Category Archives: shadows

A – Z Photography tips and information… B

(B) is for black and white – sometimes the success of a shot is in its simplicity and removing the colour can aid this and change the focus. Plus, mixed with the right lighting (covered under ‘L’) it can bring a great ‘mood’ quality to the image, shown below in a small selection of very different examples.

Black and white photographs

(B) is also for… background – not so obvious, to the point it’s easy to forget them altogether – especially when you are concentrating on your foreground image! Then you end up with objects suddenly appearing in your finished composition that you hadn’t seen at the time of capture! A telegraph pole sticking out the top of someone’s head is never a good look!

So look out for them! A shifting of the camera or your position (often quite small) can save the whole composition of your image. The photo below of the young lady sitting on the beach is a simple example, positioning her in between two upright posts in the background that have strong shadows. If you have a tricky background, observe if it’s possible to use it to your advantage, i.e. frame your image with the background… or move altogether and get another angle.

There are other factors to consider with backgrounds covered further on in the series, so watch out for those 🙂

Background example
I’ll try and remember to refer back to comments mentioned under previous letters that may be relevant to another tip 🙂

 

Photography Art Exhibitions… two of them!

Last month I wrote about a photography art exhibition coming up at The Apex in Bury St Edmunds. With great anticipation, this has just opened, with the official opening/viewing Friday 3rd May for ‘All The Worlds a Stage’. This venue is perfectly placed in the middle of Bury, the gallery being upstairs overlooking The Arc shopping area.

So much has happened since then, including a second exhibition that opened on the 19th April and continues until the 12th May, at The Gallery Highwaymans, just outside Risby, near Bury St Edmunds.

The whole proces from being invited to exhibit, through to deciding which pieces to put forward, how they will be printed, framed and displayed; costing; arranging and ordering to arrive on time. Once received, two weekends spent carefully sourcing and fixing ‘D’ rings and hanging wires, plus labelling and finally lovingly wrapping and placing them into safe carrying containers, to transport to the exhibition venues.

So a fortnight ago, we went to a well attended opening evening for ‘Through The Lens’, at The Gallery Highwaymans… I say ‘we’, my friend and colleague Paul Cooklin is also exhibiting several of his beautiful pieces from Cuba. I would thoroughly recommend visiting, not only to see a great selection of photography, but the venue is a truly beautiful place in itself.

Five different pieces have been placed in each exhibition, both on the subject of shadows, both quite unique in their discovery and creation. All these pieces can be seen on my website via the following links and are available to buy as limited editions:

All The Worlds a Stage

Through The Lens

I think one of my favourites from the work has to be this one… ‘Face The Demon’

FaceTheDemon

The stories behind both sets of work are different and can be read by visiting the folders of work on my website… better still, visit the exhibitions if you get the opportunity :).

 

 

Photography Art Exhibition… from 1st May

Well this is a first, some of my work will be displayed at The Apex, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, from the beginning of May, in a photography art exhibition called ‘All The Worlds a Stage’ – running for the whole month.

On the strength of a particular project on ‘Shadows’, that I add too from time to time, was invited to take part.

While there is not a great deal of publicity currently out there, apart from a brief mention on The Apex website and the exhibition company’s site, all those taking part will have gone through their submission process. This has meant, choosing which pieces to display, in what medium, framing and at what size… add to this writing a statement about the work and naming the display pieces. Might sound easy, but has been quite an extrodinary process.

The inspiration behind the work was always there… how it came about is one of those endless sources of excitement, when you discover what’s been created and what it reveals. There is already a second phase to the work that has been created, although won’t be displayed yet.

Two colleagues of mine, Paul Cooklin and Steve Stoddart, will also have work on show and am quite excited to see which of their pieces are being entered.

More will be posted more nearer May…

 

Article in ‘Roundabout’ magazine

Now I know I blogged about some of this earlier in the month, however there’s an article about Juliet, her work and the photography I did of her, in the November issue of ‘Roundabout’ Magazine, just about to come out – so watch this space as they are currently still showing October issue http://www.roundaboutsuffolk.co.uk/index.php – or you can take a look at the November issue here http://issuu.com/heavens_and_earth_art/docs/rb_2009_11_nov_web and view the article (click on black background spread).
I’ve also featured images on my home page of both pieces I’ve photographed of Juliet from last year and this year. Any feedback on the article and photographs would be great.

Regretrospective rehearsal shots

For those of you interested in visual art, take a look at a selection of shots from Juliet Aster’s new work ‘Regretrospective’, to be performed at Colchester Arts Centre, November 12th.

Part installation, part film, part devised dance theatre, the work touches on many subjects, the implications of regret, desire, loss, delusion and illusion and is surreal, disturbing and funny in equal measure.

My personal favourites are the demon shadows – great fun to photograph!

http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/pennymorgan/gallery/Regretrospective-rehearsal-photos/G0000FIPQwgNDHtE/P00003z3fyUgheZc