Well, what can I say
You've got to love photography.
As some one once said to me "It is the beginning of my journey, with a long way to go. I may never reach my destination, but at least I am on the right path"
It's supposed to be fun, a laugh, a learning experience, yet - it is a serious channel for me to express my inner self.

So
It's Saturday night, wine poured, food ordered, front room transformed into a studio.
Square format loaded, props out, lights set up.
Chemicals sorted - before the wine takes effect.
Bring it on, bit of David Bailey, may be some influence by Juliet Margaret Cameron, Steve Pyke book at hand, music blasting.
Also - few bananas, pair of scissors - feel a bit of still life coming on too.
Photography / Art, awesome.

Steve Pyke
Utilising the full square format frame

Philosophers - by Steve Pyke

Just ordered

http://face2face.si.edu/my_weblog/2009/01/portrait-of-michael-j-fox-by-steve-pyke.html

The Dust Bowl

An amazing decade that brought documentary portraiture to a wide audience.

The FSA photography group consisted of;

·       Theodor Jung

·       Edwin Rosskam

·       Louise Rosskam

·       Ben Shahn

·       John Collier

·       Sheldon Dick

·       Jack Delano

·       Walker Evans




·       Dorothea Lange




·       Russell Lee




·       Carl Mydans




·       Gordon Parks




·       Arthur Rothstein




·       John Vachon




·       Marion Post Wolcott

 

Great book
Great images
I can even see his influences, when he changed, from Ernst Haas, Saul Leiter, Lee Friedlander
But he was hanging with people, so the opportunity was there, he could get portraits that people would look at for ever due to who they were.

Park shoot

In the park with a hedge trimmer
Certainly a head turner.

Test shoot in the park prior to main shoot

 

Using the on camera metering, took a few readings with different aperture settings to check the exposure for the background.
Then altered the shutter speed and flash settings whilst keeping the ISO at 100.

 Andy Dunning, Fill in Flash

"The strange thing about photographs is that they are real and unreal"

"it is simple if you allow it to be, there's nothing to do in photography, it just happens"

Duffy

and then he assisinated all his negs and went AWOL

 



How can you get a better evening

bottle of red
football on tv - sound off
music on full whack
and the big guns out
David Bailey
Terence Donovan
Brian Duffy
Jees - mind blowing

Great place for learning how to get your prints ready

http://www.theprintspace.co.uk/photoshop-and-colour-management-techniques.php

No flash whilst metering for the background











Full flash TTL pointed directly at subject

Flash set at -1 stop and bounced off the ceiling











Flash set at -1 stop, pointed directly at subject with a diffuser over the flash

Fill in flash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHUt8BEAgmg

Great tutorial, But you can't beat practice, practice, practice

Fill in flash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH0kv-I0IUs

Tim Mitchell - Sunderland exhibition

Fish out of water
http://www.timmitchell.co.uk/index.php?/projects/a-fish-out-of-water/#

This was by far my favourite part of the exhibition. I could have stayed and looked at these images for hours.
To say I found these images aesthetically pleasing would be an understatement. I felt a balance and a harmony to his images, making an immediate connection with his compositions, so I suppose I could use the word synergy.



- Good choice of lens
- Great depth of field
- Sharp
- Balanced composition
- Active
- Colour works really well
- Good exposure and lighting
- And juxtaposed with the other images of his project, it becomes part of a well thought out narrative

Simon Roberts - Sunderland exhibition

I had come across this photographer before, with some of his work being published in a few magazines.
they were the images within council meetings, which included a little motion blur due to a long shutter speed

http://simoncroberts.com/work/star-chambers/#PHOTO_2

I thought his concept for his extremely large images for the exhibition was very well thought out. As we see in the adjacent image he has captured the Sunderland supporters walking to the football ground on match day, probably along the same path that their parents and parents before them used to walk to work, the site on which the football stadium is now built.
Although for my personal taste, these are not the kind of images that would really hold my attention, knowing a little bit of the back ground to his project combined with the size and quality of his images they become quite engaging.
Again not mindless documentary images, but a well thought out and self initiated project with a lot of research carried out prior to commencing taking the photographs.