Photoworks

September 10, 2020

My Portrait

My wonderful son Josh, agreed to do my portrait for the article I wrote for View Camera Australia and I am very happy with the result (quite unusual really as like many photographers, I am not that keen on having my photo taken). Josh took one with me next to my 4x5 and another with my 8x10 (chosen for the article)... here they are ...

Article for View Camera Australia

David Tatnall kindly asked me to write an article for View Camera Australia recently. It proved to be a long and cathartic process but an interesting one that made me reflect on my experiences with large format photography and the rapid rate of change of technology from the early 1990's onwards... got me a bit nostalgic really, especially getting out my 4x5 and 8x10 cameras that hadn't seen the light of day for some time...

Here is a link to the article ...

Here is the image I discussed in the section called 'The Photograph Considered'...

July 17, 2020

Foggy Day

Very cold and foggy today... some pics from my morning walk...

And some that worked much better as B&W...

July 16, 2020

Objects- examples from the book

Here are some samples from the book... you will notice I have significantly reworked them compared to earlier experiments in prior posts

I modified the torch light by adding some frosted drafting film to diffuse the light and taped it on to some pvc tube to 'focus' the light to limit light spread... a rather crude system but one that enabled much more control over the lighting process

Many of the images in the book still used the more direct (non diffused) light source however as it was a good method to intensify textural elements

Typical exposures were f16 or f22 @ 100 ISO and 'painting' with the torches for around 15 to 20 seconds

The LED torch gave a cool blue light while the older incandescent torch provided the warm light

Significant post processing in both Lightroom and Photoshop was required

Here is a pic of the modified torches I used... crude but effective

Using this method made me realise the value of older style incandescent torches and only last year I threw some out thinking I would never need them especially considering their relative inefficiency compared to modern LED versions and non availability of replacement globes, etc... bummer

The only other choice would be to use coloured gels to modify colour temperature...

July 15, 2020

Objects... New Blurb Book

I have just uploaded a new book to the Blurb site... this one is called 'Objects'
To some extent it is an addendum to my last book 'Archive', but this time it is a colour production

In most cases the book contains objects that were too large to scan (scanning of items was the method used in making the images for the 'Archive' book), so I used long exposures at night and 'painting with light' techniques to make the images ...