Impressions of... Barcelona

Barcelona is a fascinating city; you could spend a week just exploring the Barri Gótic and La Rambla, but there's so much more to see, especially if you're a lover of art or history.

The architectural influence of Antoni Gaudí is everywhere. His most notable mark is, of course the Sagrada Familia - that great, as-yet-unfinished cathedral that's as much a temple to the moderníste movement as it is to the divine.

From Barcelona

The Colours of... the seaside

Among my fondest memories of childhood are those summer days spent in Margate on the Kent coast. The seaside was a magical place, especially when the sun shone brightly - hot sand between your toes, bright, whitewashed buildings, getting soaked on the water rides. Ice cream, candy floss and sticks of rock. And over it all, the raucous din of the fun fair: the rumble of the roller coaster puctuated by delighted screams as it began its vertiginous descent, the clangs and whistles of various rides, all overlaid on the background chatter of thousands of happy people.
And then you grow up and you start seeing the peeling paint, the tattiness of the souvenirs, the world-weary cynicism of the owners of the rides. And yet... so what? Isn't that the glory of the seaside, that it can be a bit tacky and yet be a source of fun and a good day out? The next time the sun shines, get down to the seaside - forget the grown-up ennui and buy an ice cream, kick your shoes off and paddle in the sea. Wear a 'kiss me quick' hat and go for a ride on the ghost train. Remember, for a while, the simple of joys of being a child...

The Colours of... Spain

On a recent trip to Spain, I was struck by the way the feeling of being 'somewhere else' was highlighted by the difference in colours from those that I'm used to. Here in the UK, it's mostly green (and grey!), whereas in Spain I was struck by the earth colours (ochre, terracotta), the blue of sea and sky and the rich hues of fresh fruits and vegetables.

From Colours of...

From Colours of...

From Colours of...

The Axe

Onosa'i Auva'a is a rugby player currently with Sale Sharks, but he's also no mean guitar player.
He recently performed some of his songs at The Boardroom in Wilmslow, so I took my camera down to try to get few photos.
I had expected the light levels to be fairly low, so would need to shoot at at a high ISO setting (1600) to get reasonable shutter speeds, even with the 50mm f/1.8 wide open. High ISO is a prticular problem with the D200, since it gets very noisy. In anticipation of this, I had already decided that I would process any usable images as fairly low-key black and white and turn the noise to my advantage as pseudo -film grain.
The other problem facing me was viewpoint. He was positioned at the top of a flight of stairs on what can only be described as a mini-mezzanine. So, not only was the front view looking up from below, but a chrome bannister rail interfered with just about every other angle. Fortunately, a sofa in the stairwell gave me a bit of a leg-up so that I could poke the camera through a gap at the top of the stairs and get some reasonable close-ups.
So, two basic viewpoints, one of them less than ideal. Sometimes you have to accept that this is going to happen, so I chose instead to go for expression and focussing on things like the guitar to emphasise the nature of the performance. Photographing people singing is always tricky, since they tend to have their mouth open and can end up just looking silly. Timing and lots of rejects are the key here.
The end result was about 120 pictures taken edited down to eight (of which I could probably lose another two or three). The full set is here, samples after the jump.

Exhibition time!

I'm displaying some photographs at the Dark Satanic Mills exhibition this weekend (9th-12th December). There will be two (possibly three) sets on display:

The big Bridgewater picture and book that was my contribution to the Mid-Cheshire college end-of-year exhibition. I'm also hoping to include a set of pictures taken in Ancoats back in June - these have been on Flickr for a while, but it's the first time they'll have appeared on a wall (apart from in my house).

Finally, I'm featuring a new set of portraits, taken specifically for this exhibition, called This Is My Face. From the blurb for this set:

This is my face is a kick-back at the convention that 'flaws' and 'blemishes' in the skin should be covered over and denied. The pressure to conform is especially strong for women, as evidenced by how difficult I have found it to persuade many women to agree to be photographed in this style. And yet there is much beauty in the natural textures of the skin: an endless fascination for the body's largest organ, the one that suffers the most to protect the rest from the worst that the environment can throw at it. Rather than deny its reality, let us rather relish the amazing job it does and celebrate the scars it bears from a lifetime of service.

    

It's interesting how my description of what I was doing has been received by men and by women (I deliberately did not ask fellow photographers). I think every man I spoke to thought it was intriguing and sounded like a good idea. Even those who were in two minds about how they'd look were appreciative of the final result. Also, when I put out a general call for volunteers to pose, only men responded.

When I asked women that I know to pose, there was almost universal refusal (and some reactions of shock that I'd even suggest it). The three that do appear in the set took a lot of persuasion ('Look, it's art!' was, I think, the phrase that sealed it).

Does this split in reaction support my contention? Are societal pressures so strong on women that they continue to succumb to them, even when invited to highlight and comment on them? And how much is it age-related? (I didn't have a significant sample in that respect.)

Nearly up and running...

I now (nearly) have a mini portrait studio in my back room. It's only big enough for torso shots at most, but it'll do me for now. The big Velux in the roof and the large window give a lovely northerly light, which I can supplement with a brolly'd flash if needed. I now need to figure out how to add blackout curtains to further increase lighting potential.

I tried it out using the only available willing model (me):

From grey dog photography

From grey dog photography

From grey dog photography

From grey dog photography

First prize!

I entered these pictures in a local competition - Capture the Canal - to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the opening of the Bridgewater Canal, and won first prize in the 'Scenic' category. I think that's the first time I've won anything with my photography.

Impressions of Ancoats

I recently went on a photowalk around Ancoats in Manchester. I don't know the area very well, so I wanted to get a series of pictures documenting an (almost) first-timer's impressions of a new area. It's a simple fact that Ancoats is somewhat run-down, but the late evening light lent a lovely soft quality to the area and helped to enhance the many bright colours to be found. This is not just a region of dingy old buildings - there's beauty and interest to be found anywhere.

 

 

 

 

The full set is here

 

Calm after the storm

So, the shooting's done, the pictures edited down to the final set, negatives scanned and cleaned up, main print, book, business cards and postcard all ordered.

Is that it? It all feels a bit anti-climactic now, with over two weeks left until the exhibition. Just the journal to tidy up, and a bit of a flat period until the excitement of the print and book arriving, and the panic of hanging everything.

Time to start planning other things. More projects, get the business started, plan photowalks.

But for now, I'm just going to take a couple of days off and relax - by reading up on string theory.

Tags: photography, exhibition, book, string theory

B&^%y British weather!

It can be odd, being a photographer - you're never quite satisfied. Take now: most of the population are basking in glorious, unseasonably fine weather. Me, I'm cursing it every morning that the sun shines. I'm not being Mr. Grumpy about this, it's just that I need to get my project shoot finished and, for that, I want overcast days.

The problem I have with the current weather is harsh shadows. A nice layer of not-to-thick cloud eliminates those and suits my subjects much better. Also, I've started in that light, and I want the whole set to be consistent.

Fortunately, there's still time for our weather to be its usual self and change dramatically - except that it'll probably go from sunny to chucking it down without passing through any intermediate stages.

So, whilst you're out there soaking up the rays, think of me looking up and crying: "cloud over, dammit!"

Tags: photography, weather, clouds, sun, frustration

Guinea pigs wanted

The time has come to start seriously thinking about the details of what I intend to provide as part of my new business. To that end, I'm looking for volunteers to help me refine the content and presentation of my photowalks and tutorials.

What I'm offering is free sessions to anyone who's willing to put up with a work-in-progress. We can go for walks in the Manchester and Cheshire areas and talk about photography and how to 'see' more effectively, how to handle your camera to get the best out of it - anything photography related, really. What you're getting is some (hopefully) useful advice on taking better pictures; what I'm getting is feedback on what people want from such things.

Alternatively, if you want a more relaxed bit of tuition, whether it's technical details of camera use, how to use an image processing program to jazz up your pictures, or just learn a bit more about contemporary photography in general, we can arrange to meet somewhere convenient and do that.

Take the opportunity now, because at some point, I'll be charging for this service.

Tags: photography, walks, tuition

On rediscovering the joys of walking around

I've been doing a bit of walking around the backside of Manchester recently for my final project at college. Following the Bridgewater Way gives you a new perspective on areas that you thought you knew well. Distances change, for example - a long-ish journey by road is actually quite short along the towpath; five minutes by tram becomes half an hour on foot.

What you also see from these alternative paths are some stunning examples of the graffitist's art. The illiterate scrawlings that pepper the well-travelled areas bear no relation to some of the stuff you can find in these out-of the-way places. Who would have thought that this sits underneath the A56 in Stretford:

Lovely, vibrant colours and sense of joie-de-vivre. It has no point other than to exist, and maybe bring a smile to someone's face and the secret knowledge that you've seen it, but all those thousands passing a few feet above have no idea.

If this project's done nothing else for me, it's persuaded me to explore the back ways and byways much more than I have before. You never know what little gems might be out there.

Tags: photos, graffiti, walking

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New name, new start

Having let this blog lie fallow for nearly a year, this seems as good a time as any to resurrect it under a new name.

I'm nearing the end of my college course and getting scarily close to the time that I have to put all this into practice and starting earning money from my photography. Another scary prospect that's on the horizon is the end-of-year show that my college friends and I are putting on in June. We're putting it on at CUBE in Manchester (opening date to be confirmed, but it'll be around June 14th-15th); it's a lovely gallery in a good location, but it's costing a packet to hire. We've got a crowdfunder page set up here to beg for assistance paying for it. This is an important show for us - it's our opportunity to present ourselves to the world: as such, it's a key factor in progressing our careers as jobbing photographers. We're offering invitations to the opening night for anyone who donates and we're also offering various sizes of prints for higher amounts. See the link for details.

Rick

Rick, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

Messing about at college, using a Toyo 5x4 camera and photographic paper as a negative. Scanned in and toned in Photoshop.

150mm@f/22; 4seconds

Family portrait

Family portrait, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

This came about by accident. I was playing about in a hotel room and pointed the camera at my wife. She doesn't like having her photo taken, so put the magazine up in front of her face. I took the picture, anyway, and decided it looked quite good, so I set up this triptych.

Woolly hat

Wooly hat, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

Taken in Paris as part of a college "street photography" assignment.

HP5+, Olympus Trip on "manual": f/11 @ 1/40s

Portrait

Portrait, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

A portrait in the style of Anton Corbijn taken for a college assignment.

Originally shot on FP4+ with a Mamiya 645.

Mum

Mum, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

Following from finding an old picture of my dad, here's one of my mum. Taken using either a Ricoh KR10 or a Pentax Super-A. Or it may even have a been a Zenit TTL.

Dad and rock

Dad and rock, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

An old photograph, taken with a Yashica 635 twin-lens reflex. Scanned from the original negative and firtled with in Lightroom a bit.

This is from 1990, somewhere in Wales.

WEEE man

WEEE man, originally uploaded by Cap'n Maj Bloodnok.

Another picture taken at the Eden Project in Cornwall. This is a statue made up of various bits of waste electrical and electronic equipment (hence WEEE).

Nikon D200 + Nikon 18-200 f3.5-5.6 VR @ 62mm; 1/90@f8; ISO 100