Arca Swiss B1 - Useless

So yesterday I had a client for the day and we went out to a location I really like to cover the basics of exposure. I'd brought my tripod and Arca Swiss B1 ball head - which I might stress, has been sitting on a shelf for the past 6 years because I found it too heavy for traveling with.

It worked in the house; I was able to demonstrate how it worked, got in the car, got to the location and found that the tensioning dial on it was completely locked, while the ball is completely free.

I've tried everything in my power to unlock the dial, but I'm still left with a ball that flops around and is now completely useless.

Why I'm writing this post, is because I don't rate reviewers or review sites. If you look through the web, all you'll find is site after site saying how terrific this ball head is, and then go on to say that it has a problem with locking up, as if it's a tiny, inconsequential issue. Stinking reviews, where clearly the author hasn't done his homework, has copied stuff from other reviews and has probably only lived with the item in question for a few days (if that).

I met someone once who wrote for gardening journals. He told me he wrote reviews to which I asked him "Do you ever write a bad review?". His answer was "no", because I'd never get anything else to review ever again.

It's like critics of plays, books, music..... why listen to some complete stranger about their view point, when you don't even know if they've written any books, music or plays. Same with reviewers of camera gear.... if they don't show you some stellar images to back up their reputation, I wouldn't listen to them.

This Arca Swiss Ball Head has a major flaw, and it's not something I would be prepared to live with if I were away from home. A locked up ball head in the middle of Bolivia, or even after a 4 hour car journey into the Highlands of Scotland is unacceptable.

Fox at Grey Revisited

I just got an e-mail from Roger Pool today, one of the participants from my workshop in Patagonia this March. Roger has put his images on SmugSmug and they're excellent. To view them, go here. In the e-mail he sent me, there was a picture of the fox we had the great excitement of photographing while at the edge of Lago Grey one morning.

Yep, that's me on the right side, with my ear-wind-shields up on my hat, crouched over my tripod.

I love this image because it shows how close we were to the fox. The image I created from this shoot is here. I was struggling because I had the entirely wrong kind of lens on my camera... a wide angle when the fox appeared. It would have been very tempting for me to zoom right in, but I'm pleased I was restricted to what I had.

Torridon Weekend Workshop Sold Out

The Torridon weekend workshop this October is now sold out. The two Glencoe weekend workshops as well as the week long Eigg workshop are completely full too. So I thought I’d write to let you all know that for the remainder of this year, the only workshop available is the Isle of Harris trip in late November.

Tempted? Oh go on! :-)

Seriously, I’m very pleased with the response to these trips and have lined up some trips for early next year now. For more information please look under the dates and prices section of my Light On Scotland web site.

Creative Procrastination?

Anyone here read 'the war of art'? It's a book designed to help you get over your creative hurdles.

I was recommended this by a photographer friend, not because I was suffering from any creative-writers-block, but because he thought it would help me understand the pains I am going through with my Workshop business. In that respect, the book has been great - allowing me to understand that anyone who goes into business, is essentially going it alone. There's no backup, it's all up to you. And also the hurdles in making the jump in the first place.

But what I'd like to talk about is creative procrastination. Do you feel you suffer from it?

I certainly suffer from procrastination in some areas of what I do - namely stepping outside of my comfort zone. It may be a surprise to you to learn that each time I get on a plane to go someplace, I'm filled with dread and fear the night before. I'm aware of it and I've recognised that I have a tendency to 'settle in' when I'm at home. Only to find that getting on a plane to go to somewhere new like Eithiopia (which is on my list), is initially a terrifying experience for me.

But that's not creative-procrastination.

I've met many people who tell me they'd love to do what I do, to make images and travel. When I ask them 'why don't you?', I get told that they 'don't have the time'.

My argument is that if you really want to do something, really, really, then you make time. You have to do it. I believe that when people say 'they don't have the time', they're really saying that they're really not that bothered. It's not a big thing for them. In the way that I'd quite like to learn a different language. I know I won't though, because I don't have the drive to put the hours in.

A photographer friend of mine recently said to me about this site - 'one thing's clear; you've worked your ass off to create these images'. I wasn't aware of it, but when I think about it, that is true. But It didn't feel like hard work, even though I do come home from trips exhausted and fatigued. It just feels that it's something I have to do. It's all pervading in my thoughts.

There is a quote in the book about Ernst Hemmingway, when asked if he worked only when he was inspired, said 'yes, I work between the hours of 9 and 5'. Or something to that effect. Basically suggesting that the act of working brings inspiration. I'd tend to agree with that from the point of view that if I don't go out to make pictures, then I don't get inspired. I have to put myself in a position and start to work to see if anything will come. Some days I'll come home with nothing while others I will come home with something that I never in my dreams expected to get that day.

Some of us have very high standards, we've either developed a style and find it hard to maintain that level of quality, or we give ourselves a hard time before we've even started. In order to be creative, I feel we have to let ourselves go and be open to what may come.

So I'd like to hear your thoughts on creative-procrastination. Does it affect you and if so, in what way?

Orkney

I'm in in the Orkney's at the moment. A cluster of little islands just at the tip of the north east of Scotland. I came here about 2 months ago, but the wind was so extreme here that it was hard to stand up in. So I'm back.

The downside about coming back at this time of year is not the dreaded midge (mosquito), but the dreaded tourist ;-)

I was able a few months ago to get some nice photographs of the Ring of Brodgar (pictured) and a suitable long exposure to mark the movement of the clouds over the landscape.

Last night was entertaining though. I went back to the stone circle to photograph it and met two scientists who were on holiday. They had dowsing rods with them and were busy walking up and down the area noting where there were dowsing lines. If you've not heard about this phenomenon, then check out google for it. I'm a bit skeptical about most things, but I tried it - and it worked!

I'm off to Hoy today to go and photograph the old man of Hoy and also the fantastic beach at Rackwick. Weather is very murky, but hey - that's the beauty of Scottish weather - it's always changing and often moody.

New Portfolio - India

It takes time to work on such a large collection of images. India was so photogenic and I went a little crazy photographing many people. It was hard not to. So here is my new portfolio, split into several sections.

And then I wasn’t well. Fatigue from the constant hustling, fighting always against the will of the driver who was receiving back handers from carpet shops we didn’t want to go and see, and hotels we hadn’t arranged to stay at. Everyone wanting my attention, and always for the same outcome - to relieve me of money. Illness set in shortly after our driver had left us. It didn’t take much to wander of the ‘safe’ road of good food stops.

But as much as India is a crazy place, I feel I’ve given it a bit of a bad wrap here. It’s incredibly beautiful in ways you can only experience first hand. Just be on your guard. It’s an overwhelming place to visit and you may seek to find some space for a break (there is no sense of space in India).

I was a little worn down by the end of the trip, and I couldn’t face dealing with the mountainous task of working on so many images, so I decided to put them away and let them just sit there.

The portfolio is a ‘representation’ of what I shot. I have too many images to be digested in one sitting on a web site, so I’ve cut them down - I had to.

Anyway, that’s my ‘people’ shots over for a while. I’m back on to Landscapes from this point on, with my workshop to the Scottish island of Eigg coming up in just over a month.

Hope you enjoy the India collection. I’m just glad I’ve finished it.

Verbatim

I see many sites which state that the photographer likes to capture 'truth' and then goes on to say that no manipulation was done to the image.... blah, blah, blah. It's all a bit misleading if you ask me. Nothing, absolutely nothing in photography is 'real' except how we feel about an image.

The simple translation of a 3-D scene into a 2-D image turns it from 'real' into something that isn't. Using a wide angle lens to change perspective turns it from 'real' into something that isn't. It's not possible to register the complete tonal range of a scene due to real world dynamic range being much bigger than what's capable of being recorded on a camera.

I remember reading a quote by Michael Kenna a few years ago, about his printing for Ruth Bernhard. He said Bernhard had said something like 'to stop at the negative, is to not realise the full potential of the image'.

Anyway, this evening I was on Wikipedia (ok, it's not really absolutely reliable), but I found these quotes. The first one is from Kenna himself about Bernhard:

"Her standard of printing was so much higher than anything I’d come across in England. She had complete technical skill, but it was her total disregard for accepted norms of printing that opened my eyes. She used the negative as absolute raw material and would do anything she wanted with it. She just refused to believe that because she had a particular negative, then this is what the print should look like. She’d print until it looked like what she wanted it to look like"

Which is very illuminating. I glean that Kenna himself was opened up to the art of printing by his working for Bernhard, and in particular, how it was possible to depart from the negative.

The one I like the best is :

"If you can't make the image bigger or more important than what you see, then don't push the button.”

I love that, because I do feel that when I press the shutter, it's because I feel something bigger than what I'm seeing. Perhaps I feel 'potential' for when I get back home to my digital dark room....

So, I hope this post has left you feeling you should push the boundaries of your photography.As Bernhard was apt to saying at the close of a conversation:

"Remember God likes us best when we are flying by the seats of our pants".

Push the boundaries. Don't just shoot what's there, shoot with the intention of bringing out aspects of the scene, work on your printing.

Last Indian Portrait

I'm almost done with working on my Indian portraits. One of the biggest snags for me is knowing when to stop.

I have around 99 rolls of film, and it's quite an endeavor going through each contact sheet, often revisiting the same contact sheet - just to check that I've not overlooked some golden nugget. Some image that will add strength to the final collection. I'm sure there will be one or two that will get away from me.

A few years down the line I'll stumble upon my films from India and revist them, only to sit in wonder as to why certain images were omitted. It's just the way of things.

Distance allows us time to be more objective about our work.

So here is a quick contact sheet of the images I propose to put into my india portfolio. It could change. It may stay the same. I may find some more images or decided to halt work for a week or so only to come back to it all with fresh eyes and decide there are much more images i want to include.

I took a lot of shots of Prayer objects while in India, and one of the thoughts that I'm having right now is to create a seperate portfolio of these 'strange objects'.

Perhaps I sound unsure of what I'm doing, perhaps you think I'm just playing around. I think it's neither. It's just part of the creative process. I like to visualise my images while I'm out there shooting, but it doesn't stop at that point. It continues when I get home and start to slowly build up the collection of images into an entity that has its own personality or character. I'm never sure just where the creative process is taking me and that's always exciting.

Then there are the images which I feel don't fit into any category. They're memorable to me though, because they remind me of just how strange a place India is compared to my home land of Scotland.

Varanasi

I love it when sometimes I just turn around, and there's a little scene going on which is just begging to be captured. This was shot in the holy city of Varanasi.

Following on from yesterdays posting. This shot has plenty of colour, but I think for me, it's the girl in the purble shawl who has got my full attention. It's the way she's leaning on the other girl and she's intent on her praying.

Photography is a complete revelation for me in the taking and the making of an image. I shot so many images whilst in India that I've simply not been able to remember most of them. So it was with great delight today when I saw this on the contact sheet.

Colour

I think that what India represented for me in photographic terms, was colour. The place was full of it and sometimes colour got the better of me. Perhaps there wasn't a picture to capture, perhaps there was.

I think the garments that many of the people were wearing often prompted me to trip the shutter. In both these images, I'm sure an integral part of the photograph is made up from the clothing. Texture and colour again. But as was discussed yesterday, a photograph can be read on many levels. It's not always just composition, or just colour or a 'moment in time' we're capturing. It's often a combination of these elements and perhaps more, perhaps things we can't define, which make us want to make pictures.