New gear makes no difference

What a winter. Locked down and real winter weather. Some snow fell but didn't stick for long. The sub-zero temperatures have been another matter.

 

I can vaguely remember thinking the Benbo tripod design was a good one back in the 1980s but in those days it was out of my price range, and I didn't use the tripod I had anyway. Before Christmas I was checking a photographer out and found a video of him using Benbo tripods which got me thinking that the time might be right. Despite all the tales of woe I've read on forums that they are tricky to set up but a few instructional videos didn't look that way to me. Even so, knowing my antipathy towards tripods I managed to resist buying one, despite the fact that they are now comparatively affordable.

It must have been a combination of the lack of photographic productivity and a dull evening's web browsing that made me crack. I told myself it was a late birthday present to myself...

When the tripod arrived I found it was dead easy to set up. Easier than my Manfrotto. I screwed one of my spare tripod heads (which I have kept as they have little resale value) and after playing around indoors took it for a walk. I do have in mind a series of pictures which would benefit form being taken using a tripod. That was another excuse for the purchase.

 

 

The photo series is to shoot vertical landscapes including ditches in the foreground. My initial intention being to use a 35mm lens for all the pictures. That was what I took out with me on the tripod expedition. I only made one test shot and it decided me that 28mm might be better on a couple of counts. Whether this project within a project comes off is still up in the air...

 

One thing that was a bit annoying with the Benbo was the fixed hard plastic feet. They're great outdoors where the pointy bits will dig in to soft ground, but indoors they don't work so well. I thought that I might cut the points off and see if that improved thinsg. Or maybe remove the feet and replace when with plain rubber ones. I went in search of rubber feet and found a website selling nothing but plastic and rubber ferrules for chairs, tables, walking sticks and such like. Noticing that they had some large ferrules I measured the Benbo feet and took a chance that I might be able to push the largest size over the spikey feet. When the ferrules arrived that was indeed the case. Indoors the tripod is much improved. Outdoors it remains to be tested.

 

With the deadline for the thirds zine swap looming (it's three months away but that's looming in my world) I have been scratching my head for a plan. The ones I've had so far have yet to come to fruition. Then I had a flash of inspiration. Put two ideas together. With a dry day in the offing I headed for my chosen location and set to work.

 

The results were promising and a play around putting them into a zine format went quite well too. The only negative being that the light on the day I took the photos was a bit bland. Normally that wouldn't bother me but for the zine concept I think a sunnier day would have worked better. As I know exactly what photos I want for this it should be easy to go back and get them. Of course the sun has yet to shine... That might not be a bad thing as the project might work even better when the leaves start to appear on the hedgerows and trees. 

Still being stuck for a fresh project to get my teeth into it's been a case of going back to the moss hoping to find something's changed. I don't know why but I can usually find something different to make a picture of from the greenhouses I sometimes walk past. Not that they meet with widespread adulation.

 

The lack of sunshine has meant that frost and ice lingers into the afternoon. I added to my selection of detail shots with this one of some frosty but cracked ground.

 

When I saw this 'flow' of straw which I'm guessing was deposited as the field drained it cried out to be recorded. However I don't think the picture succeeds in getting across how the chopped straw has formed the flow. Certainly not at this small size. Maybe larger it would. Or if I'd had a wider lens to exaggerate the effect. Or if the light had been different.  Or?

 

At least fields are drying, in some places because of pumping. I wanted to make a picture of this bright red pump in a way that was more than a picture of a bright red pump. I tried to do that by including the fallen branch/tree over which the blue pipe lay as I felt it echoed the black pipe. The pipes, trunk and bottom of the ditch lead the eye in a circle towards the pump, which already stands out as the brightest object in the frame. That's the way I read it at any rate.

Elsewhere I tried to make a picture of some machinery in a field which included a 'bog oak' laid on teh side of the track.

I almost found myself wishing I wasn't so dead set on avoiding wide angle lenses at times. Would have a few more millimetres improved things?

That's been about my lot. This afternoon the sun made a rare appearance and there was hope of a sunset to drag me out into the cold. I had a letter to post so walked along the main road before contemplating heading to the fields. The warm light of the low sun cast a soft shadow on a rendered wall. I'm amassing a collection of similar pictures which might make a series at some point.

 

The light didn't last. By the time the sun was low enough to be considered setting it was behind yet another bank of greyness. I'm not crying out for bright sunshine to get on with any of my plans, all I want is some relief from the relentless dullness. Maybe when the sky lightens I'll start feeling a bit more positive about making photographs, which in turn should get my coming up with more and better ideas. Buying a new tripod certainly hasn't done that.

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Locks and bridges

Seeing Bill Robertson tweeting pictures of bridges on the northern reaches of the Lancaster Canal gave me the prod I needed to start on a long considered look at my local cut. Although I've taken plenty of photographs along it's length over the years I've never made a concerted effort to document it. On Saturday afternoon I paid a short afternoon visit to the last lock to see if I could find a way in to start a project. It would be a handy, as in nearby, alternative to the moss seeing as there won't be much more to photograph there for a month or two. Besides, having an alternative might revitalise me for a return to the flatlands.

The day had turned misty by the time I got out, which didn't bother me. Winter can be pretty miserable so no need to make shiny happy pictures. How to approach the subject? As always it's the choice between scenic or formal/geometric/abstract for me. But always fairly prosaic.

Away from the locks canals can be fairly boring, as in lacking variation, until a bridge is arrived at. My initial idea was to document locks and bridges. So that was how I started to formulate a plan.

Plans and me don't go together well. I can make them, no problem. That was what I did. Found a map of the canal and worked out where to go to photograph each lock and bridge. Saturday dawned sunny but I had work to do. When I got to the cut I discovered what I already knew. Mornings are probably the best time to take photos along most of the canal as it runs north-south and the towpath is mostly on the east side. At this time of year the sun would be shining along the canal after noon. With it also being low in the sky as we near the solstice that limited my options. It did provide some benefits though, as in highlighting texture and providing silhouette opportunities.

 

At the time I felt like I'd made a lot of good pictures. Looking at them on the screen told a different story. Mostly dreck. There ended the project! Not because the pictures were rubbish but because it was relying on following a plan. If I am going to start a canal project it's going to have to take a different line of attack.

In terms of pictures taken the above is about my lot for the week. A couple of good technical things have come out of this last week's dismal efforts though. One day I deliberately took a different lens along with me to accompany the 35-150 which I thought was a bit 'cool'. I took a couple of photos using the same settings on the other lens and the zoom and inspected them on the computer. In a 'blind' test the zoom actually looked to have made a slightly warmer picture. 

The other thing is that I took both that zoom and my wide zoom on my Saturday ramble. For photographing the locks and bridges the wide zoom was useful. I suspected it might be because on the Friday 35mm had proved a bit limiting. The reason being that space at the locks is often cramped where the best vantage points are. Plans to chop in the wide zoom are on hold for now.

Sunday was a dismal day of rain. Once work was done I was at a loose end. Twidling my thumbs I decided to grasp the nettle that is my meanygate project and sort through 3,000 pictures to try and put some sort of order to at least some of them. This I managed by selecting out the more geometric fieldscapes. After two or three passes through the initial selection I now have it whittled down to 108. I've put them into 'contact sheets' and am letting them brew for a while before having another go at editing them down to, probably, a zine format.

While going through the files I realised that there are more pictures of fieldwork that I'd imagined. Editing those down will be the next task. Depending how both edits go I'll either make two zines or one zine of the geometric pictures and a larger book of a combined edit. I must say that a grid presentation of the geometric pictures could work well. Trouble is that grids are difficult to present at a meaningful scale as some of these pictures need to be viewed at A4 or larger to see the important finer detail.

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Doldrums

A lack of free time at the right time continues. If it's not waiting for parcels to arrive or be collected it's weather keeping me indoors. When I do get out there's usually only an hour or two of day light left. I've had to revert to getting my photo-fix when visiting the post office or even the pillar box!

That said I have still managed a few longer walks round the moss. Not with great expectations. I have recorded some recent changes. The drier weather has seen tractors able to get on the land in places.

 

The same view a day later.

 

 The Zwartbles continued to be friendly and I was looking forward to getting some more pictures of them after a second close encounter. Two days later they'd gone...

 

Not to worry. They were only a distraction and were unlikely to provide me with a body of work, or even add to my sheep folders which I would prefer to be about native breeds rather than immigrants.

While some land is drying, slowly, other places are continuing to hold water. there have been efforts made to clear it in a few fields.

Feeling like I needed a change of scenery I went in search of leeks. No matter how I try I can't get to grips with making pictures of leeks. That doesn't stop me getting drawn back to them time and again.

 

 

 

 As the week ended temperatures dropped and there was enough of a frost one morning to solidify the standing water. When the sun started to break through I headed out and a light mist began to rise. Once more it wasn't enough to make for really dramatic pictures, and there is little out on the moss to make for foreground interest in any case, but there was a chance for a hint of the atmosphere created.

Also a chance to get some icy pictures. Quite why I'm not sure.

This continual photographing of the land and 'stuff' is getting me down a bit. I've even watched a few landscape Youtubers recently, admittedly for entertainment rather than education, and all that has done has made me question the taking of photographs without people in them. 

My intention might not be to make standalone 'frameable' pictures of the land, but even though I am trying to show how it changes and is changed the pictures themselves don't engage me much. The one which comes closest of the recent lot is the one with the tractor in.

And there's the nub of it. Even the sheep around the mineral bucket is engaging in that there is stuff happening. Not only is it a picture of something, it's also about something - and there's depth to it with foreground sheep and the more distant ones clearly walking towards them. There's action. The sheep are quite graphic, the red bucket also works in the way Constable included a splash of red in many of his landscape paintings to add vibrancy, life. But the main reason I find it more engaging is that there are creatures in it.

In my hierarchy of subjects people interacting with each other or with animals is at the top. People on their own come next, closely followed by animals interacting and then animals on their own. Things and landscapes are somewhere below all those. This is why I'm tiring of looking at the sort of pictures I have liked for a while, the deadpan pictures of places. I've made enough of them myself, but they are starting to merge into one another. That's why my most satisfying picture for some time is the snap I grabbed of one of the mossland farmers when he stopped for a natter. It might not be the best picture I've ever taken, but it was a real boost to take it. The sooner social distancing can be kicked into touch the better!

 

The new lens continues to be my mainstay as I work out if I can live with it. The focal length range hasn't limited me so far. In fact the more I use it the less I find myself wanting anything wider. Although I have taken to carrying my fancy compact with me just in case I need the 28mm angle of view. So far that has only been on a couple of occasions. It's still had me wondering if a 24-120 might have been a more versatile choice than the 35-150. The colour rendition of the 35-150 is still nagging at me. However, when the sun shines it seems to do a better job. Maybe on these cooler, duller days I should go back to a Nikon lens to see if that makes any difference to the colours. Most likely nobody else would notice the colours.There's also the possibility it's all in my imagination anyway!

The short daylight hours not only restrict my time outdoors, they make me spend to much time reading or listening to nonsense on t'internet. One subject which has got me thinking is focal length choices. There are a couple of people (influencers?) who have an aversion to the 35mm angle of view. One even railed against it, and anything wider, in a blog post. While I suspected a tongue in a cheek I thought his reasoning was a bit off. He did make one valid point in that wide angle lenses are becoming the de facto recommendation for street photography. This is all well and good in the right hands, but as the disgruntled blogger said, they can result in messy pictures with too much distraction in them.

Now I don't have a problem with pictures that contain more than one point of interest. In fact I like them. They are not easy to make well though. Which is why it's worth trying to rise to the challenge. I wonder if the reason some people prefer longer lenses is a reluctance to get close to their subjects and maybe an inability to take in a scene as a whole. It's much easier to use a longer (50mm or more) lens to isolate a subject from a scene than to make the subject a part of the scene. I reckon it makes for 'one liner' pictures too. I prefer shaggy dog stories!

Out in the countryside, however, I find longer focal lengths easier to use as there can be way too much space for wide angles lenses. This might be why the 35-150 interested me with my foray into landscapery? I'm sure that when I'm able to get back to the marts and shows I'll be digging out the 28mm or 24-70mm again, getting in closer and putting subjects in context. Which is what it's all about for me.

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Two steps back

At least the rain did a bit of a disappearing act this week, which made a change. I still didn't manage to find much time to get out and about. When I did it was doing the same old rounds and finding little had changed.

The egg signs do change and there was sad news to record.

 
Like most of the pictures I've taken of late it is nothing more than a record of things. The same applied to a chance to photograph some sheep up close. I managed to fool the Zwartbles into thinking they'd get some food when I stood by their field gate. As always when there is a gate or ditch in the way viewpoints are limited and you end up with photos of sheep but not pictures. Certainly none worth posting in a blog that's supposedly about photography.

On the moss all there has been to see is the standing water. Which is slowly receding. I've made a few pictures which might come in useful if I ever get down to rounding them all up and putting them in some sort of order.

This implement has caught my eye many a time. The play of light over it made for a slightly better picture than most I've made of it.

Tired of the moss and lack of farming subject matter in general I went back to walking along the canal. There's not much there that I haven't taken photographs of before. Still, sometimes a change of lens makes you see things differently. Not all that differently perhaps.

Having to poke a lens through a metal security fence rather limits your compositional options. I managed to make this one work out pretty much the way I hoped it would. Although taken by the canalside it might find its way into the moss/veggie project.

In desperation I've been adding a few pictures to what I was thinking of as my 'Home Range' project but which might now become my 'Walking Distance' project. The random sightings of 'stuff' I see as I wander around the parish.

The church included.

A couple of times I have gone out late in the afternoon looking for sunsets. A sure sign of desperation. When they don't look like materialising I give up early. Wander off and see them develop when I'm too far away from where I hoped to photograph them to go back. I don't have the patience required to wait for the perfect light for landscape photographs. Which is probably a good thing. It means I sometimes stumble on more interesting pictures.

Sprouts, beef cattle and chicken sheds. All gloriously back lit. Much better than yet another sunset picture in the traditional style to my mind!

Another of my perennial subjects is that of privacy and security. I took advantage of the low angle of the setting sun to lift this picture a little.

Then back to more water lying on the fields.

All in all pretty grim. The new lens is growing on me, but despite my initial enthusiasm at getting rid of the blue hue I find myself still struggling with it, and despite my best intentions finding the 35mm end just a little too long. However, I prefer it that way to having the permanent temptation of 24mm. I certainly don't feel I'm missing the 150-300mm range though. Which is definitely a good thing.

All I have to do now is learn to love the 85mm focal length - at the third attempt. If I was sensible I'd stick with a 24 to something or other and get on with it. But I do like using two cameras with two fixed focal lengths at time. More so when in a restricted space such as an auction mart though. Out in the wild a zoom is more practical. especially when you have obstacles between you and the subject. When I'll get the chance to go to an auction mart remains to be seen. Poultry sales have been hit by a double whammy of virus restrictions. Covid-19 for the humans and avian influenza for the birds. Trying times all round.

 

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Rolling thunder

The preoccupation with the mossland continues. Sundays don't see as much work going on in the fields so I took advantage of that and got in closer to some things I'd photographed from a distance earlier. Revisiting subjects often makes me see them differently and a slightly lower viewpoint for these stacked trays and pallets made for a stronger picture than my previous attempt. I also shifted position so as to hide stuff in the background which I had included before.

Waste and discarded veg is part and parcel of the cutting process. Quality demands have to be met to prevent rejection further along the supply chain. At least at this point it can be ploughed back in.

The following day I only managed to get out in the afternoon hoping to beat the rain which was forecast for the evening. It was a hot day so I set off without a jumper or jacket. There was work going on near the celery field, including some cultivation. This gave me a chance to photograph 'waste' being returned to the soil. I pictured this in suggested and literal ways.

On the other side of the track was a gang of field workers cutting lettuce. I was going to avoid photographing them but they waved, made photographing gestures and hammed it up for the camera! This made me wonder if there is a cultural attitude difference between where they come from and the UK when it comes to being photographed by strangers. It cheered me up though.

A few minutes after photographiong the workers it began to rain. Only light but there was more blowing my way. I took shelter for a few minutes before deciding to take the shortest route home.

Later that night the rain arrived with a vengeance in a long lasting and spectacular thunderstorm. It was all over my daybreak and I was determined to go and see if the moss had suffered as much as my flooded garden.

I chose not to walk through the field I usually do knowing that the ditch alongside the path can overflow. With two roads flooded across as I drove out I suspected I'd made a wise decision.

Fields were indeed underwater. Photographing them wasn't easy as most were in places where I had the sun in my face but I still managed to make some pictures which show submerged crops and the look of the land after heavy rain.

Walking past where the field path comes out on the meanygates I saw that it would have required wellies at least to make my way out, maybe even waders! Even if it had been passable the vegetation which has to be walked through would have been wet enough to soak my legs.

By the time I was nearing my car the sun was shining hotly. With no wind it made for a serene picture of a flooded lawn looking like a large ornamental pond in front of one of the moss bungalows.

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