Exhibition Special Interest Group - Meeting Reports
2021/22
26th April 2022
We had two speakers:
Brian Cooke summarised a six week course he'd recently completed on Street Photography. This was organised by the RPS and run by Simon Ellingworth. Brian thought it was very good. Each week had a lecture with discussion plus some home work for the following week. The course focused on six main things to remember when doing street photography: 1) the moment, a bit like Cartier Bresson's decisive moment, 2) Composition, shapes, lines, triangles etc, 3) Light, as always, 4) Studium and Punctum (see below), 5) the curiosity gap, or leaving something unsaid, 6) Narrative.
I think we can all relate to five of these six items, but item 4 got us talking about exactly what was meant. I've dug a little deeper and found the following which might add to Brian's description of the terms:
Studium, from Roland Barthes is a term that means the common banal meaning of the photographic image. In contrast, Punctum, is a term also used by Roland Barthes to indicate the aspect of a photograph that grabs our emotions or attention, and is felt to be uniquely personal by the individual viewer. Barthes wrote that the punctum triggers a shock or a prick to the viewer. It is the unintentional detail of the photograph from which we cannot turn away. For Barthes, punctum is distinct from Studium, the common or banal quality of the image.
So it seems that Studium is more about the factual material recorded of the photograph, whereas Punctum is more about the hidden meaning that each individual viewer sees in the photograph. Interesting. Maybe we'll explore this in future sessions.
Gerry gave us a most unusual, but nevertheless interesting talk - which avoided showing any images! Gerry has been looking closely at the scores given by our competition judges and tried to draw conclusions. Gerry showed his analysis on a number of spreadsheets, which ranked and ordered recently exhibited images by author and images and showed the variation in scores given by different judges. My take out from this is that it probably is worthwhile keeping a record of scores by author/image and judge. There are lessons to be learned that might inform the selection committee for external competitions - but it is not an exact science. One other point is that Gerry felt the scoring system for HPS internal competitions is out of line with other clubs (i.e. we have 1st, 2nd and 3rd, rather that scores) and it would be worth looking at again. Steve offered to follow up on this.
The second half of the evening had our portfolio session, which produced some interesting discussion. The images shown included a number of multiple exposure images influenced my the recently talk by Glenys Garnett, which were all very different. Also some landscape and an unusual panoramic shot of St. Albans cathedral by Gerry.
The next meeting will be on May 24th and will be the last of the current season. Hope to see you there.
Brian Cooke summarised a six week course he'd recently completed on Street Photography. This was organised by the RPS and run by Simon Ellingworth. Brian thought it was very good. Each week had a lecture with discussion plus some home work for the following week. The course focused on six main things to remember when doing street photography: 1) the moment, a bit like Cartier Bresson's decisive moment, 2) Composition, shapes, lines, triangles etc, 3) Light, as always, 4) Studium and Punctum (see below), 5) the curiosity gap, or leaving something unsaid, 6) Narrative.
I think we can all relate to five of these six items, but item 4 got us talking about exactly what was meant. I've dug a little deeper and found the following which might add to Brian's description of the terms:
Studium, from Roland Barthes is a term that means the common banal meaning of the photographic image. In contrast, Punctum, is a term also used by Roland Barthes to indicate the aspect of a photograph that grabs our emotions or attention, and is felt to be uniquely personal by the individual viewer. Barthes wrote that the punctum triggers a shock or a prick to the viewer. It is the unintentional detail of the photograph from which we cannot turn away. For Barthes, punctum is distinct from Studium, the common or banal quality of the image.
So it seems that Studium is more about the factual material recorded of the photograph, whereas Punctum is more about the hidden meaning that each individual viewer sees in the photograph. Interesting. Maybe we'll explore this in future sessions.
Gerry gave us a most unusual, but nevertheless interesting talk - which avoided showing any images! Gerry has been looking closely at the scores given by our competition judges and tried to draw conclusions. Gerry showed his analysis on a number of spreadsheets, which ranked and ordered recently exhibited images by author and images and showed the variation in scores given by different judges. My take out from this is that it probably is worthwhile keeping a record of scores by author/image and judge. There are lessons to be learned that might inform the selection committee for external competitions - but it is not an exact science. One other point is that Gerry felt the scoring system for HPS internal competitions is out of line with other clubs (i.e. we have 1st, 2nd and 3rd, rather that scores) and it would be worth looking at again. Steve offered to follow up on this.
The second half of the evening had our portfolio session, which produced some interesting discussion. The images shown included a number of multiple exposure images influenced my the recently talk by Glenys Garnett, which were all very different. Also some landscape and an unusual panoramic shot of St. Albans cathedral by Gerry.
The next meeting will be on May 24th and will be the last of the current season. Hope to see you there.
22nd March 2022
Here's a few notes from our March ESIG. We had three speakers, and our usual Portfolio discussion of individual photographs.
Gia introduced us to one of her favourite photographers. Ragner Axelson is an Icelandic documentary photographer, who has spend many years photographing the people, animals and the landscape of the most remote regions of the Artic. Gia illustrated her talk from two of Axelson's books, Faces of the North and Hetjur Nordursloda. Whist documentary in nature, the photographs were often beautiful composed, even artistic in style. Axelson claims to be influenced by Caravaggio and his use of light. Take a look at his web site: https://rax.is/
David (Archer) showed the work of Helene Binet who is an architectural photographer with a very distinctive style. Helene focused on the detail of the building, rather than the building as a whole, a bit like 'the intimate landscape' applied to architecture. David has provided several links worth following up. The first one shows Binet talking about her recent exhibition at the RA, and is worth a look.
Steve gave us a technical talk on the use of Frequency Separation in Photoshop. I hadn't come across this technique so it was very new to me. It is a technique which is applied most often in portraiture and is used to smooth out the skin without losing texture. Steve is preparing some notes on the technique which I shall circulate once I receive them.
A big thanks you to all our speakers, well done.
Finally we had our Portfolio discussion where we discussed individual photographs. I always enjoy these sessions and there is always more revealed than is apparent at first glance. I noticed that the RPS has just introduced something similar. I find this a very effective way to learn and explore photographs which I'm sure improves our own work.
One other thought - did you know all of my reports on ESIG meeting are uploaded onto the HPS web site by Bethan, our web master (thank you Bethan), so if you want to look back on what we did in the past, or particularly to follow up on any links or references, they are all on record below.
Hope to see some of you next month. I need some speakers so please volunteer.
Gia introduced us to one of her favourite photographers. Ragner Axelson is an Icelandic documentary photographer, who has spend many years photographing the people, animals and the landscape of the most remote regions of the Artic. Gia illustrated her talk from two of Axelson's books, Faces of the North and Hetjur Nordursloda. Whist documentary in nature, the photographs were often beautiful composed, even artistic in style. Axelson claims to be influenced by Caravaggio and his use of light. Take a look at his web site: https://rax.is/
David (Archer) showed the work of Helene Binet who is an architectural photographer with a very distinctive style. Helene focused on the detail of the building, rather than the building as a whole, a bit like 'the intimate landscape' applied to architecture. David has provided several links worth following up. The first one shows Binet talking about her recent exhibition at the RA, and is worth a look.
- https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/helene-binet
- Walkthrough tour of the Royal Academy exhibition on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZQIRNZmLNE
- And a review of the exhibition from the Architects Journal https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/practice/culture/exhibition-helene-binet-light-lines-at-the-ra
Steve gave us a technical talk on the use of Frequency Separation in Photoshop. I hadn't come across this technique so it was very new to me. It is a technique which is applied most often in portraiture and is used to smooth out the skin without losing texture. Steve is preparing some notes on the technique which I shall circulate once I receive them.
A big thanks you to all our speakers, well done.
Finally we had our Portfolio discussion where we discussed individual photographs. I always enjoy these sessions and there is always more revealed than is apparent at first glance. I noticed that the RPS has just introduced something similar. I find this a very effective way to learn and explore photographs which I'm sure improves our own work.
One other thought - did you know all of my reports on ESIG meeting are uploaded onto the HPS web site by Bethan, our web master (thank you Bethan), so if you want to look back on what we did in the past, or particularly to follow up on any links or references, they are all on record below.
Hope to see some of you next month. I need some speakers so please volunteer.
25th January 2022
We had three (plus one) speakers:
1. Vaughn's talk was called 'Travels with my iPhone, or Lockdown Miscellany' and showed the many places that Vaughn managed to visit when the Covid rules allowed. Taken mainly with the iPhone 5, we saw images from Devon, Aldborough, Cliveden, the Shuttleworth collection and Harpenden. Also some striking images of sunflowers and an ongoing project on water skiing. There was some technical debate about image quality of the iPhone 5 vs more recent models, but it did make the point that the best camera is the one you carry with you, which is typically your phone!
2. Peter (Wilson) took us through his analysis of paper quality including a blind test to assess the results. Peter printed off a test sheet on a variety of papers and asked three 'independent' viewers to rank the results. Here's the results:
1. Vaughn's talk was called 'Travels with my iPhone, or Lockdown Miscellany' and showed the many places that Vaughn managed to visit when the Covid rules allowed. Taken mainly with the iPhone 5, we saw images from Devon, Aldborough, Cliveden, the Shuttleworth collection and Harpenden. Also some striking images of sunflowers and an ongoing project on water skiing. There was some technical debate about image quality of the iPhone 5 vs more recent models, but it did make the point that the best camera is the one you carry with you, which is typically your phone!
2. Peter (Wilson) took us through his analysis of paper quality including a blind test to assess the results. Peter printed off a test sheet on a variety of papers and asked three 'independent' viewers to rank the results. Here's the results:
Permajet's Oyster came out on top, which is interesting because this is one of the least expensive papers in the group.
I asked you to send me your own personal paper recommendations. Iain suggested Bockingford (good for landscapes) and also thought Japanese Wasabi papers worth a try as being exceptional in their textures, from almost tissue weight to full cartridge weight. Greg regularly uses Permajet Fine Art Papyrus 300 and Museum Heritage 310gm. I always have Permajet Distinction in stock and often use this for B&W.
Thanks Peter for showing us your results and prompting a good discussion.
3. Finally I showed some work from my recent trip to Eigg with Bruce Percy. If you don't know Bruce take a look at his work here https://brucepercy.co.uk/ . Its very simple and minimalistic. Bruce is very focused on lines, shapes and particularly tonal relationships. I demonstrated Bruce's processing method which is 90% about selectively adjusting tones on different parts of the image. This is done my making an adjustment using Curves in Photoshop, looking at just the one area of the image of interest, and not worrying about how the adjustment affects the rest of the image. Then a mask is applied to mask out those areas of the image to which the adjustment should not be applied. This is then repeated multiple times until all the required adjustment are made. A very quick and simple approach.
4 We had an extra, unplanned little talk from John Mobbs. John had just completed his first video and showed us the results and the technical hurdles involved. Its clearly a whole new set of technology that needs to be mastered and John was embracing this with enthusiasm (I think). Thanks John, we look forward to seeing some more.
Finally we had our Portfolio Session, where this week we discussed 10 or so individual images. Always somethings interesting emerges.
Thanks to all for taking part this month. See you in February
I asked you to send me your own personal paper recommendations. Iain suggested Bockingford (good for landscapes) and also thought Japanese Wasabi papers worth a try as being exceptional in their textures, from almost tissue weight to full cartridge weight. Greg regularly uses Permajet Fine Art Papyrus 300 and Museum Heritage 310gm. I always have Permajet Distinction in stock and often use this for B&W.
Thanks Peter for showing us your results and prompting a good discussion.
3. Finally I showed some work from my recent trip to Eigg with Bruce Percy. If you don't know Bruce take a look at his work here https://brucepercy.co.uk/ . Its very simple and minimalistic. Bruce is very focused on lines, shapes and particularly tonal relationships. I demonstrated Bruce's processing method which is 90% about selectively adjusting tones on different parts of the image. This is done my making an adjustment using Curves in Photoshop, looking at just the one area of the image of interest, and not worrying about how the adjustment affects the rest of the image. Then a mask is applied to mask out those areas of the image to which the adjustment should not be applied. This is then repeated multiple times until all the required adjustment are made. A very quick and simple approach.
4 We had an extra, unplanned little talk from John Mobbs. John had just completed his first video and showed us the results and the technical hurdles involved. Its clearly a whole new set of technology that needs to be mastered and John was embracing this with enthusiasm (I think). Thanks John, we look forward to seeing some more.
Finally we had our Portfolio Session, where this week we discussed 10 or so individual images. Always somethings interesting emerges.
Thanks to all for taking part this month. See you in February
23rd November 2021
Just a few notes from our ESIG meeting this week.
Talks: We had three talks:
David Whitbread has recently made this significant investment of around £30 in an old Russian lens, a Helios 55mm, f2, and an attachment to fit onto his Olympus 4/3rd camera. The results look good and David enjoys using it. No auto focus, so needs a bit of care getting image sharp. David shows some B&W shots of local hedge rows which looked good, no problem with quality. David then took us off in a different direction and showed us some still life and the use of textures. Still experimental, but promising. I always recommend viewing Mandy Disher who does really excellent work in this style - see https://www.mandydisher.com/
Peter Whitehead gave us a thought provoking talk on ' What is Wildlife Photography'. It was really a talk about the ethics. What counts as wildlife, what doesn't, what aids can be used, what can't. For example, zoo shots or tethered birds are out, but the use of hides are ok, and animals in their natural state. Do nothing that might cause harm, which might include just being there. During the evening I felt this ethics theme extending into other discussions including Landscape (carbon miles) and street photography (is it Ok to take shot without getting permission of subject). This was good discussion and just right for ESIG.
New member David Archer gave us a review of the American street photographer Saul Leiter. Leiter has a particular style which became increasing clear as we saw more of his images. They often were constructed in layers, and made up of frames within frames. I liked David's observation that Leiter photographed as a 'hidden observer'. David and a couple of friends often visit galleries to view a particular photographer and then set themselves a project to take photographs in the same style. What a good idea.
Portfolio session
We had eight images put forward for discussion. Three of them were abstract (Brian, David W, and me) in nature and this approach is clearly increasing in popularity. Techniques to create the abstract include ICM (Intentional Camera Movement), multiple exposures and the use of textures. All can be effective, if not a little unpredictable. Gerry showed us a shot from Glencoe, very nice, but then demonstrated a new feature in Photoshop whereby with the press of a button the scene was changed to snow, and then to a beach, and no doubt other options were available. I'm generally a supporter of using post processing to develop the image but this is surely a step too far. Peter W showed us a beautiful triptych of a snowy mountain scene, very high key, delicate and definitely atmospheric. John showed a night time shot of a man outside a pub (?), looking a bit aggressive to me, but was apparently friendly (he went by the name of Terry Thomas). Ian showed us a shot of a steps over a canal, which after some discussion and a bit of cropping the group felt could be moved towards being an effective pattern picture. At this point we asked ourselves if we were acting too much like camera club judges and it was really all about the intent of the photographer. Good question. I like the word 'intent', its really important, but rarely discussed. But I do think its Ok for ESIG to share their responses to an image. It's what ESIG is about. It gives the chance for both the photographer and the rest of the group to learn. Greg showed a very simple seascape shot, with beautiful lighting, which apparently a recent judge has not been kind about. The group disagreed. I finally I showed a landscape taken on Eigg, and then an abstract version I'd been experimenting with by using textures. Interesting but still work in progress.
Talks: We had three talks:
David Whitbread has recently made this significant investment of around £30 in an old Russian lens, a Helios 55mm, f2, and an attachment to fit onto his Olympus 4/3rd camera. The results look good and David enjoys using it. No auto focus, so needs a bit of care getting image sharp. David shows some B&W shots of local hedge rows which looked good, no problem with quality. David then took us off in a different direction and showed us some still life and the use of textures. Still experimental, but promising. I always recommend viewing Mandy Disher who does really excellent work in this style - see https://www.mandydisher.com/
Peter Whitehead gave us a thought provoking talk on ' What is Wildlife Photography'. It was really a talk about the ethics. What counts as wildlife, what doesn't, what aids can be used, what can't. For example, zoo shots or tethered birds are out, but the use of hides are ok, and animals in their natural state. Do nothing that might cause harm, which might include just being there. During the evening I felt this ethics theme extending into other discussions including Landscape (carbon miles) and street photography (is it Ok to take shot without getting permission of subject). This was good discussion and just right for ESIG.
New member David Archer gave us a review of the American street photographer Saul Leiter. Leiter has a particular style which became increasing clear as we saw more of his images. They often were constructed in layers, and made up of frames within frames. I liked David's observation that Leiter photographed as a 'hidden observer'. David and a couple of friends often visit galleries to view a particular photographer and then set themselves a project to take photographs in the same style. What a good idea.
Portfolio session
We had eight images put forward for discussion. Three of them were abstract (Brian, David W, and me) in nature and this approach is clearly increasing in popularity. Techniques to create the abstract include ICM (Intentional Camera Movement), multiple exposures and the use of textures. All can be effective, if not a little unpredictable. Gerry showed us a shot from Glencoe, very nice, but then demonstrated a new feature in Photoshop whereby with the press of a button the scene was changed to snow, and then to a beach, and no doubt other options were available. I'm generally a supporter of using post processing to develop the image but this is surely a step too far. Peter W showed us a beautiful triptych of a snowy mountain scene, very high key, delicate and definitely atmospheric. John showed a night time shot of a man outside a pub (?), looking a bit aggressive to me, but was apparently friendly (he went by the name of Terry Thomas). Ian showed us a shot of a steps over a canal, which after some discussion and a bit of cropping the group felt could be moved towards being an effective pattern picture. At this point we asked ourselves if we were acting too much like camera club judges and it was really all about the intent of the photographer. Good question. I like the word 'intent', its really important, but rarely discussed. But I do think its Ok for ESIG to share their responses to an image. It's what ESIG is about. It gives the chance for both the photographer and the rest of the group to learn. Greg showed a very simple seascape shot, with beautiful lighting, which apparently a recent judge has not been kind about. The group disagreed. I finally I showed a landscape taken on Eigg, and then an abstract version I'd been experimenting with by using textures. Interesting but still work in progress.
26th October 2021
We had two new members join us, Gia and David (Archer) who were most welcome and both submitted an image to the Portfolio session and contributed to the discussion. We had nine images in total in the Portfolio to discuss and its surprising how this format takes time as we all offer our views on each image. Each image we discussed in detail and also explored post processing ideas that I could test out 'live' in Lightroom. I think this worked really well.
We were due to have three speakers in the second half, but in the event only had time for Judith. Don't worry, I shall rebook Peter (Wilson) and David (Whitbread).
Judith gave a presentation that definitely took us out of our comfort zone. It was about an American born photographer, Thomas Joshua Cooper, and his amazing project 'The World's Edge - an atlas of extremity and emptiness '. I think I can safely say most of the group found this project a challenge. In summary, Cooper has spent 32 years working on this project, covered five continents and visited the most extreme locations around the Atlantic coast line. Having arrived at a location, he would take just one photograph, using a large old fashioned plate camera. The photographs would all be taken looking out to sea. The result is the body of work where all the photographs look largely similar, show no recognisable subject that would identify the location and (for the typical photo enthusiast), would be regarded as not very attractive.
What a strange project. What an investment in time, effort, and personal risk. Feedback just overnight from members have said it is self indulgent, crackers, and (politely) its not for me. But this, and other items of Coopers work are in the Tate and the V&A and have appeared in multiple exhibitions, including one in Edinburgh which is on at the moment, and Cooper himself has gained an international reputation.
So what does this mean for ESIG and our humble band of enthusiast photographers. We can like the work or not, but it is there and is recognised by some highly reputable organisations. It shows a world outside club photography, which is just good to know about. It shows what a 'project' might look like in the extreme, on a different scale to ones we might come up with. It also shows that a project is far more than just the photographs. In this case the whole story and the history of the locations make up an integral part. Is it art .... who knows.
There's a lot to think about. Maybe knowledge of this project will sit on our shoulders when we're out on a shoot and just nudge us in a different direction. I promise future ESIGs will get back to more familiar territory but I found this really thought provoking. I'd like to thank Judith for putting so much effort into preparing the presentation and for showing us something completely different.
Judith has provided a number of links should you want to follow up further
Link to the Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/thomas-joshua-cooper-4744
On Landscape Conference: Meeting of Minds 2018 - talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQEF1c0Q0AY
an extra - the interview in the On Landscape magazine, public access: https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2017/03/thomas-joshua-cooper/
Ingleby Gallery in Edinburgh: https://www.inglebygallery.com/artists/75-thomas-joshua-cooper/overview/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/07/a-photographer-at-the-ends-of-the-earth
https://bellabathurst.com/thomas-joshua-cooper2/
Exhibition: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/thomas-joshua-cooper-worlds-edge
We were due to have three speakers in the second half, but in the event only had time for Judith. Don't worry, I shall rebook Peter (Wilson) and David (Whitbread).
Judith gave a presentation that definitely took us out of our comfort zone. It was about an American born photographer, Thomas Joshua Cooper, and his amazing project 'The World's Edge - an atlas of extremity and emptiness '. I think I can safely say most of the group found this project a challenge. In summary, Cooper has spent 32 years working on this project, covered five continents and visited the most extreme locations around the Atlantic coast line. Having arrived at a location, he would take just one photograph, using a large old fashioned plate camera. The photographs would all be taken looking out to sea. The result is the body of work where all the photographs look largely similar, show no recognisable subject that would identify the location and (for the typical photo enthusiast), would be regarded as not very attractive.
What a strange project. What an investment in time, effort, and personal risk. Feedback just overnight from members have said it is self indulgent, crackers, and (politely) its not for me. But this, and other items of Coopers work are in the Tate and the V&A and have appeared in multiple exhibitions, including one in Edinburgh which is on at the moment, and Cooper himself has gained an international reputation.
So what does this mean for ESIG and our humble band of enthusiast photographers. We can like the work or not, but it is there and is recognised by some highly reputable organisations. It shows a world outside club photography, which is just good to know about. It shows what a 'project' might look like in the extreme, on a different scale to ones we might come up with. It also shows that a project is far more than just the photographs. In this case the whole story and the history of the locations make up an integral part. Is it art .... who knows.
There's a lot to think about. Maybe knowledge of this project will sit on our shoulders when we're out on a shoot and just nudge us in a different direction. I promise future ESIGs will get back to more familiar territory but I found this really thought provoking. I'd like to thank Judith for putting so much effort into preparing the presentation and for showing us something completely different.
Judith has provided a number of links should you want to follow up further
Link to the Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/thomas-joshua-cooper-4744
On Landscape Conference: Meeting of Minds 2018 - talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQEF1c0Q0AY
an extra - the interview in the On Landscape magazine, public access: https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2017/03/thomas-joshua-cooper/
Ingleby Gallery in Edinburgh: https://www.inglebygallery.com/artists/75-thomas-joshua-cooper/overview/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/07/a-photographer-at-the-ends-of-the-earth
https://bellabathurst.com/thomas-joshua-cooper2/
Exhibition: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/thomas-joshua-cooper-worlds-edge
28th September 2021
Thanks to all of you who were able to attend our ESIG last week. We had 13 in all, but also apologies from 5 members who would have liked to attend, so that's a good number and a promising start to the new season.
I thought the 'Portfolio session' worked well, and prompted some interesting discussions - Gerry's 'exposing to the right', Steve's three versions of the station image, Peter (Wilson's) amazing macro, David's psychedelic flowers, John R's painterly treatment - all of them really were interesting in their own way. We'll continue with these sessions at future meetings and my request to you is that you send me one image every month. I'm planning on having 10 images each month to show. I'll take them on a first come first served basis. If I have too many one month I'll carry the extras forward to the next. If I'm short then I'll find images from elsewhere. Please send me your images about a week before the meeting.
I thought the 'Portfolio session' worked well, and prompted some interesting discussions - Gerry's 'exposing to the right', Steve's three versions of the station image, Peter (Wilson's) amazing macro, David's psychedelic flowers, John R's painterly treatment - all of them really were interesting in their own way. We'll continue with these sessions at future meetings and my request to you is that you send me one image every month. I'm planning on having 10 images each month to show. I'll take them on a first come first served basis. If I have too many one month I'll carry the extras forward to the next. If I'm short then I'll find images from elsewhere. Please send me your images about a week before the meeting.
2020/21
25th May 2021
Here's a few notes from our meeting last week. The meeting was recorded (our first ever) at the request of a couple of our regulars who couldn't attend.
1. What can photographers learn from the old masters.
I had a few thoughts on what photographers can learn from the Old Masters, and made three points (although still just scraping the surface of the subject)
- use of angled light to create a 3D modelling. Rembrandt lighting used on portraits is well known but the effect applies equally to all subjects
- make clear what the main subject is. This is done by either making the main subject the brightest or the most contrasty part of the overall image. Other parts surrounding the main subject can be full of detail with their own highlights and shadows, but they are just that bit more subdued compared to the main subject.
- create depth. This is done by making the foreground area more detailed, darker, saturated and contrasty. As the image moves into the mid distance there is less detail, contrast and saturation and the far distance the image becomes really quite soft and high key. John (R) also correctly made the point that the colour temperature also shifts towards blue in the distance. I illustrated these effects by looking at the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year Awards where there are many examples, see https://www.pinkladyfoodphotographeroftheyear.com/finalists-gallery-2021/
Iain made the point that its all about the light, and particularly the Chiarosciro technique.
2. Four members then showed us examples of their work. We haven't seen anything from Mick for a while and he showed some excellent abstract images of smoke patterns, sometimes inverted or flipped. It was surprising how often these created faces. Also images of building which had been warped into unusual shapes. Steve had pulled together his favourite images, and produce a grid for each year. All excellent and interesting presentation. Iain and Judith showed a selection of their images. Nice work.
3. Personal projects. I've had a bee in my bonnet about personal projects for some time. I think they can give focus and direction to our photography, but have to admit that I struggle to find a subject that I want to work on. So I thought this was worthy of discussion. It seemed to me that photographers can seek 'external' stimulus to come up with ideas, eg, doing a 365 project, or imitating an existing technique (eg ICM, long exposure) or favourite photographer. There's nothing wrong is doing this, we all need a place to start so long as we're not just copying. The other approach is I think much harder, and is where the photographer has a genuine interest in following a subject. I gave some examples from student graduation projects, eg, one was on the ' surveillance camera's point of view' and another was of how our skin is intimately linked to our identity. Both of these are really unusual and very personal to the photographer.
There was general support of personal projects from the group, but not everyone agreed. Gerry has no interest at all, and John (M) felt it gave us the opportunity to fail in that some ideas just don't lead anywhere and we shouldn't be afraid of moving on to another subject. But to my surprize a good number of the group were working on projects, including David who is photographing the Turkish barber shops in Harpenden (David you must show us the results).
4. Future of ESIG This has been the final meeting of ESIG this season, and I wanted to get the members views on what we should do next year, when HPS might be meeting back in the hall. After discussion, we agreed
- you would like me to continue running ESIG via zoom
- you like the current mix of content. We decided to structure each meeting with a roughly 50:50 mix of (i) sharing (our photos, favourite photographers, ideas) and (ii) a regular Portfolio Review, where participating members summit just one photo each month and we discuss each in greater detail.
- I need to make it easier for you to contribute. To do this, we agreed that you are happy for me to plan the speakers in advance. I will invite or you can volunteer to do a little talk at a particular meeting some weeks ahead. That way you have plenty of time to prepare, and I'm not rushing around trying to get speakers at the last minute. It would be great if everyone gets to chance to speak at least once in the year, and probably much more.
- John (R) made the point that a disadvantage of using Zoom is that we don't get to meet face to face and we don't see any prints. This led to the idea that maybe we should go away for a weekend once (or twice) a year. Good suggestion. I'll give it some thought.
Thanks for your support. I'll be in touch over the summer to get next season started.
1. What can photographers learn from the old masters.
I had a few thoughts on what photographers can learn from the Old Masters, and made three points (although still just scraping the surface of the subject)
- use of angled light to create a 3D modelling. Rembrandt lighting used on portraits is well known but the effect applies equally to all subjects
- make clear what the main subject is. This is done by either making the main subject the brightest or the most contrasty part of the overall image. Other parts surrounding the main subject can be full of detail with their own highlights and shadows, but they are just that bit more subdued compared to the main subject.
- create depth. This is done by making the foreground area more detailed, darker, saturated and contrasty. As the image moves into the mid distance there is less detail, contrast and saturation and the far distance the image becomes really quite soft and high key. John (R) also correctly made the point that the colour temperature also shifts towards blue in the distance. I illustrated these effects by looking at the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year Awards where there are many examples, see https://www.pinkladyfoodphotographeroftheyear.com/finalists-gallery-2021/
Iain made the point that its all about the light, and particularly the Chiarosciro technique.
2. Four members then showed us examples of their work. We haven't seen anything from Mick for a while and he showed some excellent abstract images of smoke patterns, sometimes inverted or flipped. It was surprising how often these created faces. Also images of building which had been warped into unusual shapes. Steve had pulled together his favourite images, and produce a grid for each year. All excellent and interesting presentation. Iain and Judith showed a selection of their images. Nice work.
3. Personal projects. I've had a bee in my bonnet about personal projects for some time. I think they can give focus and direction to our photography, but have to admit that I struggle to find a subject that I want to work on. So I thought this was worthy of discussion. It seemed to me that photographers can seek 'external' stimulus to come up with ideas, eg, doing a 365 project, or imitating an existing technique (eg ICM, long exposure) or favourite photographer. There's nothing wrong is doing this, we all need a place to start so long as we're not just copying. The other approach is I think much harder, and is where the photographer has a genuine interest in following a subject. I gave some examples from student graduation projects, eg, one was on the ' surveillance camera's point of view' and another was of how our skin is intimately linked to our identity. Both of these are really unusual and very personal to the photographer.
There was general support of personal projects from the group, but not everyone agreed. Gerry has no interest at all, and John (M) felt it gave us the opportunity to fail in that some ideas just don't lead anywhere and we shouldn't be afraid of moving on to another subject. But to my surprize a good number of the group were working on projects, including David who is photographing the Turkish barber shops in Harpenden (David you must show us the results).
4. Future of ESIG This has been the final meeting of ESIG this season, and I wanted to get the members views on what we should do next year, when HPS might be meeting back in the hall. After discussion, we agreed
- you would like me to continue running ESIG via zoom
- you like the current mix of content. We decided to structure each meeting with a roughly 50:50 mix of (i) sharing (our photos, favourite photographers, ideas) and (ii) a regular Portfolio Review, where participating members summit just one photo each month and we discuss each in greater detail.
- I need to make it easier for you to contribute. To do this, we agreed that you are happy for me to plan the speakers in advance. I will invite or you can volunteer to do a little talk at a particular meeting some weeks ahead. That way you have plenty of time to prepare, and I'm not rushing around trying to get speakers at the last minute. It would be great if everyone gets to chance to speak at least once in the year, and probably much more.
- John (R) made the point that a disadvantage of using Zoom is that we don't get to meet face to face and we don't see any prints. This led to the idea that maybe we should go away for a weekend once (or twice) a year. Good suggestion. I'll give it some thought.
Thanks for your support. I'll be in touch over the summer to get next season started.
27th April 2021
Here's my usual set of brief notes as a reminder of what we covered last week in our April meeting. The meeting was in two parts. We started with four talks showing projects and panels of work. This was followed by the 'portfolio review' session where we discussed individual images.
There was some excellent work shown and we again had a lively discussion. I was left with two particular thoughts. Working on a project really does focus the mind and gives a purpose to our photography, but finding a 'personal project' is not easy. What is a personal project? How do you find a subject that's worthy investing so much time? I think this is a subject worthy of discussion at our next meeting. I shall do a bit of research to find some examples. There are lots out there. Maybe you could also do the same. The more examples we have the better our discussion.
The second thought I had was that you can't please all the people all of the time. We had a lot of abstract images shown, and these are a bit 'marmite'. Some people liked them, others not so much. But this feels like a good thing. Its better to really excite half the audience, and leave the other half maybe disappointed, rather than leaving all of the audience feeling just lukewarm.
Here's what we covered:
- Judith has been working on several digital art projects which have developed in parallel and fed off each other. They are still work in progress but Judith put together an excellent presentation of images and words which intertwined around 'waiting for owls'/woodlands/south coast chalk/abstract. Collectively these were called 'Landscapes of the Imagination'. Really impressive work which raised the bar for all of us.
- Greg followed with another approach to presenting images. Encouraged by Iain McGowen of Chichester CC, Greg grouped 25 images together into a 5x5 panel. This was an effective, and unusual way of presenting so many images at the same time, which had the additional benefit of creating a new 'poster' which was attractive in its own right. Greg showed us four examples with photographs of sand patterns, a slate quarry, Cornwall and Glen Etive.
- David showed us a panel of commercial vehicles photographed from Sedbergh Hall in Halifax. These were carts, once used for transportation and no doubt pulled by horses, but now in the museum. David had constructed a panel of six that held together as a panel should (all the angles and lead in lines working together), and had captured the colours beautifully.
- Brian showed us his latest set of abstract flower images. This is also a project that I believe Brian has been working on for some time and gets better and better. Brian explained that the individual flowers were photographed on a light box, and then in photoshop cut out from the white background. A textured background was added and blended in with the flowers. A simple and very effective technique.
In the 'portfolio review' session we discussed individual images from Malcolm, Gerry, John, Iain, Brian and me
There was some excellent work shown and we again had a lively discussion. I was left with two particular thoughts. Working on a project really does focus the mind and gives a purpose to our photography, but finding a 'personal project' is not easy. What is a personal project? How do you find a subject that's worthy investing so much time? I think this is a subject worthy of discussion at our next meeting. I shall do a bit of research to find some examples. There are lots out there. Maybe you could also do the same. The more examples we have the better our discussion.
The second thought I had was that you can't please all the people all of the time. We had a lot of abstract images shown, and these are a bit 'marmite'. Some people liked them, others not so much. But this feels like a good thing. Its better to really excite half the audience, and leave the other half maybe disappointed, rather than leaving all of the audience feeling just lukewarm.
Here's what we covered:
- Judith has been working on several digital art projects which have developed in parallel and fed off each other. They are still work in progress but Judith put together an excellent presentation of images and words which intertwined around 'waiting for owls'/woodlands/south coast chalk/abstract. Collectively these were called 'Landscapes of the Imagination'. Really impressive work which raised the bar for all of us.
- Greg followed with another approach to presenting images. Encouraged by Iain McGowen of Chichester CC, Greg grouped 25 images together into a 5x5 panel. This was an effective, and unusual way of presenting so many images at the same time, which had the additional benefit of creating a new 'poster' which was attractive in its own right. Greg showed us four examples with photographs of sand patterns, a slate quarry, Cornwall and Glen Etive.
- David showed us a panel of commercial vehicles photographed from Sedbergh Hall in Halifax. These were carts, once used for transportation and no doubt pulled by horses, but now in the museum. David had constructed a panel of six that held together as a panel should (all the angles and lead in lines working together), and had captured the colours beautifully.
- Brian showed us his latest set of abstract flower images. This is also a project that I believe Brian has been working on for some time and gets better and better. Brian explained that the individual flowers were photographed on a light box, and then in photoshop cut out from the white background. A textured background was added and blended in with the flowers. A simple and very effective technique.
In the 'portfolio review' session we discussed individual images from Malcolm, Gerry, John, Iain, Brian and me
23rd March 2021
Here's my usual few notes on our ESIG meeting, just to remind you what we covered, and we covered a lot this week.
We had nine speakers, a record, mostly responding to my challenge last time to produce a panel of six. They were all completely different and on reflection raised some interesting questions that I've tried to weave into the summaries below.
- Ali started us off with an excellent three part talk, starting off with a dynamic shot of a penguin swimming alongside the boat. Ali felt the image would not be an outright winner with the judges (arguable) but it is one of her favourites because of the memories, and the difficulty in taking the shot. Ali asked if it matters that the judge might not like it, and we all agreed that it doesn't. The primary purpose must be to produce photographs that we like ourselves, otherwise we're destined for a life of disappointment. Ali then showed a panel of six, made up from some kind of device with cogs(?). In camera multiple exposures were involved and the question was does this make it a straight shot, compared with building up the same shot in Photoshop with layers. This matters for some it seems if the competition rules don't allow. And finally Ali showed some images from the Guild which had been heavily photoshopped, to great effect (?), and asked the question is Photoshop now an integral part of the image making process. I think the answer is undoubtedly yes, Photoshop skills are becoming increasingly important. Although there is a fight back on the horizon.
- John Mobbs was next with a thoughtful contribution. John set himself the task of 'noticing more' when he's out and about. What an interesting thought. John showed a series of 6 images taken at night around St Albans, each of which had some unusual aspect, or at least raised some questions in John's mind. It was interesting that the questions raised in John's mind were not the same ones as those raised in everyone else's mind. There's a theory to explain this - semiotics. But this approach did produce a very different set of images, and maybe the start of a project for John.
- Torben turned technical on us by demonstrating the remarkable new 'Replace Sky' feature in Photoshop. This uses AI to replace a sky and does an excellent job of cutting out the most difficult fine detail. Torben's example was actually a model with wispy hair, and 'Replace Sky' did a great job in selecting individual strands of hair. Great demo Torben. I understand now that the latest Photoshop update includes a AI based 'Super Resolution' feature which increases the size of the file by x4, and maintains sharpness. So no need now to buy the latest high mega pixel cameras, just upsize in Photoshop.
- Gerry showed us a set of six images of a lone trees, all taken on the same snowy walk. The tonal balance of each were identical so they fitted together beautifully, and compositionally they were similar in positioning the tree in the centre of the image. The whole set were very attractive. Gerry said the panel probably reflected his mood at the time. I thought this was an interesting comment and worthy of a longer discussion.
- Judith showed us a very subtle set of images with the great title of 'Whilst waiting for owls'. The title alone sets up a tone and expectation of what might be coming. They were taken on a trip with Peter W intended to photograph owls, but during the long periods of waiting Judith turned the 400mm lens onto the landscape, focusing on close up subjects and allowing the background to go completely out of focus. I thought they were beautiful, definitely abstract, and worked really well together as a panel. Definitely worth working more on this theme.
- Peter (W) did manage to photograph the owls. He showed a panel of six, with two 'straight' shots, (one of them a real cracker), and four abstracts, taken by panning with a slow shutter. I think to our surprize, Peter expressed disappointment with the abstracts, even saying that it felt wrong, and not what wildlife photographers should do (apologies if I've mis-quoted). I for one, and I speak for the whole group I think, couldn't disagree more. Maybe its wrong if you're wearing the wildlife photographers hat, but Peter, if you put on momentarily your 'artists' hat, then its completely right. And I'd be amazed if one of your owls shots doesn't get an award in the upcoming 'Abstract' competition. The interesting issue raised here is do we find ourselves wearing the same hat all the time, and thereby cutting ourselves off from other types of photography. Or is a degree of specialism a good thing?
- Iain took himself off to Redbournbury and took a few shots along by the river. Iain admitted to it being a bit of a struggle to get the shots, but it did motivate him to have another go sometime in the future. I was reading an interview today in Outdoor Photography with Vanda Relevska (excellent photographer) who was saying you cant force things. If there is a photograph there you will see it and become excited. If not then nothing will happen. I can understand that.
- Malcolm took us to France and showed us the work of a graffiti artist, who goes by the name of RNST. Made me think of Banksy, although the style was completely different. The work showed young people, all wearing masks, in very animated and energetic poses. They were certainly dynamic, and eye catching. I thought they were all a bit angry, like protest posters, and could easily be interpreted as being politically motivated. I'm not sure we all felt that. But there were many images in the same recognisable style and RNST has generated an active group of followers.
- I finished off the evening. Having set the challenge, I gave myself a day to produce something. I had in mind two photographers, Sam Haskins, who goes way back and was a studio worker. He was well know for producing calendars amongst other things. But I recall seeing an exhibition of his called Photographics, and was blown away. I've still got the book. The images were all montages, produced by overlaying negative film. One of the themes was Seascapes and I had the idea of trying out this theme. The other photographer I had in mind was Stephen LeProvost, who you will all know (?) produces beautiful soft abstract scenes. So I went off the the local fishmonger, situated on the mouth of the Tyne and bought a whole load of fresh mixed fish - £7.50 the lot - and enjoyed taking close up of the fish, and creating a sort of abstract image, nothing like Sam Haskins or Stephen LeProvost. But the interesting learning here is that these photographers gave me a place to start, and I produced something I wouldn't have otherwise tried.
This note has become a bit long winded, but I hope at least some of you have reached the end. I enjoyed this week's meeting, I hope you did too. All our panels were different. We all have different voices.
We had nine speakers, a record, mostly responding to my challenge last time to produce a panel of six. They were all completely different and on reflection raised some interesting questions that I've tried to weave into the summaries below.
- Ali started us off with an excellent three part talk, starting off with a dynamic shot of a penguin swimming alongside the boat. Ali felt the image would not be an outright winner with the judges (arguable) but it is one of her favourites because of the memories, and the difficulty in taking the shot. Ali asked if it matters that the judge might not like it, and we all agreed that it doesn't. The primary purpose must be to produce photographs that we like ourselves, otherwise we're destined for a life of disappointment. Ali then showed a panel of six, made up from some kind of device with cogs(?). In camera multiple exposures were involved and the question was does this make it a straight shot, compared with building up the same shot in Photoshop with layers. This matters for some it seems if the competition rules don't allow. And finally Ali showed some images from the Guild which had been heavily photoshopped, to great effect (?), and asked the question is Photoshop now an integral part of the image making process. I think the answer is undoubtedly yes, Photoshop skills are becoming increasingly important. Although there is a fight back on the horizon.
- John Mobbs was next with a thoughtful contribution. John set himself the task of 'noticing more' when he's out and about. What an interesting thought. John showed a series of 6 images taken at night around St Albans, each of which had some unusual aspect, or at least raised some questions in John's mind. It was interesting that the questions raised in John's mind were not the same ones as those raised in everyone else's mind. There's a theory to explain this - semiotics. But this approach did produce a very different set of images, and maybe the start of a project for John.
- Torben turned technical on us by demonstrating the remarkable new 'Replace Sky' feature in Photoshop. This uses AI to replace a sky and does an excellent job of cutting out the most difficult fine detail. Torben's example was actually a model with wispy hair, and 'Replace Sky' did a great job in selecting individual strands of hair. Great demo Torben. I understand now that the latest Photoshop update includes a AI based 'Super Resolution' feature which increases the size of the file by x4, and maintains sharpness. So no need now to buy the latest high mega pixel cameras, just upsize in Photoshop.
- Gerry showed us a set of six images of a lone trees, all taken on the same snowy walk. The tonal balance of each were identical so they fitted together beautifully, and compositionally they were similar in positioning the tree in the centre of the image. The whole set were very attractive. Gerry said the panel probably reflected his mood at the time. I thought this was an interesting comment and worthy of a longer discussion.
- Judith showed us a very subtle set of images with the great title of 'Whilst waiting for owls'. The title alone sets up a tone and expectation of what might be coming. They were taken on a trip with Peter W intended to photograph owls, but during the long periods of waiting Judith turned the 400mm lens onto the landscape, focusing on close up subjects and allowing the background to go completely out of focus. I thought they were beautiful, definitely abstract, and worked really well together as a panel. Definitely worth working more on this theme.
- Peter (W) did manage to photograph the owls. He showed a panel of six, with two 'straight' shots, (one of them a real cracker), and four abstracts, taken by panning with a slow shutter. I think to our surprize, Peter expressed disappointment with the abstracts, even saying that it felt wrong, and not what wildlife photographers should do (apologies if I've mis-quoted). I for one, and I speak for the whole group I think, couldn't disagree more. Maybe its wrong if you're wearing the wildlife photographers hat, but Peter, if you put on momentarily your 'artists' hat, then its completely right. And I'd be amazed if one of your owls shots doesn't get an award in the upcoming 'Abstract' competition. The interesting issue raised here is do we find ourselves wearing the same hat all the time, and thereby cutting ourselves off from other types of photography. Or is a degree of specialism a good thing?
- Iain took himself off to Redbournbury and took a few shots along by the river. Iain admitted to it being a bit of a struggle to get the shots, but it did motivate him to have another go sometime in the future. I was reading an interview today in Outdoor Photography with Vanda Relevska (excellent photographer) who was saying you cant force things. If there is a photograph there you will see it and become excited. If not then nothing will happen. I can understand that.
- Malcolm took us to France and showed us the work of a graffiti artist, who goes by the name of RNST. Made me think of Banksy, although the style was completely different. The work showed young people, all wearing masks, in very animated and energetic poses. They were certainly dynamic, and eye catching. I thought they were all a bit angry, like protest posters, and could easily be interpreted as being politically motivated. I'm not sure we all felt that. But there were many images in the same recognisable style and RNST has generated an active group of followers.
- I finished off the evening. Having set the challenge, I gave myself a day to produce something. I had in mind two photographers, Sam Haskins, who goes way back and was a studio worker. He was well know for producing calendars amongst other things. But I recall seeing an exhibition of his called Photographics, and was blown away. I've still got the book. The images were all montages, produced by overlaying negative film. One of the themes was Seascapes and I had the idea of trying out this theme. The other photographer I had in mind was Stephen LeProvost, who you will all know (?) produces beautiful soft abstract scenes. So I went off the the local fishmonger, situated on the mouth of the Tyne and bought a whole load of fresh mixed fish - £7.50 the lot - and enjoyed taking close up of the fish, and creating a sort of abstract image, nothing like Sam Haskins or Stephen LeProvost. But the interesting learning here is that these photographers gave me a place to start, and I produced something I wouldn't have otherwise tried.
This note has become a bit long winded, but I hope at least some of you have reached the end. I enjoyed this week's meeting, I hope you did too. All our panels were different. We all have different voices.
23rd February 2021
Here's a reminder of what we covered at last week's ESIG meeting.
We started with a talk by Peter Whitehead on 'Self reliance in wildlife photography'. Peter explained that his approach starts with being clear about what type of wildlife he wanted to photograph and researching the subject, in terms of, for example, best locations, time of year, workshop leaders. In these times of lockdown and restricted movements, Peter showed images of owls taken locally. A good example of doing research and being resourceful.
Iain Fry has started to work on an ARPS panel. Its early days and Iain showed us some images exploring the subject of 'Dereliction'. We discussed the images, how they hung together and particularly what might be the underlying theme for the 'Statement of Intent'. A couple of new ideas emerged which hopefully Iain found useful.
We then tried something new. I had invited 10 of our regular members to submit just one photograph, which we then discussed in much greater detail than we normally would. This certainly generated plenty of discussion and revealed more of the photograph. Reaction to this idea was generally positive (80/20??) and the view was that we should give it another go.
Finally I asked the group for their feeling on how ESIG should move forward. The following ideas emerged:
- we should try to recruit more members
- spend more time on sharing and critiquing members' images. This is the original core idea behind ESIG, but it does require members to put forward their images.
- have presentations on 'How I did this', either by inviting speakers over Zoom, or by recorded videos/UTube
- members showing the work of inspirational photographers
- more of the 'Portfolio' evening
The plan would be to mix and match these topics.
Our next meeting will be on 23rd March
We started with a talk by Peter Whitehead on 'Self reliance in wildlife photography'. Peter explained that his approach starts with being clear about what type of wildlife he wanted to photograph and researching the subject, in terms of, for example, best locations, time of year, workshop leaders. In these times of lockdown and restricted movements, Peter showed images of owls taken locally. A good example of doing research and being resourceful.
Iain Fry has started to work on an ARPS panel. Its early days and Iain showed us some images exploring the subject of 'Dereliction'. We discussed the images, how they hung together and particularly what might be the underlying theme for the 'Statement of Intent'. A couple of new ideas emerged which hopefully Iain found useful.
We then tried something new. I had invited 10 of our regular members to submit just one photograph, which we then discussed in much greater detail than we normally would. This certainly generated plenty of discussion and revealed more of the photograph. Reaction to this idea was generally positive (80/20??) and the view was that we should give it another go.
Finally I asked the group for their feeling on how ESIG should move forward. The following ideas emerged:
- we should try to recruit more members
- spend more time on sharing and critiquing members' images. This is the original core idea behind ESIG, but it does require members to put forward their images.
- have presentations on 'How I did this', either by inviting speakers over Zoom, or by recorded videos/UTube
- members showing the work of inspirational photographers
- more of the 'Portfolio' evening
The plan would be to mix and match these topics.
Our next meeting will be on 23rd March
27th January 2021
I thought we had an interesting ESIG. I've produced a few notes below on what we covered, with a couple of links you might want to follow.
We had three talks:
1. Malcolm talked us through his experience of using SmugMug as his web host, which he has found to be good. SmugMug has all the features we might expect to see. The initial set up was easy and took about an hour (with the help of Geoff Buckland). Like most web hosts SmugMug has a choice of design templates, can be organised around folders and galleries (which can be password protected), and can show images and also text pages. Importing images is very straight forward with 'drag and drop' uploads or even integration with Lightroom for example. It allows unlimited storage and provides extensive usage statistics, including ranking of most popular images.
The feature that surprised me was the ability for visitors to the site to comment on (blog) particular images. If Malcolm uploads an image by 8am, and it is blogged the same day, it will appear in the SmugMug 'Today's Popular Photos' and will remain there until 8am the next day. This generates massive visibility and drives visitors to the site. Malcolm gets around 35000 page views/month which is one or two more than I get!
There are four pricing plans and Malcolm has upgraded to the second level, 'Power', which costs $102/year, but Malcolm can arrange a referral discount of 20%.
You can see Malcolm's web site here https://malcolmjenkinsphotography.smugmug.com/, and the SmugMug site here https://www.smugmug.com/
2. We reviewed of selected images for the upcoming PAGB and Ware/Stevenage competitions
In this session we showed the 'long' shortlist for these competitions, which have been selected by the 'selection committee' (Torben, Colin, Peter S, and supported by Ali who will be taking over from Torben next year).
We had around 50 images drawn from an original set of approx 200. The purpose was to allow the group to see, discuss and 'score' the images and to compare what the group would have selected with what the selectors actually did select. Its not an easy task. We had some excellent images and its tough to compare a wildlife shots with a landscape or portrait. In the end there was a good, but not total agreement.
3. Steve is an active members of the Guild of Photographers (as also is Malcolm), and joined having researched other similar organisations. Steve chose The Guild because of its friendly and down to earth nature (unlike the arty farty RPS says Steve). The membership is a mix of professional and enthusiasts, is Northern based, and feels like a community that is easy to engage with. There are monthly competitions, three levels of qualifications that can be worked towards, a mentoring and advice programme, all of which Steve has taken part in and been successful.
See https://photoguild.co.uk/ and their discount page here https://photoguild.co.uk/join?referrer=2T8xCo. Rumour has it that there is a 50% discount for those over a certain age, so maybe worth making contact direct.
See also the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/The.Guild.of.Photographers/
Worth taking a look.
We had three talks:
1. Malcolm talked us through his experience of using SmugMug as his web host, which he has found to be good. SmugMug has all the features we might expect to see. The initial set up was easy and took about an hour (with the help of Geoff Buckland). Like most web hosts SmugMug has a choice of design templates, can be organised around folders and galleries (which can be password protected), and can show images and also text pages. Importing images is very straight forward with 'drag and drop' uploads or even integration with Lightroom for example. It allows unlimited storage and provides extensive usage statistics, including ranking of most popular images.
The feature that surprised me was the ability for visitors to the site to comment on (blog) particular images. If Malcolm uploads an image by 8am, and it is blogged the same day, it will appear in the SmugMug 'Today's Popular Photos' and will remain there until 8am the next day. This generates massive visibility and drives visitors to the site. Malcolm gets around 35000 page views/month which is one or two more than I get!
There are four pricing plans and Malcolm has upgraded to the second level, 'Power', which costs $102/year, but Malcolm can arrange a referral discount of 20%.
You can see Malcolm's web site here https://malcolmjenkinsphotography.smugmug.com/, and the SmugMug site here https://www.smugmug.com/
2. We reviewed of selected images for the upcoming PAGB and Ware/Stevenage competitions
In this session we showed the 'long' shortlist for these competitions, which have been selected by the 'selection committee' (Torben, Colin, Peter S, and supported by Ali who will be taking over from Torben next year).
We had around 50 images drawn from an original set of approx 200. The purpose was to allow the group to see, discuss and 'score' the images and to compare what the group would have selected with what the selectors actually did select. Its not an easy task. We had some excellent images and its tough to compare a wildlife shots with a landscape or portrait. In the end there was a good, but not total agreement.
3. Steve is an active members of the Guild of Photographers (as also is Malcolm), and joined having researched other similar organisations. Steve chose The Guild because of its friendly and down to earth nature (unlike the arty farty RPS says Steve). The membership is a mix of professional and enthusiasts, is Northern based, and feels like a community that is easy to engage with. There are monthly competitions, three levels of qualifications that can be worked towards, a mentoring and advice programme, all of which Steve has taken part in and been successful.
See https://photoguild.co.uk/ and their discount page here https://photoguild.co.uk/join?referrer=2T8xCo. Rumour has it that there is a 50% discount for those over a certain age, so maybe worth making contact direct.
See also the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/The.Guild.of.Photographers/
Worth taking a look.
24th November 2020
I started off with a couple of things you might want to follow up:
- I've just had an article published in the OnLandscape magazine. Its my response to what seems to be a never ending stream of articles and videos that say photography is all about conveying 'feelings and emotions'. I'm not sure this is true and its certainly too simplistic. Here's what I had to say https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2020/11/what-is-that-extra-ingredient/#comment-5164380312
-Some years back I purchased a book called 'The triangle theory - Objective criticism of art', and somehow got into a brief email exchange with the author Leah Robb. Leah contacted me out of the blue this weekend to say that the book had been updated and she would make it available to me, and my friends, via Blurb at cost - £2.99. Its self published and very different to any other book you may have read on this subject. Easy to read and has an interesting core idea. Worth a read. https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/8888876-the-triangle-theory
We had four speakers:
- Judith pulled together a project that has come together over a number of years. The images were taken in a moving car giving very abstract effect with a great sense of movement. Many of the images were very attractive on their own, but the series as a whole had great energy. Judith described the series as a Road Journey into Impressionism.
- Steve gave us an introduction to Instagram, which he described as a mix of Flicker and Twitter. The growth of Instagram has been astonishing including its market value. Steve gave us some best practice advice, including the use of hash tags (#), posting regularly, linking to relevant communities, and following other users. Steve ended by showing us his own site.
- Brian described the process he’d been through to select a web host for his new website. Brian had shortlisted three potential hosts, Wix, Squarespace and Weebley, and had ranked these on a number of factors including ease of use, available templates, price an overall score obtained from reviews. Wix came out as Brian’s choice. Brian then showed us his new site which focuses on photographs of Hertfordshire. See www.hertsphotos.com
- Iain showed us a selection of his street photographs, many from his favourite Venice, but also other locations. Typical enjoyable Iain shots.
We then had three contributors telling us about their favourite photographers, or bookmarked sites they follow:
- Ali’s gave us two excellent links. Firstly Guy Edwards, a landscape and wildlife photographer who has visited HPS. See https://www.guyedwardes.com/. Guy also posts a daily photo on Instagram and Facebook, and gives talks on https://www.photographyexperts.com/eventrecordings. Next presentation -Friday 4th December ‘Macro & Close-Up Photography.
Secondly, Andy Rouse, a well known wildlife photographer. See Instagram & Facebook – Wildman Rouse, and his new venture: Wild Bunch – online and video base community https://www.wildbunch.andyrouse.co.uk/
Free account – for Wild Angle Videos and Rouse Reads
Wild Bunch Club – extended Wide Angle videos, Monthly Club cast meeting with talks and tips.
- Greg showed us Hans Strand, a Swedish photographer who has some great aerial shots of Iceland, and then some very different ‘intimate’ landscapes. see https://www.hansstrand.se/
- finally Vaughn surprised us with an unusual and interesting site that focused just on analogue photography, giving reviews, theories, reflections, knowhow and experience - definitely something different. See https://www.35mmc.com
- I've just had an article published in the OnLandscape magazine. Its my response to what seems to be a never ending stream of articles and videos that say photography is all about conveying 'feelings and emotions'. I'm not sure this is true and its certainly too simplistic. Here's what I had to say https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2020/11/what-is-that-extra-ingredient/#comment-5164380312
-Some years back I purchased a book called 'The triangle theory - Objective criticism of art', and somehow got into a brief email exchange with the author Leah Robb. Leah contacted me out of the blue this weekend to say that the book had been updated and she would make it available to me, and my friends, via Blurb at cost - £2.99. Its self published and very different to any other book you may have read on this subject. Easy to read and has an interesting core idea. Worth a read. https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/8888876-the-triangle-theory
We had four speakers:
- Judith pulled together a project that has come together over a number of years. The images were taken in a moving car giving very abstract effect with a great sense of movement. Many of the images were very attractive on their own, but the series as a whole had great energy. Judith described the series as a Road Journey into Impressionism.
- Steve gave us an introduction to Instagram, which he described as a mix of Flicker and Twitter. The growth of Instagram has been astonishing including its market value. Steve gave us some best practice advice, including the use of hash tags (#), posting regularly, linking to relevant communities, and following other users. Steve ended by showing us his own site.
- Brian described the process he’d been through to select a web host for his new website. Brian had shortlisted three potential hosts, Wix, Squarespace and Weebley, and had ranked these on a number of factors including ease of use, available templates, price an overall score obtained from reviews. Wix came out as Brian’s choice. Brian then showed us his new site which focuses on photographs of Hertfordshire. See www.hertsphotos.com
- Iain showed us a selection of his street photographs, many from his favourite Venice, but also other locations. Typical enjoyable Iain shots.
We then had three contributors telling us about their favourite photographers, or bookmarked sites they follow:
- Ali’s gave us two excellent links. Firstly Guy Edwards, a landscape and wildlife photographer who has visited HPS. See https://www.guyedwardes.com/. Guy also posts a daily photo on Instagram and Facebook, and gives talks on https://www.photographyexperts.com/eventrecordings. Next presentation -Friday 4th December ‘Macro & Close-Up Photography.
Secondly, Andy Rouse, a well known wildlife photographer. See Instagram & Facebook – Wildman Rouse, and his new venture: Wild Bunch – online and video base community https://www.wildbunch.andyrouse.co.uk/
Free account – for Wild Angle Videos and Rouse Reads
Wild Bunch Club – extended Wide Angle videos, Monthly Club cast meeting with talks and tips.
- Greg showed us Hans Strand, a Swedish photographer who has some great aerial shots of Iceland, and then some very different ‘intimate’ landscapes. see https://www.hansstrand.se/
- finally Vaughn surprised us with an unusual and interesting site that focused just on analogue photography, giving reviews, theories, reflections, knowhow and experience - definitely something different. See https://www.35mmc.com
22nd September 2020
Well, I don't know about you, but I really enjoyed this week's ESIG. I'd go so far as to say it was one of the best we've had. We had six speakers and all were interesting and showed some great images.
Here's a summary...
Mick started the evening with a preamble about how his approach to photography is developing. He's becoming increasing aware of his photographic intent as being to 'explore his imagination, sense of humour and to satisfy his eye'. He doesn't wish to follow the crowd but tries to take risks to find something new and different. Mick recommended the Eye of Photography website as a source of inspiration, (https://loeildelaphotographie.com/en/). Mick then took us though how a particular image developed into a very attractive and unusual composite of some flowers.
David was next with three themes to his lockdown photography. The first was some 'pop art' style still life images which were very simple, highly saturated, abstract and full of impact. Next were some close ups of a rusty shed, with flaky, coloured paint which which created some surprisingly attractive abstract patterns, and finally David showed some experimental infra red images. These were created by putting a filter over the lens (rather than having the sensor converted). David recommended the 760 strength.
Steve Collins gave a talk on street photography and adopted the interesting approach of comparing two well know street photographers - Saul Leiter who worked in the '50s and Nick Turpin (https://nickturpin.com/portfolios/on-the-night-bus/) who is very much working now. Excellent work, and both included abstract images, eg by shooting through rainy windows. Steve also referred us to Josha K Jackson (https://www.joshkjack.com/) and Vivien Maier (http://www.vivianmaier.com/). Steve bravely compared some of his street images, side by side with Vivien Maier's and there was actually some striking similarities. Steve then modestly mentioned that he had been shortlisted for the Ranking lockdown competition/exhibition. Well done Steve.
Brian had visited the Dalia display at Aylott garden centre and produced some lovely close ups. The first one up, in particular, was excellent, which I'm sure we'll see again. The display is still open, so get there if you can.
Peter Whitehead showed the finalist of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards (https://www.comedywildlifephoto.com/gallery/finalists/). Some were really funny.
We ended the evening by reviewing the submissions that Torben had received from club members for the up coming external competitions. Some very nice work, so fingers crossed for HPS doing well.
Thanks for those who attended the meeting, especially the speakers. If you didn't manage to attend this month, I shall be arranging the next meeting for the 27th October. Hope to see you then.
Here's a summary...
Mick started the evening with a preamble about how his approach to photography is developing. He's becoming increasing aware of his photographic intent as being to 'explore his imagination, sense of humour and to satisfy his eye'. He doesn't wish to follow the crowd but tries to take risks to find something new and different. Mick recommended the Eye of Photography website as a source of inspiration, (https://loeildelaphotographie.com/en/). Mick then took us though how a particular image developed into a very attractive and unusual composite of some flowers.
David was next with three themes to his lockdown photography. The first was some 'pop art' style still life images which were very simple, highly saturated, abstract and full of impact. Next were some close ups of a rusty shed, with flaky, coloured paint which which created some surprisingly attractive abstract patterns, and finally David showed some experimental infra red images. These were created by putting a filter over the lens (rather than having the sensor converted). David recommended the 760 strength.
Steve Collins gave a talk on street photography and adopted the interesting approach of comparing two well know street photographers - Saul Leiter who worked in the '50s and Nick Turpin (https://nickturpin.com/portfolios/on-the-night-bus/) who is very much working now. Excellent work, and both included abstract images, eg by shooting through rainy windows. Steve also referred us to Josha K Jackson (https://www.joshkjack.com/) and Vivien Maier (http://www.vivianmaier.com/). Steve bravely compared some of his street images, side by side with Vivien Maier's and there was actually some striking similarities. Steve then modestly mentioned that he had been shortlisted for the Ranking lockdown competition/exhibition. Well done Steve.
Brian had visited the Dalia display at Aylott garden centre and produced some lovely close ups. The first one up, in particular, was excellent, which I'm sure we'll see again. The display is still open, so get there if you can.
Peter Whitehead showed the finalist of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards (https://www.comedywildlifephoto.com/gallery/finalists/). Some were really funny.
We ended the evening by reviewing the submissions that Torben had received from club members for the up coming external competitions. Some very nice work, so fingers crossed for HPS doing well.
Thanks for those who attended the meeting, especially the speakers. If you didn't manage to attend this month, I shall be arranging the next meeting for the 27th October. Hope to see you then.
2019/20
28th July 2020
Gerry started off the evening demonstrating focus stacking in Photoshop, and also other sorts of stacking (eg exposure). He showed us examples of landscape and also astronomy images to great effect. Judith continued with the astronomy theme with images of the Neowise comet, with one in particular being exceptionally clear.
Steve was next with some 'lock down' images from his garden, showing plants, and various creatures. All hand held and remarkably sharp. Steve explained that he has recently started to use Topaz filters, (sharpen and denoise), which had a dramatic effect on the image. Steve felt it was like having a new camera. Worth checking out Topaz. Steve also showed some black and white images where he had experimented with HDR effects and also selectively lightening and darkening using the radial filter to add contrast and direct the eye. Amazingly one of Steve's image of a pub garden in the Cotsworlds had my daughter and family in the foreground. What an amazing coincidence!
I then led the discussion on the interview podcast between Alistair Benn and Julia Anna Gospodarou. We all agreed that Julia produces some stunning black and white architectural images, but we all struggled when she says she uses photography to express her feelings, to explore ideas and to answer life's questions. None of us really understood this, not in any practical way. I asked the group if we should repeat this type of discussion. There were mixed views and we agreed to do it again, but only occasionally.
Peter Whitehead was the final contributor with some images from his weekend away at Snettisham (?), in Norfolk. Peter showed some long exposure beach shots and also some impressive bird murmurations with 40,000 birds deciding to rise up at the same time. I recall an interview with Chris Packham where he said bird murmurations are one of the great wild life events to observe. We discussed whether Peter used his wildlife images to express feeling and emotions (like Julia Anna above) but Peter explained he was driven by a different set of motivations.
Steve was next with some 'lock down' images from his garden, showing plants, and various creatures. All hand held and remarkably sharp. Steve explained that he has recently started to use Topaz filters, (sharpen and denoise), which had a dramatic effect on the image. Steve felt it was like having a new camera. Worth checking out Topaz. Steve also showed some black and white images where he had experimented with HDR effects and also selectively lightening and darkening using the radial filter to add contrast and direct the eye. Amazingly one of Steve's image of a pub garden in the Cotsworlds had my daughter and family in the foreground. What an amazing coincidence!
I then led the discussion on the interview podcast between Alistair Benn and Julia Anna Gospodarou. We all agreed that Julia produces some stunning black and white architectural images, but we all struggled when she says she uses photography to express her feelings, to explore ideas and to answer life's questions. None of us really understood this, not in any practical way. I asked the group if we should repeat this type of discussion. There were mixed views and we agreed to do it again, but only occasionally.
Peter Whitehead was the final contributor with some images from his weekend away at Snettisham (?), in Norfolk. Peter showed some long exposure beach shots and also some impressive bird murmurations with 40,000 birds deciding to rise up at the same time. I recall an interview with Chris Packham where he said bird murmurations are one of the great wild life events to observe. We discussed whether Peter used his wildlife images to express feeling and emotions (like Julia Anna above) but Peter explained he was driven by a different set of motivations.
23rd June 2020
Another interesting and varied ESIG last week I thought. I’ve made a few notes below on who spoke and what we covered. I’ve also forwarded an email from Bruce Percy, who all landscapers will know as one of the best landscaper photographers around at the moment. I include it because it’s interesting, and contains some excellent photos, but also because he refers to previsualisation and also the being ‘in the present’, which is linked to Mindfulness. We covered both these on Tuesday.
So as a reminder here’s what we covered:
As part of my introduction I mentioned that the RPS are running a number of talks/interviews with well know photographers, they are free and the recordings can be found here. Well worth viewing. https://rps.org/qualifications/arps/catch-up-for-live-talks/
Peter Whitehead gave a little presentation about previsualisation and used this as a starter to exploring the subject. It’s a difficult one to get to grips with, but is being written and talked about a lot at the moment. Peter distinguished between previsualisation at the taking stage and in post processing. The group as a whole were a bit divided. We came down in the end to saying it’s all about clarity of purpose, intent. Good discussion, we should have more like this.
Vaughn followed on with some shots taken of a Tiger Moth air display. Vaughn wasn’t expecting to see an air display when he set out but was delighted to find it taking place. There were lovely images of close up and formation flying, and some of the pilots and engineers to give some human interest. Vaughn declared that none of the images were taken with any form of previsualsation!
Peter Wilson gave us an interesting overview of one of his current projects, which is being the ‘in house’ photographer for the Wheathampstead Players theatre group. Peter had take over this role a year or so back and produces images for each production. The images are used in the programmes, for promotional posters, publicity and for members of the cast to keep. It has been a steep learning curve, but in Peter's usual way, he has mastered the technicalities and produced some excellent work.
Brian gave us an in depth review of phone photography and the capabilities of his latest iPhone and the software he uses to manage and process his images. Brian uses Lightroom for mobiles, and uploads the images to the cloud from the phone and then downloads selectively images to his computer.
Zoë is a new member of ESIG and wanted to share some of her photos to get our reactions. I though some of them really stood out and, with hindsight, I wish we had paused to study them more closely. Zoë mentioned Mindfullness photography and referred to a workshop she had attended with Paul Sanders, who happens to be our first speaker of the new season in September. It’s interesting that Bruce Percy alludes to Mindfullness in his email copied below.
Malcolm showed us the reworking of some safari images he has made following a workshop with Tom Way. Tom had demonstrated a technique of converting to mono using Nik filters and a preset Antique Plate ii (query check this). The results were striking and certainly transformed the image from the original colour.
Gerry’s time was cut short so will be first up at the next meeting, but there was time to show one image taken that morning. This was an 18 image stitched photo of the International Space Station (ISS) passing across the sun. Gerry explained he’d uses transit-finder.com to determine when a transit was occurring, a sturdy tripod and a Herschel filter over the lens (essential). The ISS takes only 0.75secs to cover the sun, so the camera was set to video and ran from before to after the transit. An impressive photo. Well done Gerry.
So as a reminder here’s what we covered:
As part of my introduction I mentioned that the RPS are running a number of talks/interviews with well know photographers, they are free and the recordings can be found here. Well worth viewing. https://rps.org/qualifications/arps/catch-up-for-live-talks/
Peter Whitehead gave a little presentation about previsualisation and used this as a starter to exploring the subject. It’s a difficult one to get to grips with, but is being written and talked about a lot at the moment. Peter distinguished between previsualisation at the taking stage and in post processing. The group as a whole were a bit divided. We came down in the end to saying it’s all about clarity of purpose, intent. Good discussion, we should have more like this.
Vaughn followed on with some shots taken of a Tiger Moth air display. Vaughn wasn’t expecting to see an air display when he set out but was delighted to find it taking place. There were lovely images of close up and formation flying, and some of the pilots and engineers to give some human interest. Vaughn declared that none of the images were taken with any form of previsualsation!
Peter Wilson gave us an interesting overview of one of his current projects, which is being the ‘in house’ photographer for the Wheathampstead Players theatre group. Peter had take over this role a year or so back and produces images for each production. The images are used in the programmes, for promotional posters, publicity and for members of the cast to keep. It has been a steep learning curve, but in Peter's usual way, he has mastered the technicalities and produced some excellent work.
Brian gave us an in depth review of phone photography and the capabilities of his latest iPhone and the software he uses to manage and process his images. Brian uses Lightroom for mobiles, and uploads the images to the cloud from the phone and then downloads selectively images to his computer.
Zoë is a new member of ESIG and wanted to share some of her photos to get our reactions. I though some of them really stood out and, with hindsight, I wish we had paused to study them more closely. Zoë mentioned Mindfullness photography and referred to a workshop she had attended with Paul Sanders, who happens to be our first speaker of the new season in September. It’s interesting that Bruce Percy alludes to Mindfullness in his email copied below.
Malcolm showed us the reworking of some safari images he has made following a workshop with Tom Way. Tom had demonstrated a technique of converting to mono using Nik filters and a preset Antique Plate ii (query check this). The results were striking and certainly transformed the image from the original colour.
Gerry’s time was cut short so will be first up at the next meeting, but there was time to show one image taken that morning. This was an 18 image stitched photo of the International Space Station (ISS) passing across the sun. Gerry explained he’d uses transit-finder.com to determine when a transit was occurring, a sturdy tripod and a Herschel filter over the lens (essential). The ISS takes only 0.75secs to cover the sun, so the camera was set to video and ran from before to after the transit. An impressive photo. Well done Gerry.
22nd October 2019
Here's a few notes on what we covered from our 22nd October ESIG.
Brian Cooke kicked off with a really interesting talk on an artist photographer he discovered on holiday. Ernest Pignon Ernest is a 'Fluxus and Situationist' French artist - see ERNEST PIGNON ERNEST – Site officiel. He paints and draws figures, some quite distressing and then produces posters of the work and puts them up on walls in situations appropriate to the image. In this way the image fits in with the location, which is itself an interesting approach to installation art. But then he goes further by taking photographs of the poster in context of the location, which is producing another piece of art. Two for the price of one! I though this was a new idea which certainly I haven't come across before. Thanks Brian.
Judith came on next and really asked us the question of how can we get our work shown in galleries. To illustrate Judith used as an example the exhibition in the Bosham Gallery by Margaret Soraya see https://boshamgallery.com/exhibitions/17/works/ These works are large, have a very consistent style and are mounted and displayed very professionally. They also have a large price tag of around £2000+. The questions raised as why is it possible to charge such a high price for these images, how was the author was able to get herself shown in the gallery on such an apparently large scale. How much is marketing and presentation? The question really is how do we club photographers up up our game? A discussion to be continued.
Peter Whitehead then showed us a series of images from the Lake District and how he chased down a scene from a Turner painting and constructed a similar composition. This was interesting, in part because it was clear how Turner had changed the scene a bit the fit his own composition and then how Peter found his own composition which he preferred.
Malcolm showed us some nice prints of snow dogs pulling a sleigh and wild animals from Africa. I must say the printing and presentation were excellent, and would make a strong entry into the 'panel of three' competition.
And finally Gerry showed us some composite images he has been experimenting with of castles surrounded by dramatic and turbulent clouds. These worked really well, and were exceptionally eye catching. I'd encourage Gerry to do more like this and to see where it might lead.
The other thing we did was to look through the images submitted to date for the Beds Invitation Competition. We scored these and the results will help with the selection.
The next ESIG is scheduled for 26th November. I'm not sure I'll be able to make it, so look out for my emails. If anyone else wants to stand in for me then that would be great. Let me know.
Once again, I send this email out to a wide selection of people. If you'd rather not receive it, then please let me know.
Brian Cooke kicked off with a really interesting talk on an artist photographer he discovered on holiday. Ernest Pignon Ernest is a 'Fluxus and Situationist' French artist - see ERNEST PIGNON ERNEST – Site officiel. He paints and draws figures, some quite distressing and then produces posters of the work and puts them up on walls in situations appropriate to the image. In this way the image fits in with the location, which is itself an interesting approach to installation art. But then he goes further by taking photographs of the poster in context of the location, which is producing another piece of art. Two for the price of one! I though this was a new idea which certainly I haven't come across before. Thanks Brian.
Judith came on next and really asked us the question of how can we get our work shown in galleries. To illustrate Judith used as an example the exhibition in the Bosham Gallery by Margaret Soraya see https://boshamgallery.com/exhibitions/17/works/ These works are large, have a very consistent style and are mounted and displayed very professionally. They also have a large price tag of around £2000+. The questions raised as why is it possible to charge such a high price for these images, how was the author was able to get herself shown in the gallery on such an apparently large scale. How much is marketing and presentation? The question really is how do we club photographers up up our game? A discussion to be continued.
Peter Whitehead then showed us a series of images from the Lake District and how he chased down a scene from a Turner painting and constructed a similar composition. This was interesting, in part because it was clear how Turner had changed the scene a bit the fit his own composition and then how Peter found his own composition which he preferred.
Malcolm showed us some nice prints of snow dogs pulling a sleigh and wild animals from Africa. I must say the printing and presentation were excellent, and would make a strong entry into the 'panel of three' competition.
And finally Gerry showed us some composite images he has been experimenting with of castles surrounded by dramatic and turbulent clouds. These worked really well, and were exceptionally eye catching. I'd encourage Gerry to do more like this and to see where it might lead.
The other thing we did was to look through the images submitted to date for the Beds Invitation Competition. We scored these and the results will help with the selection.
The next ESIG is scheduled for 26th November. I'm not sure I'll be able to make it, so look out for my emails. If anyone else wants to stand in for me then that would be great. Let me know.
Once again, I send this email out to a wide selection of people. If you'd rather not receive it, then please let me know.
24th September 2019Here's a few reminders of what we covered on our first ESIG meeting of the new season.
I've been spending a lot of time in Northumberland over the last couple of months (with my new grandson - had I mentioned that!) and have had plenty of time to think about my photography and indeed to take plenty of photographs. I found myself seriously thinking about what I'm trying to do with my camera. This is not a new question, its a question I've asked myself many times, and there isn't a simple answer, but its definitely worth asking yourself the same question. I think one of the ways into this is thinking in terms of 'Intent'. Each time you're at a location, or event or whatever , ask yourself why you've raised the camera to your eye. What is it that you are trying to do? It need not be a complex answer, in fact most often it isn't. It could be to try out a new technique, capture some lighting, or texture or an expression. But its worth asking the question. I think it will sharpen up our photography. I came across a video which addressed this question in the context of landscape photography, but it applies I suspect to other genres. I showed this on Tuesday but its worth viewing a second time. The key idea is that 'looking' doesn't necessarily mean we are 'seeing', and we as photographers should be seeing. If we had a group of people overlooking the same landscape and asked them to write down what they are seeing they would all be different - so their images should also be different. Alister summarises creativity as 'noticing what you connect with and feeling it'. I further summarise this in my own mind as simply wanting to take photographs of 'what I see'. Is this all a bit 'airy fairy'? Maybe, but its a thought that keeps returning to me. Lets see if we can apply this to the photos we show at future meeting and see if it gets any traction. Here's the link. Scroll down to find the video, and then a bit further to find an eBook that I'd also recommend. The first half of the book addresses the 'What and the Why' we take photos, and then the second half has an extensive section on how to develop these in Lightroom and Photoshop. Highly recommended. If you use the discount code ON25 you'll get 25%discount. Alister Benn - the Secret of Creativity - https://expressive.photography/ Interestingly Peter Wilson followed on along the same lines with some illuminating and sometimes inspirational quotes from a book titled 'Photographers on Photography: How the Masters see, think and shoot' . The theme here is that its not about the technology, its about the images. (You don't ask a chef what oven s/he uses to produce great meals, so why ask a photographer what camera s\he uses to take great photographs!). Being a keen technology man Peter admitted this was a bit of a revelation to him . Well done Peter for owning up and sharing your new insight. Judith then added anther book worth reading sort of along similar lines - 'Dialogue with Photography'. this is a series of interview with the really great photographers and their approach to photography. Mick inspired us with some really unusual and exciting smoke trail images. They really were exceptional. Mick has been taking an online photography course and these images emerged from one of the assignments. Mick has offered to show us more at the next members evening. We then saw further images from Malcolm, (great images from Mozambique), Judith (Eclipse and also Mam Tor which is a special place for Judith), Gerry, Peter Whitehead and also a few from me. I've since realised that Iain didn't get a chance to show a book he has produced. Apologies Ian, please bring it along next time. 2018/19 |
26th February 2019
Vaughn's presentation was interesting in itself, but for me also showed how the photographers 'intent' produced very different sorts of images. How often do we go out with our camera without a clear intent in mind. Probably most of the time for me, or at least a poorly defined intent. Its not easy to do and we should avoid being so focused that we miss other opportunities, but its worth asking ourselves if we should have more clarity on what we are trying to do.
Peter Whitehead showed us some images from another of his amazing trips, this time Yellowstone in Winter. They prompted some interesting discussion on how to develop and present the image. Peter will be giving a fuller presentation at next weeks Members Evening.
And Dries showed us a couple of prints which, as usual for Dries, were both imaginative and of subjects he doesn't always take. It seems we can always rely on Dries to come up with something unexpected.
I hope you also enjoyed the images from the Sony World Photography Awards and the International Landscape POTY. I though some of them were stunning.
Finally we mentioned some exhibitions that are now on show:
- Don McCullen - Tate Britain, until 6th May
- Martin Parr - National Portrait Gallery 7Mar-27 May
If you borrowed a book from our 'library' please bring it back next time and, if you want, tell us what you enjoyed about it.
Peter Whitehead showed us some images from another of his amazing trips, this time Yellowstone in Winter. They prompted some interesting discussion on how to develop and present the image. Peter will be giving a fuller presentation at next weeks Members Evening.
And Dries showed us a couple of prints which, as usual for Dries, were both imaginative and of subjects he doesn't always take. It seems we can always rely on Dries to come up with something unexpected.
I hope you also enjoyed the images from the Sony World Photography Awards and the International Landscape POTY. I though some of them were stunning.
Finally we mentioned some exhibitions that are now on show:
- Don McCullen - Tate Britain, until 6th May
- Martin Parr - National Portrait Gallery 7Mar-27 May
If you borrowed a book from our 'library' please bring it back next time and, if you want, tell us what you enjoyed about it.
27th November 2018
I started off my asking whether you prefer to start our meetings with a 'discussion topic' (and we've had a few strange, but interesting ones in the past), or whether you prefer to dive straight in and see the photos. The overwhelming vote was to get stuck in and see the photos, which is what we did.
- David (W) started us off with presentation on travel photography. He showed the work of Jacob James (Jacob James - Travel and Cultural Documentary Photographer) and then followed up with some photos from his recent trip to Australia, including a stint as a paparazzi capturing Harry and Megan.
- Steve then gave us a summary of his successes over the last year in entering BPE exhibitions. What was so interesting was not just seeing the images, but also the analysis Steve had done on the scores and acceptances by salon. There is great variability and not being accepted in one exhibition clearly doesn't mean an image will not be accepted in another.
- I then proudly showed my successful FRPS panel made up from my multiple exposure images. I then promised not to show any more in the club competitions, which produced a cheer!
- Vaughn showed a couple of images from a recent steam engine event which included an excellent back lit shot of two engines and a guard beautifully positioned against the bellowing steam in the image. I'm sure we'll see this one again in the competitions
- Brian showed us a series of images which were interesting in their own right but particularly because they were taken on his iPhone. Its clear that the quality of the phone images just get better and better.
- Iain showed us his images from a recent trip to Portugal. I do think Iain has his own particular style which we can all recognise.
- and finally David Myles showed us the work of one of his favourite photographers Don Komarechka (http://www.donkom.ca/) . Don is a Canadian photographer and produces some amazing macro work especially of ice crystals and snow flakes. What was impressive was that David had been inspired by this work and had produced some of his own photos in the same style. Excellent.
23rd October 2018
1) I hope you all enjoyed the Joe Cornish video - A Guide to Composition. Its a new video available through Light & Land and addressed not just composition but also equipment, field craft and post processing. I think it had something to offer to all of us, even the non landscapers amongst us. Good value at around £10.
If you'd like your own copy see here A Guide to Composition with Joe Cornish
If you'd like your own copy see here A Guide to Composition with Joe Cornish
We had a little chat about it after the showing and collectively the things we recalled were:
- Joe's approach to composition: Balance, Depth and Energy. Sounds good to me
- our own approach to composition says something about us personally
- Joe returned to a place many times and explored the location. He would use his iPhone to refine the composition before setting up.
- Joe now uses digital of all sizes - full frame Sony 7R through to the larger formats
- the new item of equipment he used extensively was an umbrella!
- Field craft - Joe had his way of doing things, and i suspect we also have our own. Its important to have this honed down to a fine art
- In post processing the best background colour of the screen is white, since this visually sets the luminance to our eye
- try turning the image upside down to help see the balance
2) Torben and Peter (Wilson) recently attended an LRPS Advisory Day as observers and came back full of enthusiasm. The day was very positive and instructive, and gave much guidance on the range of prints required, and especially the construction of a panel. It is surprising how positioning prints can change the look of the panel, and in fact how just one print can over power the panel. Torben and Peter said they hope to apply next year, and I would encourage other ESIG members to also give it a try.
3) Gerry then got us thinking about image resolution following on from my talk at the last members evening. He showed two images that had both been re-sized from the same original image, but at different dpi (400 and 850 I think) The images did look different, more contrasty, but we couldn't work out the logic of why this should be. Changing the dpi should just change the size of image if it were to be printed. It shouldn't change the appearance of the image. More investigation required, but we felt the difference was due to the way Adobe software saved the image.
4) we then shared some images, with contributions from Malcolm and Mick and viewed the work of two inspirational photographers - see
- Julia Anna Gospodarou, a fine art black and white architectural photographer https://www.juliaannagospodarou.com/ and
- Mandy Disher, a floral and still life photographer https://www.mandydisher.com/
Both produce really excellent work and worth studying more carefully.
- Joe's approach to composition: Balance, Depth and Energy. Sounds good to me
- our own approach to composition says something about us personally
- Joe returned to a place many times and explored the location. He would use his iPhone to refine the composition before setting up.
- Joe now uses digital of all sizes - full frame Sony 7R through to the larger formats
- the new item of equipment he used extensively was an umbrella!
- Field craft - Joe had his way of doing things, and i suspect we also have our own. Its important to have this honed down to a fine art
- In post processing the best background colour of the screen is white, since this visually sets the luminance to our eye
- try turning the image upside down to help see the balance
2) Torben and Peter (Wilson) recently attended an LRPS Advisory Day as observers and came back full of enthusiasm. The day was very positive and instructive, and gave much guidance on the range of prints required, and especially the construction of a panel. It is surprising how positioning prints can change the look of the panel, and in fact how just one print can over power the panel. Torben and Peter said they hope to apply next year, and I would encourage other ESIG members to also give it a try.
3) Gerry then got us thinking about image resolution following on from my talk at the last members evening. He showed two images that had both been re-sized from the same original image, but at different dpi (400 and 850 I think) The images did look different, more contrasty, but we couldn't work out the logic of why this should be. Changing the dpi should just change the size of image if it were to be printed. It shouldn't change the appearance of the image. More investigation required, but we felt the difference was due to the way Adobe software saved the image.
4) we then shared some images, with contributions from Malcolm and Mick and viewed the work of two inspirational photographers - see
- Julia Anna Gospodarou, a fine art black and white architectural photographer https://www.juliaannagospodarou.com/ and
- Mandy Disher, a floral and still life photographer https://www.mandydisher.com/
Both produce really excellent work and worth studying more carefully.
25th September 2018
Purpose of the group:
We started with a quick chat about the purpose of the group to be sure everyone is clear and happy. We agreed that we are about the visual side of photography, not the technical, although we are happy to address technical issues as they come up. Our purpose is to:
Presentations
We had presentations from James, Iain and Gerry:
James gave us a talk on long exposure photography and showed the work of three photographers working in the area - all excellent
- https://www.bwvision.com/ and Julia Anna Gospodarou Black and White Fine Art Photography
James also took us through technical steps in taking these long exposures, which are a bit fiddly. James mentioned that the x10 ND filters all give a colour cast (which I can confirm from my own B&W brand). The OnLandscape site did a very thorough review which I summarise at the end of this email.
Iain, showed us the work of the painter Micheal Smee 'Through the glass darkly'. This was a very interesting series. They resembled the work of Edward Hopper but could also have been the work of a street photographer. Definitely worth a closer look. I couldn't find a web site to link to, but a google search will show some of work under 'images.'
And then Gerry showed us a series of photographs he is working on portraying the 'dark side', or how things might look to a depressed person. It was interesting because their strength was not in any one image but in collection of images creating a mood or emotion. I was taken by how Gerry explored how to use light and dark to reflect mood and how light reflects optimism and dark pessimism.
These three presentations were all very thought provoking and all quite different in intent - abstract, realism (?) and story telling.
Sharing work
We had just four members share and discus their work. Thank you. Let's have more next time.
Smethwick International Photographic Exhibition
We finished up by looking at the Award winners from this year's Smethwick International. As a reminder I've copied a few images below that we liked.
We started with a quick chat about the purpose of the group to be sure everyone is clear and happy. We agreed that we are about the visual side of photography, not the technical, although we are happy to address technical issues as they come up. Our purpose is to:
- Inform our 'seeing eye', and we do this by constantly discussing and viewing the work of 'inspirational' photographers and/or things photographic
- Share and improve own own work, by discussion, illustration and encouragement within the group.
- Encourage members to enter club competitions, external exhibitions and apply for distinctions
Presentations
We had presentations from James, Iain and Gerry:
James gave us a talk on long exposure photography and showed the work of three photographers working in the area - all excellent
- Doug Chinnery See here 8 tips for mastering long exposure photos by Doug Chinnery
- Jay Vulture see Vulture Labs | About
- Micheal Levine see https://www.michaellevin.ca/ (video also worth watching)
- https://www.bwvision.com/ and Julia Anna Gospodarou Black and White Fine Art Photography
James also took us through technical steps in taking these long exposures, which are a bit fiddly. James mentioned that the x10 ND filters all give a colour cast (which I can confirm from my own B&W brand). The OnLandscape site did a very thorough review which I summarise at the end of this email.
Iain, showed us the work of the painter Micheal Smee 'Through the glass darkly'. This was a very interesting series. They resembled the work of Edward Hopper but could also have been the work of a street photographer. Definitely worth a closer look. I couldn't find a web site to link to, but a google search will show some of work under 'images.'
And then Gerry showed us a series of photographs he is working on portraying the 'dark side', or how things might look to a depressed person. It was interesting because their strength was not in any one image but in collection of images creating a mood or emotion. I was taken by how Gerry explored how to use light and dark to reflect mood and how light reflects optimism and dark pessimism.
These three presentations were all very thought provoking and all quite different in intent - abstract, realism (?) and story telling.
Sharing work
We had just four members share and discus their work. Thank you. Let's have more next time.
Smethwick International Photographic Exhibition
We finished up by looking at the Award winners from this year's Smethwick International. As a reminder I've copied a few images below that we liked.
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2017/18
24th May 2018
Elite Performance and Photography
Our discussion slot this week was a bit left field. I introduced the book 'Bounce' by Matthew Syed and asked if there were any lessons we could learn that were relevant to improving our photography. 'Bounce' addresses the question of where high performance comes from, whether this is all down to natural talent, or if something else going on. Syed argued, with many supporting examples drawn particularly from sport, and music, that there is no such thing as natural talent, and that the major determinants of performance were 1) hours of focused practice (the 10,000 hour rule), 2) opportunity, often in the form of good luck at a young age, that directed a development path towards high performance, and 3) the learned ability to identify patterns (eg the example of receiving a high speed serve in tennis). It seems this line of thought also appears in other books, eg' Outliers', or 'The talent myth'. Our discussion cast doubt on whether talent could be so easily explained, with other factors being thrown into the mix such as motivation, single mindedness, having a target to achieve.
So are there lessons to be learned for our photography? I think we agreed that there are, and they all have to do with 1) working in a determined way towards a target (call this practice, focus, or motivation), 2) opportunity - put yourself into positions where you might get lucky, and 3) and this is one that surprised me, that by looking at the work of other photographers we actually learn to recognise clues in a location that are likely to produce a 'good' images, 'good' being defined in the way that we choose to define it, by our own standards, because there are no absolutes.
I'm sure the world is more complex than this, but I think there are lessons here, and just maybe these will help direct our photography onto better things.
Wildlife and Landscape Photography - Peter Whitehead
Peter gave us a talk on two of his favourite photographers, one wild life and the other Landscape.
The wildlife photographer was Chris Packham. I was a little surprised at this choice, but Peter justified his selection by giving more detail on Chris' background. Chris not only has an encyclopedic knowledge of wildlife, he was also trained as a wildlife photographer and practised as such in his early career. Peter has met Chris on Wildlife workshops and can vouch for his skills and his ability in finding the shot that everyone else seems to miss. A good choice.
Peter's Landscape photographer was Bruce Percy, and is a choice I would fully support. Absolutely one of the best around at the moment, and definitely worth looking at his web site - see https://www.brucepercy.co.uk/
Shared work
We ended with a number of our group showing their images drawn together over this last year. There was definitely some nice work and certainly definite signs of significant improvement over the year. Let's keep it going.
and finally
we mentioned a couple of exhibitions that are now open for entry
Also the London Salon of Photography Exhibition is on show at the Burt Gallery opening 11 July, I'll try to organise a trip to visit.
Our discussion slot this week was a bit left field. I introduced the book 'Bounce' by Matthew Syed and asked if there were any lessons we could learn that were relevant to improving our photography. 'Bounce' addresses the question of where high performance comes from, whether this is all down to natural talent, or if something else going on. Syed argued, with many supporting examples drawn particularly from sport, and music, that there is no such thing as natural talent, and that the major determinants of performance were 1) hours of focused practice (the 10,000 hour rule), 2) opportunity, often in the form of good luck at a young age, that directed a development path towards high performance, and 3) the learned ability to identify patterns (eg the example of receiving a high speed serve in tennis). It seems this line of thought also appears in other books, eg' Outliers', or 'The talent myth'. Our discussion cast doubt on whether talent could be so easily explained, with other factors being thrown into the mix such as motivation, single mindedness, having a target to achieve.
So are there lessons to be learned for our photography? I think we agreed that there are, and they all have to do with 1) working in a determined way towards a target (call this practice, focus, or motivation), 2) opportunity - put yourself into positions where you might get lucky, and 3) and this is one that surprised me, that by looking at the work of other photographers we actually learn to recognise clues in a location that are likely to produce a 'good' images, 'good' being defined in the way that we choose to define it, by our own standards, because there are no absolutes.
I'm sure the world is more complex than this, but I think there are lessons here, and just maybe these will help direct our photography onto better things.
Wildlife and Landscape Photography - Peter Whitehead
Peter gave us a talk on two of his favourite photographers, one wild life and the other Landscape.
The wildlife photographer was Chris Packham. I was a little surprised at this choice, but Peter justified his selection by giving more detail on Chris' background. Chris not only has an encyclopedic knowledge of wildlife, he was also trained as a wildlife photographer and practised as such in his early career. Peter has met Chris on Wildlife workshops and can vouch for his skills and his ability in finding the shot that everyone else seems to miss. A good choice.
Peter's Landscape photographer was Bruce Percy, and is a choice I would fully support. Absolutely one of the best around at the moment, and definitely worth looking at his web site - see https://www.brucepercy.co.uk/
Shared work
We ended with a number of our group showing their images drawn together over this last year. There was definitely some nice work and certainly definite signs of significant improvement over the year. Let's keep it going.
and finally
we mentioned a couple of exhibitions that are now open for entry
- the PAGB 'Masters of Print' - PAGB masters of print | The Photographic Alliance of Great Britain
- the Monochrome Awards Monochrome Photography Awards - International Black and White Photography Contest - Home
- Landscape Photographer of the Year Take a view - Landscape Photographer of the Year
Also the London Salon of Photography Exhibition is on show at the Burt Gallery opening 11 July, I'll try to organise a trip to visit.
24th April 2018
14 lessons Elliott Erwitt has taught me about street photography
This is another article by Eric Kim. But firstly, if you're not familiar with Elliot Erwitt, see Magnum Photos Photographer Portfolio Well worth a look. We picked out a couple of the 14 lessons which seemed more important or relevant.
- Don't plan too much. Be a 'Flaneur' , i.e. someone who walks around a little aimlessly, and lets the photographs find them. This spontaneity seems to go against the idea we discussed last time by Guy Tal which argued for more planning and previsualisation. Horses for courses, I guess. I can understand both. I'm definitely moving towards the previsualisation end of the spectrum
- Don't take things too seriously. Its all a bit of fun. Erwitt is well know for the humour he brings to his photos, especially with the dogs.
- Focus on content over composition. This generated some discussion. Content meaning an interesting subject (fighting tigers rather than sleeping mice) whereas composition has to do with line and form, aesthetics and beauty. James challenges the whole idea by saying they can't be distinguished. I think it varies by genre. I can see the distinction working for street photography, portrait, sport and wildlife, maybe less so for 'fine arty' images. .
- Work on your skills of observation. I think we all agreed with this one and felt it was something Erwitt was very good at. But having said that there was a sense that he saw particular types of composition and looked out for them, eg, the juxtapositions, (image of heron and standing tap), faces being obscured (image of dog on lap of owner), use of mirrors (image of couple kissing seen in car wing mirror). He clearly has a set of templates that work for him Good idea?
- Make a book(s). Again, I think we all agreed with this one. It certainly strikes a cord with me, and is always on my new years resolution list.
Sandra Roeken
David introduced us to an interesting fine art photographer, Sandra Roeken. Sandra produces some very atmospheric images that have been significantly enhanced in Photoshop by use of textured layers and colour adjustments. See her work on Art Finder here (including before and after images) https://www.artfinder.com/sandra-roeken#/! , or examples here sandra roeken photography - Google Search
Thanks David, we look forward to seeing some of yours.
Gavin Hoey
Torben gave us a whistle stop tour of the prolific Gavin Hoey. Torben is a great fan of Gavin, and understandably so. Gavin is particularly well known for his instruction videos which can be found here on Adorama: https://www.adorama.com/alc/host/gavin-hoey or here on YouTube Gavin Hoey
And finally
We looked though acceptances on the web sites of various exhibitions, including the London Salon (where I've just learned I have two acceptances this year - very pleased). It really worthwhile reviewing these exhibition images. I'm sure it helps expand our visual awareness and open us up to new ideas and inspiration - and that's what we're all about in the ESIG.
This is another article by Eric Kim. But firstly, if you're not familiar with Elliot Erwitt, see Magnum Photos Photographer Portfolio Well worth a look. We picked out a couple of the 14 lessons which seemed more important or relevant.
- Don't plan too much. Be a 'Flaneur' , i.e. someone who walks around a little aimlessly, and lets the photographs find them. This spontaneity seems to go against the idea we discussed last time by Guy Tal which argued for more planning and previsualisation. Horses for courses, I guess. I can understand both. I'm definitely moving towards the previsualisation end of the spectrum
- Don't take things too seriously. Its all a bit of fun. Erwitt is well know for the humour he brings to his photos, especially with the dogs.
- Focus on content over composition. This generated some discussion. Content meaning an interesting subject (fighting tigers rather than sleeping mice) whereas composition has to do with line and form, aesthetics and beauty. James challenges the whole idea by saying they can't be distinguished. I think it varies by genre. I can see the distinction working for street photography, portrait, sport and wildlife, maybe less so for 'fine arty' images. .
- Work on your skills of observation. I think we all agreed with this one and felt it was something Erwitt was very good at. But having said that there was a sense that he saw particular types of composition and looked out for them, eg, the juxtapositions, (image of heron and standing tap), faces being obscured (image of dog on lap of owner), use of mirrors (image of couple kissing seen in car wing mirror). He clearly has a set of templates that work for him Good idea?
- Make a book(s). Again, I think we all agreed with this one. It certainly strikes a cord with me, and is always on my new years resolution list.
Sandra Roeken
David introduced us to an interesting fine art photographer, Sandra Roeken. Sandra produces some very atmospheric images that have been significantly enhanced in Photoshop by use of textured layers and colour adjustments. See her work on Art Finder here (including before and after images) https://www.artfinder.com/sandra-roeken#/! , or examples here sandra roeken photography - Google Search
Thanks David, we look forward to seeing some of yours.
Gavin Hoey
Torben gave us a whistle stop tour of the prolific Gavin Hoey. Torben is a great fan of Gavin, and understandably so. Gavin is particularly well known for his instruction videos which can be found here on Adorama: https://www.adorama.com/alc/host/gavin-hoey or here on YouTube Gavin Hoey
And finally
We looked though acceptances on the web sites of various exhibitions, including the London Salon (where I've just learned I have two acceptances this year - very pleased). It really worthwhile reviewing these exhibition images. I'm sure it helps expand our visual awareness and open us up to new ideas and inspiration - and that's what we're all about in the ESIG.
27th March 2018
The Guy Tal article got us thinking on a higher plane. Do we have, or should we have a concept in mind when we take a photograph? Guy argues that we should buts adds that this has nothing to do with technique or composition, but is all about being clear on what we wish to communicate in the photograph. The alternative being to take an image that may have visual impact, but has nothing to say. Umm tough one. This argument certainly can claim the intellectual high ground but how does this work in practice, and does it apply to all photographs we take? I think the views of the group were mixed, and if I were to summarise I'd say we agreed, but not for all images.
Like so many things, it all depends. We could write a whole essay on this. Creating visually beautiful images is not to be dismissed, its a very worthwhile thing to do. And if we wish to communicate then the communication itself must be about something worth communicating. Just saying something trivial doesn't really count. It seems to me that all photographs should have impact, otherwise they will be quickly passed over. Its a real bonus if they also communicate something of interest.
Actually I'd like to replace the word 'Concept' in Guy's article with 'Intent'. I think 'intent' provides far more focus and direction .... or maybe I'm just playing with words.
This discussion led neatly into Iain's presentation and video interview with the urban photographer Nick Turpin and the 'Night Bus' series. See Nick turpin night bus - Google Search I think we all were impressed with the beauty of the images taken through a steamed up window of the night bus of people journeying home from work. They were visually exciting, impressionistic in style, but they also communicated something about people's behaviour. Nick said in the interview he takes images of 'the way we live our lives'. This seems to me to provide a direction for his photography, the 'concept' in Guy Tal's terms. I was also struck by something he said about how, as the project evolved, it became a study of behaviour in that short period of time when people are neither at work or at home, in a kind of in between state, alone but with others. Often working on a project in such a focused way reveals insights that could not have been seen at the start.
Anyway, enough of this airy fairy stuff.....
In the second half of the meeting I was pleased to see more of you clocking up exhibition acceptances and some of you within touching distance of obtaining the BPE1 award. Excellent progress over the year.
And finally the images shown by Torben from the PAGB print final, and also the acceptances from one of the exhibitions gave us a good feel for the variety and quality of subject matter that gets accepted into exhibitions. Seeing these will over time definitely improve our own perception and judgement and unavoidably influence our own photography.
Like so many things, it all depends. We could write a whole essay on this. Creating visually beautiful images is not to be dismissed, its a very worthwhile thing to do. And if we wish to communicate then the communication itself must be about something worth communicating. Just saying something trivial doesn't really count. It seems to me that all photographs should have impact, otherwise they will be quickly passed over. Its a real bonus if they also communicate something of interest.
Actually I'd like to replace the word 'Concept' in Guy's article with 'Intent'. I think 'intent' provides far more focus and direction .... or maybe I'm just playing with words.
This discussion led neatly into Iain's presentation and video interview with the urban photographer Nick Turpin and the 'Night Bus' series. See Nick turpin night bus - Google Search I think we all were impressed with the beauty of the images taken through a steamed up window of the night bus of people journeying home from work. They were visually exciting, impressionistic in style, but they also communicated something about people's behaviour. Nick said in the interview he takes images of 'the way we live our lives'. This seems to me to provide a direction for his photography, the 'concept' in Guy Tal's terms. I was also struck by something he said about how, as the project evolved, it became a study of behaviour in that short period of time when people are neither at work or at home, in a kind of in between state, alone but with others. Often working on a project in such a focused way reveals insights that could not have been seen at the start.
Anyway, enough of this airy fairy stuff.....
In the second half of the meeting I was pleased to see more of you clocking up exhibition acceptances and some of you within touching distance of obtaining the BPE1 award. Excellent progress over the year.
And finally the images shown by Torben from the PAGB print final, and also the acceptances from one of the exhibitions gave us a good feel for the variety and quality of subject matter that gets accepted into exhibitions. Seeing these will over time definitely improve our own perception and judgement and unavoidably influence our own photography.
27th February 2018
Martin Parr
Our look at Martin Parr left most of us a bit baffled. He attracts such great international acclaim, but as a group we struggled to understand most of his images. What is it that we don't 'get'? The answer has something to do with what he is sets out to do with his photography compared to ourselves. He's a social documentary photographer. He seems to focus on class differences, setting out to record ans exaggerate people's behaviour. I found a quote of his saying that over the years his photography has evolved ' from from romantic nostalgia to social criticism'. I didn't find any reference to the aesthetics of the images, so no pretty pictures. He works in a different 'bubble' to club photographers. There's a nice interview with him which throws some light onto this. See Ordinary lives, extraordinary photographs
However, I thought the '10 things to learn from Martin Parr' was relevant to us. I particularly picked up on 1) working in sets of images, which is really how Parr's work should be viewed, 2) making a statement with our image. For Parr, this is statement about society, but the point raises the question of whether our own images have a statement to make. Worth thinking about. 3) Be Obsessive, take lots of photos, good ones are hard to come by, and 4) find the extraordinary in the ordinary (I like this thought). If you're interested in comparing Parr with other recognised street photographers try googling the following. Some big names from the past: Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Brassai, Bill Brandt, and the most famous of all Cartier Bresson. Current day: Dougie Wallace, Nick Turpin.
Thanks to Vaughn for suggesting and leading the session, and David for providing support.
Peter Wilson
Peter described the project he is currently working on in his home studio. Following success in the last competition with the 'Film Noir' style gangster image, Peter is now creating similarly styled image of 'The Deadline' showing a newspaper editor working at his desk with the deadline just minutes away. What is impressive is the single minded focus Peter has applied in creating the one image, working over the last month on lighting set up and sourcing period props. Well done Peter.
Exhibition successes
I was really encouraged by the number of members that have taken up the challenge of entering the BPE and FIAP exhibitions, and the number of acceptances that have been gained. Excellent. There were clearly some images that always got accepted, some that never did, and a large group in the middle that some times did and some times didn't. (I think Martin Parr would be in the 'never did' group, but he works in a different 'bubble'!). REQUEST: could you please send a copy of all your acceptances and the exhibition to James (j.cooke@ntlworld.com) to be included on the web site. I want other members to see what we're achieving, and to create a record we can track over time.
Fantastic Light
Finally we looked at, and added to the images put forward for the next round of the CCOTY competition where the subject is 'Fantastic Light' We acted as selectors and called out our scores and I think there was a kind of consensus on our preferences. The selection committee meets at the end of this week. Fingers crossed for a good result.
Our look at Martin Parr left most of us a bit baffled. He attracts such great international acclaim, but as a group we struggled to understand most of his images. What is it that we don't 'get'? The answer has something to do with what he is sets out to do with his photography compared to ourselves. He's a social documentary photographer. He seems to focus on class differences, setting out to record ans exaggerate people's behaviour. I found a quote of his saying that over the years his photography has evolved ' from from romantic nostalgia to social criticism'. I didn't find any reference to the aesthetics of the images, so no pretty pictures. He works in a different 'bubble' to club photographers. There's a nice interview with him which throws some light onto this. See Ordinary lives, extraordinary photographs
However, I thought the '10 things to learn from Martin Parr' was relevant to us. I particularly picked up on 1) working in sets of images, which is really how Parr's work should be viewed, 2) making a statement with our image. For Parr, this is statement about society, but the point raises the question of whether our own images have a statement to make. Worth thinking about. 3) Be Obsessive, take lots of photos, good ones are hard to come by, and 4) find the extraordinary in the ordinary (I like this thought). If you're interested in comparing Parr with other recognised street photographers try googling the following. Some big names from the past: Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Brassai, Bill Brandt, and the most famous of all Cartier Bresson. Current day: Dougie Wallace, Nick Turpin.
Thanks to Vaughn for suggesting and leading the session, and David for providing support.
Peter Wilson
Peter described the project he is currently working on in his home studio. Following success in the last competition with the 'Film Noir' style gangster image, Peter is now creating similarly styled image of 'The Deadline' showing a newspaper editor working at his desk with the deadline just minutes away. What is impressive is the single minded focus Peter has applied in creating the one image, working over the last month on lighting set up and sourcing period props. Well done Peter.
Exhibition successes
I was really encouraged by the number of members that have taken up the challenge of entering the BPE and FIAP exhibitions, and the number of acceptances that have been gained. Excellent. There were clearly some images that always got accepted, some that never did, and a large group in the middle that some times did and some times didn't. (I think Martin Parr would be in the 'never did' group, but he works in a different 'bubble'!). REQUEST: could you please send a copy of all your acceptances and the exhibition to James (j.cooke@ntlworld.com) to be included on the web site. I want other members to see what we're achieving, and to create a record we can track over time.
Fantastic Light
Finally we looked at, and added to the images put forward for the next round of the CCOTY competition where the subject is 'Fantastic Light' We acted as selectors and called out our scores and I think there was a kind of consensus on our preferences. The selection committee meets at the end of this week. Fingers crossed for a good result.
30th January 2018
For those that were unable to attend we spent the evening acting as a selection committee for next week's Border Skirmish and the forthcoming CACC competition. We looked at all the prints submitted my members, grouped them by individual, and 'held back' one or two from each to go forward to final selection. In every sense we were acting like judges and were faced with all the decisions and choices that judges face. Except we were able to discuss and share what we thought, and compare notes.
I thought a number of things emerged during the evening and provided good lessons for us all:
Firstly it was interesting how it was easy to comment on some images, good and bad, because there was so much to say. I'm thinking of Richard Gibbs' 'The Conversation', Peter Wilson's 'Gangster' (can't remember correct name) and Peter Whitehead's tiger, but there were other examples. Comments came out thick and fast. But for other images they just didn't. For some there was all but silence. And whilst its hard to define exactly why that was we can all recognise images that fall into either category. We as individuals, immediately respond to an image and make a judgement on them, either clearly good or not so good, like it or don't like it, and find them easy to comment on. Others fall some where in the middle, neither good or bad, and constructive comments are harder to find. I exaggerate bit but you see my point. But understanding this does help with our own work. Its also interesting that its not always easy to make that judgement about our own images. We get so wrapped up in them that we sometimes can't see what they really are. Maybe that's why some photographers make their images, and then leave untouched for a month before coming back to them.
The other thing I noticed was that not everyone liked, or disliked the same images. When we were voting to select an image rarely did we get more than half the group in favour, and usually it was less (there were exceptions). What does this tell us? Well for me it says that there is no objective measure of what makes a good or bad image, or a better or worse image. There are some pretty strong fundamentals - clear subjects, strong compositions, impact etc, - but assuming these are in place, there is still great variability in what one person prefers compared with another. Its down to our individual way of seeing. How can you objectively compare between a wild life image. a portrait, a landscape, or a street shot. Can't do it. This is why different judges can score the same image so differently.
And then at the end of the evening Peter Wilson opened up the whole subject of whether we are taking images to please the judges or to please ourselves. To answer this by saying we do it to please ourselves, for our own self expression, takes the moral high ground. But I think its more complex. We all like to do well in life, we all like to win when we can, and we all like to earn the respect of our peers. Winning competitions or getting acceptances at exhibitions plays into this. Where you sit on the scale between pure self expression or 'win at all costs' is a personal choice. I suspect most of us sit somewhere in the middle. Trying to please the judges is a risky approach but might just have the unforeseen consequence of encouraging new approaches to photography. Alternatively it might stop you finding your own way of doing things. The choice is yours.
Anyway, I hope you at least enjoyed the evening and took away something that will help shape and even improve your photography.
A couple more exhibition dates for you:
Southampton Closes 4th Feb http://www.southamptoninternationalexhibition.co.uk/ .This is a FIAP exhibition
Cheltenham Closes 2nd April . Cheltenham International Salon of Photography 2018 . This is also FIAP
London Salon Closes 15th April 2018 Entry Information - The London Salon of Photography . This is an independent exhibition and has a different feel from BPE or FIAP. Take a look at past acceptances. Prints only and very prestigious.
The next ESIG will be on 27th February. I'll send out an email reminder beforehand, which hopefully this time you will all receive.
I thought a number of things emerged during the evening and provided good lessons for us all:
Firstly it was interesting how it was easy to comment on some images, good and bad, because there was so much to say. I'm thinking of Richard Gibbs' 'The Conversation', Peter Wilson's 'Gangster' (can't remember correct name) and Peter Whitehead's tiger, but there were other examples. Comments came out thick and fast. But for other images they just didn't. For some there was all but silence. And whilst its hard to define exactly why that was we can all recognise images that fall into either category. We as individuals, immediately respond to an image and make a judgement on them, either clearly good or not so good, like it or don't like it, and find them easy to comment on. Others fall some where in the middle, neither good or bad, and constructive comments are harder to find. I exaggerate bit but you see my point. But understanding this does help with our own work. Its also interesting that its not always easy to make that judgement about our own images. We get so wrapped up in them that we sometimes can't see what they really are. Maybe that's why some photographers make their images, and then leave untouched for a month before coming back to them.
The other thing I noticed was that not everyone liked, or disliked the same images. When we were voting to select an image rarely did we get more than half the group in favour, and usually it was less (there were exceptions). What does this tell us? Well for me it says that there is no objective measure of what makes a good or bad image, or a better or worse image. There are some pretty strong fundamentals - clear subjects, strong compositions, impact etc, - but assuming these are in place, there is still great variability in what one person prefers compared with another. Its down to our individual way of seeing. How can you objectively compare between a wild life image. a portrait, a landscape, or a street shot. Can't do it. This is why different judges can score the same image so differently.
And then at the end of the evening Peter Wilson opened up the whole subject of whether we are taking images to please the judges or to please ourselves. To answer this by saying we do it to please ourselves, for our own self expression, takes the moral high ground. But I think its more complex. We all like to do well in life, we all like to win when we can, and we all like to earn the respect of our peers. Winning competitions or getting acceptances at exhibitions plays into this. Where you sit on the scale between pure self expression or 'win at all costs' is a personal choice. I suspect most of us sit somewhere in the middle. Trying to please the judges is a risky approach but might just have the unforeseen consequence of encouraging new approaches to photography. Alternatively it might stop you finding your own way of doing things. The choice is yours.
Anyway, I hope you at least enjoyed the evening and took away something that will help shape and even improve your photography.
A couple more exhibition dates for you:
Southampton Closes 4th Feb http://www.southamptoninternationalexhibition.co.uk/ .This is a FIAP exhibition
Cheltenham Closes 2nd April . Cheltenham International Salon of Photography 2018 . This is also FIAP
London Salon Closes 15th April 2018 Entry Information - The London Salon of Photography . This is an independent exhibition and has a different feel from BPE or FIAP. Take a look at past acceptances. Prints only and very prestigious.
The next ESIG will be on 27th February. I'll send out an email reminder beforehand, which hopefully this time you will all receive.
28th November 2017
A few jottings from our meeting earlier this week:
1. We shared our views on what makes a 'good' image, but prefaced our discussion with two important points. Firstly, we challenged whether this is even a valid question ask. If art could be defined so easily then we'd all know about it and we'd all be taking great photographs. So we all agreed that it can't be but there are at least some good working practices that are likely to work well and would be worth trying to express. Secondly, what is regarded as a 'good' photograph depends on where it is being shown. In the camera club world there is definitely a 'type' of image that does well, but move outside, to say the contemporary galleries and the work is completely different. The camera club world is largely about visual impact, whereas contemporary photography is more about the message being conveyed. We illustrated this by comparing the 'People' award winners from the Winchester National Exhibition with the portraits in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Awards - chalk and cheese. This is also true even within the enthusiast photographic world. Compare the BPE/FIAP exhibition entries with say The London Salon. There is a distinct difference in style. And even between the RPS International Print Exhibition and the RPS International Projected Image exhibition. You would have thought these would be similar but the prints exhibition is more like what you would see in a contemporary gallery, and the dpi more like the BPE/FIAP exhibitions. So the message is .... you've got to know your market.
So, what emerged from our discussion. The image characteristics we identified which help stack the odds in our favour are:
2. I challenged you all to enter one of the BPE/FIAP exhibitions and fingers crossed, get accepted. Some of you agreed willingly, some a bit reluctantly. But I encourage all of you to have a go. Peter Whitehead asked whether it is allowed to enter the same image in different exhibitions and it most certainly is.
Here's the link to the BPE exhibition list (http://www.britishphotographicexhibitions.org.uk/index.php/list-of-exhibitions), and here's the FIAP (http://patronages.fiap.net/salons.html). These aren't always completely up to date, so link through the the actually exhibition site to be sure
3. We showed our images and discussed them all at length- a useful process from which we all gain.
Dries' image of New York prompted me the think of Julia Anna Gospodarou - see Julia Anna Gospodarou Black and White Fine Art Photography - they are striking. Also Gill's image of the cat made me think of Tim Flach annimal studies, also stunning - see Tim Flach . Please take a look.
Our next meeting will now be on 30 January next year, so plenty of time to think about our work and come up with some new, or reworked images.
1. We shared our views on what makes a 'good' image, but prefaced our discussion with two important points. Firstly, we challenged whether this is even a valid question ask. If art could be defined so easily then we'd all know about it and we'd all be taking great photographs. So we all agreed that it can't be but there are at least some good working practices that are likely to work well and would be worth trying to express. Secondly, what is regarded as a 'good' photograph depends on where it is being shown. In the camera club world there is definitely a 'type' of image that does well, but move outside, to say the contemporary galleries and the work is completely different. The camera club world is largely about visual impact, whereas contemporary photography is more about the message being conveyed. We illustrated this by comparing the 'People' award winners from the Winchester National Exhibition with the portraits in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Awards - chalk and cheese. This is also true even within the enthusiast photographic world. Compare the BPE/FIAP exhibition entries with say The London Salon. There is a distinct difference in style. And even between the RPS International Print Exhibition and the RPS International Projected Image exhibition. You would have thought these would be similar but the prints exhibition is more like what you would see in a contemporary gallery, and the dpi more like the BPE/FIAP exhibitions. So the message is .... you've got to know your market.
So, what emerged from our discussion. The image characteristics we identified which help stack the odds in our favour are:
- Having a clear subject, so the viewer knows where to look
- Lighting which plays a key role, be this strong and dramatic or soft and subtle
- Subject interest. The more interesting or unusual the subject the more likely it is to be liked - remember the lady with the cigar.
- Lines and shapes - diagonal lines create energy, horizontal or vertical lines create calmness
- Eyes are always important in portraits
- Balance is important, whether this be size and shapes or objects, colour across the image, or light/dark tones.
2. I challenged you all to enter one of the BPE/FIAP exhibitions and fingers crossed, get accepted. Some of you agreed willingly, some a bit reluctantly. But I encourage all of you to have a go. Peter Whitehead asked whether it is allowed to enter the same image in different exhibitions and it most certainly is.
Here's the link to the BPE exhibition list (http://www.britishphotographicexhibitions.org.uk/index.php/list-of-exhibitions), and here's the FIAP (http://patronages.fiap.net/salons.html). These aren't always completely up to date, so link through the the actually exhibition site to be sure
3. We showed our images and discussed them all at length- a useful process from which we all gain.
Dries' image of New York prompted me the think of Julia Anna Gospodarou - see Julia Anna Gospodarou Black and White Fine Art Photography - they are striking. Also Gill's image of the cat made me think of Tim Flach annimal studies, also stunning - see Tim Flach . Please take a look.
Our next meeting will now be on 30 January next year, so plenty of time to think about our work and come up with some new, or reworked images.
31st October 2017
We had a good discussion about the Rafael Rojas paper and what happens after we all become 'Universal Photographers'. Dries has since sent me a link which gives a related argument - see https://fstoppers.com/education/theres-more-life-photographic-technical-perfection-201691 . Also Iain showed us the work of three photographers all of which gained approving nods from us.
The links to the web sites are here:
www.UMBERTOVERDOLIVA.it
www.photomichaelwolf.com
www.aleksykondratyev.com
And now a challenge ...... Your Club needs you!
I mentioned at the end of the meeting that it wouldn't take much to significantly improve our performance in the external competitions we enter as a club. We have been doing better than we might reasonably expect by getting into the finals of major competitions, but then we end up somewhere in the middle or the bottom half of the results. So we need a way of 'upping our game. The members of ESIG represent the most likely members of HPS to deliver on this. So I invite you to actively work on producing images that are of exhibition standard. Don't be shy, this is a journey I want to take you on, and I see this as being entirely consistent with our parallel aim of improving our own personal photography, they go hand in hand.
I plan to find time at each ESIG meeting to review potential exhibition images, so please bring along your work to share and for us to discuss. Try to produce something for every meeting. The usual types of image that appear in exhibitions are well known to us - People (Street, Studio, Portrait,), Landscape, Sport, Natural History, 'digital art', but anything goes. Also think about entering this work into the BPE or FIAP exhibitions and share the results (links to the list of exhibitions are on the ESIG page of the HPS web site - Exhibitions).
The following links are examples of accepted images in recent BPE exhibitions and are good indication of the standard we need to aim for:
Winchester WNE Galleries Page 2017 - Winchester Photographic Society
Dingwall Dingwall Camera Club | Dingwall 2017
The links to the web sites are here:
www.UMBERTOVERDOLIVA.it
www.photomichaelwolf.com
www.aleksykondratyev.com
And now a challenge ...... Your Club needs you!
I mentioned at the end of the meeting that it wouldn't take much to significantly improve our performance in the external competitions we enter as a club. We have been doing better than we might reasonably expect by getting into the finals of major competitions, but then we end up somewhere in the middle or the bottom half of the results. So we need a way of 'upping our game. The members of ESIG represent the most likely members of HPS to deliver on this. So I invite you to actively work on producing images that are of exhibition standard. Don't be shy, this is a journey I want to take you on, and I see this as being entirely consistent with our parallel aim of improving our own personal photography, they go hand in hand.
I plan to find time at each ESIG meeting to review potential exhibition images, so please bring along your work to share and for us to discuss. Try to produce something for every meeting. The usual types of image that appear in exhibitions are well known to us - People (Street, Studio, Portrait,), Landscape, Sport, Natural History, 'digital art', but anything goes. Also think about entering this work into the BPE or FIAP exhibitions and share the results (links to the list of exhibitions are on the ESIG page of the HPS web site - Exhibitions).
The following links are examples of accepted images in recent BPE exhibitions and are good indication of the standard we need to aim for:
Winchester WNE Galleries Page 2017 - Winchester Photographic Society
Dingwall Dingwall Camera Club | Dingwall 2017