Holidays.

Seeing as this is a photography blog I thought I would share these two photo's taken recently on my Holidays in France.  Both of them were taken by the ocean, I love photographing water.  The first was a lesson in carrying a camera at all times if you can, I just happened to be out for a walk along the sea front in Hossegor when this amazing storm came in off the ocean.  I happened to have my camera and as we ran for cover from the approaching down pour I grabbed the above shot.

The shot below was taken in the Carmargue.  It was the most amazing sunset set I have seen in a long time without a breath of wind to ruffle the water.  I had previously visited this spot a few months ago and came back for a look.  Being in the right place at the right time.

Mark Nixon

Although I haven't seen him for a long, long time, I consider Mark Nixon both a friend and an inspiration.  He was the photographer at our wedding a few years ago and he is both an excellent photographer and a real people person.  He has a gift for putting people at ease and capturing the essence of whoever is on the other side of the lens.  I really like this set of photos of Sharon Corr.

Matt Stuart.

Found the work of Matt Stuart via the blog of John Beardsworth.  Brilliant photos to bring a smile to your face.  All taken in the street and a real example of how keeping your eyes open and patience pays off.  Humour plays a big part.

Training your Gaze.

I am reading Train your gaze by Roswell Angier.  If you are interested in photographs of people, portraiture, social documentary then I highly recommend it.  I was struck by the very first chapter titled about looking.  It mentions the work of Richard Avendon.  I have not seen his work yet but it is on my list. He used silence in his way of working.  He chose his subject, set up the photograph, lighting, camera etc and then asked them to look at the camera.  He observed them and took a series of photos in complete silence not letting the camera get in the way.  No fiddling with the focusing, no changing the lighting, no direction.  He was freed to just observe, to look.
At the end of the chapter there is an assignment based on this idea and I am going to try to shoot it today.  Basically I will set up the session in advance.  I mount the camera on a tripod and use a cable release.  Focus the lens and ask the model to look at the camera.  Then I shoot 36 shots in complete silence over an hour.  All I have to do is observe, look nothing else.
The following two quotes, for me sum up the point;
"Allow your self to stare.  You will find that minor fluctuations in expression, or small involuntary gestures, become significant events." 

This, I think points up a major social taboo that gets in the way of taking photos of people;  allowing oneself to stare is something we never do.  Funny thing is that the more I try it in the street with or without a camera the easier and more enjoyable it becomes.

"Silence is a prerequisite for fascination, that state of heightened attention in which particular effects of meaning can be produced.  First and foremost the photographer must be quiet, thereby relinquishing the responsibility to keep the subject amused with reassuring banter."

One of the hardest parts of taking a portrait is having to supply banter, to relax the subject.  That and fiddling with the camera, the lights, the tripod and so on.

Magnum Stories; Abbas

I have just managed to drag my new copy of Magnum stories into the room, man its sooo heavy.....

The photo essay by Abbas is the first in the book.  His explanatory text is relatively short and there are some real gems in it.  Like diamonds sprinkled in the dust.

"  there are two ways to think of photography:  one is writing with light, and the other is drawing with light.  The school of Henri Cartier-Bresson, they draw with light. They sketch with light.  the single image is paramount for them.  For me that was never the point.  My pictures are always part of a series, an essay.  each picture should be good enough to stand on its own, but its value is as part of something larger".

Now if that doesn't explain narrative I don't know what does.

Also this;

"I rarely think about the sequence when I am shooting"

This is interesting to me as I have tried to almost make up the narrative sequence and then go looking for the pictures that fit.  I have found that it doesn't work this way round and that I need to go out and look through the view finder, being free of any constraints.

This next quote, I think, is very incisive;

" I am among the generation of photographers who believe a picture is sacred.  that once you take, it that's it.  You don't crop it, you don't touch it, you don't fool around with it.  You might use it or not use it but that's something else."

The digital age has changed that sacrosanctity.  Now we have the leisure to shoot, shoot, shoot.  There is definitely an upside this, but it can get in the way of looking.  Also in terms of altering a photo digital does give the feeling that we can crop or Photoshop an image on the computer later.  I have heard the accusation many times about digital that it can make a mediocre photo good.  Now personally I do not think this is the case.  I think the error is that it takes the photographers emphasis away from looking at the scene in front of him or her because we are under the illusion that we can crop or edit it later as well as the fact that we have a huge amount of shots on a memory card now whereas with film we had 36 shots then change the roll.  But I take his point.

What makes a good photo?

There is a thread on the OCA page on flickr about this very subject.  It is a very interesting and essential subject for anyone interested in photography.  The answer is very subjective because it is a subjective question.  In fact I have to say that in all honesty it is a question that does not seem to have an answer or at least it doesn't have a single answer.  There was something about the whole discussion that reminded me of the Taoh of Pooh, I have to say that in my opinion people have a habit of over complicating this issue.  This quote from the book comes to mind;

"Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever."
"And he has Brain."
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
There was a long silence.
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that's why he never understands anything."


I was discussing this subject this morning with my wife.  Her opinion on it was that if you answer yes to the following question it must be;  "would I hang it on my wall"?  Now there is no arguing with that is there?  Its a subjective question and it is a subjective answer.  


Perhaps we should be asking a different question .....

Les Rencontres D'Arles

I originally published this a few weeks ago on my P & P Blog.

We went down to Arles to see the photo exhibition Rencontres D'Arles a couple of days ago. This is an enormous exhibition. It is displayed in venues all over the city. The main attraction for me was exhibition of Ernst Haas's work. It was displayed in Cloitre Saint-Trophime, a beautiful venue and worthy of a visit in its own right. In fact I spent as much time admiring the cloister and soaking up the atmosphere here as I did in the exhibition.

Arles itself is worthy of a visit. It is bursting with history and culture. The people are colourful and friendly. The light here is beautiful and Vincent Van Gogh was fascinated by the area. I could see why. It must have been a real change from the stiffness and formality of Paris. The light makes the most ordinary of things seem glowing and significantly beautiful. Colour is everywhere.

The exhibition itself was on two floors. The lower floor was lit by artificial light and the upper by natural. The difference between them was noticeable. The artificial lighting caused direct reflections from the glass and made it more difficult to enjoy the work behind it. But this was only a minor inconvenience. Of the work itself, well what can I say? For one thing seeing the prints is very different to looking at them on a website. This was one of the pictures that was on display. The reproduction on the web site does not do it justice. The colours here are faded. In the printed image the blue colour is a deeper blue and the yellow is stronger. The motel sign seems to glow. What interested me in this work was the way the colours work together to give a 3 dimensional feel to the picture. It was easy to forget that I was looking at a flat piece of paper. Another thing that was apparent was that Haas in his composition was deliberate. Nothing was there in the frame by chance. One of the photos showed some old rusty tin cans and a bale of rusty wire on the ground in a field. At first look it appeared that was all that was there. There was a kind of "so what" feeling to the picture. Until you noticed the background, which was the top 1/3 of the frame. Here you could see trees in full autumn regalia, reds, yellows, golden browns all the colours that were in the rusting metal cans and wire.

On the introduction to the works the curators says this;

For some time now, however, the pictures that brought him a worldwide reputation have been derided by critics and curators as ‘too commercial’: for some reason he has come to be seen as too feel-good, too sentimental. As a result his prestige has declined in relation to that of later practitioners of colour, and in particular William Eggleston, Stephen Shore and Joel Meyerowitz. In parallel with his commissions, though, Haas never stopped working in a more personal vein—for himself, you might say—and here we find a totally different kind of sensibility: these images are edgier, freer, more ambiguous—in other words much more radical. With very few exceptions they were never published or exhibited during his lifetime, perhaps because Haas feared incomprehension or a lack of appreciation. And yet these are works of great complexity and stand up very well against anything that came after them. This exhibition offers a selection.

I found that a little sad. Perhaps it doesn't mean he kept these locked away but to me that is what comes across. Also I think it says something about the fashions in art and how fickle it is. It certainly says something about our need to compare two different things like apples and oranges and reach a subjective decision on which one is "better".

Trends aside the pictures were, in a too well used word - beautiful. Dare I say, and this is my own interpretation, they display a love of colour just for colours sake. On the TAOP course colour is a separate section all to itself. The colour circle is discussed as are colour relationships, cool colours, warm colours ect. This exhibition reminded me that intuitively we all "understand" colour. However not many people take the time to study it. We take it for granted. If Ernst Haas had a message for us it would be to look again.

Assignment Reports.

As I am preparing to submit my application for the formal assessment of TAOP I have been re-reading and re-editing some of the photos that I had submitted. This has been an interesting process. First of all there has been a gradual shift from paper to screen. By this I mean that at the start of my course I had tried to keep a paper learning log however I switched to a blog. The blog is much better and easier to keep. The other thing that has happened is that I submitted assignment 1 to 4 on paper and the final one by e-mail. I think this is similar to the recent times in photography.

Also I have to say that at the time, when I received the feedback I always read and reviewed them. I did not realise that it was advisable to re-shoot them as advised on the report. Now that I have done this I see the wisdom in this and in all future courses I will be allowing time for this. I have picked up a couple of things that I consistently fall down on.

In several of the example I had allowed distractions to creep into the frame. A lot of the times I could have removed them at the editing stage. This has included graphic elements and bright spots in the wrong areas.

Focus. Sometimes I have either focused on the wrong element in the frame. Either for instance by focusing on the nose instead of the eyes with the camera or with the lighting.

On the later assignments I was weak on the narrative linking of shots. I fell back onto taking nice aesthetic photos when this happened, too much detail.

Overall I need to take more time to critique my own submissions before they land on the tutors report. All of the above mistakes are easy to spot.

I need to take more time editing. I tend to spend a lot of time shooting and looking for shots and then feel under pressure, rush last and most important stage of the process to meet the deadline. I think editing as I go and printing off a contact sheet could help.

All in all I have enjoyed the course and have already signed up to P & P and DPP and I will take these lessons on board and imply them.

Assignment 5 Follow up.

I just ordered Magnum Stories, a book recommended by my tutor. it was expensive but what the hell. I have been reading Between the eyes by David Levi Strauss too and found an interesting essay on Aesthetics in photography and whether can be anesthetic. He says " that being politically correct (as in a photograph with a political message like the work of Sebastiao Salgado) doesn't signify much unless the work is also visually and conceptually compelling"

What this says to me is that the trouble that I go to get the composition, the lighting etc right is necessary because it all helps the viewer to see what you as the photographer want them to see.

I looked up the work of Cig Harvey as suggested. I really like it. She uses a lot of narrative in her work. The gallery on 350 main street is particularly narrative. I like also that each of the images go to make up the narrative but also could stand alone as individual photographs. All of them have an evidence of action/juxtaposition feel to them. They make me wonder what happens next or what has happened. Lots of colour used too. Also they have a labrador and so do we! This website has given me a lot of ideas, I have started to collect photos for an ongoing series called home.

I also checked out Duane Michals. In terms of narrative there is no arguing that the sequence titled "I build a pyramid" is narrative. In fact it is so simple that it makes me think why the hell didn't I think of that!

He also designed and did the art work for the Police Album Synchronicity which again is a narrative sequence. Again his narrative work is as my tutor suggested economical in linking themes together in his photos.

Assignment 5: feedback

I got an opportunity to re-shoot some of the photos for assignment 5.

One of the points my tutor made was that a title like alpine garden needed to show the mountains more. Below are as many different ways that I could think of to link garden and mountains.

v

Water;

Flowers.

My tutor felt that the image that rounded off the sequence should include some flowers. Now it is not possible for me to re-shoot that particular image and add flowers but I have taken a couple of images that could have been put in as flowers alone. I would obvisously need to drop one of the others.

Work

Linking working in the garden with the alps.

Symbols and symbolism.

I have been thinking about this on and off for the last few days following the feedback on assignment 5. I have gone back to reading Mary Acton's book Learning to look at paintings again. I came across s painting Young Woman in Blue Reading a letter, you can look at it here. There would seem to be a lot of symbolism used in his work. However today the symbols used do not stand for the same things. For instance in Dutch genre painting a woman reading a letter symbolizes love. The map in the painting may refer to a distant love. Also in another painting by Vermeer titled love letter, which you can view here, the woman is painted playing a lute. A lute again symbolizes love.

So there are a couple of things that come to mind about this. For one thing the symbols have to mean something to the artist in order for them to be included. To the subject also. They must have significance to the audience too in order for them to be read.

In photography there are lots of examples like Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" for one. This can be interpreted as a modern version of the Madonna for instance or a symbol of the great depression. Or for that matter the symbolism in the photo can be interpreted in numerous ways depending on the viewers own background.

When I think of my own work, looking at the last assignment there are two photos of hands as the main focus of the images. I used both of these to represent work. Interestingly my tutor has interpreted the images in different ways. The image of the pair of hands against a blue sky as letting go of the earth and the other image against the earth as down to earth.

Now this is a level of interpretation I had not consciously thought of when I took the two.

Assignment 5: feedback

Just a quickie on the feedback I just received on assignment 5. Overall I am very happy with it, My tutor compliments me saying that my photographs have a visual assurance to them that is the mark of a professional photographer. I am very happy with this compliment.

He spots a recurring theme in my work though, of reverting to the binds of the aesthetics. This is something that I also agree with. When I look at the set now I see that some of them are nice images but they do not add anything to the story I am trying to tell.

Signs and symbols come up several times and how to link images together better. I have been thinking about this for a week or so now, before I received his feedback. There was a time that I would have considered a picture without perfect light, without perfect composition, without perfect colour a right off. However images work deeper than that. Especially when telling a story. I have a habit of always looking for an aesthetically good point of view for an image and I am working on breaking through this at the moment.

I think that I do put a lot of store on getting something technically perfect. Now I don't think that there is anything wrong with that. However as Flickr bears testament to, there are many technically perfect images that lack soul. They are all about object and environmental aesthetic but communicate nothing.

On this subject I came across this quote from Jose Navarro:

I would say that the act of being-in-the-world is primarily – but by no means exclusively – a visual experience. It follows that photography has the uncanny ability to articulate how places affect our emotions and how we feel about them at a deep, almost unconscious level. The basis of psychogeographies in photography lies in skipping the cognitive process that leads to taking a photograph. What I mean is that we can bypass our minds and take photographs straight from the experience of perception, of the perception of the place we are in. In other words, do not think about the photograph you are about to take, just capture what your body is perceiving that precise moment – with all your senses, although the sense of sight will prevail, obviously. Lee Friedlander springs to mind as, knowingly or unknowingly, one of the first psychogeographers – see his photographs in the book The Desert, published by Thames & Hudson. Raymond Depardon’s Errance photographs are also a good example of psychogeographies."

I think this is along the lines of what my tutor means. Because a camera is a technical piece of equipment, it is a trap that any photographer can fall into, to get caught up in the shutter speed and f stop. What the above quote says to me is that what makes great photographs is being able to combine this technical ability with the ability to transfer what we feel about a place or person, any subject, into an image.

Assignment 4 Review & Feedback.

As part of the preparation for having my work assessed I have been re-reading the assignment tutor reports. I did not actually realise that it would be advisable to re-shoot the suggestions in the reports. However I can see the wisdom of it now. So for Assignment 4 here are the original photos with the edits too.

Photo 1.

My tutor's remarks are complimentary about the photo and he does say that it meets the requirements of shape. However he does feel that the creases in the white sheet distract from the subject. He suggests that shallow depth of field would have been better and I agree.

Here I have blurred the background in photoshop and its a definite improvement.

Photo 2.

The critical remarks are very much the same here. He points out the creases in the sheet and also the base and backdrop seperation. Again he suggests that shallow depth of field as a possible solution.

Here again I have blurred the background in photoshop and the improvement is noticeable.

Photo 3.

The criticism is the same here.

This is a big improvement.

Photo 4.

Here the main criticism is that the lighting from the top rear light off left highlights the hair/head of the statue but leaves the face in shadow. This unbalances the composition. My feeling on this is that I do not completely agree. I feel that the empty space to the right acts to balance the composition. However here below I have applied a curves adjustment in photoshop which does lessen the effect.

Photo 5;

Here the only point he picks up on is the specular high light on the ear.

Here I have changed this in photoshop. I agree with the criticism. The eye is drawn straight to that point in the previous shot.

Photo 7.

Here I agree with his criticism which is that although the composition is good, the light on the left ear, which is out of focus is distracting.

Here I have attempted to focus attention on the eyes. I do like the way the previous photo brings out the curve of the cheek.

Photo 8.

His main criticism here seems to have been that the light on the hair on the left is distracting from the main graphic element of the eyes. He also suggests a central composition.

This is the amended photo and again I agree it is much stronger.

Photo 9.

Here the criticism is that the focus is on the nose and not on the eyes. He does however like my deliberate use of specular highlights.

Here is my attempt to retake this. Again looking in comparison with the previous I agree.

Photo 10.

here the feed back is again positive. The only critism is to remove the ear lobe that is a distraction.

This version is better.

Photo 11.

The only point made here is about the highlighted area on the right. It is suggested that it is a distraction.

I think this is better.

Photo 14.

Here while he likes the colour and the flowers he does rightly point out that the composition is unresolved. The hand of the statue is on the periphery of the composition and out of focus and the flower in the centre needs to be facing the camera.

Here I have made the hand the centre of interest. The picture is definitely much stronger.

Assignment 5 complete!

I just sent off my final assignment to my tutor by e-mail. I hope it goes through alright. Here are the photos and the details of each photo. Overall I am very happy with this assignment. I took a lot of photos and experimented with lighting and effects for it. I have gained a greater understanding of how the camera "sees" and its dynamic range. I can see the effect of adding light for all sorts of reasons. For 3-D effect, to show shape, texture and colour. Also by adding light to balance the highlights and shadows. Adding light to improve sharpness, allowing a smaller f stop to be chosen for instance. I look forward to receiving my tutor feedback, its always informative and insightful.

Photo 1. The cover shot I think. Shot at f20 (1/80 sec iso 200) to get the starburst effect on the sun. This shot was taken about a month ago when we had a period of hot weather with the most glorious of skies in the evenings. I used a canon 580 EX, with a Stofen flash diffuser and a radio trigger to balance the highlights and shadows. Two lights, one the sun, the other flash. Until recently I never understood fully how different the dynamic range is between the camera and the human eye. I used the strobe to help the camera see better I guess.

In terms of captions what I had in mind developed as I took the series of photos. I came to realise that the secret ingredients of success in a garden are as follows;

Sunshine:

Caption: Sunrise

This was a photograph I had been thinking of trying for a while. I had watched the sun come over the top of this mountain opposite our house for a few weeks, the difference it made to the garden in the morning was really something. I found these flowers were in the right line of sight. I used a canon 580 ex again, this time mounted on a light stand and shot through a shoot through umbrella. Triggered using a radio trigger. These are to the camera left of the shot. I took a lot of photos that morning, getting the set up right. This is the best shot of the series. It was taken at ISO 400 and f22 1/250 second.

Caption: Shade.

One of the features of this area of the French alps is the great numbers of Walnut trees. They grow everywhere and are beautifully shaped. I tried different shots of this one and decided that they were too clichéd. I like this point of view from under the canopy. I also wanted to include the sun in the shot, nice diffused sunlight peeping through the canopy. Off camera flash through a light stand and triggered using a radio trigger. F6.3 @ 1/160 of a second to allow the ambient light bleed into the photo.

Water:

Sub Caption: Water has become a strategically important resource that is more important than even oil.

Off camera flash on a light stand. Bare un-diffused light. Radio trigger again. F 6.3 1/250 sec using a macro lens. ISO 400.

ISO 100. F7.1 1/250th second. Flash as a fill combined with natural light.

ISO 100. f 4.0 1/250 second. Again flash and natural light.

Soil:

ISO 50. F4.0 1/160 second. Flash and natural light. I added blur and a vignette in photoshop.

soil 1 |soil|nounthe upper layer of earth in which plants grow, a black or dark brown material typically consisting of a mixture of organic remains, clay,and rock particles.

ISO 400. f14 1/160 second.

Cross lit with flash and natural light. If you look closely at the arms you can see edge lighting from the flash. I set it up and tried different angles, this photo best captured what I was trying to convey.

Above all :Hard work

A preconceived idea I had from reading Charlotte Cottons book; the photograph as contemporary art. Combination of natural and artificial light with the natural light providing the modeling effect. I used a polarising filter to saturate the colours. F 4 1/250 second at ISO 500.

Caption:Pruning or dead heading petunias

Natural light. ISO 400. F4.0 1/2500 second.

Caption: Picking French beans.

F13 at 1/50 second iso 400. Natural evening sunlight.

Caption: Tools for the job.

Shot with diffused sunlight through a large white diffuser on a stand. Supplemented with a bare flash on camera left to give a modeling effect, with a second flash using a stofen flash diffuser on camera right to fill the shadows cast by the hat. Both on manual and triggered with radio triggers. The camera white balance was set to cloudy to give it a nice warm effect. F 16 @ 1/250 second ISO 200.

And finally

The rewards for all that hard work!

F 6.3 @ 1/250th of a second. ISO 400. I used a flash on a light stand triggered by a radio trigger. It was shot on manual mode and through a shoot through umbrella. Positioned above and to camera right.