Category: photography
On landscapes
Over the past few weeks, I have been taking and uploading a number of landscape photographs. Reasons for this are twofold: I have been photographing landscapes as a matter of course for a long while; and I have been writing a how-to ebook on landscape photography.
While I put the finishing touches to the ebook, I have also been putting up more landscape images from around London on social media.
Looking over the ebook’s ten chapters, I’ll be heeding the advice I give to take better landscape photos. I’ll be taking many more images. These images will be studied and in many cases discarded, but the photographs I make for display and print will be more considered, refined and hopefully a vast improvement on what has come before.
More landscapes
Landscape collation and creation continues, mostly around London’s green spaces:
The last, Charing Cross railway station, fascinates me: on certain days, the light and the backdrop really work well together. I will return…
Landscapes
Going through some old photos, I’ve been surprised by the amount of landscapes that I’ve taken.
The photos take in the countryside, cityscapes and any details therein.
So far, it’s been rare that I’ve taken them with any consideration, so I’ll be looking at a couple of photography instruction books to refine them in future.
Taking stock 2
I have been occasionally selling prints through Alamy and I’ve decided to upload more frequently to this site.
My previous contributions have been a haphazard selection from holiday photos, social gatherings and outings. Looking through them, my main fascination has been with change, especially with London’s ever-changing buildings and skyline.
The evolution of cities has always interested me, from how Manhattanite slums in the late 70s have become exclusive addresses, or how the deserted stretches of the abandoned Berlin wall have become bustling tourist destinations.
In addition to gathering and uploading my older images of London, I’m now taking as many photos of London spaces as I can manage, before the next big changes.
Faces and spaces
“There’s nothing more interesting than the landscape of the human face…” Irvin Kershner.
Portraits, in magazines, newspapers and galleries, have always fascinated me. Representing and interpreting a personality without words has always been a great skill.
I love taking photographs of people, but have done very little formal posed work until now. While I’ve enjoyed taking portraits, I have become more interested in making environmental portraits, like those of Arnold Newman: where somebody is photographed is integral to who they are.
So far, I’ve attempted to capture people in spaces that are important to them. In time, I hope that I can capture a person as much with light, speed and exposure as much as with the space that surrounds them.
From the end to a beginning
I bought the very first Independent on Sunday and continued to do so for many years. Its mixture of reportage and great photography was a great tonic and highly influential in the newspaper world.
Time went by and I moved from the IoS to the Observer and then to Saturday’s Guardian for my weekend news, but my affection for the IoS remained, which is why it was with some mixed feelings that I bought the last edition of the Independent on Sunday in March 2016.
Re-reading this last edition recently, with its mixture of news and reminiscence, was a bittersweet experience. Articles by writers, photographers and cartoonists on what they enjoyed most about the paper were a delight. News articles on the then forthcoming EU referendum, Earth Day and environmental concerns brought feelings of despair at where we are now.
One interview stands out: David Cameron sharing his fear that apathetic voters would hand victory to the Brexit camp. It’s over three years since then: Cameron and his successor have both left Downing Street and the current Prime Minister continues to work on squaring the circle of what the Brexit camp want. I’m not sure where this will end, or indeed if it is an end.
Depending on the current negotiations’ results, years of negotiations could follow as this country finds itself in an entirely new place in the world: a new beginning that no one may have wanted. Or things may only be slightly altered. But the fabric of this country will be changed nonetheless. We will find out by how much soon.
Experimenting
Finally, after collecting articles from photography magazines and websites, I’ve been working through various tips and hints to advance my photography, both in image capture and post-production.
I haven’t quite mastered the Breziner method, but I’ve made some architectural collages that I like:
Twin focus combinations have been fun:
Solarizing has been great fun:
Most recently, I’ve been experimenting with long exposures:
The aim is to apply every technique that interests me in my usual photography. Hopefully I’ll be discovering new types of images in this process.
London
Over the years, I’ve taken many images of my home city. I’ve sampled a few here as I build up my portfolio.
The last batch
I’ve been clearing out my laptop and desktop photos: thousands of images taken over the years and piled onto my hard drives with little in the way of organisation: no more.
2017, 2016, 2014 and most of 2018 have been completed: filed, edited and reduced. Now I am doing 2013 and 2012 and they’re the most disorganised years. I had acquired my first digital camera at that time and I was intoxicated by the freedom of multiple image making after the conservative, considered years of film photography. I took a lot of photos.
As I organise and edit these images down, I am at last taking some crafted, experimental digital images, using techniques culled from photography magazines and weblogs. I am also planning to return to film image making, both still and motion.
Once done, I’ll be printing selected images, but for now, the organisation continues.
Technique: SXSW 2014
I use Photoshop often. I use roughly the same tools on every image: levels and curves; but while I can be quite conservative in my use, I have been both learning to use other tools in the Photoshop toolbox and experimenting with my usual techniques.
Editing some old performance images from the South by South-West festival at Austin, Texas in 2014 showed what I’ve learned and how far I need to learn, especially with editing dark images.
The red hues burnt into orange with this shot of East Cameron Folkcore performing at ATX Music.
Arthur Beatrice at Haven had some highlights burning out.
Burnouts continued with my shots of The Preatures that same night: this is one of the less distorted images.
I have the most regrets with Banks: my record of her stunning performance is filled with these pushed and distorted colours.
I had more luck with the highlights at Pure Bathing Culture‘s performance at the Paste Party in Swan Dive.
Although quite a distance away, the impeccably-styled Ski Lodge came across well at the same event.
One image from the Planete Quebec showcase [can anyone help with the band name?] was very much the type of image I wanted to be making.
My shots of Ume at Brazos Hall had a mixture of post-edit distortion and more muted colour.
I loved the look of the singer in White Sea that same night, but I’m gutted about those hot spots on her beautiful dress.
This was more like it! Deborah Harry stood out with Blondie later that evening.
With all these colour blotches and the like, I started experimenting on levels with my London Grammar shots from Hype Hotel. A little tweak with a slider brought out the faces, grain and light beams with a lovely glow.
I loved the light show for No Joy, which had as much distortion as their music. This was the least obscured shot I got of their enigmatic performance.
Like many digital tools, Photoshop is an endless source of versatility. Maybe too much: after all, how many tools can one use? Still, the deeper and wider my editing experience gets, the more adventure I’ll have in making images.
Burning Details 
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