Film

A while ago (26 y approx) we had a go shooting with film. It was more exciting than I thought it would be. The hardest/weirdest part was that I could not look at the image straight after it been taken. The biggest issue with this is that I could not check if the light, depth of field and shutter speed worked well, so there is always a chance that half of the photos would come out wrong. But the fact I couldn't see the image made me think more about the composition and made me trust myself and rely more on my intuition. I am happy with the result and would like to do more of film in future, its worth whiting and more exciting than digital.

moment of peace

 

  Just driving home from Bradford to Didsbury, Manchester.. and we stoped.. peace & harmony

  Canon 10-20 mm lenses

should i stay in my surname i should i work under "MAD DOG"? :)

22.03.

raindrops

“There are a hundred things she has tried to chase away the things she won't remember and that she can't even let herself think about because that's when the birds scream and the worms crawl and somewhere in her mind it's always raining a slow and endless drizzle.

You will hear that she has left the country, that there was a gift she wanted you to have, but it is lost before it reaches you. Late one night the telephone will sign, and a voice that might be hers will say something that you cannot interpret before the connection crackles and is broken.

Several years later, from a taxi, you will see someone in a doorway who looks like her, but she will be gone by the time you persuade the driver to stop. You will never see her again.

Whenever it rains you will think of her. ” 

― Neil Gaiman

cover for song/music album

If John Kiely wouldnt be photographer, he would be musician (like on of those sad ones, like John Mayer, just older lol), and that would be his album cover :)
I like to brake rules, you dont mind Richard, do you? :)

 

All Iv used was my Canon with kit lenses and daylight, so artistic effect was a must, but I do like result :)

 

MAN AND HIS GUITAR (photos&research)

We were given a task to take a photography for music album cover. When I was looking for some photos for some inspiration I fell in love with more like low key lightening type photos. I think they are giving a great atmosphere and would very suit for one guy band. I did not wanted colour-full and "happy" photography, I wanted something deep, dark and moody. As I wanted to guitar to be centr of attention I found what honey comb would be best lightening for these photos. 

So my photoshoot planning was:

- research (looking for photographs for inspiration)

- fin a model 

- find a guitar

- find the best lightening 

These are few of the photos I tried to "redo". But as you can see Iv used what i had - studio and no micraphone, but I found it really well working with just man, guitar and chair. 

And so here is the result.

 

F 6.3; Expousre time 1/160; ISO 300 

470-55mm

wide angle from low point 1.03.13

Southern Cemetery, Manchester

Southern Cemetery, Manchester is a large municipal cemetery in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Greater Manchester, England, three miles south of Manchester city centre: it was opened in 1879. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and second largest in Europe.
The main area of the cemetery is located to the north of Barlow Moor Road and to the west of the A5103 Princess Road; a northwards extension is situated to the north of Nell Lane. Manchester City Council owns and administers the cemetery. There is a Jewish Cemetery in the northwest section, next to Barlow Moor Road and a Muslim section adjacent to it: the rest of the area of the cemetery is divided into plots for particular religious denominations, e.g., Anglicans, Roman Catholics, others. A war memorial stands here to commemorate Allied servicemen who died in the World Wars: many of them died in the two military hospitals in south Manchester (i.e. those at Grangethorpe Road, Fallowfield, and Nell Lane, West Didsbury).
Immediately adjacent to the northwest corner of the cemetery, also on Barlow Moor Road, is the Manchester Crematorium which opened in 1892, the second in the United Kingdom. Near the entrance to its grounds the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) erected a memorial stone to 14 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War who were cremated here, while 177 servicemen and women who were cremated during the Second World War are listed on the screen wall at the cemetery's Second World War war graves plot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cemetery,_Manchester

Christ Church

Christ Church, West Didsbury is the Parish Church of West Didsbury and part of Withington in Manchester. The parish is home to almost 18,000 people.
It is notable in part as it is one of the most passed churches in Manchester^{[citation needed]} as it is on the entry to Manchester on the A5013 (Princess Parkway). Thousands of motorists pass its stone tower every day.
The Church was built in 1881 as a gift to the community from Mr. William Roberts of Darleydale and cost £13,000. It was, for many years, known as 'Christ Church-in-the-fields' due to its placement in a semi-rural setting; it is now in a suburban area.
Between 1979 and 1981 the church was closed due to major extension of Princess Parkway and during this time the church was completely reordered and redecorated. The west entrance was sealed off and a new east entrance was created into what was the organ chamber. The old Jardine organ was disposed of and a redundant organ was purchased and rebuilt in a new case at the west end.

In December 2006 Christ Church joined forces with St. Christopher’s Church in Withington and became a single parish. The current Rector is Anne Pilkington who came to the church from William Temple Church in Wythenshawe.

MACRO

Macro photography (or photomacrography or macrography, and sometimes macrophotography) is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life size (though macrophotography technically refers to the art of making very large photographs). By some definitions, a macro photograph is one in which the size of the subject on the negative or image sensor is life size or greater. However in other uses it refers to a finished photograph of a subject at greater than life size.

PHOTO MONTAGE

There will always be an argument over who invented the word "photomontage". What is not at issue is that it was one of the members of the Berlin Dada group: the debate is about which one. This is hardly surprising since much of the early montage work was the result of collaboration, and many early works are credited to more than one artist. So the official (and diplomatic) version is that the five exponents of Dada montage, John Hearfield, Hannah Hoch, Johannes Baader, Raoul Hausman, and George Grosz all agreed that their new art form required a new name (to distinguish it from the painterly collage of the Cubists.)

Dada was always about kicking out against the status quo. After all, the status quo had just produced the most devastating war in European history, and the artists, who had mostly spent the war years in the safety of neutral Switzerland, returned to Germany desperate to find ways of conveying the madness of the age. One early Dada exhibition was held in a men's public toilet, and visitors were given an axe to destroy the exhibits: it was never a movement much concerned with commercialism or posterity!

"Montage" in German means "fitting" or "assembly line" and "monteur" means "mechanic" or "engineer". John Heartfield, the best known practitioner of montage who used to work in overalls, came to be known as Monteur Heartfield, in recognition of his attitude to the world of art. Hannah Höch, who uniquely continued to produce montages throughout her long and varied life, said: "Our whole purpose was to integrate objects from the world of machines and industry into the world of art."

Many of the earliest Dada montages were used as covers and illustrations for magazines and manifestos of the movement. Their style was usually wildly anarchic, utilising many elements, some of which inevitably included photos of the Dada artists, juxtaposed with much apparently random newspaper text. From these initial experiments, the major figures in Dada photomontage emerged with vastly different styles and agendas.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/davepalmer/cutandpaste/dada.html

 GRETE STERN

Jerry Uelsmann

My go with photo montage

My Manchester. Streets&People.

  Street photography is a type of photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings.

Street photography uses the techniques of straight photography in that it shows a pure vision of something, like holding up a mirror to society. Street photography often tends to be ironic and can be distanced from its subject matter, and often concentrates on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment. On the other hand, much street photography takes the opposite approach and provides a very literal and extremely personal rendering of the subject matter, giving the audience a more visceral experience of walks of life they might only be passingly familiar with. In the 20th century, street photographers have provided an exemplary and detailed record of street culture in Europe and North America, and elsewhere to a somewhat lesser extent.

Many classic works of street photography were created in the period between roughly 1890 and 1975 and coincided with the introduction of portable cameras, especially small 35mm, rangefinder cameras, most famously the Leica, as used by Henri Cartier-Bresson, among others.

Europe

Paris is widely accepted as the birthplace of street photography. The cosmopolitan city helped to define street photography as a genre and the photography helped to form the city as well.

Eugene Atget, is regarded as the father of the genre, not because he was the first of his kind, but from his popularity as a Parisian photographer. As the city did, Atget helped to promote the city streets as a worthy subject for photography. He worked in the city of Paris from the 1890s to the 1920s. His subject matter consisted mainly of architecture; stairs, gardens, and windows. He did photograph some workers but it is clear people were not his main focus.

John Thomson, a Scotsman, began photographing the street prior to Atget, and had more of a subject aware style in comparison to Atget. Though he does not receive the same amount of accreditation, Thomson was vital in the transition from photographing only high class, manufactured portraits to capturing everyday life on the streets.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, who has a reputation comparable to Atget, was a 20th century photographer who’s style focused on the actions of people. He was responsible for the idea of taking a picture at the ideal moment. He was influenced by his interest in traditional art, as he desired to be a painter. This influence comes through in his skill of combining timing and technique.

 United States

The beginnings of street photography in the United States can be linked to that of jazz in the music domain, both emerging as outspoken depictions of every day life. This connection is seen in the work of the New York School of Photography. This was not a formal institution, the New York School is a term referring to groups of photographers in the mid-20th century who were based in New York City. One of the most notable of these photographers, Robert Frank, was a part of the beat movement interested in Black-American and counter cultures. Frank is the most celebrated street photographer because of his popular book, The Americans. Raw and often out of focus, his images questioned the proper photography of the time, contradicting Ansel Adams landscapes. The mainstream photography community in America fiercely rejected Frank’s work, that later became a stepping-stone for fresh photographers looking to break away form the restrictions of the old style.

 Technique

Most kinds of portable camera are used for street photography; for example rangefinders, digital and 35mm SLRs, and point-and-shoot cameras. A commonly used focusing technique is zone focusing — setting a fixed focal distance and shooting from that distance — as an alternative to autofocus, particularly using wide angle lenses with their increased depth of field. Zone focusing facilitates shooting "from the hip" i.e. without bringing the camera up to the eye.^[ Alternatively waist-level finders allow for composing the shot or adjusting focus without bringing attention to the photographer.

 Street photography versus documentary photography

Street photography and documentary photography are two very similar genres of photography that often overlap while having distinct individual qualities. Street photography has the ability to document while documentary has the definite intention of recording history. Documentary photography can be candid, but street photography is defined by its candidness. Street photography produces ironic amusement while documentary provides emotional intensity. The language of street photography is subtle and not as loud and outspoken as documentary photography often is. In the 19th century, the peak of street photography, most photographers were naïve to the fact that they were "documenting" history. As street photographers they had no definite intentions or goals beyond the production of a candid print. Documentary style is defined by its premeditated message and intention of documenting particular events in history. The documentary approach includes aspects of journalism, art, education, sociology and history. In documentary's social investigation, often the images are intended to pave way to social change. Documentary's underlying motives complicate its ability to give a clear, impartial vision of the world. Street Photography is disinterested in its nature, allowing it to deliver a true depiction of the world. Street photographs are mirror images of society, displaying "unmanipulated" scenes, with usually unaware subjects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photography

Balance. White Balance.

Mathematics of color balance

 Color balancing is sometimes performed on a three-component image (e.g., RGB) using a 3x3 matrix. This type of transformation is appropriate if the image were captured using the wrong white balance setting on a digital camera, or through a color filter.

“Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple...”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

 

ABSTRACT PHOTOS

Playing with lights..

Short dept of field

 Save a boyfriend for a rainy day - and another, in case it doesn't rain.