This exercise encourages us to just take a wander and photograph freely, then review and consider what caught our eye. This particular wander is through the French port city of La Rochelle, on a particularly hot and sunny day, though the town to a bay on the other side and back again. Below are 3 contact sheets showing the 40-odd photographs that caught my eye … Continue reading 3.1 Searching
In this exercise we are asked to produce a series of photographs focused on a specific subject. My chosen subject for this is based on two related on-going projects: plants that are growing on man-made structures and man-made structures and other artifacts being overwhelmed by nature. It’s also a test of something I constantly repeat to myself: Enjoy making the photographs you like and have … Continue reading 3.2 Series
Whilst I continue to struggle to find the time and people I need to complete Part 2, I’ve been getting ahead and planning for Parts 3 and 4 in the hope of completing them quickly and making up lost time. Browsing through Part 4 I noticed the projects involving montages. As I have been working a lot with layers in PS I decided to go … Continue reading A Little More Procrastination
In this exercise we are asked to photograph subjects against a plain, white background to remove the sense of place. Not being in the habit of shooting portraits of either people or flowers I found this to be a bit of a challenge – not in terms of the set up and technicalities of obtaining the images, but in creating something that might have some … Continue reading 2.1 Subject vs Background
This weekend I visited the Photo London 2018 fair at Somerset house and spent the best part of 4 hours wandering through room after room of every imaginable genre of photography. I saw iconic images from superstars like Ansel Adams, Terry O’Neill and Daido Moriyama. Individual photographs like Gustave Le Gray’s “Solar Effect in the Clouds – Ocean” (a snip at £55,000!) and Titarenko’s St. … Continue reading Photo London 2018
I have to admit that I have had more fun that I’d anticipated with this exercise, and in the process learned quite a lot more about layers, custom brushes and actions. I’ve created many images, some good, some less so, some little more than doodles. One thing I’ve enjoyed since the days I used slide film is creating double exposures, so that is where I … Continue reading 2.12 Pixel Painting
During my recent week of working in Geneva I was able to indulge my newly discovered passion for street photography, and in doing so got a shot I felt I could use for this split contrast exercise. One evening sat on a bench at the Promenade Du Lac, a stereotypical example of a Genevois private banker came striding by (I don’t really know he’s a … Continue reading 2.11 Split Contrast – Geneva Man
I have found 2.10 to be a really useful learning exercise. In the past I have tended to use it infrequently, and then primarily to correct exposure rather than as a creative process. The original image I used was taken on one of our recent hot, sunny Spring days near the London Eye. It was grabbed in passing, so there was no time for any … Continue reading 2.10 Dodging & Burning – the Hardcore Superstars
In this exercise we are asked to consider Michael Bühler-Rose’s “The Conversation”. At first sight my reaction is that this is not a photograph I have any great liking for, but I cannot pin down why that might be and if there’s anything this course has taught me it’s to think as much about why I don’t like something as why I do. So here … Continue reading Picture Analysis – The Conversation
For this exercise I have chose a photograph from a trip in the Summer to visit friends in La Rochelle. It is one of a number of shots I got of the Cafe Parisien, some were better composed but this one has the most interesting characters staged in the most interesting manner. The original image is top, and a crop below. I’ve cropped in such … Continue reading 2.4 The Two Dimensional Plane
