2014 A year in pictures

So much for my resolution to become an avid and successful blogger (maybe next year).

2014 has been an adventure and a good part of it has involved me reconnecting with photography. In the process I've learnt some new techniques, discovered more about myself, travelled away from The Island a few times, met some lovely and interesting people, began new projects, gained a little confidence and enjoyed my photography.

The following image is a selection of 52 images picked from the last 12 months (well 14 months really, but there's been a slight decline in output since a house move in Autumn). I wanted to have a picture representing each of the weeks gone by. I don't consider myself a prolific photographer, but I'm happy with that figure and I'm pleased with the results.

My year in pictures, 2014...

The Image Maker. Part Two - Ghostly Apparitions

Please buy a copy of this month's Black and White Photography magazine (issue 155, October) and see my second lesson in basic photo-manipulation.

This month it's all about adding lighter elements to a photograph and I demonstrate how to make ghostly apparitions and genies.

All the components for each photograph were produced with the Leica M Monochrom and I am using Photoshop Elements 11 in order to show that these techniques are achievable on modest budgets.

First steps in writing - The Image Maker

I'm not sure I could have predicted where I would be in five years time, five years ago. After a lovely meeting with the team over at Black and White Photography Magazine I now find myself to be a writer (or trying to be a writer - I'm slowly getting the hang of it).

I have embarked on a ten issue series to help present some very simple, yet effective, photo manipulation and photo creation techniques. These are designed to be an introduction (there are so many ways to do something in Photoshop) and it is my hope that some of the readers may be encouraged to discover more. Many of my own attempts have only come about through trial and error, gradually learning and building a recipe book of what can be done to a photograph once it has been transferred to the computer.

To prove that expensive equipment is not essential all the work has been carried out using Photoshop Elements 11. (The instructions are the same for full versions of Photoshop).

The first issue is out now and demonstrates a method for adding dark subjects to a photograph. The following image of the pirate boat was completed using this technique to add the sky, birds and border.

All the elements, apart from the border, were taken with the Leica M Monochrom.

Leica M Monochrom. Part 4 - Flights of Fancy

I've recently embarked on a writing assignment that will hopefully teach readers a few basic tips and tricks and encourage them to play with their imagery. More news to follow...

I've been looking through various books and online sources to confirm to myself that photo manipulation is not confined to modern photography and the list of practitioners is vast. Its history is as old as photography itself and some of the work is amazing. It is interesting to read the various arguments between the purists (straight photography) and the pictorialists (anything goes photography). This week I discovered William Mortensen by following different threads and I think he's got to be added to my list of inspirational photographers. Apparently Ansel Adams took a definite dislike to his approach and strongly argued against his manipulated, stage and romanticist imagery. Check out Carey Loren's write up at   http://50watts.com/Monsters-and-Madonnas-Looking-at-William-Mortensen )

Other practitioners I've been looking at recently include the following:

Oscar Gustave Rejlander - composite/combination printing
Julia Margaret Cameron - staged photography
Francis James Mortimer - composite/combination printing
Henry Peach Robinson - composite/combination printing
Angus McBean - photo manipulation
Jerry Uelsmann composite/combination printing
Man Ray -experimental techniques


The Leica M Monochrom and me are now taking a slight diversion in approach. I'm still getting to grips with what it can do (I still make mistakes and I wish I could say every picture ever taken was amazing, but I can't), but it's time to take a little holiday in my world.

The Spitfire is 100% Leica M Monochrom. The remainder are appx. 70% Leica 30% Nikon. I've started building folders of Leica resources to incorporate into my imagery, but at the moment I don't have everything I need in those folders.

I'm working on it.

Leica M Monochrom. Part 2 - Early Work

I feel as though we're learning each others' strengths and weaknesses at the moment. I think we're starting to get somewhere and I'm gonna be brave and share the early attempts with you all.

We've got straight shots, composites and multiples in here and I'm learning Lightroom 4 and NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 as quickly as I can.

Leica M Monochrom. Part 1 - Perspective and Synchronicity

So here I am. Suddenly I'm the owner of a camera that was, or so I thought, beyond my wildest dreams. This camera is like no other I have owned before. To put it into perspective, every camera or piece of equipment I have owned so far has either been classed as a student/beginner or serious enthusiast.

Praktica BX20 (student/beginner)
Pentax MZ-M (student/beginner)
Fuji Finepix S7000 (bridge camera)
Polaroid 600 Instant Camera (fun)
Nikon D300 (serious enthusiast)
Axomat 5 Black and White Enlarger (student/beginner)

A Leica system was just too far out of reach financially - a possible option when my lottery numbers came in.
 

I'm an experimental photographer. I started learning black and white photography at school when I was sixteen and within a year I was making photograms of bubble wrap and scratching into negatives. I have no formal qualifications in photography, only general art and graphic design (specialising in illustration), but I've spent a lot of time in the darkroom; dodging, burning, toning, multiple imaging, reverse printing, diffusing with a pair of tights, adding texture with crumpled papers, composite printing, etc, etc... I've turned a tiny bathroom into a darkroom, balancing the enlarger precariously on the toilet seat, and it looked like Doctor Who had visited when I started using a 6 foot by 4 foot enlarger tent in the new house. I'd say 95 percent of all my photographs up to the digital work was black and white. Colour just wasn't my thing for at least 10 years.

Nowadays I'm trying all these options in Photoshop (the modern enlarger). After all that messing about, it seemed odd not to. If it enhances, rather than destroys, go with it. Enjoy yourself. See what you are capable of, you might just surprise yourself.

The Leica M Monochrom is a "pure" camera, but we're working each other out, finding a language that suits us both. It's saying "I can offer you this or that" and I'm saying "Brilliant, let's see what this can do?" For at least a day I was terrified to carry the thing about. Not being used to the rangefinder style I'm ashamed to admit that I've taken at least three shots with the bloomin' lens cap on!

The results out of the camera are simply fantastic. The grain on ISO 320 is practically non existent and the tones are awesome. I don't know if sticking lots of paper and texture over the end result is gonna work with this one, but there are other ways to tinker. My mind's working along composites, slowing down the speed and double / multiple exposures. (My photographer of the moment is Francesca Woodman and I'm really relating to the essays by Chris Townsend in the Phaidon edition ISBN 9780714844305).

I'm sure we'll work something out. It's still early days.


A good friend sorted through his late father's belongings earlier this year and as I was into photography he kindly gave me a box of very old screw thread Leica lenses and filters. To be honest, I was going to wait a while and put them in the ebay pile as a Leica camera to go with the lenses was not a likely option. And now, after a little research on the internet and three Voigtlander adapters later I've got a four lens Leica system and I'm having so much fun with it all I think my wife feels like a camera widow.
 

Competition Update. Black and White Photographer of the Year 2012

I WON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am the winner of Black and White Photography Magazine's, Black and White Photographer of the Year 2012 Award.

Have I come back down to earth? Have I heck.

The Leica M Monochrom was presented to me at the Leica Store, Mayfair, London, and I have barely let go of it since. I had to dash from the ceremony earlier than I would have liked to get the last boat home, but I got a chance to speak with Elizabeth Roberts and some of her fantastic staff and colleagues. My nerves were off the scale, but it was a brilliant evening and all the work in the room was of such a high standard I feel honoured and humbled to have been a part of it.

I've been entering competitions for some years (I think this was my fourth or fifth time with this particular one) and although I've had positive feedback I've never won and I guess you get used to not winning. I had no idea this would be 'The One' and it's knocked me for six. It's a shame my Dad isn't here anymore, I would have loved to have told him in person, but some strange things have been happening since he died and I'm pretty sure he knows. I think he would have loved all the attention.

Competition Time - Black and White Photographer of the Year 2012

It's that time of year again - Black and White Photography Magazine's Photographer of the Year 2012 Competition.

I struggled this time - due to all sorts of emotional complications that 2012 will forever be remembered for - and only just managed to create a set of images and submit them in time for the final deadline. I wasn't sure what to create and for at least two days nothing seemed to work. Then these just happened. I don't know quite where they came from, but I like them. I think I just needed to switch off and let whatever it is that helps you out in these moments (creativity? inspiration?) take over.

I've managed to get through to the next round and the prints should be with them by now. Fingers crossed.

I'm on a bit of a mission to win a major competition within my lifetime.

The first three photograms (hand, crickets and damselfly were entered into the Black and White Photographer of the Year category). The final picture of the tomato plant was entered into the Living World category.

www.thegmcgroup.com

Tim Andrews' Parkinson's Project - Over The Hill

I was contacted some time ago by a chap called Tim Andrews, explaining that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and was approaching photographers to see if they would like to photograph him for an ongoing project entitled Over The Hill.

After a while we arranged to meet and I invited him down to the Island to spend a day with me. The weather was drab and dreary and, because of this, all my plans kept changing on the journey to meet him at the boat. I tried to find a way to turn the day into something more productive and successful.

When we met we chatted for a while then off we went and I endeavoured to show Tim as much of the Island as was possible, stopping every few miles or so to stretch our legs and take photos. It was very relaxed and informal and we had a brilliant time of it, talking all the time and finding out about each other.

I think I might have said "give me a couple of weeks to get these pictures finished", but sometimes the work takes longer than expected as I try to gather the right elements to complete the piece. The photographs themselves can take a while to tell me the direction they wish to be taken. But we get there in the end.

Tim was a pleasure to be with all day and I hope that our paths may cross again someday.

Please visit Tim's blog for further reading on his Over The Hill project.
http://timandrewsoverthehill.blogspot.co.uk

 

Ghosts within the asylum

The ghosts are there.

Everywhere.
Whispering and wittering.
Chattering, chittering.
Hollering and howling.

LISTEN TO ME!

LISTEN to me!

listen to me!

My precioussss....
sss...
ss..
s.

Listen to my madness.
Listen to my thoughts.
My ghosts.
Trapped within the asylum.
With only you to listen.
 
You think you are alone in this deafening clamour until you look around and watch -and here I mean watch closely - the faces of those about and you realise that each and every one is dealing with the same internal personal discussions to a greater or lesser extent and bearing up with ease or weakness. Try, wherever possible, to open the heavy wooden doors that keep these creatures festering in the dark and let the light come in, strong and bright, as it is hard to notice a ghost within the brightness of daylight.

Watching the moon in the rear view mirror

So there I was, driving along the downs - one of the highest points on The Island - and I'm heading straight toward the most fantastic moon. The biggest, brightest I've seen in a long time. I swear you could have reached out and touched it, it was that big. I had no camera, nowhere to stop and traffic up me jacksy. When I got to the next junction I had no choice, but to turn and drive away. I watched it in my rear view as long as possible. 

Sketches, Thumbnails and Doodles

A sketch, thumbnail or doodle is often the starting point. Sometimes the idea stays on the paper as a little rectangle of lines and personal symbols, a passing thought and nothing more. Sometimes it will end up almost exactly as it began and sometimes it will change and develop as circumstances dictate. If it changes don't consider that a bad thing or a sign that it was a bad idea, it's simply a way for the creative universe to offer you a deal, a two for the price of one so to speak.

Competitions

I like to enter photographic competitions from time to time - I haven't won any yet, but that doesn't stop me trying. I think it's good to have a go, put your work out there in front of other people in the industry. It often provides a chance to try things out and who knows, one day I might win. It is due, in part, to an earlier competition with the magazine below that I took a leap of faith, quit the day job and started to be a photographer full time. So they can even change your life!


I recently entered into the Black and White Photographer of the Year 2011 competition run through Black and White Photography Magazine and was notified that I had been shortlisted and put through to the next round. I didn't manage to win (this time), but they very kindly put a selection of shortlisted entries into their December 2011 issue and each of the selected images has been given a whole page to itself!  I just can't get over how cool that is.

I wanted to try something different with my photograms. I created new images by joining several together. They are abstract in nature due to the random gathering of found objects, but I wanted to keep the aesthetic quality and suggest that these items could have existed together and worked together. There are all sorts of ingredients in these: dead insects found on windowsills, a plastic bracelet lying in a gutter, an old bottle discovered in the verge on a dog walk, broken rulers...

I've been watcing the films and stop motion animation of The Brothers Quay (pronounced Kway) recently and their work simply blows you away, it is incredibly poetic and visually amazing. (I recommend Street of Crocodiles and Institute Benjamenta as starting points).They appear to live and work in a world where everything that can be overlooked and ignored becomes important and is given life: dust, grime, seeds, screws, the broken and discarded...

 

 

Daydream believer

I've been practising my composite skills a lot recently, trying to use the camera as a device to take me to all sorts of fantastical places where princesses sneak away from the celebrations to sleep beyond the castle walls or rush through the ruined temples of some foreign land. Where Red Riding Hood begins her journey into the ominous woodland where grandma lives or the Fairy Queen makes her nightly journey to consult with her loyal subjects...