Peter Boehi Exhibition, Switzerland

Over the years I've been running workshops, I've met some really great people. One of them - Peter Boehi is having an exhibition of his work this week coming in Switzerland.

Peter's exhibition will be at the famous Aescher mountain hut (pictured above) from Friday 26th of July. He is having an open event on the Friday, so if you fancy a hike to one of the most unusual exhibition spaces in the world, and wish to spend time with one particularly enthusiastic and highly enjoyable person, then please do visit Peter's exhibition.

I'd just like to wish Peter all the very best with this. It's always a very exciting time to do your very first exhibition :-)

Winter is coming

Or it's here, depending on where you are right now, and when you are reading this post ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-WHevzCR8&width=400

I thought I would post this, as it's perhaps the most beautiful thing I've heard in a long while. There's a bit of 'Aha' in this I think.

Again, music just takes you places in your mind and in your soul. That's what photography should do for you also, particularly when you're out there making images. Have you ever gone out to shoot whilst listening to your iPod - particularly when the music is as emotive as this?

It's worth a go, as I think this helps you remove yourself from 'being there' and into the space of 'being elsewhere'.

Isn't that what we're trying to achieve with photography after all?

Image Selection in the digital darkroom

As I'm nearing the end of writing my 'Digital Darkroom' ebook, one or two subjects have come to light which I feel I should include. So I'm back to adding these ideas into the text at the moment. One such topic I feel is needed in the book, is a discussion on the implications of choosing certain images over others to work on. What this can mean to our work in general, and the kinds of pitfalls that can come forth from a lack of consideration for the work you decide to ignore over the work you do choose to use.

So here are my tip key points I feel that should be observed during the 'selection process' if you have such a thing. Maybe you just react to particular images, and give little thought to the ones you've discarded? Let's see.....

You are a different person each day

I guess this is my no.1 mantra, when it comes to choosing images to work on. I never consider that my 'selection' is final. What I chose one day, may leave me cold the next. I am considerate to the fact that I may have got it wrong the previous day, so I'm always open to reviewing the work again, and considering different shots. Also, I think that once I've been through all the images I've shot a few times, a particular 'story' begins to form in my mind as to how the completed set of images are going to work out. I get a feel for the overall character. This is a great way to work, but it can also be limiting because once you've set things in stone, its hard to see another story in your unedited work. So I like to go back and review, and I do this over a few days, or even a week or so down the line, I will look at the negatives again and realise there are others in the work that I overlooked for one reason or another. It's iterative, and I keep cycling back over the body of work over time to see if there's something I've missed. I know that Eliot Eriwtt for instance still scours contact sheets of work he made 40 years ago and still finds new images in there.... you are a different person each day. Use this to your advantage to see something new in older work.

Consider that this is not the only time you will visit this work

By accepting this as truth, it liberates you to do what you will with what you have chosen. It's so tempting to feel that what you have chosen is all there is, and this can force you to want to 'will' your selection of images to live up to your ideals of what you wished them to be, and not what they are. By accepting you will go over your negatives many times looking for work you missed, you open up your imagination to see what is there and work with what you've been given.

Decisions create paths. Going down one route may result in undesirable work

The birth of your work is a precarious endeavour. Each time we make a decision, we affect the final outcome of our work. Creativity requires you to be fluid because creativity flows. It does not sit and wait and it does not put the brakes on work that has a need to flourish. Sometimes I'm too hasty in going down a certain route though, and the further I go, the more uncomfortable I begin to feel. I've found myself on many occasions bin a complete editing session because I was not happy with how things were going. I now listen to myself. If the work is undesirable, I ask myself - is it the works fault, or is it my handling of the work? If it's the works fault - then I discard it. It's clearly not good enough to spend any time on. It might be a case of 'close but no cigar'. If on the other hand, I realise I'm tired, my creative vibes aren't where they should be, then I discard the editing session and leave my digital-darkroom work for another day. I go do something else more enjoyable. I've often found that returning to the original negative (with previous edits discarded) is a good way forward and approach the work with enthusiasm and a revitalised creative spark later on.

Emotional Investment shouldn't overrule

Sometimes after working on an image I'm really pleased with, I may find a better negative of the same location. Maybe the composition is better, or maybe the light is more dramatic. I give myself complete permission to work on this 2nd image. I don't let the first image (despite how good it is) dictate that there can't be another one that is perhaps better. I don't let myself become too emotionally attached to the first image. This is key to all work. A good artist needs to be able to be objective about what he does. This requires a strange mix of being very dedicated about what you do, but not letting your ego take you for a ride either.

 Be open, be fluid, be inquisitive

When I work on my own images, I like to leave them for a long time between shooting and editing. This I feel, gives me a sense of distance. This is really important to me, because this distance allows me to view my own work as if someone else had created it. If it's not my own, I can be more honest about it right? Yes. And also, because I really can't remember what it was I was trying to achieve with the work in the first place, I'm allowed to interpret it in any way I feel. An artist should be inquisitive. We should find surprise in what we do and investigate it. We should be flexible in how we approach our work, allow us to see new things in what we did. We need to be open to ourselves, because it's only when we are open, that creativity can flow.

-8 EV Exposure Meter

I've been thinking of doing some night photography in Venice later this year. From what I hear from a few clients of mine who have either lived there or know the place well - it's almost impossible to shoot Venice during the day because of all the tourists. Night time is best. My trusty Sekonic 758DR light meter is hopeless at metering in the later stages of twilight.

So this week I managed to find a Profisix SBC exposure meter on eBay. I've been looking for one (very casually) for a few years. I first saw one on my very first workshop in Scotland. A Danish client showed me it take a meter reading towards the edge of twilight and night. I was impressed to see his meter tell him an exposure reading of 15minutes. Reading up on the light meter, I found out that it reads down to -8 EV. That's quite an achievement considering that my Sekonic light meter only reads down to about -1 EV - if that. I often find my Sekonic fails to read anything at all once we get in to the later stages of twilight, when most digital cameras seem to be able to read into what feels like absolute darkness.

Of course, moving to a digital system for this kind of thing would be highly advantageous. If the exposure is wrong, we just check the histogram and apply exposure compensation in degrees of 1 stop increments. Think of it this way - adding some arbitrary number of seconds (say 10) onto a 60 second exposure makes very little difference (it's only a 1/6th increment). So it's best to apply method to your madness, and increase the exposure by a stop at a time (double the exposure time) until the histogram is showing you a better distribution of tones.

But I've been using film for around 25 years now. I don't intend to stop, because I love the look of the medium. I also love the surprise element of what I'm getting. There's a mystery to what is being captured on my film: with no preview screen, I have to 'preview' in my minds-eye. I've said for a very long time that I find this a very satisfying way to work: my imagination is given a bit of  a work out, and I feel this really has, over the years, helped me keep a strong sense of visualisation.

Now, I just need to go and book those flights to Venice.

Discreet Music

For a few weeks, while I was away in Bolivia and Patagonia, I had a little portable pair of stereo speakers for my iPod. I've had trouble sleeping of late, partly due to the change in time zones, climate, different beds each couple of days, and so on. I found Brian Eno's album 'Discreet Music' was ideal for listening to while I tried to sleep. I found it extremely soothing and it often fitted the background very well.

I read this about the album today on Wikipedia:

"The inspiration for this album began when Eno was left bed-ridden in a hospital by an automobile accident and was given an album of eighteenth-century harp music.^[2] After struggling to put the record on the turntable and returning to bed, he realized that the volume was turned down (toward the threshold of inaudibility) but he lacked the strength to get up from the bed again and turn it up. Eno said this experience taught him a new way to perceive music:

"This presented what was for me a new way of hearing music—as part of the ambience of the environment just as the color of the light and the sound of the rain were parts of that ambience."

I found this extremely interesting. Eno was forced to re-interpret the harp music in an unintended way. I often find many things are more interesting when used in an unintended way, and I think as a creative person, we should not just assume, but instead, we should enquire. This is what Eno did with his harp music, and I feel this is very much the main task of a creative person. We are enquirers. We engage with our subjects and we should question what is there, because without questioning, we may never see a new side, a new angle, or come across a discovery in our own art.

That alone is worth discussing. But let's move on to the main point for me - he decided to put an album together that was basically 'furniture music', music that was intended to fit as ambience more than anything. I often find other music like Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians is also perfect background ambience. But I think what got me in the last sentence in Wikipedia was Eno comparing the harp music as just another facet of his environment: it was no different from  the colour of the light or the sound of the rain.

In a way, shouldn't there be little or no separation between what we create and our environment? It is our environment that is our influence. We are a product of our environment, so why should be compartmentalise our creative time from the rest of our lives?

I know for instance, that many workshop participants tell me it takes them a few days to get their visual muscle working well while out making images. Perhaps I've had too much exercise in that department, but I see no reason why I can't always be thinking visually while I am not making images. Why should I compartmentalise this to something I do when I make images, and something I don't do, while I am watching TV, or driving?

I prefer not to compartmentalise. For instance, when I make images out in the field, I see no separation from the shoot, and the edit. In fact, I often feel as though I am iteratively going back and forth from editing and creating while I am on location, and I often re-compose the image through cropping once back at home. Putting a logical division in there, only gets in the way of what it is that I am doing - it is one never ending journey.

Currently, I have around 68 rolls of film from my recent trip to Patagonia and Bolivia away for development, but I don't consider the creative process stalled or stopped at the moment; they feel as if they are simply fermenting in my mind, waiting for the continuation of their birth to happen once they arrive back on my desk at home.

I certainly found listening to Discreet Music at a low volume was important. Too loud, and it dominated, but at the right volume, it integrated with my environment, and worked at a subliminal level. I was aware that something was being played, but my thought patterns weren't distracted by it.

I feel I have the same attitude whilst working on my images. And when I mean working on them, I mean the entire process - from out in the field, to back at the ranch in my digital darkroom: the process is one and the same thing for me. The process shouldn't be overly demanding. I shouldn't be overwhelmed at any stage, because this induces a form of stress. Stress is a form of blockage. Blockages have nothing to do with being creative, but more to do with writers block. To create, things must flow.

Creative people know that work has a way of surfacing. It may feel as if there was no intervention at times, because I think we tap into our subliminal states whilst we are in the creative mode.

Listening to music such as Eno's Discreet Music teaches me something. It taught me that my own mind is always working on things, even when I am not aware of it, and that when I think I haven't started on some work, that maybe the work is already underway in the back of my mind. I never really know how new work comes about, how it is created or where the source of it lies. All I know is that by being receptive to my subconscious, and by not putting boundaries or divisions up in my creative process (field work vs digital darkroom work for instance, or by thinking there are times for being creative, and times for when I shouldn't be), the work has a chance to flow.

Image interpretation techniques

It's been a long time in the works, but I'm almost nearing completion of an ebook about image interpretation (what most people call post-processing - except I detest that phrase).

I'm in Patagonia right now, at the end of a great trip we had to Torres del Paine national park. The weather was spectacular, and plenty of new material from it, i'm sure.

While i've been in south america, I've been working on this e-book in my downtime. I had great difficulty with this one, as I think I needed to get the Fast-Track-to-Photoshop ebook out of the way first. And I've felt that since that was done, this ebook has come really quickly to me. I expect it to be a few weeks or maybe a month or so, before it is out.

Heading home tomorrow to my own bed, Scottish tea bags, and my beloved hi-fi !

Adios amigos, Bruce

Micro Four Thirds Purchases

Dear all, Those of you who have been following my blog for some time, or have been on workshops with me, will know that I'm a film shooter only. All of the work you see in my portfolio on this web site was created with a Mamiya 7II system, Hasselblad 500 / 503 system, or a Contax 645 system. I love these medium format systems very much and they all have their own strengths (and weaknesses - which I love, too).

I've owned a micro-four thirds system for some time, but I've never really given it much of a real try out. I tend to use it on my workshops to illustrate compositions, but until recently, I've not had much in the way of decent lenses for it.

So this week, I've purchased quite a few items for my Micro Four Thirds camera:

Panasonic 12-35 f2.8 zoom lens Panasonic 25mm f1.4 lens Panasonic / Leica 45mm f2.8 macro lens Lee Seven5 micro format filter system - hard grads, full ND's, big stopper

It's been a lot of fun, choosing the lenses, because there are so many now to choose from, for this really excellent compact system.

I thought I would go through my reasons for the choices, and also, to bring to light that I feel the days of big SLR's being the king of the photography market is changing. We live in a multi-format society and there is no reason to stick to such a format these days, other than backward compatibility with old 35mm film systems, or lenses.

On a slightly related note: I have been asking that camera manufacturers move away from the 3:2 aspect ratio (it's historical - designed for a film format), and towards systems that can be programmed for different aspect ratios. My preferences are for ratios such as 1:1 (square), 4:5 (rectangle) or 6:7 (a rectangle that is moving towards square).

Camera systems should be getting smaller, and more compact. What I love about the MFT (micro four thirds) format is that the sensor size is just a little bit smaller than APS-C. For such a compact camera, it means the quality of the images is pretty close to 35mm. The only thing that seems to be missing from the MFT format right now, is improved dynamic range and high ISO noise capability like the pro-end SLR's (unless I'm not so informed or up to date on the matter).

Anyway, here's my reasoning for the lenses:

Panasonic 12-35 f2.8 zoom lens

As much as I prefer primes, because primes make you fit the camera to the landscape, and not the other way around, I wanted a general purpose lens for my workshops. One that is on the camera at all times, and that goes all the way down to 24mm (12mm in MFT terms). The cost of buying the little Olympus 12mm was just a little bit cheaper, but reviews suggested it's not such a good performer as the 12-35 zoom. I also feel that primes are great  because they force you to hunt the landscape and work with what you're given, rather than just standing on the spot and zooming in and out until things seem to fit. I would have preferred to have a few smaller lenses than a zoom if I were using this system as a serious contender for my own work, but I'm not. I'm really using it for workshop, and most of the time, I just want to be out on location with one lens on the kit so I can illustrate things to participants.

I didn't really need the lenses I'm going to mention now.... these were perhaps just things I desired, rather than needed for my workshops.

Panasonic 25mm f1.4 lens

If I'm going to buy a dedicated prime for the system, I'd like it to be really fast. The MFT system suffers from too much depth of field because of its smaller focal lengths. A standard lens is 25mm on this system. That means it has the same DOF characteristics of a 25mm lens on any camera system - in other words - it's pretty wide, even wide open at f5.6. As much as I think the Pancake lens is a superb lens and fast, this lens is just a little bit faster. I may still buy the pancake at some point, because it's ideal for leaving on the camera when you just want to put the entire thing in your pocket. The f1.4 is not a pocketable lens.

Panasonic / Leica 45mm f2.8 macro lens

It sounds like a pretty stunning lens. There's not really any other reason for buying this, but maybe in time, I'll be able to share some thoughts with you on this one.

Lee Seven5 micro format filter system

The grads for this system have extremely hard transitions. It's really a must for any system where the lenses are small. Hard grad transitions become very soft when put up close in front of a lens. I often get asked how I'm able to place the grads for my Mamiya 7II rangefinder system - well the truth of the matter is - it's not important to be so precise with this system because the focal lengths are greater than a 35mm system. Hard grads are visible down at wide angle focal lengths, but as you move up the focal lengths, the transition in the grade becomes more diffused as you 'zoom in'. When moving form 35mm to medium format, you more or less double the focal length. What was 24mm for you, is now 50mm. This means that the hard grads become more diffused and therefore less problematic with accurate placement.

Now go down the formats. As you go to MFT format, the focal lengths get smaller, but so do the diameters of the lenses. The optics are really small, so that means a normal hard grad will be too soft.

The seven5 (weird marketing name) should be ideal for this kind of system.

I don't intend to move away from film and I've never understood the phrase 'going digital'. Film and digital are different mediums. They look different, and offer different things. I think it's fun to be able to mess about with both, but I can't see myself being able to focus seriously on both at the same time. I think my little MFT system is really for use during my workshops for illustrative purposes and to allow me to have fun as well (I don't often shoot much myself on my workshops), but time will tell if this system grows into something new for me.

I'm looking forward to trying out the MFT system in a more 'professional' way, but above all, I just think it will be a lot of fun too.

Iceland September trip - 1 space free due to cancellation

Dear all, I'm traveling in Bolivia right now. I've been on the altiplano for about a week, and my Hasselblad cameras have been behaving really well since I got them serviced :-)

I just thought I would write today about a recent cancellation I've received for my Iceland trip this September. This means there is now 1 space free for anyone who has been wanting to come this September. The dates are September the 23rd to October the 1st. If you wish to find out more, or even book, you can do so here.

I hope to write more over the next few days about my trip's progress in Bolivia. Speak soon, Bruce

Lofoten February 2013

I'm just heading off for South America today.... by tomorrow evening I shall be in the Atacama at the top of Chile, where I will acclimatise for three or four days before I head off into the Bolivian landscape. But before I go, I thought I would share with you a selection of images that I made in the Lofoten islands of Norway this February with my two groups. I've still got a backlog of images to work through, but thought it would be nice to end on some images before my departure for south america.

It's always nice to look at new images. It can give one a sense of enthusiasm and satisfaction - as creative people, we all need to create. If we don't, then we feel stuck.... it's so nice to see some of these images become realisations, as I'd lived with them in my mind for so long, and just didn't have much free time to work through what I've shot.

I still have many more to work through, but right now, this feels like a decent distillation of what I encountered last February. Each of the trips I ran had very different weather. The first week was particularly calm with perfect reflections most mornings, while the second week was perhaps more unsettled, but dramatic all the same. I'm now feeling as though I could really do with visiting the Lofoten at a completely different time of year now. And it has to be said that I think it's now time for me to visit some places new, for my own personal creativity. Lofoten is like an old friend to me now.

I'm delighted to say that I will be in Japan in February 2014 for a few weeks, as part of a new project I'm working on, and I have plans for somewhere else in December too. I feel it's time to reach for some new places and with it, new inspiration in order to keep things fresh.

I do feel I've found a very beautiful photographic-friend  in the Lofoten islands and I will be back there next January to explore the more northerly regions of the islands.

Wishing you were here (speaking figuratively about my pending destination of the Bolivian Altiplano!)

Further to this original posting, Erik (see below) wrote to me about his concerns about the lonely tree edit. I often feel it's not so obvious any errors or things that can be improved upon an edit until some time has passed. So it was interesting to see Erik point out something that was not working for him. Here is my rather quick correction to this image. I feel it works better, and would still require a few more days for me to sit on before I know for sure I am happy with the edit:

The value of photographic clubs

Over the past four or five years, I've had the pleasure of visting many photographic clubs throughout Scotland to give talks on my photography. It's an immensely enjoyable experience to present to an audience (once you get over your initial nerves of doing so) and I often find the process gives me a chance to appreciate what it is that I do, and how much others can gain something from the presentation.

I think photographic clubs are great venues for people of all abilities and levels of interest to attend. I would say that although most clubs differ in some subtle ways, they are full of social people who like to meet others.

I feel that it's often easy to feel daunted by the effort to visit a club where you do not know people and where you may feel like an outsider upon initial contact. But every photographic club I've been to, is really eager to get your attendance. The sad truth of the matter is that they find it hard to attract members. When I meet club secretaries and chair people, they are often selfless in their aim to keep the club going. Often having to organise day out events, inter-club competitions, presentations and it's very time consuming for them to keep looking for speakers to their clubs as this is often done as a part time activity outside of their working lives.

The thing that strikes me most about every photographic club I've visited, is that there are usually not many young members there. By young, I mean 30 year olds. If I didn't know better, I would take the demographic of most clubs as an indication that photography is of interest to people who are more advanced in their years and that photography is not of interest to people in their teens, 20's or 30's. However, this is not the case. Photography is going through one of the biggest growths in interest it's seen ever. Everyone has a camera these days and cameras have become so cheap and ubiquitous, that people of all ages have the kinds of image capture quality at their disposal that a 17 year old in the 80's would have dreamed of.

So why are clubs failing to attract members?

I think there are many reasons for this. Firstly, with the availability of high quality information available now on the internet, a lot of budding photographers are staying at home and finding and sharing ideas through websites, blogs and forums. I also would dare to suggest that since photography is a predominantly male activity (yes, women like it too), a lot of men would prefer to find out information on a forum than attend a club. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, a lot of people assume that clubs can or are very competitive and that you may have to be very good to be a member.

I find this a real shame. Because clubs are excellent places to meet others who like photography in your neighbourhood. It's very hard to find others who share the same interests in photography because by nature, photography is a solitary activity.

Through my own workshops, and even my two book launches where I had around 20 workshop participants attend, I found a few of them established friendships and continue to go out together to make photographs when they can find time in their professional lives. I know of three participants for instance, who met at my two book launches who I sometimes meet up with (Hi Joe, Niall, Omer!).

Photographic clubs are keen to have people come along and join. Many of them have been going for decades and have been run by very friendly and supportive people where the club is everything to them, and without it, they would feel a hole in their lives. I think by attending clubs, you can only benefit. It's just a case of trying a few out to find one that feels right for you.

By the way, I have been a member of Midlothian photographic club for a few years. I haven't attended in the past year because of work commitments, but I will be going to see them on March 18th 2014 to give a talk, and to catch up with the members. It's been a while since I saw them last, but there are some special characters to this club (which is perhaps one of the reasons why I joined in the first place).

If you're considering joining a club, or feel a little daunted by going along to one, what might be a good idea is to offer to come along and give a talk on your own photography. It will help the clubs by introducing new speakers to their yearly syllabus, and it will also benefit you also by getting to visit the clubs and find out more about them, and whether they are right for you and what you are looking for.