And then came the snow!

January had been quite warm and dry but then came the snow; and did it.  For once we had quite a decent coverage but not too much to cause havoc as it quite often does here.

I have an interest in images that are quite minimal.  I like dead space and of course I like monochrome photography.  So it was the perfect time to go out with my camera.

I drove around a bit looking for an image and couldn’t find anything I really liked.  Eventually I ended up in Barley struggling for inspiration.  I then remembered a shot that I had taken in the past at nearby Newchurch.  The shot was already done in monochrome previously but the days conditions meant that it would work well.  So I set off in that direction.

I first stopped off at a plantation near Barley Bank Farm.  I quote like the idea of something disappearing deep in to the photograph and I thought that this work well.   It does, sort of.  The image also has an appearance of being monochrome when actually it is full colour.

In the end I got to the location and it couldn’t have been more perfect.  The snow was pristine and the sky was grey.  Nice for subtle changes in colour.  Dialling in a bit of exposure compensation would mean that the snow would be almost paper white and the image would contain all the shades of grey (not just 50!) through to almost black.

A bit of fine tuning in Lightroom meant I had one of the most beautiful images I have ever made.

Snow photography is interesting.  You either go for an images that is real and as a result you’ll have a blue-ish cast to the image or you dial in exposure composition and have white snow.  At the time I wrote about this for Pixel Magazine.

Incidentally, I do tend to print the images I make and I like.  This one prints gorgeously!

Still January

January was quite a productive month.  A few days after shooting the Lancashire Coats a few friends and I had a night out round Blackburn.  I had sort of pre-visualised a shot that I wanted to try and so off we went to a back alley.

I have to admit I have got in to the habit of planning shots and collating ideas.  These are kept in a little A5 notebook that is pretty much always with me.

In there are notes on techniques, sample images, film data even a bit of journal.  The other thing that I do is sketch out ideas and lighting diagrams.

Yesterday I talked about the essay leading you rather than you leading the essay sometimes a shot does exactly the same.  It's easy drawing a lighting diagram away from the location. When you do get on site sometimes things just alter.  I suppose I should do some more research rather than relying on memory but hey ho!

So here is a posh selfie shot and the lighting diagram so you can see the difference!

Back to the Coast

After the hustle and bustle of Christmas was out of the way it was time to return to the coast to try and make a little progress on Lancoast.

I started Lancoast at Lytham last year and that shoot had gone well.  In August of 2014 I had visited Blackpool and had struggled with that.  Making a monochrome image there was difficult.  My eye kept looking for the colourful and garish instead of focusing on producing a monochrome image.

So the return to Lancoast was to start in Blackpool.  This time the shoot went well.  I managed to get a couple of shots that would make nice monochrome images.  I felt enthused again.

Starting quite early in the morning and knowing what I wanted pretty much meant that I was done in Blackpool within an hour.  The next stop was Cleveleys.  I’d seen some images of Mary’s Shell and that was something I wanted in the essay.  So off I went.  On the way there I came across a roundabout that had a cheeky little character peeping out from behind the cover.  It’s made quite a nice shot although it wouldn’t work in black and white.

Next up was Fleetwood.  I got a couple of cracking shots there.  My favourite being of the England house.

I’m a planner.  I like to plan my shots and projects quite carefully but what you find is that when you do start shooting they take you on a journey.  I’ve found that if you fight the journey and stay true to your original idea and planning then you end up with something that seems a bit more contrived, somehow less real.  If you go with it you end up with a far better end result and you also genuinely learn something along the way.

Originally Lancoast was set to be a wholly monochrome essay but by going on the journey it has become something else.  The main focus will still be monochrome.  At the end of the day the outcome has always been to produce a set of salt prints form the images and that is still the case.  However, now it will also have a colour element to it.  It maybe that I transfer the digital files to film and then process them as colour prints.  Don’t know haven’t decided yet.  We’ll have to see where the journey takes me.

Long Time Posting

Its been ages since I last posted.  At the moment I class myself as an amateur photographer.  Why?  well at the moment I don't make the bulk of my earnings from my photography.  Not that there is anything wrong with being an amateur in fact some of the amateur photographers I know are more talented and more professional in the way they go about their photography than those that make a living and in some cases a very comfortable living from the art form.

The problem with being an amateur is time.  You have to balance your photography with family life and work that means sometimes the photography side of your life gets put on the back burner a little.  So lets go right back to when I last posted to see what I've been up to.

Well December so my return to Pendle's Mayors' Bit of a Do event.  This event is organised by Pendle Council staff on behalf of the Mayor of Pendle and is for the pensioners of the Borough.  Its a lovely little Christmas event and is often the highlight of the year calendar for some people that would otherwise be lonely.

My role during the event is to document people that are there and some of the acts that perform.  The first year I did this I found it quite a challenge now I don't find it that difficult.  In fact I think I've got this stage photography thing pretty much down.  My camera performs well at high ISO's required
for working in dark environments.  The stage light are quite bright so spot focusing is a must and often the ISO stays quite low.  The difficulty I have with this subject is predicting those little moments that make the photograph special.  So instead of slowing down like I do with film I tend to shoot quite a few shots and then narrow them down in the editing stage.  I don't particularly like working like this but it does get the shot.

When I'm documenting this type of event I have to be really careful that  I don't go all Martin Parr.  I like the that Martin Parr documents life.  He is sometimes described as being quite sarcastic however, I think he has a tendency to tell the story as it is.  Have a look at his essay The Last Resort.  Anyway  I caught two images that I felt were good.  The first image I think is a comment on old age.  The second is a little moment between the Mayor and Mayoress.

Is this something that I would like to do professional?  I think not.  I love music and would love to shoot some events, but I think I would soon get bored of it pretty quickly.