Letting go of the Camera

Last week whilst on my Eigg workshop, I was handed a copy of Brooks Jensen's book 'Letting go of the camera' and I couldn't put it down. It's a small sized A5 book, deep in content, and around £10 here in the UK to buy.

Brooks Jensen has a great web site about black and white photography and his magazine 'Lenswork' is highly recommended too. It's a very high end art product and the man focusses more on the 'art' and much less on the camera / lens / technical discussions that swamp the internet.

In 'Letting go of the camera', Brooks covers many topics in this non-tech book about Photography and whether you agree with his point of view, it's a great read as it makes you think more about the reasons behind photography, why we do it, and what it is to each of us.

For instance, he has a section in there titled 'what I've learned about photography', which has some nuggets of advice such as "most often, people aren't close enough". I'd agree since I see a lot of participants on my workshops not get 'into' the landscape, but try to make pictures 'outside' it.

There are also some nice words of wisdom about numbering prints. I laughed when he says 'it's irrelevant whether the print is an edition of 10 or 50, as you'll only get to edition 2 of the print anyway'. Well, that's sort of true. I guess we can all live in hope of selling our complete editions.

He also covers workshops and I felt he hit a nerve with me about them. His golden rule is 'to attend a workshop without expecting to make great images'. I'd agree since this is not what workshops are about. They are forums to learn new things to take home with you and should not be treated as an image-bagging exercise by the workshop leader or participants.

Anyway, there's a lot of golden nuggets of advice in this book, from trying to go pro to attending workshops, to self improvement.

I've ordered my copy from Neil and Beyond Words.

Highly recommended.

First Prints on Epson 4880

Yesterday was an interesting day for me as I made my first efforts into printing with Colourburst RIP and the Epson 4880 printer I just received on Thursday.

Since the RIP does not come with the Museo Silver Rag environments - the profile and linearisation files, I down loaded them as a free set up from Colourburst's web site. Installation was a breeze as the zip file came with a very easy to follow 'how to' guide which simply explained which files to put into which directories.

Reading the RIP manual was straight forward.

Now, for the printing experience. I had some issues last night printing from CS5 to the RIP and discovered that printing directly from CS5 is to be avoided for two reasons. Firstly, CS5 tries to colour manage the file for you, so you get two applications of colour management (and therefore a substandard print), and both CS5 and Colourburst both try to manage the file sizes too.

I followed the recommendations of saving a copy to the Hot Folder from CS5. You turn off the layers in the PSD file. The file appeared in the Queue with the correct sizing and printed out beautifully.

I must in future, try to read all the manuals.

I find the quality of the output is astounding. The RIP comes with a lot of profiles for paper types, and the Museo Silver Rag was available as a free download. It's been very quick and easy for me to get the printing up to speed and I should note that it's really a case of getting familiar with the software (and printer hardware). Cutting corners without reading manuals (esp the Epson 4880 manual), will stop you from getting the most from the printing asI found last night. I was getting some very substandard prints because I was trying to print directly from CS5.

Anyway, I'm off to Eigg today to do a week workshop. But I'm feeling very happy with my results and I can only thank once again Kyriakos and also Neil Barstow from Colourmanagement.net for putting me on the right track.

New baby

On Thursday I received my Epson 4880, which you can see installed in my studio below.

Needless to say, the place is starting to look more like a laboratory, but that's fine I guess. It is where I work.

I've got some set up to do on it, and feel there's a bit of a learning curve with it all. Getting familiar with equipment takes time, and I'm very much in the frame of mind about reading manuals now, and taking time to get used to all the features of a new product.

Anyway, I must thank Neil Barstow from Colourmanagement.net for all the advice and time he's spent with me. There's been a lot of correspondence and I'd really like to get him up here to work with me at some point to help me fine tune the colour process.

But I think seeing the actual process in flow was very important for me in making the decision to go Inkjet. I have Kyriakos Karlokoti to thank for getting in touch with me when I initially put out a feeler on this very blog for advice and help. He has been very instrumental in showing me the process and of course the results. I'm quite a technical person, having worked in IT for a long time (that's another story), but there is really a lot of misguided information out there about colour management.

I've always believed very much in the traditional print and I still love Silver Gelatin papers and a well made print in the dark room, but I feel now that Fuji Crystal Archive and light jets, isn't a road I will pursue any longer. It seems that Injket quality really has arrived. So much to my own surprise.... I remember trying it around 10 years ago and being severely dissatisfied with it and the reviewer (who shall remain nameless) who claimed it was a ready technology. I'm only glad to report that it now is a superb medium.

Epson Prints on Museo Silver Rag

A few nights ago, I spent an evening with Kyriakos Kalorkoti in his home studio working on some of my images for print onto Museo's Silver Rag paper.

I have to say that the process was very interesting for me. It seems that preparing images for print is a little like cleaning up an oil painting, or perhaps it's a little like taking the image for a second time.

Anyway, I'm very happy with the results and I think they look much better than the Fuji Crystal Archive images I've had done in the past. I'm not going to say that one medium is better than the other. I just feel that the quality of Epson prints when done correctly is superb, and I feel that because the technology is affordable and within the grasp of amateurs and small businesses, it's great to be able to have that level of control at your finger tips.

I take delivery of my own Epson 4880 tomorrow along with Colourburst's RIP driver. It will be interesting to see how things move along over the next year or so.

Return to Iceland

In just over two weeks time, I'll be back in Iceland for a month of travel and photography. This is the first trip back to Iceland since 2007, and I'm currently planning on going back in January 2012 as well.

My intentions are to go and do some of the locations I had ear marked the first time I was there, but simply ran out of time to do. Two of them are treks - Landmannalaugar to þórsmörk trek and also the Ásbyrgi to Detifoss canyon trek.

What I love most about iceland is the light throughout the night. It doesn't really get dark in the middle of the Summer, even though it is below the arctic circle. I've had some amazing experiences cycling through the lava fields up near Krafla at 3am with no one else around for miles. It does mean that I end up sleeping throughout the day as the light is too harsh and intense if the sun is out.

I think some places require return visits. Not simply because I didn't get to see all of what I intended, but because they have a magnetic pull on you. Patagonia, Bolivia Norway and Iceland are in this category for me and I feel that repeat visits allow you to see a different face to the same country. It does challenge you to forget what you shot in the past, and to keep your mind open as much as you can to new possibilities.

Olstind - a great presence

Some subjects are iconic. No matter where you are in the landscape, they just appear to be in your line of sight at each and every turn. And if they are not, then they are in the very corner of your eye: asking - or perhaps demanding to be included.

I believe that this is a form of visualisation. We are being guided to make an image of something because it has a presence.

It attracts our eye.

For some, this comes very easily, and for others, they just see ‘everything’ and make very un-focussed images: one’s without a presence or point of interest. For those of us who can’t help being drawn to certain subjects in the landscape, I think we are responding to our environment.

It’s almost like we’re on remote control - not really ourselves. We are drawn, or compelled to make an image of something and we’re not conscious as to ‘why’.

Olstind was exactly like that. I found that the mountain seemed to dominate my view at every turn. He demanded to be included in many of my shots and I was very happy that he did, because I found him a most pleasing subject.

I say ‘he’, because the mountain looks like an old man. His face has a beard.

Don’t you think that Olstind looks like he’s got a nice warm coat on, covering his neck too?

So I decided to be obvious about him. Better to just please him and take at least one direct shot of him where it’s clear that he’s the main point of interest, or perhaps better put - the star.

Space as a sign of maturity

Tonight I'm listening to the 'new' album by Kate Bush. I'm a fan. The album in question is a re-interpretation of previous songs from two of her albums. I think it's a lovely effort, which shows someone who's much more comfortable and able to let a lot more space into her music than she did back in the 90's. Her voice has matured a lot and some of the songs had to be transposed down to fit her new lower register.

I bring all this up because I think there's a lot of parallels to what Kate's done revisiting her older work and what most artists do as they get more experienced. And that is the subject of giving your work more space.

If you suffer from low confidence in what you do, you'll tend to over complicate things, and make images too busy. Certainly, I've had many a correspondence from photographer's telling me that they find it hard to shoot 'minimalist' landscapes, finding it a 'frightening' experience. I certainly think that if I look back at my own work, I started out making busy images. It's a natural thing to do. Our first efforts are of recording 'scenery', and as we progress, we stop thinking about 'scenery', like bridges, mountains, streams and start to think about form, tonality and the relationships between them all inside our frame. And I think, as we progress further, we start to seek out space in our work, because space provides simplicity.

We know how to say what we want to say, and we need a lot less 'props' with which to do it.

I think that's what Kate Bush has been doing with her reworked songs. They have a lot more space to 'just be themselves'. Less of the production where there's so much going on that you can't take it all in. Now you can. And it's much more satisfying for it too.

So I'd like to put forward my argument that space in an artists work, is a sign of maturity. Knowing when to leave be, when to let something be blank and empty shows confidence. Like someone who's just happy to be in your company but doesn't feel the need to fill the space with chat. The experience is a much more natural one.

But above all else, space shows that the artist has been able to distill the essence of the image and remove anything that does not add, help or support the main message. The work becomes bolder because of that space. It's something to work towards.

Museo Silver Rag

Today I went into my office to pick up some things, and found that I'd had a delivery of Museo Silver Rag paper.... just waiting for my Epson 4880 to arrive this week, along with the RIP and it's going to be fun and games for a while I think.

Iceland (Storyville) BBC iPlayer

If you live in the UK, or have access to some of the programmes on the BBC iPlayer, then I can think of nothing better, than to suggest you look at "Last Days of the Arctic: Capturing the Faces of the North".

I was recommended this from a blog participant (thanks Jeremy), last week, but since i was away on the Outer Hebrides, I didn't have access to the internet (thanks to a severe lack of javaScript on Steve Jobs amazing iPad - claimed to be the ultimate web experience, if you're only interested in 2/3rds of the internet that is - ahem).

So please watch the 'storyville'. It's excellent and it has given me some more inspiration for my forthcoming return trip to Iceland this December / January (more on that later).

Back from my holidays

Well, just a short post tonight to say that I'm home from the outer Hebrides. I cycled from Barra to Stornoway in 2 days, which was quite an achievement for me, as I've never cycle 'toured' before. So I wasn't sure how I'd get on with the panniers. But I'm a keen cyclist and I'm used to doing around 40 miles on an outing.

So why am I telling you this? Well, partly because I'm very chuffed ( and I gotta tell somebody! ), but also because I'm headed back to Norway this summer to cycle tour and make some photos. It seemed like a nice way to combine two interests.

Getting to see the landscape from a saddle, rather than a car window, is preferable. I know many photogs ( Inc myself ) who have spent ages driving around and not finding anything worth shooting.

Getting out of the car and heading for a walk will solve that. So too, will cycling.

Next week it's Epson 4880 arrival time. I'm looking forward to getting my studio all set up.