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.

Black and White Photography Magazine Interview - August 2013 Edition

It's been a few months since I was awarded the Leica M Monochrom and Black and White Photography Magazine have kindly printed a five page interview in the August 2013 issue to see how I'm getting on since winning and to find out a little bit about me. It is such a positive experience to have such a big write up about my work. Copies are available to buy now from all good newsagents.

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 3 - baby steps

A selection of photographs taken over the last few weeks...

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.