Wednesday 19 April 2017

So much for that plan

I got it right about Monday not turning out the way I hoped. I still can't get a handle on how to do what I have in mind. So I ended up wandering around aimlessly. What did happen was that the toy camera and the real one got used and the real one came out on top. Sort of. The toy still did what I bought it to do well though. So that not-quite-a-project-yet is bubbling under.

Something did occur to me after downloading the files on to the PC, though. I had taken a couple more photographs which could slot into a series that I seem to have developed. Walls. I've taken quite a lot of pictures of walls over the years, but last weekend they were all that I could find to get me interested.  I say walls, but they often have windows and doors in them too.



It's one of those subjects, however, that could easily become tedious. It's also a style of photography that is pretty commonplace these days, and much as I like it I am thinking it's a bit of a cop out - both for me and for others taking simialr photos. Maybe it's best to shoot walls as and when one takes my fancy and collate them somewhere down the line? It looks like an evening to be spent going through my Lightroom catalogue keywording all my wall pictures. Deep joy!

Having given up yet again I drove past a countryside view which I thought had potential, but the lens I had with me wasn't what I'd have chosen for it so I carried on. Later I decided to go back for a look with a different lens and a tripod - of all things. The light had changed but was sort of good, just from the wrong angle as I couldn't keep my shadow out of the frame. I took some snaps hand-held as reminders. Back on the computer I cropped one to make it look more like the way I'd envisaged it. I might not have the brazenness it takes to do bold street photography, but I certainly don't have the patience and planning to do landscapes of any sort. It was the horizontal bands and repetition of motifs that I liked about the scene. And the fact that it's a working landscape rather than a romanticised one. The elevated viewpoint helped too, in the way that Cézanne tilted horizontal planes in his paintings.


Wandering back from the Post Office yesterday (with the toy camera) I took a sort of wall picture. I do like flattening things on the picture plane to reduce any sense of depth. The combination of a long focal length lens and the greater depth of field a small sensor gives enhance the flattening effect.


More photos taken but next to no progress made. I need an idea I want to get across, a point I want to make, before I can find a subject. There are two options open. Shoot my way out of the deadlock until I find what I want to say, or take a break.

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