Lee Johnson Photography hits the road!

Former president of Blackburn & District Camera Club and Editor of Pixel the online Photography Magazine for Pennine Lancashire, Lee Johnson sets out on to the lecture circuit for the first time.

Lee is no stranger to delivering talks and lectures and offers a range of lectures to suit anyone with any interest in photograph and local history.

Subjects for 2014/15 Lectures include:

• Remnants - A look at mans impact on the Pennine Lancashire landscape from the use of stone throughout the ages.  This consists of mainly monochromatic documentary landscape images and lasts around 1.5 hours.  This talk can be extended to include elements of processing techniques to get 'the Remnants look.'
• The River - The River is a documentary essay on the course of Colne Water.  It consists of a lecture lasting approximately an hour followed by an audio-visual presentation of the essay.  This lecture can be adapted to talk about audio-visual presentations.
• Photo-Essays  - A light-hearted look at photo-essays and telling stories through photography. This includes advice on photo-books and desk-top publishing and producing AV's.  Approximately 1.5 - 2 hours.

All lectures can be tailored to suit your individual club needs.  Email us for details.

Feeding an obsession

For many photographers a place that is close to their heart becomes the subject of their obsession.  It's a place that is generally close to their home; it's a place that they will visit regular; it's a place that they will know like the back of their hand; and it's a place that will be the subject of many, many photographs, even though most of them will not be seen beyond their computer screen.

How do I know this?  Well, I have my obsession.  My obsession is a hill in Lancashire called Boulsworth.  It lies to the south of Nelson and Colne  and towers above the village of Wycoller.

My favourite walk to the summit is from Coldwell Reservoirs. and is relatively flat until you take the concessionary path to the summit.

Boulsworth has been the subject of my photographs before, it in fact plays a part in Remnants and will no doubt feature in future landscape projects.  So why is this hill my obsession?

It would be easy of Pendle to be my obsession.  It has a lot going for it, it is unusual in the fact that it stands alone, it has history and atmosphere but for me Boulsworth is just something else.  I can't put my finger on it and couldn't say why, but this hill has to be one of my favourites in Lancashire and I definitely have more photographs of this hill than any other.

Last Wednesday I managed a trip back to my obsession and did I catch it at the right time?  I was there just as the sun was going down and managed to catch these images.  Although bitterly cold, the sun was out and the sky was threatening more snow, just perfect for a landscape photographer.  However, I didn't come away with the photograph that I was attempting to capture.  That one may have to wait until next winter now.  Watch this space!

Feeling at Home

Jubilee (Darwen) Tower - Taken from 

Remnants.

For nearly as long as I can remember I have had a love for high places.  In essence it's not just a love of hills and mountains but more in particular Lancashire hills.

It began when I was a teenager.  I would get home from school, blow off homework grab my trusty spotted companion (a dalmatian named Billy) and head for the moors.  I loved the walk through the wooded valley and up past the reservoir before striding out on to the open moorland which is home to Darwen Tower.  Billy loved it too.  We spent hours and hours up there just wondering, sitting by moorland streams, listening to Skylarks and generally watching the world go by.

Even as I grew up that love didn't die.  In fact it grew deeper as I joined Lancashire Countryside Service as a Volunteer Ranger and eventually working full time.  Funnily enough, it was the same hills that I wondered as a boy that I now worked as a man.  Sometimes, Billy would be with me too.

The Ranger Service broadened my knowledge of the hills and sent me to other areas to explore, firstly in the West Pennine Moors and Rossendale, then the South Bowland Fells along with Clougha to the far North finally settling in Central Lancashire and becoming intimate with Pendle, Boulsworth and the hills surrounding the Wycoller Valley.

I do love the Lake District, I love North Wales even more but there is nowhere like my home turf.

What has this got to do with photography?  Everything.  I produce my best work when I'm working in Lancashire.  Why?  I think its because I love it or that I know it as well as anyone else.  Maybe it's just because I'm fascinated and amazed by it.  Perhaps its a life long love affair.

Some places I am really drawn to.  One of these is known as Walton Spire.  The Spire sits on Knave Hill high above the towns of Nelson and Colne in Lancashire, is directly between both Pendle and Boulsworth Hills and is in close proximity to the site Castercliffe Hill Fort.

Knave Hill is a bit strange.  It is my opinion (and also that of others) that the hill is man made.  Looking at aerial photographs it is possible to identify concentric rings of terracing that appear to be the construction of the hill.  However, the site has another feature in the Spire it self.  The bottom part of the cross is an ancient stone monolith that would have probably acted as a marker for travelers on the trade route from the Irish Sea to the North Sea or vice versa.  It is possible that the monolith could be somewhere in the region of 4,500 years old although some legends say that it was erected in rememberance of the Battle of Brunanburh in 937.  The top of the spire was added in the 1830's by Richard Thomas Wroe-Walton a local gentleman with strong religious values who live in Marsden Old Hall that still stands in nearby Marsden Park.

What ever the reason or how ever old the Spire is.  I can't help being drawn to the place.  Earlier this week I went up there in the snow and got some lovely pictures of it while enjoying a bit of pleasant if not cold weather!  Even the sheep seemed happy to be there.

Remnants Update

Remnants now has its own page complete with Flickr slideshow illustrating all the images from the project and a preview of the book from our Blurb bookstore.

Remnants Book Released

Today sees the release of Remnants book.  The 86 page book is available in paperback and two hardback editions from our blurb shop.  See preview below.

Remnants by Lee Johnson | Make Your Own Book

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!

Out of the editing room - More Remnants Images

 Last night I finally finished editing some images that had been sat on my SD card for what seemed like an eternity.  Out of those images are some shots that I took in order to fit in with the Remnants project.
As I seem to get to the end of Remnants, I seem to find something else to add to it.  At the moment I've been adding follies to the collection and dry stone walls.  The walls may seem a little dull compaired to other aspects of the project but have you ever stopped to think how they were built and by who?

Now as Remnants draws to an end I am beginning to think about my next project and sitting down to play some more surrealist stuff.  Nothing is coming to light yet but I'm sure it will!

Getting time to edit!

Finally managed to find some time to sit down and do some editing.  I began by finishing off some work for a client. I'm quite happy with the results from that shoot but I'm more happy with the other stuff I have been producing.

I said in my last post that I had been out on Boulsworth with the view of shooting a location to further my Remnants project.  Well, I took a couple of other shots as well.  The one on the left is one that I have finished editing and I have to admit, I really like it.

The location I went to shoot was the doorway in the image below left.  This is one of Lancashire peculiar follies in the fact that it was built like this.  The opposite side

of the door way has been inscribed but this is barely readble due to erosion.

I think I have come away with a fantastic image but I'm not sure if it will make the final Remnants project.  The reason being that I don't think it works well as a mono.  Nonetheless, I had a fantastic afternoon up there and have a couple of lovely images out of it!

Getting out!

Finally, I manage to get out!

Yesterday afternoon was so nice that I headed for Boulsworth Hill and bagged another couple of shots for the Remnants series. It was bitterly cold, with snow on the ground and not easy walking but very much worth it. As an added bonus I saw a pair of Short-Eared Owls hunting. Hadn't seen any for years!

This afternoon, I'm heading out again! This time to Blacko to shoot the tower, Malkin Tower Farm and something else of interest I've spotted. Will post all the images when I've finished processing!

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.

From This Point Back - Exhibition Ends

Friday saw the end of my first solo exhibition, From This Point Back.  It was quite nerve racking but quite a few people went through and it was nice to read some of their comments on the visitor sheets.

It's going to be of a quiet time over the next few weeks as I reflect on the exhibition and begin putting together and finishing off Remnants.  I may even look at doing another exhibition at Marsden Old Hall.  I have to admit in the end it turned out to be quite a nice venue for it!  Watch this space!

Remnants continues to grow

The Remnants project continues to grow with a new series of images being added.

Despite the dull skies and flat light I have managed to capture some moody images that fit right in with the others in the series.

In a recent trip to Whalley I captured 50 images.  Of course not all of them will make it to the final edit but it doesn't half boost the amount of images to play with!