Calling it a day?

Having photographed ball number 200 this morning I'm wondering if it's time to stop or if the 'series' should be open-ended. It's not as if it's a great hardship to stop and take a photograph or two of a ball when I stumble upon one.

This is the perennial problem with personal 'projects' that have no finishing line. Particularly for someone as indisciplined as me! I need deadlines otherwise I let things roll on, and on, and on. I finished at the quarry because spring arrived. The Gone Out project was time limited as it had to be done in one hit on the day I thought of it. Everything else seems to remain in a state of flux, getting dipped into now and then, abandoned, picked up again.

Part of the difficulty is that taking photographs isn't a full time occupation, it fits in around other things like work and fishing. And I can only concentrate on one thing at a time. If I get my fishing head on then it's fish or bust. When the camera head returns it's photographs or nothing.

At best I'm 'noodling' around with photography. I'm not committed, because such a commitment seems absurd to me. Just as when I noodle around on a guitar most of what's produced is junk. Repetitive or imitative junk. Just the same every now and then something original and surprising materialises. If I get lucky it can be worked into something more substantial.

That's not to say I'm not serious about my photographs, only that I can't take photography very seriously. It's as absurd as catching fish and letting them go. The important thing, personally and psychologically, is in the doing rather than the end result. Both involve problem solving in order to achieve an end. It's that problem solving process that engages and exercises the mind. That's where the interest lies.

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There's more to it than sharpness

My struggle with the 'look' of pictures continues. It must all boil down to wanting to get as close to the 'look' of film as possible.

In black and white I find my m4/3 camera does a reasonable job. Maybe with a touch more depth of focus and perhaps some extra sharpness/clarity, but the tones look right to me. Blown highlights don't matter so much in black and white as the transition is from grey to white rather than a pale colour to white - which looks unnatural.

Film

m4/3

If I wanted to do some serious monochrome work this camera would do the job. The trouble with that is that I was looking at some good black and white documentary stuff today and though that if it had been in colour it might have lost the graphic qualities but told more of a story. Take colour out of the equation and while a timeless universality comes through something else is lost. Colour can help place pictures in time as fashions change. They can also set a mood. It also prevents people 'colourising' the photos at some future date! As the photos I was looking at were digital in origin I guess the colour information still exists on a hard drive or two somewhere though.

Small sensors still have a tendency to clip highlights and give white hot-spots, although things are much improved from ten years ago, even less. Then there's the almost infinite depth of focus. I tried out a Nikon compact today and even with an aperture of f2.2 the shot below is almost all in focus. Even when looking at an A3 print everything looks sharp enough.

Compared to the output from my first digital compacts, however, it is vastly improved in tonality and detail. I like the look of the colours too. It's just that endless detail that puts me off. The camera handled and focused well. While I was tempted, my (probably futile) search for a small camera (at a price below that of an upmarket DSLR) continues.

Of course, when you press the shutter release accidentally there's every chance that nothing at all will be in focus!

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Light, space and shapes

On Sunday afternoon I almost went fishing, but I thought there might be a lot of other anglers about, so headed for the last resort with the cameras. I forced myself to use the short telephoto for as long as I could bear it. For some reason this resulted in me making the majority of my pictures in one way. Centring the subject which was usually something graphic - the telephoto helping this by compressing the perspective. The light was pretty flat, which helps with some subjects as too much shadow and contrast detracts from them. It makes for subtle images. Not the sort to garner loadsa likes on sharing websites.

I hadn't been along the pier for some time. There's not really much there to be honest, not even too many people. With the pier being a confined space, in terms of width, I put the telephoto away and went with my beloved 28mm. I read something on the web about how this focal length, when you centre something in the frame, creates leading lines which direct the eye to the subject. A while back I read a description of William Eggleston composing like the Confederate flag. He uses the same focal length a great deal.

What I like is the way it is wide without being distortedly so. As such it creates a feeling of space in pictures without the exaggeration of wider lenses. The perspective looks natural - to me.

As well as a few dog walkers, and the usual families out for a bracing (cold) wander along the pier there was a group of photographers. That's some of them in the distance in the shot above. I don't know if they were on a photowalk or what, but they didn't seem to be taking many photos. It seems a peculiar way to go about photography to me. I find I need to be in a sort of bubble of concentration and awareness. Difficult if you are in a group.

A fisheye seems like it should work on the pier, but it's a difficult lens to work with. It certainly helps if subjects are centred with this lens. Anything slap bang in the middle appears less distorted than whatever surrounds it. Certainly a bit of a gimmicky lens, but quite fun to use sparingly.

Walking back along the pier I kept stopping to peer (ouch!) over the rails and look down. The car park was unusually deserted, and I took some more almost symmetrical shots - this time with the wider lens. I must have got into that way of looking.

Forsaking zoom lenses really doesn't restrict me. What does hold me back is my obsession with making  pictures that are concerned with lines and blocks of colour. There's so little going on in them, to engage a viewer, that I don't see how they could be of any interest to anyone else but me.

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Film is dead

I know I've said this before but... This is the last roll of black and white film I'll ever use!

A number of things struck me while scanning and processing these pics. The 'look' that grain gives film shots immediately makes the pictures look old. Wishing to retain this look is, to my mind, an affectation. It does nothing to get the message of the images across.

I'm also pretty sure that part of the film look that people find appealing is down to the 'sensor' size, and the depth of focus that gives in combination with the standard lens. Take away the grain and this shot could just as easily have been shot with a full frame DSLR.

Because I left the film in the camera for months before finishing it off I have no idea where I came across this tumble drier!

Being limited to blacks and whites means that when you find something that needs colour you're stuffed.

Next time I get tempted by Ilford's wares I shall resist. Honest...

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It doesn't have to be art

Taking a walk by the canal today I was reminded how easy it is to ignore recording things that we take for granted. Things which have been there for as long as we can remember, which we assume will be there for evermore. When I took some photographs down there back in April things had changed since I was younger. Some of the mill buildings had been demolished.

Not long afterwards I read of plans to redevelop the site for housing. But that went out of my mind until today when everything looked much different.

Working from memory I couldn't make  picture from the same viewpoint. But that's not necessary when the purpose is to record change rather than make pictures which lean towards expression. Photography isn't just about making striking images, it also has functional value. It is a many faceted medium, which is its attraction for me. The same tool can be used to make art, to document, to make comment and to sell. Amongst other uses. Used well it can combine two or more of its attributes.

The way things, and light, change can (when ignored) lead to photographic opportunities being missed. Far too often I have driven past something and thought it would make a good picture, intending to return at a later date. Often this has been repeated. Sometimes in order to wait for the right light, but usually through laziness. The other day I drove past a tree I had in mind to shoot and saw a new road sign had been erected right in front of it. The lesson I doubt I have learned is that when you see something to photograph, that's the time to get the camera out. Although Sod's law will most likely come into play.

Yesterday I took a walk to the village an hour before dark. Not planning on making any serious pictures, so taking just the X10. On my way home, in a spot I have passed many times before, something made me notice a view that appealed to my banal preferences. Maybe it was the light that made me stop. I took a shot, which I knew would be technically flawed as the light was going. It would serve as a sketch though. I could go back any time and get the same viewpoint. In fact I planned to do that today.

Not only did I venture out earlier, but the weather had changed dramatically. The mood had changed with it. So I took one shot as another note and reminded myself that I must strike while the iron is hot in future. And to take a print with me of a view I wish to replicate so I can get the framing closer.

Some good has come from this failure. I have got an idea of the kinds of pictures I would like to make of my locality. It's been a long time coming, but I think I now have some inkling of how I could put together a set of local views. The trouble is I'll run into the old problem I have of not carrying out these well formed plans. The pictures I have already made in my head are much better than any I'm likely to make with a camera!

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