Well, it's a sort of water isn't it?

I've been looking at different water ideas for the last few days, and as Geoff pointed out - either I take a brilliant version of the same typical water shot or I do something 'different'.

Well, I decided to give different a try.

Now I knew ice would be a trial and error thing so I decided I'd make a couple of different attempts and prove out a few ideas before going to far.

First problem with ice is that it tends to go white when you freeze it. Great for a cocktail, not so good if you want to photograph things embedded in it. Dermot suggested boiling the water first - something about getting the minerals and such out of it - so I gave that a try.

And after explaining to my patient and understanding wife as to why all the plastic containers in the house were now in the freezer filled with bits of leaf and flower, I got to break the first one out tonight.

Before I go on I have to say, these are proofing shots to see what the idea might look like with decent lighting and composition. All I was interested in tonight was seeing how the ice actually looked!

Ice in Container

When I lifted this one out, I was a little disappointed by the whiteness of the ice. It was by no means as white as the typical ice cube, but it still wasn't 'clear'.

Still when broken out of the plastic box, it was better than I first thought.

I took a few sample shots with an off camera flash at different angles. Here's the best of them.

Samples

So, what do I think?

• I'd like the ice to be a little clearer
• These aren't sharp enough (but I was shooting freehand using a +10 closeup filter indoors with an off camera flash lying on the table)
• To much petal, not enough ice

I've reset this container, with less petals this time to allow more of the ice to stand out. I've also boiled the water a lot more to make it clearer (I hope). I've also reduced the amount of water I used - I wonder if it will work better with less water and thinner ice as a result?

One final thing I might change is the composition, I've been considering getting really close up until now, but I wonder how this would look with a rose bud or something in a block of ice... Might be time to look for another container.

...take a picture of.

I recently joined the CPA, a photographic club in Belfast. I'd spent the summer debating the feasibility of doing a course and came to the conclusion that it was the one thing that might actually put me off photography - I'm always busy at home or with work and being forced into assignments and study would soon drive me up the wall.

So, I joined the CPA since a friend had recommended them to me last year. I've been to a few meetings at this stage and the talks are interesting. What's really good is seeing other peoples work and getting an honest assessment of some of the things I've taken. Everyone who comments here is great (and I thank you for it), but it's nice to have someone tell you in person that you suck (courtesy 'yerman'). that said, everyone has been brilliant.

One of the interesting features of the club is the competition nights. Essentially each month members submit photos on a topic and the best are sent forward into an inter-club competition.

Anyway, next months competition is on the subject of water. Yep. Water. That's it. No advice, no information, just one word. WATER.

Expect a lot of wet photographs over the next few weeks is all I can say.

OK, I know I have these pictures from last year.

I also have countless other pictures of beaches and lakes and such, but I really want to use the topic as a chance to take something new.

When I got home today, I decided to start simple, just squirting some water onto a tin tray...

(f/9, 1/40sec, 50mm,  +4 close up filter, ISO-400, 22/09/2008)

First thoughts...

This isn't sharp enough. Taken free hand with a close up filter at 1/40 just isn't going to work well. The decided lack of shadow/feature is also a bleurg (technical word).

I like the colour though. And be honest, if I didn't tell you it was rotated 180 degrees, you'd never know...

One thing always annoyed me about post processing and that was the capability of the machine I was doing it on. It's hard to mask something when the pc is 30 seconds behind you. It's impossible when it's 2 - 3 minutes...

Well, in an effort to make life a little easier, I've upgraded my pc to some new dual core thingmabob and bought some new peripherals and such. I'll let you know how I get on.

But in the meantime, hopefully this post will prove I can still post to the blog, and this picture will continue my experiments with de-saturation.

(f/4, 1/400sec, 50mm, ISO-200, 07/09/2008)

Thumb sized? That makes sense.

With a snazzy little clip thing for your camera strap? Sure.

But black?

Yeah, because when you drop that into a hedge it's going to be real easy to find again.

Yup, the second casualty of my camera life was my little Canon remote control. (The first was a tripod in Dublin, remember?). There I was clicking away and minding my own business, when suddenly fickle lady luck played a hand and my little remote shot off to join the land of the bogs and bushes that is Donegal.

Pain in the...

I didn't realise how much I depended on it until it was gone. Needless to say I had to order a new one.

Now to find a big piece of reflective tape or a "come find me" beeper thing for it...

And do you know what the worst bit of it was? The last picture I took with it wasn't even that great.

(f/22, 22mm, HDR composed of 1/8sec, 1/15sec, 1/4sec, ISO - 200, 06/09/08)

After the Peoples Photography I found myself sliding into the blues as I reviewed my last year. Not because I felt I'd done badly, more that mentally I'd reset the clock and was starting out on another year of photography. The slate was clean so to speak. Mentally I'd decided that I was going to move on from last years pictures and treat this year as a brand new year, with brand new challenges. Essentially filing last years pictures in the done box.

I'd heard a photographer in England once describe how he destroyed all his photographs every year and how cathartic and refreshing he found the experience.

...

Well, bugger that.

After a week in the dumps, I remembered that they're my photographs and I can do what I want with them. So I looked through them again. It was a hell of a fun year for me to even get to the distance I managed.

Onwards and upwards I say. But now by building on the last year of photo!

...

Anyway, I took this at the weekend. It's had the saturation dropped a little to make it a bit more low key and moody.

I think it's a good example of how things have changed in a year for me. this old swing has been in this field for eons. I walked past it with the camera a few times last year and never saw the picture until the weekend. I'm not sure I did it justice, but it's a decent example of how my approach to a shot has evolved in a year.

(f/2.5, 1/1600sec, 50mm, ISO-200, 07/09/08)

"On top of the world"

I spent yesterday in Dublin taking part in the Peoples Photography 2008 exhibition in St. Stephens Green.

My aim for the day was simply to hang up some of my favourite pictures from the last year and be a man about the comments I would receive. I don't know what I was expecting, probably lots of sniggering and people saying "you suck" or something. What I didn't expect was the great reception both the pictures and myself got, the fantastic comments and the praise.

Probably the most stressful part of the entire day was setting up my display. It ended up looking something like this.

I was lucky enough to have grabbed a space as part of the Kirribilli empire and was soon adopted into the Greene family. As well as their enthusiasm and chocolate muffins, their company for the day meant there was always someone to talk to and joke with, as well as someone to watch kit when I went for a wander.

Once set up, there was little to do, but sit back and chat with Dermot's family and people on neighbouring displays.

The feedback I got was excellent. Quite a number of people said hello and commented on the pictures. From amateurs to professionals, it was great to hear every opinion. And what was better, people were so complimentary about pictures. So much so, I was routinely left speechless and looking like a gaping idiot

So, if you spoke to me and I didn't say it, thank you.

In all seriousness, if you're into photography and can make the event, it's a great way to spend some time.

All in all a good day.

Thanks have to be said to Eoin and Este for the tea, steak, movies and bed, and to the Greene family for the companionship on the day!

Oh yeah, I sold a couple as well.

OK, so technically it's the same old boat from Cruit Island as before, but I was playing and thought I'd share.

This has fallen foul of my current fascination. Graduated filters in Lightroom 2. Well worth investing in or using the demo if you can get it.

The following thumbnail gives you an idea of the picture before the filters were applied. (Sorry, didn't bother uploading the full size version of it).

Now, as you can probably tell, the original image suffered from the usual problems encountered (by me anyway) on a bright day in that it was left very washed out and feeling flat.

Adding a filter to the top right, running down to the middle of the picture in a diagonal has allowed the sky to come back into its own. A few other tweaks to curves and general contrast and exposure and hopefully things look a little better.

Now, lets be honest. It was never a great picture to start with, but I made all these changes in about 10 minutes. (Less time than it took to knock together this post).

The simplicity of Lightroom 2 is just fantastic.

As well as various exploits with Photoshop, Lightroom, GIMP, Picasa and lord knows what else over the last year, I've tried to experiment or experience the different styles of photography that are out there. To date I've tried a few different things, landscapes, portraits, macro and so on.

However, there has been one style that has caused more lunch time debates with Andrew than any other and that's "Street Photography."

In case you're not aware of the term, wikipedia (via google define) says "Street Photography" is:

Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks ...

I think it's fair to say Andrew is a huge fan of it, and I can see the attraction it holds for him. He's also shown me work by other photographers both as YouTube videos and from books and portfolio web sites.

He's also helped me rationalise my opinions on it.

Initially my reaction to it was horror. The thought of taking a candid photo of someone as they minded their own business, of sticking my camera in front of someone in an attempt to grab some sort of social commentary left me cold. What's more, thinking about it from the subjects point of view left me feeling a little violated.

I asked a few people what they thought, and to almost a man they all said they'd hate someone doing it to them. Different responses were suggested and I'm not entirely sure how a camera would react to a digestive system... Especially when approached from THAT angle.

People have the right to privacy, right?

Then I started picking up on the photographers rights stuff I've mentioned in the past and noticed the similarity in issues around that. Preventing someone from taking a photo because they don't have a licence or to "protect" someone or something publicly visible seems a little extreme in the other way. After all, CCTV takes our photo constantly when we're out and about and it's never clear what nefarious purposes it's used for.

So, can you really expect privacy in a public place?

Probably not.

If you can't expect privacy, then I think you can expect people to respect your personal space and to respect your right to not be misrepresented.

If I accept those premises. And to be honest they seem pretty fair to me. Then, I have to accept that sometimes people may take my photograph without my explicit permission. I guess that's OK providing it's not going to impact me negatively or make them a lot of money without me getting a cut.

So, where does that leave me?

To be honest I'm not sure.

I went out doing street photography with Andrew a few weeks back (I'm not sure what terminology you'd use, where we "street shooting" or "streeting", what do the cool kids call it these days anyway?).

My initial impressions that it was invasive and unfair on the subjects did waver in the face of people smiling at him, (though there were scowls too). I also tried taking pictures of people and finding my own social statement. I don't think I enjoyed it.

I guess that's where it leaves me after all. I can understand it's appeal, but it's not a style of photography I'm passionate about or really interested in. My days of saying I'd never do it have passed (and indeed one of the founding statements of this blog has bitten the dust as a result).

Maybe it's something I'll do in the future. I'll probably keep it to times and places when people have a reasonable expectation that there will be cameras though. In fairness, that's probably more because it's easier to make a social statement at a parade or in a tourist spot than when someone is coming out of a shop.

Of course, not being passionate about it might not stop me posting pictures in that style from time to time.

If you're interested in Street Photography and you haven't done it already. You really should check out Andrews blog. He does have some excellent examples of how it can work well.