Head on Portrait Prize

We had a lovely day visiting Bronte Beach to see the big surf caused by the imminent storm then having lunch at Mickey's on Oxford Street, Paddington. My bro', sister in law and the 2 kids left me there and I visited the Australian Centre for Photography which happens to be more or less opposite.

This was the exhibition of the Portrait Prize of the Head on Festival. Free entry and beautiful clear open space, pictures were mounted on clips which attached to long stainless steel wires stretching the length of the gallery similar to yatching wires. I've got some pictures of the set up for future reference, but can't upload at the moment because I've already had smoke coming out of the back of the laptop. Ammended with picture upload 22.6.10
Head On Portrait Prize

The winners of the 2010 Head On Portrait Prize are: Gil Meydan, Fiona Wolf and Karl Schwerdtfeger
One particularly moving picture was of a tiny, premature, still born child in the arms of his father. The strain, tension and deep sadness of the dad, with the tiny baby. I just stopped and stared. I couldn't tell you now if it was black and white or colour, I didn't analyse the lighting or any details of the background or composition. It just stood alone.
Whilst there was a book available with the submitted images in it, many of them were just so moving, personal and uncomfortable I didn't buy it.

Head On Photo Festival, Sydney

This photo festival runs from 29 April to 5 June 2010. It's at over 60 galleries, cafes and other venues 'showcasing a diverse range of photography and multimedia slide shows as well as seminars exploring contemporary issues.'
Australian Crawl: Macro portraits of insects, reptiles and amphibians.
My bro' had seen an exhibition of photos at Bondi Pavilion and suggested I go and have a look. The images were amazingly good - pin sharp, very clear colours and backgrounds. The photographer was Damon Wilder and I had a chat with him. I'd got my camera with me and showed him a pic of Shield Bugs that I'd taken with my Tamron 90mm macro at home when I should have been pruning roses. He'd been a researcher for TV series before setting up and was now photographing full time professionally, using his TV contacts for much of his work.
From him
"Always torn between pursuing a career in biology or following my passion for arts, I finally found photography to be the perfect marriage of both interests and have invested most of my spare time and energy into photographing nature. My love of macro photography began five years ago when I worked as a researcher on an Animal Planet documentary series about bugs, called "Buggin' With Ruud". I was so impressed by the images I encountered during my research that I immediately went out and bought a camera and macro lens with the determination that I would produce equally impressive images."
Whilst this is not my current topic it is yet another field of photography that really draws me.

Checking in from Down Under

Hi Everyone
Well, to cut a long story short, John is out of hospital. He's OK and I'm sure the swelling and bruises from where I punched him will subside in time.  He's having more tests this week to firm up the diagnosis and sort out the best treatment.
In the meantime I've brought my D90 with me and am carrying out my mission to photograph the rest of my family rather sooner than I'd anticipated.
So this afternoon I've visited what I thought was an photographic exhibition in a place called Newtown, which is just 3 train stops away. The Town Hall Hotel turned out to be in a rather 'special' pub and everyone turned round to stare at me when I politely asked the way to the exhibition. The delightful tranny barmaid explained I'd 'Just walked past it, Darl' on the way to the bar. I felt strangely out of place, being straight is like being in an ethnic minority here. Next time I'll get a tattoo on my face, shave my head and get one of those earings that make a big hole in your ear lobe. Good for Newtown and I'm sure my garden design clients will get used to it.
Sorry about the garbled phone call, Steve, but I was fine until I actually started talking to you.
Could I suggest 'Australian Sydney suburbs' as a competition theme for the BPS?
I'll try posting some pictures soon, they are forecasting a big storm for tomorrow.
See you soon.

Jane Bown Exposures

Jane Bown was sent on assignment to photograph Samuel Beckett for the Observer. He was apparently reluctant and made a quick exit through a narrow ally which had one sky light above. She managed to stop him and photographed him with her Olympus 35mm camera.  She took several different exposures with him glaring at the camera and being 'of diminutive stature' he naturally looked down at her as she photographed him.  My not so unwilling victim for this recreation is an ex Life Guard who stood to attention patiently and whilst I took these individual shots in the hall upstairs with just natural daylight coming through a roof Velux and a black fleece background using my nikon D90 and a Nikkor 50mm  f1.8 portrait lens on a tripod.
I made a canvas 14240 pixels wide by 4288 in PS4 and added each image as a layer by copying and pasting. Once complete I merged the layers to one and played around switching to black and white with blue filter and altered the contrast using curves.
this post is not complete yet.......

I also took some B/W pictures using my old 35mm camera and the tripod. I've still got some pics to take on the 36 shot film before getting it developed. This really highlighted how good digital is, as if I needed telling.  One of the most significant changes is being able to change ISO without the need to finish the film. I'd got 100 ASA film for high definition but was struggling for light. I'll be really interested to see how they compare.

I've got some ideas of how I'm going to present these images using multiple cut outs on a 40x50 mount card when I get back.

Peter is a  multitalented sort of chap, a horseman, writer and I've known him a long time. The plan was to do the BW shots and then change back to the home studio set up in the conservatory as used previously. I'd got the college studio lights, but annoyingly the natural light was perfect and we ended up not needing them.
We just used a foam core reflector, but I don't think this really contributed much to the overall. I'm going to get a Triflector when I get back I think.

We needed some good portrait shots for Pete to use for publicity and I wanted to include hands to go along with my second theme and the writing/author type images. I'll post these When I Get Back (WIGB) 

Burton College Exhibition

This is mainly for Eric, Bec and Stevie Bright.

After heated debate and with agreement from nearly all present we are organising an exhibition of our (L3 C and G Photography) work on the back wall behind reception.
There are 2 stretches of wall we will occupy 1
We've measured them and there is room for 18  images in mounts (50x40cm total size either portrait or landscape.)  This gives us 2 pictures each, the total wall length of 1 section is 5.50M The mounted images are going to be placed onto foam core board which wil be around 1cm smaller than the mount, so that it stands off the wall but is not seen. they will probably be velcroed This gives a sort of shadow frame. We are paying for the printing, mount and foam board. They have to all be the same and black mount card has been chosen. Images can be any size within the mount but impact is important. We probably need to think of them as disposable for this exhibition, sorry, frames would be expensive, have to not have glass, be drilled to the wall etc and college will not fund.

We are printing our images this week and bringing our mount cutters in on Sat next (22 May) to make a start. Jim is picking up mount board and cores
Steve tutor will need to select your images so please get in touch with him

C and G Photographers Storm the BPS

Congratulations to my new best friends in their recent appointments to the committee of the Burton Photographic Society.
Internal Competition Secretary: Eric Gaffney
Open Competition Organiser: Steve Bright
Members Representative: James Woodings
Members Representative: Ruth Hill

I remain in charge overall in my position as Chief Executive Artistic Director and picnic maker, (whilst basking in their glory)

Eric deserves special commendation for his recent lengthy investigations and research into the photography of statuary and its roll in influencing and embodying the formal aesthetic of the digital age and orchestration of line and mass into the 'Indecisive Moment.'  The slide show below comes from a small section of the vast archive...............

Jane Bown

Of all the photographers I've studied so far, Jane Bown has probably been the most useful and influencial to the portrait work I've been doing. She is of 'diminuitive stature' and plans her shoots carefully as she invariably uses natural light from a window. She sometimes uses an angle poise lamp as additional lighting to light the eyes. She is uses an Olympus camera with an 85mm lens, and set it, invariably, at a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second with the aperture at f2.8. This combination of wide aperture on a close-up lens produced a very thin depth of field. So by focusing on her subject's head and, in particular, their eyes, she caught their faces in a way that isolated them, sharply, against hazy backgrounds. At the same time, she made sure the light caught her subject's eyes.

Here's a link to a video called 'How to Take a Jane Bown Portrait.'

Tamron 90mm Macro and Spirals

Having spent another hard day in the garden design mines, my reward was small dose of macro photography and Fibonacci spirals. I'd spent 10 mins in Tescos the day before with my reading glasses on looking for suitable candidates that had been reduced in price and got pitying looks from the checkout girl as she scanned cat food, useover flowers and Chardonnay ( which is easier to drink than to spell.)

The thing that amazes me even more is that it's often a 3D spiral, mathematically very complicated but simplicity itself in nature.

These are taken in natural light, with tripod and using the self timer for stability.

I'd like to do this as another theme.

Blueboy Simpson

Equipment:

For these shots you need all the usual stuff for remote fired flash through an umbrella diffuser as well as a chair and a whip to control the cat

In the event that no one can decided on a Prime Minister, he says he'll have a go, but no more Mr Nice Guy.

Influenced by Jane Bown 'The Singular Cat' although she uses natural light more often than not. Tamron 90mm Macro lens

Photos that haven't changed the world....

Reason for Picture and Subject Choices.

Saffy at 6 weeks

At 8 years

Catie and Saffy Sept 2002

Catie April 2010

These pictures span eight years.

Calke Trip and Burton Hosp

As promised I've bought an 8GB USB flash drive for us to upload our selected pictures for Bill, which we'll give to him with the hope of maybe a return trip later in the year. I'll bring it in on Sat for us to make a start, so if you could bring your pics please?
I'm busy with garden design stuff, but want to get an email with the link to the Pixel Guild site off to Burton Hosp next week to progress the exhibition project. We'll have a chat tomorrow or contact me if anyone has difficulties.
See you
Pip

The Barn Sessions April 2010

I've enjoyed using the college studio and helping during colleague's photo shoots. My 'home studio' set up has proved to have very good natural light and the neutral blue background wall works well with the borrowed Bowens lights as well as with controlled daylight and reflectors. The problems arise on cloudy windy days when exposures can vary wildly, but generally it's proved convenient and relatively relaxing.

My first theme is 'My Family and Other Animals' and I wanted to photograph my three nieces all together.  We have a barn which is used mainly for storage, there is a lime washed wall which I thought would make a great background if we cleared the space and tidied up a bit. During an afternoon with a trip to the tip and the help of my brother in law, we moved a hay trailer and swept up.

I took care to place the lighting cables out of the way and instructed the girls to take care. We used a checked extension cable with a mains cut out in line. There are exterior grade mains plugs in the brick building next door. Camera equipment, sync, tripod etc is as described previously.

Using my Sekonic light meter I was able to adjust and balance the lights to give good light onto the bench and reduced background shadows. As shown white, reflecting umbrellas gave diffuse soft light. Angling them to point downwards reduces shadows behind the sitters.
These trousers have padded knees are are great for this and gardening.

Laura (oldest) arrived first and we took a variety of pictures, sitting, standing. She's not as comfortable being photographed as the other 2, but she was more relaxed once we got going.

The 2 other monkeys were delayed on an urgent shopping trip, but arrived eventually and got changed. I'd asked them to all wear white tops and fortunately the barn was quite warm on that afternoon.

Adding 3 into the mix makes for difficult photography. I've found your odds of getting a decent combination of expressions diminish drastically and casting shadows between heads adds more to think about. Thank goodness for digital!

The advantages are that they are all at ease in close contact with each other and the interactions help to relax them. They had seen previous picture that I'd taken and were willing subjects. I checked the exposures on screen and changed around with positions.
Image Selection
For now I'm shooting in Fine/Large .jpg and NEF (Nikon Raw) this makes for very large files and I've had to upgrade my PC to cope with this amount of data. For this reason I check my images on the screen of the camera and delete any that have eyes closed etc. or obvious unchangeable faults. I upload my images from the SD card onto my PC using the Nikon soft wear as in the above screen shot, naming and dating the folder. The PC is backed up regularly and have a separate portable hard drive to store the images to bring to college.
First look through and anything I like the look of I give 1 star rating, then I look through again and give 2 or 3 stars to the best. I've found it's well worth looking at all the picture on a different day too and getting other opinions.

Home Studio Session 7.3.10

We decided to set up a studio at my house using the college lights and various back drops and set ups. The aim was to famiarise ourselves with the lights and practise instructing our sitters. My aim was to reproduce an exercise in the book the Photographic Portrait by Robin Gillanders. The aim was to demonstrate how body language and positioning affects the message that the portrait conveys even when the sitter keeps a neutral facial expression.

With the help of Eric and Steve we set up our studio, experimenting with various exposures, lighting, backdrops and camera/tripod positions. We took great care to avoid trip hazards with cable positioning and floor covering.



I would also try to produce some good quality pictures that could be used for job applications/CV that Eric was happy with. I'd asked Eric to wear a white shirt and a selection of bright ties.

We start off in neutral position as far as possible.
My sitter was also gifted in the use of the light meter.

Position 2.
Head up, defensive, like a prison mug shot.

Position 3. Arms folded, again defensive perhaps nervous.

Position 4. Head up, slightly turned away, arms folded, superior, disdainful, unapproachable.

Position 5. Shoulders and head turned away slightly, less confrontational, bland even.

Position 6. Head tilted to one side, empathetic. He's relaxed, listening to you and interested.

Position 7. Shoulders turned but head full on. You have his full attention, but not in the relaxed manner of 6.

Position 8. Same as 7 but no eye contact. No photographer/sitter relationship. you are observing him but his interest is elsewhere.

Position 9. Looking up to the camera, diminished status.

Position 10. Looking down to the camera, elevated status.
Thanks very much for your help and patience, Eric.

Contact Print from the day.

When I'd completed the required pictures, and having observed the outcomes on the camera screen, I felt more confident and took a few more shots to get a good picture which reflected his good natured patience. I was happy with this shot, although I can see the reflection of the lighting umbrella in the left lens of his specks. We could have overcome this maybe with a soft box.

Little Big Horn 1876

Continuing exploring hands.



The story of the encounter between European settlers and America’s native population does not make for pleasant reading.
According to Ward Churchill, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado, the reduction of the North American Indian population from an estimated 12 million in 1500 to barely 237,000 in 1900 represents a "vast genocide . . . , the most sustained on record."
By the end of the 19th century, writes David E. Stannard, a historian at the University of Hawaii, native Americans had undergone the "worst human holocaust the world had ever witnessed, roaring across two continents non-stop for four centuries and consuming the lives of countless tens of millions of people."

Jane Bown Pictures

On the day that I saw the Penn exhibition at the NPG I had a sandwich downstairs and came across a gallery display of fourteen photographs by Jane Bown. the display coincided with the release of her new book Exposures. Some were previously unpublished and shown alongside her well known classics such as the Samuel Beckett from 1976.

The striking portrait was taken in difficult circumstances with an unwilling subject and only natural light. She took 5 images with a range of exposures. The texture of his skin is particularly apparent as is the contrasting black background. The sheen and lines in his combed hair add directional contrast.

.........and talking about hair. This picture avoids the obvious shot of Sinead's eyes, but the composition and lighting combined with the cigarette make for a different shot, eyes on the lower third.

The shape of the outline below gives a goblet like profile