Bolivian Village

When I was in Bolivia this April, I spent Easter weekend with a Bolivian friend and her family. They were very gracious and kind to me, sharing what they had. We went north for the weekend, up into a remote village where my Bolivian friend's parents are from. It was here that I spent a rather chilly (altitude 12,000 feet) weekend eating Llama steak for breakfast and also camping under a llama skin that they kindly offered me. It really was an experience I'll never forget.

But the thing was, we spent most of the weekend with everyone else in the village watching friendly football against Argentinians and Peruvians.

My friend's family is rather extensive, and the Bolivians are very close knit in this way : the family is priority. I remember heading up in a packed car to the north of the country and being reminded of when I was a child going on holiday. My family is rather large (by western standards) so I felt right at home. I was perhaps the oldest child in the car, being 41.

Anyway, here's a picture of one of my Bolivian friend's cousins. Everyone eventually got used to me just hanging around; the stranger from out of country with the camera permanently attached to his hand and this is rather a candid shot of her. There's recognition in her face as to who I am, which only goes to show that building up a relationship with your subject can really count.

The image of the little boy with the football came about because he befriended me. Curious as to who I was, he came up to me, offered lots of sweets and I was quickly accepted as his new friend for the rest of the day.

On a technical side, these images were shot (again) with my new love : a Contax 645 camera with standard lens. Film was Kodak Portra 160NC.

Podcast : India's Taj Mahal

I've not even begun to work on my Indian images yet. But along while back, sometime in February when I got home, I started to collate all the usable images from my visits to the Taj Mahal.

Please click on the image to play the podcast

It's quite an incredible landmark and it didn't disappoint me. Photographically however, I was restricted : they won't let you in with a tripod or any recording devices. Still, I did manage to smuggle an audio recorder past the entrance gates. So in this podcast, you can hear ambience from the surrounding gardens. It's hard for me to explain, but it was just so calming to be there, despite the fact that I was there with 1000 other people at 6am in terrible smog.

My throat and lungs ached after spending a couple of hours there. So bad was the pollution.

However, the Taj Mahal is simply one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. It did not disappoint.

I went perhaps three or four times, and the last time was enough for me. Going in the evening is the worst because everyone, and I mean everyone, is there. It was like Disney Land. Terrible. It's also a shame that the gardeners are onto touting the tourists too. After spending weeks being harassed by threatening touts, I thought I was going to get some peace in the gardens. So I was pretty frustrated when I had to tell the gardeners to leave me alone in peace.

I think the Taj Mahal has to be enjoyed in silence, with time to reflect, it's a beautiful special place, more so because it is a reprieve from the madness of India.

Bolivian Altiplano Podcast

I had no idea I was going to be so taken with this landscape.The Bolivian Altiplano brings together a vast expanse of varied geological features under unusual climatic conditions.

For one thing, the altitude of the Altiplano averages around 4000 meters or 12,000 feet. The air is thin here and for no reason I can fathom, this seemed to guarantee stunning light each sunrise and sunset.

Please click on the image to play the podcast

Because of this, I felt that I pushed my tour guide and driver to their limits as we navigated the vast Salar de Uyuni landscape before sunrise and long after dusk. With scarcely defined roads, more a slight suggestion, a faint scar on the desert like landscape, it was hard for me to watch as my driver sped through the darkness with no visible signposts as to where we were, or where we were going.

And we sped on, often to some intangible destination that my driver knew about.

But I was suffering hard. A mixture of slight Altitude symptoms and running around too much, too soon after my ascent onto the altiplano had left me with a thumping headache and slight dizziness - symptoms of mountain sickness.

I felt overawed by the experience. Coupled with my suffering, everything regarding landscape photography seemed inverted. The ground was often brighter than the sky and the sunsets proved to be more impressive than the wondrous sunrises. I was never really just sure how to meter the landscapes for the film I was using.

This is not what I’ve come to expect from most of the landscapes I’ve photographed over the years.

Being so high up, I´d expected to feel cold, yet strangely I didn’t - even though I got caught out. Like a mouth that has gone numb and un-cooperative after a visit to the dentist, so I found my hands unable to operate my camera after being outside for more than half an hour in the dawn light.

As for my most lasting impression, well I must say that I tried one day to walk on the vast salt plain for as long as I could with my eyes completely closed. It didn’t take long for my mind to concoct imaginary obstacles in my path and I had to fight my instincts, which kept screaming at me to open my eyes. When I did, I was greeted with the unchanged, vast emptiness of the Salar and a feeling that I had been tricked. By my own mind of course.

Perhaps this was the Bolivian Altiplanos parting gift to me - a lesson that most limitations in my life come from within rather than from without.

Mamiya 7 - Good & Ugly

I get a lot of e-mails regarding the Mamiya 7 camera, which I use extensively for my travel and landscape shots. I feel that many people assume that having the same camera as me is going to make their images better, which I misleading. But for those that are intrigued by the camera and want to know what I think about it, I'm going to give you the low down here and now.

Q. Why did I choose this camera over other Medium Format systems?

A. Because first and foremost, I wanted something with maximum resolution and lightest weight. I do a lot of traveling and it's important that the camera is light and that the lenses are light too. Try out many other MF systems and you'll soon see why the Mamiya is great for compactness and light lenses.

Q. What is the resolution like?

A. It's a rangefinder system, so the lens designs were not compromised by having to 'work around' there being a mirror in the way. The wide angles in particular extend right into the camera body and are a few mm close up to the film plane. The distortion in these lenses is almost non existent. Point the camera down and the horizon is at the top of the frame - straight as an arrow. No barrel distortion.

Q. Are the lenses fast?

A. No. This is the real downside - depending on what you are shooting. With maximum apertures of f4.5, they are a few stops slower than other MF systems. This is because Mamiya couldn't guarantee precise focussing with a rangefinder MF system. For instance, a standard lens in MF land is 80mm or 90mm. Now think about the DOF (depth of field) you have on a 90mm lens in 35mm land.... it's not that deep is it? If your focussing is slightly off, chances are that at f2 you're going to notice it. So the best compromise is to make the lenses slower. So that's the downside. Slow lenses, but on the bright side, because they are slow lenses, they're not that bulky / heavy / big. A plus point. Ideal for travel.

Q. What is a Rangefinder anyway?

A. A rangefinder is a system where you do not look through the lens. You actually view through a side window an 'approximation' of what you will get. The problem with this is that focus is achieved by overlapping two paralax images onto the same spot... this requires some mechanical calibration so that when the images are overlapped correctly, the lens is actually in focus.

Q. So why use this system if it doesn't allow you to see through the lens then?

A. Because it makes the system more compact (no mirror in the way), you also get to see the scene at the point of exposure (no mirror flipping out of the way for a moment obscuring your view) and the system is also very, very quiet (no mirror to make a big slapping noise). The Mamiya 7 System has the shutters placed inside the lenses, making the shutter tiny - and therefore less prone to vibration. So images are often sharper than systems with large shutters that are 6x7 in size!

Q. What are the other limitations of the Mamiya 7?

A. Close focussing is terrible, due to limitations gaining accurate focus with a rangefinder system. No decent telephoto support either - the biggest telephoto you can get for it is a 210mm lens - at f8 !!!! and it's not even coupled to the rangefiner - so you have to guess the focus point.... bit of a silly lens unless you intend to use the camera for landscape work.

Q. So what do I like about the camera?

A. I keep coming back to the camera time and time again. I swear at it, curse it while I'm using it, feel I'm missing shots with it, but each time I get the films back and look at those sharp 6x7 transparencies on my light table... I instantly forgive it its weaknesses.

A. I also actually like composing the shot through the rangefinder window. Because it is an approximation of what is there, I have to 'visualise' more in my head what I am wanting to create - no bad thing.

A. I tend to use it in manual mode all the time for landscape work. I have a Sekonic L-608 light meter which I use for zone system metering, so I can determine where and if I should use a grad filter. So I tend to slow down with the camera and think more about composition.

A. I also love the 6x7 aspect ratio.

A. I also love how quiet the camera is when out shooting street scenes. Even though it's big, it doesn't attract as much attention as a small SLR does.

A. I also find placing the grads on the camera to be a non-issue. I compose, I check how much area the sky is using - if it's using a 1/3rd of the scene, then that's how far down I put the grad. Because the grad is so close to the front element, it's diffused anyway. I only use the hard grads. The soft grads are no use to MF or 35mm shooters because the lenses are small. For Large Format, the soft grads are worth holding onto.

A. I find the camera great for the landscape work I do. I have my process with this camera nailed down now, and am comfortable with it. I can take it anywhere with me and its been up the side of glaciers in Patagonia, on an ice field for a week (it uses small batteries), and its been completely soaked in New Zealand and it still worked the next day once all the water evaporated off all the lens elements.

Q. What don't I like about the camera?

A. No close focussing.

A. No decent telephoto support

A. Slow lenses

A. To change lens, I have to pull a curtain over the film via a dial underneath. Can't take any pictures until the curtain is released and I *always* forget to release it once I've changed lenses.

A. It's poorly made, bits keep falling of the camera.

But I keep coming back to it. But be warned : it's not for everyone.

Bolivian Altiplano Portfolio

I just thought I'd drop a wee note to say that I have now published my Bolivian Altiplano images on my site. If you'd like to view them you can find them here.

I'm off to sit down for a well earned rest I think, watch some TV.

I haven't seen much TV in the past three months due to all the traveling I've been doing.... which reminds me... that I have around 100 rolls of film from India and Nepal still to edit and publish.

..... I'll put TV on hold for the moment. Now where did I put those India and Nepal images?......

Laguna Colorada

Sometimes compositions don't need to be too clever. I had a beautiful red lake in front of me with really stunning light. But I was searching for a dramatic composition and I simply couldn't find one.

Photographs work on many levels and often for different reasons too.

Surely it's enough to document a place for what it is?

I loved the light and I loved the colour of the red lake (created by the sediments being stirred by the Altiplano winds).

I just couldn't find a strong composition.

It is what it is.

I gave in to what it was and somehow, I'm no longer angst about not finding that killer composition.

Gaucho

As part of my romance with the Contax 645 system, I now have multiple film backs for it, which is a really nice way to go if you want to shoot different types of film. This is the nub for me. What I love about film is the different characteristics that each type produces. Velvia is supersaturated, unrealistic in colour providing vibrant landscapes, Portra has great skin tones and then of course there are a myraid of black and white films to choose from... each with their own look and feel.

This was shot on Kodak Tri-X 400 and scanned on my Nikon 9000 ED film scanner with ICE turned off. What this means is that I had to go around spotting all the dust and dirt on the negative after scanning. It was a pleasure to do it. Perhaps I'm too old school.

While I was on my workshop in Torres del Paine national park, Chile, I like to take the participants along to see some real working Gauchos in the park. There are a few locations where it's possible to do this.

Anyway, I shot many images on Portra but also tried out Tri-X. You might argue that I could have shot this on colour film and then desaturated it in Photoshop to make it into a Black and White. You'd be correct, but desaturated colour films don't have the same grain properties that Tri-X has. For me, grain is part of the artistic look and feel of a picture. I've tried all those software emulators with digital, but have to say that it still looks digital. If you want the film look, go shoot some film.

Glencoe December Workshop Sold Out

Hi all,

Glencoe December Workshop SOLD OUT

This workshop is now sold out. So if you were thinking of coming, perhaps I can persuade you to come on my October trip which can be just as beautiful a time to photograph the Glen.

Isle of Eigg Workshop

I currently have 4 spaces left on the 'Isle of Eigg' week long workshop in September and I expect all the places to be gone before the Summer is out. Just some forewarning if you are thinking of coming along!

Possible future Scottish workshops

I'd like to offer some more workshops in Scotland in the future.

Perhaps there is a region or place in Scotland such as Torridon, Skye, the outer Hebrides, or even somewhere closer to the central belt (nearer Edinburgh, Glasgow) which you would be up for participating in a day long, weekend long or even a week long trip?

If so - then drop me a line as I'd love to hear from you any thoughts you have.

Quality Control

I've just finished editing my images from the Bolivian altiplano and here is a contact sheet of the final 40 images I'm happy with. I was thinking today about how I love the entire creative process: you start with nothing and even trying to visualise what you may come home with is often nowhere close to what you end up with. There's that element of the unknown about the creative process that is intriguing.

But there are some factors which can heavily influence the outcome of a body of work. I don't have a 'formula' as such and tend to like just 'going with the flow' and seeing where my editing will take me. But here is a rough outline of what happens for me:

1. I get home with a massive pile of films processed. I don't look at all of the sheets in one sitting because I'll be overloaded with the need to work on too many images.

2. I'm patient. Good work is not rushed and rome wasn't built in a day. So I just consider that each image takes time to be born correctly, and if there are golden nuggets in the pile of transparencies I have, then I will find them : at the right time, when I'm in the right mood to approach them correctly.

3. Sometimes I'm not sure how to approach an image, how to edit and this can be when I'm tired, done too much editing, or I'm simply not feeling inspired enough. Taking a break, heading outside for a walk, a cycle, or doing something else with my life completely seperated from my photography is the only way of approaching my images with a fresh and keen eye.

4. I work on a sheet at a time. I don't peek to see what else I have. I take each contact sheet on it's own merit and work on the best images from that sheet. This allows me to find images that I'd easily forget about if I found something better underneath.

5. I ruthlessly throw images away. For instance, on a contact sheet all the shots of the same location may be excellent, but there may be one or two that stand above the rest. Those are the two images I will work on. The others are stored away, but not used. If an image is not working, and I've tried a few things, given it some space, etc, then it will be discarded. If there is a glaring problem with focus for instance, then it is discarded. If the composition just isn't working, and no amount of cropping helps - then it's discarded. Sometimes I have a nice image, but something causes it to be discarded because it's simply too much effort to get it right. Good images should not take a long time to edit. They should just come together smoothly.

6. Quality Control. Ok, so I have say 40 rolls of film, each with 10 images on them - that's 400 images. I'll edit it down to around 80 images. Those that are really standing out mixed with those that are nice. Some may stay because I want to show an aspect of a location that is not already covered by the proposed final portfolio. But I will keep editing down, until I have a smaller number of images. If you want to be a good photographer, you have to be objective about your work and maintain a certain level of quality. Only release what you are truly happy with (unless you suffer from very high expectations in which case you are in trouble).

7. Be kind to your mistakes, try to see the images as someone else would. Some flaws are acceptible, and if the image still conveys a spirit or 'feeling' that you like, even though it's slightly blurred due to camera shake - then it's an image that still works. Images should be read on face value. Pixel peeping is not a productive activity. See the wood, not the trees.

8. Live with the images for a while. You get a sense of distance from the whole process and can then be more objective about your work.

I've taken around three weeks to produce 40 images. To some digital shooters, this is not a way forward, but for me : it IS the way forward. Good images, ones that I can live with and feel close too, can only be born correctly if I am receptive and nurtiring with what I do.

José

While I was in Bolivia, I was taken to a remote village where no tourists go.

The 'road' to the village was a test of nerves, even though we were in a 4WD vehicle. What surprised me the most was that when we got there, I couldn't help but notice a bus that had managed to travel the same impassible road.

I stayed for a long weekend, under the stars, in my tent, very, very cold for the first night. The family I was staying with offered me a Llama skin to put over my sleeping bag. It was rather heavy but a welcome reprieve from the high altitude cold.

Anyway, I'm digressing a wee bit here as I attempt to set the scene for this shot.

This is a picture of José. He's a farmer of Alpaca and Llama. His sister and brother all live in the same farm and he has never been to La Paz or to any other town outside of his small village. I woke up on the first morning there to find him standing in his doorway watching everyone, like he'd never seen people before. I introduced myself and asked him for his picture. What I loved about the whole exchange was that he had no preconceptions of how to stand, how to look and didn't go into that terrible 'cheese' mode that most people go into when presented with a camera. He simply didn't change one bit, so this is a shot of him, with me standing perhaps about a foot away from him.

I love the shallow DOF when using the Contax 645 f2 lens up close. I think this was shot at f4 to make sure that most of his face was in focus, while at the same time, render his bomber jacket with a creamy out of focus bokeh.