Lecture: Tom Wood

Please excuse my rant and sarcasm, but today, there was a presentation by Tom Wood at Uni. I was in two minds as to whether I wanted to go or not but decided I would as I thought it could be quite interesting.

The uni timetable described Tom and his lecture as;

"Tom Wood is a major contemporary street photographer who for many years has focused almost exclusively on Liverpool and Merseyside in his work. Born in the rural west of Ireland he moved to Liverpool in 1978 where he produced Looking for Love in 1989 which features the infamous Chelsea Reach Nightclub in New Brighton and All Zones Off Peak which features images taken on Liverpool buses. A retrospective, Photie Man, was published in 2005. His work is in many public collections including MoMA; the V&A Museum and the British Council and he has done commercial photography for the fashion and culture magazine I-D".

Well, I thought, even though I'm not really a fan of this type of work, it would be interesting to see what he had to say...who wouldn't? And the mention of Liverpool just had Chambre Hardman ticking over in my head despite their work being so different!
HOW WRONG I WAS!!!!!!!!!!!
It was supposed to run for an hour....1 hour and 50 minutes later we finally managed to escape.

Tom started off by plugging his books followed 15 minutes later by telling us that he now does landscape photography but showed NONE of this work and from the impression that I very much got, its because he doesn't make a living from it so it is it really that amazing?
He then displayed a slide show of his images from the 70's/80's and droned on the whole time something similar to; 'I took this photos of these too girls and round the corner there was a public toilet and I took another photo there' and 'I always worked in colour as I liked it but I couldn't afford it so I worked in black & white'. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!

He was also extremely rude and I felt very much like he needed to pull his head out of his backside. He kept telling Adrian (a Uni employee) "change the next slide" and "focus the slide Adrian" repeatedly in quite an arrogant manner.

The main thing for me was, after the lecture, I didn't feel like I had learnt anything at all. It was like listening to a great great grandparent with dementia for nearly 2 hours. I didn't feel like he knew anything about photography afterwards and he certainly didn't demonstrate the he did.
I just came away thinking he was one of the few people who was lucky enough to have a camera and access to developing who took random photos while he was out with his mates when most people only took photos of their family and that is why his images are in demand now. Followed by another 15 minute plug for his books...
Tom didn't talk about how he got to where he is today or anything useful to help us further our knowledge or careers at all in my opinion.

Fair enough, he has made his name but come on - can we have a REAL photographer who isn't going to spend 30 minutes plugging his books and droning on about nothing particularly useful???!!!
I know that LCAD is an arts college, but there are other styles of 'art' - after all, it is a matter of taste and I know that most people who attended the lecture were in a similar mind as I was after!

Photographer: Berenice Abbott

One of the most famous night images that I have seen was taken by Berenice Abbott.

Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) was an American photographer, most famous for her photography of New York architecture during the 1930's that dominated her artistc career.

Photograph by Berenice Abbott, Nightview, New York, 1932

Taken in December 1932 from the top of the Empire State building, the view looks North over New York conveying the essence of the vibrant city. In the foreground you can see the now demolished, 6th Avenue El sliced by the street that has become Broadway.

Abbott was not a dedicated night photographer, but it just so happens that one of her most famous images was taken at night.

Low Light Urban Landscapes

Here are a few images from the shoot this evening. I didn't take many shots as it was freezing and long exposures can be very time consuming. We went to Clarence Dock (by The Royal Armouries) as I thought it would be the ideal initial location as there are plenty of buildings that had their lights on, the canal for reflections, shops for different coloured light as well as fairy lights on the trees dotted around the canal side for added interest.

Taken at F.16, ISO 200, Bulb (67 seconds)

Taken at F.16, ISO 200, 20 Seconds

Taken at F.16, ISO 200, Bulb (61 seconds)

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results as I don't have any experience taking this sort of image but I found it very difficult not to blow out the highlights on the lighting which is really niggling at me. That being said, I have looked at other photographers images and sometimes it really can't be helped without using multiple exposures or HDR so this is something I would like to try for the next shoot.

Com Tech: What I want to achieve from this project...

Tonight is going to be the first outdoor night shoot for this project.
I have spent hours and hours reading up on the technique and technical knowledge required so that I can experiment a little more and I'm actually feeling quite daunted by this shoot now as there is so much that you need to know about this technique! I have also spent a substantial amount of time on Flickr looking at other people's images and the EXIF data (camera settings used) as well as looking at the time and date that they were taken so that I can be set up and be ready to take my shots when the light is right for what I want to achieve.

I also have some ideas for competition entries so I am going to 'test shoot' these tonight but I'm not going to tell you anymore about that as I want the shots as unique as possible. So until I have the final shots that I am happy with and have entered the competitions I'm not letting on anymore to anyone!

There are quite a few things that I want to get out of this project and so far, my list is as follows;

• More photographic experience and control in low light situations
• Increase my technical knowledge and practical experience of functions and settings including 'Mirror lock up' and 'Bulb'.
• Experiment with filters (star refraction, gradients etc)
• Increase and expand my photographic portfolio
• Learn to handle light flares
• Experiment with long exposures
• Learn how to capture star trails and images of the night sky
• Increase my knowledge of Photoshop with image blending and HDR (High Dynamic Range) to name a couple of things
• Oh, and make more use of my tripod!

I'm also hoping that this project will increase my confidence to go out and take photographs in public places and in the city after dark as I am a little uneasy of what situations could occur especially due to the value of the equipment. However, I do have a nice high pitched personal alarm that will be coming with me as normal and Josh will be coming too as well as Steph and Ben, so there should be at least 3 or 4 of us.

I have another motive for this project... I hate living in the city and I find it quite ugly and gloomy so... I am hoping that this will enable me to find a want to make the city and urban landscapes more attractive to both myself and anyone else who isn't an enthusiast of cities.

I would also like to try some Ariel Photography but this really isn't feasible right now, so I would like to be able to take some images of the views from high-rise buildings in the city. I have already contacted a few of the taller buildings for access permissions but this is proving a lot harder than I had thought it would be as most of them have not replied...I think I will have to pop in and speak to someone rather than sending a formal request via email!
I will keep you updated on this idea though as soon as I know more...

Textures

I haven't really played with textures much and its something that I have been meaning to do for a while now.
I only spent about 15-20 minutes on the first one - I think I spent longer picking the image!
I'm quite pleased with it though as it is so different from most of my images and I will post more as I do them. I really like this effect - it still has elements and a feel of romanticism yet it is quite grungy and aged. I think it makes quite a nice combination. I titled it 'Time Waits for No-One...' as the model is fairly young and the room/set seems to be aging beyond her.

'Time Waits for No-One...'

The second of this series.
This one took slightly longer as the lighting was so different and it was quite tricky to get the texture to sit correctly on the image. I edited the light a little so it was coming more from one side as it gave more of an old candle-lit feel and warmed up the image giving it a less 'grungy' feel than the first. It reminds me of an old renaissance painting a little.

'Renaissance'

This is the third image of the manipulated set and probably my least favourite, although I'm not quite sure why. It may be because of the lighting and setting, but it feels less romantic than the others (not that its a bad thing). The image was one that I originally rejected from the shoot so I'm actually quite please with how it has turned out. It was very overcast and dull when this was taken and it wasn't raining properly either, but I think its a lot more atmospheric now which has improved the shot quite dramatically. It has a nice sense of tranquility and contemplation to it which is quite relaxing. It also gives the set more variation.

'Lost in a Moment'

The forth and last image (below) is my second favourite in the set. I tried a few variations - black & white, colour and cyanotype, which all worked really well and in the end, I was quite torn between the colour and b&w versions. I decided that the colour had more emotion to it and wasn't so 'cold', the b&w also didn't sit in the set as well as the colour variation. I really like the way that the texture falls, especially on the painting to the right as it looks old and torn. Again, this image has a similar 'aged' feeling to it as the first, but is brighter with harsher contrast giving it a bit more life. The colours are more vivid, making the light from the window brighter. This give the feeling of hope and that outside is far more appetising and desirable than being inside as the room is quite dark and dingy.

'The Grass is Always Greener...'

More Painting with Light...

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Ok, so I cheated with the top one... It was a combination of shots that were merged together in photoshop but it was all drawn with a torch!

Low Light...

Steph and I were going to have a play with this the other night but got slightly distracted by copious amounts of alcohol and it didn't happen...but I have had a very uneventful day and this seemed like a good excuse to play with my new lens!

This technique uses a long exposure while I basically, wave a torch at the camera. So simple and quite amusing to see what you have actually drawn!
I tried a few things and writing backwards was impossible so I decided just to flip the images.



After writing and trying to draw cartoons (which just weren't happening and I was lacking in patience) I decided to draw round things with the torch.
These are a couple of my favourites but I would like to experiment more with this technique as it's great fun.