New Images - Bristol at Dusk

I have just added a selection of new images taken during the dusk hours around the City of Bristol's Harbourside area.

BRISTOL AT DUSK

This area has undergone a dramatic change over the last 15 years or so with modern architecture and sculpture mixed in with some of the old industrial relics of Bristol's historic Harbour.

I spent a few days photographing the Floating Harbour during October last year. While I came away with a large number of images, it was the wonderful sky at dusk that presented the best light for photographing the modern architecture.

The architecture made an ideal subject for a view camera but an unfortunate side effect of dusk coinciding with rush hour meant there were lots of people about. The view camera proved to be an ideal excuse for many passers by to stop for a chat and, on occasion, unwittingly disturb my timing of a long exposure. Still, on the plus side, the long exposures required in the low light effectively erased all human life from the scene. Photographing Pero's Bridge without anyone walking over it, for example, would otherwise have been impossible without being arrested for obstruction of a public highway!

New Images - Wells, Somerset

Just added are a selection of new images from the historic city of Wells in Somerset taken last year in the autumn.

With a long history, much of it centred around the magnificent cathedral, Wells is the smallest city in England. It is a favourite place of mine in the Autumn. It's actually a fine city at any time of year, but it's relaxed pace becomes especially relaxed once the summer visitors have left. The position of the setting sun at this time of year makes the West face of the cathedral a fine subject to photograph at the end of the day too.

WELLS, SOMERSET

Image of the Week - Grasmere, Cumbria

Following on from yesterday's post about Evostock, I always enjoy scouring through my archive looking for images. I have a well organised DAM system and can call up images suitable for submitting to a new stock library or to match a picture buyer's request at the push of a button. However, there's no fun in that and I find there is pleasure in spending a few moments rooting through my archives to see what lurks.

It's something that I find comes up time and time again, but reviewing pictures long after they were taken is a good way of evaluating them and occasionally a few previously overlooked gems surface. What was marked as just an average image at the time can look a whole lot different a few years on. Of course the opposite can also happen.

GRASMERE, CUMBRIA

I photographed this scene at sunrise in October 2005. The sunlight that day lasted only a short time and it was to rain for the rest of the day, although had I known that then I might not have been so keen to wade into the lake.

I was knee deep in water and, with my camera set on a tripod, was patiently waiting for the ripples in the water to disperse. It was a very calm morning as the sun had yet to inject it's energy into the still air. I had visualised this scene as a perfect mirror image reflected in the glass-like water.

After what seemed like an age the ripples were almost gone but as I readied myself the electric cable release slipped from my hand. Not wanting to ruin the switch in the water I made a grab for it before it fell into the lake. This I succeeded to do, but I was also successful in setting off another chain of ripples across the lake.

Realising the sunlight was going to be short lived I made a couple of exposures anyway. I waited again for the clam to return, but the sunlight was fading by the time the water resembled glass. I felt the light on the peak of Helm Crag was an important dimension to the picture and without it my "perfect mirror image" picture didn't work so I later deleted it.

While I must have liked this image with it's ripples enough to keep it, I was obviously emotionally affected by the fact it wasn't the image I had set-out to make and had rated it accordingly. When I came across it again today I realised that I really like it and if anything the ripples help ensure the sunlit mountain of Helm Crag stand out. I'm not so sure now that two sunlit Helm Crags would have made such a successful picture.

I'm slowly working my way through new images but I may well post a few more re-discovered images over the coming weeks.

Evostock

Towards the end of last year I was approached by Tim McGuire who kindly invited me to join Evostock.

WASTWATER, CUMBRIA

Tim is the founder of Evostock and in his words,

"Evostock is an online collective of highly creative professional photographers and visual artists providing clients one place to search across a large collection of high quality stock imagery."

To be honest it was a refreshing change to not be an automated request to exchange links with a completely unrelated financial services link website (Yes I've been besieged with these irritating requests recently). So I took a look at the images already in the collection and was immediately struck by the the high quality there and so I agreed to join.

It's very much in it's infancy at the moment but it will be interesting to see how things develop. I have today had my first batch of images accepted by the editing group and these should be going live shortly.

So please, take a look at the image collection at Evostock.

Fuji Quickload - RIP

Earlier this year I was convinced Quickload film was dead (Velvia 50 in particular was impossible to get hold of during the summer and my supplier told me there would be no more Velvia 50 in Quickload format). Having only just converted to the format I was very relieved when Fujifilm UK confirmed new stocks were arriving in the autumn.

Well guess what? My relief was rather premature and it seems Fujifilm has indeed decided to stop Quickload. More details are on BJP. From April 2010 it will be no more.

Nuts!

Still, the good news is that 4x5 sheet film will continue and will soon ship in boxes of 20 sheets rather than the pitiful 10 we currently get. Perhaps this will mean a small saving in costs over the 10 sheet boxes which are still considerably cheaper than Quickload sheets.

Not sure whether to stock up and fill my freezer with Quickload or just simply resign myself to lugging more film holders around.

Does anyone know of a decent storage system available in the UK for 4x5 film holders?

Image of the Week - Cheesewring, Bodmin Moor

The events of last week at Cockermouth and the surrounding area makes my complaining about the rain and getting wet feet in the Lake District at the start of the month seem rather pathetic. I wish those affected well and hope they can quickly put their homes and businesses back in order.

I have been going through the transparencies from my Lakes visit and will be putting many those up on my web site and writing about a few here in due course too. In the meantime, back to better times this summer.

Here is my favourite image from the Cheesewring at Minions on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall from my August visits.

THE CHEESEWRING, CORNWALL

While I came back with many images of this group of granite stacks, this one stuck in my mind. Partially because of the lovely light that literally lasted only a few moments but also because it is a more unusual image from this location. Most images you find from here are of the more dramatic looking structures and my earlier images this day were no exception.

In fact I had been photographing one of the more popular stacks in the light of the setting sun when I turned around to locate my ringing phone - I really should turn it off - and saw this scene forming. The clouds were drifting into position over the jumble of rocks and were starting to turn pink which in turn was turning the rocks themselves pink.

While telling my daughter that whatever the crisis at home it would have to wait for a few minutes, I grabbed my tripod and ran towards the rocks. Fortunately the scene wasn't too tricky and focusing the view camera was a relatively simple affair. I then played a game of chicken with the light and waited for the main cloud to drift directly over the rocks. With the cloud in place, I had enough time to expose one sheet before the colour started to fade. I love these moments!

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Return from the Lake District

I've just returned from two weeks working in the Lake District. I say working, but with my family joining me for the first week little photographic work was done until the second week.

The weather was overcast for most of the first week, and very wet the second. I must have spent most of my time in the second week sheltering under my umbrella waiting for interesting light. My average wait was been around one and a half hours, but there were at least two occasions when I stood in the rain waiting for over three hours. A leak in my left walking boot didn't help lift spirits during the waiting!

However, the long waits were worth it and I was treated to some wonderful, albeit brief, moments at various locations throughout my stay.

My best decision of the trip was to bring along recently acquired clamps for fitting my umbrella to my tripod, see below, and my worst was not bringing my wellies, or possibly not waterproofing my boots.

MY WEATHER PROOFED EBONY AT DERWENT WATER

The Ebony performed well, although the damp weather did cause a little swelling of the wood and focussing steadily became stiffer as a result. Still, I took solace when a fellow photographer I met explained his digital SLR had just packed up as a consequence of getting wet in the previous days rain.

Oddly, despite packing a huge box of 4x5 Velvia sheet film, most of the pictures I made were panoramics using my 6x17 roll film back. I've not used this back much since the spring and only packed it and a few boxes of 120 film as an afterthought. My brain just seemed to switch into panoramic mode the moment I arrived. I'm not really sure why.

Was it the wide vistas just cried out for the panoramic format or was it the simple act of putting the panoramic back into my kit bag that subconsciously flicked that particular switch? I just don't know. At each location I almost always started with a panoramic and while waiting for the light I would plan a 4x5 picture, but more often than not the light did not last long enough for the 4x5.

I do love a well executed panoramic but I am left feeling I need to return to most of the locations I visited without the panoramic back and concentrate on creating pictures in just the 4x5 format. A return in the new year for some snow on the fells is a tempting thought.

Assuming they pass the lightbox viewing, I promise to post some examples from the Lakes in the coming weeks.

Finally, if Bob is reading this, I hope you managed to make the most of the brief respite in the rain on Friday evening at sunset. Derwent Water was lovely.