Autumn 2018

As the title of this post suggests this my second time writing a review of autumn and as such my photographic technique has hopefully advanced since I wrote the First Autumn Post a year ago. Having reviewed this last post, I am feeling a bit of pressure as some of the images in that post are fairly good. Learning photography autumn – game on!

Whereas Autumn 2017 only covered November 2017, when I started this project, and dealt mainly with woodland photography this post covers the full three months from September and more styles of photography including:

Street Photography at the Tate Modern, Brick Lane and elsewhere
Architectural Photography as a result of my first commercial assignment
Seascapes: Bournemouth, Crosby Beach – Another Place

In terms of improving my woodland and landscape photography, I was able to attend a one day workshop with Paul Mitchell (30th October) in Burnham Beeches and Leeming and Paterson (20th November) in Great Missenden

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Top Images – by Genre

Woodland

Autumn 2018	….	Autumn 2017
Lest we forget – love the cobwebs and detail on the rusting ironwork		5 Trees Stoke Park Club
First image in the triptych was the very first shot taken on the day.		Lake Langley Park
Between the 17th and 27th		First Reflections – Langley Park Lake – Did well in Competition

Seascape/ Landscape

For more see my post: “Seascape, Landscapes and Urban Photography, Northern Ireland”

Cityscape

On the way to one days photography at the Tate — Crossing the Millennium Bridge from St Paul’s to the Tate.

For more, see my post: “One day photographing the Tate Modern”

Art museum mirrors and glass — Interesting view from the escalator of the Tate Modern London.

Unusually lit corridor of Saatchi Museam — Study in blue and yellow.

Street

Two women drinking posh bottled water in front of an irony graffito. Learning photography autumn — The irony of drinking San Pellegrino in the Nomadic Gardens near Brick Lane, London.

Photographic Techniques

A day spent with Ted and Morag of Leeming and Paterson on a workshop practising creative photography techniques including deliberate camera movement (ICM) produced a good series of Impressionist Woodland Photographs include the following which won third place in the December print competition (my best performance to date):

Thoughts on Composition

All images, regardless of genre should work as abstracts. Compositional elements such as leading lines, triangles, strong diagonals to create dynamism, points of focus and highest contrast. Ensure that the eye moves through the image without being drawn to distractions on the edges or getting “blocked” at visually heavy objects.

Image balance and dynamics: central compositions are static, either powerful or uninteresting depending on the intent; off-centre images are dynamic but need somewhere to move into and perhaps a balancing element elsewhere in the image.

Think specifically about:

specifically what you’re photographing
how to keep the image clean and simple, i.e., remove all distractions
what you’re trying to say – emotions to convey
any post-processing techniques you might want to employ.

The scene is always changing: in landscapes, the light changes; in the street people move. Try to anticipate and prepare for what might happen next.

References: