So much for doing a monthly blog. Somehow I managed to get involved in other things and photography has taken a back seat.
When I get to any of the big cities I like to visit galleries, photography preferably but as there aren’t many of those, art galleries. There is Stills in Edinburgh. Most of the time, the images encourage and inspire me but sometimes I wonder if I can ever get that perfect image. I just have to keep trying though. But I do like to exhibit my own work. Somehow it makes the journey complete. In the past I have studied how to make film and camera, how to use the camera and process the film and now I keep learning the ‘art’ of processing digital images. All this learning has to have been for some reason and making the final print by whatever means, digitally or wet printing, is almost an end in itself. However showing my work to others through exhibiting (or, these days, through social media) and receiving their comments is final. Good comments are always welcome but even criticism is welcome as it will help me improve. Or at times I accept that appreciation of an image is subjective and, if I like it enough to mount and frame it, then a bad review isn’t a problem. Well not much of one. The last two months I have spent painting in the arts centre - no, not a new creative skill, just white walls in preparation for An Talla Solais to open their old doors in Market Street to the first face to face exhibition for some time. It has been a difficult year with the pandemic and the closure of the gallery in the Caledonian Hotel. Thanks to the ‘Cale’ for hosting art for a few years but you have decided to move on and so will ATS. The members exhibition will open in mid September. Why not look out your best images and submit them for everyone to see. An Talla Solais, Ullapool https://www.antallasolais.org ATS Members Exhibition https://www.antallasolais.org/members-show All submissions must be received digitally by Thursday the 18th August. Stills, Edinburgh https://stills.org Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool https://openeye.org.uk Impressions Gallery, Bradford. https://www.impressions-gallery.com Side Photography, Newcastle https://www.amber-online.com/side-gallery/ Belfast Exposed, Belfast https://www.belfastexposed.org The Photographers’ Gallery, London https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk .
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...in the art of photography I often ask myself why I "do" photography, but perhaps the question is what does photography do for me. One of the local professional photographers here, Justine (www.justineritchie.com), is doing a series on Mindful Photography, and that made me think a bit more about my approach and how it relates to my earlier experiences.
I'll break this into three sections: A mind full of photography. With camera in hand, I quickly drift out of the realities of life and forget most of what is going on in my life. My logical (left) brain dominates as I work out all the technicalities, which camera is best, which lens, shutter speed, aperture, holding the camera steady, maybe a tripod, cable release, changing angles, depth of field, focus... There is so much to concentrate on I get lost in the technicalities and getting the best out of my subject. Nothing else matters. I had never really thought of photography as being able to take me into this zone. In earlier experiences when I was training hard at sport, my coaches would discuss Zen techniques of concentrating the mind, particularly in repetitive actions. I remember coming off a rifle range (my sport was rifle shooting) and someone commenting that I had done particularly well. Until he commented I was totally unaware of how well I had done. I had been "in the zone". Lying shooting completely unaware of the 300 other competitors or lying on my back amongst hundreds of tourists trying to get a different angle on one of Scotland's tourist hot spots, has some similarities. Mindless photography. Throwing away the rules and forgetting about that list above, the camera is the first one out of the bag and whichever settings were last used (left brain kicks in and says "HELP"). I breathe in images almost faster than I can breathe. If my brain is processing anything it would be the sound of the waves, or the green-ness of spring or the smell of damp earth. The images are more spontaneous, less ordered or controlled. (Left brain "Aye, right"). OK maybe I haven't quite got there yet, but I am beginning to trust this instinctive and slightly hap-hazard approach. The images? Well they are different although, maybe, not to everyone's taste - but that is art. I like them. The third section is much more complex. With a brain stuffed full of life and living, the camera often does't break through those barriers. Time, weather, responsibilities, health, relationships, etc etc are just as important (to me). The camera often become just a tool to record life's events. Equally I can "zone out" looking through old photos and relive some of those experiences. With a tentative link to the Ansel Adams theme of the last blog, I picked up my book on Yosemite. Among these great images is a photograph (attributed to Galen Rowell) of a climber on El Capitan. While I admire these free climbers with their minimalistic approach to climbing, the whole idea terrifies me. However I suspect that months if not years of planning and training went into the climb. Photography is, by comparison, an easy and, relatively, safe option (unless you are hanging from ropes half way up a cliff face trying to photograph a climber). But good planning and training will help when you are presented with an opportunity to create a great image. I seem to photograph feet quite a lot. That is, when I first unpack a new camera or buy a new lens or attachment, I read the manual while practising using the camera and photograph anything that is handy? - my feet, the dog, the jar of matches by the fireplace. I try the camera on every setting I can find, try holding it in landscape and portrait, change lenses, attach the cable release, flash, tripod, filters etc etc. I like to work in nature so I photograph the garden birds, flowers, butterflies and even the wee moose that lives under the raised bed. So when it is time for a photo session I am well prepared. Minimalist I am not. I usually carry two camera bodies, four lenses, four batteries, a tripod, and a set of graduated filters. So am I prepared - well not always? I was photographing wildlife, hippos, gators and birds from a canoe on a lake in Kenya. I was limited to one camera and a 400mm lens. About 30 seconds before I photographed these eagles fishing, I realised my image card was full and I didn't have another with me. I quickly deleted about ten images from earlier in the day and changed the image quality from RAW to JPG. I had made an error but lots of practise had helped me out. Hope you like the shots. Galen Rowell was a climber and photographer based in California. Tragically he and his wife, Barbara, also a photographer, were killed in a plane crash in 2002, while returning home from a workshop in Alaska. He leaves behind a series of books, mostly of mountain photography. I borrowed one of his books from the library about 15 years ago. The photography was amazing.
We live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. OK I'm biased but the Highlands of Scotland is amazing, so landscape photography should be easy. I have never found it so. This is my most successful attempt to date (limited edition now sold out). Landscape or seascape? In my youth I collected the entire Time Life Library of Photography. There is no volume on landscape photography. In a more up to date search I looked at #landscapephotoraphy on Instagram. Despite the 59 million or so images I found the results disappointing, perhaps even boring (confess I only scanned the first 20 or so pages). The approach is probably contemporary to the time of each "publication" and plays lightly with the more traditional subjects such as landscapes. The Highlands has some great exponents of the art and, locally, Angus Bruce and Chris Puddephatt consistently impress. I think that what they both illustrate is a connection to the place and a persistence to visit time and time again to get the conditions perfect for each photograph. In addition to the "connection" each of their images also exhibit great depth and a good use of light. I may have an appreciation of the need for good light and composition but I doubt I have the connection. Mine is a more fleeting relationship. I once was accused of copying a landscape by a professional photographer. The subject was a view of the Cuillin from Elgol. Indeed I did take a similar picture from the same viewpoint but many years before. If I were to try to copy any landscape I would head for Yosemite and copy Ansel Adams. I would fail of course but maybe a large format camera and one sheet of black and white film would concentrate my effort.
Hi
Welcome to my revised website. Every month I'll put up some new images so that the "Gallery" page will renew regularly. Then I'll dump previous images in a series of archives. In this way I hope the website will never get cluttered. I am still learning this new software but I hope navigation through the site will be easy enough. As I say on the "Prints" page you can purchase prints from most of the images - some have already reached their limit though I am trying to relax my style and it was great to spend a day out with the local camera club photographing fungi. Here are a few of the images.. As a first blog on a photography website you might, rightly, expect the subject to be photographic. The title would suggest otherwise. My problem is that I don't really know why I take photographs or make images. My brief history of working with wood says much more about me and, eventually, leads on to my photography.
Up until my mid forties I cannot recall even putting up a shelf although I was quite handy fixing anything mechanical. But working with wood wasn't a specific skill I could tap into. So I set about building a house. To be fair it was partly a reconstruction of an old croft house, but I designed a substantial extension to the original 1870's "design" of two rooms, one for the cow and the other for the rest of the family. The house is on the Isle of Skye and it was difficult and expensive to get contractors, so I just started myself and learned as I went along. I did everything, concreting, laying building blocks, building the timber frame, electrics and plumbing. Mostly I as on my own, although my wife of the time got used to mixing cement and heaving roofing sheets up scaffolding. Many shelves, several sheds, cupboards, spoons and picture frames later I went off square (no right angles and no straight edges) and bought a plan for a boat. Never having built a boat before I altered the plans, as one does, and the result is 'Maggie' my 12' rowing boat (named after my mum). Inspired by how well the boat came out and a painting of a boat by local artist Peter White - www.peterwhite.org - I took some photos of "Maggie" and came up with the image below. This wasn't the first image I have sold, but it was the first I saw as art. The limited edition print sold three copies at an annual members exhibition of An Talla Solais, Ullapool Visual Arts - www.antallasolais.org. So I could quote f/stop and shutter speed and the various stages of creating the image on Photoshop. Anyone can learn what these are. However what is hard to convey in a photo, or indeed any piece of art, and cannot be learned, is passion for the subject. Enjoy your photography and connect with something you are passionate about. Your photography will improve beyond your expectations. |
Neil GerrardThrough these blogs I hope to inspire you into creating better images. I'll illustrate with my own photography and link with other photographers and artists. Archives
August 2022
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