Landscape Photography Stole my Soul

High Key Still Life

2012-03-06T16:18:00.000Z

Notes from a studio class

One of the basic skills necessary for studio photography is high key lighting. For this exercise I chose one of the more difficult subjects, a white ceramic teapot. Not only is it a very clean white, but it is reflective.

The lighting set was based on a small light table. The first light was fitted with a narrow, deep reflector placed behind the table. The honeycomb was removed as this could have broken up the pattern of light on the background. I then placed two heads fitted with soft boxes, one on either side of the table. These were set 1 – 2 stops below the background light. All of the lights in the room were turned off to avoid reflections. In this instance the camera, a 5x4 MPP on a studio stand, did not reflect in the teapot. If need I would have placed small polyboards each side of the camera, just leaving enough room to shoot through. In the past I have also placed a small polyboard over the top of the table, but again it was unnecessary for this shot. I shot the image on 5x4 Velvia 50, overexposing by ½ stop for one shot and 1 stop for a second. The image used was the ½ stop.

To HDR or not to HDR? (The answer is not to by the way)

2012-03-06T11:49:00.000Z

Notes from a Photoshop lesson.

Those of you who have attended any of my workshops or lessons will know how I hate to give up control of any process. To me HDR. High Dynamic Range, is the epitome of all that is wrong with automated processes. I am not totally against the process, but like many procedures, people over use it. Used for a subject with a wide exposure range it is a useful tool, such as interiors that include a window. There is, as always, a better method of producing the same results and retaining control of the process.

As usual I prepared a shot in advance for this session, then left my camera at home so as a result I used the corner of my teaching space for the demonstration. The first step is to shoot your chosen image in RAW. If there are no moving elements in the subject then you could produce a series of different exposures for highlights, mid tones and shadows. I prefer to work from a single RAW image.

I opened the image in Camera Raw and saved the original as a JPG titled Mid. The highlights were adjusted with the exposure and recovery sliders and saved as a JPG called High, a second exposure for the small window was used and called High 2. Next I used the fill and black sliders to get a Low JPG. I now had four JPG files, all of which were opened in Photoshop.

The images were stacked on top of each other. To separate them I simply clicked on the title bar and dragged it out of the frame. I selected the Mid image in Photoshop, making sure that the view was set to widows and not full screen. I then found the High 2 image and using move tool while holding down the shift key the image was dragged on top of the mid image. Holding down the shift key forces Photoshop to align the images. I now had two layers so I needed to mask the High2 one. The mask was filled with black, then white was painted over the small widows to allow the darker image to show through.

Once the window was masked, using a small brush on a large image for the edges, I then held down the ALT key and selected merge visible from the menu at the top left of the layers palate. This flattens the layers into a new one, without removing the previous two. This means that you can return to the previous ask if required.

I repeated the process for the High image.

You will notice that I have labeled the merged layers with a description of which layers are included. The process was repeated again for the Low image and the shadows under the table were masked out. This time the division between the masked and unmasked areas was obvious. To blend the two I selected a mid grey as the foreground colour and using a large brush painted across the division.

This can be seen on the mask above. The two images, before and after, are shown. If I was to repeat the task I think I would make the small windows a bit lighter. In an attempt to get full detail in the trees I have allowed the branches to go a little dark.

Before

After

Adding Lighting Effects Notes

2012-02-08T11:23:00.000Z

Notes from a Photoshop session on adding lighting effects.

I’m not having a problem with vanity, honest, it’s just easier to demonstrate techniques on pictures of myself. As with many portraits taken in the studio the lighting on the face is OK, but the background has just been left as black. This is a little dull looking so in this handout I intend to show how to add the lighting effect that should have been included in the shoot

Use the Polygonal Lasso tool to draw a beam of light on a copy of the background image. Turn this selection into a layer ask by clicking the mask logo at the bottom of the layer palette. This now needs to be softened so go to Filters / Blur / Gaussian Blur and use a reasonably high value to really soften the effect.

Use the destructive levels (image / adjustments / levels or cmd L) to lighten the selection. The face now needs to be masked out. Make sure that the mask is selected and use the paint brush with black as the foreground colour to paint out the face. Adding a colour to the light will add more interest. With the masked image selected double click the foreground colour and select a suitable hue, blue in this case. Use the graduation tool set to solid to transparent at about 50%, and Soft Light, on the tool bar. For this one I drew the

cursor from the right to the left across the full width of the image, and then from the top left to just into the image.

Abstract Photography

2012-02-06T08:47:00.000Z

Every monday I work with a group of Art ad Design Foundation students. These are adults who are preparing to go onto degree courses. as such their areas of interest range from fine art to architecture, with the occasional photographer. This is often one of the high points of my week, they approach photography from such a wide range of disciplines that it makes them a fascinating cohort. We get the normal questions such as lighting a portrait, right through to students using photographs as part of a textile design, and thankfully try little dependance of Photoshop. We ae a small darkroom and they are still ten on learning traditional skills along with historical processes, which main stream photography students have started to think is beneath them.

Three weeks ago I set a brief on abstract photography. I prepared a presentation that covered a wide range of practitioners from Man Ray through to current photographers such as Jo Casson and Chris Friel. I left the outcome brief completely open, they could use any modi a for the final pieces, as long as the origins were photographic. Last week I had fun playing in the darkroom with photograms, but using various lenses and reflective media to bend the light.

Last night I was out with my dog on the hills above where I live in the snow and the mist and I started to play with the camera on my iPhone. My inspiration was from artists such as Chris Friel. I don't know if I will ever continue with this type of work, probably not, but it was fun to get away from trying to get every blade of grass sharp, ad is a sort of natural progression from some of my recent work.

Cwm Orthin in the Rain

2012-02-01T20:50:00.000Z

Shooting at Cwm Orthin carries more challenges than the norm. A dull and rainy day is probably not the best time to tackle subjects such as this, but over the last two years I have photographed it just about every weather condition. The biggest challenge is that just about every other photographer in the area has also photographed this location, including the late, great Faye Godwin.

I decided to concentrate on the area around the married men’s barracks on this visit, it’s one of those subjects that I take a token shot of and then move onto other areas. If I’m honest, the fact that it was raining and tis was the closest location to my van if the weather worsened may also have been an influencing factor.

These represent about one third of the images that I shot on this day, the rest suffer from raindrops on the lens, but it is still well worth working in these conditions.

Glamour Portrait Re-Touching.

2012-01-31T16:02:00.000Z

Sub titled - How to Abandon all Self Respect and Pride In Front of a Class!

It is easy to offend people if you use their picture to demonstrate this type of re-touching, so you need someone who is had to offend and has no sense of pride – so I’m using myself! This self portrait as taken to illustrate a previous set of lighting notes.

The first task, after duplicating the layer, is to adjust either the levels or the curves to adjust the contrast.

The next step is the one that can cause offence because you are saying that the model has faults in their complexion. You need to remove blemishes, wrinkles, laughter lines, etc. Do not remove moles or birth marks with out asking first, these are the areas that cause the most upset, by removing them you are saying that they make the person less attractive, whereas people are usually happy for signs of aging to be removed.

From the toolbar select the patch tool, this can be found under the healing brush. This is the best tool for removing wrinkles, there is less chance of creating a repetitive pattern. Drawn around a small area that needs retouching then drag that section to a neighboring area of similar tone. The software will then blend the two areas together. Make sure that you do not keep sampling the same area. Label this layer ‘re-touch’.

Go back to the tool bar and exchange the patch tool for the healing brush. Using this work your way around the face removing any small imperfections, again making sure that you do not oversample one area.

Next comes the shape of the face. The angle that this image was shot at makes the right side of the face look bigger than the left, plus one eye lid is a bit ‘droopier’ than the other. This can be altered by using Filters / Liquefy. Using a largish brush (700+) set at Smooth you can push in the side of the face. Reducing the size enables you to reshape the eye, make sure that the pupil still round. In this shot I also pushed the bridge of the nose in slightly from each side to make it narrower, and curled the corners of the mouth up a touch. Make sure that you keep checking back to the original (background layer) to make sure that you do not go too far with the adjustments.

Once you are happy with the retouching duplicate this layer and call it Blur. This should be moved up to above the levels/curves adjustment layer. Add a mask to this layer (white circle in grey rectangel. Make sure that the foreground colour is black and select the paint brush. You ae ow going to create a mask for the face, I find it easier to make the background and re-touch layers invisible for this by clicking on the eye logo.

If you are used to masks you may think that this

method is back to front, but all will become apparent. Paint across the face, changing the size of the brush as you go using [ and ]. As you paint you will see that the face turns to the transparency (chequered) pattern. This is because you have turned off the lower layers. Once you have masked the entire face you can invert it, cmd and I, which will show the skin and nothing else.

Use Filters / Blur / Gaussian Blur with a value of about 30 to blur the face. Now turn the lower layers back on and you will have a portrait with a falsely smooth

complexion. You can used the opacity slider for this layer to achieve the desired result.

The next step could be to adjust the colour of the eyes. To do this repeat the first steps of the previous adjustment, so duplicate the re-touch layer, move to the top and create a mask called Eyes. As before turn off the lower layers and paint over the eyes, once selected

invert the mask and turn the layers back on. Click on the image on the Eyes layer to deselect the mask. Use Image / Adjustments / Hue and Saturation to alter the colour of the eyes, or even lighten them. It is safe to do this in the destructive manner as if it goes wrong you just throw the layer away and repeat.

Lips can be adjusted in the same manner, but this time name the layer Lips and increase the saturation.

Finally you an make cheek bones stand out or shape cheeks. Create an empty adjustment layer and select Soft Light as the blending mode. Now paint black to darken an area and white to lighten. use the opacity slider to control the density.

Fascinating Photography Magazine

2012-01-25T18:59:00.000Z

Well, magazines must be like busses,nothing for ages then two come along at once. I have just been sent a link to the next edition of Fascinating Photography Magazine, a young on-line mag from the USA. They sent me a pro forma interview email some time ago and asked for ten pics to go with it. Not as slick as Landscape Photography, but I am still very grateful for the exposure.

Landscape Photography Magazine

2012-01-21T10:59:00.000Z

I had a pleasant surprise this morning when I checked my emails. I had received one from Dimitri Vasiliou, the editor of Landscape Photography Magazine. I've pasted the message below;

Just to let you know that we are displaying one of your pictures in our list of 20 most inspiring Black & White Images.

landscapephotographymagazine.com/2012/20-inspiring-black-white-photos/

I feel very honoured as I have subscribed to this on-line magazine for some time and regard it as one of the few that talks some sense. I belief I have expressed some of my opinions about mainstream mags on this blog in the past so it is nice to be used by one of the few that I consider worth reading.

In addition to this Dimitri emailed me a few days ago asking me to start contributing to their blog.

Cwm Bychan stand processed

2012-01-17T20:56:00.000Z

Im starting to wind up my Cwm Bychan project and have started to plan the layout of the book, or books as it has developed into. Over the past three and a half years I have shot this location in several formats both on film and digital so the images started to fall into two categories. The initial plan was to shoot the entire valley, from the ore processing at the foot to the mines at the head, and out of this as come a book of colour images which I plan to get published conventionally. I addition there has been an increasing amount of images that I have shot on black and white, particularly on film, which are of a different feel to the colour. These are mainly centered around the ore processing area, which I never get tired of shooting. I am just starting the process of printing and mounting a selection to take to some curators for exhibiting. Alongside this I have started to put together a bespoke limited edition book, so pretty busy.

These images were shot to fill some gaps in my Cwm Bychan series. Luckily I like working in typically Welsh weather, rain, of which there was a lot during this week. Because of this I left the digital Hasselblad firmly tucked up in my van and took out the Mamiya RZ 67 with a film back. Yo know how sometimes when things change you can forget to check the obvious? Well that happened to me on this day. Its been a while since I shot on 6x7, it was cold and wet so I was concentrating on keeping the camera as dry as possible so when I took the light readings and they seemed long I was’t overly surprised, after all it was very poor light. I worked for about four hours, regularly checking the meter and the lighting was reasonably consistent.

The following day I started to shoot, checked the meter and immediately spotted my mistake from the previous day. Because the lighting was so even, and the wet ground was a bit too reflective I had just taken ambient meter readings. I had ensured that the cone was in the raised position, I use a Sekonic L-508, but what I didn’t notice was that the spot meter was selected, and the lens cap was on! So everything was over exposed by at least three stops.

The solution to this - stand processing. If you have ever tried this then it can be worrying. I presoaked the film for 5 mins then added Rodinal at 1-50, agitating for 30 secs then left it untouched for 40 mins before stopping and fixing. This still produced pretty dense results, but could still be scanned. The next film I reduced the dev time to 20 mins, which produced better tones. The rest of the films were dev’ed for 15mins, which is only 3 mins longer than the time that I used for conventional developing, so you can imagine just how over exposed theses were. What I have realised after this is I have become too dependent on histograms on the Hasselblad back, and have become too relaxed at checking equipment.

Return to Coed Llyn Y Garnedd final shots

2012-01-08T21:02:00.001Z

I've spent a great deal of the last week processing, scanning and editing the films from Coed Llyn y Garnedd, and these are the results. Details of this visit can be found in my previous posting.

Return to Coed Llyn y Garnedd

2012-01-03T20:06:00.000Z

I am a firm believer in regularly returning to a location, it is only by doing this that you truly get to know the full character of that particular landscape. I spend on average three years working on each project, trying to visit each location at least six times a year, if not more. Most of the time it is the atmospheric conditions that vary, and working in North Wales you get to see the extremes.

When one of the projects is based in woodland then the changes can be more dramatic. Last week I re-visited Coed Llyn y Garnedd, which is just above Tan y Bwlch in the Vale of Ffestiniog, North Wales. I have enjoyed working in this mainly coniferous woodland for some time now. It was here that I tested my first non tethered digital back on the Hasselblad, I went here when I returned to shooting 10x8 and my dog knows every path and track in the place.

Pre harvesting

It is now the turn of this wood to be harvested. It is quite sad in a way when this happens, but it is the sole purpose for the existence of some of these coniferous plantations. Tilhill, the managers, seem to tackle the task in quite a sympathetic manner. The dense, regimented rows have been completely removed, most of which are hidden from the general vista. The hill sides are selectively thinned, leaving the native trees and a percentage of the pine, meaning that the views of the valleys still keep their looks. At the moment it may look like a battle field, but in a couple of years time it will start to look good again.

My heart sank as I progressed and realised that one of my favourite locations had been completely cleared. The dense conifers surrounded a ruined hut, which in turn was occupied by hawthorns, with added colour, either through foliage or the white flowers. Amazingly they had managed to fell the huge pines and leave the hut and hawthorns relatively intact. The images in this post are the before and after of the hut, I will be posting more shots from this locate in the next few days.

Hut with hawthorn still present.

Darkroom almost finished

2011-12-22T16:12:00.000Z

Its been over a year since I bought the two birth caravan to use as a darkroom and it has served well for processing films. A couple of weeks ago I decided that I really had to finish converting it so that I could print now that I don't have time to do any at work anymore. I fitted the chassis off my 5x7 Chromega after having firstly ripped out the old wardrobe that I used as storage, the chassis could then be mounted onto the feel arch.

I have spent the last three days building more worktops and trying to build in enough storage, and it is now almost finished.

The 5x7 Chromega with the pic that came with the easel still in it, It will print up to 20x24

First bench, it was built to allow storage for the Wilkinson processor underneath. The worktop lifts off to get the processor out. I have paper holders for 10x8, 16x12 and ridiculously big, plus 10x8 film holders allowing me to process up to 27 sheets at a time, if I could evrer afford that much film. The troughs stacked on top will let me process either 20x16 or 20x24 in a very small space by clipping the paper onto the drum.

The sink area set up for the 14 sheets of 5x4 E6 I need to process for my students. The stainless try is a 20x24 wash tray that came with the troughs. Across the end is a tray with my Kodak deep tanks in it, this can be pulled forward for use, and at the moment the Jobo tempering bath is at the front keeping a supply of wash water heated for the E6 processing.

The washing end, this houses 10x8 Nova tanks, roll film Nova deep tanks and the Kodak wash tank. The shelf above has my raw chemistry stored for historical processes, this needs a new home. To the left are shelves that fit all of my exhibition frames. Just enough room for one, all I need now is a swivelling bar stool to put in the middle.

Robert Mapplethorpe type lighting

2011-12-13T16:01:00.000Z

Notes from a lighting lesson

Robert Mapplethorpe’s infamy for his S&M images has overshadowed the tremendous skill he had as a portrait photographer. His lighting style created a glow from his subjects. The skin tones are clean and radiant. If you get the chance to see any of his original prints then do so, they are masterful, books and websites could never do justice to his printed tones.

For this exercise I set up the lighting as shown in the diagram. The two main lights are Bowens 1.5 Quad heads with square softboxes, plugged into a 1.5K symmetrical pack. The hair light is a Bowens Gemini 500 with a honeycomb fitted. The quads were set to minimum and the Gemini to 4. A ployboard was placed on either side of the model.

Liz was photographed using this lighting, and overexposed by approximately 1 stop. The hair light created too many highlights so this was turned off. The camera position is directly between the two softboxes.

The image was then downloaded into Photoshop CS5.

Before starting any adjustments the layer was duplicated. This ensures that you cannot accidentally alter the original. This first adjustment layer is back and white, which was set as shown.

The second adjustment layer used was curves, this was used to lift the highlights slightly. There was still a little too much detail on the skin so layer 1 was duplicated again, making sure that it was below the adjustment layers. This was then blurred using a Gaussian Blur filter to soften skin detail. They layer was then blended using soft light. A mask was then added to this layer and everything apart from the skin was masked out, this brought back the detail in the eyes and the lips, as well as the hair and clothes. All that remained to be done was to darken the distracting bead on her necklace. Layer 1 was again duplicated and the burn tool was used, set to highlights at 5%, to darken the bead. At this point Layer 1 could be disposed of as the burn layer covers it. I prefer to always work on a new layer when making adjustments.

Screen Shots.

Final Image

Manchester

2011-11-28T21:23:00.000Z

I had spent the afternoon with some students at the Whitworth Art Gallery and was returning to my car, a two mile walk to avoid excessive parking charges, when the light on the University of Manchester caught my eye. Funny, but I had just commented to a colleague that I had lugged my Hasselblad around all day and not used it.

Dovestone Workshop - more pics

2011-11-22T20:54:00.000Z

The remaining Haasselblad shots I took during the workshop at Dovestone Reservoir

Dovestone Workshop

2011-11-21T21:14:00.000Z

Last week I ran a small workshop around Dovestone Reservoir in the Peak District National Park. While on it I took the opportunity to add to some of my projects, these were for the Forest Nation set.

Dovestone reservoir is near Greenfield, below Saddleworth Moor. The reservoir is surrounded by a variety of locatios, ranging from pine plantations, rocky mountain streams trough to pastureland. UNited Utilities are currently clearing some of the plantatuions and replanting broad leaf varieties. They have also been fencing off areas which have nest boxes located within the sanctuary created, and have made an accessible pond and seating area.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

2011-11-16T19:55:00.000Z

A couple of weeks ago I went with the Art and Design Foundation students. These are all adults, some very talented ones, who are attending a one year course to build portfolios to gain a place on a degree course. They cover the full gamut of specialisms and so are a really interesting group to work with. each year they go to the Yorkshire Sculpture park. Not only do they get to see the exhibitions, and the collection of sculptures in the grounds of Breton Hall, but they spend time photographing and sketching. It is always a good day, if you have never visited and you get the chance, then go there, its a fascinating place.

Incidentally, if you are wondering where all of the pics of sculptures are - you can only photograph them for personal use.

Manchester

2011-11-13T20:30:00.001Z

A city centre is not the natural environment for a 10x8 camera, it poses many more problems than working in a deserted landscape. It does mean, however, that you can drive to quite close to the location. One of the biggest problems is the amount of people who want to stop and talk, which when you are used to inquisitive sheep for company, it can be a bit of a distraction. The shot of Exchange Square, above, tested my staying power. I set up when the early morning light was quite low. I chose to work before 7 am to try and avoid too many people, but by the time I got to this shot it was about 8 am. The sun was starting to reflect off the windows in The Triangle, the old Corn Exchange building, out of shot on the right. I was waiting for the reflections to reach the steps when a Ford pick up arrived and three men in high vis jackets started to clear the litter and leaves out of the fountains. Eventually they moved on and a couple arrived and stood in shot talking. Normally people are not a problem as the long exposure doesn't record them. This couple stood there for about 20 minutes. Eventually the man came over to me to ask how long I would be working there, it seems that they were to be directing a film crew for local TV and were waiting for me to move!

Market Street is the main pedestrian road in the heart of Manchester so I started the shoot in this location. This was my second visit with the 10x8. The previous week I had shot from the same position, but when I processed the film I had a mental sneeze, and loaded the film back to front in the processing tank. I returned and found that the hanging baskets that were on each of the posts were being taken down, in-fact by the men with the white van in the mid distance. This spoilt the composition, but I shot it anyway as I liked the tones of the paving.

I enjoy working in this little park beyond the Urbis building, especially when the light is low in November. A man came up to me when I was shooting here to tell me that I had re-awakened his nightmares. He apparently used to work in a studio off Fleet Street in London. His first job every morning was to load 50 10x8 darkslides with film - I only load 10 at a time and that can be a chore.

THIAPS

2011-11-09T13:51:00.000Z

THIAPS, The International Analogue Photographers Society, have featured two of my images in their 1st yearbook. I feel very honoured as they have thousands of members from around the globe.

Cwm Bychan

2011-11-06T21:40:00.000Z

A return to Cwm Bychan, a copper mining valley that runs parallel to Aberglaslyn in the Snowdonia National Park. I am drawing to the end of this three year project and have started working of the layout of the planned book, or magazine, or ebook - hmmm - decisions decisions. These images are from two visits, both made with my 10x8 Bulldog/Cambo combination using the last of my Provia 100.

I was quite set on producing a book from the images of Cwm Bychan, until I started to look at self publishing with our 2nd year degree New Media and Animation students. Maybe its the subjects but New Media are quite into the idea of printed material while animators seem more interested in on-line presentations. i suppose an on-line magazine would give them the opportunity to include their animations.

Im not normally a great fan of on-line image presentations, you spend hours getting the image reflecting your emotional response to a subject - then let people view it on uncalibrated monitors. Since being bitten by the iPad bug I seem to have been reviewing my opinions - I really enjoy looking at images on it, I've downloaded loads of books ad magazines and am getting hooked! Today though I went back to my roots, I bought a Wilkinson processor off eBay, so that should get me back into the darkroom again.

Depth of Field Lesson Notes

2011-10-04T12:11:00.000+01:00

Notes from a depth of field lesson.

Aperture

This seems to be the hardest aspect of photography for people to initially get to grips with. Hopefully after reading this you should have a working knowledge of the aperture and how to use it to your creative advantage.

What is it?

Quite simply it is the hole in the centre of the lens that lets the light through to the film or sensor. Think of it as the pupil in the cameras eye. As with the pupil in your eye it can be made larger to let more light in or smaller to let less light in. In other words, you can use it to control the exposure.

The numbers don’t make sense!

The numbers usually range from about 1.8 through to 22 on normal cameras. Some, often expensive, lenses go down to 1.2, while long focal length lenses may go up to 90.

These numbers are simply a method of knowing what size the aperture is. If you have an SLR camera (Single lens Reflex) try taking the lens off and looking through it. Set the aperture ring to the 5.6.

You should be able to see the full diameter of the aperture. Slide the small lever on the lens mount across and this will alter the size of the aperture to f5.6. Now move it to the largest number. The diaphragm should now close down so that you only have a small hole, or aperture, for the light to pass through.

Modern digital SLRs

On many current Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras you will not need to remove the lens. The manufacturers have helpfully included a graphic on the menu screen. Alter the aperture and observe how the graphic changes. On many cameras you will have to depress the aperture button and use the jog wheel to alter it.

Different lenses have different sized apertures.

Because the numerical value is worked out by dividing the diameter of the aperture into the focal length, different length lenses with have different sizes of opening, but will still have the same value. You do not need to worry about this change, the effects are still the same

f5.6 on a 50mm lens f5.6 on a 200mm lens

How do I know which one to select?

In terms of exposure you need to think about the combination of aperture and shutter speed. As a general rule it is unadvisable to hand hold a camera at less than 1/60th of a second (60). Some people need faster speeds, others can hold steady for longer. If the shutter speed falls below 60 then you need to let more light through the lends, so use a wider aperture, or smaller numerical value.

Exposed at f11at 1/125 sec Exposed at f5.6 at 1/125 sec Exposed at f2.8 at 1/125 sec

I’ve got a compact camera, what do I do with that?

Most compact cameras do not have a manual setting, I will be looking at the uses for apertures on these in the exposure modes section.

If there is a manual section then you will probably only have a limited choice of apertures which will be highlighted on the display.

Key Points

The aperture is like the pupil in your eye, it controls the amount of light passing through the lens.

A small number represents a wide aperture and lets more light through.

A large number represents a small aperture and lets less light through.

Depth of Field

Depth of field is the second important aspect to aperture choice. Basically it means how much of your image is in focus. It should not be confused with depth of focus, which is the area that the sharp image is forming in inside the camera.

How do I control it?

You can change the depth of field by changing the aperture. A wide aperture, 1.8, will give a shallow depth of field – a small amount in focus. A small aperture, 22, will give a full depth of field – most of the image in focus.

F2.8 giving a shallow depth of field, only a small amount in focus.

F22 giving a full depth of field, everything in focus.

Why would I want to change it?

The control of depth of field allows you to not only be creative, but also to make sure the viewer sees what you want them to see. If you photographed a friend in a busy street then the viewer would start to look at the background. By using a wide aperture, giving you a shallow depth of field, you can make sure that your friend is in focus and that the distracting background is out of focus.

Landscape photography as a general rule requires the full vista to be in focus. By using a small aperture, such as f22, you can achieve this.

Look at most advertising photography, the photographers in this field are experts at using depth of field to isolate the subject. How many times have you made assumptions about the fuzzy scenario behind a bottle of perfume?

Exposure value.

This is the relation ship between the shutter speed and the aperture and is often abbreviated as EV. The correct exposure is determined by a set amount of light causing a reaction in either the film or the sensor, so if you alter either the aperture or the shutter speed, then you must compensate with the other.

Each step in the aperture or shutter speed scales represents either doubling or halving the amount of light passing through the camera. So if you double the amount of light with one, you must then halve it with the other. Sounds complicated? Not really. Basically if you turn the aperture one way, then you turn the shutter speed the same amount the other way. It used to be easier to explain as all cameras had the same shutter speeds and apertures. Modern cameras seem to have an infinite number of variations on both.

In practice you do not have to think too much about it, the camera helps in the majority of instances. If you are using an exposure mode on your cameras, such as TV or AV then the camera will correct the exposure for you.

Swing needle, Lights and Canon EOS light meters

If you are using the camera in manual, then you simply reset the light meter – if you alter the aperture, the adjust the shutter speed to correct the exposure.

Key Points

Wide aperture to isolate the subject from the background.

Small aperture to get the full image in focus.

Balance any changes by altering the shutter speed to match.

Examples of images using the shortest depth of field.

Cwm Bychan

2011-09-15T08:27:00.000+01:00

After two weeks of enrolling students I needed to get out with my camera, addiction or not? Those that have read my blog may remember that six months ago I broke my Bulldog 10x8 camera, a British kit built camera. I now have cross bread between a Cambo ad the Bulldog, a Camdog or a Bullbo? I replaced the front standard and the sprung back assembly with Cambo ones, so I decided to take it out for a trial run.

When using a 10x8 on location you need calm, dry conditions, so last Saturday it was windy, damp with heavy showers forecast, so I set out for Cwm Bychan. My plan for the images from this valley is to produce a book,so I recently printed out contact sheets of all the images from the last three years and started to lay them out. It became apparent that I was short of images from the head of the valley, so this was my destination.

I loaded up my rucksack with ten darkslides, five each of black and white and colour negative and parked up at the National Trust car park at Nantmoor. It was quite a atmospheric day, with low clouds and light rain, so I covered my camera and set off up the valley, ignoring the remains of the ore processing area for the first time. I stopped near the waterfall and exposed a couple of sheets looking back down the Glaslyn Valley, unfortunately the rain came with a vengeance. I thought I had packed everything in time, before putting my waterproofs on of course, but the rain must have got to the slide, as when I came to process them the films were stuck to the sheaths.

On my first visit to this valley I found a shallow pool off from the main part of the Cwm. I did not shoot that day as the rhododendrons had successfully been killed off, leaving dead, skeletal bushes on a grey barren land. Three years later the land had recovered from the infestation and the gorse and heather had returned. I found two of these shallow pools, they are too big to be called a pond and not up to being classed as a lake. After shooting off a few sheets of film it got too dull so I headed off back down the valley - to say it rained would be an understatement.

Despite the weather there were a lot of people out, including a schools party from the West Midlands. I passed a guided group on their way up, the young man from the National Trust exchange a knowing smile, as if to say even in this weather its a good place to be.

What next?

2011-09-06T20:11:00.000+01:00

The end of another summer and time to start the autumn and winter shooting. The Water Works book is at the printers, the Cwm Bychan project just needs a couple more shots to round it off, the Cwm Orthin/Rhosydd work needs sorting but the end is in sight. As for Forest Nation, I’ve got enough editing and processing to do to keep me going for months, plus I have the additional forest imagery shooting on 10x8 film.

What next? Many projects seem to occur quite naturally, while others need a lot of research, others have an appeal because they allow me to work in a different manner. The majority of my work involves a full frame, not much room for skies. I have always been interested in the relationship between texture and geometry, I shoot into the light to separate the shapes and forms and add emphasis to the geometry of the composition.

All composition is editing the subject to refine the vista and emphasise your visual response to the subject. The more geometric, almost abstract approach is an extension of the more traditional method of editing the landscape. This refinement of the image is further enhanced by translating the colours into grey scale, and the control of tone and contrast.

Readers of this blog will know my opinions of the current dominance of the pictorial, formulated approach to landscape, which I occasionally have to bow to in order to finance my personal work. The closer view could be related to the water works images, although the images are less biased towards motion. Instead I feel that they bear a closer relationship to my Elemental series, where the skies carry as much texture as the land. Maybe this work wont sell, but that is why I still teach to allow me the freedom to experiment.

Check your credit rating!

2011-08-31T17:24:00.000+01:00

Like me I'm sure that you get daily spam emails from companies wanting you to pay up and join their schemes for monitoring your credit rating. I have always ignored them, until a few months ago I got knocked back for a loan, it wasn't for much so I shrugged it off and used my Visa. After this I took up the offer from Credit Expert, who it seems are the public face of Experian, one of the main credit rating companies.

Everything went on ok until last week I got an alert from them, when I checked I discovered that a debt collecting company had placed a default on my credit report. After ringing them, several times, I found out that someone had taken out a Mint Card using my name and date of birth but using a London address. It would seem that they had been using this card for years and had regularly made payments to it until they defaulted in 2008. Of course the debt collectors were suspicious seeing as payments had been made, so they did not really take my claims very seriously. I reported this to the Police, got a crime number, and phoned Experian who set up a fraud investigation.

I then discovered via my credit report that my name was linked to the London address plus one other via Barclaycard - so out came the phone again. Without using the credit repot service I would not have found out that for nearly 10 years someone has been using two credit cards taken out in my name - scary! Each company assure me that it will all sorted and eventually the default and the addresses will be removed from my records, it was explained how its done, and it is very easy, so if you have lost a wallet, like I did in the late 1990s then you too may have multiple identities.

Back to the dark side

2011-08-26T17:09:00.000+01:00

I've had a few days of working in the higher keys so I need a fix back amongst the dark tones.

One problem with spending large chunks of your life a few feet from a beach is that you have a limited subject matter close at hand. A few years ago I started shooting rock pools, well not exactly rock pools themselves, but more the transition from hard to soft and the myriad tones and textures involved. I think that this is a extension of the Water Works theme that I spent so long working on, guess I just like intimate landscapes.

While on Traeth Penllech I could't resist adding to this series, maybe I'll have to think of something to do with it shortly.

Traeth Penllech

2011-08-25T11:22:00.000+01:00

This is the third time I have specifically visit Traeth Penllech, and have visited a further twice when passing by on the coastal path. The beach is on the side of the Lleyn Peninsula and is usually reasonably quiet due to its relatively isolated location. Access is down single track lanes to a car park, then a 10 - 15 minute walk across a couple of fields to the beach. The western end of the beach consists of soft sand leading onto a rocky area ending at Porth Comlon. Travel east and the soft sand is punctuated with jagged angular rock formations.

I have been repeatedly frustrated by this beach, I have not been happy with images shot here. I have used every format from DSLR through to 5x4 and have only been satisfied with one image, Unfortunately this was a formula image on DSLR shot specifically to sell. I think my attitude was different today, I went with no preconceptions. I visited this beach simply because I wanted somewhere flat to work. I am currently suffering from the landscape photographers, if not most photographers, ailment - a bad back.

I started shooting as soon as the sand hit my tripod, the only company I had at 8 in the morning was some inquisitive sheep. The sand was almost free of footprints and the low sun kept the contrast reasonably low. I stuck a couple of ND filters on my favourite 50mm lens, just enough to soften the moving water, but not enough to make it misty. The difference this time was that I had not headed straight for the dramatic rock formations, but had started on the smaller rocks so for a change I was enjoying shooting at this location.

Initially I was rather disappointed with the images. Then it struck me, they did not fit in with the muted colours that I have been working with lately, but once I converted them to black and white I was happy. I sometimes forget that at heart I am a black and white photographer. These should fit well with the rest of the images that I have shot over the last year for my coastal series. I am part way through the first edit of images, so will have to see how I get on with the next file.

An almost good day on the stall

2011-08-21T15:46:00.000+01:00

The forecast was good and as I came out of the sower at 5.30am the sky was looking promising so after taking Tess the border collie on the beach I set off for Porthmadog. After spending half an hour setting up my stall I treated myself to the customary bacon and sausage bap for breakfast and waited for the first of the customers to arrive.

While it was quiet I bought a little 127 folding Kodak with a perfect condition case for the princely sum of 50 pence. It needs a couple of screws to hold the shutter assembly to the extending frame but apart from that it looks in good condition, think I will have to order some 127 film from Silverprint and have a play.

The day got off to a good start with a man with his teenage kids having a good browse and saying that he would be back with his wife, quite a few seem to say that. To my surprise he returned about 30 mins later with his wife. She quite quickly decided on a sunset shot of Black Rock Sands - but what size? She narrowed it down to either a framed A3 or a unframed A2 - the framed print won in the end.

While they were looking another lady arrived a spent some time gong through the prints. We chatted for a while while I explained where some of the locations were. She left after purchasing three 10x8s. This was closely followed by a couple who bought a unframed A3 - the day was looking good, the cloudy sky had obviously kept people off the beaches. That was when things started to get wet, then wetter - oh well at least I got to leave three hours early.

Inspiration from a true artist

2011-08-19T21:34:00.000+01:00

I found my direction again today, and it just took some words of wisdom from a master of landscape photography. After my last post Glyn Davies added a comment inviting me to give him a call. Seeing as I was heading from Manchester to Porthmadog today I left a couple of hours early and took a slight detour to call in to his gallery in Menai Bridge. I first came across Glyn's work about two years ago when I bought one of his books of images and text on Nant Gwrtheyrn, I had been shooting there on 5x4 and saw the book in Porthmadog. Probably about a year ago I discovered that I was also watching his work on Flickr.

I have enjoyed following is work as we have shot in some of the same locations but have a totally different approach. The first thing that struck me was the sense of quality as you walked into his gallery. Two floors of magnificent landscapes. It was good to spend some time chatting to one of the few people who can make their living purely off landscape photography. I left feeling inspired. I used to tell my students that if they didn't wake up in the morning wanting to take photographs then they may be in the wrong profession. For the last couple of weeks I had lost that feeling, it's back again.

The journey back to Porthmadog was a real pain in more than one sense. Fridays this time of year tend to rather busy with weekend visitors so lots of traffic jams. No matter, I tend to take the smaller roads anyway. This became the second pain. The lighting was looking good, dark clouds, light patches, and a dramatic landscape - but no opportunity to park up and go shooting - frustrating. After my evening meal I had to get out with the camera. Interesting conditions to take photographs on a beach. It was blowing about a force four, getting dark and the tide was coming in - wind assisted. The hasselblad back has a maximum exposure of 32 seconds, so the last of the images needed a bit of tweeking in Phocus.

It made a nice change not aiming to fill the frame with detail, maybe the shots of Pwllheli the other day were the start of a different series?

Getting bogged down

2011-08-17T16:13:00.000+01:00

Do you ever get the feeling that you are getting bogged down? I don't know why, maybe it's because I have spent the last few weeks concentrating on selling happy colourful landscapes to holiday makers. I think of this as being like my friends who are potters, they make mugs to sell to support their real work. I have recently finished working on a book, finally drawing a line under the water works project, I have just signed off the final, and third, proof so it will be going off to the printers soon. If you have ever produced a book you will know how much time it takes up and how much hassle it is, particularly if the publishers are American and most of your locations are in Wales - I'm dreading my next phone bill.

I have spent the last three days putting together a website for a camping park, not very taxing but it has meant that I have had to plow through all of my colour landscapes for inclusion in the galleries. I suppose that this has got me thinking about the direction that my work has been taking. Lately when I have been out shooting the little voice in the back of my head has been asking who would buy the prints? This is the worst possible voice, it takes away the prime reason for shooting. I feel that you should always shoot for yourself, the rest will hopefully follow. I do not want to consider the commercial worth of my work at the shooting stage, I left that world many years ago when I realised that teaching would give me a good enough income to allow me to concentrate on my own work. It did, however, rake about ten years for my teaching to catch up to the income that I had made in the commercial world, but the quality of life is much better.

Beddgelert Forest

I have met some really interesting people while standing on my stall. There have been a few working landscape photographers stopped by for a chat, some of whom are lucky enough to be able to support their own galleries, and a couple of studio bound practitioners shared their insights into the state of the current state of the business. There have even been two discerning clients who bought a print each of my own work, one a Forest Nation short and the other a Water Works one.

Water Works - Cwm Bychan

I believe that the main problem I have this time of year is the massive growth in pictorialism. It would seem that to be a landscape photographer, according to the vast majority of publications, you need at least a 5D with a 10mm lens, a big stopped ND and a graduated tobacco. Ok, I take a lot of long exposure, but I have grown to hate the magenta tones featured in so many low level shots of running water. How many sunset shots of Bamburgh Castle does the world need, particularly as the sun is still quite high in the sky in any of the images. Is there a sign on Rannoch Moor that says "Place Tripod Here"? There must be a que behind that lone tree on the banks of Buttermere.

What brought this on? A fellow landscape photographer, who does not fall into any of the above categories has just blogged about meeting one of Britain most unrecognised masters of the Genre. Most 'thoughtful' photographers are vary aware of his work, and greatly admire it. What would happen if either submitted images to the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition? Would they get through? Would they want to be associated with it? (I do not mention any names as it wold almost feel like poaching to associate this blog with the other, who has hopefully recognised the reference as does not mind).

When I took students to Berlin earlier this year the whole city seemed to encourage photographers and artists to celebrate their originality so what has happened over here, why are we all being encouraged to be the same? Bodies such as the AOP do a great job in supporting their members and encouraging originality, but what of the other professional bodies? Think I need to do a bit of exploration, I can't just keep on recommending the AOP to students, the research will give e something to do while sat in a studentless college taking my turn on the summer cover rota.

Pwllheli

2011-08-12T16:19:00.000+01:00

Jan had decided that I needed to spend my time fitting new blinds, so off to Pwllheli. It has been a very none photographic week due to my van failing its MOT, not quite sure how it passed the last one as the previous owner had been a bit creative with the wiring, which caused it to fail, twice, this time. It's a good job that the mechanic has a sense of humour and I had time to rewire half the van!

To try and rebalance my universe while Jan was shopping for blinds I went to the beaches. I have never bothered with the beaches at Pwllheli, I just associate the town with sopping and getting tyres for the Moto Guzzi so it was interesting to visit them. They are split by the marina, which maybe because I am an ex windsurfer, I am not the greatest fan off. The eastern beach is in a very sheltered little bay with soft sand and views across to Moel Gest. the jetty for the marina keeps the water quite calm.

The westerly beach is much bigger with views along the peninsula. The sand here is very course, seemingly made up of particles of shell. It gives the impression of keeping true to it's Victorian roots, with some interesting buildings, all painted different colours. maybe I have been a bit harsh ob Pwllheli all these years and I should pay it a bit more attention.

Parc Coed Cymerau

2011-08-03T16:08:00.000+01:00

This is a really varied area of woodland near Blaenau Ffestiniog. There appears to be several landowners and managers involved with the area, which probably explains why there is so much variety. I normally park in the large lay by at the entrance to the section owned by the Woodland Trust, Coed Cadw. This section of the wood has a bit of everything, from waterfalls to a traditional longhouse, Cymerau Isaf. There is a good mix of trees, mainly native, around a section of pasture. From here you can walk to the waterfalls near Rhyd-y-Sarn, which are still on the Afon Goedol, which has curved around the woods since the waterfalls at the entrance.

A footbridge takes you to the narrow, sometimes steep, path that leaves the national Nature Reserve into the old pine plantation at Clogwyn y Geifr. After to open, airy atmosphere of Coed Cymerau this plantation is dark and cold, almost threatening at times.

I shouldn't say it but this is a very rewarding area to work in, for one reason that there are not many people visiting - unless photographers keep on blogging about it of course.

Still Working

2011-07-29T13:21:00.000+01:00

I've been having a hectic two weeks of shooting in North Wales before the main holiday season starts and the roads get clogged. I have to spend a week in Manchester next week preparing courses for the September start, so I will have plenty of images to work on in the evenings. Unfortunately the mobile dongle isn't fast enough to upload images by, but on the bright side the lack of signal means that I get some peace from my phone.

Spiritus, which is an American theological journal published trough the John Hopkins University Press, have just bought a licence to use the Coed Cae Fali shot in their next publication. Jobs like this don't pay a huge amount, but with a readership of 12,000 it means that lots more potential clients will see my bio and web address.

I have also been approached by the owner of a campsite to put together a website for her and include galleries of my happy, smiley landscapes, all with links to my sales site of course. Print sales from my stall are going steadily and have taken a few bookings for my one day courses so roll on more holiday makers!

Coed Cae Fali

2011-07-12T08:57:00.000+01:00

If you have looked through my work you will have realised that I enjoy working in this wood. It is owned by the National Trust and is currently going through a gradual transformation from the bland pine plantations to what would have been its natural state as part of the ancient forest that once covered Snowdonia. Thankfully this is not happening in one fell swoop, but in sections.

I wanted to revisit the area that was cleared in 2010, which I last photographed this time last year. I thought it would be interesting to see how the location had changed. Last year the ground was very wet and was littered with the remains of the harvesting process. This is an important part of the recovery process, as the wood rots it provides shelter and food for a huge variety of creatures.

Last year I felt as if I was intruding, it was very stark and I had trouble shooting anything, I just didn’t feel at easy. It was an alien, unnatural environment, particularly after leaving the dense woodland just prior to this section. This time the environment was much ‘softer’. The wind was gently swaying the the long grass which in turn clothed the abandoned limbs and gave them a much more welcoming feel. Hundreds of birch saplings have sprung up and added colour to the previously grey landscape. On closer inspection the ground was strewn with small oaks, the National Trust’s aim is to replace the pines with the native oak, so this appears to be starting. Its a shame that it will take a couple of hundred years to look like a true woodland again.

From here I returned to the pines, and this time followed an old access track left by the heavy machinery. From my map, with the aid of the GPS tracker on the OS maps on my iPhone, I could see that this just led me up towards the Ffestiniog Railway, so a dead end. The track entered an area that must have been harvested a few years ago and is now populated with reasonably mature birch trees. There was nothing of any interest as I plodded through the often very deep ruts left by the machinery. Unfortunately one thing that grows well in these condition is bramble, so not a good day to be wearing shorts! I stopped for a late lunch at the remains of an old hut, but the wood was so dense that there was not really any suitable viewpoint.

Returning the way I came, so more scratched on my unprotected legs, I went back to the older wood. Because I had been late getting started, thanks to Shelly my 19 year old daughter taking so long to get ready for the lift she wanted, the sun was high and the shadows short. This had been a problem in the more open areas but now it proved to be quite interesting. The weather was changing, the clouds were starting to build, so there were patches of light passing through the trees, highlighting any clearings and paths. This of course meant that I was spending time waiting for the light, but any landscape photographer is used to this.

It was a good day, if a little shorter than usual. I managed to get a variety of shots and explored a part of Coed Cae Fali that I hadn’t visited before, even if it was not profitable.

More Lost Files

2011-07-07T12:07:00.000+01:00

External Verifier has been this week and has signed off my level 3 Certificate students with no problems. I have been really proud to work with this group, who, quite scarily, ended up as a all female group when John had to leave for health reasons. They have produced some excellent work, many of them choosing to use Blurb to make books for their portfolios. Out of the group 3 are progressing to photography degrees and one to a photography foundation degree, two are going onto non related degrees. Two have gone into partnership shooting weddings and events, while another has started a wedding and portrait business, and has just won an award from the SWPP. Out of a group of 11 mature students, who came to improve their hobbies, I think they have done pretty well, I'll quite miss my Fridays with them.

Now that their work is completed I have had time to finish the forgotten about files that I found on my laptop.

These are also from Cwm Orthin. I decided to concentrate on the first part of the valley on this visit. I normally shoot off a couple of frames then head through for the more 'interesting' parts of the valley. I started trying to tackle one of the valleys biggest cliches, the married men's barracks. This has been shot thousands of times so I wanted to try and find a different angle on it.

From there I followed the tracks up onto the stepped workings above Llyn Orthin. I have not worked up here before so it made an interesting change. The day was typically changeable, but that makes for more dramatic images, if you have the patience to wait, and I spent a lot of time waiting for the light to change.

Llyn Orthin with Llyn Trawsfynedd in the distance

I was surprised just how far I could see. This is a remarkable part of Wales, often overlooked as everyone heads for the more picturesque areas. There is such a contrast between the hills, from the sharp edged, sculpted slate workings, to the soft, rounded, untouched rock faces. The two are often only a few feet apart.

Llyn Tanygrisiau

At the foot of the hill is Llyn Tanygrisiau and the hydro electric plant that tops up the power supply at peak periods. In the distance, Llyn Trawsfynydd and the decommissioned nuclear power station. You can stand in the abandoned slate waste heaps and look across to the current workings in Blaenau Ffestiniog. There is so much in a small area for a photographer to work with.

Blaenau Ffestiniog

If I slipped into 'art speak' mode I could illiterate endlessly about the metaphors and messages in the land, it is an ideal environment for both the visual and the intellectual photographer, so why do so many people avoid this area? Why do they grab a few shots of the obvious attractions of the derelict buildings and rush off? Maybe because the kit is so heavy and the inclines so steep. But as it is, I enjoy the solitude as it stands now.

The Lost Files

2011-06-28T15:58:00.000+01:00

One problem with this time of year in education is that you end up trying to find jobs to do to avoid the inevitable admin. A tried and tested favourite is always clearing the junk off your hard drive. It was while doing this that I found a couple of files of images that I had not processed yet. When I get in from shooting I always copy the cards onto my hard drive, then I have the insurance of a second copy. I must have done this then not worked on the images.

Both files are of images for my Cwm Orthin / Rhosydd project ad were taken last July, despite the exif saying that they were shot in Jan 2000. that is one of the problems with the Hasselblad backs, the clock resets to default every time that you change the battery.

It was another of those iffy days, where you get some sun with good patchy clouds for some of the day, and denser cloud cover for the rest. It was my intention to go straight to Rhosydd, but as usual I stopped of at some of the derelict buildings on the way. I reached Capel Cwm Orthin and despite several visits I have not got what I feel is the best image out of it yet. The chapel has a great atmosphere, there is so much history resonating off its crumbling structure that your imagination starts to replay what it must have been like when the mines were functioning. Do life threatening occupations and religious fervour go hand in hand. One of the sad things about this visit was that the chapel has deteriorated even more. Since my last visit, about a month ago, the back wall has collapsed.

What should happen with these old buildings? They are an important part of Welsh history, but are not shrines. Should they be partially preserved in a state of semi decay, like many of the castles, or should they be allowed to completely collapse. It would be a shame to loose this part of the landscape.

I eventually climbed up the long slog to Rhosydd and took more of the same old shots of the single mens barracks, which I haven't done anything with. from there I headed up onto the hills. The map shows several small lakes so I thought that I would start to explore them. I spent some time working around Llyn Conglog, but the light had pretty much gone. I will have to return there again soon, and maybe not leave it a year to process the images.

The end of another year

2011-06-27T15:31:00.000+01:00

The last few weeks have ben hectic, it is the end of the academic year. This means that students have been finalising their work, or starting it in some cases, and preparing their shows. For the time in about 16 years I have not had to put on a show, but I have been involved with several. In addition I have been to visit the shows of the neighbouring colleges and Universities, so its been a busy few weeks.

The first I visited was some of the second year students from Stockport Colleges degree. Out of the five showing i had taught three off them so it was great to see how they had developed since they attended my NVQ level 3 course.

Another highlight was Manchester Metropolitan University's show. It was less the show as a whole, but one person in particular, Sandra Lorkowska. Sandra was another ex NVQ student who has just completed her degree and is going on to do her Masters. I may be biased but I was really impressed with her work. She has produced a documentary series around lumberjacks in Poland. Her framing and the atmosphere that she has created in her images was very impressive, I would hope that someone will recognise her talent soon and give her some meaty stories to work on, she deserves it.

The last show that I was involved with was the Art ad Design Foundation students, who showed their work at the Zion Arts Centre in Manchester. This has been the first year that I have worked with foundation students, and I have loved it. These people are so creative and hungry to experiment. I have never seen photography used in so many diverse ways. One had used images captured covertly to form the basis for graffiti, web pages and a facebook page, another had explored the mask that she hides behind using not just a camera but non lens based methods, one had printed an image of a tree onto fabric and used various textile techiques to develop the image further. Others had used photography as a documentary tool, as a basis for textile designs, as a source for other images such as printing, one even looked at the way that the images deteriorate in a variety of processes. All in all I am really proud to have been associated with these people.

A less accessible woodland

2011-06-08T09:18:00.000+01:00

As part of the circular walk that I completed starting at Tomen y Mur, I went threw a pine plantation on Mynydd Meantwrog. The map showed a clear path, but no name for this wood. Things started of pretty easy, there was a well marked style to enter the woods by, then the regimented rows of trees showed that one route seemed to have been cleared of branches and made access easy.

About 20 feet into the wood I came to a small clearing which seemed to be part of a rather overgrown fire break, this gave some interesting areas of light to work with, but the contrast was too great even for the Hasselblad back to deal with in places.

After this things became a little less easy. This is where the cleared branches stopped. This woodland seems to have had very little access in recent years, the lower branches on the pines criss cross the spaces between the rows and make progress quite slow. This meant that there was not as many opportunities to get a chance to shoot, but it did give a new aspect to work with. The recent strong winds seem to have caused chaos in the centre of this leg of the woods with a path of downed trees that I had to climb over or crawl under.

Eventually I got to the style exiting the woods. I had managed to follow the contours on the map to find the exit and assumed that either I had lost the path or the downed trees had covered it, but when I looked back, there was no path! I think it will be worth a few more visits to explore the larger part of the wood.

The Gasman cometh - or not.

2011-06-01T22:14:00.000+01:00

Somehow I knew that when I confirmed the appointment for the gasman to come and change my meter that it would be a waste of time taking the day off, and guess what? I was right. Seeing as the kitchen fitters had hidden most of the meter I spent a hour early on removing a cupboard.

The day wasn't a complete disaster - with so much time to spare I at last got my Photoshelter site up and running.

http://johnkiely.photoshelter.com/

Tomin Y Mur Circular

2011-05-31T14:08:00.000+01:00

Events have conspired against me for the last few weeks so I haven’t been able to get out shooting, so yesterday I decided I was going out no matter what. I had a look on MetCheck and it seemed to forecast just about every variation of weather apart from snow and fog, so where to go? It looked as if it was going to be too dull for worthwhile forest shots, and my projects in Cwm Bychan and Cwm Orthin had enough low contrast images so out came the map.

Seeing as I have been shooting around Trawsfynydd lately it seemed a good place to start. I soon found a gap above the lake, near the roman fort, Tomin-y-Mur. I have shot the fort and the area from there to the quarries, so the logical progressing was to work up the hill slide. The map showed some interesting paths up onto Mynydd Meantwrog. This included some vistas of the Vale of Ffestiniog and of Llyn Trawsfynydd, with the added bonus of a pine plantation. There was no circular route, but I decided to worry about that when I got there.

I could see back towards the coast and had left what looked like quite heavy rain behind. Looking towards Blaenau Ffestiniog showed heavy clouds and rain, while looking across towards Rhinog Fawr showed sunny intervals, a strange day.

It was quite an easy walk, with the normal undefined path so good map reading skills are essential, as in many parts of Snowdonia. There were a few interesting discoveries, such as the old sheep fold in a dip with the disused nuclear power station in the back ground. I then spent some time shooting towards the vale of Ffestiniog. As I was working the clouds got very dark over Blaenau, while I was stood in sunshine.

The woodland was quite interesting, to say the least, but I will process those images separately.

The woodland path led onto Mynydd Maentwrog which gives a good variety of scenarios. There is a mix of small lakes, areas of cotton grass and crags, a good location to work. After shooting a few frames of Llyn y Tan the rain caught up with me, with a vengeance. Unfortunately digital Haselblads and rain don’t mix, and I hadn’t packed a film back, so it was on with the water proofs and I headed off following the farmers quad track down the hill to the quarry track below.

Woodland Wanderings Part 3

2011-05-16T19:42:00.000+01:00

The final two 10x8s from my woodland wonderings. I have had this film, Kodak Ektachrome 64, for several years and have kept it in the freezer, not with all the peas and carrots, I have a small freezer for film. I thought that I wood test my exposure techniques by shooting on it in the woods.

Both shots are of Coed Llyn Y Garnedd

Coed Caersaeon

2011-05-12T15:51:00.000+01:00

Back to the banks of Trawsfynydd again. On the last visit I shot a few images of the beach wood which turned out to be part of Coed Caersaeon. The map sowed that there was a circular walk heading up through the wood from near the new dam and coming back near the power station. So this was the plan for me and Tess the border collie.

The path, unfortunately, leads primarily through conifers. Saying this though, the wood is less managed than many of the others so it still has a wild feel to it. This meant that the bright sunlight could only penetrate the trees in small patches. As you will probably have realised by now, I like working with these extremes of contrast.

Fallen trees have been left, including the one over the path right at the start of the walk. These break up the regularity of the pines and give you the chance to get the odd diagonal into the composition. The fallen tree at the start may be one of the reasons that this path does not seem very well walked, in fact I only met two others while following, both dog walkers.

Most of the ground was a soft bed of pine needles with young ferns just starting to grown. In a month or so these ferns will have taken over and created a very different feel to the woods.

The path eventually led out of the wood to a ladder style which gave a good vantage point to survey the route. I could see that the next part led across several ladder styles and past at least two farm yards before getting back to what looked like quite young pines. I decided that this was not going to be suitable, particularly as Tess is getting quite old now she needs to be carried over the ladder styles.

I decided that the best plan was to turn around. Normally I don't like to do this but today it proved to be a good move. We left the main path and followed what appears to have been a track for a mountain bike race at some point. We were now walking into the sun so the dense woodland, with the narrow track, gave some quite interesting lighting effects.

These sort of conditions make exposure fun. In the past, or with the 10x8, I would shorten the development time, or even use a stand development method, to reduce the contrast. With digital it means that you really do have to make the most of the histograms. The fact tat the Hasselblad back is a full 48 bit helps immensely with this, its like sooting on Kodak Portra.

I really am still a film user at heart, I have owned several DSLRs but have never really been comfortable with them. Getting my first un-teathered back has totally changed my opinions. That was an Imacon Ixpress which shot onto an Imagebank which was worn on your belt. After a few accidents with it, like walking away from the tripod and forgetting to disconnect the firewire cable, I replaced it with the CWD. his is essentially the same back, but since Hasselblad acquired Imacon they have remodelled it to look better with the camera, and have added a CF card slot.

I think that the main reason that I prefer this is that I am happy shooting square. The first camera that I bought when I was about 11 was an Ilfoflex twin lens using 127 film. This was followed by a Kodak Duoflex, a succession of Rollieflex and Rolliecords and finally my first Hasselblad about twenty years ago. So guess if its not large format then it has to be square for me!

Still Woodland Wondering

2011-05-11T08:59:00.000+01:00

These are the last two 10x8 black ad white film images from these two days. Just a couple of colour to go.

Three more from wondering in woodland.

2011-05-09T21:31:00.000+01:00

All three of these were taken in Coed Llyn Y Garnedd. I have a few more to come yet, but finding time for working on them is a little hard at the moment.

Woodland wondering

2011-05-05T22:09:00.000+01:00

As mentioned previously I spent a couple of days shooting on 10x8 film before having to change to digital as I had no means of re-loading my darkslides. Today I finally finished processing the film, 16 sheets of black and white and 4 of tranny, so I have spent the last few hours in my cellar scanning them. These are the first of them.

Both of the woods that I worked in are frequent locations for me to work in. Coed Cae Fali is a woodland in the Vale of Ffestiniog and is owned by the National Trust. A couple of years ago some of the coniferous plantation was harvested and has been replanted with native species.

Above this can be found Coed Llyn y Garnedd, which as the name suggests is an area of woodland around Llyn y Garnedd. It is predominantly pine with some broad leaf mixed in.

Trawsfynydd 2

2011-05-04T12:15:00.000+01:00

I think that Jan, my wife, was feeling a bit left out seeing as I keep on disappearing with a camera and the dog for full days leaving her to sit in the sun, so she asked to come out with us one day. The company that manage the area around the Nuclear Power Station, Magnox I believe, have been erecting signs showing various walks and cycle rides around the lake. So I decided this would be a good day to explore part of it.

There is a visitors car park at the entrance to the pawer station from which a path leads you up to the dam. A large gazebo has a coupe of info boards up telling you what is happening with the decommissioning. Apparently they are in the process of building a new roof inside each building, when completed they will remove the top from each, lowering them by 1/3. These will then be clad in shielding materials and covered in slate then left until 2089, I think, before they are then demolished and the site cleared by 2096. No quick fix then.

Most of this first part of the walk is pretty uninspiring. A few nice views of the lake, but mostly fenced off areas with newly planted trees. Once through this part the road passes through a mature area of beech trees, again fenced off, but still worth shooting. This then leads onto mature pine plantations which I plan to visit at a later date. the road ends at the ‘New Dam’ which you can cross to enter more open countryside.

This was the first time I have visited this part of the lake, and it was pretty much a exploratory visit. I can see that there are areas of woodland worth exploring so will be returning in the near future.

Llanystumdwy

2011-05-03T10:24:00.000+01:00

This small village can be found between Criccieth and Pwllheli in North Wales. It is famous as the place whereDavid Lloyd George, British Prime Minister, grew up and is now buried.

The village lies on the banks of the Affon Dwyfor which, at this point, runs through a good variety of woodland. I have waked this path many times, the most dramatic being last year wen the river was in flood. As seems to have become my dog’s routine I was accompanied by Tess the Border Collie, which immediately posed problems as the first part of the walk goes through a mix of open wooded areas and pasture. There were bullocks in this bit, who of course wanted to follow the dog all of the way to the gate at the start of the denser woodland.

This walk was to serve two purposes, the first to expand on the Forest Nation series, and the second to take pictures to sell. At this time of year the woods are full of blue bells so I planned to get a few ‘pretty pics’ to sell on to help support the rest of my work. I was asked to shoot this area by one of my customers last year. She wanted a specific size of image to fit a wall in her holiday home which was just outside the village. I ran off a few prints of it and found that they sold well throughout the summer. I think of this sort of image in relation to one of my old neighbors when I lived in Cumbria. She was a potter and would spend time during the winter making mugs and bowls to sell to holiday makers. This gave her the income to support her exhibition work. I have let tis idea of my work slip, in fact I decided to move my sales site to Photoshelter nearly a year ago - and have still not got round to finishing it. The lecturing has dominated this year.

Blue bells apart, this area has a great mix of trees, from scrubby areas full of hawthorn, through beach and birch and onto pine. All this with the backdrop of the river. There were two main problems for me today, firstly I am a magnet for insects so get bitten a lot, and secondly Tess decided that the best way to get me to throw a stick for her was to lie in front of the camera.

Coed Y Chwarel

2011-04-22T13:10:00.000+01:00

Back to the Welsh woodlands to add to the Forest Nation collection. I haven’t had the chance to shoot properly for a few weeks, work has got very much in the way. Not only did I start teaching a new studio photography corse recently, but I also agreed to do a days work with a group of National Diploma Art & Design students. My week is more than full at the moment which has left me with no energy for my own work.

I have spent the last two days out with my 10x8 shooting black and white film, this will appear on the blog in a couple of weeks. It was in doing this that I realised how much I have come to depend on my camper, which I haven’t got with me this time for financial reasons - I can’t afford the petrol at the moment! It didn’t cross my mind that without it I have lost my ability to reload darkslides. I have also since discovered that I no longer think about packing the charger for my digital back, as this lives in the van. I should be OK though, I think I have enough charged batteries for this trip.

Today I revisited Coed Y Chwarel, a small area of woodland between Porthmadog and Criccieth. I visit this wood every year as it is a god mix of environments in a small area. It starts off with birch trees alongside a boggy area, leads into an area of beech before entering the more formal pine plantation. I am sure that the woodland is managed, but in a way that allows it to flourish and form in its own manner. Fallen trees are left and they become the habitat for all varieties of insect and other life.

I visit this wood at this time each year for one main reason, accessibility. At the moment the brambles and the ferns are just starting their frantic growth, so you can get to most places. The down side is the boggy area is a great breading place for all sorts of insects that like to dine on my blood - an itchy price worth paying, I hope.

It was with great sadness that I heard, on returning from shooting this set of images, of the death of Tim Hetherington in Mistrata, Libya. I did not know Tim personally but was very much aware of his work, I do however, teach Judith. his Mother. She is one of my students on a Art and Design foundation course that I teach photography on.

Llyn Trawsfynydd

2011-04-12T10:09:00.000+01:00

Llyn Trawsfynydd was created in 1965 by the building of four dams, which resulted in the flooding of ten farms. It is the third largest lake in Wales. In the 1960s the nuclear power station was built on the shores using the water to cool the reactors. The power station is now being decommissioned, but according to the information boards at the side of the lake, still uses sixty five olympic swimming pools worth of water to keep it cool. The waters of the lake still power the hydro electric plant at Maentwrog, the original reason for the creation of the lake.

I have visited this lake a few times, using both film and digital, large and medium format, but have never really be happy with the results. I think it was the season that was the problem. This time, being early spring, most of the vegetation is still low, during the summer once the ferns and reads have grown the tones all start to look similar.

I took advantage of the good weather forecast and got to the lake for sunrise. This gave me three hours of good light before the distance became too hazy and the contrast was lost. I wasn’t the only creature up that early - unfortunately the insect population of North Wales has awoken, so I generously donated plenty of my blood to satisfy their appetites!

Its strange but after a while the square buildings of the twin Magnox reactors seem to belong, they cease to stand out as alien the way that they did when I first visited. I supposed eventually everything becomes part of the landscape when you cease to see it as different.

Remains of road bridge supports over the Afon Prysor

Getting better?

2011-04-10T10:21:00.000+01:00

Its been an odd year at work, I started off on a site in Manchester City Centre thinking I was going to be teaching Photography Apprentices, but we couldn’t find enough employers willing to take on trainee staff. The full time courses that I used to run had lost their funding from the government, so they had to go. A few weeks into the year it was decided to move me to another site as the one that I was on was designated for 16-19 year olds and I teach mainly adults, so off I went to Didsbury, a few miles out of the town, to s site that was newly refurbished. This should have been a good move, a nice, well equipped site housing mainly Higher Education courses including the Foundation Degree in digital photography. Not as good as it looked though - no darkroom, a shared studio with light fittings so low that we can’t even use the studio stand or my larger lights and no room to call my own. After 25 years of teaching photography I had settled into a comfortable life. A department consisting of six rooms including a 15 enlarger darkroom, a colour darkroom, a purpose built processing area, a digital darkroom, a studio and a base room with designated finishing area and a 15 Mac digital suite and a props store. In the space of two years I have been moved to a site with a darkroom and a shared studio and then to a site with just a desk and a cupboard, having to move a car full of equipment around the city to different campuses. The daftest incident was a few weeks ago when I was asked to go and finish clearing the equipment out of the city centre darkroom on the Tuesday, then on the Thursday was asked to go back to teach photography there one day a week - so just digital then.

As a result I feel I have been short changing my students this year - it has been really difficult to inspire them. Teaching photography has always come easy, but it seems to have been a struggle this year.

Enough moaning - the following images were from my class last Friday. As part of their Certificate course the students have to produce four images constructed in Photoshop. I’ve done a poster and a panorama, so I thought it was time to encourage a more creative use of layer masks. I have a lesson prepared with a file of textures, a base image, handouts and teaching notes. I got to work a realised that I had taken the wrong laptop in with me and the file was at home. A half hour spent in the college grounds gave me a file full of textures so I had the start of the session. I had intended to show them how to used tethered shooting, the reason why I took the wrong laptop, so the base image became some lilies which were left from my Studio Photography class. Once I had shot a page of text from a students notebook I was ready to teach off the top of my head.

The Macbook was plugged into a large plasma screen, all of the files imported into Phocus , I was using a Hasselblad CWD with a 16 megapixel back, then exported to Photoshop and off I went. I am normally pretty sure what the outcome of a task will be, it was interesting to do this one live. The good thing was the feedback I got from the students as the image progressed, it turned from me demonstrating to them, to a group activity. They suggested actions as we went along, such as changes in opacity, changing the hue of files, rotating layers, etc. The following images were the result - I enjoyed this session, it was more like old times.

Base image (the shaft of light came from a lack of blinds in the studio, so we decided to keep it)

Texture layers added before tones are manipulated

Using the graduation tool to add vignetting.

Lightening the centre

Lightening the shaft of light

Concrete texture added (multiply @ 100%)

Adding the rotated rusty metal (soft light @ 100%)

Text added after inverting it (colour burn @ 35%)

The layers including masks

The final image after a hue adjustment layer

Berlin day 3

2011-03-27T17:47:00.000+01:00

The third day in Berlin was when we were due to split up and visit areas of individual interest. My intention was to visit the Robert Mapplethorpe retrospective in the morning, then either the Nan Goldin or Nadava Kander and Robert Polidori exhibitions in the afternoon. Four students opted to come with me.

We arrived at the gallery a few minutes before it opened, so I explained how a small part of the show may be shocking, but that the gallery had placed this work in a separate room to the rest. I needn’t have worried, the work was in a separate room, with the word SEX in bold letters.

For me this was the highpoint of the visit, last week I was teaching his lighting technique, this week I was viewing his images and comparing results. I have used Mapplethorpe in many lessons, from portraiture to flower shots.

The show started with his early Polaroids followed by a Gallery of Patti Smith shots. The images seemed to glow, the control of the high print tones was masterful. The self portrait gallery contained all that I was expecting, with the addition of one, which raised a few eyebrows and questions about how easy it was to insert a bullwhip in that orifice! The most moving was one of his later shots where he had aged from his illness and sat regally in a dark suit on an upright chair, almost throne like. His right arm was outstretched and held his walking cane, with a silver demonic head on the top. A short depth of field had been used so he was slightly soft while the cane was crisp. This was for me a truly sad image. It contrasted with his early shot where he reveled in being thought of as the devil by photographing himself using his normal portrait lights with the addition of a lower, brighter one, and the addition of horns. The second shot showed a man who no longer had the fight left to deal with the judgmental decision makers and opinion formers and who had resigned himself to his fate.

After watching an American video about his life and work I visited the last two galleries on this floor. One was Sex the other was flowers, such a contrast but well thought out. The combination helped to take the edge off the explicit imagery. Seen in context the male nudes, as one of the students put it, where about light and form.

Upstairs where three galleries showing his portraits, images of the body and children’s portraits. All contained images that I have been viewing in books for years without knowing the shear quality of his prints. There was a short series of Lisa Lyons images where she had rubbed graphite over her body and was posing athletically in front of a tarpaulin – these were surely photographic life drawings.

After going through the exhibition a couple more times, we spent over two hours looking at it, we met up in the bookshop where I bought the catalogue. I had to admit that I didn’t feel that I could visit another exhibition. I wanted the visit to end on this high. Mention Mapplethorpe to any one and they simply react to his infamous work, which was vital to the development of photography, but they forget about how skilled he was as a portrait photographer, this alone would have secured his name lived on.

We decided to spend the afternoon shooting and exploring in the city, including a second visit to the Jewish memorial.

If you haven’t visited Berlin then you should make plans to. We were made to feel very welcome were ever we went. I plan to return in July to see the Kertez and Crewdson exhibitions.