Assignment 2: One Acre; Response to Tutor's Comments

Once again I have been delighted with my tutor's comments. Overall, the assignment was very well received and the comments made were thought provoking and useful. Suggestions were also given for research and again these were welcomed. I have adjusted my work in accordance with suggestions. Some images required no further work, some I have adjusted slightly in accordance with the comments and one or two shots I have substituted for suggested images from my shortlist.
I detail my responses below.
This was the second image from the series. My tutor felt that I had over-darkened the sky. As he thought, I had used the ND grad in lightroom to do this and have adjusted it slightly.








My third image featured one of the old fishing cobbles at the top of the slipway at North Landing. It was felt that the boat dominated the image somewhat, particularly within the context of the assignment. The suggestion was to move back a little in order to show more of the environment. I did not take quite the same shot from further back but at dawn the following morning I captured this image of North Landing and, although I have not placed a cobble in the same position they do feature in the image and the I have captured the whole of this small bay.
I have replaced image 5 for this suggested shot from the cliffs looking towards North Landing. I like the way the fence and the cliffs provide perspective. I have again used an ND grad in lightroom but have reduced its effect.







Image 6 was the weakest of my submission and so I have replaced it with this one taken from the very point of the bay of North Landing. This was a very close contender for the actual submission (it only didn't get in as my wife didn't like it). I carefully positioned the weathered spar from a wreck so that it points towards the cliffs and caves on the other side of the bay. The green of the grass, blue sky and purple seaweeds create harmony through being similar colours.



Image 7 was well received but it was felt that a sliver of sky at the top of the picture was a distraction. Here I have removed it.

















This arch formed the subject of image 8. It was felt that although the tones had been well controlled the composition was static. This arch is a huge feature of North Landing so I have substituted a different shot but from the landward rather than seaward side. I think that there is a more interesting view throught the arch and the figure gives scale without, hopefully, being a distraction. I have place a seaweed covered boulder in the foreground to provide perspective. A small aperture has been used to give good depth of field and keep everything sharp. A tripod was used to reduce camera shake.










Again the fishing cobble in image 10 was thought to be too dominant in the frame so I have replaced it with this wider shot














Although the gannet shot in image 11 was well received, it was felt that it was too much of a wildlife shot. I shall replace with one of these two suggested images of gannets flying through heavy surf at the mouth of North Landing. Hopefully this gives more of a feel for the atmosphere of the place.

Yosemite: Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was an inspirational landscape photographer but, more than that, he was also a passionate conservationist and in particular he cared for The Yosemite Valley in California. His passion and his stance remind me somewhat of the mission for the 2020 Vision project mentioned elswhere in my blog (follow link) who are currently using photography to raise awareness in our own contry and to establish a link between healthy ecosystems and health people.

Yosemite not only contains some of Adams' most inspiration and famous images, it also has an introduction by Michael L. Fischer, exectutive director of the Sierra Club from 1987 to 1993 and current president of the Yosemite Restoration Trust and executive director of the Californian Coastal Commission (book published 2006). In his introduction Fischer tells us a little of Adams' early life and how he came to discover Yosemite and fall in love with it at the early age of 14. He then goes on to relate how he expressed that love through his photography and how, especially later in life, he fought tooth and nail for its conservation. 'Adams knew that Yosemite was not being managed as a national park should be. He felt that the Park Service was seeking to entertain the tourist, instead of maximising Yosemite's intangible benefits: opportunities for contemplation, for sef-discovery, for inspiration. The truly visionaru manager of Yosemite would first protect the natural world of Yosemite - its wilderness, its habitat diversity, its scenic integrity. EVERYTHING else would come second. But the National Park Service has never gotten that vision'.

The book concludes with a selection of writings by Ansel Adams. In them we can trace the course of his passion for conserving this most wonderful valley.

Of course, the most important section of the book contains Adam's images of Yosemite. They range through peaceful syvan woodland scenes, though wonderful relections in pacis lakes to stark mountain scenery oftewn with storms on the horizon or passing.

I feel that his style is not just one of the monochrome image as there was no colour photography in his day. His images are a rich, with deep backs and bright whites and well exposed midtones. I feel that he must have used a hard grade of paper on which to print those images, whereas, perhaps Fay Godwin used a softer grade of paper as her photographs are more muted and subtle, not quite sepia toned. Adams' skies are often stark black and white as if he has used a deep red filter. These rich black and white images also remind me of the work of Robert Mapplethorpe.

What have I learned from this book
Ansel Adams was an early proponent of "Straight Photography" as championed by Paul Strand. This meant that instead of soft focus , the photographs were clear, sharply focused, and an attempt to show what the artist saw at the actual scene. His use of large format cameras of the day also meant that he produced large negatives which meant very little grain. Adams also belonged to the F64 group of the time and these photographers believed that everything should be in focus, which meant very small apertures and hence the name of the group.
I am very attracted to this style of photography and have tried to reproduce his style in some of my images which are included below. I find that to achieve the black and white skies I need to have strong sidelighting. I also find it necessary to use quite a high contrast in post processing and then, in lightroom, adjust the various sliders to deepen the blue in the sky and also lighten the midtones so they are not too dark. In the digital age we see grain as 'noise' and so I have used my lowest ISO of 100 and a small aperture (f22) to achieve maximum depth of field to get everything sharp. This means long exposures so I have used a tripod to avoid an risk of camera shake.


Edinburgh from Calton Hill













Barn in the Lincolnshire Wolds.












Palm House, Edinburgh Bontaical Gardens.

IGPOTY

Great news! I have recently heard that my image of a garden spider reached the finals of the IGPOTY micro creatures competion. Although it didn't win it will be published in the annual book and feature in the exhibition at the Bankside Gallery in London.

Project 19: choosing the moment.

This project reminds me somewhat of Henri Cartier-Bresson's catching the moment, although here we are playing with the sinking or rising sun or the play of light as clouds pass over the sun. I decided to home in on this whilst taking my sunset images in Mussleburgh.

In this first image at Fisherharrow harbour I have captured the sun just as it reaches the horizon. I have captured a lovely sunstar by positioning the sun behind a stay (more by accident than judgement I have to say) but the sun is high enough to cause flare.














In this shot, still wide angle, the sun has sunk marginally to avoid flare but still interacts with the horizon to produce a sunstar.














The same image using flash. I feel that here I have 'caught the moment'















Moments later the sun has sunk below the horizon and that special 'moment' has passed.
































What have I learned:



In many cases there is just one perfect moment to press the shutter. In lots of instances seconds don't matter but often they do. The lesson learned is firstly to plan in my mind what effect and mood i want to achieve with a particular image and, ideally, press the shutter at the perfect time. Often this is not possible as things, even lighting, happens so quickly. Here technology helps in that we can use continuous shutter on the camera. The planning has to be there in the first instance but technology can help. I am reminded here of my thoughts from the Van Gogh to Kandinsky exhibition and from my tutor's comments on Assignment 2 where I realised that forward planning was essential but this needs to be tempered with fast reactions and the technology we have at our fingertips.

Project 17: adding light at dusk

For this project we are required to take photographs at sunset and use some additional flash to add light to an object in the foreground. I completed the exercise on the shores of the Firth of Forth when I knew that I woulod be able to use foreground rocks to light iwth the flash. I had the added bonus of coming across someone fishing who was happy to be a subject for my experimentation. I am used to using flash as fill in for my macro photography of insects but this proved to be a learning process. I began by using the same flash setting as I would normally use for my insects ie -1 2/3 compensation. This didn't register at all and I had to gradually increase the flsh until I got to +3 compensation which I used for the images below. Having looked at them on screen I could have increased this even more or maybe for the fisherman angled the flash up slightly to include his head. I was using a canon 580 EXII flash gun.

I found this a fascinating exercise.



No flash in this shot.











The same shot with the flash set to +3











No flash.












The same shot with the flash set to +3. In retrospect I should have increased this or better angled the flash up.











What have I learned:


Depending on the situation I like the results obtained from this project. I wouldn't have used it for the yachts in the harbour or the Forth Road Bridge (impossible here due to distance involved), but for the fisherman it is an ideal technique although I do need to refine it somewhat. I have seen other examples of this in Outdoor Photography Magazine and the Landscape Photographer of the Year book, where the photographer used flash to light up a standing stone. The image that really inspires me though is one I have seen taken on Rannoch Moor in Scotland where a very long exposure was used during which the photographer used a very powerful torch and 'pianted' an islet in a lochan with light as a foreground to a wonderful sunset. Definitely some ideas to play with in the future.

Project 16 and 18: Dusk/Sunrise and Sunset. A second and third attempt.

As I was dissatisfied with the first images that I used for this project, whilst I was staying in Musselburgh I decided to repeat the exercise with some more interesting backgrounds.

This first set is of the Forth Road Bridge taken from the tiny harbour at South Queensferry. Again as in the first set of images the gradation from deep orange to blue is more evident in the first wide angle shot from each pair. The blue disappears with the telephoto effect. In these shots there is some cloud on the horizon and this diffuses the full glare of the sun while it is still above the horizon.

 

The following set were taken from the small harbour of Fisherharrow, Musselburgh. Here the sky is more clear and so while the sun is still above the horizon it causes flare, especially with the wide angle shots. Interestingly though when I placed the rigging of the yachts across the sun it produced a pleasing sun star, especially with the wide angle shots.

What have I learned:

When photographing sunsets there are many variations that give pleasing results. Longer exposure times produce more detail in the shadows but then the sky can become more blown out and lose the rich colours. In neither iof these sets of images have I used an ND grad as the masts of the yachts and the bridge structure would have created complications. I could have used exposure fusion, either in photomatix or photoshop but I decided to use the images as they were for this project. Partly for the purposes of the exercise but also because I like the silhouette effect from sunset images and am not sure that a lot of detail in the shadows would look realistic. I do like the effect of using some flash (covered in project 17) though. I noticed that when the sky is clear as in the second set the wide angle images tended to be more underexposed so may some exposure compensation would be useful with clear skies and wide angle.

Exhibition Visit, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh: Van Gogh to Kandinsky - Symbolist Landscape in Europe 1880-1910

In 1886 the French poet Jean Moreas published his 'symbolist manifesto' in the newspaper Le Figaro.  Moreas explained that in symbolist art 'depictions of nature............are but appearances'; the artist's aim should be to reveal the 'idea' that lies beneath the surface of reality.

The symbolists were less concerned with description than suggestion.  They sought to evoke inner meanings, to conjure up moods and dream states through the way in which they represent reality.

Two of the ways that we can achieve similar through photography are the use of long exposure times to evoke the idea of movement and producing abstract images through zooming or moving the camera during long exposures.

Landscape was an ideal subject for symbolist painters.  It provided motifs that are recognisable to us all and have particular associations: evening twilight can evoke a sense of loss or nostalgia; a calm sea brings to mind the idea of infinity.  I wonder though about twilight before sunrise - very much the same colours in the sky but does this evoke the same feelings as evening twilight?

The exhibition is in 6 sections and I have picked out some examples from each that particularly appealed to me or that I felt have a ling with photography.

Arcadia
Disillusioned by the marerialism of the modern world, symbolist artists sought a means of escape in the image of Arcadia, the mythical land of peace and plenty.  Some draw on ancient legend to suggest the decline of civilisation.

Most of these paintings and artists were unfamiliar to me and not much to my taste.  I did recognise Paul Gaugin, however.  In order to seek out landscapes unaltered by civilisation, he travelled to Martinique and Tahiti, the subject of his two works here.  In Matinique Landscape, 1887, he deliberately omits any trace of civilisation and attempts to leave an impression of untouched paradise. He has used a vertical format and place a bush and a tree conventionally on thirds.  I actually recognised Woman on a White Horse, 1903.  Although he again attempts to recreate a utopian paradise he includes a 'glowing white cross' from the catholic cemetery.

In Clytie,c1892, Frederic, Lord Leighton paints wonderful streaming cumulus clouds piled high in the sky with the setting sun backlighting the sky and clouds and painting them golden.  The gradation into the eggshell blue of a sunset sky shows through.  Reference can be made here to projects 16 and 18.

Woderful evening light and towering cumulus clouds also feature in Evening Poem, 1897 by Alphonse Osbert.  Here the horizon divides the painting in half something I try (often with difficulty) to avoid, but a ruined temple has been placed on the intersection of thirds.

Moods of Nature
Many symbolist painters drew on nature for it's representation of moods, eg the calm before the storm or the melancholy of twilight.

I aprticularly enjoyed Calm Before the Storm, 1906 by Hans Thoma.  It is very naturalistic and reminded me of a photograph.  The picture is in three horizontal layers, much like my Thoresway image.  Bright sunlit corn is in the foreground, then a band of trees and overshadowing all the looming black storm clouds.  In a photograph, as in this painting, it works when brightly lit by the sun.  I took a similar image at Fulstow.

I also like The Broken Pine, 1906 by Akseli Gallen-Kallela - it reminds me of an image of a broken pine I took recently oin the Caringorm Mountains of Scotland.  The pine signifies the death of Albert Edelfelt the previous year, a great loss to Finnish painting.

The Forest, 1892 by Prince Eugen, son of Oscar II of sweden, is a rather gloomy picture and is thought to be a metaphor for the journey through life.  I love the ancient caledonian pine forests of Scotland and have taken several images of such primeval forest.

Claud Monet's Grain Stacks, 1891, near Giverney reduces the background detail and only hints at snow.  This is very like Pete Cairns image of ptarmigan with snow covered hills in the background from 2020 vision. Here also the snow covered hills are only hinted at.

Silent Cities
Towards the end of the 19th Century, the industrial revolution had brought us adifferent, dirtier more urbanised cities.  Symbolist painters sought out more picturesque cities such as Venice or the medieval city of Bruges.

The Quay, a view of Quai Long in Bruges in 1989 by Henri Led Sidaner, is a melacholy painting of a deserted quay at dusk.  The blurred reflection of houses is supposed to suggest another world.  There are still scenes like this in Bruges today, although there is the difficulty of avoiding cars in the image.

Nocturene: Grey and Silver, 1875 is one of a series by James Abbot McNeil Whistler.  It is of the Thames but merely suggests the city.  It reminds me of some of Pete Bridgewood's long expose photographs which again, are simlistic scenes smoothed by lengthy exposures.

Dreams and Visions
In conjunction with the evolution of the science of psychology and the increase in our knowledge of the human mind and the unconscious, artists such as Paul Gaugin, Edvard Munch and Vincent Van Gogh used vivid colour to express their personal visions.

Walter Crane in The Horses of Neptune, 1892 depicted waves as galloping white horses pulling Neptune in his chariot.  I could wish that my wave images taken at Flamborough head had Neptune and his horses rather than mere gannets!!

Van Gogh's The Sower, 1882 is as bright and vivid as if it had been painted yesterday.  This painting is thought to be inspired by the biblical parable of the sower.  The sower and the sun are on a third and agin the horizon cuts the image in half.

Although I did not know the painting, I immediately recognised Man and Woman on the Beach as the work of Edvard Munch from its similarity in style to The Scream.  Although painting a real beach, he tries to portray the inner turmoil of the figures who are placed to ome side and look into the painting.

Rythms of Nature
A response to the advances in science in the 19th Century.  Artsits sought to portray such concepts in various ways.  Geological flux, the elemental forces and materials such as heat, light, rock and water become inspirations.

Van Gogh painted Wheatfield with Reaper from the window of the asylum at  St Remy to which he was admitted in in 1898.  In a letter to his brother he wrote ' I saw this reaper - a vague firgure struggling like a devil in the full heat of the day to reach the end of his toil - I then saw the image of death in it, in the sense that humanity would be the wheat being reaoed.  But in this death nothing is sad, it takes place in broad daylight with a sun that floods everything with a light of fine gold'.  This painting has the wonderful bright warm clours of high summer.  Images I am trying to create with my harvest shots.

Alpine Landscape, 1894 by August Strindberg is a very bright, fresh and impressionistic painting.  He mixed the colours actually on the painting.  I liked this.  It was in a vertical format.

In Woods near Oele, 1908 Piet Mondrian paints caledonian pines but using red and blue colours, symbolic of the material and aspiration.

Towards Abstraction
Artists gradually began to simplify their motifs as description became less important than the search for unity through colour and touch.  The ultimate here is Kandinsky in Mrnau with Church, 1910 and Cossacks, 1910-11. Perhaps similar effects can be achieved in photography by zooming and dragging durning long exposures.

What have I learned from this Exhibition.
To try and get behind what it is that I want to portray - what mood or idea do I want my images to convey.  This links noicely with my tutor's comments from Assignment 2.

Exhibition Vist, Botanical gardens, Edinburgh: 2020 Vision

2020 Vision is a major photographic project which is hoped will establish a link between healthy ecosystems and healthy people.  Over a 20 month period 20 photographers have carried out 20 assignments to make the most compelling case yet for rebuilding our natural home. 
As well has having a vital message for the conservation of our planet many beautiful images were captured.

The National Forest, Leicester, England: Ross Hoddinott
This is a panoramic format and is a misty image of beech and oaks taken in Autumn with soft gentle lighting. It concentrates on just the trunks with some leaves. It would be a good image for the Autumn section of the portfolio.

Loch Beinn a Mhealdhoin, Glen Affric: Peter Cairns
Glen Affric is a location in Scotland that I have been keen to visit for many years, hopefully this wish will come to fruition next year.  HerePete Cairns has captured an image of flat clam water with a wonderful reflection of trees spot lit by the sun and set against the dark shadows of the hillside behind.

Bluebell Wood in Spring, Hampshire, England: Guy Edwardes
An against the light image taken during the magic hour of sunrise or sunset has given the bluebells the puple colour of Heather.

Red Grouse on Heather Moorlands, Peak District, Derbyshire, England: Ben Hall
Here is a beautiful wide angle shot of a red grouse (remote capture?) set above the Hope Valley.  The image appears to be taken at twilight with lights coming on in the valley.  There are subtle cloud effectswith the red of sunset.  The bird has been placed on the intersection of thirds.

Aerial View of Glen Feshie, Cairngorms, Scotland: Peter Cairns
I like this unusual view of Pete Cairn's home of Glen Feshie.  There is no sky and it depicts the amazingle complicated channels of the River Feshie.

View from Blackbeck Tarn, Lake District: Benn Hall
Excellent detail in the clouds here (ND grad?).  The beautiful moss and lichen covered rock in the foreground is on an intersection of thirds.

Ptarmigan in a Winter Landscape, Cairngorms, Scotland: Peter Cairns
Here Pete has conveyed the merest impression of snow covered mountains in the background much like the snow effect in Monet's Grain Stacks in Winter.  This adds a sense of mystery to the scene.  The bird on the snow-covered granite rock is on an intersection of thirds.

Scott's View at Sunrise, River Tweed, Scottish Borders: Joe Cornish
A wide angle shot showing a meander in the river.  The hill in the background is beautifully warmly lit by the rising sun.  Interestingly the river and the hill are both central in the image.

Lakenheath Fen at Sunrise, Suffolk, England: Terry Whitataker
Dead reeds against the light which is soft and golden.  Mist rises above the reeds.

Sunset over The New Forest: Guy Edwardes
This image was obviously taken in late summer as the heather is in full bloom.  Super colours and wonderful light in the sky.  A tree is on a third.

Morecombe Bay at Sunrise: Peter Cairns
Another panoramic format from Pete Cairns.  Water channels make excellent leading lines and provide perspective.  There is a beautiful sky and subtle pink suffuses the whole image.

Exibition, Edinburgh Botanical Gardens: The Nature of Iraq

This exhibition seeks to convey 'The Other Side' of the news-reported life in Iraq, that of the wonderful scenery, wildlife and traditional culture that persists in spite of war and oil extraction, and the great work that is being taken forward by the offical NGO Nature Iraq.  Over the last eight years Nature Iraq has made annual surveys of the Mesopotamian marshes, western steppes and the woods and mountains of Kurdistan-Iraq.  The photographers are all also Nature Iraq biologists and they are:Karsh Ararat from Suliemaniyah, Omar Fadil from Baghdad, Mudhafar Salim from Diwaniyah and Nabeel Abdulhassan.

Below are some of the images I found most stimulating.

Sara Mountain - North East Iraq by Korsh Ararat

I think that the panoramic format suits this image.  Although the dark bottom right corner does take the eye somewhat , it does hel provide perspective as does the beautiflly jagged ridge of the mountain as it leads the eye into the image

Marbled Ducks en Masse by Mudhafar Salim

The out of focus image in the foreground balance the image without distracting the eye.  The huge flock og ducks adds interest to the image and is similar to many of my high tide flight images from Cleethorpes.  This would be a good choice for the assignment 3 image on water.

Boat Traffic by Omar Fadil

A vertical format is used here and this suits the linear water course and the upright figures.  It is a good example of using people in a landscape toprovide perspective and focus.  The figures are too distant to be a portrait but close enough to be an important part of the image.

Marshes - image 6 by Mudhafa Salim

Here there is a beautiful reflection of the sun on the water of the lake.  The two people, the boat and the reeds are silhouetted against the golden water.  This a superb image and my only nit picking criticism would be that i would have placed the boat a little more to the right to give it room to 'move' into the image. This would make an excellent image for Assignment 3's theme of water and also could be used for the projects on sunset and twilight.

Boat with Reeds (no image available)

This shot features a boat on the marshes with a boatman and a load of reeds.  This is a summer image as the reeds are green.  There is a curious double reflection in this image with the boatman reflected upside down and then what appears to be a reflection of the reflectikon as the boatman appears the right way up again.

Camel and Sunset from the 'atmosphere' section of the exhibition but again no available image.      

This in panorama format and would be good for the projects on sunrise/set and twilight.  It is taken with a telephoto lens so the sun is large in the picture and the sky is all orange with no gradual gardation of colours.  The camel is in silhouette.               

What have I learned from this exhibition?

I am reminded of the fact tht it is useful on occasion to use figures in the landscape as in the relevant chapter in Galen Rowell's book Mountain Light.  In my last assignment I used two figures in a landscape of North Landing at Flamborough Head.  This was the one shot my tutor didn't like in the series and I made the mistake of not making my intentions clear enough.  It wasn't certain wether the focus was on the figures or the piece of seaweed in the foreground.  Both this and the exhibition reminds me that I need to take care to have my intentions in taking an image clear in my mind while composing and framing the shot and before I press the shutter.  Something I will endeavour to do in the future.

All images used are by Nature Iraq and permission for their use was sought.