A Pair of Briefs

Another Wivenhoe Photography Group shoot, another brief ignored - well, not quite. The theme was symmetry. I shot a load of stuff where symmetry could be found within an essentially asymmetrical composition. Here it is.

Not Only But Also

This small selection was shot whilst out on location with someone who is keen to expand their photographic horizons. I like to give people time and space to relax and shoot when tutoring on location, and shooting some of my own images at the same time gives us comparison points to discuss when we are both exploring the same scene.

On this occasion we visited two spots in my home town of Wivenhoe. First a brief stop on some farmland to look at leading lines and horizons.

Then we spent much longer exploring the recently re-opened jetty.
As well as technique, we looked at how to get the most from a single location, by working the angles and searching for interesting details after shooting the more obvious views.

The time of year also allowed us to work with the midday sun behind, to the side, and in front, looking at the opportunities and challenges presented by each.

This set also included some reflections we spotted in a large window on a commercial property, that looked like a big dark mirror.

Pictures at an Exhibition

No update to the blog this month as I'm exhibiting in the real world for a change.
The place is the Wivenhoe Gallery (Wivenhoe Business Park, Brook Street, Wivenhoe CO7 9DP), and it's the first group exhibition by the Wivenhoe Photography Group. All the images exhibited (by 8 photographers) were shot during our group ventures.
If you're interested in photography or participating in the group, pop down Tues-Sat 9-5 throughout August.

The Trip

A trip to Fingringhoe where everything appeared to be against us - ok, not literally everything, but there was no skipper for the ferry, so we had to drive there, then after a glorious summer's day, the light turned flat. I therefore decided to play with some different blur techniques - panning, long exposure of moving subjects, zooming, and double exposure (1 sharp, 1 blurred - combined later in photoshop to add some vibrancy to an otherwise flat image).

On The Waterfront

Here are some views of Wivenhoe that you won't see very often...
Playing with in-camera (and post-production) impressionist techniques once again, this time with a more avowedly fantastical goal.
This set could be subtitled 'pan and scan' as lateral movements and zooming were used rather than the vertical movements of the graveyard set.
Post involved some custom curves and some contrast shifts using 'apply image'. There was also some selective colouring and tinting using various layers.