monochrome | alan frost photography

A fan of shadows at Playa Blanca

A ‘fan of shadows’

My last entry was about ‘playing with the light’ at Playa Blanca in Lanzarote. Strong light not only brings contrast to an image but very often shadows as well; so this post concentrates on the shadows and how they can be used to either enhance or be a fundamental part of the composition.

The sun lounger cast an interesting shadow – a fish or shark perhaps?

Shadows through an opening in the wall

The shadow of a chair cast on a tiled floor

A shadow of gate

Shadow of a rake

Another shot of the ‘fan of shadows’

These may not be great images but the combination of light and shade, particularly in monochrome, have a certain something about them. They would in my opinion not work in colour. This series of pictures are all about texture, shape, form and how the shadows are absolutley key to the composition. If nothing else taking and processing these images all help train the eye to see. After the all camera is simply a tool to record the shot. It’s the person looking through the viewfinder and pressing the shutter who is the true creator.

Playing with the light at Playa Blanca

Back in November we visited Playa Blanca in Lanzarote, one of The Canary Islands for some winter sun and warmer temperatures. We only had one day of rain, the rest of the time we relaxed under clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid to high twenties.

The light was very special particularly at the beginning and end of each day, and having never visited this part of the world before, it was an opportunity for me to try an alternative approach to my photography. Still working in black and white I looked for details in the buildings around where we were staying. Observing the way the light fell on the textured wall surfaces and the shadows that were cast. Simplifying the image through abstraction and including some geometric shapes to enhance the composition. The white walls often worked as giant reflectors projecting light in areas where you would least expect it to be.

Here are a selection of images all of which were taken within a five minute walk of the villa we had rented for the week.

For me these images capture the feel and essence of the resort, the wonderful light as it played on the textured and buildings, but more importantly it was a lesson in observation and I greatly enjoyed the experience.

Experimentation and still time for tea!

Although I still have a number of images to process from my walk along the South Downs Way last month, there is always time for a little photographic experimentation and a cup of tea!

Last weekend my wife and I visited Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. It’s a place we have been to before and having looked at the excellent variety of artwork on display, followed by a visit to the well stocked book shop, there was still time for a cup of tea.

Table and chairs

It was just warm enough to sit outside but the vast majority of tables were empty. Summer over and Autumn just round the corner some leaves were already falling from the trees. I didn’t have a camera with me, other than my iPhone which can of course produce some good results. Many months ago I had downloaded the Flickr App, but never used its camera or choice of effects. I started to have a ‘play’ as I was drawn to the table a chairs close to where we were sitting. The ‘noir’ effect looked good to me as it seemed to capture something about the emptiness of the place and the onset of Autumn.

No other processing has been applied which is in complete contrast to the work I have been doing recently. I quite like the result and will probably take more shots using the Flickr App in the future.

London cityscapes

Since November of last year the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London has been staging a retrospective exhibition of work by Ansel Adams called ‘From the Mountains to the Sea’. As it was due to finish this month I did not want to miss the opportunity to see original photographs by this inspirational artist. So a day trip to the Capital was planned which also gave me the chance to take in some of the sights of London and of course take a few photographs.

Before heading off to Greenwich I also visited another photographic exhibition at Somerset House called ‘ Landmark – The Fields of Photography’. From there I walked eastwards along The Embankment towards St Paul’s Cathedral, The City of London and the Financial Sector. At Tower Bridge I used the Docklands Light Railway to Cutty Sark, the nearest station for The Maritime Museum. I very much enjoyed seeing areas of London which I had not visited before and here are a slection of images I took that day.

A view of The Shard from The Millenium Bridge

A mix of ‘old and new’ – St Pauls Cathedral and its reflection in the
contemporary buildings of One Change

The Lloyds Building – home of the Insurance Company LLoyds of London

The Lloyds Building frames another more recent icon in the City –
The Gherkin

The Gherkin or as it is formally known as 30 St Mary Axe

I also wanted to try my hand at some abstract geometric compositions of the the modern office blocks which are now starting to dominate the London skyline.

……..and finally an older couple walked hand in hand up the ramp leading to the Millennium Bridge. I assume they too were enjoying the sights and sounds of this remarkable city.

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Lake District 121 with Paul Gallagher

I realise it’s been a few weeks since I posted an entry on this blog. The reason is quite simple. A couple of weeks ago I visited the Lake District for a few days in the company of Paul Gallagher, a renowned UK based landscape photographer who just loves black and white. He is also a Master Printer for Epson; so what he doesn’t know about printing just isn’t worth knowing! It’s also been a very busy time for me personally and I wanted to reflect on what I had learnt before posting my thoughts and any of the images.

The photograph below was taken on the day I arrived in The Lake District before I met up with Paul the next morning. It was late in the afternoon so I had a limited amount of daylight left to take any shots. Blea Tarn was frozen over and I processed the image using a combination of Lightroom and Silver Efex Pro2. As it happens I would not using this plug-in again for post processing…..Paul was about to demonstrate to me the power of Photoshop……so more about this in a future post!

Blea Tarn with the Langdale Pikes in the background

The setup for the 121 or personal workshop was to spend two days out and about taking images, learning about camera technique, camera settings, composition, histogram and the use of filters etc. The third day would be spent back at his studio processing the images and producing large A3+ size prints. In essence I was keen to bridge the gaps between camera work in the field, processing and printing. In other words to develop a work flow whereby my photographic thinking or pre-visualisation at the time of taking the shot would be influenced by how I wanted the final image to look once processed and printed back in the ‘digital’ darkroom. The aim would be to combine the three elements into one, as opposed to treating them as distinctly separate processes where coherent thinking doesn’t overlap.

This will therefore be the first of a series of probably quite short posts about the various topics which we covered over the three days, including of course, some of the images taken. I should add that I had an extra day free in the middle of the 121, which gave me time to put into practice some of the techniques and ideas we had talked about in the first two days. In my opinion this was invaluable, as I could take some shots unsupervised by Paul before returning to his studio. He also set me a few challenges…..would I succeed or would I fail?

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