Norfolk...

It was not all birds when I was down on the beach. This is a view towards Brancaster just after dawn.

Dunlin - Titchwell

It was a long day yesterday but the photographs are starting to make it worth it. The main idea behind yesterday was not to capture images as such - although this was very important - rather it was to reconnoitre the whole area and check my equipment for the winter ahead. Some very interesting and useful information was gathered and this will be feed into the planning. As for the photographs I have started to work on them and so far they have been encouraging - whether any will make it into the final selection is another question. Still a great day out on the beach.

Windswept...

I have just arrived back from a very windy north Norfolk coast. The usual early start ensured that I got to the Titchwell reserve just after dawn. It was wonderful to have the beach all to myself for an hour or so. The reason for the visit was to build up more images for my ARPS submission - Birds of the British Coast. I also wanted to see if I could capture an Avoset - which I managed to do.

Now lets hope the resultant photographs were worth the early start and damp bum!

Working through the back catalogue...what to do about FlickR?...

I have been working through the huge number of images I never developed into photographs from my recent visit to Pembrokeshire. It is fascinating to revisit these images - even after such a short amount of time has passed - and realise that one views the images in a different light. I seem to be going through a sunset on the beach phase at the moment. I have not found a better place for sunsets than St Brides Bay. I am sure there is a perfectly rational reason for this but the sunsets are superb.

Now onto FlickR. I really don't know how to progress this. I wanted this to be a cheap and simple way to bring my work to a wider audience and to a degree this has worked. However, there is something missing and I am not sure what. Whilst it is nice to get feedback from other photographers it just leave me feeling a little empty and unsatisfied with the whole experience. I am sure that I am not doing certain things right. I need to work out exactly what I want to do with FlickR but this is the problem - I don't really know what this is. More frustrations.

pause for thought....

I hate waiting...my wife says I have no patience and she is right I don't. The reason why I mention this is because I am waiting on the results of two submissions I have made to two different competitions - the British Wildlife Awards and the Projected Image. I have mentioned both of these before but I don't know why but waiting for the results from both submissions is driving me nuts. I know I have been short listed for wildlife awards - but that doesn't mean anything. Will I be selected or rejected? The same goes for the Projected Image. I just can't concentrate on doing anything other than worrying about these two submissions - its driving me nuts!!!!

On a slightly connected note I was going to attend a one day garden photography course run by the RPS at Kew Gardens in September. However, this has been cancelled - lack of numbers so I decided to get a refund on my train tickets. They don't do refunds so I have slightly changed my travel times and will spend the day going around galleries etc. I'm still working on an itinerary but there looks like a lot of interesting exhibitions so it should be an interesting day out. So what is the connection you might ask? Will I am thinking about entering the garden photographer of the year competition and this was going to help. Another frustration.

What this has meant is that I have had little inspiration to take any photographs so I have spent my time catching up - something I have written about earlier. The photograph above is the result of this catching up.

Two things...

The mysterious Canon 3D - I believe its was used at Roswell

No 1.

I was playing around with the settings in Lightroom this morning and changed the settings for the 'automatically write changes to XMP'. As a result of this when I ran the back up program it detected changes to all my images and so proceeded to back all of them up - that is over 36k of images! Now if this is only a one off then I can live with this but if it happens every time I go to back up photographs/images then I will have to uncheck the option and slap myself on the wrist and stand on the naughty step.

No 2.

I never cease to be amazed at people. I drop into the DPReview forums from time to time just to see what is happening. I must say it does get depressing. I usually just visit the 'Canon EOS-1D / 1Ds / 5D Forum' to see if there is any interesting information to pick up. Inevitably it boils down to baseless rumours about the next Canon release, usually backed up by doctored photographs of a Canon camera with a new model number added - see Canon 3D above or some slanging match or another about some minor point or another. Now I am all for free speech and I am aware that what I write/think is mainly a maudlin collection of inane observations but I just wonder at what drives people to circulate such rumours or get so agitated about some minor infraction/different view. I just wonder how the main contributors to such forums find the time to contribute to the forums at the rate they do and make photographs. If you are wondering why I haven't posted such views - well I have and got FLAMED!

Playing Catch Up...

Seahouses

One of the advantages of not feeling up to much is that it does give you time to catch up with work you have been putting off and off. Well I have been wading through my back catalogue to see what I might have missed/not got round to working on. The three photographs are the product of this work.

Seahouses

Whitethroat - Narborough

Low energy...

Oh great plans....well I am not sure what is wrong with me at the moment but I have lost all my energy. It came to head a couple of days ago when I was out walking only to find that all my energy just vanish. It became so bad that my wife had to come and pick me up. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this is that I have got a lot of things I want to do with my photography - I just don't have the energy to do any of these things.

To make matters even worse I look out on three healthy landscape gardeners working hard in the hot sun. If only I had some of their energy!

The first results...

I have finished making the first few photographs from this morning's shoot and the results are encouraging. I am a little rusty and many of the images weren't framed correctly, leaving me with many deer with their legs chopped off! Not a significant problem and easily remedied. On the whole a good first monring's work - nothing special but nice to ease myself back into the game. Lets hope that this year's weather will be much better than last year.

Tired but happy...

So 4.30 in the minoring wasn't so bad...well sort of. As usual being out at dawn is such an uplifting thing - especially on sunny summer morning. The deer didn't disappointed and I had the herd to myself for over an hour. The usual pattern of behaviour. Just set up and sit and wait for the herd to relax and return to their morning foraging. I usually find a tussock of grass to sit on let the world revolve at its own pass. You have to be use to the smell of deer dung and wet bums if you want to work with the red deer. This is usually a small price to pay to be amongst such large animals.

As the herd settles it is the young that are the most curious - especially the young males. Today was no exception. In deed it is wonderful to watch them testing how close they dare come to this man who is just sitting there. Of course this is a herd of deer who are used to people, indeed to being photographed. You certainly couldn't do this with a truly wild herd but I wouldn't want to. This is my herd - I feel I know them just a little bit as I have spent time with them every autumn for the last 5 years.

So what of the photographs? I haven't got a clue at the moment. They looked okay in camera but that doesn't really tell you anything so I have to wait for them to upload and then start to work on them. Hopefully by the end of the day I may be able to post an example of the shoot. Fun day ahead.

Early Start...

It is getting to that time of year. The rut is on. Well that is not true the rut will not start for at lest another 6 weeks or so but I always like to pay a few early visits to Bradgate Park to see how things are devleoping. So it is an early start tomorrow - this is for two reasons:

First the light is the best and second for an hour or so there are no dogs or people in the park. Well the deer are not too bothered about the people but dogs are a different question - they will quickly disappear into the out of bound section of the park when there are dogs around. So it is an early day tomorrow which I am looking forward to - this will make a nice change of pace to making photographs of gardens and plants. Change is as good as a rest.

Slowing down...

A funny thing happened to me in the park the other day.... no this isn't the start of a corny joke but rather someone came up to me and started to talk about photography and made the throw away comment that '...got any good ones? of course you know right away now...' In one sense this is true you do get the immediate feedback as to whether a particular image is OK but to judge whether you have a good photograph is almost impossible to judge.

Take for example the photograph above, which I was making at the time the chap approached me. This is a blend of three different images. I shot a series of different exposures of the same image - perhaps a dozen in all and then choose the best three. I know this is HDR but I really am trying to keep well away from that title as this seems to involving the use of Photomatix and producing strange chromatic effects. I prefer to spend some time working out exactly which part of an image I want to blend with another to produce the final photograph. This takes time and effort but I feel it is worth it. I have total control of the process not some piece of software. So when the man made his comment about you know right away it is simply not the case. My photography is produced in the digital darkroom as much as out on the street. This takes time.

Taking time - now that is an interesting concept. I have found that that working with a tripod slows me down. I start to look and examine. I have started to switch off the auto focus as well as this makes me examine the image even more. The overall effect is that I am slowing down. Now it is worth noting that this is not the case when making natural history photographs as there is an immediacy that if not captured will not be repeated. Other images you have the time to contemplate.

Another one bites the dust...

Instructions followed, checked and rechecked. Images selected, reduced to the correct number of pixels and colour space and we are done. Another submission made for another exhibition/competition. It is very frustrating and yet at the same time quite rewarding. Now it is just a matter of chance. I have no control and just have to sit back and wait. The odds are always stacked against you but you will never get anywhere with trying and rejections is the norm but this shouldn't stop you. Well that is what I tell myself. It won't stop me feeling really dejected when the 'Dear John' arrives. Such is the life of a jobbing photographer.

Hard Work...

The past few weeks have been busy. Two photographic holidays, processing the results then selecting and entering competitions really starts to draw the creative juices out you. Well it does me anyway.

The relentless pace is keeping up. I have finally selected my photographs for the projected image exhibition submission. These need to be sent off and then the next submission - Portfolio 2 and then the Garden photography competition and then a breather. My hopes are always high but I am also realistic - these competitions are always a lottery and you have no idea whether what you have submitted is what the judges are looking for. Still this is much better than working for a living....

Disappointment and Hope...

Life is a very strange bedfellow. It smothers you with kisses and then kicks you in the balls - sometimes at the same time. I started this week feeling okay then I received my Dear John from the organisers of the Landscape Photography of the Year competition. We have all had these...its been very hard...very high standards etc..etc. You can almost hear the '...its not you its me...' line. Anyway, they rejected my submission. Much chuntering and cursing by myself.

Then this minoring - at 04:59hrs?? I received the kisses. I have been short listed for the British Wildlife Photography Awards. Now I am aware there is no guarantee that any of my photographs will make the final selection let alone win any prize but is is a positive step forward. Needless to say my spirits are very high this morning - but there is still a lot of hard work to be done. I have to ensure that the Hi Res Tiffs and their corresponding RAW files have the correct URN and then copy them onto disk and so on. So my fingers are crossed along with many other cliche I may wish to use. It's turning out to be a memorable photographic year for me - long may it continue.

Matchstick Men....

Ever since out recent trip to Berwick upon Tweed my wife has been fascinated with the work of LS Lowry. So yesterday we went up to Salford to visit the Lowry and experience the man and his work at first hand.

What to say about Lowry that has already been said? This is very difficult. Perhaps the first thing to say was that it was a dull and damp day in Greater Manchester. I think to experiance Lowry you can only do this in such conditions. His work is so much about the place, its light and its people that to view the work, say in a Miami gallery, would not really enhance them You need to feel the damp grey light seeping through you to truly understand what Lowry was painting.

The next thing to say is that I don't really like his paintings. This does not mean I don't like Lowry its just that I find this painted work to be fare less memorable than his pencil and chalk work. This thought came into my head when I was viewing 'The Lodging House' (See opposite). This is a chalk sketch made by Lowry in late 1920 and possible was used for a painting later on. I found the subtle details he was able to capture with the chalk far more interesting than the more two dimensional nature of his painting.

I was able to examine this as the sketch was along side one of his many paintings. When viewed in such a juxta position the famous ' matchstick men', Lowry's people in paintings, come alive. They are no longer 'matchstick men' but people. I found this was also the case with Lowry's pencil drawings as well. I am not sure if this is a revalation but I don't feel that Lowry was able to control the paint as well as chalk or pencil. Even when he was trying to, as in the portrait of Frank Joseph Fletcher I found the painting lacked detail of this work in other mediums.

So what does this mean? Well for a start it doesn't mean anything. Lowry is undoubtedly a very talented painter. His eye for detail is superb and he really does evoke the time and place in his painting. It just means that I find his technique leaves me wondering what might have been had he approached his work with the finer touches of sketches.

So back to the weather. I was having lunch in the restaurant at the Lowry and looking out on the people walking across the main bridge. It was raining and so they were huddling behind an umbrella but suddenly I saw the Lowry matchstick men. Gone were the dark clothing replaced by more modern colours but none the less the mixture of the elements and distance from the people gave me a sense of what Lowry may have seen all those years ago. The soot and smoke stack chimneys may be gone but the grey skies of Salford are stikll there to help you understand, in some small way, how Lowry viewed the world.