After initially thinking I hadn’t been anywhere or done anything in the last 3 months, a quick search by date through my Lightroom Catalogue found the above photos from:1690s Re-enactment, Snake Still-life, York City Street Photography, Natural Abstract, charity shoot of TVH at the Stag, Lottie’s Exotics, Karl Taylor Coca-Cola Challenge, Gypsy Horses, Local Glass Artist, and Exeter.
To see the above photos in more details, click on the image above, to read about them click below, and in both cases please follow me on the social medial links to the right.
Introduction and Scope
This is my quarterly review of work towards my 10,000 hours of deliberate practice learning the art of photography covering the months June, July and August. Specifically I look at:
- Photos from the Season
- Long Term Projects
- Reflection vs Previous Summers
- Progress Against Goals
Photos from the Season
Three months of varied photography, resulting in an eclectic set of images. I am still “learning widely and experimenting with many different techniques”, which the philosopher Jung relates to the first half of mastery. (See my reference in “Conclusion – 5,000 Hours Half Way” post.)
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Snake and Dead Lilies (symbolising, the other way round, death and rebirth).
Captures the required mood of the image with the hero status of the can but not entirely on brief with the positioning of the bottle.
(Stag staff left in black, TVH in red, and Councillor Seera Carter right)
Preparation of glass sculpture prior to firing.
Leaving room for the viewer to assign an interpretation
Re-enactment portrait
the dual life of the the market square functional by day/ social by evening
Long Term Projects
Work for my ARPS continued with the development of an aesthetic that reflected my initial interest and attraction to the project. My goal is to create woodland images that are semi-abstract and reflect the contemplative mood that the area inspires. Without claiming even 1% of a master’s skill, I want my images to be different from random shots of trees in the same way that a Jackson Pollock painting is different from the mess created by a child spilling paint on the floor.
Despite my previous Statements of Intent, I don’t want my images to tell the story of vast areas of forest being removed to create more heathland. I want to convey the emotion I feel when looking at the newly formed edge of the forest.
The above image is created by dramatically reducing the contrast on the LAB A channel, i.e., removing most of the green/ magenta dimension of the colouring. This creates a level of abstraction that is less influenced by seasonal colours.
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Reflection vs Previous Summers
Having reviewed the posts for previous summers, the thing that strikes me most is that previous years tended to concentrate on technique, and the images produced contained a great deal of variation. I have said several times before that my biggest self-criticism is that if I produce 10 photos from a session, they look as though they were taken by 10 different photographers. This is gradually becoming less true.
My biggest achievement this quarter is the development of my woodland aesthetic. Yes, this is still a technique, based on LAB colour processing, but it is a technique that should help unify my images with a consistent look.
Progress Against Goals
As mentioned in the Photos from the Season section above, my shooting habits are those of a person in the first half of their Jungian maturation, i.e., full of youthful experimentation. My “5,000 Hours – Half way” post suggests that I capitalise upon this cross fertilisation between genres but start to narrow my focus on some projects particularly that which will lead to my ARPS. The ARPS project should be my top priority although it has lapsed a little in the last few months, partly because summer is a less good time for moody woodland photography.
I also set the goal of learning more about currently practicing contemporary photographers and artists in general. Progress in this area includes the discovery of:
- Jenny Saville – combination of hyperrealism and abstract expressionism
- the philosophy of phenomenology, particularly Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, largely inspired by my reading of Roland Barthes “Camera Lucida” which I reviewed in this post.