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January 2010 Blog Entries
29 January 2010
Fishy fun
I’ve added another page of images in the Toy Camera gallery, taken with the Lomography Fisheye 2 camera. One of the last remaining film cameras that I now use and something that digital has yet to replace with as good as an effect, especially at this price! Just like the Holga, its lo-fi results are more than made up with the creative images it produces and its great fun to use to boot. The unusual positions I have put myself in to get up close and personal to the subject are to comical to mention, but the results speak for themselves and I urge you to try one of these cameras yourself if you want to try some cheap photography entertainment that will test your creativity.
And speaking of creativity, you might also like to check out the March issue of Practical Photography magazine for my guide to shooting fantastic silhouettes. A copy of the article will appear in the Published Work gallery in due course.
20 January 2010
Gallery Update
I have made some cosmetic changes to the Gallery pages and reorganised some images. I have also added a new Projects gallery, where I can showcase a selection of pictures on a theme that I have been working on, which I feel look better in their own gallery. I have also added new pictures to all the galleries (hurrah, at last!), some old and some new, so feel free to take a look. The Gallery still remains a showcase of my work, rather than a complete catalogue, as you can search the various photo libraries I am with to find all my other work if you so wish.
I have also added a new front cover and two new articles to the Published Work pages, the first of many that I hope to get published throughout 2010.
Below is a panoramic view of Curbar Edge in the Peak District, where the snow was covering a deep hole that my left foot found! Nearly broke a rib, but caused enough bruising to make me wince everytime I look at this picture now!
New Year new start
First off, a belated Happy New Year to you all. I hope the year ahead is a good one for your photography. Have you set yourselves any New Year resolutions for your photography? For me, it is a big step and the most major one since going digital a couple of years ago. By the time you read this I will hopefully have sold my Fuji panoramic camera and pretty much done away with film (except for my Holga and pinhole photography images that is). I have decided to go digital with my panoramics now that I have faith in the technique and software needed to create them. I’m sure many of you have been creating them this way for a while now, but for me, it was a uniquely film based format and the 6x17 transparencies taken with the Fuji 617 was the ultimate medium for panoramics. I loved using the camera and it was a real heartbreak to sell it, but realistically it was sensible to move on and embrace digital as the new medium for the format. It’s more cost effective for one, but also generally more convenient and better for my back (weight wise) and although there are some downsides (like less convenient composing of an image) the pluses outweighed the minuses. I will still continue to shoot panoramics and it will still play a major part of my work and hopefully my photography will benefit. If anything, the panoramics will get more diverse and experimental.
I know I don’t shoot as many panoramics as some photographers, even though it is a format I am known for. For me, it has always been the subject that has to suit the format and not the format that has to shoot the subject. By this, I mean that I’m selective with the subjects I photograph with it, as not all subjects suit the format and I think my panoramic images remain strong because of this. Making the switch to digital should not change this philosophy, in much the same way that the camera that creates them, be it film or digital, should not matter either. It’s the final image that counts after all and if it was shot digitally, so be it, as long as the composition, light and exposure are spot on, it’s a good panoramic image. Below, is one of my photographs in the format taken last autumn. Was it taken with the Fuji before it was sold or was it shot digitally and stitched together in CS4? It doesn’t matter two hoots really. The quality of the image is superb and its a nicely composed panoramic photograph. Job done!
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