Bath | alan frost photography

Downhill shopper – returning to a forgotten image.

I am rather impatient when it comes to processing a SD card full of images. I get home, download them into Lightroom and with luck a number will jump out at me and the processing begins. More often than not these are the pictures which I remember taking and I simply can’t wait to see whether or not I have captured something I like.

I have been told that it can be beneficial to do nothing with a card of images, just download them and then leave them to mature for a good while, perhaps six months or more, before taking a more in depth look at what you shot on the day. Given the passage of time you no longer remember all the shots that were taken, and images which might have been written off on first viewing are in fact worthy of consideration. Perhaps a different or new processing technique will reveal an image which works after several months but might not have done had it been processed within hours of the shutter being released.

‘Downhill shopper’ is one such picture. It was the third shot I took in the lovely city of Bath on the ABC of Camerawork workshop with Andy Beel at the beginning of November last year. Whilst I can recall taking the picture it didn’t say much to me at the time, but a year on and given a high contrast and grainy look to the photograph, I now think it’s worthy of sharing on my blog. There is little or no detail, just outlines of backlit figures, long shadows and the knowledge that you are looking at a busy street scene of shoppers. The rest is down to your imagination. The elderly lady and what appear to be ski poles, give the image its title.

Here is a link to the entry about my day in Bath with Andy Beel.

ABC of Camerawork course with Andy Beel in Bath

A return to Bath and an alternative view

Tradesmen only

At the end of October last year I spent a very enjoyable day in the beautiful Georgian city of Bath in Somerset, on a photographic workshop with Andy Beel FRPS. I wrote about it here. More recently I was travelling back from South Wales and had agreed to pick up my daughter in Bath and we would return home together. The weather was very different to my previous visit. It had been raining heavily in the morning and by the time I arrived in Bath the rain had stopped but it was still grey and overcast. This was in complete contrast to the bright sunshine I had experienced towards the end of last year. I had a couple of hours to kill and decided that I would try and adopt an alternative approach to before. The weather conditions offered very different lighting and I thought I would challenge myself by sticking to just one lens – the Olympus 75mm f1.8 on the Olympus EM1. Because of the crop factor this lens equates to a 150mm on a full frame 35mm camera. Ordinarily this is not the lens I would choose to take photographs in a crowded city with large buildings and confined areas in which to work. Reach for the wide angle, others might say; try to get everything into the shot. Although I covered a similar area I was looking for new angles and arguably the less glamorous parts of the city which had been the obvious things to shoot last time round. I finished up with the selection you can see here.

Old steps

Behind the Georgian facade

Porticos

Resting pigeon

Sash window

Back street

Going down

Walking on a Sunday

Street lamp

I took great pleasure from revisiting Bath and taking an alternative view. When I compare this set of images with those I took at the tail end of last year, there are some common features, but I think the overall impression they give of the city is very different. I also enjoyed restricting myself to just one prime lens. It made me look for images which only worked with a more limited and compressed depth of field. If you missed the link to my earlier post on Bath, it’s here. Do click on any of the images to view a larger version which will open in a new window.

ABC of Camerawork course with Andy Beel in Bath

The Circus, Bath

This time last week my wife and I took part in a photography workshop called the ABC of Camerawork which was run by Andy Beel FRPS, a Bristol based photographer who is renowned for his black and white photography. The course took place in the beautiful city of Bath in Somerset.

As well as my wife and I, there were four other particpants all from Dorchester Camera Club. We met up with Andy in the cafe above Waterstones bookshop in Milsom Street. Over coffee and a croissant he introduced himself and soon established our photographic abilities and what we would like to get out of the day. From my point of view I was keen to use depth of field in a more creative way.