My wife and I had a few days away in Miami. We used up some air-miles points to take us to the sun! I took along my 4×5 camera with the aim of capturing some architectural shots of the Art Deco buildings in South Beach where we were staying. My plan was to make some […]
March 28, 2013
I attended a large format course at the Camberwell Art College which is part of the University of the Arts London. My aim was to gain hone my skills with large format and to try out a 10×8 camera. The course also included some more darkroom developing and printing..another skill I would like to develop. […]
February 26, 2013
This is the version of the group photograph at the Workshop last weekend that I made with the 5×4 view camera. Most people seem to be taking the photograph pretty seriously – so it seems that some gravitas was added to the scene….;-) On a technical level its not a success as the composition is […]
January 19, 2013
I have been progressing with my diptych portraits of friends and Rotary colleagues as per my previous post here. I have now completed 8 portraits of which I think I may use 6 in my final submission for the assignment. One of the ones I have retained so far is also a possible for exclusion. […]
December 16, 2012
In my last post on this project, here, I had outlined an approach for making pairs of portrait photographs of a group of Rotary colleagues where the exposures in each were to be around 45 seconds and the diptych presentation would allow the viewer to compare the two poses. The idea was to explore Walter […]
December 2, 2012
The OCA course structure does not include any darkroom processing skills. It is pretty obvious that this is because the OCA course is structured around distance learning and access to a processing labs would be a major problem. As I have explained previously I am keen to use a large format camera for some of my […]
December 2, 2012
I have been using video as a medium for showing some of my work. Specifically I have made two videos which will very probably form part of my submission for the assessment at level 3. So far I had made the videos using the Export Slideshow facility of Adobe Lightroom. This works very well but […]
November 24, 2012
It is just a few weeks since I took the plunge and decided to start shooting portraits with my 4×5 large format camera. I thought it would be useful to set down my thoughts on my early experiences with the camera as a reference point for future reflection. The Camera First of all a bit […]
November 21, 2012
I recently sent off my work for Assignment 5 – Urban Artists at Work to Jesse Alexander for his review. Here is the note which I sent to Jesse along with the images which places it in context. My key references were Broomberg and Chanarin’s Trust, Lee Friedlander’s At Work, and Paul Graham’s Television Portraits. Assignment 5 Urban […]
November 7, 2012
I want to start using my Ebony 5×4 camera for portraits. I will probably use it along with digital for the Long Exposure Portraits. This is a test shot I did a while ago…Very plain lighting – just available light…and my poor wife dragged away from painting and decorating. Still I think this approach has […]
October 26, 2012
I have been developing my ideas on this project which I need to work on over the coming three months. I have decided to do a series of portraits in line with the ideas expressed in my previous post here. The portraits will be modern day takes on the portraits made by Hill and Adamson. […]
October 16, 2012
Whilst in Venice I experimented with my Zero Image 2000 pinhole camera. As I have indicated elsewhere in this blog I am trying to get to know how to use pinhole cameras so that I can use them for my long exposure portrait project. I was a little disappointed with the results from the trip. […]
September 15, 2012
I have figured out a way to use the Hasselblad with my digital back to make the photographs for this series. Really I would like to do it on film but the turnaround time is very slow. I have enrolled on a course at the CityLit which is in November to learn more about processing […]
September 14, 2012
The procedure itself caused the subject to focus his whole life in the moment rather than hurrying on past it: during the considerable period of the exposure the subject as it were grew into the picture, in the sharpest contrast with appearances in a snapshot… This is a quotation from Walter Benjamin’s Essay A Short […]
September 12, 2012
I got my pinhole attachment for my Hasselblad a couple of days ago, so I thought I would wander out into our local woodland Burnham Beeches to try things out. I also thought it would be an opportunity to try some long exposure self portraits. I learned a number of important lessons. First, the pinhole […]
April 11, 2012
I have had a good look again at this issue by examining first whether the camera is focusing accurately and secondly are the focusing problems down to operator error and in what circumstances does this arise. I was testing using my Hasselblad 503cm, 80mm CF lens and Phase One P45+ digital back. It is not […]
April 9, 2012
I have been using a single light for my ‘I am an Ironman’ portraits – when possible my Elinchrom Quadra with a 1 meter softbox and a speedlight with an Lastolite Ezybox softbox when travelling. The flash is the key light and I am metering off this using a flashmeter. The amount of fill depends […]
March 26, 2012
I have made some good progress with the I am an Ironman series. I have now decided to unify the background using shades/tones of grey. For location work the Lastolite collapsible background seems to work well – although it does have an irritating weave in the cloth which creates lines which are not quite vertical!! […]
December 23, 2011
I have been experimenting with different film types for the Museum portraits project. Fuji Neopan 1600 is emerging as my favourite…lovely grain and great contrast. Here is a street shot taken with the film rated at 3200 iso….
September 25, 2011
I have just got back from a Large Format Landscape Photography Workshop in the Gower Peninsula in Wales. The event was run by David Ward and Phil Malpas of Light and Land. David and Phil have both published a number of books on contemporary landscape photography practice. Their roots are very much in the tradition […]
April 26, 2013
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