Who, What, Why...

One thing I have always loved about street photography is that you can put Who, What Why to the back of your mind and just open yourself up to what's in front of you. Naturally you have to be on alert but it's much more instinctive, akin to hunting. There's going to be a lot of misses, you can forgive yourself for that, good photography of any kind is not easy and good street photography is harder still.

I can't really call myself a street photographer any more, but I guess I'm in the humanist mode when I do manage to shoot the street.



Ahhh... but then you start to think you've seen it all before, you begin wonder what the point of it all is and you stop looking.

The Cook at Camden 2011

Anybody that's tired of street photography, is in my view tired of life;
The life you capture on the street is a record of the times you've lived in, and though there's plenty to ignore, there's much to celebrate.

It's a weary eye that stops looking for the sheer beauty & Joy that can be found out there in the world

On the street, you wanna be the guy on the right

Explain

It's Spring . . . my birthday soon. I'm a spring sort of thing.

"28th March 2012 was my Chardonnay Night. The earliest yet to sit out in the garden with a glass of something cold (beer this time).

The red streak in the background is where my wife smeared the Hawthorn tree with some Mistletoe berries from Christmas gone.

Here's hoping for some growth."

Ken

It's oh so quiet...

I've been thinking lately that I seldom marry commercial looking photography with photography in  documentary mode, well. I either think a shot's got a lot of substance but I
Could have done the subject more justice, or I get a pretty stylized shot and think it's just too shallow.

Diane zapps me with Pentax Spot Meter V April 2011

Having a beer in the garden, practicing with my new lights. Got a bit of "hey! look at me" about it.
That's how most commercial type photography is, it's a bit shouty. Mind you to sell something I guess
you have to get noticed. Don't know what I'm selling here... Stella? Ipod touch? Pentax spot meter?
Logitech docking station?  Needs rediting to

Diane. York 2008

This shot was taken two months after we were married. We'd just found out that Diane had a tumor on her
liver and retreated to York to wait for the results. Given what we were told at the time, we were sure that
the news would be bad. The survival rate for liver cancer is very low. It's normally found by accident as was the case with Diane's  tumor.

No lights, just window light here. Nothing on my mind at the time other than the feeling that I had to take the picture. It was important to me, to us, that I did. Not even sure why now as nothing would have mattered had the news been bad. Turns out the news was good and the picture remains important to me, I return to
it when I need a reminder of how much I have. Funny, I swore I'd never need reminding when I was
preying to myself she's be spared.

Is it really fair to compare the two? They were both taken for very different reasons.
Ones shouty, one has a quiet voice. They're both auto biographical

Diane chilling in the Garden may 2010

Here she is laid back again. What the shots do have in common is of course there all pictures of Diane.
She's laid back in all of them, she was where I found her at the time (even with the lights) and they do
describe some aspect of our life. Aesthetically maybe picture 1+2=3 


Alls I know is I'll keep trying. As much as the second picture is important to me, I'm glad that it isn't the lasting
picture I have of her.

New Old Camera

I haven't owned a point and shoot for six or seven years. I've thought about getting one the odd time but I always ended up thinking that if you're going invest grands in to a camera system, you shouldn't be lazy, you should carry it with you. Problem is I have all but stopped shooting the kind of things you shoot with point and shoots, the photo record stuff. Maybe that just means my eyes weary and the worlds just a less interesting place to me photographically these days?

Hope not, it would be a shame if that were true.


My new camera isn't a great one. It's not much use in tough light, it's noisy, it has less manual control than point and shoots I had seven years ago but it cost £500...


It's an iphone 4s

On way back to camp Site (Longnore in the peaks)*

*Managed to go camping Sunday until Monday thanks to the crazy weather

You'd want a drink if you married me

Dynamic range is bobbins

I doubt that my 1Ds mk lll would have been allowed in court

Ghost of Elsie Tanner

I've seen some big name photographers proclaim that "Hey I took these with an iphone!" As if using
something so limited (often with a fake polariod app) is some kind of  artistic statement.

The mediums not the message, man. Who cares?


The iPhone's not going to inspire me to create new work. It'll just let me take the kind of pictures
I've stopped taking, old work if you like.

Three trips around the Sun

I took this picture of my niece,Natalie, three years ago today. She was pregnant with her daughter, Nevaeh at the time. News of a visit from the stork is usually greeted with great joy. But it's naturally a worry when the mother to be is so young. That Joy was also tempered with added concern because Natalie suffers with Schizophrenia.

Three years to the day later and Nevaeh is one of the most beautiful children I have
ever known. She is bright, caring, affectionate & resilient. Much like her mother was
at that age.

Beautiful Sunny day today. Natalie remains sectioned, progress is slow
if not ground to a halt, possibly in reverse. I don't know what her future is
but I know her past and her present.


"Many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

Thomas Grey.*

*I first read that quote when Robert Adams used it in Beauty In Photography.
It has always reminded me of Natalie


Sean

Peter Pan

Yesterday was an annual meet at "Adventure Island" in sunny Southend - Peter Pans as it was known. A lot of memories for everyone.

It was just hours before Summertime officialy began for 2012.

Louisa & Ant at Peter Pans

Me & cousin Jan Rune at Peter Pans

Ken

And the winner is

I don't cast my eye much on the world of commercial photography.

Just have a read of that

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17472993

Then take a stroll over to the winners site and see why that is