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 about with Photoshop

The other night I decided to revisit some shots that I took at Widdop the other week.  There is nothing wrong with the original shot.  In fact, I actually like it.  What I was interested in doing was trying to see if I could emulate a pinhole camera using Photoshop.

In fact, I ended up using two programs to get somewhere near the look I wanted.  I also used a Fuji Velvia 50 filter with the grain from a Superia 400 fulter in DXO Super Film Pack 3.

Will I give shooting pinhole and do it the easy way in Photoshop?  Will I hell!  It's nowhere near the same but out of interest I think I'm going to have this lightjet printed.  Just our of interest and experimentation.

Being Multi-disciplined

Most photographers have a passion for one particular area or genre of photography, others try a bit of everything and as a result of this master any.

I like trying new things.  I like trying new techniques but I quickly find that I'm bored and return to my two favourite disciplines, nature (in this I include landscape and wildlife) and documentary.  I just guess it is where I am comfortable, where I am home.

Lancoast

As well as working on Laundry, I am also working on a second essay entitled Lancoast.

Lancoast is an exploration of the Lancashire Coastline through the medium of photography.  At the moment it is very much in the planning phase.  But the general idea is to shoot monochromatic coastal landscapes on a pinhole camera and use alternative processes to develop film and create prints.

At the moment I'm experimenting with film and various cameras to see what I can achieve before heading to the coast to shoot some images.

Like Laundry, Lancoast has its own blog.  It can be found here.  Why not stop by and have a look.

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.

When the River ceases to flow - The authoring of a photo-essay

I've often said throughout my blog that rather than producing single images I much prefer to produce a photo-essay.

For those that are quite new to photography a photo-essay is very much like a written essay.  It tells a story from beginning to end. Of course, a photo-essay is done visually and can take many different forms.  It can be documentary; it records the story with straight record photography.  It can be a series of images linked by a common theme or it can be a series of images that have, in simplistic terms, a certain look about them.

The River has become my latest attempt at producing one such essay.  However, with this one I decided I would come at it from a slightly different angle in the fact that I would use the medium of an AV (audio visual, a bit like a film with still photographs in) to tell the story.

Before I continue I would like to point out that I am not a filmmaker and I have no intention of migrating in to the world of film.  It's just too complicated to make something that is credible and meaningful.  I will leave this to the people that are good at it!

So back on to the subject of photo-essays.

With Remnants, I had no problems.  I like history, I like stone, I like landscapes, I knew the locations.  Straight forward.  Turn up, shoot, process, job done.  The River however, is a whole different ball game.

Up to date I have covered around a third of the river that I have chosen as the subject.  There are 212 files in the project folder including 47 pieces of video footage.  Here lies the problem.  Most of the images have the same type of treatment on them; I have a look.  Most of the images show the river as it is, wort's and all. I have a story.

So where's the problem?

Well, the problem is that a lot of the images are starting to look the same.  There isn't enough variation between them to make them stand out.  And this brings me round to the point of this post.

What makes a photo-essay work?

In my opinion the aspect of a photo-essay that makes it work isn't as much the photography as you would first think.  For me, what makes a good photo-essay is the editing.  It's the photographers ability to narrow down all the shots they have taken in to a few that tell the story in a clear and concise manner.

Going back to the River then, how do I take the project forward?  Well, after a lot of thinking, sleep deprivation and more thinking I've come to the conclusion that I am going to narrow it down to around twenty images.  These images won't necessarily tell the full story and will probably be abstracts of the River.  The actual landscape aspect of the project will be shot as film and the film itself will tell the full story.

As much as I like digital, I am still quite keen to have a physical product at the end of the project.  I have kind of decided that this will be in the form of a series of prints from the project.  The film will be hosted at a gallery (that is already sorted, more information nearer the time) and then held on my You Tube account.  Expect to see a preview in the coming weeks.

By the way.  If you want to see some examples of photo-essays why not have a look at our latest issue of Pixel magazine.  Back issues can be found at Pixel's website; www.pixelmag.co.uk

A turn in The River is not always a happy one!

If you have been following this blog then you will know that I started work on a project with the working title of The River towards the end of 2012.

During the last couple of months I have made numerous trips to the river that is the subject of the project.  These have been really enjoyable trips mainly because not only is the river very appealing but for the most eastern of its course it is in a beautiful location.

I was becoming aware that I was focusing too much attention on this one stretch of river and for the project to be a success then it was time to consider other locations.  Therefore, I paid a visit to a short stretch that runs through the Waterside area of Colne.

The first thing that I noticed was a contrast and I thought it was one that would really spoil the project.  The amount of rubbish and waste that was thrown in the river was unbelievable.  I was honestly shocked.

I really don't know why I should have been.  I have spent most of life working around or studying rivers.  I have seen the best and the worse and generally, Lancashire rivers have vastly improved from when I was a kid and even more greatly improved in the last ten years.


After a lot of thought I realised why it had shocked me.  It wasn't the fact that there was litter and rubbish in the river, it was the fact that actually I was only around a mile and half away from the stretch that I had been working on.  Two miles from where two becks meet to form the river and roughly three miles from its source high up on the moorlands.  It was the fact that in that really short span of river, humans had left a massive mark on it and not one that is positive.

I think the three images here sort of bring home the impact.  There were taken in less than one hundred yards of each other.

So the question is this; armed with this knowledge how do I make this work in a project that was supposed to be uplifting?

I found this a really difficult question to answer and I came to the following conclusion.  This has to be told as it is.

Why?

Well, if I don't tell it as it is then the whole project will be a lie.  True, I could just focus on the pretty bits but anyone wanting to visit the location after seeing my work would be seriously disappointed.  With this in mind there will be a short section devoted to this particular stretch and it will show the river as it is.

In fairness, it wasn't all doom and gloom.  I came across James P. Sullivan from Monsters Inc which made me smile.  The something amazed me.  Bobbing about this stretch of river looking for food was a Dipper.  Despite being in the centre of a busy town, despite the rubbish it was here; it was pretty close to me and I still didn't bag me a Dipper!

As for the pretty stretch of river, I am going to return there.  I have to.  I want some wildlife to come in to this project and there is plenty there and plenty of places I can get close enough to film and photograph.  In addition I will continue to travel further west to where the river meets Pendle Water and I will continue further east to the source of the river, and to follow the becks that feed it.

I just hope that as I travel further west the conditions improve and that I have seen the worse that the River has to offer.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Another Ribble Shot

I've just finished editing another River Ribble image and thought I would post it!

Getting Time to Edit!



It's all very well having a productive weekend, the problem is actually sitting down at the PC and editing the images.



Earlier this week I posted a rough edit of one of the images from Saturday evening on the Ribble.  I finally got round to making a clean edit and finish it off, last night.  I also carried out an edit on the image (pictured left), Rockin the Ribble.  This took quite a bit of work as the levels of contrast between the highlights in the sky and darker midtones of the water were massive!  This image was shot as the light was dying and the water to the right of the frame took on a beautiful dark blue/purple colour.  The highlights on the water were a bit bright but when adjusted they took on a pink colour that compliments the image well.

There is still another couple of images to come out of this shoot yet, just need the time to sit down and edit!  I still also have the new Remnants shots to sort out!

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!