Scratching around in the same old hole

First the good news. Thanks to the social media PR skills of one of my poultry friends my book has covered its costs within a week of going on sale. With a handful of copies left from my initial tiny print run it's time to decided whether to get a lot more printed and make a proper job of promoting it more widely, or to leave it be. I hate making decisions. especially when they cost money!

In other publication news impatience got the better of me and I ordered 20 copies of my zine for the next Talk Photography zine swap at the end of this month.

It's turned out okay, with a couple of caveats. The trimming and stapling of the pages has messed up my careful design a little, and the paper isn't as heavy and glossy as I'd have liked. But it'll do. It is a zine after all. No pics of it yet as the zines are only revealed when they arrive through the post. The element of surprise is all part of the swapping experience. 

I have another zine all done and ready to print. I can't wait six months for the next swap so that one will probably be getting printed in a week or two once I've settled on paper stock to go for.

The meanygate/moss project is winding down. It may already have ground to a halt. Activity and change on the moss is minimal now that winter's approaching. I've had three wanders with next to nothing to show for my exertions. One time I came back without having taken a single shot.

There have been some additions since the last post on here. Time to knuckle down to some serious editing of what I've got.

As can be seen, there's been a lot of water about, which is partly responsible for the lack of work in the fields.

On the lookout for something to get my photographic teeth into I've been driving out locally to walk different areas of the flatlands. With my usual impeccable bad timing I happened across a group of detectorists just as they were packing up to leave one sunny weekend. If it hadn't been for all this Covid-19 distancing I might have engaged with them a bit more than I did. I was surprised that they had found musket balls in the field.

There might be a project to be had connected to the playing fields some day. The goalposts often draw my eye, as they have done for a long time, and often seem to make better black and white pictures than colour ones.

But I think a playing field project ought to be about the people who use it. Which brings us back to distancing.

With that idea kicked into touch I thought I'd revisit my after dark walks and see if they could be developed any further. The first one was pretty much a failure. So much so it's put me off the idea. It might just be that the weather was bland. My previous nocturnal walks have been in mist or light rain. Mist diffuses any light and rain makes for reflections on tarmac. Both can make for interesting pictures. I did start to get something going with security lights and cars behind hedges. And again, subjects which work well in black and white. Not least because noise isn't a distraction in monochromatic night time pictures.

Whenever I'm scratching around I tend to revisit places. The neglected barn is one such place. Other than the loss of some more corrugated sheeting not much had changed since my last visit. Although I don't know if the toy car was a new arrival or something recently uncovered. I tried to make a picture of it, this one using the pop-up flash on my camera.

In desperation today I went for a walk somewhere new, as far as looking for photographs goes. Still local, but a little different in character. If I'd not been so daft as to take just a 50mm lens and taken a standard zoom instead I think I might have come back with more food for thought. The light was flat, which doesn't bother me, but there was some subject potential which might have benefited from sunlight. Not these two though.

Nor this one. Which might have sparked an idea to follow up. This black and white trend is getting worrying!

All these pictures devoid of people is getting depressing. It's no wonder lots of photographers are making Covid-portraits of people wearing masks. A bit of an easy option if you're an urbanite. Out in the countryside masks are thin on the ground. That's another easy option...

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Still ploughing the same old furrow

It's been another week of up and down weather. Throw in the time limitations work makes and it's been a case of getting out when the opportunity arises. either during a break in the rain or early doors. At least I don't have far to go to make pictures for the meanygate project, and access is always available even if there isn't always anything to see.

One day I might get bored of photographing the bird scaring kites. Not for a while I suspect!

On the morning walks I'm more likely to encounter work taking place. I'm finding the seedling trays almost as big a draw as the kites. One morning I made the picture below of 'before and after' trays on a trailer.

One my next visit there was more going on giving me a chance to take some pictures to provide more context. It's that push-pull of decisions between making stand alone 'art' pictures and story telling pictures.

I even got a bit 'clever'. I don't think too clever though.

I like the idea of the the next picture, but it should have been technically better. Like a fool I didn't check it for focus/sharpness and the tractor (which is what I focused on) is a bit soft. But as I always say, display it smaller enough and nobody will know it's soft!

This pic must have got me thinking because on a subsequent wander I changed my viewpoint for a picture of a fleece reel. I'm starting to break out of a visual rut and thinking about adding variety to the pictures.

Just a snap as I didn't have time to think about framing this one. The idea was to get an old and a new tractor in the frame, but the composition isn't good enough. It's another idea filed away in my memory banks to be dragged out at some appropriate time.

A later walk taken after a morning had improved saw me passing the hose reel which is better photographed earlier in the day. I contemplated exposing for the sky and lifting the shadows in post but popped the flash up for fill instead. I think it worked OK. Not too obviously lit.

One way or the other I need to start adding pictures of field work. The hard thing is to make visually compelling pictures. There's a bit of before and after interest in the ploughed and unploughed earth in a picture like the one below. A number of frames showing the turning procedure in which the harrow is jettisoned before the turn and picked up again might make for a sequence. Single images are more of a challenge.

 When the tractor turned right in front of me I saw a potential picture a fraction too late. D'oh! Another for the Nearly File...

  
That's been about my lot for the meanygate project. I'm still thinking about how to move it forward. Without much success.

The greenhouse pics have moved on a bit. I took a few more which, with some planning and additions might work up into a grid. Either as an out-take from the meanygate thing, as a standalone, or part of a future greenhouse project. I'll see.

Outside the project I carry on taking random pics. I'd seen these chooks looking out of their pop hole previously but not stopped to photograph them. This particular morning I did. I was glad I had the 28-300 attached. Which was a pity in one way as it made me more indecisive about getting rid of it. The picture needed a bit more processing than I usually do because there was a distracting out of focus patch of light green in the centre at the bottom of the frame. I couldn't quite get high enough to keep some hedge out of shot. It was a simple fix. A desaturation brush over the area and it was gone. This worked because of the dark wood. A slight decrease of the exposure as a graduated filter up from the frame bottom finished the job. I's also cropped in a little from the left for symmetry's sake.

Given that the lens was used wide open and the ISO was 7200 it's pretty well detailed and noise free at larger viewing sizes. An example of how high ISOs are more usable in good light than in poor. Which the review sites tend to gloss over when talking about high ISO performance.

Enough of the technical nerdery. The picture works because the subject is central, there's a near symmetry, and the colour palette is limited with a strong colour to draw the eye to the main subject. The hen's pose, being in profile, helps too. Not a great shot, but one I'm reasonably satisfied with.

Sheep dog trails are slowly starting up. Some are not allowing the public to attend because of the Covid-19 rules. Surprisingly I'm not finding myself too bothered by that. Maybe I've burned myself out on that front? It was certainly getting harder to find new pictures and my enthusiasm had been flagging because of that in the way it did with poultry shows. Then again, I'm only capable of maintaining one obsession at a time, and the moss farming is what's occupying my thoughts right now.

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Rambling - literally and metaphorically

Three months of wandering around the same square mile (or thereabouts) is unavoidably resulting it becoming harder and harder to avoid repeating myself. There's always the chance of taking photographs in the same place but in different light or when crops have grown or been harvested, but most of the time that is just tinkering. It can make things more obvious, such as this ditch which I found interesting because of the way the its two sides were differently managed. Flat light didn't make the difference as apparent as early morning sunshine did. So there' the chance to replace pictures with similar ones which tell the story more clearly. It adds nothing new though.

Then there's the possibility of photographing something from a different angle. Maybe including something else in the picture which might add to the narrative, or tell it more succinctly.

Now and then I get ideas for grids or pairs of pictures. The only way I could think of to illustrate how one field will be planted to provide a succession of crops was with a pair of pictures. Taking one picture 'side on' didn't show clearly enough how planting is done in sequence over a period of time.

While the farmed land is the main focus of this project greenhouses are still a interest. Whitewashed glazing can produce and almost endless variety of semi-abstracts.

Making pictures of farming machinery is part of the project. The dilemma is whether to make record shots which show them in situ in their entirety or make close up near-abstracts which don't explain much. Not that I have any clue what this thing below is!

Walking the deserted meanygates this morning got me to pondering about rural/farming documentary photography, both contemporary and from the past. There is a trend I've commented on for publishing books of British documentary photographs from the 1970s through to the 1990s these days. Bluecoat Press and Cafe Royal Books being two such publishers operating in different ways. Take a look at their catalogues and there is little in the way of rural subject matter. Is this because there is none to reproduce? Or is there something else at play?

I suppose it is probably inevitable that most documentary photography takes place where most people live - in towns and cities. That makes sense as an explanation. However, maybe there is also a bias against subject matter which can appear romantically nostalgic, or even twee. Especially when it is looked at retrospectively. This could be a result of the British view of the countryside as some green and pleasant idyll. I do sometimes wonder if James Ravilious's pictures were taken through slightly rose tinted lenses.

Then there is contemporary rural documentary photography. Is it treated equally with urban photography by today's taste makers? The rural makes forays into the works of some contemporary lights' oeuvres, but it never makes up a continued focus. Then there is the problem (for me) of 'art documentary' and 'poetic photography' which are s more about the pictures as pictures than about what is in the pictures.

There are, of course, exceptions. John Darwell's Dark Days and Ken Grant's Flock are two books of photographs on rural/farming issues which manage to avoid tweeness and consist of unpretentious documentary photography. There are others who can be found online who photograph the rural and rural life. Some in an art based practice, some in a more documentary way. This is not to include working agricultural journalists, those shooting for stock libraries, or devoted amateurs.

Contemporary pictures are out there, and there must be archives from previous generations waiting to be discovered. But perhaps not appreciated by the photographic establishment.

Those were some of my random thoughts about the visual recording of the rural as I pondered what I'm up to and why I should make more of an effort to record the work that goes on locally. And more importantly get it disseminated.

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Taking the photos is the fun bit

While I like laying out zines and books the editing of a load of pictures to go in them is hard work for me. It's a task which makes my brain freeze. Taking photographs is far less stressful!

I've decided it's time to round up my poultry show pictures and make a proper book of them. I've settled on the format, the paper and cover quality. I've even designed a cover. But whittling down the thousands of pics to my target of 100 was something I kept putting off. Eventually I dived in and got it down to 500 plus. That was the easy bit. The final (or more likely penultimate) cull is proving really difficult. As much for motivation as for making the choices.

While going through the pics I found some which had no real use beforehand but when put together made a set. The number plates I'd photographed because they were amusing, when cropped and arranged in a grid, had more meaning. Throw in a couple of pics of chicken decals on car windows and a sign pointing to a poultry car park and you might end up with a spread for a book.

This is one reason I take lots of pictures which are nothing more than record shots of things which interest or amuse me. Given time they can become something when combined with other pictures. A case of the whole being more than the sum of its parts. In a way that's what a project is, on a larger scale. More than a collection of pictures.

My wanderings have been erratic this week. Either short or at odd times. The weather has turned gloomy again too. There was a route I'd almost taken a week or two back but changed my mind about. I wanted to see where a path lead and to walk a different road outside the area I'm concentrating on for this project. It was quicker to drive out and park up to approach it from a different direction to save time.

Although taken outside the designated area two pictures I took are related to what goes on within the area. The first was these trays of what I think are celery plants ready to be taken out to the fields where I have photographed plenty of these red trays.

The second was the picture of a polytunnel where strawberries are grown. The source of the strawberry waste piled up on the moss.

My fascination with greenhouses hasn't abated. It's possible they could become the basis for another project at some future date.

 Some things demand to be photographed because they are a bit strange. Framing is everything with this kind of juxtaposition. Not too sure it's any good though.

Back on the moss there wasn't much to photograph but the pipe discharging water from one ditch to another adds to my collection of drainage pictures. The action makes what's happening clearer than a picture of a pump which looks the same when switched on or off.

Potatoes are coming into flower at different times in different places. I've yet to get a picture of them with which I'm really satisfied.

Knowing I'd be stuck in all day waiting for the UPS van I got up early on Tuesday. It didn't get me anywhere in terms of photographs other than potential 'fillers' like this box of free veg outside a farm's bungalow.

Just because I'm looking for pictures to go in the project doesn't stop me taking others I see when wandering around. This wood pigeon being a case in point. It was the lines and pole against the almost clear blue sky which initially caught my eye. The pigeon added a little something to it.

An unplanned walk today while waiting for glue to set was proving less than productive. One not very good building picture and that was looking like my lot.

Again the day was dull. Apart from the stick picture it was back to the geometric fieldscapes. I take them in the vain hope that one or two new ones might work in better than what I already have. Sort of reordering the set, pushing rejects to the bottom.

Much of the time when roaming the meanygates I've been using the 28-300 for convenience. It's sharp enough for me. Where it does fall down is with horizontals. Any time there is a horizon line - and with it being so flat and open on the moss that's often - I have to apply lens correction in post. Sometimes to the extent that things on the horizon get cropped. I try to frame such shots a bit wider to compensate for this in advance, but it's easy to forget.

The other lens I've used a lot is the 24-85 because it's light and has vibration reduction. Again it's sharp, but again there's a lot of distortion - more so at the wide end, whereas the longer lens has distortion at both ends of its range.

My 24-70 is less prone to the annoying curved horizons, so I've been taking that out a bit of late. I do like a bit more reach at the long end though. It's a conundrum when trying to travel light. I might have to bite the bullet and take two cameras with me because some subjects are just that bit too far away for a standard zoom range.

The upshot is that I'm considering a compromise. Sacrifice my two slow zooms and replace them with one slightly faster one with a range between them both. Trouble is I can't decide which way to jump!

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