Coronavirus Self Portraits

Two self portraits created under the influence of lock-down ...

• First, an image inspired by crackpot theories linking 5G communication technology to the spread of coronavirus.
• Second, an image inspired the potential for boredom and over-eating.

 

 

A 5G Sneeze

 

Just a Snack

 

Portraits - low contrast

These two portraits are low contrast, low-key images.

Conventional wisdom says that, for maximum impact, the blacks in a B&W image should include pure blacks, while the whites should be bright (but not blown out). The tones in these portraits do not follow this conventional wisdom; the lightest tones are barely above medium grey, and the "blacks" are a dark grey containing no detail. 

The brightest part of each image is at the earring.

Portraits

Two studio portraits in sepia monochrome from recent Sunday portrait sessions.

Becca

Cowboy

Red Jacket

Window of shed at a local garden centre.

Red Jacket

 

Heritage Museum

This image was made at the Alford Heritage Museum about 20 miles from Aberdeen. The museum contains artifacts from bygone ages - owned and used by people from Alford and wider NE Scotland.
I'm slowly working my way through the exhibits. This mono image is a multiple exposure of the cutting blade on a six-foot long double-handed saw.

Cutting Edge

These previous images are also from one the exhibits.

Urbex workshop

I was at a photographic workshop on Tuesday - "Urbex - Weathered Treasures". A long way to travel (Aberdeen - Hackney - Aberdeen), but well worth it - getting valuable advice from Valda Bailey, Doug Chinnery, and Terry Gibbins.

The workshop was in a Victorian warehouse / workshop, now used as an environment for film / video. This multiple exposure image was based on a rather sad looking plant found on an upstairs balcony resting against a wonderfully textured rough-cast wall.

Brexit

Alford Heritage Museum has good source material for multiple exposure images inspired by Brexit.

The images were created in-camera, two shots in each case.
The original subject was an old battered enamel / steel panel advert for "BP motor spirit".

Badger, badger, badger

My neighbours, the badgers, have been particularly active in recent weeks.

I had been feeding them at the front of the house, but I wasn't happy with the photos that could get; there was a patch of tarmac in most images and I really wanted to get more shots at the badger's eye-level.  One possibility was to move the feeding site to the "lawn" and then  lie in the grass each evening until the badgers arrived. Moving the feeding site is easy - they will quickly find a new nearby site. But lying in the grass for up to two hours was not appealing because of arthritis and the very high likelihood of tick bites.

I eventually moved the feeding site to the back of the house where there is a steep bank topped by a flat area planted with a few trees. The top of the bank is approximately at eye-level when I'm standing at the back door.

The badgers found the new feeding site on the first night. After a week at the new site I also discovered that the badgers are not bothered by me standing in the wide open doorway with a dim outside light switched on. This discovery has really opened up new possibilities for photographing the badgers.

These images are all taken with flash at about 10:30pm. I used the outside light to help me get focus.

Badgers - sow and cub at right

Badgers "greeting" - cub at right

Badger cub

Car park, Aberdeen

As a result of visits to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary I've had the opportunity to spend time with a camera in the hospital car park.

I initially got some monochrome images showing interesting views on the ramps between floors, but then discovered that with the right light and choice of White Balance settings the colour of the steel-work comes alive. The first image is abstract showing the colour and detail as originally visualised. The second image has a warmer light and more clearly shows that this is a car park.

Steel Work Abstract

Car park, Aberdeen

The car park is a modern multistory (12 or 13 parking levels) - a great improvement on the previous parking arrangements. 

Abstracts

I have been reviewing the photographs that I made last year, asking myself which images I like best. I've realised that many of my personal favourites have abstract qualities. Such images may warrant , or require, longer viewing times than images with more realist subjects. Abstract images are less likely to do well in an SPF or PAGB competition where an image will get a high score only if it has immediate impact. Photographers often don't know that judges at SPF / PAGB competitions view each image for only 3 to 5 seconds (true!) before giving a score. Any image that demands a longer viewing time is probably doomed in such a competition.

Given the speed of the judging process it is amazing how good a job the SPF / PAGB judges can do - in just a few seconds they will usually pick out any serious technical flaws and make a good assessment of an image's visual impact.  The overall result is that the stronger images succeed. This judging process does however work against some types of images - for success at SPF / PAGB immediate impact is essential.

In a monthly club competition the judge will always spend longer looking at the images, so different types of images can do better that those sent to SPF / PAGB competitions.

The images below, both January 2018, are more-or-less as found on the ground beneath my feet. Adjustments were done in Lightroom, no Photoshop.  The images were originally prepared as prints, with approximately A4 dimensions for the intimate mono "Road marks" image, and A3 for "Cosmic cold".

Road marks 1

Cosmic cold

Imagination

Most of my photographs come from "found objects", either scenes or items in and around the house. A few photographs are at least partially inspired by dreams. The "Bees" image was from a vaguely remembered dream and this image is also based on a dream. When I put a print of "Ascent" into a club competition the judge wondered if it was something to do with advancing through life. I'm not sure what it's about, but in my dream the climb surface was not rock - I only remember that there was no fear despite the crumbling handholds and more of the climb behind me than ahead.

Ascent

P is for Pomegranate

Extending the alphabetography with fruit. I was looking at colour wheels* and wondered if fruit could be arranged as a colour wheel.  This image is as close as I could get with the fruit at hand. The fruit are not pure colours, and the plate provides the blue.

Fruit Wheel

Note*: colour wheel - pure colours arranged as a wheel - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, magenta, red ... etc.

I bought a pomegranate intending to include it in the first fruit image, but it didn't fit on the plate

Pomegranate

B is for the Bees

Continuing slow progress on an Alphabetography.

Alphabetography

Inspired by children's Alphabet books, two letters of the alphabet, C and J. 

 

The Golden Boy

The original photo of Mungo the cat was taken without any thought of the golden C. Having added the lettering I wondered if this idea could be extended.

 

Jars

More badgers

I tried for an eye-level shot of the badgers this evening while two of them were enjoying their evening meal of peanuts. The second badger arrived at about 11.45pm. I very slowly opened the front door and peered out camera in hand while lying on the floor about 10-15 feet from them. I lay there for a few minutes getting focus - not so easy in the low light - then got two pictures. In the first shot they they had their backs to me. The flash prompted them to turn round, but after a few seconds pause they went back to eating. I then got this second shot before they moved away.  

Eye-level shot of two badgers

Heritage museum

The camera club is now holding additional meetings at a museum which is providing new photographic inspirations. The museum is the Alford Heritage Museum which displays artifacts from local rural village life in days of yore, with many of the items being presented in context, so we have a smiddy, a joinery, a cobbler's workshop, a schoolroom, a shop and so on.

Rebate planes in the joinery

Badgers

 

Badger eating peanuts at bird feeder station

I've been taking pictures of badgers for the past few months.

We've had badgers at the top  of the hill for many years, sometimes seen running across the road at night and roadkill once or twice in 25 years.

I spotted a badger in the car headlights on the house drive in autumn last year. I got an impression of the tail end before It disappeared. It happened so quickly that I wasn't 100% sure of what I'd seen. Then a few weeks later I saw it again, definitely a badger.

Badger (infrared)

In January I set up a trail camera (approx £70 "Crenova" from Amazon) and was soon taking night time infrared photos of a badger in all parts of the garden. 

On the drying green 

There are at least two badgers visiting, possibly three, with least one just about every night. The trail camera gives a faint red flash when taking a picture. The badgers aren't too perturbed, but they did investigate the camera when it was first set up - I've got a few over-exposed super-close-ups of badger whiskers.

 

The badgers eat any left-over bird food under the bird feeders. In the evening I scatter extra peanuts on the ground under one of the feeders about 3m from the living room windows. These peanuts get eaten overnight.

A puzzle: the badgers spend long periods under the ivy at the front of the house, sometimes only their backends are visible, and other times they go fully underneath. The badgers are more-or-less motionless for perhaps half an hour at a time before moving on. I have a mental picture of their mouths open waiting for a mouse to run across the mousetrap. Badgers have serious teeth.  What are they really doing in the ivy? 

 Badger emerging from ivy

The badgers tolerate noises from general household clattering and living room lights. Last night I opened an upstairs window and took a few pictures of a badger eating peanuts - telephoto with flash. 

 

 

Eating peanuts - telephoto and flash from upstairs window

 

Bird photography - Red Kite

I got  a telephoto lens at Christmas with intention of doing some bird photography. I've now discovered that that this requires a whole new set of skills. The subjects are typically too far away to get a usable image. And when I do get close enough they don't sit still. If I do get close there is usually little opportunity to work the scene. Bird photography is forcing me to think more about exposures and shutter speeds; the camera settings must be right before the opportunity for the shot arises.

I'm fortunate to live in a part of the country red kites have been reintroduced. There are plenty of photo opportunities, but most of the time the bird is out of range for my lens. (I'm using a 100-400mm lens on a full frame camera.) This means I have to be very close to the bird if it is to fill the frame. I've spent a few weeks driving around to learn the good locations for shots.



I finally got lucky with this shot. I was driving in an area where red kites can be seen every day when this bird flew across the road in front of the car. It landed in a tree about 50m from the road. The bird was well hidden by branches but I could see movement and it seemed to be tearing at something that it had caught. After a few minutes the bird rose out of the tree and flew straight towards me. It then made several circles directly above me. If you look carefully at this image you should see that it is still carrying the remains of its lunch.

Both shots were taken with the camera in manual mode with with lens at 400mm, and settings f/5.6,
1/1250s and ISO 1250. The white background is the result of the sky being filled with cloud and blown out. The sky is is white, but the bird is properly exposed and sharp. Those few minutes while the bird was in the tree gave me the chance to check my camera settings.

To get a sense of scale - a red kite is 24 - 28" long and has a 69 - 70" wing span (Wikipedia). The reintroduction programme involves attaching coloured tags to the wings. Most kites have tags on both wings, but this has only one, a purple tag on left wing bearing number 35. It also had a ring on its right leg.

Intentional camera movement - colour and simplification

Intentional camera movement (ICM) causes the image to be smeared in the direction of movement. The amount of smear depends on how long the shutter remains open and the speed of movement. With most scenes this smear results in the loss of fine detail and the mixing of colours that were adjacent at the original scene. If ICM is successfully done, both effects can be desirable strengthening the final image. Photographers often compose an image to achieve simplification, the general aim being to remove anything that does not support the main idea. Everything that remains should support the main idea. The ICM loss of detail can achieve this and the colour simplification means that colours in the final image can bold.

Lochan, Cambus O'May

Yesterday I went for a short walk at Cambus O'May. The sun was shining and the air was warm - enough to be glad of the shelter of the trees and make me believe that summer had arrived. These ICM images were both captured at the start of my walk through the trees. The path goes up a slope rising above a small loch, so you must look down to see the loch through the trees. 

Footpath, Cambus O'May

The images were captured using a 3 stop ND filter and CP filter, ISO 100, small aperture f/18 or f/20 and long shutter speed 1.3s or 2s.

"One does not photograph something simply for 'what it is', but for 'what else it is'."
Minor White

Cucumber sandwiches

Continuing the food theme ... cucumber sandwiches are wonderful, simple and elegant! Bread and butter with slices of cucumber and a sprinkle of salt - presented on fine china. The china in this image is Japanese.

 Tea and cucumber sandwiches