Thursday

Rising to Darker Mornings and increasingly less hospitable weather.I’m full of cold and it’s hard to maintain concentration for any amount of time.

I’m now properly into the re organisation of my Website. Thats this one. It is something that has been overdue for some time. Previously it was a place for me to show some examples of my Wedding Photography without splashing my clients private occasions all over social media. On reflection perhaps I should have done more of that but I’ve always had enough to do so I’m not sure there was much to be gained.

At the same time I have closed 2 active instagram accounts and deactivated my Wedding instagram account. I will eventually close that soon but I want establish some wedding content on my main page first.

You might wonder why I had 4 pages in the first place. Well, when I was actively trying to grow my Instagram, my different types of content did not seem to cross over. I could explain in more detail but the received wisdom was that to grow your following you had to stay in your lane. My timing was really bad and I created the extra accounts at a time when instagram engagement for photographers seemed to vanish in favour of video and reels. So it made no difference if anything the opposite. Just a load more work and not done as well. So I stopped.

Then some life stuff happened and In disengaged for a while. Now I am refocusing and reorganising everything. I’m thinking much harder about what I’m doing with my photography than at any time in the past.

I’m now trying to incorporate all of my work onto the website

I hope by the weekend to make the changes public. One of the issues I have to overcome Is that not all of the work I want to use meets the standard I want to present.

Like any creative person my work has changed and developed over time. I’m looking at older stuff and pulling a face. I’m just going to have to live with that for now.

Due South

I set out for Portsmouth last weekend on a short road trip. I was with my Brother and we were visiting our childhood home and extended family. A trip that wasn’t just years overdue but decades. In the days running up to the visit I knew that I really wanted to use the opportunity to do some photography there. But in my heart I knew that there just would not be the time to do it in the way that I wanted.

Not for the first time it brought  into focus the fact that, for me, two of the greatest assets for any  Photographer are independence and freedom. Being able to choose what you photograph, when and how and having the time to fully engage with your subject matter is at the heart of making great images.

I find it so difficult to integrate the kind of photography I want to do into other activities, especially when I am doing them with other people. Don’t misunderstand. I neither begrudge or wish that I wasn’t spending the time the way I did in Portsmouth. It was a Fantastic Trip and I had a Great Time. But the Photographer in me had to be put firmly away in a box like a ventriloquists dummy. Occasionally I heard his muffled cries of “let me out” and had to ignore him. But it did  set a strong thought process going and strengthen my resolve to find a way to return solely to take photographs.

If it was simply taking photographs it would be easy  I could make a shot list and get it all done in under 2 hours

Really what I should be saying is “I want to return to explore and discover”. Find out what it is that I want to represent through photography .

‘Being There and Being Present’  is the most fundamental part of being a photographer. An artist can be inspired and go into the studio to create their work if required. If they need to they can go to spaces that don’t exist and they can go back in time. They can go almost anywhere. Photographers actually have to be there.

It’s not that we don’t have poetic license as photographers it’s just that people spot it when we cross a line and distort reality beyond what the eye and the mind will allow. As a general rule Photographers are concerned with presenting aspects of reality through the medium that the camera offers. And I think that to do it as well as you can takes time.

So if you are setting out and constrained by time and people  there’s a good chance that it is going to impact on your picture taking.  Being a Photographer when I am with non photographers really tests their patience. They don’t get it. They can take a picture in just a few seconds with their phone. So why does it take me so long.

Finding time for yourself  doesn’t mean  you have to have a half day or a full day. 10 minutes or half an hour can work just as well. Just make sure it is only for time for yourself and Photography. Not walking the dog or going down the shop. Just simply for being in a bit of the world you have chosen and that interests you. And leave your camera in the bag until you get to the point of picture taking. just having it in your hand can stop you thinking about where you are.

You can do this close to home. It doesn’t have to be anywhere exotic.  The benefit here is that you can come back again and again. Day after Day. You can start a walk and if you only make a few hundred metres and spend the rest of the time taking pictures in one spot then no problem. You don’t need to finish the walk. If time is all used up  then all you can do is turn around and head home. A further benefit is that by taking this very mindful approach you will be in much better shape as a Photographer when you arrive somewhere different and unfamiliar.

Of course sometimes the opportunity can present itself at the end of the time window you allowed yourself. If you haven’t found a picture that you liked up till that point you are going to be tempted to either be late or settle for a quick shot. This will happen whether you had half an hour or half a day. I sometimes think that this is the effect that not getting a picture can have on the mind. You focus harder or construct a picture opportunity where there really wasn’t one.  Given the endless subject matter available to us and our sense of not wanting to miss a thing ( bursting into Steve Tyler in my head as I type ) this is almost always inevitable.

As far as Portsmouth goes I don’t yet know how I’m going to see it. After all you don’t know what you don’t know. Theres always a chance that I was wrong and there was nothing there for me.  The upside  is that I will be happy trying.

The seeds were already in my mind about turning this location into a project. The idea hadn’t germinated. I’d discounted it because of the time and distance involved in the journey. At three and a half hours each way a single day is not enough. But on this trip I saw and felt enough to decide that this has to be part of my Photography Work going forward. I’ve figured out some of the Logistics so that I can consider doing a series of 2 or 3 day trips dedicated entirely to photography.

Historically My Coastal Photography has been about locations known to me through family holidays. There was already a strong  familiarity and attachment to these places. Now I want to try and invest time in a place with a connection but almost no familiarity.

What also excited me about the idea of Portsmouth was the combination of the coast and a much more metropolitan vibe. I’ve been drawn to elements of street photography in some my Cambridge Pictures and I feel that this cross over might have more legs in a place like this.

I did manage to take some pictures in Portsmouth on this trip. Not many. It took longer to wrangle my M50 in and out of my pocket than take the pictures. But I’m adding a couple here. Now Lets see if I get back to Portsmouth and how things turn out.

Spinnaker Tower and the Naval Dock Yards. Portsmouth. Canon M50 MKii

 

Bro at the Waters Edge. Langstone Harbour. Canon M50 Mkii

 

Sun Breaking Through the low Cloud onto Langstone Harbour. Canon M50 Mkii

The Circle of Life on Instagram

Over the years I thought I had done a pretty good job of removing spam and bot type stuff. I assumed that everyone else was fully engaged in the platform. How Naive. When I started looking at every individual follower this is what I discovered.

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Post Script December 2023

This Picture Taken in Cambridge at the end of Autumn. It’s a simple capture from one side of Saint Andrews Street to the other. The colour of the leaves got my attention and so I stopped to Look. I realised that I needed something or someone set against the wall . I was able to break up the the block a bit by including the more of the gate. So I framed a shot and waited for someone to enter the frame. A few people passed but none of them brought anything to the scene. I waiting patiently.

On my side of the street it was very crowded and it wasn’t easy to hold my position.

This is where my little M50 comes into its own. Its my first camera with a flip out screen and I have found that I like using it instead of the viewfinder. It means I can watch outside of my frame and whats going on around me as well.

I’d no idea exactly what I was waiting for. I Never do when I do this. More often, nothing happens, or what does has no pictorial or narrative value. But Sometimes I get Lucky and today was one of those days.

This Lady appeared and she was walking at a nice soft pace.

I didn’t consciously connect the colour of the bag to the leaves at first I just went about trying to get a clear, reasonably well focused shot while buses cars and cycles were passing between us. It was when I reviewed it on the camera that I saw it.

Later when I got it onto the big screen I was really happy. The colours of the leaves and the bag almost matched but these two elements were conflicting in an environmental sense. Zoomed in I could read the word on the bag ‘Today’ which I felt added to this narrative.

The Lady seemed to be of the generation that has been framed as being responsible for the environmental and climate crisis. Deliberate use of the word ‘framed’ here and she is facing the opposite direction to a stationary bicycle which, for me, in the picture is representing the drive to net zero but its going nowhere and no ones on it.

Theres a nice geometry to the picture and the purple/ pink coat seems to work nicely with the other colours. No trickery with the camera just point and shoot with the settings the camera gave me.

I usually shoot Aperture value or Manual. This was AV. Nothing too bright in the frame so it was pretty much bang on.

I find photographers talk a lot about settings. But Cameras are really good. I could have probably been a stop out in either direction and still told a story about the picture. The settings can’t do this for you

I’ve given the picture a title. ‘Bio and Non Bio’ referring to the degradable aspects of the leaves and the shopping bag which are the same colour. I don’t always title my pictures though I wish I would.

For me the picture quickly became about the environment, the plastic bag that the lady was carrying could remain on the planet in that form For an eternity. While eventually the Lady and the leaves on the tree will sooner or later, break down and return to the soil.

Rather than end on that slightly grim thought let me remind you that it started simply with trying to get a pleasing shot. I applied the Narrative later.

The Aurora Borealis

Last Night I saw the Aurora Borealis for the first time. Truthfully it wasn’t how I imagined it, but it was no less exciting. Returning Home from a Social Evening in the Village the sky was full of soft pale areas. They were like streaks and smudges on clear glass. There was no obvious colour. I can only guess that the level of light pollution suppressed the colours . But when viewed through the process of photography the colours and the darker bands then revealed themselves and it was nothing short of breathtaking.

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Post.Script.

A Summary of my Posts onto Instagram This Past week

I Posted twice this week, both onto Tempsford Diary. Each Image taken on the same damp overcast walk on the woodland trail in my village. 

Taking Flight.

The first post  ‘Taking Flight’  is this simple composition of fresh growth on a low growing tree with some flowering buds. The angle of the stem and the blossom leaves reminded me of birds rising in the wild. 

The second called Symbiosis also of a detail. This time of ivy growing on a tree. It was really the way the colours work together in this one I liked the brown of the tree bark and the shades of green and the Ivy, and this was the point of the title symbiosis, which roughly speaking refers to the idea that there is a parasite and a host, and they benefit from each other, and I’m referring to the visual benefits if you like. I liked the patterns within patterns. The topographyof the bark, the the vines of the ivy and then the leaves of various sizes with the variegation on each. so very simple image, but one which in my mind was more complex than it might first appear.

Symbiosis

Both of these were shot on my iPhone 12. I used the Portrait Mode for ‘Taking Flight’ It took a little bit of work to get the right position to throw the background out of focus enough to isolate the stem. If anyone  had been nearby they’d have heard some bad words. Typically it’s easier on bigger subjects the system designed, as its name suggests, for photographing humans and pets.

I was  pleased with the result and the fact that the background was largely neutral, allowing the pink of the blossom to be as prominent as it was.