Not quite feeling it

It has been an odd few weeks. I’ve been out and about, usually to the local woods but also to Pembrokeshire and the Wye Valley and, well, the photos - they ain’t happening.

I have tried. And I haven’t. I’ve focused and I’ve just gone with the flow. I have concentrated on themes/subjects, I have just shot everything in sight, I have taken 100 photographs in an hour and 300 over three days. I have shot the trees, birds, flowers, the sky, the sea, the shore, rocks on the beach, silhouettes and everything else. The keepers, the ones that please me to an extent, have been far and few in-between.

But I am trying to not care about that too much. I am learning, re-learning, to just enjoy the process of wandering about with a camera in hand and no specific objective. Just take the photos. See the sights. Build it and they will come.

That is to say it hasn’t been without some images that I have liked.

Berrow Beach, UK, Lomo 800 CN, Olympus XA2

The one above was one of several I posted and it generated, for me anyways, a fair amount of interest. It was just a snapshot, taken on my little Olympus XA2 using Lomography 800 Color Negative film. And I really like it. The family on the right hand side kinda balances out the shape of the branch and that grain! I don’t know. I rarely analyse my photographs.

Clevedon Pier, Clevedon, UK, Fujifilm XT20

I really like the one above, which is my friend taking photos of the underside of Clevedon Pier. On reflection I wish I had moved (or moved her) to completely hide the model of the ship. I did briefly attempt to clone it out (how hard is that shit?) but ended leaving it as-is.

Wooltack Point, Marloes, Pembrokeshire, Wales, Fujifilm XH1

The above was a simple shot of a random person topping the hill at Wooltack Point. Cropped to square format and tweaked a bit in Capture One. I, again, really like this one, but then again there weren’t many keepers out of the 300+ photographs that I took over those three days. I seem to have a penchant for photos of people in the middle of the composition facing away from the camera.

Anyway, I am not sure why I am writing this, other than to inadvertently realise that actually, despite the momentary frustrations and creeping despair, there are photographs that I am taking that I like, and that I should just chill.

Exaltation - a photograph

The image below is one of something like 50 that I took at Skogafoss in Iceland one evening in 2019 and was one of the many I had rejected due to several issues that I wasn't able to resolve at the time.

Going back through my libraries allows me to pull out some that were simply and wrongly ignored at the time, or images that were almost there but were beyond my editing skills to either bring the best out of or fix. In this case, fix, as there were two prominent sensor spots and a somewhat blurred second person. Two hours of research and careful messing about in Capture One and boom - the photograph below.

Is it a completely accurate depiction of the scene at the time? Of course not. But I love the image of the woman, arms raised, standing on a rock in front of a formidable and awe-inspiring waterfall. It feels primal and ritualistic and speaks to me on several levels. Hopefully it does the same to you too.

Exaltation. Skogafoss, Iceland, March 2019

Bronica ETR-Si sample test images

Here are some (self-scanned) images from the Bronnie. I am actually fairly happy with both the picture quality and the scans. Very little processing, other than a little tweaking of exposure, contrast and sharpness.

Roadside tree, Cotswolds, HP5 Plus, Bronica ETRSi 75mm E II

Gatehouse, Cotswolds, HP5 Plus, Bronica ETRSi 75mm E II

Roadside verge, Cotswolds, HP5 Plus, Bronica ETRSi 75mm E II

Just a tree, Westonbirt Arboretum, HP5 Plus, Bronica ETRSi 75mm E II

Introducing the Bronica ETR-Si

Although I have been shooting with my (mostly) trusty Yashica 35 twin lens reflex medium format camera for a while now, I was looking to move to a system with more flexibility and interchangeable lenses.

With my heart set on the Mamiya RB67 I spent my usual ridiculous amount of time researching the system and alternatives. I pretty quickly realised that the RB67 is heavy, and I was looking to for something, initially at least, that I could take on hikes and walks in addition to more car-friendly photo sessions.

And I landed on the Bronica ETR-Si. These are lovely medium format cameras with bags of accessories, and in the world of medium format cameras are relatively cheap.

So, this weekend will be all about shooting with this thing, and seeing how the images turn out.

Slide 'scanning' by digital camera

Many years ago (half a lifetime away?) I spent a month in Nepal, exploring both the Kathmandu and Langtang regions, hiking the latter up to Kyanjin Gompa and a failed attempt to reach the Gosaikunda lakes. It was glorious.

On that trip I took with me in excess of 50 rolls of 35mm slide film, my trusty Nikon FM2n and Nikon F801. We carried our own packs, had a guide and ended up having an adventure.

For the most part of the last twenty-something years those slides have lived in folders and slide boxes, and this week I finally took steps to digitise them. At least I attempted to.

My set up is simple; a large Huion light tablet, a Benbo tripod, my Fujifilm X-H1 and a Canon FD 50mm 3.5 Macro lens with extension tubes and adaptor.

The images turned out… okay. These were just test shots, with some being sharp and others being mushy as hell. I need to work out what the weak points are in my process, both in the taking of the scans and the subsequent processing. Anyway, efforts below. Hopefully they will appear again, but at a much higher quality, once I resolve my process.

a wee revamp

After a fair bit of time, and a some neglect, I have revamped the website and made it a little simpler. I have also simplified/streamlined the categorisation, although I think I can be a bit more clinical with my portfolio editing. Anyway, I hope you like it - let me know if you have any thoughts.

J

inspirations - fan ho

I have only recently discovered Fan Ho and immediately fell in love with his photographs.

I love the earthy rawness of his street photography, the moodiness of an evolving Hong Kong in all its glory. So many of his compositions are perfect, capturing shape and light in such a way as to emphasise the components of the scene; texture, composition, people, life. As captured moments of a world long since gone his photographs are wonderfully evocative and mysterious; encapsulating both the way of life at that point in time, yet with all the intrigue of what remains uncaptured.

obsessions - people in landscapes

I have an obsession with taking photographs of people in landscapes, usually on beaches. There are multiple things at play here - the liminality between sea, shore and sky, the emphasis on space, scale and the refinement of humanity to its merest form, and the fact that I just like taking photos of people. On beaches. In the distance.

Shore/sea-scapes can be amazing complex and dynamic scenes, full of power and passion or as tranquil as as a summer’s eve. Whilst I shoot them all, my preference is the reduction of the scene to minimalism, composing for an almost graphic image all whilst capturing the human figure in such a way as to emphasise space and scale. These scenes can be surprisingly rare and often difficult to compose.

They are there, if you look closely enough…

They are there, if you look closely enough…

Part of the challenge is not just trying to capture a person or persons within a landscape but to tell a story. What are they doing? What is their mood? How are they moving? What is their relationship to the space around them? All of these can be implied by placement within the landscape, positioning with the frame and by the action they are undertaking, and if there are more than one person, the dynamic between the individuals.

In truth, this process isn’t actively considered - it is 4 parts instinct to 3 parts ‘that looks interesting’ to 2 parts ‘that’s a nice composition’. It is instinct that evolves over time and is invariably opportunistic, with a touch of luck and a smidgeon of compositional experience. Regardless, it is the type of photograph that I like to make.

favourite landscapes from 2017

Just a few of my personal favourite shots taken in 2017 (excludes portraits and street photography) - click on the images to expand. Some of these images were taken on my LG G6, which has become a much trusted go-anywhere camera to supplement my main camera kit (the wide angle lens is excellent).

square

Square format photography - Bristol harbour, 4th November 2017