A matter of 'flow'

One of the things I love about square aspect-ratio right now, is it's ability to help project the 'graphic' elements within the frame.

I found these dark sand lines - from a river outflow on Lagg bay on the Isle of Eigg during last April's workshop there. I was showing others how they act as a beautiful lead in, so long as we could distill it down to the most elegant sections of the 'fingers' - i.e, not have too much of them in. I felt I wanted to get closer, but as you'll see if you look at the final image in this post - that didn't quite happen when I tried the same shot with the Hasselblad 40 mm lens. So I think this 50mm version works the best.

But this image is really about reading from right to left I feel. Let's now look at an image shot from up on Pescado island, on the Bolivian Altiplano Salar de Uyuni....

My eye walks into the frame from the bottom left and then up to the mid far right. Your eye may walk the scene differently, as I've discovered during my workshops that everyone has a different way of interpreting images.

While we were on Pescado island, I was really drawn to the colour of the sky, and it's so hard to get a nice shot of the cactus, when Jezz, on the trip pointed to what was happening behind us, I could sense that I should use the curve in the foreground to lead up into the frame. It was also a great opportunity to show the cactus on Pescado island too (so that made me very happy).

And returning back to Eigg, I loved the arc in the sky - that red cloud banding across the landscape like a vignette, it helps keep my eye inside the frame. I feel a flow between the cloud and the dark sand bars in the foreground, each guiding my eye back towards the horizon, while the isle of Rum sits nestled in between the space between cloud and sand pattern.

I often see my compositions like that. There has to be a sense of flow to the objects and the tonal relationships as they work together, hopefully to produce a nice image or two.

Bolivia, Colour & Form

I think square aspect ratio really works for these images. I love putting collections of images together. In this case, I sometimes feel I'm looking at a colour chart from my local DIY (hardware) store. But Bolivia is like that. The colours and tones that are present on the landscape throughout the early mornings and evenings is something I've not witnessed anywhere else on my travels. I believe it must be due to the high altitude - 3,600 metres to 4,500 at its highest elevation.

I've really enjoyed this week at home. The blinds in my studio have been shut, the ambient music is up loud, and the only light I have around me is the stuff pouring out of my light table and daylight viewing booths. It's a very closed-in, intimate setting in which to lose myself, and get fully absorbed in the editing process.

There have been moments when I thought I was right back there in Bolivia. There have been some revelations too; I feel my photography took on a new direction about 4 years ago when I first visited Bolivia. The empty spaces there called for a more simplified approach to compositions, and I think this was a catalyst for the simplified compositions I've been working on these past few years. Returning back there this June to run the photo-tours, I wasn't sure if I would do anything new, with the same locations. But I think, if anything, I've learned a lot about the direction I'm heading in. I do see a change; I seem to respond more to colour and tone now and in some ways, the compositional elements are less important. I feel using the square aspect ratio helps get the feeling of 'the graphic' over as well. It's been a nice little journey of self-discovery this week, and I find working on the images very therapeutic too.

Skye Photography workshop review

Last March I spent an enjoyable week with a small group on the isle of Skye doing a photography workshop, and Duncan Fawkes, one of the participants has written a review of the week.

I'm pleased that Duncan has given himself a bit of distance between the actual workshop and the writing of his review. As he points out, he has found that it's taken him a while for things to simmer, bubble away in his subconscious.....

His review, I feel - is a good guide to what you should be looking for in a workshop.... for instance, I would agree that you shouldn't go to a workshop looking to come home with killer images (although it's a nice bonus if you do).

I'm pleased to say that most of the things that Duncan says he got out of the workshop, are really what I strive for, and he covers most of them in his review. Thanks Duncan for letting me know about this. I'm also glad you didn't mention too much about the rubber chicken and the gloves ;-P

A study in Red, and a study in Blue

As many of you know, I've been struggling with the Hassle-Blad (hyphen intended) for the past year, because of all the technical issues with the stupid thing (you can tell I really love it). To be fair, the system is extremely old, and I doubt it's ever been serviced properly, if at all. So If you can recommend someone who knows what they're doing (Hassleblad UK seem to want to charge me £400 alone to just service two film backs - I don't think so), please do get in touch.

I seem to be attached to the system right now though. I love composing in square, although I know it does not work for everything. If I look at my 'style' of work, I often shoot portrait orientation and I believe this is because it allows me to use a lot of foreground as well as sky in my shots. Square does not allow for this, unless you get further back, or let a lot more 'stuff' come in the sides of the frame.

In the above set of four images, I made a beautiful study of Laguna Colorada on the Bolivian altiplano. At 4,500 metres, the air is extremely thin here, and we were all struggling for breath. But the light! Those intense red evenings seem to be something that happens a lot there. My guide did say though, that we had an exceptionally beautiful evening there. Still, the subject is rather minimalist, and when you consider making four images - to work as a set, rather than individual scenes, a story forms - and for some reason, the entire set becomes stronger than the sum of its parts.

While I was running the Patagonia trip in the southern hemisphere winter, I made these studies of the Perito Moreno glacier. We had a very wet journey out there and everything was looking very gloomy. There was most definitely a low mood to everything and the cloud had come down to obstruct the backdrop view. Years ago, I would have been disappointed, packed up my camera and headed for the cafe, but I feel I know my subjects and light better. I loved the tones that the cloud were producing. Everything was glowing - the glacier had taken on an eerie luminance in the soft morning twilight.

Seeing these images only confirms to me that I need to continue with square - it is something I am growing into.

I still love 4x5 very much (which is what the Mamiya 7 is - the negative has the same aspect ratio as 4x5, despite being labeled a 6x7 camera). So I'm fully aware that I will continue to shoot 4x5 aspect ratio as well as square. So often we think of replacing one thing with another (I'm thinking of that phrase - 'have you gone digital yet?' ).

It's been about a year now of getting used to the Hasselblad and the square format. When introducing something new into my workflow - I feel I need to give myself time to grow into it, in order to find out if it's for me. I can't tell straight away if it's not.

I think that we need to give ourselves more than a few months, perhaps even years to discover if we have the aptitude, or leanings towards a certain format - patience,  and allowing ourselves the time to get fully into something,  can only help reap artistic dividends, I feel.

Everywhere feels like home

Well, it's been a long time coming. I do podcasts on iTunes if you don't already know;  you can subscribe to my podcast on iTunes here and have them automatically downloaded onto you iPod or iPad. I'm a little self conscious of putting these podcasts together, but I often get folks asking me when I'll do some more, and the responses I've seen on my guestbook and on iTunes has confirmed that folks love em.

[embed width="400" ] https://vimeo.com/48290279 [/embed]

I've had a lot of "recharging" time at home these past few weeks, which is why the blog is quite prolific at the moment. I'm enjoying very much the process of working through most of the films I've shot this year.

Being home is good. Very good. I feel a need for a sense of balance in what I do: I love the traveling, and I've found the world has become smaller for me over the past few years. I've got some very dear friends in Australia, Canada, America, Portugal, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, Easter Island, Chile, Argentina....

It's amazing to discover that with a little bit of travel (or maybe quite a lot!), strangers become friends and exotic landscapes have become familiar haunts.

I'm aware I lead a very privileged life doing what I do. So with this in mind, here's a little podcast about that, with some music by the extremely talented Dustin O'Halloran titled 'An Ending, a Beginning', which i find very apt.

Many thanks to Dustin and his Management team for allowing me permission to use his very beautiful music. I feel very strongly that the arts should be supported, and I've made sure that a royalty fee has been incurred for the use of Dustin's music. If you'd like to find this music and buy it, it's on the 'Transcendentalism EP'.

I hope you enjoy the podcast, and I do wish to create many more. It's just that time is so precious to me now - it's the rarest commodity that I possess.

Harris

This week I almost sold my Hasselblad kit. It's caused me so much grief, but I think when I consider how hold it is - over 20 years old, It's just really needing a good service!

I think what's swayed me from dumping the entire outfit, is that the compositions I'm doing in square are very enjoyable to make, and I think it's led me to do thing that are a little bit different from how I would approach a landscape with a 4x5 aspect ratio camera.

This is a big talking point on my workshops. I detest the 35mm 3:2 aspect ratio. It's far too letter box, and either too narrow and wide (landscape), or too tall and thin (portrait mode). I love 4x5 because it works so well for distributing objects around the frame. I've said it here before - the Mamiya 7 camera is not a 6x7 camera - it is a 6x7.5 camera - so the aspect ratio is exactly that of a 4x5 camera.

But square... ahhh, I love it. Although it is not for every single composition and I sometimes find myself grappling with a particular location because I know it can't work, won't work with the aspect ratio of the camera I have in my hands: which goes back to what I've been saying for a long while - walking around with a dodgy aspect ratio is going to kill your compositions. I believe that many of us, if we were given a 4x5 or 6x6 aspect ratio to work with, would do so much better in our compositions.

Well I'm rambling now. I really intended to show you the above shot of Harris, it is one of the first images I made on this beach, before I reached what I felt was my ultimate composition:

I just find myself never stopping at one composition on a location. I'm aware there are always other ways to view the same story, different points of view of the same scene. But I do love the first image you see in this post. I think it's ok to have many different views of the same scene, some that are more dramatic than others, and to love them all.

Queyras, France - Workshop!

My good friend Duncan MacArthur, is running a workshop this September (8th to 13th) in the French Hautes-Alpes. He's told me today there is only one space left. It's a beautiful part of the world, and I hope some day to get down there to see Duncan on his home territory. Here are some photos of the region by Duncan. If you'd like to find out more, follow this workshop link.

A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process

While I've been editing, selecting and working on the many rolls of processed films from my trips this year, I've been listening to a lot more ambient music.

This has partly been influenced by a friend that I've been sharing music with. And what has come out of this, is that I think the music I listen to, while I am editing and post-processing - going through the selection process, can have a massive influence on how things unfold and evolve during the birth of new images.

I wouldn't for one second assume that the music I've been listening to will be for everyone. But if you like ambient music - things like Brian Eno, Boards of Canada, Ulrich Schnauss, or film music from composers such as Thomas Newman, then you might like this piece of music by Stars of the Lid. I think they produce ambient-classical music :-) It has a floaty, dreamy quality to it that allows my mind to focus on what I'm doing in my digital-dark-room, while also obliterate out the real world for a few hours.

I find that listening to some kinds of music during the editing process can be a terrible distraction. I can't for some reason listen to music with any spoken words in it. It just seems to pull me away from my own thoughts, which isn't good - as I do believe that post editing requires a high-degree of self reflection, and inner dialog.

Highly repetitive music, as well as the floaty/dreamy music mentioned above - does seem to work for me. I think it's because it has a hypnotic element to it - which I believe consumes the part of my conscious mind that can't be quiet. I think repetitive music helps keep this part of my mind occupied, allowing the part of me that has zoned out, to remain in the creative flow that I'm hopefully experiencing.

I have to be aware of my thoughts, which often are only measured by my feelings. If the music is conducive to that, then it tends to help get me into the right creative zone.  We all know what that zone is like - it's when we're no longer aware of where we are, of how much time is passing by, and all the distractions of every day life have gone. In that sense, it is very similar to the creative zone we experience when we are out in the landscape - time passes by, thoughts float freely away, and we're left with an empty and calm mind that is ready to be occupied by one thing: the craft of picture making.

Laguna Colorada, Bolivia

I don't feel like sorting out my images at all from my south america trips. It's kind of nice to just find something I want to work on and scan it.

I stumbled upon these lovely images of Laguna Colorada, taken on the Bolivian altiplano. We were all suffering from shortness of breath and it was extremely cold here. But I was so keen to get my group here because each night, the light does something very wonderful to the landscape - I've not really experienced light anywhere else quite like this. Everything goes very red as the sun sets.

The lagoon is famous for displaying a red colour throughout the day when there is wind to stir up the sediments lurking below. But when night falls, the wind tends to go, and the lagoon becomes calm. It is at this time that the rays of the sun seem to be absorbed by the surrounding landscape and the lagoon becomes red again. It's extremely beautiful to witness. There are no pollutants in the sky, the altitude is 4,500 metres (yes, that's not a typo - we're at an extremely high elevation here), and I'm sure this is why the light is so spectacular.

I think next week I may get a bit more strict with myself and sort the images into each 'country project'. As I feel this is the only way to create a unified body of work for each place I've visited. I so often dislike working on images in a piece-meal fashion. Today is an exception, and it's nice to just sift through and decide what I feel I'd like to work on, and perhaps more importantly - relive as I look at the transparencies on my light table, and find my imagination being cast back to a special place at a special time.

St. Kilda

From the main isle Hirta, that makes up the group of islands known as St. Kilda, this images was made looking out towards Boreray, Stac Lee & Stac an Armin.

I visited St. Kilda in May of this year.

Due to the low cloud that would hug the island for days, and the nesting Skua's, we couldn't actually get anywhere much. The wind and low visibility made for an impossible trip to the other side of the island (it's also amazingly very steep). But I think it was the birds that scared me the most. They attack you by diving right towards your field of vision with claws out in front. It's a very menacing pose and a good defence mechanism for keeping predators away from their nests.

Myself and my friend managed to get to this spot however, which isn't far away from the small Historic Scotland camp site (yes, there's a camp site there - shhhhh, I didn't tell you!). There's a very obvious dip that I found. It's not until today that I've noticed it's almost an exact compositional version of Joe Cornish' image (page 72) of his beautiful book 'Scotland's Coast'. I think this is interesting because I'm wondering if the reason I made this was a response to a subconsious memory of his image, or because it's one of the very few opportunities in this area of Hirta to make good compositions? I know for certain that I did not set up to copy - I much prefer to go to a location and find my own interpretation, but sometimes there isn't much of a choice, and certain landscapes dictate 'tripod-hole-syndrome'. So apologies Joe for making a similar shot - it was not my intention :-)

I've wanted to come here for a very long time. It is a fascinating place and my friend Chris had been reading up about the entire history before we got there!

Happy holiday memories (I still have dreams of my scalp sailing away in the claws of a very large bird).