Past & Future

So as we come to the end of 2010, I've been thinking about how far I've come this year and where my aspirations are leading me in 2011. I'd like to ask you, as an artist (because Photography *is* art as far as I'm concerned), where you want to be with your photography at the end of 2011. Do you for instance, have any aspirations to go photograph a place, location, maybe put on an exhibition, or dare I suggest it - start to make a living from what you love to do?

I think as artists, we have to remain inspired. Always having some goal that we want to reach.

For me, this year I set myself some 'dreams' of what I wanted to do, namely, go to Ethiopia and create some new portraits. I also wanted to make some new podcasts and not least of all, get that book I've been wanting to do for some time written. I've mostly achieved all that, but I still feel I have a lot I want to do, plans to go to new places (the list grows all the time).

If you want to improve your photography, the only way to do it is to go out and shoot more. But being aimless, directionless in what you do - won't help you. You need to have vision, a strong sense of what it is you want to achieve.

When I started out with this web site, I found that the content of it was a driving force for pushing me forward. For instance, when I looked at my portfolio a few years ago I noticed I'd been to a lot of cold places, but I hadn't ventured to many latin or Asian countries, so I decided that this is where I needed to channel my efforts.

Since I've now been running a Scottish photographic workshop business for several years, I've been really focussed on researching Scotland and photographing it as best as I could. But when I say this, it would be very easy for you to assume that I've made my latest photographs under contrived motivations. But that would be a misunderstanding. You see, in order to do what you do well, you have to believe in it.

I don't go around making pictures for the sake of it, I do it because I love what I see through my viewfinder. I have to be inspired by the possibilities of the final image.

So, as of today (I say this, because my aspirations and dreams change by the hour), I hope to do the following in 2011:

1. Photograph the Aurora and create a nice winter portfolio of the Lofoten Islands in Norway (I go in early March)

2. Photograph Tazmania & bits of Australia during the Summer

3. Return to Patagonia, Easter Island and Peru during the Summer (more information on that to come soon hopefully)

4. Continue my exploration of my own country - more of the Scottish Islands, where time permits

I know. It sounds like a lot doesn't it? And often what happens is that I achieve some of this and also do a lot of other stuff I never knew was ever on the cards, which I find very inspiring....

You just don't know when your next good image is going to happen, and I always like to think that the best is yet to come.....

So what artistic aspirations do you have for 2011?

I think we all need them. It's the only way to push us forward with our creativity and keep us focussed on the art of photography.

Now on iPad, Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader

Just a short posting today to let you know that my eBooks will be available on Kindle, Nook and the Sony reader from 11th January 2011 onwards, as well as on Apple's iBooks store (UK, France, Germany, USA & Canada).

You can of course, decide to give me a higher royalty fee if you buy the ebooks directly from my store :-)

Words

I've completed my first walk-through the draft of my upcoming book 'the making of 40 photos'. Which I feel at the moment, is quite an achievement for me.

It's often hard to shelve a project for a while due to other commitments. I was pretty busy for the later half of this year with one workshop after another. It can really 'kill' the creative aspect of something if you have to stop for a while, so it's taken me about a week to get back into editing the book and reviewing / correcting the text and maybe revising paragraphs where I felt the flow wasn't flowing or where I had been so vague that even I, had no idea what I was writing about.

So now I'm pretty much finished, I've just got to get it proof read by a few other people including a technical author, a journalist friend of mine who does this sort of thing for a living and also some very kind friends who're very enthusiastic about what I do and have been immensely kind so far with their help.

So I feel all geared up to continue writing and I have some other ideas / projects that have been in a state of incompletion for the best part of six months too.

Lalibela Podcast

Situated in the northern foothills of Ethiopia, lies Lalibela, an important spiritual mecca for orthodox christians.

Please click on the image to play the podcast

I came here in September of this year to photograph the people in the context of the UNESCO rock hewn churches. Unbeknown to me at the time, I was on a pilgrimage of my own. Looking back now, I can see that my entire photographic 'career' has been that - a journey and as with everything in life, we only truly understand how far we've come, by looking back. Everything up ahead of us, is yet to be discovered.

This will be my last podcast for a while. They're very time-consuming to do, even though I do find them very enjoyable. But the problem is gathering enough new material to make one with. Lalibela was the first set of new photographs I made this year. I do have a trip planned to go to Norway in March 2011 to (hopefully) shoot the Aurora and also photograph the beautiful fishing town of A. Who knows what this may bring in terms of a future podcast, but until then, I'd just like to let you know that I intend to make podcasts in future, but only when I have new material and when the time is right to do so.

Adobe In-Design Help Required!

If you live near Edinburgh, Scotland, UK and you'd be keen to help a nice-friendly-photographer put his book together in Adobe In-Design, then I'd love to hear from you.

I need some assistance with Adobe In-Design templates. If you do know, and want to help - then I would also be happy to pay for you to show me what I need to do with the templates - just contact me at bruce @ brucepercy.com

Thanks!

Only one space left - Torridon

I've got one space left for the Torridon workshop this Feburary 11-13, so it's a case of first-come-first-served :-) I just did a really nice workshop on Skye this December and we had some stunning weather - the winter light was fabulous and everyone who turned up really got into the spirit of the trip. Winter as much as it can be challenging to get around is the best time of the year for photography. It's certainly my favourite time of year and if you've got a taste for adventure, and are prepared to wrap up warm and get outside, then the photographic results can be really worth it.

Painters as Influence?

When I was making the image you see below, I couldn't help but think there was something 'dreamlike' about the Storr landscape. It reminded me of a fantasy-like castle from a book for a while, but then it struck me that the scene seems to have some echoes of Van Goch's Starry Night picture.

Perhaps it's the swirls in the sky and the curve in the landscape (I've illustrated the flow and curves in the 2nd picture).

Certainly, when I'm making pictures, I'm often aware of the flow of clouds through the scene, how the curve of the land sits, but mostly, I'm just engaged in a mood or feeling that the landscape is projecting at me.

As well as getting inspiration from other photographers, why not painters too?

I've just recently started to read about Edward Hopper, who's 'empty' scenes of people in isolated settings almost feel as though he should have been a street-shooter. Capturing the moment of someone in thought. Likewise, surely if Van Goch had access to a camera, maybe, just maybe, he might have worked with that instead of, or along with paint?

Certainly for us, we have a wealth of art work to get inspiration from, to learn from, and I often suggest to folk on my workshops that taking an art class in the evenings would help them with composition.

Abolish 3:2 (35mm)

I've been thinking about this for the past year or so now. Each time we come round to discussing composition on my workshops, it's very clear to me that there are two big stumbling blocks for beginners in photography:

1. Ultra-wides

2. 3:2 (35mm) aspect ratio

Let's cover each of these.

1. I'm surprised at just how many folk turn up at workshops with 10-20 mm ultra wide angle lenses for APS, or 17-20mm ultra wides for Full frame, yet, they haven't mastered how to use a 'standard' wide angle lens. I personally feel this is due to the photography magazines pushing these lenses on consumers.

To be able to make good  photos, you need to be able to 'see' in the focal length of the lens you use. Starting with a 24mm or 28mm lens is a good way to go. If you're on APS, then 18mm or 20mm is about right. Anything less than that, and you're dealing with extreme distortion - which is hard to control, esp for the beginner.

2. 3:2 aspect ratio.

Perhaps I should write a good article about this one. But the aspect ratio is simply too wide and narrow. Turn it portrait and it's too tall and too skinny. Most folk tend to use ultra-wides to stretch the landscape across the width (landscape) or height (portrait) to use up the real-estate of the sensor. This makes for shape and tonal relationship between objects within the frame more of a leap from one object to another than it should be. Using a square format, or a 'fatter' rectangle such as 4:5 allows you to keep all the objects in the scene in close proximity, and therefore, allow them to have a tighter relationship between each other. 35mm, in my opinion sucks (most of the time).

I would like to finish by saying that not all scenes work in one aspect ratio all the time. I often find that most scenes do work in 4:5 for instance and don't translate well to 3:2, but conversely, I've sometimes found that a scene I've got to work really well on a 3:2 camera doesn't translate well to 4:5. It seems that some scenes were made for 35mm while others were made for 4:5. My personal preference is for 4:5 or 6:7 though, and moving towards 1:1 allows you to become even simpler with your compositions.

The Storr Loch

During my workshop on Skye this December, we visited the Storr loch and found a tree that had been frozen, half submerged. It was a very beautiful subject to photograph and Peter, Simon and myself had a go at making an image of it.

What was interesting for me during the workshop, was that I kept on wanting to crop most of the images from the participants into the square format. I should perhaps let you all know that I've just recently acquired a Hasselblad with three lenses. I've been feeling for a while that I would like to see what it's like to compose for square. The Hasselblad also focusses closer than the Mamiya 7 does, plus, I have a nice macro for it, so I'm curious to see if this is perhaps a new beginning for me, or just something else to add to my own way of making images in the future.

I doubt very much that I'll finish scanning all my new images before I head off to the USA next week, which I guess means I've got some exciting new images to look forward to when I return home.

Eigg Podcast

I've just had some spare time to put together a little podcast about the Isle of Eigg - you will need a decent pair of speakers to enjoy this.

Please click on the image to play the podcast

I have had some very kind permission by Macmaster & Hay to use the title track of their album 'Reason & Love' for this podcast, so if  you enjoy the music, please do give their album a listen at myspace at :www.myspace.com/macmasterhay

Macmaster & Hay tell me their album 'Reason & Love' is available from www.codamusic.co.uk if you would like to buy a copy - which I can recommend very much.

I find the music very appropriate for this podcast. I'd been thinking for a while that if I were to do the isle of Eigg justice, it would be great to use some Scottish music for it and I feel I've found the perfect partner. The sea sounds were recorded on Laig bay while I was making photographs earlier this year (April) and Adam - you'll know just the very moment I made the recording as you were there at the time.

So I do hope you enjoy this podcast. I get such a buzz out of putting them together. They allow me to reflect on my own photographic-journey, where I've been, where I'm at and where I'm perhaps going. Yep, I'm a hippy at heart really.