Another change of scene

After my excursion to the marsh I still had the urge to take a break from the mossland project, although where I ended up was another moss. When I parked up I noticed that the dilapidated barn I've photographed a few times in the past was even more decrepit looking. It had to be worth another visit before it collapses completely. getting back to my roots I had forsaken the zoom lenses and taken the ancient combination of a 50mm and a28mm.It's a nice, light, way to operate and makes me move about more to frame shots.

While the barn has been open to passers-by for years it had never been subject to any noticeable vandalism. Now it has. One wall sprayed up with my name! Who this other Dave is will remain a mystery, but he clearly doesn't believe in taking only photographs and leaving only footprints.

Being quite dark inside the barn, even on a bright sunny day, I used my favourite lighting technique, the pop-up flash, for some pictures. I also did the stop right down and put the sun behind a small gap trick to create a starburst.

In the past the barn has been used to shelter sheep, and probably to work on them if the rusty shears wedged in the baler twine holding a  gate to block off the entrance is anything to go by.

I spent an enjoyable time wandering round the inside and outside making more record shots than those shown here. When I got home and searched my files for earlier pictures I failed to locate some I know I took a good few years ago with an ultrawide lens. No matter how I searched my LightRoom catalogue they didn't turn up. Baffling, but a reminder to keyword everything with as many options as possible on import.

After that interlude it was back to the moss project, doing my best to get out in the mornings when there is more going on. I also reverted to the zoom lens approach. Mainly because many subject need more focal length than my prime lenses offer.

I was pleased to see a crop being covered with insect netting, and close enough to get some pictures. At first I was wary of pointing the lens at the workers, but they gave me the thumbs up so I cracked on.

Next time out it was back to inanimate objects in fields.

After a rest day I managed to time my walk with sunshine. A hot morning it was too. I was determined to try to break out of my usual habits and look for different angles.I'm not sure it works. When I do go for more 'interesting' angles and framings the pictures never feel quite right. They look nice enough, but...

 

When I stick to my usual boring framings I like the results much better.

 

The following morning was another hot one, but I changed my approach a little by digging out the hated 70-200mm lens and putting a 35mm on a second body. I was concerned the weight might be an issue but it proved not to be. For the first time I can remember the focal length range of the zoom actually worked for me. I didn't even miss the extra length than the 70-300mm provides.

There was plenty of work going on, which was good.

 

There was plenty of stuff too. Things I have photographs of already, but which I tried to make fresh pictures of. The forlorn looking bird scaring kite being one.

Overall the week had been productive. Some progress has been made and it's getting to a time where I need to set to organising what I have into categories. There's another zine exchange underway with an October deadline. I might be able to pull a subset of pictures from this project together for that.

On the subject of zines and books I took delivery of another work by Tessa Bunney this week. One of an ongoing series of zines from Another Place Press.

If I were a completist I'd have to buy every one of the zines in this series. That's not the way I think. My buying decisions are based on purchasing publications which contain pictures I want to look at. That's why I went for the Bunney zine, to add to two other of her publications on rural themes. Even if one of them doesn't relate to Britain.

Of course I am nothing if not inconsistent. It would seem reasonable that as my preference is for buying books of photographs of British rural life and ways I might buy every new publication that fits that description. For some reason Bluecoat's latest Kickstarter for a book of pictures from a Scottish island doesn't interest me much.I think it's because I'm getting a bit tired of the deluge of photos from the seventies and eighties which are appearing in print - even if some of the photographs are from is recent times. So maybe it's the black and white of that which is putting me off?

Something which is definitely in full colour is the test printing I ordered of my poultry pictures book. I wanted to see how some of my layouts would look when actually printed in a perfect bound (paperback) book. It might have been relatively expensive to get one copy printed, but it has saved me making mistakes on a big print run, and enabled me to change things before getting that far. some alterations may mean a change of pictures and sequencing. I'm glad I put that on hold until getting the test book.

As soon as I can get remotivated it'll be all systems go sitting at the computer dragging pictures about and juggling pages. Then I'll have to write an intro and tidy up the acknowledgements page. I think I have the basic sequencing sorted in my head so it should go fairly smoothly. I hope.

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Tough going

The search to find fresh pictures on the moss continues to be a struggle. What is apparent is that some times and days are more likely to provide opportunities for work pictures.

Even so there can be chances to add to the 50:50 and things-in-the-middle-of-the-frame subsets at any time.

To add variety I do keep looking for different angles and viewpoints, and ways of framing. It's always tempting to include the whole of an object in a picture, but sometimes a fraction of it is all that's required to suggest its presence. That's my explanation for the two pictures below at any rate!

The second one actually makes more sense than I first thought when I took it as it quite clearly  shows both the celery and the 'baskets' designed to take them on the conveyor.

Saturday was the return of poultry auctions. Alas still under Covid-19 restrictions with no onlookers permitted. I felt a little frustrated by this and had a largely fruitless trudge around my usual mossland routes. A trudge that ended up rather longer than I'd planned!

The next picture is an example of a good idea spoiled by being unable to get in the right position. I wanted to get the onions larger in the foreground and the tractor behind from a lower viewpoint. Being on the wrong side of a deep ditch with a bank of head-high weeds on it made the angle I was looking for impossible to achieve without the weeds totally blocking the onions. Hey ho.

Knowing that there wouldn't be much happening or altered on the moss I went elsewhere on Sunday for a short walk to scout something else out. It wasn't my intention to photograph crops but the different soil type and condition made me think there could be a comparison picture to be made to go with the one earlier in this post.

There's a sample copy of my poultry book due to arrive tomorrow. Not the full thing, one I've done to see how certain layouts look when printed. Already I know I have to alter the layout of the publishing file in one way. Unfortunately this means making a new document as I can't find a way to alter the existing on. A good job I put the design/editing on hold until I got the sample to look at. For safety's sake I might ditch some of my more adventurous spreads.

In the meantime I might get some prints made, or do some myself, of a few geometric farmed landscape pictures from the moss.

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Still ploughing the same old furrow

It's been another week of up and down weather. Throw in the time limitations work makes and it's been a case of getting out when the opportunity arises. either during a break in the rain or early doors. At least I don't have far to go to make pictures for the meanygate project, and access is always available even if there isn't always anything to see.

One day I might get bored of photographing the bird scaring kites. Not for a while I suspect!

On the morning walks I'm more likely to encounter work taking place. I'm finding the seedling trays almost as big a draw as the kites. One morning I made the picture below of 'before and after' trays on a trailer.

One my next visit there was more going on giving me a chance to take some pictures to provide more context. It's that push-pull of decisions between making stand alone 'art' pictures and story telling pictures.

I even got a bit 'clever'. I don't think too clever though.

I like the idea of the the next picture, but it should have been technically better. Like a fool I didn't check it for focus/sharpness and the tractor (which is what I focused on) is a bit soft. But as I always say, display it smaller enough and nobody will know it's soft!

This pic must have got me thinking because on a subsequent wander I changed my viewpoint for a picture of a fleece reel. I'm starting to break out of a visual rut and thinking about adding variety to the pictures.

Just a snap as I didn't have time to think about framing this one. The idea was to get an old and a new tractor in the frame, but the composition isn't good enough. It's another idea filed away in my memory banks to be dragged out at some appropriate time.

A later walk taken after a morning had improved saw me passing the hose reel which is better photographed earlier in the day. I contemplated exposing for the sky and lifting the shadows in post but popped the flash up for fill instead. I think it worked OK. Not too obviously lit.

One way or the other I need to start adding pictures of field work. The hard thing is to make visually compelling pictures. There's a bit of before and after interest in the ploughed and unploughed earth in a picture like the one below. A number of frames showing the turning procedure in which the harrow is jettisoned before the turn and picked up again might make for a sequence. Single images are more of a challenge.

 When the tractor turned right in front of me I saw a potential picture a fraction too late. D'oh! Another for the Nearly File...

  
That's been about my lot for the meanygate project. I'm still thinking about how to move it forward. Without much success.

The greenhouse pics have moved on a bit. I took a few more which, with some planning and additions might work up into a grid. Either as an out-take from the meanygate thing, as a standalone, or part of a future greenhouse project. I'll see.

Outside the project I carry on taking random pics. I'd seen these chooks looking out of their pop hole previously but not stopped to photograph them. This particular morning I did. I was glad I had the 28-300 attached. Which was a pity in one way as it made me more indecisive about getting rid of it. The picture needed a bit more processing than I usually do because there was a distracting out of focus patch of light green in the centre at the bottom of the frame. I couldn't quite get high enough to keep some hedge out of shot. It was a simple fix. A desaturation brush over the area and it was gone. This worked because of the dark wood. A slight decrease of the exposure as a graduated filter up from the frame bottom finished the job. I's also cropped in a little from the left for symmetry's sake.

Given that the lens was used wide open and the ISO was 7200 it's pretty well detailed and noise free at larger viewing sizes. An example of how high ISOs are more usable in good light than in poor. Which the review sites tend to gloss over when talking about high ISO performance.

Enough of the technical nerdery. The picture works because the subject is central, there's a near symmetry, and the colour palette is limited with a strong colour to draw the eye to the main subject. The hen's pose, being in profile, helps too. Not a great shot, but one I'm reasonably satisfied with.

Sheep dog trails are slowly starting up. Some are not allowing the public to attend because of the Covid-19 rules. Surprisingly I'm not finding myself too bothered by that. Maybe I've burned myself out on that front? It was certainly getting harder to find new pictures and my enthusiasm had been flagging because of that in the way it did with poultry shows. Then again, I'm only capable of maintaining one obsession at a time, and the moss farming is what's occupying my thoughts right now.

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Rambling - literally and metaphorically

Three months of wandering around the same square mile (or thereabouts) is unavoidably resulting it becoming harder and harder to avoid repeating myself. There's always the chance of taking photographs in the same place but in different light or when crops have grown or been harvested, but most of the time that is just tinkering. It can make things more obvious, such as this ditch which I found interesting because of the way the its two sides were differently managed. Flat light didn't make the difference as apparent as early morning sunshine did. So there' the chance to replace pictures with similar ones which tell the story more clearly. It adds nothing new though.

Then there's the possibility of photographing something from a different angle. Maybe including something else in the picture which might add to the narrative, or tell it more succinctly.

Now and then I get ideas for grids or pairs of pictures. The only way I could think of to illustrate how one field will be planted to provide a succession of crops was with a pair of pictures. Taking one picture 'side on' didn't show clearly enough how planting is done in sequence over a period of time.

While the farmed land is the main focus of this project greenhouses are still a interest. Whitewashed glazing can produce and almost endless variety of semi-abstracts.

Making pictures of farming machinery is part of the project. The dilemma is whether to make record shots which show them in situ in their entirety or make close up near-abstracts which don't explain much. Not that I have any clue what this thing below is!

Walking the deserted meanygates this morning got me to pondering about rural/farming documentary photography, both contemporary and from the past. There is a trend I've commented on for publishing books of British documentary photographs from the 1970s through to the 1990s these days. Bluecoat Press and Cafe Royal Books being two such publishers operating in different ways. Take a look at their catalogues and there is little in the way of rural subject matter. Is this because there is none to reproduce? Or is there something else at play?

I suppose it is probably inevitable that most documentary photography takes place where most people live - in towns and cities. That makes sense as an explanation. However, maybe there is also a bias against subject matter which can appear romantically nostalgic, or even twee. Especially when it is looked at retrospectively. This could be a result of the British view of the countryside as some green and pleasant idyll. I do sometimes wonder if James Ravilious's pictures were taken through slightly rose tinted lenses.

Then there is contemporary rural documentary photography. Is it treated equally with urban photography by today's taste makers? The rural makes forays into the works of some contemporary lights' oeuvres, but it never makes up a continued focus. Then there is the problem (for me) of 'art documentary' and 'poetic photography' which are s more about the pictures as pictures than about what is in the pictures.

There are, of course, exceptions. John Darwell's Dark Days and Ken Grant's Flock are two books of photographs on rural/farming issues which manage to avoid tweeness and consist of unpretentious documentary photography. There are others who can be found online who photograph the rural and rural life. Some in an art based practice, some in a more documentary way. This is not to include working agricultural journalists, those shooting for stock libraries, or devoted amateurs.

Contemporary pictures are out there, and there must be archives from previous generations waiting to be discovered. But perhaps not appreciated by the photographic establishment.

Those were some of my random thoughts about the visual recording of the rural as I pondered what I'm up to and why I should make more of an effort to record the work that goes on locally. And more importantly get it disseminated.

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