Henri Lartigue

One of my favorite images from this photographers collection.

Henri was given a camera as a boy and he began using up film almost immediately. He is famous for his pictures of his relatives and friends jumping and leaping in the air. How he managed to capture such images has baffled some of the finest brains in the business. Technically it just wasn't possible with some of his shots..but he did it so it was possible.

This image was taken in 1911 at the height of "La Belle Epoch" movement in France. I love it because of the relationship between all the subjects. The horse and carriage are exiting the image just as the motor car is coming into view, to me signalling the birth of a new era. The lady is certainly glamorous, strolling along with her two small dogs oblivious to the car but looking right at the boy taking her photograph. I wonder if she owns a car, maybe she knows the young photographer.

I don't know if Henri Lartigue had any formal training as a photographer or if like me he was just given a camera and left to his own devises. He was however a trained artist, though by most accounts a better photographer. He certainly knew how to take a photograph from a young age. I struggled for many many years without any knowledge of what I was doing and with no direction. I picked up and put down a camera many times loosing interest because I had so many ideas but did not have the ability to get those ideas out. I still struggle today but now we are in the digital age I can see my mistakes almost instantly so have the ability to go back and try again.

Paradise

This is probably one of the most iconic images that one sees of Venice these days. Gondola bows bobbing in the lagoon at the San Marco station. So why the title paradise?
I have visited Venice many times in the past staying everywhere from station benches as a young man with little money to shabby chic Italian hotels as I grew older. On those occasions I always wanted to visit the city with others who would have the passion for seeing that I have. Not just the "right, seen that, what's next" attitude.
I visited Venice again this year with my partner and for the first time was absolutely "blown away" with everything the city had to offer. I saw the city in a new light with new eyes and new emotion. Gone were all the pretences and artificiality. In its place was a sense of seeing and sharing. I felt I had almost come full circle as with little money I managed to share sparkling wine in San Marco square at night under a myriad of lights only this time it was purchased from a supermarket for less than a pint of beer and to compliment it we had cheese rolls bought at the same time. A true feast and a moment in time never to be forgotten.
It's not where you have been or what you have seen, it's how you feel for a moment in your life and if you find that moment it lasts forever and becomes a personal paradise.
For those who have managed to read this far and want to know how the shot was created I have to thank a photoshop plugin by the name of OnOnes PhotoTools. After saturating the image with colour I then applied the filter to give more depth to the colour. This was then followed by adding the "orton process" to give it that dreamy look. Lastly I added a photo border to the image. This image has now become one of many prints that I sell and has been accepted by a gallery in my local town Chichester.

Tranquillity

This image was taken in 2004 on the island of Bali at 5am in the morning.
The trip to Bali really changed my life and the way I viewed just about everything I had been doing in the past both as a photographer and in my own personal life. I see in this picture a great sense of loneliness as that's how I was feeling in my personal life at the time. I used to get out of bed on these trips to far off destinations and wander around the beaches and hotels at sunrise with no one to talk to or no one to share what I was seeing or feeling. The only way I could show people what I was seeing and feeling was to take a photograph. These however invariably fell on "deaf ears" or eyes that seemed impervious to what was going on at the time.
As an image I think this has all the elements a picture needs. Everything in the right place at the right time. I remember watching the fisherman complete his mornings work and just relaxing in the pagoda looking out onto a scene that was definitely very familiar to him, one he had probably viewed every day of his life. He seems so relaxed in his surroundings, so at peace with nature and his environment. I often wonder what his life at home was like. Was he eeking out an existence, was he contented with everything he had in life? It seems as though "western" values of possessions and status are a million miles from his life as indicated by the ubiquitous bicycle that most Asians prefer as their mode of transport. To me for a while I envied that fisherman for everything he had and would willingly have traded places with him. I also feel there is a great deal of spirituality created by this image. I found many of the scenes and experiences in Bali to be some of the most spiritual moments of my life.
There is no technical data to this shot. It is quite simply a snapshot of life. I chose to present the image in black and white to allow the viewer to imagine their own colours and also to try to create a timeless feel to the image, something I believe can only be achieved with a black and white image.

Sunflower

This image was taken with my 5D on a wet summer's afternoon in my conservatory. I wanted to convey what it was that holds up such a large imposing flower. Whilst the petals are very delicate the actual structure of the flower is quite coarse and hard. Everyone has seen the traditional view of a sunflower either shot from a low angle upwards into a radiant blue sky or showing the millions of seeds contained in the centre of the flower. Like a lot of things I do in life I strive to be different and I am always looking for another viewpoint. I think also that this is what sets some artists and photographers apart from others....they look, feel and get to know their subject. A sunflower is a good example of this as many of us from a small age have grown sunflowers in our gardens to wonder at their height and majesty...add to that they are so simple to grow.
There is no technical expertise involved in this shot as the setup was simply natural light with a white card placed behind the subject. The sunflower was then placed in a vase and to hold it steady I used some wire to attach it to the vase. I did however use a tripod and another piece of white card to act as a reflector to bounce light back onto my subject. When it came to editing, again very little was done other than crop the image and slightly saturate the reds to bring up the veins in the petals.
Well that's it, the start of a new blog which is really just about how I feel about a certain image or if it helps others some basic technical detail on what I did to create the shot in the first place.