A Thirty Day Challenge
I’ve got the Tools, got the journal, got a mission and have something to play with. Let’s go……
On March 1st 2013 I started a thirty day challenge, part of a Play project created by John Williams and Selina Barker at 30 Day Challenge. This year my objective is to create new photographic material and add content to this site. Watch this space.
Day Thirty – LAUNCH DAY!!!
Day Twenty Nine
Day Twenty Eight
A Day with my wife in Londinium. Hopefully seeing a couple of exhibitions http://www.rmg.co.uk/visit/events/ansel-adams and the Roy Lichtenstein at Tate Modern http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/lichtenstein?gclid=CJT7ptb8mbYCFXDKtAodHTIAFA . And re-energising ahead of the final push towards launch.
Day in London and a chance to re-energise and relax. Visted the Ansel Adams Exhibition at the Royal Maritime Museum. In awe of his technique and vision. Then onto Borough Market, which is something I’ve always planned on doing. Now planning a revist. Lot’s of potential for “street” photography. Tate Modern, the Lichtenstein exhibition. Last time we were there was to see an exhibition by Daido Moriyama and William Klein. Took Moriyama’s advice and worked freely. Several images ensued as a result. Including one dynamic one on the escalator. Captured a couple of guys “chimping” on Charing Cross Bridge. “Chimping” is a photographers term for pressing the shutter and then looking at the screen on the back of the camera, then onto Oxford Street. Ended with a pic of an Eames Chair in M&S. Excellent Day. Now to launch my 30 Day Challenge.
Day Twenty Seven
Day Twenty Six
Glimpses of Korea images to edit today and put into an album. Watch this space…..
Day Twenty Five
Aargh, only five days until LAUNCHDAY. Still have a few things to do to create a platform for me to continue building the site. Posted a small Album of images from my Jazz archive today, that can be seen here. Still much to be done, including adding Photo Albums to several pages together with introductory text. Also had an email from Freddy the artist who featured in an earlier post, which I shall be updating. Scroll down to Days 13 & 15 for an explanation.
Day Twenty Four
Last checkin regarding what I’ve achieved during the past week. Didn’t go out on a photo recce today as I planned to spend time with my wife.
Day Twenty Three
Just wrote a post and didn’t update it, damn. Another Saturday, another journey. Following on from the previous week I had the desire to pursue the creative opportunities for the documentation of the journey. I quite liked the idea of doing something with road markings, which normally look plain and mundane but become more graphic when the camera captures a fleeting moment in time which the eye doesn’t normally register.
no images were found
Day Twenty Two
Day Twenty One
Full of plans today but seem to have hit a slump. Ventured out to try and get inspired but too apathetic to process the digital files at the moment. Think it’s sleep deprivation. Work up very early today and had a head full of ideas, questions to ask but rapidly went downhill. Oh well maybe tomorrow when I’lkl process the files and post an update for today.
Day Twenty
Day Nineteen
Hooray, 30DC Meetup in Londinium. Also planning to view an exhibition at Somerset House http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/landmark-the-fields-of-photography
Who’d ever think that a lift could offer photographic potential? I visited the Photographers Gallery before I embarked on a tour of London looking for things to catch my eye. Have to keep in practise!
no images were found
no images were found
Day Eighteen
No Photo today, mind on other things. But London tomorrow, must be full of opportunities!
Day Seventeen
A day of rest. Not even a pint of Guinness to celebrate St. Patrick’s day. And no photographs to share.
Day Sixteen
Over half way and another day in Hampshire. And to cap it all England lost 30-3 to Wales.
Day Fifteen
Still no word from Freddy, the artist, and curious to see the finished artwork, I ventured out. Now I just have to translate Shorthand. Pitman’s to be precise. There’s irony for you.
And finally! Freddy tells me this reads “I wish shorthand was this big”. He goes on to say “I came about it when first approaching my exam project ‘Celebrating Sir Isaac Pitman’s 200th year anniversary” he being the creator of “Pitman’s Shorthand” and no relation to me (as far as I know) What he was trying to do “was celebrate the skill set, representing it in visual language, that normally isn’t seen in. Shorthand’s small so I made it BIG.” So now you know, and so do I.
Day Fourteen
Nothing today had a meeting scheduled and had to travel down to Hampshire. Back to work tomorrow.
Day Thirteen
“Freddy” at work. Fuller story and images to follow…..
no images were found
Ok, these are the images I shot, or some of them The initial shot I posted was taken towards the end of the shoot. At the moment I am still awaiting an image from Freddy, together with an explanation of the work he was producing. I’ll post that as soon as I hear.
Day Twelve
Another cold start and great reluctance to venture out. I was pondering the nature of the “photographic process”, and how there seems to be a path to the way I conceive and take photographs. Searching, Exploring, Realizing, Commiting, Optimizing, Repeating. And then starting again from the beginning. Each photograph every time.
Paid another visit to the tree, and got into a conversation with a couple of people who then went and took a photograph of the trunk, which amused me somewhat.
Day Eleven
Snow this morning. Always makes for intersting photo opportunities so worth making an effort. Also needed to go back to a shop my wife went into on Saturday, Toast. Explained to the manager that I had seen, out of the corner of my eye, something I thought would make a good subject for a Cyanotype image.
She kindly agreed and said I was more than welcome to revisit if I needed to. Perhaps there are other subjects to be discovered.
Took advantage of the weather and managed to find several good images.
Also revisited the “old tree” from Days One and Four, This time the snow added yet another dimension to the photo.
Also took a wider view of the trunk
as I was reminded that to create an image it sometimes pays to look closely at the details, to reveal the potential
Day Ten
Work. Nice thing about it is that I get to see England play rugby and get paid to be at Twickenham. Scappy match in my opinion but England won. Big game next week, the decider against Wales which dictates whether or not England can come away with the Grand Slam.
Day Nine
No early photo call today, but planning to hit the streets of B Right On and see what captures my eye. Definately enjoyed yesterdays “play” project making digital cyanotypes.
No photo recce planned for today. Bit of a rest day as I’m working on Sunday
And trawling the digital archive for interesting images. Planning to revisit this and age and add appropriate borders. Also need to find a suitable paper onto which the created images can be printed.
Day Eight
Didn’t go out first thing, but decided to play around with an idea I’ve been wanting to experiment with for a while, digital cyanotypes. I’ve done traditional cyanotype prints before and have plans to do more as I see many creative possibilities.
Day Seven
Good intent, but awoke to find it was raining and the light was flat, which suggested I might reassess my plan to tackle the potential of a “panoramic seaview”. I’ll now put that off until another day. Will definately post something today. Have to go into town so planning to investigate possibilities there and continue the momentum.
Trod new ground today and found a few that caught my eye.
Day Six
Another earlyish start, have to keep up the momentum. There have been occasions when it’s been quite zen like, total peace, apart from the sea gulls ( a misnomer, they’re Gulls, no such thing as a “seagull” really) But I digress.
Today, though rather than work on the beach, I walked along the promenade towards Rottingdean. It was enlightening the number of people who came up to ask what I was photographing. One even said he’d seen me several days ago and was going to go and look at this site when he got home, after I told him where he could view my work so far.
Dependent on the weather tomorrow, my plan is to change perspective and photograph from the clifftop. Hopefully broad panoramic seavistas.
Day Five
Started out on a good note today. Thought I’d play around with my digital pinhole setup. A separate light meter would have been useful but managed to find a work around, possibly a combination of guess work and experience .
Got home to find an email had popped into my inbox advising me that this year’s, the 13th, World Pinhole Day, is April 28th 2013. Basically anyone who makes a pinhole photograph on Pinhole Day, can scan and upload it to www.pinholeday.org. Thus allowing them to be part of the “premier gallery of lensless photography” Apparently, last year some 3,865 people from 74 countries participated.
I’ve participated for the past three years, and will do again this year.
2012 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2012/index.php?id=1541&Country=United+Kingdom&City=Brighton
2011 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2011/index.php?id=2049&Country=United+Kingdom&City=Brighton
And 2010 http://www.pinholeday.org/gallery/2010/index.php?id=1182&Country=United+Kingdom&City=Brighton
Pinhole photography is something I’ve been interested in for some years now, and something I’ve dabbled with since I took up photography back in the Seventies. I’m still captivated by the serendipitous nature of it. In the days of film, I remember being really excited watching an image come to life in the developing tray. I think for people who remember film and chemicals that is the excitement that kept them interested. There’s nothing like it.
And finally, I couldn’t resist.
Day Four
We’ve all heard it before, The importance of preparing before you start something. I thought the Boy Scout motto “Be prepared” was probably indelibly stamped into my head. Not So. Today I managed to go out without the camera plate that attaches my camera to the tripod and consequently had to change my plans at short notice. Necessity being the mother of invention.
I revisited something that I photographed on Day 1, an old washed up (some year’s ago), weathered tree trunk now studded with little bits of plastic detritus, pushed into the gaps in the bark. Almost like precious little gemstones in a piece of jewellery. A covering of frost gave the image an edge that was missing before.
Day Three
Woke up early and had a number of ideas running in my head for things that might make interesting blog posts. Was encouraged even more when I read an interview with Sebastiao Salgado In today’s Sunday Times. It appears we share a few things in common. Pattern in photographs and not looking at the screen on the back of a camera once you’ve pressed the shutter. (More on that in a future post I suspect).
Day Two
Away from any online availability today, visiting my father in law who has dementia. Consequently any major inroads to do with content will have to wait. Managed to microblock and come up with some “commercial opportunities” using some of my imagery. For a number of years now I’ve been interested in the way postcards reveal much about the times we live in. Additionally they can be great fun just as pieces of art. Planning to explore the creative possibilities this coming week and hopefully produce something I can add to the “marketplace” page I want to add to my site.
Day One
As Martin Mull comedian, song writer, and actor pointed out on his album “Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture in Your Living Room” (1973) “Song writing like any other sport demands that you stay in shape”. Similarly Brooks Jensen, erstwhile Editor of Lenswork once made a point in one of his podcasts of the need to “warm up before taking photographs”. Points I totally concur with. So part of this 30 Day Challenge is to take time out to take and make photographs.
Early start today, have to practise what I preach. I’m not very far from the beach, but hardly ever venture down there early. Today I made it down by 6:30am and was surprised to discover it was low tide.
After wandering for a while I finally commited to take a few photographs as part of my warm up exercise. Chances are that once I’ve honed in on a few things that I find worthy of further exploration then I’ll try and revisit. Tide permitting.