Saturday 26 November 2011

Competition Updates

So a quick update on the competitions I've been entering - I DID enter Outdoor Photographer of the Year, in the "Waters Edge" category. I put in three images - Bowfiddle Sunrise plus the Duncansby stacks and Lubnaig Reflections. It cost £5 but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I was delighted when a week later I got an email telling me that I had been shortlisted in my category! Of course that is a hugely pleasing achievement as the competition is taken seriously by many very talented photographers, but of course to win... that would really be something. I'm crossing my fingers -the winners will be notified next week!!!

Wish me luck!

Saturday 3 September 2011

Seeking Inspiration?

Has success gone to my head? Having won the monthly Guardian competition, I thought why not enter a few more competitions?
Normally I only enter free comps as I feel the ones that charge are a little like playing the lottery, only instead of being "idiot tax" it's "vanity tax". But... it dawned on me that the comps that charge will only attract very serious photographers. In other words, pay an entry fee to play against the big boys. So, I found the Outdoor Photographer of the Year competition and decided to enter for £5. Looking at the past winners I was thinking "mmhmm, uhuh, yup, there's nothing there I coudn't do". Then... I spotted George Karbus's image - woah!!!! That's a cracker (the gannet underwater), but maybe a one off? Nope, clicking on his link (at the foot of this page, under "Inspiration"), he has many images that blow my socks off. What a photographer! His landscapes are fantastic but his in-the-water shots are breath taking! Go on, have a look.

Good aren't they? So did you just look at them or did you study them. The best way I have found to improve my photography is not to copy other photographers but to study their images and ask myself "why is that a great shot?", "what has the photographer done to make me go WOW!". With George it's the highly unusual subject matters, it's the popping colours, the dramatic angles, the clever techiques (slow exposures and great light for the landscapes, fast shutter speeds for the wildlife and water), it's the taking of images underwater which most of us just don't have the equipment for, it's getting eye contact from the animals he photographs and his ability to either show the creatures in their habitats or satisfy our curiousity by getting in close to animals we rarely see. And of course it's his amazing ability to compose a shot in a dynamic and constantly moving environment. All food for thought - now I just need to see how I can get those themes into my own photography!
Here are a few examples of when I have managed this to some degree - though usually not consciously! No where near as good as George's but they show you can adopt themes without necessarily changing your own style.




Thursday 1 September 2011

Ah...Sweet Success


I love winning competitions. Sometimes I win local competitions, sometimes online competitions with small entries. No matter how small the competition, I love the feeling that someone has looked at a collection of images and then decided "yes, that's the one I like".

Art is so subjective and when you create it in a vacuum, it gets very easy to start feeling that maybe your work is only appealing to yourself. I love that I can create an image that inspires other photographers or is simply enjoyed by someone other than myself, but unless I win competitions, I stop believing that my photography has value. Definitely a mental weakness on my part - lack of self esteem, a need for validation, lack of confidence or a background that valued academic achievement above artistic creativity? Pick any of them..., but that's how I feel.

Readers will remember (maybe) that last October I braved snow and gales and holidayed in Portknockie on the Banffshire coast, primarily to photograph the Bowfiddle Rock. One of the images I made then has turned out to be quite successful. This 'un in fact. It won a competition at my local camera club and was described by the judge as "how to take a landscape photograph". He was a professional and he couldn't fault it. That made me feel great as I LOVE landscapes. So, I thought, why not see if this does well in other competitions - I entered it in the Scotland From the Roadside Forum monthly competition (a tiny competition) and it won! It gave me more self belief. Last week I entered it into the Guardians travel compeition "Been There", just to see if there was achance it could get into the short list. guess what? That's right, it won!!!!! The prize is a £200 voucher for a high qulaity photoprint site (I sense a canvas coming my way) and it puts me in the a group of 12 that will be judged at the end of the year to choose a winner who will go on a photo safari in South Africa! Very, very exciting - wish me luck! But for me, actually the biggest prize of all was the fact that someone chose my image over all the rest - It makes the early mornings and late evenings worth it!

If you like it too, it's for sale as a limited edition at my sales site PhotoForMyWall.com.

I always like to finish these blog entries with a lesson learned. I guess this one is that you have to be in it to win it. And although I believe that art really is art so long as the creator of it feels it is, it also doesn't hurt to put it "out there" and get a virtual pat on the back.

Thursday 12 May 2011

Dedication, that's all you Need... and Luck

After many years of thinking about a trip up to the top Northern Coast of mainland Scotland, I bit the bullet this year and got it organised. It's been a hell of a few months - we've had illness in the family, my job was made redundant, I had to go for interviews and then (thankfully) start a new job and the only thing that has kept me going was that I WOULD, no matter what, get up north and explore a coast I've never been to.

So, I booked a hire car (didn't want to thrash MY car) and 3 B&B's and off I set. We were just finishing the hottest April since records began and the heather was spontaneously bursting into flames. The police had warned people not to travel to Assynt (one of my destinations) but I was going, regardless. I booked a Friday and Monday off work and googled for every photographic opportunity I could find.

Friday came. And the heavens opened. A bit miserable, I went for the car and off I set. Six and a half hours non stop driving to John o'Groats and my determination paid off. the rain stopped and the sun came out! First stop Duncansby Head to see the often missed stacks. But, it was windy and a bit hazey and I couldn't do my slow exposure twilight shot. I snapped a few composition testers and waited for a sunset that hadn't come by 10:30pm. as I walked back I noticed the roosting puffins that i had missed on the way out. It was nearly dark but ramping up to ISO 1600 and snapped my first ever puffins. They would be grainy shots, but so what - puffins!!!! I resolved to return in the morning for sunrise and drove the half hour back to the hotel.

At the car park for the lighthouse I couldn't resist an HDR shot of it. I just had to time the rotation of the light... In the end this looked very nice in colour with the twilight sky, but with strong contrasts I think the mono version is better.



I awoke at 3:30am (yes, I know!) and bundled myself into the car. The pavement was damp and it had been raining but it was dark and dry now, so off I set. Arriving at Duncansby Head lighthouse at 4am, I grabbed the tripod and camera bag and walked ontot he grassy headland. As the rain started again. I stood in the rain for an hour watching the sunrise ermm... watching the black night become grey day. By 5:30am I was soaked, my camera was still stowed in the dry bag and the wind was getting wild. Dispiritedly I trudged back to the car, miserable and cursing my luck. I climbed into the back of the VW polo and curled up under a rug to sleep. No other option than curling really, in a Polo.

After 2 hours I awoke to the wind rocked car and the sound of a rainstorm battering the roof and gave up. Maybe the weather would be better along the coast...

I drove to Thurso and stopped at the Tesco. I needed breakfast and they had a cafe. One giant bacon roll and a latte later the world was looking better. the woman on the counter told me that the forecast was for a dry afternoon. I walked to the car and the rain had stopped - I jumped in the car and set off for the far North East!

So I didn't get my shot of Dumncansby Stacks, but later with a bit of Photoshop Magic I was able to give one of the test composition shots a bit of punch to get a dramatic image in greyscale.



So the lesson from all of this? Yes, a bacon butty and a latte will fix anything.

No, no, no - the lesson I learned is that even when the conditions seem hopeless, compose well and snap away, images can be saved in post processing. There is no such thing as a wasted trip - enjoy being outdoors, take what you can and scout for the next time you're going that way.

Sunday 23 January 2011

A Treemendous Subject

What is a good subject? Something that grabs your attention, it stands out, it's interesting to look at and is big enough in the frame for the viewer to see the detail. Trees fit the bill, from blossom details, to bark texture and twisted interesting shapes. I love photographing them and I have posted a selection at my website, PhotoForMyWall.com.

Most people see, well..., just a tree. As a photographer you need to tell the trees story, have it set a scene, draw attention to it's life, how it affects it's surroundings. Once you start thinking of a tree as a living entity, you can starts to interpret it in an interesting way.
I have a set of images I took in a woodland that was terribly regimented and straight. The trees form and avenue, they get ravaged by deer sharpening their antlers and they grow beside rocks that have sat immobile for centuries. I try to think of the story of these trees, the shapes they form and I try to interpret them artistically. Here they are.

Out for a walk in the Borders I noticed a dry stone wall enclosing a wood. To me they looked like corralled ents, stretching ther limbs out to freedom. They are vaguely threatening, massive and held back by such a low wall, dark forms, densely packed. OK it's a bit "out there" but I think you need to use your imagination if you are going to try to make an interesting image. i'm not saying taht anyone else will see the ents, but so long as I, as the photographer do, some of that interest may be created and others can interpret it in their own way.

So what about just creating a pretty scene? Does it have to tell a story. Well, it can do both. Here is an image I took on a trip into the Bathgate hills last summer - it shows the warmth of the evening, and it tells a story at least to me. It reminds me of quite times alone in the hills, a place where I am happy and it reminds me now, in the depth of winter, how it felt to have the sun shine on my face. The story is a memory to me and hopefully it imparts an emotional response in others.