alan frost photography

The future of photography and in particular the print – discuss.

This could be an exam question or even a topic for a university thesis, or more simply a discussion between a group of photographers over a drink in the pub one evening.

On Sunday I attended Foto Fest 2017 at Bath University, an event hosted by Fotospeed – a company providing a wide variety of photographic papers, some of which I use for my own images. There were four excellent professional photographers talking about their work (Martin Hartley, Paul Sanders, Ben Hall and Colin Prior) all of which were truly inspiring.

At the end of the afternoon Sam Gregory of Togcast hosted a question and answer session with the four speakers giving their views on various topics. The subject of this entry was one of the topics raised by Sam. There wasn’t time to do the question justice, let alone involve the audience. I am also aware it’s a hotly debated subject in photography circles. As no one can really predict the future, I thought I would pitch in with my own personal view. It’s probably an opinion shared by others but I hope you will read on.

Exhibition layout – now it’s getting serious

In about 11 weeks time, The Image Circle group exhibition will be opening The Oxmarket doors to the public. On the 14th November to be precise. Between now and then the six members of the group will be making their final selection as to what to display, organise matting and framing, choosing titles and of course promoting the event. It would be a pity to go to all this work if no one turns up!

Harbour Reflections, Prinsted

I can only speak for myself but as I will be presenting a body of work on Chichester Harbour, as opposed to a selection of individual images or smaller collections of photographs, the overall layout of the panel is of particular importance to me.

It’s a Bank Holiday – time to play!

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It’s a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK. Unusually the sun is shining brightly, it’s pretty hot and quite rightly people are giving themselves permission to relax and enjoy themselves – and why not?!

In a complete break from my usual style, I too have been playing – just processing an image in a rather exaggerated way purely for the fun of it. High on contrast, lots of grain, blue toned, rotated through 90 degrees and a fancy border as well.

I think it’s important to do something different once in a while. Creative freedom can lead to unexpected results. Nothing too serious but good to inject a change of tack – after all ‘variety is the spice of life’.

For the record I took this shot yesterday at The Arundel Festival. There were huge numbers of people around; the main roads in the town had been closed to traffic, and tables and chairs were everywhere to cater for the thirsty and the hungry.

Have fun whatever you choose to do this Bank Holiday.

‘The tide is high’ at Bosham

I have been wanting to make the above image for some time. The view is across the harbour from Chidham towards the village of Bosham with its instantly recognisable Church and spire reaching to the sky.

I often return to this particular spot when out walking but to get the result I was looking for, the height of the tide had to be at a certain level. Too low and there is too much vegetation…..too high and the posts are disappearing into the water. I do have the ‘Tides Planner’ App for my iPhone which tells me the height of the tide, so today I headed out with time to spare to watch and wait as the tide started to come in. I had also been cotemplating that a long exposure would enhance the scene and this of course would require a tripod, ND filters etc. Not the sort of stuff I usually carry with me when out walking. I am normally a spontaneous photographer but this shot was planned and thought about in advance.

Although a fairly bright day there was no direct sunlight which is exactly what I wanted. Too much contrast would have made life more difficult, so a little bit of good fortune was on my side. Welly boots on, tripod securely standing in the silt, camera set up with a 28mm lens, composition decided, hyper-focal distance set and after 12 seconds at f11, the image was exposed to the sensor. I checked the histogram which showed me no blown highlights and in truth a balanced tonal range. Ideal for post processing.

I sometimes wait a few days or even longer before I process my images but on this occasion I couldn’t wait, so earlier this afternoon I sat down at my Mac, fired up Lightroom and overall I am pleased the result.

Here is another image taken at the same time. I thought about placing the posts in the centre of the frame but I rather like the fact they are offset to the left and lie on ‘the rule of thirds’. Placing them in the centre was a little too obvious.

And lastly another image of Bosham taken yesterday from a different position on the shoreline. This time at low tide.

All of these photographs are being added to my ‘Chichester Harbour’ project portfolio and when I get the time I will upload a gallery to this site.

Do click on an image to view a larger version.

‘Lost Glove’ – photo titles or even some Haiku perhaps?

dew on hand of wool
posts and wire in mist belong
cold fingers missing

I don’t know what you think but when it comes to giving a photograph a title it can be something of a struggle. At best a title can enhance the image; at worst it can be bland and add nothing at all. Some are purely factual which can at least inform the viewer, but these lack any artistic merit. I have even read a few titles and to be perfectly frank they were a distraction and it would have been much better to have let the image stand on it’s own two feet. There are of course occasions when the photographer feels the need not just to give the photograph a title but also a very lengthy description, which somehow almost becomes more important than the image itself.

All of this got me thinking, particularly as I have almost certainly been guilty of poor and uninspiring titles, overlong descriptions, the list goes on…….

I can’t profess to be a great lover of poetry but I do see a definite connection between the art of photography and writing poems as a creative art. What if the two were combined? Well it’s hardly the most original idea but I thought I would give it a try.

One of the simplest forms of poetry is Haiku, a Japanese poem of just seventeen syllables on three lines – five on the the first line, seven on the second and five on the last line. Traditionally the poem evokes images of the natural world. There is no requirement for rhyme and whilst the number of syllables on each line has changed over time I thought I would stick with the original guidelines. I like the minimalist approach and the strict parameters prevent verbosity – something I could be accused of in this post!!

So below the photograph is my very first attempt at a Haiku verse combined with one of my ‘Chichester Harbour’ project images. ‘Lost glove’ is an apt, albeit unimaginative title, but I think the verse adds a little something extra. Masters of this form of poetry would probably mock the result, but I enjoyed linking words to an image. Will it be something I will use again? I can’t answer that but I’m pleased to have had a go. Your thoughts as always would be most welcome on both the image and the words!