minute programme on the two rarest Zoonoses that you could possibly catch in the UK today. the heart of this challenge is deciding what type of programme format to make the show e.g

Light hearted comedy e.g an incompetent doctor/vet practice.

Serious interview type programme e.g a documentary.

In fact the hardest challenge would be to say make a 30 minute comedy with Zoonoses as the theme, may be thinking about it, that is what this challenge should be all about.

As that is now what I want this challenge to be, I do now have the feeling that may be it will not be so easy to do and that the challenge may stand for some time.

Yes, I know, that getting such a programme made let alone getting it broadcast is not going to be easy, but and there are two buts with the first one being that the programme can be broadcast as a podcast instead of a terrestrial broadcast.

The second but is that if it was easy it would not be a challenge would it it?

Do not forget that the 30 minute duration is the minimum, you could I suppose provide a series! which would be good but to do so would be something that is not expected but would be very welcome, as the idea is to stretch the audio/radio world out there and to provide programmes that are not about Ireland or the grim North which appears to have sadly been the trend with commissioning radio these days on the main public broadcast stations, why it has been like this the only things that I can think of are that the money is tight, the people doing the commissioning have either no imagination or a failure of nerve or it could just be down to political correctness. lets hope that I am completely wrong on that last one.

Good News For One's Ears

So it has finally happened and Dirk and crew have finally got their new company up and running, which after more than two years of trying is good going. The new company called Perfectly Normal productions PNP is going to be I think, just a bit like Dirk's old company Audio Movies Ltd but with its broadcasts now aimed at the podcast generation, which is where all the audio action is these days.

From what I have been told and what I think about it all myself, I think that the line up productions is going to be great news for the ear's and minds of those folk who are in the know about just how great audio entertainment of this quality can be.

From what I see there will be new and old material together making a good all round package of items that will appeal to lots of savvy listeners out there, in fact I think we are in for an audio treat.

I suppose it will be interesting in a quiet sort of way to see if any of the WRC's will been done by Dirk Maggs and co. And no I am not going to tell him about the challenges as that would make it all far to easy and anyway the challenges are for anyone who has got the talent and the time to go for these challenges, you do not need for most of them lots of money all you need is great ideas and talent and the imagination to go for it.

So 2007 in audio terms should be great, if we are lucky it could even be a vintage audio year here's hoping.

Williams Audio Challenge 2

This second challenge in the series of audio challenges is one that I have spoken about before in several of my Blogs and also on my website; but I think it is a neat do able challenge, one that does not need any more than three episodes to carry it off and only about 90 minutes tops of airtime or broadcast time.

The present idea is to have three 30 minute audio programmes each will be linked together much like a jigsaw does with references to each of the other shows in the series.

The challenge is that each episode has to have and to follow a theme.

Show one has the theme with X in it, so the next two shows themes should be of no surprise in that they are Y and Z. As I said above each themed show must refer and also reference the other shows in the series.

This challenge does not allow you to just call each show by its theme e.g X show then Y show then Z show.

As this is a challenge one thought that I did have was to link the three shows in time. by this I mean that either show X is the future or present and then each of the other shows follows in the past or present, but I think it stands in getting three themed linked, 30 minute long shows is a big challenge.

There is nothing in the challenge about having a very small cast, there is also nothing to stop the challenge itself being the audio series e.g you could base the shows on the challenge presented in completing the challenge.