Research/David Ward

David Ward is another landscape photographer working with the Light and Land company.  He has worked in many areas of photography but finds landscape the most inspiring and enjoyable, working in large format for over twenty years, his emphasis is on the photographers vision rather than the format used.

I find his pictures amazing for the pure depth of colour and simplicity of form.  The seascapes above have such a range of tones of blues, you are drawn into the distance by the colour.   The beach scene has pools of water left by the tide in diagonal wedges receding into the distance with leading edges lit up by the fading light, this again leads into the distance and draws you into the picture.

The moss is so textural in this picture that you can imagine feeling its damp fuzzyness.  The three trunks or branches leading into the centre add depth and draw you into the woodland.

Here it is the colour and texture and patterns in the water which is interesting,  with the solid rock acting as a focal point.

Because of the shallow depth of field used in the picture the frosted twig stands out from its background and your eye travels up and down the twisty shape.  Placed in the centre of the shot pointing straight upwards would have made a less interesting composition.

This is Grasmere in Cumbria.  The post production work has almost made this an abstract with surreal colours.  It is an interesting compostion of reflections with colours blurred to somewhat obscure the horizon.  The dark shape of tree branches and reflection form a partial frame to an unknown and imagined background.  

To see more of David Ward's work please click the link to my picasa site.

Planned Photo-Shoot for Portfolio

Location : Pembrokeshire, Wales

Equipment : Panasonic Lumix DMC G1, 14-45mm & 45-200mm Lenses

Tripod, Cokin Filters 

I decided a few weeks ago that I was not satisfied with the photographs I have already taken and planned a visit to the Pembrokshire coast in Wales in an effort to take some photos for my portfolio.  I have taken a couple of trips to the Peak District in Derbyshire and thought a change of location would give me some fresh ideas and impetus and after researching the work of Joe Cornish and Charlie Waite I was eager to replicate some of their seascape and  'inner landscape'  images, such as the two shown below.

I love the pink tones in this picture, it has a great use of thirds and the swirling water leads the viewer into the distance and creates a feeling of depth.

Pastel colours and rounded shapes nestled into the sand form an interesting pattern.
The weather forcast for the weekend was fair and sunny and I planned to take all my equipment and cokin filters to try them out.  I wanted to get lots of beach shots, particularly sunsets, dawn and early morning light.

We arrived in Saundersfoot near Tenby at approximately 11.30am, the tide was going out and the sun was shining, not ideal timing since the sun overhead took out all the interesting shadows, there was no cloud in the sky to add any interest and lots of haze over the sea and hills.

However, we decided to walk along the beach and I took a few pictures of the ripples left by the receeding tide and some interesting rock formations on the beach.  This gave me the opportunity to use  filters and I achieved some interesting results with the filtered shot as header, taken in early evening when the sky was quite grey and uninteresting.

We also walked round Tenby harbour and in the evening went out to Freshwater beach to wait for sunset which turned out to be very good, with lots of pink cloud reflected on the wet beach, this is my interpretation of the Charlie Waite picture above, with the stream of water leading the eye into the distance creating depth and rock formations adding texture and interest.

Next morning just after sunrise, we set off for Saundersfoot beach again to see if I could improve on the previous days pictures.  It was not an interesting sunrise with grey cloud cover for most of the morning but I managed to take some interesting shots of the exposed rock formations and beach debris with early light reflected in the wet beach from the cliff face.

On reviewing the pictures I am pleased with the results, the subject is interesting and the colour saturation and temperature improved.  I have varied the viewpoint with some taken at eye level and some lower.  I have tried, where appropriate,  to get interest in the foreground to improve perspective and have used filters on some to add a interest and impact.  I now have to decide on the final 12 for my portfolio and put them through photoshop for minor adjustments.

I am pleased with the image above, it was taken with a 14-45mm lens and a polarising filter using my tripod.
I used thirds and tried to get a formation in the beach debris that would lead the eye into the distance to the receding tide and horizon.

I found filters easy to use although a little fiddly when I wanted to change from one to the other, since I had to be careful not to get them smeared with fingerprints.  I now know what results I can get and when it is best to use them.

After discussing the results with Steve I feel I now have several images for my final portfolio and will review them in photoshop over the next two weeks, although I do have a trip to the Lake District in Cumbria planned, which may present an opportunity for more images.

I have experienced some difficulties with my photography, usually constraints of work and family, when I do get to a planned location the usual problems are access and weather, but this only makes my successes more enjoyable.

More images can be viewed on my Picassa website, please click here. 

Photographic Research/Sue Bishop

 

Sue Bishop's photographs are predominantly of flowers, her images are more than a record of the subject, they are very painterly and she often goes into impressionism and even abstract, they are saturated with colour and light and are usually high key.

She has done work for the Royal Horticultural Society and sells all over the world and in 2004 was commissioned to produce work for Marks & Spencer to illustrate a new range of beauty products.

Together with a number of other photographers, Charlie Waite for example, she founded Light & Land in 1994 and runs photographic tours to destinations all over the world.

I have shown above a few examples of her work and would like to try to emulate the macro shots of flowers taken from different angles.

I have taken a few flower photographs in the field and have found it difficult to get the angles I needed together with the correct lighting.  I tried a fill in flash but this was too strong and took out all the interesting shadow and fall off in the background.  I also found it difficult to get the multiplicity of blooms in the frame together with the colour saturation, perhaps this is achieved in photoshop.

The images I have taken are successful but do not have the high key look that I was aiming for.

 

Research/Martin Parr

I first discovered the work of Martin Parr some years ago before I took up photography as a hobby.  Some of his photographs appeared in a weekend newspaper magazine  with an article about his work.  I immediately thought here was an entertaining photographer with a sense of humour.  He was using colour, and photographing ordinary everyday things, presenting them in ways that seemed extraordinary.  I could relate to this photography since these were the scenes and events that I was involved in and witnessing.  I was not aware of any other photographer that was working in this way.  Serious photographers were using black & white and if it wasn't news related it seemed to be fashion and glamour photography.  The only other photographers I was aware of at this time was David Baily, I remember his photos of Jean Shrimpton and later Twiggy, and Patrick Lichfield the society photographer.

Martin Parr was born in Epsom Surrey in 1952 and studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic, he was encouraged, early on by his Grandfather who was a keen amateur photographer and has built up an international reputation for his interpretation of social documentary, he became a member of Magnum Photographic Corporation in 1994.

The Barbican Art Gallery and National Media Museum put together a retrospective of his work in 2002 and this toured Europe for five years.  More recently he has become interested in film making, advertising and fashion.  In 2004 he was awarded a Professorship of Photography at the University of Wales, Newport Campus, as well as being appointed Guest Artistic Directore for Rencontres D'Arles.  In 2006 he was awarded the Erich Salomon Prize and in 2008 was guest curator at New York Photo Festival.

Parrworld, an exhibition of his own collections of objects such as postcards, photos and photobooks by international artists and his own photos opened in Munich in 2008 and toured Europe of two years, in the same year he won the Baumer Mercier award at PhotoEspana in recognition of his career and contribution to contemporary photography.  He will be curating the Brighton Photo Biennial in October this year.

Most of the images below are taken from 'The Last Resort' first published in 1986 and 'Think of England' published in 2000.

This is one of my favourite images with seagulls stealing chips, the two seagulls make a very balanced picture almost a reflection of each other, with the background falling out of focus to concentrate on the main subject, the birds.  To reinforce location the flag is included and because of its almost distracting colours, it draws attention and makes the viewer explore all of the picture.



This image is a great use of thirds with the sky taking up a large part and excluding a great deal of distracting information in the foreground.  The small area of detail in the right foreground is instantly recognisable as a deckchair and again places the image in Britain.

The image above could be almost any holiday location but detail in the background, promenade railings, deckchairs, coastline and to some extent the figure in the foreground wrapped up against a cool breeze, give a clue and tell a story of the British seaside.

Lots of detail in focus in this image but the colourful flag draws the eye from a curious seagull in the foreground around the picture and into the background.

A typically British pastime, looking for the ball, a simple image that tells a whole story.  Perhaps Glyndebourne is more obscure, but not to Martin Parr from a middle class background.

At first glance it would appear these pictures are taken in haste and it is true that many are scenes that the photographer has opportunistically taken.  However, they are all well put together, with a striking focal point drawing the viewer into the scene and telling how we like to spend our leisure time, telling a story.

I recently attended a seminar at Burton College with MartinParr as the guest speaker, as I anticipated he is a very amusing and entertaining speaker and he regailed us with his early experiences, reiterating on more than one occasion that he is from a middle class background.  I had to wonder if this was one of the reasons for his success, since he was able to sustain himself independently whilst forging his early career  as well as finding his early subjects of mainly working class people and attitudes interesting.

Most of his photos appear to be taken using a 35mm camera, he told us that in his experience people did not object to being photographed and it often depended on how the subject was approached, if an authorative, friendly and confidant manner was used then problems were not usually encountered.

I have included some of my own photos above, in which I have tried to capture interiors, from a similar era to those taken by Martin Parr, and I think the style of which we will all be familiar with. As social documentary they record the style and tastes of the time.

I have also added more of Martin Parr's work on my Picasa site, please click here to view.

2.1 Discussing Ideas & Test Photos

After looking at the work of  Charlie Waite I decided to go out and try some more test photos.

Venue      -   Axe Edge Moor & Goyt Valley, Peak District, Derbyshire

Equipment -  Panasonic Lumix G1, 14-45mm lens & tripod

We had better weather on this trip, however it did start very grey, blustery and cold.  I used only my 14-45mm lens since I did not want to set up the tripod for every shot and had trouble holding the camera still with the heavier lens.

I feel the compostion of my pictures is improving and I am trying to remember all the elements of good design, the rule of thirds, pattern, tone and colour.  As the day progressed and the wind became stronger, the covering cloud broke up revealing blue sky with more interesting cloud formations, I tried to include these in my pictures.  However, I am still disappointed with the colour and depth in the scene.  I also tried to include diagonal lines, as in many of Charlie Waites photographs.

Steve suggested that I try different settings on the colour balance and try to get out early in the morning or late afternoon when the sun is lower in the sky and adds shadows and warmth to the scene.  We looked at the colour temperatures in the Kelvin scale below to illustrate this point.

He also suggested  I try using a lower viewpoint to get more interest and detail in the foreground and using some device to lead the eye into the picture, such as the line of fence posts in the right foreground, (in the picture above), to give  a feeling of depth.

I also now have an adaptor ring to fit my Cokin filters to my Panasonic camera so will experiment with these next time I am able to get out with my camera.

We are planning a trip to the Welsh coast and I will remember the advice from Steve about time of day and weather conditions as well as different view points.

We have also talked about Health and Safety and I have research the Countryside and Wildlife Act so that I am aware of access rights and damage to flora and fauna. 

1.2 Photographic Research/Charlie Waite

Charlie Waite was born in 1949 and first worked in British theatre for 10 years becoming fascinated by lighting and design, before gradually being drawn to photography and landscapes and the way they can be revealed to us by light and shade.
He has practised photography for 25 years and shown work in the National Theatre and OXO Gallery as well as solo exhibitions all over the world.
With 27 book published, he is one of the most celebrated international landscape photographers.

He also has a tour comany 'Light and Land' with specialist photographers who run workshops all over the world, dedicated to bettering photography.  He says he is passionate in his desire for people to revisit the camera and see it as it should be seen -" a hugely creative tool which allows everyone an opportunity to express themselves artistically and which provides a means of drawing us closer to the essence of the world around us".

Charlie Waite enjoys photographing scenery that has resulted from human interaction with the land, the patterns left by a plough, dry stone walls, patterns of fields, particularly after rain.  He is fascinated by a rural way of life and the idea of working the land and growing your own food.  He also enjoys architectural settings, the English country park where generations have worked and moulded the landscape.

His early influences  include the impressionist painters, Claude Lorraine, a French landscape painter for one, after he was encouraged by his mother to visit art galleries and he began to study how they worked with light to bring depth to their work.

He has also studied the work of Laurence Whistler a glass engraver whom he says can "craft beaded light onto a glass with his fine engraving technique".

An image that has had a lasting impression on him is 'Grand Central Station in 1934' by Hal Morley, although this is not a landscape it is a large panoramic picture, full of pattern  and atmosphere, with light streaming through the windows onto the concourse below, much like sunlight breaking through clouds after a storm.

Charlie Waite says he truly understood how to use light when he took what he believes to be his most memorable picture, that of the view of St Claude Valfin in France, bathed in golden light, each time he looks at this image he is transported back to the scene.

I admire all of Charlie Waites work but am particularly drawn to his seascapes. 

The picture above is taken from Chesil beach in Dorset, the sun is very low in the sky and just breaking through covering cloud, forming diagonal patterns which point down through the picture leading the eye into the distance, creating a feeling of depth and vastness to the ocean.  The foreground echoes  the diagonal lines of the sky but adds a different texture with pattern in the  pebbles, whilst the breaking water adds softness and yet another texture.  Colours are of a similar tone and soft and muted with harder edges brought in by the darker tones.  Interest is added with the shape of pebbles, frothy surf, undulating ocean and thick breaking clouds.  We can see definite thirds with the sky, sea and beach.

This is a format which he uses often, getting in close and low to his subject, to ensure detail and interest in the foreground from where the eye is drawn into the picture to explore further.  The time of day he takes his pictures is important since when the sun is low this adds shadow and texture to the scene.   The colour temperature is also important, morning and evening adds warmth and depth. 

I intent to try all of these criteria to improve my images, getting down low to give a different perspective, going out early and late in the evening to take advantage of warmer light and using some device to lend depth and scale.

 The quality of light is very important in all photography,  but particularly when taking landscapes, since it changes a scene from being a flat representation of what is in front of you,  to one of subtle interest and variation.  I have not yet been able to  achieve this in my pictures but plan to get out at different times of the day in order to test this for myself.