Assignment 2 - more woes

Some people never learn, and so for the second time within a week my camera gear is drip-drying on the living room table. Got caught in a thunderstorm out on the open land between the M60 and Stretford. After Sunday's shenanegans I should have known better and taken full waterproofs. I could see the storm behind the subject I wanted to shoot but never imagined it would move over the area I was in. It had been such a nice afternoon the thought of rain seemed remote. In the end I took one shot - not of what I had intended but an incidental shot on the way to the spot I had planned, then had to abandon the shoot due to being soaked and the risk of being struck by lightning.

Last night's outing didn't fare much better. Went to the same place to photo a generating station, or pumping station - not quite sure what it is, but it has lots of graffiti on it in a green setting. Due to dealing with some phone calls I got there late; so late and dark in fact my light meter couldn't read the ambient light. I took a guess at a 2 minute exposure, but the app I was using to count the time (Photo Tools) crashed after about 1 min, so I had to go off  'feel' for how long the exposure was. Will be interesting to see how near my guesswork was when the film comes back, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hopefully my bad luck / bad judgement patch is now behind me and I can do something right this weekend.

On a more positive note, took delivery of a book on Stephen Shore yesterday (whose work I am doing my Critical Review on),  with contributions by Joel Sternfeld,  Michael Friednad Christy Lange. Although I have seen many images in the book before, there are sufficient new ones to me to make it interesting, and I look forward to reading the contributers' text to see what they have to say and if/ how it differs from what I have in my mind.

Development of ideas on a title.

Have been mulling over a title for my project which best gets across the idea of what I plan to explore. Looking at the areas at the edges of the city / urban areas / commercial developments, where they blend into more rural ares.

Possibilities so far:

'Periphery'  - my first idea and quite a solid candidate.

'Edgelands' - sums it up best at the moment, but it is also the title of a book on a similar theme by Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley, so feels a bit like I'm copying if I use that.

'Hinterlands'- I like the word but not sure the definition quite fits the theme.

'Margins' - Plenty of scope within this title and maybe gets quite close to what I have in mind.

I'll add more if they come to mind, but might be best to see how the project develops before finally deciding. No need to hurry and not really necessary unless it goes into an exhibition (which I sincerely hope it will).

Research for major project

Went on reconnaissance around Manchester Airport on Sunday afternoon to get familiar with parts of the outlying area and to spot possible sites for the photo project. Took some preliminary shots of a radar tower and a red and white-chequered box / building with radio masts. Eager to get the film  Also found an interesting place where the approach lights cross a small, steep, wooded valley. I'm sure there will be some sort of image which can be formed from this area. Got a bit sidetracked by watching planes take off and land, then got caught in torrential rain and soaked through, so didn't stay until dusk as planned.

Must remember to take full waterproofs in future to make sure rain doesn't spoil my plans.

Some further ideas for the project are starting to form.

Assignment 2

Managed to get out as planned to do some work towards Assignment 2. Wanted to build on some exploratory shots I had taken in early summer; the location I felt worked quite well but the shot themselves needed a little extra element-wise. I had decided to do some dusk shots to capture background city lighting and use long exposure o soften the overall effect.- Had been a bit wary of doing one particular shot, as it involved standing on an area of open ground at dusk to get  a shot with a tower block in the background, with the foreground lit by a mixture of fading ambient light and the yellow / orange lights from the nearby motorway junction. It is a bit of an odd area, completely bordered down one side by the M60, with Stretford and Urmston on the other side. The 'graffiti tag' occurrence is an just about any immovable object - usually a trigger to make me not 'totally trust' the area, and keep an eye over my shoulder.   Took bright torches and mad sure my whereabouts and estimated time of return were known as a precaution.

 I have an idea to try and keep some continuation from the 'Twilight' series I did in the advanced module to carry over into this module, hence the shots at dusk. The Twilight series was shot on digital SLR, but I want to push myself and use film as much as possible for this module. Reason for this are primarily because I like the look and 'feel' of film, and I want to technically stretch myself, working with medium and large-format cameras, utilising the maximum image quality, and the 'look' of the image gained by larger formats. I some of the shots I have in mind will make use of the movements available on large format cameras. Disadvantage to film shot is of course that I will have t wait to finish the film and send it off to be developed before I know how the shoot went.

Lesson learned:

• Arrive early for a dusk shot; focussing and framing in very low light is extremely difficult through an optical viewfinder (no 'liveview' on an RZ67 let alone my Sinar 5x4!).
• Get a head-torch - fiddling around with one hand on the camera an holding a torch in the other is very difficult.
• Will need to do some experimentation to see what the reciprocity failure is like with Ektar 100. I has an idea to take a digital camera to get a rough idea of what the exposure should be, but need to also take into account the RF factor.
• The weather is key to the look of the ambient light. Open skies will give a blue / purple backdrop (and more ambient light), overcast skies will reflect the orange city lights. Look forward to seeing what effect moonlight has in the mix.

Moving forward:

Head-torch is on order; nights are drawing-in so must get out of work at a reasonable time in the evening(which is rare these days) otherwise will only be able to go out to shoot at weekends for the next few moths, much slowing down progress with the module. Starting to get a clearer idea where this is all heading and a more definite idea of the shape and form of the major project is forming, though I need to concentrate also on Assignment 2 and the projects within that. Some of the work I have been doing is background and build-up for the major project, but must focus on Assignment 2 also, and use that to feed into the later assignments.

Further to my earlier comments on aimlessly going out hoping for photo opportunities, I was flicking through Michael Freeman's 'The Photographer's Eye' book, re-reading selected parts.In the intro page to the section on 'Intent' I came across a little pearl which had not really sunk in before  Here, the author talks about 'remaining aware of what you are setting out to do, and to what results are likely to satisfy you'.

The problem with the shots I have taken on the last couple of outings is that they do not match anything like the images I have in mind before I set out. I have a strong idea to use long exposures either after sunset /before sunrise, or using a strong ND filter during daylight and I'm aware of the type of image this will result in. I really MUST start experimenting with that type of shot, if that is the result I am after. So, this weekend I am resolute to to get out and try just those type of shots.

Leading up to the weekend, I had all good intentions of cracking on with Assignment 2 of the course. Unfortunately I was asked to take part in an Open Day at work, which resulted in me being there for most of Saturday.

I headed out with the Mamiya camera late afternoon to explore an area about of 'edgeland' which starts about a mile from home. I had felt the area offered some quirky little spots which may be useful in my project but despite wandering around I saw little which inspired me. Now, I'm not so sure if it was the fact that there was nothing worth shooting there, or whether my unscheduled day at work had meant I was having difficulty in 'getting into the zone' of picture taking - I couldn't seem to settle my mind into seeing photographically. In addition, the camera was loaded with 100 ISO film, and the light dropped off significantly.  Light wag getting too low to hand-hold a large camera like the one I was using, plus I didn't have a tripod with me as I hadn't really panned on having a 'serious' photographic outing, more of a 'let's see what materialises' sort of walk. Maybe this was part of the problem, not having a 'let's get some shots in the can' mentality, no definite plan, no vision of what I wanted to achieve.

The weather was poor for most of Sunday, but as things started to clear a little I thought I would return to the area - took the Pentax camera this time as it is weather-sealed, and I wanted  to work on the 'Eliminating Depth Clues' project, and I have a couple of telephoto lenses for this camera which is required to get the desired effect. Again, I felt unsettled and uninspired, which showed in the images I came home with which were quite frankly shockingly bad; there is such a thing as the snapshot aesthetic, but these were just awful, nothing came together, and I do not know what I was thinking with some of the shots.

Learning points from the weekend:

Take the tripod along. It will slow down the process, set the hands free to have a little wander to explore angles, make fine adjustments, settle into the image-making process.

If it is an 'exploratory' outing, take a pocket camera (not an RZ67), snap a few angles to set the scene and generate ideas, then return with the 'proper' camera with a definite plan and a vision of the type of image I want to walk away with.

Otherwise, have a purpose behind shooting, rather than pointing the camera around, snapping and hoping something useful will result.

Had a read through the interview at the back of Steven Shore's 'Uncommon Places - The Complete Works' between Shore and Lynne Tillman.

Points of particular interest to myself were Shore describing the decision making process Warhol went through when making his work. This echoed my own thoughts that creating an image  is a process, one where the photographer can have any degree of control they choose, depending on the type of image and the scenario. Although this may seem obvious, I feel it is a fundamental of image making, and perhaps why I like to make the sort of image where I can take time to consider these decisions, rather than, for example sport or street photography which is more reactive to the circumstances presented.

Shore goes on to talk about the changing way images were presented, and the way this presentation was accepted by the viewing public,.

Again, I identified with his description of walking down a street and seeing the way different elements interacted, and the way that interaction changes as one moves along, different images and nuances forming as the scene subtly changes. It put me in mind of the Channel 4 trailers where, as the camera angle changes, a large number four forms on the screen then disintegrates as the angle of view moves on.

After reading the interview, I looked up the work of the following on the internet, all of whom are mentioned in the interview:

Walker Evans
John Coplans
Lee Friedlander
Duane Michals
Gerhard Richter
Agnes Martin
Barnett Newman
Ed Ruscha

Watched a Youtube tutorial by photouniverse entitled Element Theory of Landscape Photography.

This discussed an approach to creating interesting images by breaking the image down into elements of interest. The theory follows the idea that the more elements of interest contained in an image, the more attractive / interesting the image will be.

It is a different way of thinking about image construction which I hadn't heard before and  it does seem to hold a good deal of validity - I can see what the narrator is driving at and it is certainly something I shall be thinking about while out and about looking for shots.

Assignment 2

Managed to snatch a couple of hours before sundown to get out and do some work towards the project 'Eliminating depth clues'. Had thought I would have plenty of time to dedicate to this over the weekend but circumstances dictated otherwise. I have an idea to use the prints of Hiroshige as a seed to base the images on, and using a telephoto lens to make landscape shots is something I have little experience of, so the process will be a new challenge and a learning experience.

Went out near Sale Water Park for a stroll along the Mersey, took the Pentax and Takumar 135 lens and tripod, as this combo is relatively lightweight and quick to set up since I had limited time. Everywhere was very busy with people enjoying the outdoors and making the most of the good weather. Found it hard to settle into the right frame of mind to 'see' images and ended up taking many 'snaps' but not much else. Finally got a shot I was reasonably content with looking towards Stretford with buildings of ( I assume) Salford in the extreme background.

Learning gained:

• Not easy to 'grab' time to do work after a busy weekend.
• Should have taken the compact camera instead, and treated it as an 'explore' session, gathering ideas for a variety of parts to the future project, rather than trying to cram something specific into the time.
• Sun-up time is probably better to do this kind of work, things are less likely to get in the way of going and there are less people about - light may be better too.
• Have a definite plan and use it as a starting point to see what develops, rather than a rushed, willy-nilly.

Although the above may seem a little negative, I spotted a good few potential patches to revisit with a view to using them in shots, so from an exploration point of view it was definitely a worthwhile outing.

Research - and start of blog

This is a blog to accompany the Your Own Portfolio module of the BA(Hons) in Photography with the Open College of Arts.

I had been running just a physical logbook, preferring the tactile, material process of putting the log together. I have decided to run this blog alongside my log book because, as was recently pointed out to me, my problematic handwriting may create a disadvantage when it comes to assessment time, with the assessors having to put in a lot of effort into deciphering my scrawl.

Recent activity with the research for my major project, which is based around the idea of the periphery of developed areas, is to read the book ‘Edgelands’ byPaul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts (published by Vantage). For me it’s a fascinating literary journey through just the kind of area I will be venturing into to make my images . Beautifully written, amusing and thought-provoking, I look forward to a chapter or two each evening, expanding my mind to the possibilities for my project. It would be easy to start trying to capture the essence of the book in my images, but I want to avoid that; my purpose is to make the project my own ;but the book is certainly inspirational and helping me to form some concrete ideas.

In addition, I’ve also just re-read two books by Michael Freeman – The Photographer’s Eye and Perfect Exposure. I feel re-reading books serves well to refresh the memory and also often leads to a greater insight 

into what the author is getting at the second time around.

Last weekend I went for an exploratory walk around part of the perimeter of Manchester Airport. I have walked a different area around the airport before, and as on that occasion I took some snaps to get ideas of locations for my project. There were some interesting juxtapositions of pleasant buildings with a backdrop of the airport perimeter fence in view.

It’s a shame the photo’s can’t capture sound as this was really intrusive when the jets were taking off. Still, it was a good exercise in building the foundations of the project and helping to form the ideas. No doubt I will be returning to the area many times over the coming months.