Assignment 1: Your Neighbourhood; Tutor's Coments

I received my Tutor's comments just before Christmas, so I have been somewhat tardy in getting back to work.  It is always a nerve wracking experience sending in a first assignment to a new tutor, but I was delighted with his comments.  Not that everything was perfect; far from it.  What I was so pleased about was the very thorough way that he had looked at both the assignment and my learning log/blog so far, and made many very constructive and helpful comments.  I was also delighted with the comments about the photographs: " This is a strong set of images.  As we have already discussed, the technical aspects of photography are something you are already comfortable with and have a clear enjoyment in......."  Where my areas for development lie are in the self appraisal of my work, research and aspects of my learning log.  I have taken these pointers on board and am beginning to address them.  I need to review and expand on my self appraisal for this assignment and also make some alterations to and expand on my learning log.

In the light of my Tutor's comments I have revised my self appraisal for this assignment and include it below.  My only concern is that I have now exceeded to recommended length:

I live in a small suburb of Grimsby/Cleethorpes which sits on the Humber Estuary.  As I spend a lot of my time at Cleethorpes and on the beaches and salt marshes that border the resort with both my landscape and wildlife photography I have decided to base this assignment on this location as it is my 'local patch'.  I also used Cleethorpes as a subject for the very similar assignment in Photography 1: People and Place.  Having decided to use the Cleethorpes area again, I began by looking through my work for P&P and was rather pleased to feel that my work has definitely improved.  I think that the technical quality of my photographs is significantly better in post processing and also composition and I think that I have developed a better 'eye' when looking for subjects to photograph.  I then put those images to one side and went out to take some fresh ones especially for this assignment.  As well as conveying a strong sense of place, I also wanted to display a range of styles of photography in order to show both my tutor and, eventually, the assessment team that have have a knowledge and command of a range of genres and techniques..

Cleethorpes is small seaside resort adjoining the port of Grimsby.  I wanted to show some evidence of its use as a resort, as this is perhaps how the majority of people from away view the town, but to me Cleethorpes and its environs mean wide and expansive beaches, salt marshes and huge skies.  The estuary is of international importance for wildlife, and hundreds of thousands of waders, geese and waterfowl migrate to spend the winter here.  I feel that it is important that my photographs also illustrate this aspect of the area.  The beach at the southern end of the resort is a well known and popular location for kite surfing and I wanted to make it the subject of some of my photographs.  It would also give me the opportunity to include some action shots.  The kite surfing takes place within sight of the Bull and Haille sand forts, part of the first world war coastal defences.  Another aspect of Cleethorpes that I wanted to photograph was the town at night looking from the beach towards the prom.  The aim of shooting from this location was to capture a reflection of the lights in either the water or wet sand.  One small claim to fame for Cleethorpes is that it is on the Greenwich Meridian and the town makes quite a feature of this, one example being the meridian itself as a strip of metal with a notice board and signpost indicating both the north and south poles and their distances as well as such destinations as London, New York and Tokyo.  Although a flat estuarine part of the coast, the area does have its wrecks which are revealed at the lowest tides and I wanted to include these.

I made several photographic visits to my location during the late summer and autumn in order to cover the various subjects and optimum times.  For the night shots I needed the lights to be on, which I discovered only happens at weekends; the tide also needed to be right.  For my wader images I needed high tide to bring the birds within camera range.  I chose a high tide which coincided with sunrise and used only a medium telephoto as the aim was to  include the flock rather than portraits of individual birds.  For my 'tourist' pictures I opted for a sunny late summer weekend when there would be a good chance of plenty of visitors being present.  For some of the landscape shots it was necessary to keep an eye on weather forecasts and visit at sunrise and sunset.  Many times the hoped for explosion of colour at this time of day just didn't happen.  In discussion with my tutor, he suggested that "If we try to make work to a preconceived idea, we may miss something new, something unexpected.  He referred me to an interview of Tod Papgeorge by Alec Sloth from July 2007 where Papageorge comments:

My argument against the set-up picture is that it leaves the matter of content

to the IMAGINATION of the photographer, a faculty that, in my experience,

is generally deficient compared to the mad swirling possibilities that our

dear common world kicks up at us on a regular basis.

http://alecsothblog.wordpress.com/category/papageorge/

It was also suggested I look at a conversation between Quentin Bajac and Philip Gefter where Bajac refers to a discussion with Paul Graham where Graham states:

This is what photography is about. It is about having an idea at first and

accepting that you’re going to be seduced, in the etymological sense of the

word, by the world you’re encountering. Some photographers remain really

stiff and rigid. They have the idea. They just want to illustrate the idea. And,

then you have the opposite: photographers who go out to shoot without any

preconceived idea and then, afterwards, try to put all the pieces of the puzzle

together and construct something from their images, which is what has

happened in photography since the beginning.

http://www.aperture.org/blog/view-judgment-seat-quentin-bajacconversation-

philip-gefter/

To an extent, I agree with this but at the same time I do try to 'previsualise' images in the way that Ansel Adams and Edward Weston did.  I usually go out with some idea of what I hope to capture, be it landscape, wildlife or any other genre, but, at the same time, I keep my eye open for any opportunities that present themselves otherwise many pictures would be lost.  The image below is an example:

 I was walking in Derbyshire at the beginning of 2012 and had in mind landscape images of the Dove Valley but the weather was cold wet and overcast.  As we left Pilsbury Castle I noticed a patch of sun sweeping down the valley and prepared to take a photograph when it was positioned perfectly.  Fortuitously a rainbow appeared just at that moment.  I pressed the shutter! 

In an interview for Outdoor Photgraphy magazine (issue 175), when asked the question about his new book 'Vision' " In the Vision you emphasise the imortance of preparation, but are there benefits to shooting spontaneously?", he answers:

Absolutely.  Some of my best photographs were taken in spontaneous moments, and The Vision is littered with them - including the cover image.  Opportunities for spontaneous creativity are more likely if we are out there in photographically promising situations in the first placed.  The final picture is often a radical departure from the original idea, due to nature delivering the unexpected - but I always need the starting point: an idea and a plan.

I feel that this is the approach I take myself.

I have chosen to present the assignment as a set of digital images on a DVD along with my  self-appraisal as a word document.  In this way it could later be easily presented for final assessment.  All parts of this assignment are also on my learning blog. I have presented the images in an order to represent one typical day from sunrise to after dark.  Although the brief doesn't as for a chronology, I am used to using my images to tell a story.  I use my wildlife, landscape and travel photographs as a basis for illustrated talks to a wide variety of groups and here the story format is important.  I envisaged that if the photographs were hung or used in a slide show format it would be better for them to be seen on a 'chronological' order to tell the story of a typical day in Cleethorpes. The image files are JPEGS at 1284 pixels longest side and 72 dpi to be suitable for viewing on screen.  When I print images I print straight from Lightroom at 300dpi using the appropriate ICC profile for the paper I use.  I have used Adobe RGB colour space as there is a wider range in the colour palette at this setting and therefore more vibrant colours.  I usually also have my camera set to Adobe RGB.

I do the minimum of post processing and like Ansel, Adams and Edward Weston, I try to' previsualise' an image and capture that image in camera. My workflow and post processing is similar for all of my photographs after capture:

·         import into Lightroom 5;

·         crop if needed;

·         adjust exposure/levels;

·         if necessary adjust the white balance/colour temperature;

·         if necessary employ the ND grad feature in Lightroom after using the highlight slider;

·         increase clarity and vibrance slightly and, depending if I have increased the colour temperature, slightly increase the saturation.

I tend not to use ND grads in the field as my cokin ones can give a magenta colour cast.  I use the ND grad facility in Lightroom 5 as I know that it is neutral.  By and large, although I will often bracket exposures ready for HDR, I do not make use of the technique preferring the effect of using one image and ND grad filters.  Having said that the monochrome shot of the wreck with Grimsby dock tower in the background is an HDR shot.

My final selection of images was made on the basis of technical quality, although to some extent this is personal and subjective; another person may well have chosen a totally different set from my shortlist.  I also selected images that helped to tell 'my story' of Cleethorpes and its varied aspects and represented a range of styles.

I feel that my portfolio matches my original aims: show a variety of genres and styles and the varied aspects of the town.  However, I feel that editing down to only 15 images perhaps didn't give enough scope to show everything I wanted.  In retrospect I may have been better sticking to one genre, in which case I would have opted for landscape. I have included the genres of landscape, wildlife, street photography, action and sports photography and night photography.  The majority, perhaps, fall into the landscape and street photography categories and, possibly, it would have been better to have gone for a more even spread.  I do feel that I have given a good picture of the resort and shown its varied aspects.  When thinking about and researching for this assignment, I gained inspiration from the work of Joel Meyerowitz in his book 'Cape Light'.  The first of my images of a Cleethorpes Sunrise reminds me of several from Cape Light such as Plate 24 Bay/Sky, Dusk, Provincetown and Plate 21 Bay/Sky, Provincetown.  My long exposure Pan image of the beach dunes and sky also reminds me of some of his more abstract work.  My street/social documentary shots remind me of some of the ones in Cape Light such as Plate 12 Ballston Beach, Truro and also Plate 8 with the same title.  

http://mikespwdplearninglog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Reading%20and%20Research%2006

I have already mentioned the link to John Hinde's work at The Photographer's Gallery in my blog from my picture of the fairground ride. 

http://mikespwdplearninglog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Reading%20and%20Research%2001

I have long been a fan of the work of Galen Rowell and often use his work as inspiration.  In his book, Mountain Light, he mentions that he rated his  Kodachrome 64 film at 80 and Kodachrome II (ASA 25) at 32 in order to achieve the rich saturated effect in his images that he preferred.  I too like to see well saturated rich images, but nowadays we have the benefit of being able to tweak this in post processing to achieve the same result.  Nevertheless, although I take not of the histogram when I am making exposures my default mode is to set my exposure compensation to - 1/3 or - 2/3 in the same way that Rowell uprated his Kodachrome film stock.

Assignment 1: Storm Surge in the North Sea Creates a Dilemma.

I suppose the storm surge in the North Sea last week created lots of dilemmas for many people but it created one for me as far as Assignment 1 is concerned.  I went down to Cleethorpes the morning after the main damage was done because high tide coincided with sunset.  The waves were spectacular as was the sunset.  The dilemma is; do I include any of the images as part of the assignment which I had decided was completed.
To view large, click on a thumbnail.

Assignment 1: Foiled by the local council.

I had wanted to revisit the lights at Cleethorpes both at high tide to try to improve on the 'straight' night shot of the lights and also after high tide in order to have another go at my zoom burst image.  I made two return visits only to find that the lights were not switched on!!  As it happened, at high tide, it was not possible to get into position to improve on the reflection and anyway I think that perhaps the reflection in wet sand was probably better as the texture in the sand is clear.  As far as the zoom burst went I had another look at one of my original shots and found that I could crop it in a way that pleased me.  I would have liked to have positioned myself at right angles to the lights in order to secure a symmetrical burst, but in the end I like the asymmetry of this shot; it reminds me of the light from a lighthouse sweeping across the sky.

 Although the image below is from my archives and taken in 2011, it really epitomises Cleethorpes for me as this huge flock of waders take to the air at high tide at the south of the resort.  As it is an old image, I may well not use it in my final selection.

This shot from my archives of the Cleethorpes Light Railway is another that I would have liked to have repeated for this assignment, but unfortunately by the time I started photographing for it the steam service had been removed for the winter.

More images for Assignment 1

I have nearly completed the photography for Assignment 1 but have a couple of ideas that I still want to try out: photographing Cleethorpes sea front at night.  I was keen to get a straight night shot of the lights, but I wanted them to be reflected in the water/wet sand.  This required both darkness and high tide so I have had to wait a couple of weeks for the conditions to be right.  I went down a couple of days ago to try my luck.  I had missed the tide but there was still a reflection in the wet sand.  I used a wide angle to get the whole of this section of the sea front in but felt it looked better when cropped to the image below.  I used an aperture of f22 to secure the star burst in the lights.  I am going to try again tonight and make sure that I hit high tide at 5.00 pm to see if there is more of a reflection.

I also wanted to try a couple of experimental shots that I had in mind.  I enjoy playing with zoom bursts, the subject of the next picture taken from the same position.  In all these shots I used a tripod as I was working with a long exposure.  For the one above an exposure up to 30 seconds was fine but for the zoom burst I needed only 1 or 2 seconds, the idea being to zoom out the lens during the exposure; 30 seconds would have been too long.  I like this shot but wonder if it would have been better if I had been at right angles to the lights in order to get a symmetrical burst.  I shall have to wait for the tide to go out a bit for this shot though otherwise I shall be up to my neck in water.

The next experiment I wanted to try was the one below.  I had already tried this at dawn a couple of weeks ago when I noticed that if the lens was slightly defocused the lights turned into lovely globes of colour.  I wasn't sure that it had worked at dawn so decided to try again on this occasion.  I am much happier with the result.  I have seen this effect on television occasionally and my wife says that this is what Christmas lights look like when she removes her glasses.

I'm not sure about these experiments; I suppose you either love them or hate them.

Just as I was finishing I spotted this, more conventional night shot.  I waited for a car to pass in order to get the straks of red from its rear lights.

Assignment 1: Your Own Neighbourhood; More Images

I have been out and about again and have some more images to think about.  I wanted some more sunrise shots to consider, in particular one from the dunes where I have been photographing snow buntings (see my Mike's Natural Musings blog).  I envisaged the dune grasses in the foreground with the sun rising behind.  In the event, despite wading across the salt marsh in the predawn dark, it didn't happen.  Back to the drawing board for this one although I could do with it in the bag soon.  I also envisaged a shot from this location looking back towards Cleethorpes town in the early light.  I did get this but I would like a much more dramatic sky.  As I walked out over the marsh I noticed that the lights were still on in Cleethorpes and decided to take a shot.  As I focused I noticed that when the scene was slightly out of focus the lights recorded as a beautiful coloured globe.  I set the camera to manual and did this deliberately.

To view the images large, click on a thumbnail.

After leaving the beach I drove down to take some more shots of the pier.  I had wanted some to convert to black and white.  During post processing I enhanced the blue channel to bring out the clouds.  In the first shot I used a 10-20mm lens from a low angle to make it more dramatic.  I corrected the sloping verticals in Lightroom 5.

Wanting to try a few experimental shots for this assignment I decided to consider this one from a local high tide wader roost taken as I was beginning this module.  It is of a flock of godwits which are regular visitors to the Humber Estuary.  The light was poor so rather than use a high ISO to achieve a fast enough shutter speed to get a sharp image I went the other way.  I used a lower ISO and a slower shutter to produce motion blur provide an abstract image that conveys movement.

Assignment 1: Your Own Neighbourhood. First Thoughts.

It is unusual to begin a new module with an assignment so it has been interesting to dive in at the deep end.  I live in a small suburb of Grimsby/Cleethorpes which sit on the Humber Estuary.  As I spend a lot of my time at Cleethorpes and on the beaches and salt marshes that border the resort with both my landscape and wildlife photography I have decided to base this assignment on this as it is my 'local patch'.  I also used Cleethorpes as a subject for the very similar assignment in Photography 1: People and Place.  Having decided to use the Cleethorpes area again, I began by looking through my work for P&P and was rather pleased to feel that my work has definitely improved.  I then put those images to one side (apart from one which I shall discuss later) and went out to take some fresh ones especially for this assignment.  As well as conveying a strong sense of place, I also wanted to display a range of styles of photography.

Cleethorpes is small seaside resort adjoining the port of Grimsby.  I wanted to show some evidence on its use as a resort but to me Cleethorpes and its environs mean wide and expansive beaches and salt marshes and big skies.  The estuary is hugely important for wildlife and hundreds of thousands on waders, geese and waterfowl migrate to spend the winter here.  I feel that it is important that my photographs also illustrate this aspect of the area.

Although I have only started this blog today I have been out and about taking photographs for the assignment since I first received my course materials.

I include a selection of the images that I have begun shortlisting and will add to them as the assignment progresses.

One of the larger waders that can regularly be seen at the south end of the resort in an area known as The Fitties.  Little Egrets were at one time rare in this country but are now iconic birds of the east coast.

Snipe

During late summer and early autumn we experienced a series of wonderful sunrises and sunsets.  Here I have placed a groyne in the middle ground with the iconic pier in the background.

The same groyne a few moments later.

No people in this image of the small amusements but the fact that this is a resort used by people is implicit in this shot and the one below.

This image and the one below were taken on Cleethorpes beech at sunrise.  Later in the day in this wonderful early autumn weather, the beach was packed with visitors.  In the background to this shot is a P&O ferry on its way back to Hull from either Zeebrugge or Rotterdam.

A close up of the same groyne.

Cleethorpes is a well known and popular location for kite surfing which is the subject of the following set of images.  In this one the Bull sand fort can be seen in the distance.  There are two of these forts and they were part of the first world war coastal defences.

This shot shows the Haille sand fort as well as the surfer.

An interesting character on the local surf scene.

Although a flat estuarine part of the coast, the area does have its wrecks which are revealed at the lowest tides.

This and the next image show the same wreck with the famous Grimsby dock tower in the background.

Another wreck at the opposite end of the beach with the lighthouse and Spurn Point behind.

A classic wader of the estuary; an oystercatcher.

This and the shot below are snow buntings.  Their only breeding range in this country is the high tops of the Cairngorm Mountains.  We always get a few wintering birds on the dunes in Cleethorpes.

A mixed flock of waders flying in and settling as they are washed off their feeding grounds at high tide.  I was pleased to capture them against a wonderful sunrise.  These are just a fraction of the many thousands of birds that winter here.

I'm not sure whether it is a bit of a risk including this long exposure panning shot looking out over the beach.  I like the layers formed by the salt marsh in the foreground, then beach, sea and finally sky.

Sunrise at the south end of Cleethorpes in the are known as The Fitties, just before the sun popped up above the clouds.

End of season maintenance on one of the beach chalets.

Cleethorpes front is a favourite for runners.

Mountain biker taking a well earned rest.

Waiting for customers.

Visitors enjoying a rest and looking out to sea; the pier in the background.

The cycle lane on the sea front is always popular.

Every seaside resort needs its pier and donkey rides.

A visit to the pier is a must on a day at the seaside.

Cleethorpes sea front is always a popular gathering spot for 'bikers'.  Here a gleaming Harley awaits its owners return.

One of our more unconventional visitors.  

He was more than happy to have his photo taken.

Two visitors standing on the Greenwich Meridian line whilst reading the information board.  I have deliberately included the shadow of the sign and distance post pointing to, among other destinations, the north and south poles.

Salt marsh, big sky and Spurn Point.  I liked the warm autumn colours in this scene.