Artificial light

It must be lockdown boredom that drove me to spend money on yet more flash equipment. It was either that or another guitar, but the axe I fancied was out of stock. Hopefully it'll be available when we can go to real world shops and I can trade a couple of unloved guitars for it. In the meantime it's playtime with lighting.

Without going into the details I got myself some new flash triggers. The ones I bought last time I was going to be the next Rankin never worked consistently for me. These new ones do.My wafer thin justification for the purchases was to use them for taking product shots for my business. Obviously that meant my first try out would be to photograph the frogs in my pond...

I'd taken a few shouts using the pop-up flash on my compact and thought I'd try to get a bit tricksy with more versatile gear. One trick was turning day into night by messing with the ambient exposure and zooming the flash to highlight a frog. It looks artificial, but that was the point.

Using the flash gadgets got me thinking that there are some aspects of photography that attract people who like fiddling with gear. There is a large subset who use artificial light almost exclusively. As well as the gear fiddling side of things I think they also like being in control. While I'm as attracted to gear as the next man (I think this is predominantly  a male thing) it's only up to a point. 

When it comes to using flash I've been reading and watching stuff on-line for years now and the theory still makes no bloody sense to me! I understand the concept of the ambient and artificial light being dealt with by two exposures, but the way it's always put forward to get the results you want is to set everything manually. This is where I come unstuck. The experts all say it's dead simple. But there are all these numbers to deal with. Although I did maths and physics A levels I'm still baffled. I've found my own workrounds. They'll do for me.

Thinking about the different types of photographer there are also got me pondering what attracts people to photography. I initially picked up a guitar because I liked the idea of being a guitar hero. Not because I had a burning desire to write music. Is this the same for some in photography? Do they secretly want to live the imagined rock'n'roll lifestyle of a David Bailey or a Rankin? Or maybe travel to exotic places photographing dramatic landscapes? Some, I am sure, just like playing with cameras, filters, lights and so on. None of that appealed to me. I started taking photographs because I wanted to make pictures.

There's been more opportunity for doing that this week than of late. Not that there's been much to look at on my mossland walks. A drive out to the shops saw me stop on a sunny day and grab some shots of a field being prepared for planting and fleece covering. The light on the plastic sacks and wet tyre tracks made this picture.

 

 

But it took a short trip to the mere to find some pictures worth making. A couple of hours walking roads I usually drive proved quite fruitful and got my 'eye' back in. I'd been getting stale walking the moss and seeing nothing had changed. Things were more advanced out on the edge of the mere.

After that it was back to playing with the flash again. This time indoors doing what I supposedly bought it all for. Photographing 'things'. Not having any products I needed photographs of I dug out some cameras I've inherited and used them as my models. I even set my tripod up and locked the camera down on that. Once I stopped even trying to think about the numbers and did it 'my way' I was soon getting results I liked. They might not be what the experts like, but when I've looked at their pictures I don't like them. The aim of using artificial light all too often seems to be to make the light the subject. All dramatic chiaroscuro and  (what they tell you) modelling to show texture and make things look better than they are. The advertising/commercial approach to photography. Selling an idealised dream to folk. Just as I prefer overcast days for taking landscape photographs I prefer my 'objects' to be more flatly lit. Some shadow is required to suggest form, but drama can get lost for me.

This line of thinking prompted me to consider the photographic portraits I prefer. Oddly two photographers who sprang to mind were Martin Parr and Rineke Dijkstra. neither uses the kind of lighting the on-line mavens promote. Parr uses on-camera flash with a dome diffuser, and from what I have gleaned Dijkstra uses a single strobe and umbrella positioned almost straight on - at least for here well known beach portraits. In both cases what appeals to me about their photographs is the subjects - their look, expressions and gestures. Which rather suggest to me that those are the things which matter most in a photographic portrait.

Think of the famous Karsch portrait of Churchill and it's not the lighting that makes it memorable, it's Churchill's expression and pose - famously created by Karsch removing Churchill's cigar from his hand. Subject trumps light every time. Or at least most of the time unless light is the subject.

As I delve into this flash lark my aim is to find a way to use it to eliminate shadows more than to create them. The opposite of what the experts keep telling me to do! But as someone once said, I'm not a normal photographer. Normal photographers don't see sticks in fields as a subject for a project!

This is another photograph which tells a story to those in the know. The stick is a marker, and look closely to see small red and white dots on the earth. Two types of fertiliser. Another picture which may benefit from the addition of words. It certainly wouldn't benefit from the addition of flash!

The zine swap deadline draws near. I think I have mine finalised. More a case of abandonment than completion. I'll get a back-up printed of something else too. Just so the other swappers won't feel like they've been cheated or I am taking the piss...

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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!

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Lazy/Not Lazy

In order that I don't forget about events I started writing them on a calendar last year. Such forward planning has never been a feature of my life until recently. The weekend just gone was pretty crowded with sheep dog events. There was an auction on Friday and two trials on both Saturday and Sunday. The auction was inked in, but I still managed to leave a little late. I was surprised to find there was parking space available. The attendance seemed down on my previous visits and looking at the crowd from up the slope that seemed to be the case.

This time I started out trying to get pictures of the dog's having their microchips read. Space was cramped and it doesn't take long. Getting a well frame shot that both shows what's going on and works as a picture isn't simple. Especially if you want the red light on the scanner to be lit. Being late meant there weren't many dogs left to be scanned so I'll have to try harder next time.

I always find the release pens at trials throw up interesting pictures and there are people to talk to there as well. My target was to get pictures with the sheep ready for release, someone managing them, a dog and handler showing off  and the crowd. Having decided to start the day 'old school' with two cameras with 28mm and 50mm lenses attached it was a bit of a challenge.

I also like pictures of sheep being let out and using a fast burst rate is the best way I have found to get them. It means you have a chance of catching unexpected moments like a jumping sheep. The next step is to make the picture more interesting!

On the subject of the unexpected it wasn't until I saw the next picture large on the computer screen that I realised there was something odd going on in it.

Detail shots were also on my wish list. Not many presented themselves though.

The day gradually warmed up and as the crowds were thin and bidding slow I left a little earlier than I'd intended and spent the evening sorting through the photo-dross. There was a lot of nothing shots to get rid of.

The following morning I couldn't face going out again, it was gloomy and threatening rain anyway. But by lunchtime I was bored so headed off to catch the end of the nearest trial. The other trial wasn't far away and many runners were booked in to both. With it being late on and the runners split between venues it was quiet. As at the auction I was still playing around with the crop sensor camera, gradually learning it's foibles and slowly getting more consistent results.

The other camera had a standard zoom attached and as well as using that to take detail shots I also started looking for landscape pictures with the action smaller in the frame. I also got on a bit of a vertical orientation kick for some reason. There might be some scope for progressing in that direction.

On my way home I had to pull over to photograph a hand painted sign. I think I should have slowed the shutter speed to blur the vehicles though.

Sunday morning and I was lethargic again. It was gone ten before I decided that pottering about or finishing off some work wasn't very appealing. The weather forecast wasn't great but it wasn't going to rain. Where to go? One venue I knew was a bit restrictive so I plumped for the other, which I'd been to a week before. Taking a different route I got a bit lost...

One idea I had in advance was to take pictures from a distance if I could get a decent vantage point. As it turned out there is a lay-by on the road which crosses the moor above the trial field and a footpath leading down through it. I slowly worked my way down the hill through the heather, bilberry and cotton grass pausing to fail to make any worthwhile pictures of the latter.

The footpath actually passes right by the release pen where I again hung around for a while before heading back up the hill in order to drive down it to the trial field.

It was more of the same old stuff practising long lens technique and panning, and trying to remember which focus mode works best for it. This technically dependent photography isn't my style. I'm still stuck in my 1970s mode of using the central focusing aid to get focus then recomposing the shot. It doesn't work on fast moving dogs!

My hit rate has improved, and the crop sensor body works better than I thought it did. part of my dissatisfaction was that the display screen doesn't seem to be as detailed as on my other cameras and at higher ISOs it loses detail compared to the full frame sensors. In bright light it's fine, in more usual north of England gloom it's a bit pants. I'm not posing any pictures of running dogs because, if I'm honest, I find them boring.

Probably more boring to normal people are the kind of pictures I like taking!

Pictures which include running dogs with the sheep and shepherd are on my interesting list. It's the interactions and gestures which give them life and make them pictures. Framing them so as to avoid cropping is the big challenge. When stuck for a composition, bang the subject in the centre of the frame.

I'm sure that sheep dog aficionados would concentrate on the dogs in such pictures, whereas I tend to look at the people, although the gestures of dogs and sheep are just as important in making the pictures work.

As the day wore on I went back to looking for wider views. Balancing the size of the dog and handler with the scale of the landscape is tricky. Such pictures are best seen at a large size than I post on-line.

A long weekend of making my eyes and brain work together has left me feeling a bit burnt out.

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Boredom relief

Someone on TP commented that they envy my ability to find themes and project ideas. I explained that most of them find me completely by accident. I just take loads of photos of random stuff and eventually discover that some of the stuff has been less random than the rest. That stuff then becomes a theme which I actively pursue! Another thing I do when I'm bored, and which digital makes so much easier and less expensive, is mess about.

The other day I felt like the wood project was over, but lacking any better ideas and it being convenient I went there again. The difference being I had a cheap old flash gun in my pocket. to play with. I didn't have a plan beyond using the flash to see what could be done.

I tried using the flash to illuminate close things while having the ambient light underexposed, but that wasn't doing anything interesting with static shots. So I started waving the camera around without looking through the viewfinder with a slow shutter speed. It's woprked for me before and the addition of some artificial light brought something different.

It was a bit of fun and a few of the results, while nothing earth shattering, had something going for them.

They're not intended to be 'straight' or documentary photographs, so I happily fiddle with them on the computer to drag more out of them. When I have got the black and white project boxed off I might carry on in the wood doing something in colour using flash.

Something I often see recommended to do when bored or unable to get out of the house is still life photography. I give it a go now and then but it doesn't really suit my nature. I think you have to be a control freak of some kind to do it well. The same applies for any indoor photography that involves arranging things or people, and especially lighting. I like experimenting - particularly by letting go of control, taking lots of pictures and picking the best rather than setting up one or two, and generally not having to be precise.

However I'd watched a short video clip which mentioned Edward Weston's pepper photographs and it motivated me to try and photograph the sheep's skull I picked up some time ago. This also gave me a chance to try out the L-bracket I'd bought to use my camera in portrait orientation on my tripod. Why I bought the bracket I don't know. I think I had some daft plan a while ago. Anyway, it was useful for photographing the skull.

I could have tried using artificial light but the video said Weston used daylight for the pepper photos. I found somewhere that provided diffuse light and set to. I soon got fed up! At least digital allowed me to take a few shots then review them on the computer. Delete them all and start again. Eventually, by diffusing the light some more and using some mounting card as a reflector I got close to what I was after. This was nothing as dramatic as the peppers. That's not my kind of look. I don't know why, but I prefer my photos to be less dramatic. The main things I concentrated on were reducing shadows and framing the shot. Messing about with tripods nad heads to get the camera position spot on really does infuriate me. At least the geared head is easier to use than the ball head, but tripod legs are a pain in the bum.

Not perfect. It needs a touch more light on the left.  With that in mind I ordered some more reflector/diffusers and clamps to hold them! I find it easier to use reflectors to add light where I want it and bits of card to block it where I don't that to bugger around with flash. More space to work in would be nice too.

I continue to use the 60mm macro lens in place of a standard 50mm. It's what I took to the woods and used for the skull picture. It can be a bit clunky to focus but the focal length seems to suit me. I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon enough.

The weather today almost tempted me outside. When the rain started hammering down I was glad I had resisted the temptation. What I did do was mess about trying to photograph the rain from inside! This I started doing with the macro lens. I soon realised I needed something longer. A rainy window is a photographic cliché. One I like though. I really must get that window cleaned...

The driver behind photographing rain was another post on TP asking about doing just that. Needless to say I didn't follow the advice by the 'experts' and did it my way. I didn't end up with the sort of results the person asking for advice was after anyway, despite setting out to achieve that. Getting rain streaks is pretty easy, set a slow shutter speed and prat about with it. Why they'd needed to ask about that I dunno. I gave it a try using the camera's pop-up flash. Job done, time to play.

I found what the flash was doing more interesting than the streaks. More messing about ensued. Most of the time with the lens defocused.

All three pictures (if they are pictures) above were taken by me standing in my kitchen doorway. Which goes to show that there can be variety found anywhere if you have a brain connected to your eyes.

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A question of style*

A small step forward was made the other day in setting up the Fuji for candid shooting grab shots. I'm not sure why it worked but setting the camera to shoot continuously managed to get more frames in focus and more taken. For some reason it hasn't always managed to focus and fire. Maybe I've not held the shutter button down long enough for the sloth-like camera to find focus! Now I've got a faster computer selecting from multiple frames is not the chore it used to be, so this makes it a practical technique.

The scanning of my Dusty Negative Archive is back on the go. Again the speedier PC is making life easier. Although it took a bit of fiddling and a software upgrade to get the temperamental scanner speaking to the new PC.

I've reached early 1981 and it looks like I was having a period of experimenting with slow shutter speeds.

It's also become obvious that I had pretty much found my 'style'. What made me choose the subjects  I still choose to photograph I really don't know. I'm sure I was unaware of photographers picking similar subjects, and I certainly don't know where my way choices of viewpoint and framing came from. I assume there was some outside influence, but can't think what it might have been as it doesn't strike me as if it came from the photographs I was looking at. There are similarities with photographers whose work I know now from the same period, and a little earlier, but I don't remember being aware of them at the time.

Style is distinct from 'look', which is what a lot of people think they are searching for when they talk of finding their style. Look is all about the processing along the lines of filters which can be applied to phone camera pics or in compact cameras. It's superficial. Style is about how you see the world. I've probably said that all before!

Something that digital does much better than film is allow for failures. If I had had an endless supply of film, and the cash to develop it, I might have taken my photography further back in the 1980s. Looking through the negatives I'd try three or four attempts at something then stop. No doubt for fear of wasting film. With digital I don't worry about wasting a dozen frames. Although I usually give up before reaching that total. There is a law of diminishing returns with ideas. The initial spark has a freshness, but repetition tends to make things stale. Too much thinking isn't always a good thing.

My woodland project is coming to a close. Even so I have found some fresh directions to take now I have a better grip on where it's going. Some of it is experimentation with technique as the project is not about making 'great photographs', more about metaphor, symbolism and mood.

* The post title comes from this oldie but goody.

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Another failed plan

My last visit to the wood gave me an idea to try some close up photography to try and make some 'landscapes in miniature'. The plan (I should have known that having a plan was a bad move) was to use a wide(ish) angle getting in low down and close to mossy stumps and such like. I toyed with the idea of purchasing a new lens for the job, but then considered using a compact camera. Both my compacts have a macro facility which works best at the wider end of the lens's zoom in the case of the one with a zoom lens. If nothing else I'd save some cash trying this approach. Armed with two cameras, a remote release and my Gorillapod I set off in search of Smallscapes.

The fixed lens camera proved to have just a bit too wide an angle of view. At least in combination with the limitations of the Gorrilapod for positioning.

My original intention had been to exclude the background and try to make the scale of the pictures ambiguous. It didn't really work. So I went for broader views. Which also failed to enthuse me.

I also had another go at some fungi shots with it. They proved to be a little better than the last efforts, but still dire. Nothing more than illustrations to my eyes.

I swapped the camera for my fishing compact. A smaller sensor but with a bit of zoom in the macro range of the lens.

The wider view wasn't working for me so I went back to the more cropped framing. I still wasn't getting anywhere that felt like it was working. The fungi pictures were just record shots, the wider views were the sort of thing that might work as illustrations if they'd had some subject matter in the foreground. None of them were particularly interesting. Except perhaps the final one. By the time I took that one the light was going.

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