Assignment 2 at the Mersey and Crowden

Spent the week reading up on Stephen Shore for the Critical Review and making notes of points to include on my thoughts abouot his work. What may be a challenge is putting these thoughts into some kind of logical order whereby different points expand on or are connected to earlier points.I've realised that at the moment it is important just to get the thoughts down in written form, then I can start to order them and tweak with sentence structure and logical sequencing.

Photographically, Saturday saw an early start with a trip out to the banks of the Mersey to add a couple of shots for the 'Colour Accent' brief. I know it is becoming a photographers cliche, but I am genuinely feeling using medium / large format film cameras is slowing down the way I work and making me think a lot more about shots before I take them. This is mostly due to the cost of film and processing as I can ill-afford to waqste many shots, especially in large format.  The large bulky equipment just makes me feel like taking more time and care over what I am doing - of crafting the image rather than just taking it. The way I have been working lately tends to follow the flow of exploring and taking some initial shots with the digital SLR or compact, then returning the following week with one of the 'big cameras' to realise the vision. I think I should start taking back-up shots on the digital camera, as one or two mishaps lately have meant I have ended up with nothing to show for some trips out, and I feel very much tah time is running away at the moment.

Later in the day I headed out into Derbyshire with the intention of taking some shots for the 'Clear Seperation' brief. The areas where I have been exploring for my Major Project haven't lent themselves very well to this paricular brief, so I felt it was time to try something a litle different. I went to the area near Crowden, where there is a trail headoung out towards Black Hill, I tried for some minimalist landscapes. I also though a change of environment might help freshen my approach when it comes to the Major Project shots. As the light faded I took the opportunity to practise for the long exposure shots I have planned, tr get a feel for how things may turn out and develop a shooting methodology.

 I will have to wait until the films are back from the lab later in the week to asses the outcome. One of the great unknowns in this case is the effects of reciprosity failure of the film. With exposure of around 1 minute registered on the meter, I'm pretty sure I will have to expose for a while longer. Just how much longer, I will have to wait and see from the results of the shots.