2nd Book Project

Dear all, Last year was a terrific time for me. Had someone suggested that I would have a book out, of some of my best material, and that the book would be as beautiful as it turned out to be, I wouldn't have believed them. Add to that, that the preface would be written by Michael Kenna, and I would have laughed out loud.

But as much as I'm always surprised by how things go from strength to strength for me with my photography, I'm aware that everything is a stepping stone. By that, I mean that one thing leads to another, and by taking the first step, the next step comes into sight, and I'm able to visualise where I'm going.

So I'm pleased to announce, that my 2nd book project is under way. I feel that if I am to continue to produce books, they should be very high end, art books, each with a particular topic in mind. I can't think of any more engaging topic right now (out of my current portfolio) than my Iceland images, for the catalyst for a 2nd book.

So right now, I have the above and below 'proto-type' design's in mind. The image above is of the dust jacket, while the image below is of a proposed clamshell casing for the book.

I have a very strong idea about what it is that I want to create. But I'm sure, as with the previous book, the designs will change over the period that I work on the book. I just want to share this with you, so you can see that creative ideas are never fixed, but things are always fluid, in a state of change. Even right up to the last minute, anything can change, and I just love that.

Creativity requires freedom to do what it's going to do. For that to happen, you need to have confidence in your decisions, and be able to be objective about what you're doing, and happy to change direction if things aren't working. Of course, this does not stop me from having a very strong idea for the book - on the contrary - I have a very strong sense of how this book will look - but I'm flexible enough to understand that ideas evolve, things get more finely tuned as time moves forward, and ultimately, I will produce something that seemed to take on its own identity.

I'm aware that this might all sound rather philosophical, or even 'preachy'. I'm no preacher. Just someone following his own 'instinct' or 'drive'.

I'm not too sure what it is, but I do tend to visualise final ideas in my head and once they're there, it becomes much easier to move forward. I have a visual to work towards. This of course, is something that can (and should) be applied to all aspects of our lives. So if there's something you want to do, visualise it, draw it, imagine it.

Think about it and dream about it.

I'm convinced that the effort directed in this way means that you move towards your goal, without really knowing it.

I'll be in touch about further news about this book. It gives me great inspiration and excitement, and that alone, is worth it.

Skye - now sold out.

Update - this trip is now sold out! Just a quick post to let you all know that a space has become free for the Skye workshop this March 5th-10th.  One of the participants can't make it due to damaging their knee. So if you were interested in this trip - now is the time to book, as there's only one space :-)

Dyrhólaey

Today, I've finished up editing my Norway images - to the first stage at least. I have made a rough selection of around 22 images that I like, and I feel it's now time to park them to one side, and let my mind forget them for a while or so. The intention being that I can come back to them in a week or a few weeks time, and I won't be so close to them....

I should be able to see any issues or problems that I didn't see at the times of the edits. The thing is, that sometimes I don't see a colour cast, or perhaps a dominant tone that needs to be corrected, to bring the entire scene back into balance..... these things take time.

So today I've begun work on scanning my Iceland images from December/January. Here's one of the first ones.

I made a terrible mistake of looking through all the images when I got them back from the lab... I had to - as I found I couldn't work on images from Iceland and Norway simultaneously.... which is something I've just discovered about myself and I'll need to reflect upon this and ask myself why that is so.

Anyway Dyrhólaey, what can I tell you about this place? It's stunning! And of course doubly so in Winter because the entire place is turned into a frozen paradise of subtle shade in the winter sky mixing with a dramatic black sand beach. I'm a big user of the Photographer's Ephemeris, but have to confess that I didn't use it to determine if the moon would be out, and whether it would be positioned so beautifully above the basalt sea columns of Reynisdrangar that you can see in the distant horizon.

I came back here a few times, and on the second occasion we had a lot of sea fog at the base of Reynisdrangar - another time, another shot, and most likely, buried somewhere in the mound of images waiting to be scanned over the next few days :-)

In the arts - opinions don't count

The past few months, ever since I released my first book, I've received a lot of really nice correspondence about it. I've also been informed of reviews of the book from time to time, some of which, I've read. They've been very interesting to read for one reason: I've been able to understand a little better how others perceive me. Certainly most of the reviews have been very positive, but some of the points of view of the reviewer have left me wondering if they really understand what it is that I do. One particular point in case, is that my book contains not only landscapes, but also portraits. One review suggested that it was surprising to see a book with a mixture of landscapes and portraits, as I was known as a landscape photographer. Well, I've always thought of myself as a travel photographer, if I consider myself a photographer at all. I don't really have a 'badge' for it at the moment, and I guess I would just say to folks that I'm a creative person, who makes his living running photographic workshops - but ultimately, I like to create things. So mixing landscapes and portraits together doesn't seem so radical to me after all.

I never really understood it, when I heard that many actors seldom read reviews of their performances, or musicians don't read reviews of their albums. But I do understand now.

If you are a creative person, you have to be true to yourself and go with your own gut feeling about your own work. You have to do it for yourself, and nobody else. Creating art should not be done to please others, or in the hope that a critic or reviewer will like it. The creative path should not be steered by external committee, nor should it be swayed by doubt cast upon what you do by someone else's point of view.

Your creativity is your voice, so you should spend the time to get to know it, build up your confidence in what your inner you is telling yourself, and learn to trust it. Certainly you can, and should, listen to others that you respect - because you admire their work. Just make sure that it's you who chooses what to take on board. Discard the rest, because if it does not resonate with you it can't help you on your creative journey.

So from that point of view, I won't be reading reviews in future, and if I do spy one now and again, I'll have to tell myself to take it with a pinch of salt, because it is only the point of view of someone else. They don't know me and they shouldn't influence what I do.

I've had a few friends in the past, tell me that I'm very focussed. I'm never too sure how projects will turn out until they are finished (if anything can ever be finished), but I think that's a great attribute to have - to have a strong sense of self vision and know what you want. I hope that if you are in doubt, you will soon find your own voice, and if you are already traveling on your creative journey, stay true to what it is that makes you - you.

It's the only way to lead a fulfilling life of self exploration.

Pointy Hat Mountain Mk2 & other stories

Of course, there's always another point of view, or interpretation of the same location. That mountain - Geitelva, across the water from Fredvang is quite a formidable character, and I was always looking for vantage points to photograph him.

Driving into Fredvang one evening, there was so little light, that I felt that I was always reaching for the area of the sky where the light was. It took me to a little outcrop, just across the water from Geitelva. You wouldn't know it, but right behind me, where I made this shot, was a fishing factory. I could hear the loud muffled blare of a radio playing Norwegian electronic dance music. The electronic dance music seemed to accompany me in my car throughout my week's stay in Lofoten - and it was the best radio I've heard in a long while. Still.... from looking at the shot, you wouldn't get the idea that there was a bit of a din going on behind me (even though I liked it, since it kept me company for this 20 minute exposure).

On a different day, the light levels were much more appealing. The cloud cover had gone and with it, the sunrise of 11am and sunset of 1pm didn't feel so short. The day was full of pink light wherever I went and I found it quite a challenge not to rush. I would be at a location, wondering if I should move on soon, because normally, this sort of light doesn't last long in Scotland. Half an hour, maybe 10 minutes.... but here in Lofoten, it was lasting for hours. This shot is of a large frozen bay up near Eggum.

There's a temptation to make everything dark and moody, but sometimes the scene demands a lighter touch, as in the case of this photo of perhaps my favourite mountain in the whole wold - Oldstind. The weather was unusually calm for most of my stay on Lofoten, which isn't what I tend to prefer. I like drama and mood, but I always remind myself there is beauty in everything, whether it's an overcast day, or a bright, almost colourless day like this one. It's really about me bending to the landscape, rather than it bending to me.

Pointy Hat Mountain

I'm slowly working my way through my images from Lofoten, shot this past December.

I love the process. Scanning images, allows me time to review what I shot on my light table. I take each sheet of film out and work on that, one at a time, and I don't race. I don't delve further down into the collection of films until I'm complete with the top sheet. It's a very relaxing way to work. The scanner whirs and clicks away in the back ground, and while it is busy scanning the currently chosen image, I study the ones that are currently grabbing my eye.

And every now than then, the collection of scanned and edited images are reviewed. I use LightRoom - just as a catalog preview machine. It's nice to load up all the images and rate them. Some make the grade more so than others. Take the image above of Geitelva, a mountain near Fredvang (fantastic name for a place, don't you think?). I'm not too sure about this one. I love the mountain, but I shot this under very unsatisfactory conditions. Fading light and a severe lack of colour. It does have a mood though, so It might get through to the last selection, but somehow, I don't think so.

This is the point really. I can't tell until the entire edit is done. Like a story being told, it can only be understood once all the characters in it have been presented and explained. As I add new images to the collection, it feels as though it begins to steer in a new direction. 'Ah, so it's going to be that kind of portfolio?' I'll hear myself exclaim. If the images are overly light, then I can see that the whole feel of the collection is going towards a more lighter mood, but then two days later, the images I'm working on are taking a more darker mood, and that seems to steer the collection in a new direction.... and then I find that some images work better than others.

I feel that making a collection of images work together is all about the collection being 'greater than the sum of its parts'. It should be cohesive, work together, and feel like it all belongs.

That's why I don't rush home to edit. It's also why I let the images sit for a few weeks after the edit, to see how I feel. Sometimes things I didn't see at the time of the edit start to grate. I may be aware that something feels 'on edge' about a particular image, and that's often the sign that it either doesn't fit the collection, or requires further adjustment.....

I'm off to take a break now.

Vågspollen & Uttakleiv, Lofoten

I'm just getting a chance to sit down and go over all the new images I've shot since December. For those of you who haven't been following me, I spent a while in Lofoten, Norway this December shooting, followed by a trip to Iceland. I've got around 70 rolls of film to go through. Here are som of the first I've looked at, and thought it would be nice to share a scene with you :-)

I think these are only preliminary edits. I don't think I've found my 'flow' yet. I sometimes find when it comes to getting back to editing work, it takes me a while to reach a space in my head where I'm at ease with what I'm doing, and I feel I'm building something that fits my mood of how I felt at the time I was on location. Sometimes the edits drive me, and other times I drive the editing. I'm sure it will all settle down in a day or so.

I've spent quite a while in the cold this past few months, and there are still a few more trips to come that will require me hanging around in the white, minus stuff for a while too. Vågspollen is a beautiful place and I had to climb down from the road to the waters edge to get this shot.

I've seen quite a few images mangled by using the Hasselblad - the film backs do not perform in the cold and tend to slip. I've learned the hard way that I need to check the film has wound on fully (it will still take the image, as it's like a clutch that is slipping), and simply give the winder a little help by moving on the film a little bit manually until it reaches the next counter position.

One has to ask - why does each piece of equipment have a 'gotcha' feature or in the case of the Hasselblad system 'gotcha feature set' built in? Only by using the stuff for long enough can you get familiar and overcome the quirks of a system.

I'll be back to show you some more images over the next few weeks I'm sure, as I continue to work my way through the backlog :-)

Carefree

I’m in Marrakech this week, on a holiday. I know, I’m sure some of the readers of my blog assume that my life is one big photo trip after another, and that I lead a charmed life. I’ve certainly had quite an amazing past two or three years since I went full time doing what I do, but it has come at a cost. Let me explain.

I came to Marrakech 4 years ago for a photographic holiday. At the time, I was still gainfully employed as an IT professional, and my holiday time each year was always consumed with the lure of travel to far off places to make photographs. I would burn myself out over the course of a holiday, working very, very hard to capture the images I sought. It was always good fun and a very enjoyable way to de-stress from my life in IT.

But I haven’t been aware that there has been a change in me over the past four years, and it’s only become apparent to me, now that I am back in Marrakech for a holiday. Everywhere I look, I have memories staring right back at me, reminding me of the person I was four years ago - a carefree IT professional who used his holidays to get his photography bug out of his system. I had very little to worry about at the time. My income was secure and I was so used to being established in what I did (I was an experienced Java / OO programmer with a good working knowledge and experience of being a head DBA for lots of blue chip companies). In short, I had a very recognisable skill set that was in demand and I felt I knew what my future was.

Fast forward to the present, and I’m a much more different person. Running my own photographic workshop business, and being a ‘pro photographer’ has lots of pressures that are different from what I’m used to. For example, I’m now fully responsible for my whole income, and I have to ensure that each year, I can make enough money to keep myself afloat. I can’t afford to take the foot of the accelerator pedal, or to become complacent.

The first few years have been quite a challenge. Setting up a business and ensuring that my house did not get repossessed put me under a lot of stress. I think this is why, when asked, most photographers will tell stary eyed dreamers not to give up the day job.

In my own case, I didn’t give up the day job - it gave me up, in the form of redundancy, and at the time, things were so bad here in the UK, that I had no other alternative but to run with the workshop idea because that was the only form of financial income I was getting at the time. IT Recruitment agencies would not return my calls, because I was just one of the many thousands of IT people who had been put out of work.

I’m entirely grateful that I had the photographic workshops to fall back on. I’m very grateful for what I do now, and I wouldn’t want to change it for the world. I’ve become a very focussed individual, who has to keep thinking ahead, working out new ways to stay in what I do, and because I’m driven by what interests me, I feel that things are going from strength to strength.

Today however, arriving back in Marrakech, has allowed me the luxury of being able to remember who I was 4 years ago, and compare that person to who I am now. I feel a sense of loss in some ways - that carefree aspect of me is hardly there at the moment, and I think this is telling me that I need to have more time out, for myself to relax and just enjoy life - without a camera.

As in everything, balance is what’s required, and I think my trip to Marrakech has acted as a catalyst for me to review where I am at in my life, and more specifically, what I wish to get out of it, and that can only be a good thing.

As creative people, we should take time out to review not only who we are, or where we are going, but also to consider if we’ve lost or regained something about ourselves over the review period. It’s really vital to recognise changes in yourself and re-address them if you feel that you are becoming weighted down with the burden of an overly serious life.

One last thing, if you wish to have a career in photography, I wouldn’t say ‘don’t do it’. I would just stress to you that, like all self employment, it requires a lot more work than a normal job. It can be immensely satisfying because everything you do, you do it for you and not for someone else. But there are pressures involved. Making sure you can earn enough is a very hard thing to pull off - you may be a great photographer, but a lousy business person. You may be a dreamer, who can’t add up. You may be unrealistic about how your business can grow. It’s not easy.

If you love taking pictures, then you can enjoy that, without the burden of trying to make a living from it. If you love running a business, and enjoy all the business related activities involved in it, then I would say - go for it. But if not, then I would say, keep it as a serious hobby, and appreciate that your hobby has no pressures involved in it, apart from the ones you force upon yourself. In short, enjoy what you do, and appreciate that doing it for a full time occupation may not give you that sense of satisfaction you think it will. Running a business is hard. Do it, only if you feel driven to go that way.

I’m off now, for a Moroccan coffee in the old square of Marrakech, and to enjoy just being here. I’ve got a lot to be grateful for, and I’ve learned a lot about business, and myself over the past few years, but it’s perhaps time to take some time out.

Wish you were here,

Bruce.

The art of post edit

I received my films back from the lab yesterday (yes, I get them processed by Peak Imaging). They are currently sitting in a cardboard box in my home studio. I haven't looked at them yet, because I'm waiting for the right moment when I feel ready to do so. I simply do not feel inclined to go anywhere near a camera, a piece of film or think about image editing for a while yet. I've just been home for under a week now, and it's taken a while to settle back in.

When I approaching editing images, scanning them and reviewing the ones I want to work on, I've got to feel ready to do it. The box I have is rather large - there are around 70 rolls of film processed in there - that's quite a bit of effort.

I have two free weeks coming up soon, so I hope to use the time to get into the mode of review/scan/edit/post-review/re-edit process that I tend to get into. It has its own momentum too and I feel that having to stop mid-way, and go and do a workshop, or go away for a week - causes a sense of lost focus in what I'm doing.

I think that's because I build up a mental picture of the whole portfolio as I go along and complete an image. I think this is very similar to how I make the initial images too. When I'm out shooting, I build up a mental image of the entire portfolio I'm shooting - it helps build up a sense of focus to what I'm doing and allow me to immerse myself fully in the process.

It should be an absorbing experience, and it is for me.

So why should the post shoot review/edit/review again/re-edit stages be any different?

I find it hard to comprehend why photographers rush home and edit images quickly. Get one in before dinner time, or during a quick five minutes break in the day.... it's like rushing down your evening meal. There is no deep connection, nor any time to consider, reflect, apply a sense of objectivity to what it is we are creating in our work.

I'll be waiting for those two free weeks to come up. Before then, I do not have any decent segments of free time, with which to do my picture editing justice. To rush in there, would cause me a great deal of frustration and pain. And for that reason alone, I'm content to wait.

An odd request

Tonight I'm in a humorous mood, and feel I want to share something with you all. Over the past few years, I've received a lot of correspondence from people. The majority of the unsolicited emails I get are very lovely - words of kindness, of really beautiful wishes, some telling me they love what I do, some telling me how I've helped inspire them and bring them on in their photography - amazing things really. And they go a long way to show that most people are very nice, want to see you succeed in what you do, and want to wish the best in others.

But as with anything, there's always a very small percentage of people out there who are a bit odd, lack etiquette, or lack.... something!

So tonight, for a bit of humour, I felt inclined to give you an example of one of the stranger e-mails I get from time to time. The following e-mail came into my mailbox this morning, from a complete stranger, who seems to think I have nothing better to do with my time, than go and photograph her boat! Ha ha ha ha !

I used to be rather perplexed by these strange e-mails.... but I've grown to love them. They always surprise me, and remind me that the human race is a funny lot really. Enjoy!

Hi Bruce

This is a very cheeky request but we're in Lofoten on:

22 February (Svolvær, ms. Marco Polo) 21 March (Svolvær, ms. Marco Polo) 04 April (Stamsund & Svolvær, ms. Finnmarken) 09/10 April (Stamsund & Svolvær, ms. Finnmarken)

I think you're also there on 21 March? If you happen to catch sight of either ship, could you possibly take a photograph? It might be the only photographs we'd see of the ships sailing and would be useful for future ships cruises if my Husband is lecturing on them.

--

Now that I've set a bench mark - please don't email me to ask if I will photograph your boat/car/cat/horse/sheep/whatever... I won't have time..... I'll be too busy trying to photograph the rather cheeky R McVicar's boat!

ps. I've just drafted up a reply:

Dear R McVicar,

Many thanks for your enquiry.

I'd be only too happy to oblige.

Bit of a cheeky request from me. I've been wanting to make some of the horizons in my coastal photographs a bit more interesting. If I told you where I was going to be over the next year, could you sail your boat to those locations so it can be used as a nice prop on the horizon?

Bruce