Endless rain

At long last I think I might have exorcised all ideas of doing 'landscape photography' from my brain. Certainly the practice of going places I like with the intention of looking for 'landscape photographs'.

Last Saturday had been so wet and my motivation so reduced that a drive to find a sheepdog trial was abandoned and I didn't even call in at either of the auctions I passed. On Sunday the rain eventually stopped and I headed for the forest in bright sunshine. Naturally that light disappeared as soon as I got out of my car armed with a map intent on exploring. The looking around didn't work out as on the ground things were less interesting than on the map. I did go a little off the beaten track, however, to look at what was marked as a rain gauge. A galvanised can in a field! I guess searching out and photographing more of these could become a landscape project if it wasn't for the treks over rough ground it would involve.Not at my age, with my knees!

There were a few sheep about and I tried to make some sheepscapes. This was the most successful.

At this time of year the afternoons are short and where there are hills can be even shorter. Taking a step too far into a bog was what curtailed my afternoon. I headed home to dry my boot off.

Amazingly thhe early part of the week which followed was warm and dry for a change. On Tuesday I put my dry boots on and went for a look around the wood with a plan in mind. That didn't work but I tried a few shots of the recently harvested maize fields on my way back. There's something to work on there, but I'm not sure I can be bothered looking for it. I can't help thinking that pictures without people in them have little value on their own. Perhaps in series they would work better?

Still having a feeling of disinterest about photography I made the effort to get out early for yesterday's big sale, not really expecting to do much more than tread familiar ground. The early arrival did get me some views of empty pens, and an increased entry form last year meant there were additional pens set up outside. Nothing startling, but 'paragraphs' added to the visual story.

Another step in the right direction was getting a picture of the electronic tag scanner lit up. Perhaps not as good as it could be, but it's been recorded now.

I tried a few eye detail shots but the light was dim and the sheep never stop still. The best way to take these sort of shots would be in full daylight with someone holding the sheep. Maybe at next summer's shows.

Once the sale started I divided my time between the main ring where groups of breeding ewes were being sold and the temporary tup ring. The main ring I have photographed often and there's not much new ground to be covered.

I was trying to get a picture from behind sheep as they entered the ring but timed them all wrong. The accidental 'sheep's eye view' of the open gate, on the other hand, seemed to work quite well for some reason.

Other than that it was low-level pictures of sheep and people, or wide views from up the steps to the café - as usual.

The temporary ring was different. The layout changed from last year for one thing, but mostly it's more intimate and busier. With that in mind I tried to make chaotic pictures. Some were OK, but none were outstanding.

After four hours my brain begins to fade and as I had to get to the Post Office in order to catch the last collection I left around two with the sale still having a long way to go. The rain had already returned long before then. More pics here.

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Still photographing the same old stuff

The weather pattern appears pretty settled now. No two consecutive days the same. that said it does seem to be the case that a wet morning has a good chance of turning into a dry afternoon. On one such I set off with no plan other than to restrict myself to a 35mm focal length. Quite why I have bonded with the replacement for my fungus infected old lens is difficult to understand. But I have.

I thought the sandplant had undergone all it's transformations, meaning I was surprised to find the old opening to the road out to the sea which had been blocked had been even more blocked when I turned up. The evidence is more striking form the outside but less interesting to make a picture of being an infilling of the steep sided part of the path. There was more that had been done, notably the erection of even more fencing attempting to keep people off the marsh

That afternoon didn't stay dry and before dusk it was raining again. the next day was another one of rain so it was two days later when it faired up I went in search of more watery landscapes for my collection. Again I pressed the 35mm into action with no safety net. What the point of these two collections of pictures I keep adding to is as big a mystery as the weather.

The following day was warm and dry. hardly surprising as I spent it indoors photographing poultry and poultry people at the auction mart. Although I started out with the two 'pro' zoom approach, because I needed the faster apertures to cope with the dimly lit shed, I ended up swapping the 24-70mm for the 35mm and made a similar number of 'keepers' with both. The hated 70-200mm accounted for a few as well.

I was up against the old repetition problem again, but by dropping anchor in one spot and letting the throng and the sale come to me, shooting back towards the auctioneer, I was able to get faces in the frame. Faces make much more engaging pictures, and tell more of a story, than the backs of people's heads.

Two days later I was back at the mart, similarly equipped, photographing sheep. This time the zooms stayed attached all the time. The light in the main shed was as grim as it had been for the poultry sale, but in the other shed where the sheep were to be judged before being auctioned the light was much better. The nasty lights in there had been replaced with LEDs like in the sale ring.

All the sheep were penned in the main shed where they were first tarted up by their sellers and their lot numbers attached, then inspected by potential buyers.

From the pens they were guided to the next door shed where the show ring had been set up.

An indoor sheep show made a change, even though the procedure was the same as ever. It being a single breed show the classes, although fewer, were larger.

Following the show I had time to grab a plate of chips and gravy before the sale commenced under the lovely new LEDs.

I think another thing that photography has in common with fishing is that some people are happy to keep on doing the same thing, year in year out, and getting the same results, while others are always looking for a new challenge to keep their interest up. I'm certainly in the latter camp. In the past I have often got fed up of fishing a particular water after three years, sometimes four, regardless of whether I've got the best out of it or not. I've been photographing sheep for three years now.

One thing that used to keep my going ion fishing was finding new methods to catch fish on. That way there was always a challenge. That's why I bugger about using different lenses, to keep me thinking. What I need now, photographically, is a new challenge. Either a change of subject, or approach. Finding that is much harder than taking photographs.

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Washed out

With show season over for another summer the autumn sheep sales are taking off. With work boxed off for the week and nothing planed for outdoors thanks to another rainy forecast Friday seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the new lighting in the sale ring at my nearest auction mart. Besides, there were Lonks...

The light in the main shed was unchanged, a mix of daylight and artificial. Not very bright at that. But it's not much of a challenge given the wizardry of  modern cameras' ability to cope with low light levels. Thanks to a broken down lorry at a set of traffic lights I was delayed by fifteen minutes and all the unloading was over when I turned up. To be honest I was feeling dispirited and went for a walk. By the time I returned the sale was about to start so I stuck around.

What a difference the new lighting, LEDs by the look of it, has made. Not only is there just one colour temperature to cope with the flickering fluorescent tubes have gone and it seemed brighter.

I wasn't restricted to shutter speeds of 1/100th or slower to avoid the effects of the tubes and could push it  to 1/250th and still have a reasonable aperture to get some depth of field. This was helpful because I'd packed my slow longer zoom which I used to photograph the auctioneer's podium and close ups of sheep.

The best chances for 'action' shots are at ringside, but I don't like taking up a spot which could be occupied by someone there on business. However, as the sale progressed room came available and I moved in to fill the gap. I tried using live view and the flippy screen, but yet again found it wanting and went back to the viewfinder. This worked much better, especially when I dropped the shutter speed to get some motion blur.  My dismal mood had lifted, but all too soon the sale was over.

The weather on Saturday morning had taken a turn for the worse. It was o bad that I almost abandoned any thoughts of going outside. Like a fool I had got up early and with a little work soon done I took a chance. Unfortunately the rain and low cloud, plus a stupid detour of my own making, got me really hacked off. If the rain hadn't stopped by the time I got to the sheep dog trial I would have gone home without getting a camera out. I very nearly didn't bother as it was. I really couldn't see anything worth photographing. Just more of the same old same old. Still, nothing ventured.

Things weren't all that conducive to getting action shots. The layout was a bit awkward, and the sheep weren't at all cooperative. Even some of the dogs got lost looking for the sheep. As I arrived over two hours after the trial had started there weren't many folk about either. I pottered about looking for different angles without any real success.

Perseverance sort of paid off. Just as I was getting fed up I saw the dog on a quad watching the action with a couple of people and their dogs doing the same. I took loads more shots than I often do of such scenes (I had plenty of room on the memory card...) looking for the best angle, depth of field, and combination of elements and gesture. I'm not sure I got it 100% right.

It's a pity that the paperwork seems to always get done in a vehicle at the trials, or in the back of a livestock trailer, as that is one element of the events which I have very few pictures.

After about three hours with only a few sheep penned boredom was setting in. When I'm not in the right frame of mind it's always a toss up between trying to break out of it or admit defeat. Rather than hang around I gave up. On the way home I felt like giving up on these sheepy subjects completely and on taking photographs in general. What's the point of taking pictures which will hardly get seen?

My gloom was lifted a little when I got home to find that a book I'd forgotten I'd pre-ordered was waiting for me. Although I had promised myself to stop buying books of photographs taken thirty or forty years ago the Daniel Meadows book had to be an exception as I admire his work so much. Not just because the pictures are good but also because he makes recordings of the people in many of them. The photographs are placed in context which a lot of contemporary (art) documentary photography doesn't.

The book itself, Now and Then: England 1970-2015, is just the right size to hold easily and flick through or read. Unlike a lot of books coming out these days it's reasonably priced too. With 160 pages containing over 100 photos it's a bargain at £25. Available here.

What strikes me most about Meadows's work is it's unpretentiousness and its sincerity. Not that there isn't an agenda. Everyone has an agenda.

There's a related exhibition at The Bodliean in Oxford next month which is a bit far for me. Closer to home Meadows is included in a show on the Wirral at the Williamson. This looks like it should be worth a visit, but I'll probably not manage it as it's the wrong side of the Mersey for me

Am I feeling any more positive now? Not really.

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Getting burned out

There are times when I get quite frustrated with my photography. And with what I have access to photograph. Which becomes a reason for the frustration with the photography.

It's really not enough to enjoy being somewhere to make pictures of it. When I get a free afternoon and the sun shines I head north east. It takes me the best part of an hour to get where I'm going. Most of the time there's nothing there to photograph except the place itself. Which I find ultimately pointless. Landscape photographs come very low down on my hierarchy of suitable subjects. Even landscape photographs taken by people who are good at landscape photography usually leave me cold. They hae nothing to hold my attention or make me think anything beyond "That's nice/atmospheric." There's no story to them.

Taking a walk down a river I tried making some pictures, but they were nothing beyond records of what it looked like.

Admittedly, a bald sky doesn't make for a great landscape picture, hence including some overhanging branches. But still... Then again, no matter how 'nice' the quality of light might be it's not really enough of a subject in itself beyond the 'that's nice' reaction.

These sort of pictures are fine as illustrations to accompany a text, in something like a guide book for example. Taken with more care to light and atmospheric conditions they might even look 'nice' printed and framed. They'd be nothing more than decoration even so.

Yet I keep on returning because I like being there and keep hoping that one day something might click.

There's always a chance of stumbling across something interesting happening. Making pictures of it is another matter. When you aren't expecting to see an event unfolding there's a strong possibility of having the wrong lens attached, and a greater chance of not being able to get in the optimal place. So it was when I had to stop to let a flock of sheep be driven towards me and over a bridge.

A longer lens would have improved the picture of the dog lying down - to make the sheep appear closer. The best viewpoint, I think, would have been on the left, by the wall on the other side of the stream. Not least because of the position of the sun. But there you go. An opportunity missed.

When the sheep had spread out in their fresh pasture I had a go at a sheepscape.

 At least my sheepscapes have sheep in them, not to mention electricity poles. The only way landscapes, of any sort, can work for me is as a collection with a theme, and certainly without 'prettyfying' things.

Sunday saw the end of the brief sunny spell and Monday was looking damp right up to the last minute. That was handy because the final agricultural show of my summer was to be held on the Monday. I wasn't all that bothered about going as it's a long trek but with nothing else to look forward to I put work to one side and set off.

With no great interest I thought I might try to keep away from the sheep pens, and even stick to using a 35mm lens. Neither plan lasted long and I soon had the superzoom out to photograph sheep.

As to be expected it was more repetition, although I did drag myself away from the small showing of Lonks to record some other breeds. One new sight for me was a Cheviot having baby powder rubbed into it's face.

A rarity was me taking a picture of someone smiling.

 Not so rare, a picture of a photographer photographing sheep.

As well as at least two 'gentlemen of the press' there were quite a few other people with fancy cameras, including two I've met before at Yorkshire shows. Once again this has got me questioning why I bother and considering calling it a day on this subject. That sense of doubt didn't really kick in until I got home and started reviewing my 300 plus rubbish photographs. Finding decent pictures which aren't like everyone else's and yet which still tell the story is hard. Maybe I set my sights too high when it comes to judging my pictures? Or maybe it' just that I'm crap?

I try to avoid the obvious pictures most of the time, but occasionally I give in to the temptation. One thing using the superzoom does is make me think about backgrounds. With a fast lens it's too easy to make a background less distracting by opening up the aperture. It makes pictures look 'professional' and sharper. It also takes context away, which reduces the story telling aspect. I still try to make backgrounds count, and make pictures which are complex rather than people (or sheep) in isolation.

When I do go for simple compositions I usually use the longer end of the zoom range to crop out backgrounds. A longer focal length, used close, blurs backgrounds even with a smallish aperture. There's more than one way to shear a sheep! If I can incorporate a happy accident due to timing so much the better.

I did wander round the rest of the show in an attempt to find something to spark my interest, but only the sheep dog trial appealed to me. The rabbit and cavie tent might have been worth a look during teh judging. Perhaps a bit too similar to poultry judging to keep me interested?

The sheep dogs weren't all that engrossing. Something else that might have been better seen earlier in the day when the sun wasn't quite so in my face. Then again the sheep were a stroppy lot.

 The people watching were more interesting, although it's always a case of seeing them from behind.

 Five hours trudging around with a camera bag over my shoulder did my bad foot no good at all. So it was no wonder that the tractor shuttle left as I arrived at its departure point. I couldn't be bothered waiting for the next one to turn up and set off back to the car park. Even if I continue to photograph at agricultural shows I'll not be visiting this one again unless I get paid. Enjoyable though it is the journey is  too much of a trek.

Poultry shows have lost interest for me, sheep dog trials are going the same way and I'm undecided about sheep shows and sales. The trouble is I can't think of anything different to photograph. Well, I do have one idea...

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