Todays thoughts xmas 2012

So xmas is now out of the way and a good time was had by myself and my 4 lads.....now it's back to work,. I'm still revelling at the amazing cinematography in Peter Jackson's Hobbit, the 3D was awesome and something that particularly interests me. I loved the amazing planes of depth and perspectives as well as the beautiful landscapes and fantastic world portrayed. My youngest son Skye had the Sword (sting) which glows blue and I had a little fun on xmas afternoon with him, his new weapon and my camera.

"Sting"

 A brave hobbit with 'Sting' in action.......he would have been just as happy with a 'light saber' as you can see from his tee shirt.......

I also managed to be given two new photography books as presents which were most welcome;

20th Century Photography - Museum Ludwig Cologne, Taschen 2007

I love this book of Iconic images of photographic art which you can browse through for hours with fantastic art from so many photographers.
A couple that instantly captured my imagination were;

Philippe Halsman "Dali's Skull of Nudes" 1950
the eye see's the familiar form of the skull shape and then recognises the form is of nudes posing.

Robert Doisneau "Pablo Picasso in Vallauris with Francoise Gilot"  1950
my eye first sees the the beautiful french look of Francoise in the left foreground and then leads to the famous artist sitting cross legged in the background in a very simple domestic setting.

 This lead me to seek a look at other work by Doisneau and I hadn't realised he was the photographer who took this iconic image of a sailor kissing. I love his work, out in the street, real life and artistic but a documentary too.

The other book was an interesting technical book;
Mastering Filters for Photography, Chris Weston, Amphoto books, 2009

I've only had a brief look so far but there is so much you can do with filters and up to know I've only used a skylight and polarising filter so this is a huge area to explore...much food for thought and experimentation.

Todays thoughts

With xmas approaching it's a very hectic time both at work and socially. I've just had my tutor's report to my first assignment back which is very encouraging and gives me a good bench mark to work towards in my second assignment due February. I will upload assignment one here shortly however I am going to re-work one of my contrasting pairs of photo's 'Hard and Soft' as they were my weakest set. Overall though I feel pleased but determined to improve as well.
I have just been reviewing some recent photo's from my last trip to Cornwall. I particularly like this sunset shot of St Michaels Mount. I love the reflection of colour in the river as it winds out to sea leading your eyes towards St Michaels Mount on the horizon.

 In this photo I managed to capture the fantastic site of the gathering of migrating birds, thousands and thousands of them flying together at sunset like giant waves in the sky. I've never seen anything like this before and for once my Nikon was in my hands already!

I love the deep contrasts in this next photo of my son Jack, at the shoreline with the last remnants of the evenings sunset through the distant clouds on the horizon

Various thoughts and Le Havre Docks

Today I read an article on the BBC news website which made me think about some ethical questions. The article entitled "Fallen Soldiers : Is it right to take images of bodies?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20223626






This article caught my attention as at the beginning of my Photography Course I had just visited the First World War sites around Ypres in Belgium and was fascinated and inspired by the 3D photography taken at the time in 1914-18. My feelings are that it is fine to take these images as long as there is due respect shown for the dead and their surviving families. These images become a historical record eventually and there are some very powerful images both macabre and moving which gives them a validity. Others may disagree.

(Photos taken from BBC website and are Getty Images)

Photography in Low Light.

I have been doing a bit of research into the camera I should have to take band/music shots of musicians at gigs. My past attempts have not been great. My Nikon D80 struggles in low light despite large aperture/ slower shutter speed/higher ISO combinations and get blurry which isn't always what I want. I know the top range Nikons D3 and D4 are very good but they are also completely out of range of my budget. I have discovered that the older D700 has a fantastic reputation for this so I am going to try and borrow one. I want to work without flash and use the available light if possible as I don't want to change the natural atmosphere if I can help it, please post any advice if you have any.

Industrial Photo's Le Havre France

Tonight I have been sorting through photographs taken around the port area of Le Havre on last week's trip to France while waiting for the ferry. I felt the slight worry of being arrested by the Port police as it felt 'dodgy' but I was enjoying the industrial setting;

 The above two photo's are taken at the massive EDF coal fired power station. The main electrical output runs across these bizarre and abstractly shaped insulators which are alien taken out of context.

 I loved the light coming in behind the above shots of the chimneys and electrical 'gubbins' at the power station. The dramatic sky when the sun was trying to break through the clouds beautifully silhouettes everything in front giving a powerfully and contrasting image.

I liked the uniform shapes of the shipping containers stacked up, brightly coloured and very geometrical. I shot these pics through a chain link fence which gave a very unfocused shadow mask in front which itself imparted an interesting effect. In the middle photo where it stands out more I like the feeling it gives of being an 'outsider' looking in and a slightly illicit feeling which could be an effective trick in future work.

 This geometrical building captured my interest and wondered if the designer had tried to break up the solid and boring box with the different coloured panels.

 This scene of tons of machinery looked like a vision of hell to me being a 'countryside lover'. It just looked like a huge mess of steel that makes no sense to me.

 Two very proud looking 'cranes' for handling shipping containers looking like twins against the skyline.

 I liked the perspective and geometry in this photo.

These shipping containers looked liked they had been carefully and aesthetically arranged as if by an artist, the colours just complimented each other so well.

Today's thoughts 2

It pays to always have your camera with you, I missed a fantastic shot as I drove past a field of sheep today. There was one sheep standing onto of a mound of earth surrounded by the rest of the flock at the bottom. This would have been such a brilliant photo which I would have called either 'Queen of the flock' or 'Preaching to the flock'....sadly I drove on by without my Nikon :(

There have been some really fantastic photo's on the BBC's website this week by photographer 'Tom Wood' titled Tom Wood's Men and Women.

These pictures are taken in the 1970s (when I was just a wee child), around Merseyside and are a bit of social documentary of the time. The exhibition is currently running at the Photographer's Gallery in London.

(Photo copyright; Tom Wood)

This photo is called 'Not Miss New Brighton' from 1978/79 was shot on Kodak VPS film and slightly soft focus. I like the slightly jumbled balance and composition as it adds to the whole feel of the picture. The dated notion of 'chic' is emphasised with the colourings. 

Todays thoughts

It's been a hectic couple of weeks and I haven't done much with my camera but I have been 'absorbing' external stuff, looking at other photographers work and looking for potential photo opportunities.

Last weekend I was in Dorset and visited a small gallery 'The photographers lounge' in Swanage. Kate Cross who runs it was very friendly and showed me her current exhibition;

www.photographerslounge.co.uk

Pink Floyd 'Behind the Wall' Retrospective Exhibition
I loved this work because it was a retro view of the film making process and beautifully printed in B+W. The was a very young Bob Geldof and a shot of Dave Gilmour who happens to be my all time favourite guitarist. Some of the photo's of soldiers were very reminiscent of some of the first world war photography I have been looking at too.

This is my favourite print (sorry it's very pixillated as I screen grabbed it) by David Appleby. I love the perspective and gloom of the soldiers marching towards the front. Go to the link above to see the whole
set of images, and of course the other superb work at the Photographers Lounge

An exclusive exhibition of behind the scenes images celebrating the 30th anniversary of the motion picture 'Pink Floyd: The Wall'.

Renowned on-set stills photographerDavid Appleby is honouring the fans of the acclaimed visual rock masterpiece with this stunning collection of never before seen images and David's most classically known iconic photographs associated with the movie

More French fete pics

This post is just to show some more pics from my french trip in the summer. I was going to use them as my attempt at the sequence of composition exercise but I don't feel that they quite met the criteria. Nevertheless I really like some of the results and I've put them in a favourite's order.

 Pleased with this first shot as I had to crouch in the road until the band were almost marching over me and the band leader posed spontaneously. I would probably crop this into a wide frame losing some sky/and the distracting canopy and a small amount at the bottom too.

I like this shot but wished I'd used a larger f stop to blur the background and maybe a slower shutter speed to enhance the movement of the shaker. I'm fairly pleased with this anyway and like the colour.

 Again I like the overall colour in this photo and like the character 

full french tractor driver too.

Runners up pics....and why..........

I wish I'd got the whole of the horn in frame

 Like the stilts and umbrellas but just wish the character on the left had just been a little more in view

 Interesting woodpecker but feel I took it out of context with the framing.

 

This would be a nice photo of the 'Hotel de Ville'....if only the vehicles weren't there

Exercise - Cropping

In this exercise I have selected 3 different photographs and cropped each for differing reasons.

1.

 This first photograph of a parade at a French fete I felt that the quickly taken original had quite a few distracting features and lost the strong image of the girls marching. The blue sign and on the opposite side the roof of the stall, the foreground of tarmac wasn't of much interest either so I have cropped tightly to maximise the powerful marching, enhanced by the shadowing on the road. The impact works great and the frame is full of the action with no distraction. I think the finished result gives a strong, almost military strenght to the shot. This has inspired me to play with the version 3 and age the photo with a sepia tone effect and make it look from the 1930's...just for fun.

2.

In this second photo which was part of an audience at a small outside festival in Chepstow in the summer. The original had the chair on the righthand side which I found distracting but liked the overall composition of people together within the wider 'togetherness' of the crowd. I cropped the shot down to just one of the small sub groups to bring out this intimacy.

3.

In this 3rd photo from my recent trip to the Brecon Beacons I have cropped the original to leave just an exaggerated wide vista containing mainly the horizon and the small characters walking. I like the original but think the cropping give this a powerful and effective panorama.

Breathtaking Brecon Beacons

Pen-y-fan

love the reflected blues in the pool

Myself at top of Pen-y-fan

Tried this composition too

Love these wide vistas achieved by cropping

These shots are from my hike in the Brecon Beacons yesterday, I just love the awesome and breathtaking scenery. I took my Nikon D80 with my 18-55mm lens to capture the wide panoramas (not to mention the compact size to carry). I couldn't resist the opportunity to upload these photo's which I love. We small and insignificant people are just lost against the wilderness and natural landscapes. I was very lucky with some beautiful skies to match, a 10 mile walk and a great day

Awesome and breathtaking landscapes

Fabulous valley

Back along the ridge

Silhouette and highlights from evening sun

Rugged textures smoothed to horizon

Vertical cropping