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!

Heptonstall - Still Messing with Film

I think I wrote previously that I had been ill for several months this year and this has taken its toll on my productivity levels.  A quick way of telling how little work I have done is the amount of film I have lying around.  I still have the majority of my stock of Superia 400 waiting to be used on Laundry; I've got several rolls of Fujicolour 200 and a roll of FP4+ rolling around my camera bag.  There is also nearly a full box of 4x5 sheet film still sat in the fridge.  On top of this I had a part used roll of Ilford's FP4+ in my K1000.  In fact it had been in there quite a while.  It was time to use it up.

I decided I would have a little trip to the nearby village of Heptonstall.  I had been meaning to do this for ages.  So while I had a roll of film to use on nothing in particular, I thought I would take a visit.

Heptonstall is quite a large village on the Yorkshire side of the border with Lancashire.  As far as remote goes in England it is quite remote being, that it is set quite high up in the Pennines  and is quite distance from any major towns or cities.   This probably one the reasons that it has stayed the way it has for many a year.

Even being so close to where I live and work, I had never heard of it until a couple of years ago.  Heptonstall first came into my consciousness through the work of Fay Godwin.  Godwin struck up a life long friendship with poet Ted Hughes.  Hughes collaborated with Godwin on a book of poems and photographs entitled The Remains of Elmet.  The poems were a reflection of Hughes' growing up and life in Heptonstall which lies in the ancient former kingdom of Elmet.  Each poem was accompanied by one of Godwin's' photographs.  The combination of these two extrodinary talents meant that visiting Heptonstall would appear on my to do list.  It would be remiss of me to mention that Heptonstall is also the final resting place of American poet and Hughes' wife, Sylvia Plath.

As it turned out this wouldn't be the last time that Hughes would have an influence on me.  His collaboration with another photographer, Peter Keene on River would lay the foundation stones for my project The River (more on this in the very near future).

Anyway, I managed to find a bit of time to visit and I have to admit I found the place captivating.  It certainly lends itself to photography and in particular film photography.  The centre of the village could be straight out of 1940's inspired film set.

It’s definitely a place that I must visit again and spend a bit more time photographing.  The shots into this post were shot on FP4+ rated at 50 ASA and developed in D74.

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.

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.

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!

Looking back can be good

Sometimes I get back to my computer with my card and upload the files to the PC.  Quite often I find images that I'm not particularly fond of.  Some of these I delete straight away and are destined never to see the light of day again.  Others, sit on my PC for a while and jump out at me when I have a sneaky look back.

Tonight was one such occasion.  I had decided that I was going to do some clearing down and found an image that I took on a trip to Folkestone earlier on in the year.  I wasn't overly keen on it when I uploaded but kept it anyway.  I decided that I would have a little play with the image more out of curiosity than expecting anything from it so file loaded in to Photoshop off I went and the final image is the one below.  Perhaps this will make a nice little print.

Back to the River

It is fair to say that I hate being stuck indoors.  This week we managed to get a brief rest bite from the winter weather.  Although cold it was sunny and we had some nice light.  So putting on my boots, winter jacket, thermals (of course, it is still February!) and picking up my camera and tripod bag it was time to head off back to the river.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had been reading one of my favourite poets, Ted Hughes, The River and this was what sparked my current obsession of water.  Actually, that's not quite true.  I've always had an obsession with water for as long as I can remember.  However, that obsession rather involves boats with big sails and a lot of money!  That being said I do find water fascinating and I find photographing it just as fascinating.  Why?  If you own a DSLR go and stand at the side of a fast flowing river.  Put your camera in to manual mode.  Turn off autofocus.  Set your ISO as high as possible to get a reasonable image.  Open up your aperture and set your shutter speed to 1000th second.  The just fire off a few shots.  What you get is a pattern shot of water droplets and flow.  You can pretty much guarantee that no two shots will be alike.  Even if you take a shot of the same patch of water.  This is what I find fascinating.

So my little obsession with water has grown into a project.

For Remnants not only did I produce a book, I also produced a slide show and mini Audio Visual (AV) presentation (if you run through my past posts you might find it!) for the Marsden 100 I also made an AV production.  However, sometime last year Bob posted an AV that combined film making with traditional photography AV.  I can't for the life of me find the link but the film obviously left a lasting impression as this is what I want to create for The River.  There is still quite a bit of work and planning to do but so far in my folder there are 153 shots with 27 video files and I'm not done yet.  Editing will probably great reduce this but its nice to know that I am well on my way with the project.

And so, as the sun sets on The River for now I would like to leave you with this image.

Just Because Snow Can Be Beautiful!

I know the recent snow has brought misery and difficulties to a lot of people during the course of the last couple of days.  However, it is easy to forget that it actually can be quite beautiful and a lot of fun.  Try and enjoy it while we can!

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.

A Productive Day!

Yesterday was one of my most productive days.  First was a trip out to somewhere I hadn't been before, Widdop Reservoir.  I didn't have long there but came back with this image.  No doubt I will be going back in the very near future!

Last night, I went down to our local running track.  I sort of have this idea centered around amateur sport as my next project.  So, while I was there I took a couple of test shots to see if it would work.  Not quite sure about them yet.  May have to try a couple of other locations first.

A big thank you!

My blog roll has reached over a thousand views!  Many thanks to all of you that have take the time to visit and have a look at my photographs.

Best wishes,

Lee

Playing with Witches

 On Wednesday I went out with a friend to take some images for use by Pendle Borough Council.

Our first port of call was the new Alice Nutter sculpture in Roughlee.  Alice Nutter was convicted and hung for being part of a covern of witches in the Pendle area.  In total 10 people from the area were taken to Lancaster tried and then hung.  Another, from Gisburn was taken to York and executed there.

Alice was unusual in the group as she was the widow of a wealthy farmer and it is often thought that she may have been convicted due to the jealousies of other local people.  The entire group were convicted on the evidence of a nine-year old witness named Jennet Device who mas made to stand on a table in front of a packed court room.

 After we were done with the sculpture we headed up in to the fields to capture some images of the landscape.  From this position we were able to get some nice pictures of both Pendle and Blacko.  It was a lovely hour and a bit, with warm sunshine in a beautiful part of the country.

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.

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!

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!

Nice surprises

One thing I love about being a photographer is the nice little surprises.  These surprises come in different forms.  Sometimes its when you process an image that you thought wasn't very good suddenly becomes stunning or sometimes its just those little moments of beauty that are generally missed.  One I had last week.

I was out walking and looked in to a field because something didn't look quite right.  Led there was a fox.  The little fella hung around for ages.  In fact, I got my tripod out and sat the camera on it and he quite happily let me take photographs of him for about 30 minutes or so!

The image (left) was taken at one of my favourite places, Castercliffe Hill Fort.  The three hawthorns reminded me of three witches and so that has become the title of the image!  Quite apt really!  This year is the 400th anniversary of the Pendle Witch Trail.