Onwards

Well I've been home for a few days now, from what turned out to be perhaps the most awful trip I've experienced to date. Everything seemed to go terribly wrong, all starting with getting a chest infection from the moment I landed in Iceland. They are also experiencing the coldest summer since 1958. It was cold. Plus, I have to say that going during the longest days of the year is not to be advised from a light / photographer's point of view. It never really got into Twilight at any point and I felt that the light never really got sweet enough to photograph in. Just a shade too close to midday light for my liking, even at midnight or 2am.

However, I did stumbled out of my tent at Jokulsarlon (glacial lagoon) to make some photos of the ice bergs crashing on the black sand at the coast line. I must admit that I felt like hell while I was out there making pictures and retreated back to my tent after only about half an hour. I was feeling so crappy, that I completely lost the will to make any concentrated effort on my photography.

Strangely, I've come home with around 17 rolls of film shot, and I suspect that there will be some decent images in there, despite my own interpretation of how bad the trip was.

So I'm wondering if I actually managed to make some good images after all? Being ill definitely made me feel less enthused to make images and I often found myself feeling very disconnected from what I was there to shoot. But I rarely make an image if I'm feeling I'm just going through the motions, or have little interest in what I'm doing. So how come I've managed to shoot 17 rolls of film?

My theory is that perhaps there were those moments of inspiration. But because I'm so clouded by an overall impression of how bad I felt for most of the time, I've lost sight to those sparse moments I had when I felt really good about what I was doing?

Time will tell. I've posted off my films at the moment and hope to have some to work on early next week. I'll post some on the blog if I feel inclined to do so.

Anyway, It's back to work for me at the moment. I've got a lot going on this month with the Quark Express file being created for my forthcoming book this July, and I'm busy proofing the images for the book at home while the text is now finally being proofed by someone (after a few false starts at trying to get it checked over by several people this year). So things now feel like they're going ahead.

Lofoten - a photographer's approach

For those of you who aren't a member of my news letter, I've just released a new eBook - Lofoten - a photographer's approach. This is perhaps my most favourite writing project to date, because it has nothing to do with the technical side of making images, but instead, is about approach. It was great fun to write it because I had to relive the experience of being back on Lofoten and just how everything there - the people, the weather, the quality of light, and how I felt about being there - all came together and resulted in the final images you see within the eBook.

I think how we approach and deal with a subject is more important than knowing which f-stop to use, or what shutter speed to use. I believe that being more aware of our surroundings, and heightening our sense of awareness is vital if we are to improve in our photographic endeavours.

Anyway, that said, I'm sure that the sales of this title will be a lot smaller than the techy books, simply because of the demographic involved. Many people own cameras, but don't consider themselves artists, while proportionally, few artists own cameras.

Learning the technical helps, but it doesn't make us great photographers. If only learning the techy stuff was all we needed, then it would be great wouldn't it? Actually, no it wouldn't, because what makes photographers stand out, is the differences in how they see and how they respond to what they're experiencing.

You can get 'Lofoten - a photographer's approach' alongside a 1080p version of the related podcast here.

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SNH Talk, Perth September 2011

I've been invited to this year's SNH (Scottish Natural Heritage) Photography Fair. The dates are 3rd and 4th of September. The location is Battleby near Perth, Scotland.

I don't have any firm details as yet, but I will be giving a 40 minute talk on my photography both days in a rather nice venue with Panoramic 1080p Audio Visual environment. Once the Fair has been published by SNH, I will let you all know.

Abisko National Park, Sweden

Ahhhh, some day I'll make it to Sweden and Finland. I feel that Scandinavia has so much to offer in terms of photographic possibilities. So today I got an email from my friend Vlad, who accompanied me on my recent trip this March to the Lofoten islands in Norway. He's kindly allowed me to publish some of his images here from a recent trip he made to Abisko National Park in Polar Sweden.

Vlad told me:

"Abisko Natonal Park is situated in Polar Sweden, just 100 km north of the town of Kiruna and is all surrounded by mountains with a 70 km long lake that is solid frozen for half of the year!

Being one of the coldest places in Europe, the usual temperature during my visit in February there was between minus 40 and minus 25 degrees during the day... So it's not that comfortable like the coastal Norway, but the chance for clear skies is much better."

I share Vlad's sense of adventure and would, personally, endure minus 40 degrees if I had to, in order to reach my goals.

Vladimir Donkov is an outdoor photographer with a passion for mountain landscapes, environmental shots and vanishing cultures. Throughout the last 3 years he has been working on his project for a book and open-air exhibition called "North." - presenting different places all over the North Polar Circle: protected areas and places under danger of mining and oil drilling - trying to prove the unprotected ones are worth being saved before it's too late. You can see more of his images at

http://verticalshot.com/en/gallery

Recent workshop Testimonials

This month seems to have been a bumper one for very nice emails from participants on my workshops. I thought it would be nice to show you some of them as I think the images are rather lovely, and of course, the comments are very nice too.

Bruce,

I enjoyed the course very much. For me the essence was “less is more”. Trying to simplify the landscape to make a stronger picture.

With the right balance of theory and practice, I’m sure it will move my photography to the next level.

I included some pictures from the last morning. (Not quite had the time to edit them completely)

Thanks to everyone for the good company !

Regards,

Peter De Wilde

And many thanks to you Bruce for an eye opening few days.

I enjoyed and learnt from your critiques and will be spending probably even more time over my future photos as i try to put some of your composition ideas into action.

I enjoyed the whipping we got from the weather which may have been dire but gave us one or two exceptional moments (i spent at least one of them frantically wiping my lens....) the likes of which can only happen during dreadful weather! The food was fantastic, far beyond my expectations from Scotland (!) and went down better thanks to all those fun discussions we had at table. My bed was also very comfortable though i never spent very much time in it! It was great to meet all three of you and i hope you are all settling back into your post-Eigg lives. I also attach a photo from the last morning.....

All the best,

Duncan. (frae France)

Hi Bruce

I really enjoyed the Eigg Trip last week.  The content of the course was just what I was looking for, with the right balance of tuition / guidance and space to try out the techniques you taught us.  I particularly enjoyed the feedback from the critique and post-production sessions and am looking forward to using the skills I've learned to (hopefully) simplify and make stronger images in the future.

Best regards Niall

Hi Bruce,Thanks for the unforgettable experience of last month's Inverpolly workshop. It was everything I expected and more. You managed to have us use virtually every minute of that weekend in an enjoyable and instructive photographic experience. One of my reasons for attending the workshop was my expectation that there are limitations to what you can learn from books and that you just need to be "out there" with someone guiding you. From the first hour in the field you proved that to be true. Furthermore, despite of the busy schedule, you manage to create a relaxed and nice atmosphere in the group.

As you might remember, I stayed a few more days in Scotland after the workshop. I was glad you convinced me to stay in the area instead of traveling a lot. Basically, during the morning and evening hours I only revisited our workshop locations. Because you requested results ;-) I included some pictures of those sessions.

Your guidance in the field was excellent and the critique sessions were most useful with composition and photo editing guidelines, including some eye openers, like reconsidering aspect ratio. As said, thank you for everything you taught me, which is a lot. And since there is still even more to learn, you will probably see me in one of your 5 day workshops somewhere next year, together with a colleague who became enthusiastic when hearing about my experiences.

Regards, Maurice Zelissen

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Well, needless to say, that sort of feedback makes me feel very, very happy indeed, despite the fact that I don't get a chance to make any images myself during the workshops (well, sometimes i do - if the participants are engrossed in what they're doing and we're well into the week).

So I'm now getting ready to take a break from the workshops until the end of August and I have a few plans in order, so I can make some new images of my own. Running a workshop business is very satisfying, especially when you see people 'get' what you're trying to convey to them.

Still, I don't get much of a chance to work on my own images, so this summer I'm off to Iceland, Norway and then Switzerland in October. For the next few months, this is my time, to be creative and work on my own art. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm also looking forward to having rewarding experiences with future participants in my up-coming workshops this Autumn and Winter.

Letting go of the Camera

Last week whilst on my Eigg workshop, I was handed a copy of Brooks Jensen's book 'Letting go of the camera' and I couldn't put it down. It's a small sized A5 book, deep in content, and around £10 here in the UK to buy.

Brooks Jensen has a great web site about black and white photography and his magazine 'Lenswork' is highly recommended too. It's a very high end art product and the man focusses more on the 'art' and much less on the camera / lens / technical discussions that swamp the internet.

In 'Letting go of the camera', Brooks covers many topics in this non-tech book about Photography and whether you agree with his point of view, it's a great read as it makes you think more about the reasons behind photography, why we do it, and what it is to each of us.

For instance, he has a section in there titled 'what I've learned about photography', which has some nuggets of advice such as "most often, people aren't close enough". I'd agree since I see a lot of participants on my workshops not get 'into' the landscape, but try to make pictures 'outside' it.

There are also some nice words of wisdom about numbering prints. I laughed when he says 'it's irrelevant whether the print is an edition of 10 or 50, as you'll only get to edition 2 of the print anyway'. Well, that's sort of true. I guess we can all live in hope of selling our complete editions.

He also covers workshops and I felt he hit a nerve with me about them. His golden rule is 'to attend a workshop without expecting to make great images'. I'd agree since this is not what workshops are about. They are forums to learn new things to take home with you and should not be treated as an image-bagging exercise by the workshop leader or participants.

Anyway, there's a lot of golden nuggets of advice in this book, from trying to go pro to attending workshops, to self improvement.

I've ordered my copy from Neil and Beyond Words.

Highly recommended.

First Prints on Epson 4880

Yesterday was an interesting day for me as I made my first efforts into printing with Colourburst RIP and the Epson 4880 printer I just received on Thursday.

Since the RIP does not come with the Museo Silver Rag environments - the profile and linearisation files, I down loaded them as a free set up from Colourburst's web site. Installation was a breeze as the zip file came with a very easy to follow 'how to' guide which simply explained which files to put into which directories.

Reading the RIP manual was straight forward.

Now, for the printing experience. I had some issues last night printing from CS5 to the RIP and discovered that printing directly from CS5 is to be avoided for two reasons. Firstly, CS5 tries to colour manage the file for you, so you get two applications of colour management (and therefore a substandard print), and both CS5 and Colourburst both try to manage the file sizes too.

I followed the recommendations of saving a copy to the Hot Folder from CS5. You turn off the layers in the PSD file. The file appeared in the Queue with the correct sizing and printed out beautifully.

I must in future, try to read all the manuals.

I find the quality of the output is astounding. The RIP comes with a lot of profiles for paper types, and the Museo Silver Rag was available as a free download. It's been very quick and easy for me to get the printing up to speed and I should note that it's really a case of getting familiar with the software (and printer hardware). Cutting corners without reading manuals (esp the Epson 4880 manual), will stop you from getting the most from the printing asI found last night. I was getting some very substandard prints because I was trying to print directly from CS5.

Anyway, I'm off to Eigg today to do a week workshop. But I'm feeling very happy with my results and I can only thank once again Kyriakos and also Neil Barstow from Colourmanagement.net for putting me on the right track.

Epson Prints on Museo Silver Rag

A few nights ago, I spent an evening with Kyriakos Kalorkoti in his home studio working on some of my images for print onto Museo's Silver Rag paper.

I have to say that the process was very interesting for me. It seems that preparing images for print is a little like cleaning up an oil painting, or perhaps it's a little like taking the image for a second time.

Anyway, I'm very happy with the results and I think they look much better than the Fuji Crystal Archive images I've had done in the past. I'm not going to say that one medium is better than the other. I just feel that the quality of Epson prints when done correctly is superb, and I feel that because the technology is affordable and within the grasp of amateurs and small businesses, it's great to be able to have that level of control at your finger tips.

I take delivery of my own Epson 4880 tomorrow along with Colourburst's RIP driver. It will be interesting to see how things move along over the next year or so.

Return to Iceland

In just over two weeks time, I'll be back in Iceland for a month of travel and photography. This is the first trip back to Iceland since 2007, and I'm currently planning on going back in January 2012 as well.

My intentions are to go and do some of the locations I had ear marked the first time I was there, but simply ran out of time to do. Two of them are treks - Landmannalaugar to þórsmörk trek and also the Ásbyrgi to Detifoss canyon trek.

What I love most about iceland is the light throughout the night. It doesn't really get dark in the middle of the Summer, even though it is below the arctic circle. I've had some amazing experiences cycling through the lava fields up near Krafla at 3am with no one else around for miles. It does mean that I end up sleeping throughout the day as the light is too harsh and intense if the sun is out.

I think some places require return visits. Not simply because I didn't get to see all of what I intended, but because they have a magnetic pull on you. Patagonia, Bolivia Norway and Iceland are in this category for me and I feel that repeat visits allow you to see a different face to the same country. It does challenge you to forget what you shot in the past, and to keep your mind open as much as you can to new possibilities.

Space as a sign of maturity

Tonight I'm listening to the 'new' album by Kate Bush. I'm a fan. The album in question is a re-interpretation of previous songs from two of her albums. I think it's a lovely effort, which shows someone who's much more comfortable and able to let a lot more space into her music than she did back in the 90's. Her voice has matured a lot and some of the songs had to be transposed down to fit her new lower register.

I bring all this up because I think there's a lot of parallels to what Kate's done revisiting her older work and what most artists do as they get more experienced. And that is the subject of giving your work more space.

If you suffer from low confidence in what you do, you'll tend to over complicate things, and make images too busy. Certainly, I've had many a correspondence from photographer's telling me that they find it hard to shoot 'minimalist' landscapes, finding it a 'frightening' experience. I certainly think that if I look back at my own work, I started out making busy images. It's a natural thing to do. Our first efforts are of recording 'scenery', and as we progress, we stop thinking about 'scenery', like bridges, mountains, streams and start to think about form, tonality and the relationships between them all inside our frame. And I think, as we progress further, we start to seek out space in our work, because space provides simplicity.

We know how to say what we want to say, and we need a lot less 'props' with which to do it.

I think that's what Kate Bush has been doing with her reworked songs. They have a lot more space to 'just be themselves'. Less of the production where there's so much going on that you can't take it all in. Now you can. And it's much more satisfying for it too.

So I'd like to put forward my argument that space in an artists work, is a sign of maturity. Knowing when to leave be, when to let something be blank and empty shows confidence. Like someone who's just happy to be in your company but doesn't feel the need to fill the space with chat. The experience is a much more natural one.

But above all else, space shows that the artist has been able to distill the essence of the image and remove anything that does not add, help or support the main message. The work becomes bolder because of that space. It's something to work towards.