Some general thoughts

I have recently taken started taking photographs of my surrounding area - there are different sets; some of the local common, some of the shops and restaurants at night and many just randomly out and about.  I may have to leave Wandsworth at some point although I have no plans to do so just yet. However, photographing the area I live in and love so much feels like a good way of preserving it for myself if ever I do pack up and move on to a less expensive area. 

When I look at some of the photographs, in fact when I look at many of what I have posted on Flickr these last two or three months I am constantly reminded of James Elkin's phrase in relation to Flickr (and other photo-sharing sites) 'kitschy and tedious images' and I think to myself -  this is what he is talking about.  I see exactly what he is saying and I would like to move away from that.  I have to say I do not particularly like many of the images I have taken despite the positive feedback on some of them - but I do like some.  

The photographs I have recently taken of the pond on Wandsworth Common are a mixed bunch.  I am drawn to the pond because in a story I wrote about two years ago there is a pond beyond a forest which in the story represents my deepest unconscious place, where a battle between a monster and the protagonist ensues, a place that is peaceful at times and then terrifying too. And I have been playing with these images I took on Wandsworth Common and trying to bring that imaginary space to the photographs.  Some of the images are a bit - I have referred to them - as "Disneyfied'.  Other's aren't.  But perhaps the Disney thing I refer to is no great surprise because the story is kind of fantasy, half fairy tale, weird hybrid of thing but I would like to steer away from the Disney aspect, and be truer to what's really going on, what's informing those images.  I haven't even looked at the narrative section in the course folder yet but I am wondering if this is the way to go - I guess it depends on what is required (not that that has prevented me from going in the direction I feel I need to go yet...)

Anyway, how to avoid the kitschy but still express the slightly gothic thing I'm thinking about is probably what I'm trying to say.  Perhaps I can't avoid the kitschy - perhaps that's just who/where/what I am!

A4 thoughts

I am going to reshoot some images - the images I have so far are not the final ones I want to use as I still have time to find more, but there are some that I think I may want to include but nevertheless am unhappy with certain aspects. Reshooting and trying to recreate the same sort of thing is a pain and I'm not even sure I'll be able to capture what I've found but something new will come out of it anyway.

Things I'm not happy with - exposure, skin tone, lack of clarity - one or two images don't seem clean enough for this sort of work.  It's so tempting to over-process things in Lightroom and that is the opposite of what I'm after with these particular images.

I've been looking at work of other photographers and the thing I notice in some is how clear the images are.  I've been looking at mine and I've over-sharpened, over clarified, and over coloured. And having blurred it all up for the last two assignments I'm really after as much simplicity as possible with these.  I can see that using and utilising light is the key to this.

I don't mind lots of massively-processed stuff and in fact still really enjoy colouring in on my phone with apps and creating little bits of nonsense there - some of which work quite well, others not so well, but that's the wrong thing entirely for the work I'm doing here for this assignment.  I think I've really learnt something about how I approach some images - and at the moment it's all too hit and miss!

And I also think I should have used a full-frame camera but I've started with a cropped sensor so am going to stick with that - but it's something to think about for the next assignment.

A mistake?

The image I think I should have used in the final part of my assignment.
100 ISO, 24mm, f2.8, 1/160 - speedlight set to manual 1/4

Ever since submitting my first assignment for this course last week I have regretted the choice I made for my final image showing contrast within a single photograph.

So this is a post that will be filed under thoughts and reflections as well as being an afterword in the assignment.  I'm not sure if I would be allowed to change the final image after submission if the assignment was going to be counted in the final overall grade for the course so I'm simply adding this as further reflection rather than replacing the actual final image I chose.  For me what matters is the process I have been through - making a decision and then questioning it; and then finding a way to adjust if possible and if not at least record my thoughts.

I set out to take a photograph of my son who is 9 wearing a suit which was relatively expensive especially considering he will hardly wear it because a) he is either in school uniform or jeans as appropriate for a 9 year old boy, b) we are not the sort of family who regularly go anywhere formal, c) it's too expensive to live in the dressing up box where his nylon £5 suit which he wore when pretending to be Doctor Who (David Tennant) resides, d) he hardly dresses up in play now anyway as he seems to have moved beyond that unlike his younger brother who is 6.

As well as wearing the suit he is standing in a room that is very chaotic indeed.  I venture in periodically to tidy up and disinfect but I tend to leave the room alone on a day to day basis as it is not mine.  The room is filled with very childish toys which he rarely looks at now apart from the Lego.  It also has a baby motif on the wall as we are renting and I have not removed it.  So there are symbols of various stages of childhood in the room.

As well as the all the outer contrasts  - a grown up expensive suit more commonly seen on adults in the corporate world where we presume (perhaps mistakenly) that order and structure reign, childish toys, a chaotic room filled with childish toys, no shoes - there are also contrasts evident in the face and body language of my son.  He is still very much a little boy but he is growing up and beginning to get a sense of what it might feel like to be a man.  He is sweet and kind but also brooding and angry and determined to present an image of himself that is at odds with how is when he is free, running round the playground laughing about things young boys laugh about.  His manner in the string of photos I took is quite an extreme example of a male boy presenting a very tough exterior which denies but reveals the insecure inner child who cries and gets upset when computer time ends or worse is banned, or who flies off the handle about seemingly small things.

Finally, the last contrast is the way he looks straight into the camera but is actually hiding behind his gesture.  So he looks like he's being very upfront but in fact he is not.  I gave virtually no direction other than asking him to stand in a certain spot.

When I took the photo my other children sidled in on a couple and I loved the extra contrasts they offered - which I speak about here.  But the photograph I chose for the final part of the assignment is technically flawed and it's quite obvious.  So I think on reflection I should have stuck with my original idea and used a photo that was as I'd imagined and conceived, plus better technically. 

In a way the individual child is more striking, not least because of the gesture.  I think after all it is a much stronger image than the one I originally posted.

Finally, I don't think I mentioned the reason for using black and white.  The mess in the room is so overwhelming that I felt removing one dimension, colour, would make the image stronger.