The River - I can't believe I have written about this!!!

Quite some time ago I wrote a series of posts regarding an essay I was working on called The River.  I actually completed the essay a while ago but apart from showing it a Blackburn Camera Club, I omitted to do anything else with it.  I think I just got caught up with getting shows ready and starting new bodies of work.

Anyway,  I've finally got round to posting the final AV presentation on YouTube and each of the stills are on my flickr page.  There is more to this story but that will come in the very near future.

Messing with a purpose

The last few months have been hard.  A bout of illness has left me feeling uninspired and a tad unproductive.  Yes, I've done a little and I believe I have done it well but trying to find the motivation to pick up at least one of my cameras has been a challenge.  It's a rarity that rolls of film that have been put in my bag to shoot with haven't left the canisters they came in.

On Monday, I visited my camera club well, I say my camera club, we were actually visiting Darwen as one of our joint evenings.  The guest speaker was Barry Payling.  Barry is a well respected photographer who shies away from digital and continues to shoot with his Hasselblad on Velvia film.  Not only that he shows his slides (real ones, not digital) on a Hasselblad projector.  Barry proved to be a good speaker with some very nice images.  Not everything was to my taste but there were some that I did enjoy.  The most important thing about Monday night, for me, was seeing my photography friends again.  It has given me the kick up the backside that I needed.  So, this week, while the weather was nice I actually managed to get out and shoot some pictures.  Nothing too serious, just messing really but messing with a purpose.

I’m not sure if it’s time to get back working on my essays again.  It might be a little too soon but as things improves it will come back around.  For now, it was nice to to shoot.

The rest can be seen here.

A trip with a Trip

Ghyll Cemetery

Just before Christmas I bought some Kentmere 400 film.  Basically to try it out and I have to say, I am impressed.  It’s a lovely film for the price.  Yeah, I’m impressed.

A couple of weeks ago, I put the film in to my little Olympus Trip 35 and started shooting with it.  Nothing in particular but just trying the film and getting used to the camera.



A Nelson Street

I love the Trip.  It’s such a fantastic design and beautifully built.  The images from it are lovely too.

So, just taking my time shooting a little randomly slowly started to fill the roll up.  Even Eve, my daughter took it out and had a go at shooting with it!  She did pretty good as well!



Griffin Manor

First up was a stop off a Ghyll Church and Cemetery and Barnoldswick.  Some nice little shots came off from that.

Then there was pulling my camera out of the bag at the camera club.  Just for a little documentary type shot.

One grab shot in Nelson which I think has a nice social commentary without having people in it and finally, a little walk around Griffin Park, Blackburn.

To see the shots and other shots with the trip visit my flickr set here.

Back in the Box

As posted a little while ago, Remnants went back in its box with a little sadness both from me and the gallery at La Dolce Vita, Colne.  Finally, I have got round to sorting everything out and I have now got a little time to reflect.

As part of this process I took photocopies from the comments book and they are fantastic.  I thought I would share what has been said about Remnants.

‘Really impressive and very moving’

D. Claude.  Leeds

‘Emotive, calming’

G. Hensley.  Trawden

‘Very atmospheric and engaging’

I. Cleasby.  Oxford

‘Very beautiful images, dark and sombre but uplifting’

                                    M. Fielding.  Colne

‘Captivating, mesmerising images.  Beautiful.’

                                    Miriam & Andy.  Colne

‘What an unexpected surprise!  Very impressive indeed!’

                                    G. Read.  Colne

‘Simply brilliant and nice to see a local artist’

A. Ul-haq.  Colne

Thank you so much to everyone who visited the exhibition and took time to comment.

Lancaster with the Camera Club

Monday night saw a group of us from Blackburn & District Camera Club head north up the M6 to Lancaster.

For a change we had some decent weather and some decent light.  I haven't processed many of the images yet but here is two that I have done so far.

While not massively stunning images the re-occurring themes of stone, monochrome and nature taking the built environment back feature quite heavily.

Today I have been doing some work around Pendle, but more on that tomorrow!

An Evening Out with my Daughter

After the constant deluge of rain we seem to be getting all summer, Sunday night dried up and turned in to quite a nice evening.  So my daughter and I decided we would pick up our cameras and go out on the Ribble to catch the sunset.  Well, with it being school holidays, why not?

Anyway we came back with a couple of images that we both like.  My favorite being the one pictured left.  

I wasn't intending the swan to be in the image but it came and wanted some attention.  I was looking for long exposures to bring out the movement in the water.  Would you believe that the swan actually managed to stay still enough to get a sharp enough image at an exposure of four seconds!!!

On Monday night I was out with my friends from Blackburn Camera Club.  We took a ride up to Lancaster and did some shots up there.  I'm in the middle of processing those and will post them later in the week.

On the Pixel front we have finalised our guest contributor today.  That announcement will be coming soon!

Exciting times and being busy!

It's been exactly a month since I sat down and wrote a post.  I can't believe that I have been this busy!  So what's been happening in my world?  Sit back and I'll tell you!

In the last post I wrote about a talk that I was due to give at the Blackburn Camera Club.  This was done with Bob Singleton, club secretary and very much partner in crime.  We did a ten minute talk (each) on our influences.  We hadn't conferred or discussed our selections previously but it turned out that the evening was going to be monochromatic!  Bob talked about Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado who is an extremely talented individual.  His catholic upbringing obviously comes through in some of his photographs which can only be described as epically biblical.

My talk carried on the monochromatic theme but with very different results.  Those being of Jerry N. Uelsmann.  Uelsmann is an American born photographic surrealist who creates all his images in the dark room.  Obviously, I don't have the time (or the space) to do that so I do my surrealist images in Photoshop.

In addition to this I have been busy putting together my submissions for Blackburn & District Camera Club's Annual Exhibition.  I've come to a decision that this will be my last year of doing this as I want to concentrate on my own work and not competing.  In fact, I've decided that it will be the end of me competing altogether.  The side of the camera club that I seem to be enjoying the most is that of delivering talks, seeing what other people are doing and helping people learn more about the subject of photography.  With this in mind I've decided that it would be better if I didn't compete at all and concentrate on the areas of the club that I am interested in and my own body of work.

Remnants has grown a few more images and has now been finally put to bed.  It seems that every time I add something to it it grows that little bit more.  So it is time to call it a day with that project and finish it.  The final shots added were of Jubilee Tower, Darwen taken during the warm spell towards the end of March.  All the images have now been processed and completed.  A Powerpoint presentation has been put together ready for the delivery of the project as a talk.  This slideshow has in excess of seventy slides and around 80 photographs spanning the entire project.  It includes images that will not make it to print or the book.

The book is still in the writing stage but should be available from my Blurb bookstore in the very near future.  Keep an eye on this blog for an audio-visual preview of the whole project and dedicated page.

I'm also working on an update to the Images of Marsden Park project.  This year is the parks centinery and so I'm developing an AV production to commerate.  Keep an eye on the images of Marsden Park page of this blog!

A couple of other things are keeping me busy at the moment.  Pixel, the camera clubs magazine continues to do well and I'm enjoying the privilege of editing it.  As well as this there are a couple of little projects that are on the go that I am involved in but you may read about these in the near future!  Well, I have to have something to keep you hooked!

Tired, busy and preparing for the Annual Exhibition

It seems like ages since I last put a post up.  It may have something to do with the fact that my computer is in storage while I re-model my house.  Thankfully that is now coming to an end and I should be back home.

Photography wise it has been extremely busy!  A while ago I posted about an unusual job.  Well, the job was for the Nelson Branch of the Salvation Army.  They requested a group photograph to celebrate their 130th anniversary.  I was more than happy to oblige and due to the amount of good work they do also waved my normal sitting fee.

A couple of weeks ago a couple of friends and I took a night off from our usual camera club meeting and did a diversion in to Blackburn Town Centre to do some night photography.  I got some shots that I really like.  Here are a couple.

In the coming weeks I have been booked to give several talks.  One is a return to the Salvation Army to talk about my photography.  This one is also going to be the first outing of the finished Remnants project.  I've one location left that I really want to shoot and add to the collection to completely finish the project but the end is almost in sight, which to be honest is a bit sad as I have really enjoyed this one and still haven't thought of a follow up.

The second talk is for the camera club (Blackburn & District Camera Club).  A couple of us are going to a talk about those photographers that influence and inspire us.  I'll post after the talk as I don't want the subject to yet be know.  All I will say is that the opening line of the talk is 'In the words of Monty Python "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition"'

This is the time of year for the Camera Clubs Annual Exhibition and just as the other memebers are, I am busy preparing.  We can enter up to 10 prints and 10 digital images.  The hard part is deciding what images to enter in which category.  It's one where you have to put aside your favourite images and try and second guess what a judge will like. The entry night is next Monday so good luck to everyone involved.  I will give reports as and when judging starts.

As far as competing goes I think this maybe my last year for a while.  There are a few photographic challenges that I want to complete over the next few years and the pressure of competing doesn't help.  So it may be time to step back a little and concentrate on what I want to achieve.

Anyway, we shall see what happens!

For something a little different!

I'm going to take a little of a side step with this post to introduce a new publication from Blackburn & District Camera Club.

Pixel is a new monthly magazine that is created by a small group of Blackburn & District Camera Club members overseen by its editor and Publicity & Communications Secretary, Lee Johnson.

The magazine aims to keep members informed of club activities and industry news as well as a way of showing off members work and giving hints and tips to our newer members or those new to digital photography.

The magazine is only available on line, although, special editions will be produced throughout the year that will be for sale.

More information about Blackburn & District Camera Club is available from http://www.bandd.cc/

Open publication - Free publishing - More blackburn

Busy, busy, busy!

Well, its been quite a while since I last entered anything on to my blog and really there isn't much to tell!  Live has been so hectic that I haven't even had chance to pick up a camera properly apart from a couple of jobs for clients.

In the next few months some interpretation boards are going to be installed in Borough of Pendle's parks containing an array of my images including landscapes and wildlife shots.  Will post more nearer the time.

This week sees the start of competition season at Blackburn & District Camera Club.  I have four images entered in the digital projection section.  Will post results sometime next week.

This week I accepted a job for a rather unusual but interesting assignment.  I'm keeping it a bit close to my chest at the moment but I will reveal all in the coming weeks.

Festive Wishes!

It's been a busy few weeks here.  Just putting together Remnants so have been out of action for a while.  Just had to post to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Finding Time!

Finally, I managed to sit down and do some editing.

A couple of weeks ago I went on an outing to Skippool Creek with other members of Blackburn & District Camera Club. It wasn't a particularly good day with grey flat skies, mist and low visibility.  Despite this I did come away with a couple of shots that I did like.  The shots have been sat in Lightroom waiting to be developed for two weeks with me just about getting round to them the other night.

I'm also working on a couple of surrealist images that need to be finished so my camera is going to be left alone for a couple of weeks while I catch up.

Typed by Lee and Caleb.

A Productive Weekend

This weekend has been particularly productive.

The Remnants project continues to grow.  Just when I think I've added more than enough images to it, I find another location that I have to shoot and add in.  At some point, I'm going to have to say stop and leave it well alone!

From Saturday morning you could tell it was going to be a nice sunset.  So about an hour before, I headed down to the Ribble, set up, sat and waited.  I shot three different aspects of the river at sunset and I have to say that looking at them in Lightroom, I think there are some gorgeous images to be had.  The one on the left is the first one out.  It's only in a rough edit so isn't quite perfect, but I think it's lovely for a start and a sneak peak!

I also finished editing the images for a clients portraiture session.  I quite happy with the finished article and I'm sure the client will be.  I think I've definitely got the essence they were looking for.

Tonight is the Presidents Prize night at Blackburn and District Camera Club.  It is also the last chance to obtain Photographer of the Year points.  At the moment I'm lying in fifth place, considering I haven't done much competing this year, I'm quite happy with that!  The interesting fight is in the beginners section where only one point separates the leaders!  Should be an interesting night!