Viewpoint

The combined evils of work and weather have once again confined me to barracks. So great was the boredom one day I tidied up the 'junk room' enough to be able to walk from the door to the window without climbing over stuff. My boxes of mounts and mounted prints, plus my old negative and slide files, finding a home in the old cupboard thing that was in the middle of the room! How long it will stay neat and uncluttered remains to be seen...

It wasn't until Friday afternoon that I was able to make use of some free time and sunshine as I wandered the familiar area. For a change I actually hung around and waited for the light to change after I had seen shadows cast on the greenhouses. Just as I noticed them and took a couple of shots the light dimmed as a cloud covered the sun and the effect was lost. It was a windy day so I hoped the cloud would soon be blown away. It was.

By changing my angle and closing in on a detail the same subject was given two different looks. Unconsciously I did the same thing a little later on my walk.

 

 

On its own a detail can be mysterious or ambiguous to someone who isn't familiar with whatever the object is.

A wider view explains a lot more. Although I guess the majority of the population would still be none the wiser in this case! Both pictures have found a place in my 'drainage' files.

Sunday, for some reason, saw me feeling very bored. Even so I left it almost until the last minute before doing something about it and just made it home before the rain set in again.

I keep feeling that there is something to be done along the lane that peters out beyond the estate I live on. I can't find a way in to it no matter how many photographs I take along it. 

Right at the end new signage appeared a short while back. I wasn't really in gear by the time I got there but I managed to work at things first with some micro composition, gradually moving the position of the sign relative to the background.

I'd deliberately left my zoom lenses at home and gone out 'old school' with a 50mm on the main camera and my 28mm equivalent fixed lens compact in a pocket. This did push me to consider my viewpoint a bit more than when I have a zoom attached. That's not to say I don't consider it, and sometimes a zoom makes it easier to beg both viewpoint and framing better. I do like the kind of arbitrariness that a single focal length forces on me.

After the micro composing I shifted position and altered the picture completely to show where the sign points. Again it's an example of changing the amount of information contained in a picture.

Not having a plan as to where to go I thought it might be worth a look along the river and canal as I've not been down there for a long while since my almost daily walks to the post office have been curtailed by my self imposed pandemic restriction of two trips per week.

My route to the river takes me through a housing estate with open plan gardens.It has a different feel to the one I live on. Not least because there are trees. There could be a series to be made using teh trees to either frame or obscure the houses and cars. I'm not sure if there'll be enough views to make it worthwhile, but it's given me something to think about.

There wasn't much to see at the canal that I haven't seen before, but I took a few boats of a yacht that's been moored up for ages. For some reason it struck me as worth a look this time. I'm not sure it was worth the effort.

Another proof of my latest zine arrived today and it got me thinking that I've gone a bit too minimal with it. I might have to back track and revert to a previous version, or a variation on one. I've got a couple of weeks left until the swap's deadline. Enough time to start and finish something completely different!

---

Changing season

The Indian Summer has certainly come to an end now. Daylight hours are shortening, there's a chill in the air first and last thing, the quality of light is changing too. It's strange but while the angle of the sun reflects that which it has in spring autumn light seems to be different. More melancholy somehow. That's probably all in my mind though. However I have been moved to photograph the visual effects of weather recently.

A passing rainstorm worked better in black and white as I was able to manipulate the contrast more easily than in the original colour file. Maybe that's more about my lack of my processing skills though.

Misty mornings have been a source of motivation to me ever since I started taking photographs. Unfortunately I'm not great at getting out of bed early and I often find the mist burning off by the time I'm somewhere there are pictures to be made. This has happened to me twice of late. I should have got in the car to reduce my walking time. So all I've come back with have been snaps, with the possible exception of the second picture here which has a look of that time when the sun is just about to break through, and a reasonable composition in keeping with my other fieldscapes.

 

 

Failing in the mornings I tried evening walks. This was when I really noticed the nights drawing in. No longer is it possible to set off at seven and have plenty of time to make pictures in daylight. Leaving home at six has seen me making my way home in fading dusk. That's not without its opportunities, even for hand-held shots thanks to the miracles of current digital image making technology. In fact, when I get the right conditions, I hope to get out after dark and continue a project I kicked off last winter.

One of my habits, good or bad I'm not sure, is photographing the same thing over and over. What it is about this greenhouse door I find fascinating is anyone's guess. It does change, not just in terms of being open or closed, or partially open, and what is inside the greenhouse, but the light alters how I look at it.

I've been making some 4x5 crops of a few of the pictures along with some of other greenouses. There may be a series in the making.

 

I'd been doing quite well at keeping my book buying to a minimum this year but once I started with that Meadows book temptation was to be found everywhere. It's just too easy to make a couple of mouse clicks and end up skint!

However, I have wanted a copy of Paul Graham's first book, A1, for some time. The secondhand prices were far too steep for me. A few years back I bought his retrospective type book which had a lot of the pictures from A1 in it. That was as close as I could get at the time. When a reissue was announced I was sorely tempted to preorder. Something stopped me. Once the book was a reality, however, I caved in. My copy arrived last week.

 Looking at photographs is great. Listening to photographers talking about their work is too. So is reading what they have to say. Sometimes. There is always the chance that they'll get carried away with themselves. So it was with a little trepidation I ordered How I Make Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz. He's not my favourite photographer, but I've heard him say interesting things so I took a chance.

 

The book is tied up with the Masters of Photography on-line classes, although it does stand alone. I won't be signing up for the classes as I'm a cheapskate. £15 for the book was worthwhile. There are plenty of Meyerowitz's photos in the book which he discusses. In places it gets a bit airy-fairy for my sensibilities but there is enough in the book to have made it a worthwhile buy. As it is really just 20 short 'lessons' it's something which can be dipped into every now and then when in need of a prod to get motivated. I've noted down a few quotes as reminders. One I think a lot of would-be photographers could take heed of is; "Almost everything is photographable. All you have to have is the interest and the appetite."

---