Wirral Photographs in Dee Fine Arts

I'm really pleased to let you all know that as from the 9th of July, my photographs will be available to buy through Dee Fine Arts in Heswall. I'm really pleased to be able to offer my work for sale through such a reknowned establishment.

Hello, old friend.

On Wednesday night I went out to shoot my comparison between 'Old' Velvia 50 and 'New'. Fuji sent me a roll of 120 film, so, for the first time in about 2 years I pulled out my Bronica SQ-Ai.

I shot with the Bronica for about 3 years, and came to be very 'at home' with it, however since switching to the 5x4 Ebony SW45, I have rarely used it, certainly not in the past year. When I took it out of the camera bag I felt instantly at home with the camera once again.

Many of my frustrations which angered me just before I switched to the 5x4 camera seem to have disappeared, and the square format once again felt refreshing rather than limiting.

Two years on my decision not to sell the Bronica to buy lenses for the LF camera still feels like the right one, look out for more sqaure images, as I think the Bronica will be making more trips out in to the field with me.

Safari on Windows!

Whenever I make a change to my website I end up pinging one of my Mac-wielding friends over MSN and asking them to check 'if it looks right in Safari'. Well, today at the Apple WWDC, St. Eve announced that Apple were to launch Safari for Windows, so I can now check the layout in Safari myself! 

You can grab Beta 3 today. It runs very well on my Dell D820 running Vista. And yes, this post was composed using Safari on a PC. 

Has St. Eve shot himself in the foot here? I was contemplating re-entrancy to the Mac fold prior to this - now I don't think I'll be buying a MacBook anytime soon.

Confusion of Scale

How big is the stone in this image? Whilst one may make an educated guess, there's nothing concrete to allow you to form any conclusions as to absolute scale. In many ways I feel that this adds to a photograph, as it creates a sense of wonder, and makes the viewer contemplate the scene and what their ultimate relationship with it is.

Reintroduced Velvia 50

I recently received from Fuji UK a promotional roll of the re-introduced Velvia 50 and its associated datasheet. Well, from inspection of the datasheet the characteristics of the film look identical. The code is still RVP, it's still called Velvia (not Velvia II), and the sheet film notch-code is still the same. I'm really hopefull that this film will respond like the 'old' discontinued RVP did (If so I can shoot all the Velvia that's in the freezer and re-stock it with steak). So, it's out with the Bronica, two 6x6 backs, one loaded with old and one with new, and shoot some direct comparisons.

Desert Sands - a photograph of Hoylake

There are few places on The Wirral where the bedrock is exposed along the coast. Hilbre Point, just a short distance from the centre of Hoylake is one of these locations. I'm attracted to the form and shapes in these rocks, the weathered strata exposing geological information preserved millions of years ago. In the case of these relatively rapidly eroding rocks, one can often marvel at the sheer magnitude of the geological timescale.

This image to me typifies the abstract quality one can achieve through the medium of photogrpahy. There is nothing in the image to imply scale, the viewer is left to decide how to interpret the size of the image. In making this image, which was taken under a vivid blue sky, I was undecided if I should correct the obvious cast this made in the image, particularly in the dried salt. I'm happy that I left the image unfiltered, contrasting the blue of the sky in to the warm iron red of the sandstone.

Photography of The Wirral and Beyond

Several people have asked me if I'd provide them with more information about the creative processes behind my photographs. I'll be posting some insight to some of my more popular existing images, and keeping up to date as I place new photographs on the website.