New Taste?

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When discussing myself in the biog section of this site – I made reference to the fact that my tastes in photographic subject seemed to have changed since my break from photography and move from Canon kit to Fuji kit.

I have added links below that indicate how they are changing, and what I might consider shooting in future:

Rachael Griffiths - previously, I would have looked at this type of shot and just said nicely exposed etc. But now, I find myself looking more at the effort that went into the shot – holding that pose and making it look soooo natural. I’ve even noticed that it has been shot on top of a table – on top of which, I can see no obvious sign of processing (my current gripe at the time of writing – over processing). If ever a picture could be used to sell the services of the model and the photographer, surely this is such an example.

Roberto McCormick – this is a photographer whose work I have enjoyed for a few years now – mainly for his ‘wide proportions‘ collection shot over a year or two. But recently, his style has included less of that type of shot, and yet I am still enjoying what he is producing, the title link being a good example of how things have changed, along with this – Grunge Look.

I wonder what other surprises are in store for me, or provide inspiration for future shoots? Only time will tell!

Ideas for inspirational projects for 2013

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2012 was a big year for my photography, selling all of one kit and moving to a single body and lens set up.

The big issue I still suffer is inspiration – the desire to take pictures still does not jump at me on frequent occasions in the day like it previously did. To combat this I have come across one idea that I rather like the look of, and have developed a second idea of my own to help.

Diary of a Balcony

I live on a third floor flat overlooking the point at which two rivers join up in Ipswich. I also get a fairly good view over most of the west half of Ipswich and part of the town centre. Watching all that goes on across the river strikes me as a good opportunity to record life in a particular part of Ipswich as viewed from my balcony. Activities in rush hour, weekend mornings; football matches or queuing to get access to the utility tip. People feeding the birds, fishing or just relaxing on the river bank. Good weather, bad weather, warm weather and cold weather.

This single scene undergoes quite a few changes in the course of a day, week, month or year and I thought it would be interesting to record those opportunities.

1 Body, 1 Lens, 1 Year

This challenge was pointed out to me on Twitter here:

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/11/the-1-year-1-camera-1-lens-project/

and I thought – what an interesting idea. However, the idea would have to be modified as I work with only digital – so 2 rolls of film it couldn’t be. Also – not keen on the ‘having to create prints’ option – so my challenge will set up as follows:

1 Body and 1 Lens = Fuji X-Pro 1 and 35mm f1.4 Lens.

Weekly picture tally to be no greater than 50 running from Monday 00:01 to 23:59 Sunday.

Best picture to posted either on blog, Flickr or 500px – haven’t decided which yet.

Pictures may be B&W or colour and may undergo some corrective processing. Artistic processing should be limited to 1 posted image per month with accompanying info on what processing has been undertaken.

That’s as things stand at the moment – I’ve still got a few weeks to work out the details so watch this space…

Architectural Oddities

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Since moving on to using the Fuji X-Pro 1, I’ve found myself getting more involved in street photography, which means I’ve started to look about a bit more when I’m out and a about.

 

The result is scenes like in the 2 pictures on the left…

 

 

Look at the B&W picture on the left – what do you see? Well, the window in the top left is a ‘Window Tax‘ window that used board to replace the glass and then had a window painted on it to avoid paying tax during the 18th & 19th centuries. How many people know it’s there? How many people even notice it? ‘Window Tax Windows’ are the preserve of places like Bath, Brighton, London and other such places with a plentiful supply of Georgian Architecture. But Ipswich is hardly known for its Architecture  – except the Willis building made of glass.

Now lets look at the colour picture above right.

Look at the building with the ‘To Let’ sign and look at the roof – you suddenly realise the roof is at 90 degrees to what it should be. It’s like the building was sandwiched between 2 other buildings at a right angle – and yet evidence tells us the Shoe shop is much newer and built against a front or back wall to that building. Look to the building to its left (the Chemist), while it looks to have been built at roughly the same time, we are still left with the same dilemma – the 2 roof’s (buildings) are at right angles to each other – so what is the history of this situation. How did this come to be?

Hopefully I’ll be able to satiate my curiosity at some point – but expect more of these pictures as I discover such oddities.

Art Nude Shoot (contains nude images!)

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I’d neve shot nude – never had a need or desire to do it. So when I got an offer for a short tuition session at PTP Studio at a reasonable price I thought “why not?” Let’s tick that box!

 

As it was an artistic nude tuition session, the pictures were designed to be displayed in B&W and with some nude content. The model was Miss Veilside

 

This was my first studio or fashion shoot since returning to photography – and had the challenge of not only learning art nude, but also a new camera – in this case the Fuji X-Pro 1 which is a vastly different proposition from the old Canon 5D2 based kit.

 

Straight off, I noticed the A/F of the X-Pro 1 was far superior in every respect – resulting in a grand total of less than 30 pictures being taken all evening! As for IQ – well judge for yourself, these are the RAW files converted to B&W, though I did also shoot with the B&W film emulation mode active as well.

 

I did mention this was done at a studio? Interesting how a studio can appear so different to other peoples expectations…

 

I’ve always enjoyed getting ‘behind the scenes’ shots – and this was no different, a picture really can speak a 1000 words! And this is an available light only shot – you won’t catch me complaining about it!

 

 

So the evenings theme was very about about getting mono based Art Nude shots, and the following collection pretty much cover the set shots for the night…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last shot has not worked out as well as I’d thought… I’d accidentally set the A/F point on the model instead of the glass – sadly it was not until I got home that I noticed my mistake. Nice picture idea, maybe next time.

This was my first nude shoot of any kind, good to get the box ticked off, but it re-enforced my belief that taking a photo of a nude person is actually harder than it looks. I don’t have any ideas at the moment that could justify a person getting their clothes off for a picture, but should that day happen, I’ll post the pictures here.

If you want to see some decent Art Nude shoots, pop over to the site of Roberto McCormick – a photographer who does the phrase justice.

As for the X-Pro 1, well what can I say, I continue to be extremely impressed by this wonderful camera and look forward to installing firmware v2, but even without it, I do not regret its purchase and can see me getting many hours enjoyable photography with this camera and its 35mm f1.4 lens. Now if I can just find a reason to use the 60mm f2.4 Macro lens…

Reviewing and Changing

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The above is another copy of the picture you see as one of the header shots when you view the front page. It was a ‘grab’ shot – captured whilst eating lunch at a restaurant, who says a Canon 5D2 is not good for action shots?

Back to the point – I’ve always liked this shot, the way the sun punches through the clouds and creates that atmospheric look across the South Downs while – at the same time – silhouetting the runner who should be the main focus of the picture. As much as I’ve liked this shot, I’ve never been happy with how I’ve presented it, until now. A quick click on the B&W option in Adobe Lightroom 4 left with a new take on this picture, and one that I much preferred to how I’d presented this picture before in colour.

For me, the B&W creates a much moodier scene over the South Downs showing the grey sky with the sun punching its way through. The runner is also silhouetted to a greater degree – allowing the image title ‘The loneliness of…’ to carry more weight.