We The People

Welcome to a very positive day; today my second book We The People was published through Blurb the book is going to be a resounding success, it certainly is a culmination of the styles I have picked up through comical captures, metaphors and juxtaposition. 

Am happy it is finally finished and to be honest it has been a bit of a learning curve putting this together, unlike Work, Rest and Play this is probably a lot more besides.

After having a conversation with another photographer, we discussed my style of photojournalism and the approach is certainly artistic in execution, I am though just learning though admittedly I am developing a style. 

When you click on the link to my latest work you will be greeted with colour! I decided on going for full bleed images on some pages throughout the book, and have also opted for photo-spread layouts for the landscape perspective which are also showing fantastic contrast with the paper used which is ProLine Coated Pearl; I just like this paper and the cover itself is an oatmeal linen with standard mid grey end sheets and finished off with a high gloss hardcover dust jacket. 

The paper gives a superb look, a high dynamic range for great colour, rich blacks and superb contrast. 

A majority of the photos I shot during the scotia-pride event in Edinburgh were featuring people were rich vibrant coloured clothes, and this paper really shows how professional a look the photographs give. 

 

Moving on to the other locations, Chester offered a few surprises as did Blackpool, a fight took place and you can clearly see the public reaction, everyone honed into the area of interest, as though they were watching a scuffle in a school playground. It made for a very interesting shot I shot it with a zoom lens though; I prefer to get in closer with a 28mm F/2 Soligor or an F/1.8 MK II 50mm Canon. 

Prime lenses are ideal for street photography especially at night you can if using digital open the aperture up and adjust the ISO to 3200. You can get great results, I have tried using flash but straight away people will see that someone is taking photographs and you have lost the element of surprise. 

So it is much better using a higher ISO rating and the shots still have a great clarity about them, not so much noise. So if you like the look of the book please share the link, leave a comment or just give me some honest feedback would you have done something different, and if so what? 

One pattern I noticed that started to appear was the subject matter wherever I went people were asleep, day dreaming or was it the heat of the day and too much drink?

It truly is remarkable when you start viewing this and it then twigs in the mind this can be another book, and so that is exactly what I have started to work on, and why not after all the narrative is their I just have to go hunting. 

In fact the other day when I was itching to shoot something, I went for a stroll along the sea-front to see what subject matter was readily available, and I stumbled on a few ideas as I always do when am out walking. 

Model Shoot

During September I am going to be working on a new project with a friend who is an MUA (Make-Up Artist) 

Were going to be working on a few ideas mainly involving models so first up will be a shoot of one of Mita's  friends namely a transgender named Isis. We will be shooting a few fashion stills which sounds really exciting, am going to do this with a unique style that will hopefully incorporate some of the lighting skills, I have learned from reading the Strobist 101 blog if not read his invaluable source of lighting information, and his vast knowledge of lighting outdoors or indoors, I suggest you do. It's a great place to start. 

So the shoot will involve to some degree strobist lighting techniques, I will also be using my Canon EOS 1D MK II , for the simple reason it actually shoots at a maximum of 8.3 fps (frames per second) so it is marginally quicker than my EOS 60D. 

Which shoots at 5.3 fps (frames per second). Not just that but my pro camera is just that its designed for these type of shoots. It may have only 8.2 million megapixels but it is still a revered pro-camera. So with that one firmly penciled in the book, the other shoot is a bit more controversial in the offing, it certainly will raise a few eyebrows, so watch this space for information, what I will say is this the work has been inspired a number of elements one of those elements is Paula Rego the painter.

Exciting stuff indeed the Lisbon born painter has a very interesting style, it's very evocative, and I want that to really shine through in my photography, so for those who do not know of her work, seek her out, you will be amazed at her art!

As for me am going to admire my latest work, if your interested in purchasing a copy please do, you will be very pleased with the work.

Photo-Forum UK

Well, well I have been really busy, just over a month since I last posted anything to talk about on here.

Just lately though having just finished my final assignment for college, which I decided on focusing on propaganda in photography and coming from an advertising background, it was something I felt I could apply some great effort and come up trumps with some great images.

So having completed another year at college I am now looking forward, and college asked me if I would be interested in shooting a behind the scenes dress rehearsal, I got some outstanding shots of the dance and drama students. At first I was using flash but then as the rehearsal was being videoed it was opted to go for a prime lens with a large aperture and go higher on the ISO.

That is the one pro about having prime lenses is this, that they have a much bigger aperture, so I was using a Soligor f/2.8 28mm lens and an Canon f/1.8 50mm lens, both lenses worked extremely well as the lighting conditions were constantly changing from a variety of high key and low key situations.

©David Rothwell Photography

Admittedly I got a lot more besides, in some circumstances I was using flash, but then the ambiance of the shots shone through with the light that was used on stage. The dancers were true professionals too, and it's another feather in my cap for my portfolio.

One of the best shoots this year by far, though I did have a few other appointments to attend this month, a 40th birthday and some retouch work for another client.

©David Rothwell Photography

That done and I was then off to London to view a talk from renowned photographers Iain McKell and Dougie Wallace the event took place at Calumet Drummond St, London. They meet every second Thursday on a monthly basis. The group was a fabulous quirky bunch and all were passionate photographers! I loved the fact that Stags, Hens and Bunnies work from Blackpool, fascinating insight into his very brash style; the subjects being quite inebriated and some have certainly had a right skin full.
the styles were different in approach from the photographers and the body of work from both were intriguing, exceptional subject matter.  On the one hand we had Dougie Wallace showcasing his

The work is very comical and the lighting set-up for some of his shots from his latest project entitled Road Wallah really gives you more access to this very approachable and upbeat Glaswegian who has been living in London for the last fifthteen years or so. So when I dropped in to Euston I had plenty of time to get to Camden Town and do some street shots myself, all this added to the buzz of the day.

It was great to be in the old smoke again, I've not been there since 2011, so quite a while. The second half of the night was then taken up by art/fashion photographer Iain McKell, Iain began exhibiting his earlier work and showing his grass roots from living in Weymouth. The old black & white shots were iconic of a time during the 1960s/70s,  then Iain himself stated "Britishness" about those works, I was elated at the sight of these photographs, he finished off the nite with a variety of shots from his book The New Gypsies and latest work Beautiful Britain. I was ecstatic these shots were very inspiring and the subject matter was literally incredible, Iain had a chat with me after the talk, and we talked about the differing styles and approach.

©David Rothwell Photography

I found Iain to be a very sincere person and very passionate about his art and photography in general, I realised too that I had actually learned a lot from just meeting and chatting with these two photographers, not just that but the group too.

For the past two years or so I have been learning photography from a student perspective, when you get out in the real world and meet two working professional 'greats' you begin to realise your aspirations have no real bounds, and the world is literally your oyster. I enjoyed attending this photo forum, it was a worthwhile event and if you not gone before and live in that area, pay them a visit Photo-Forum UK was an eye opener in many ways. It had made me realise which direction I should go in with my own photography, following my own project Work, Rest and Play.

Looking at this it made me think more about how I enjoyed shooting social documentary and the aspect of being a photojournalist, and also getting paid for it too. I also met a lovely woman whose name I recall was Sandra; she had just returned from a trip to Mumbai, and she commented on Dougie's epic film Road Wallah, when the screening was being played, we were totally immersed in these recordings of the Mumbai streets, if you closed your eyes it was amazing, but you wanted to view the work too, so you could associate the actual work with the location.

Brilliantly done, I thought and even gave me an idea for my next social-documentary film for my third year,  am getting there and totally enjoying photography. What I will say before I sign off, is this if you not seen either photographers work, go seek them out. They're definitely worth forking out for, if like me you have a small library of photographic books, these two should be on your list.

The story behind Iain McKell's book The New Gypsies was fascinating to listen to, it gave us an in depth view of these nu-breed gypsies, they have no heritage, they are there by choice.

So I for one will be investing in these books; and just to let you know my own book is very nearly finished, so very close now. The book of course will focus on the landscape of Britain and the other book focuses on the streets of Britain. So a lot more besides from myself.

Enjoy!

David

The Art of Surrealism

Okay so briefly I touched upon a few photographers who were mainly in the realm of realism and others who are conceptual photographers in my last post. I mentioned in particular Eugène Atget and his work which was an incredible perspective on Paris. 

I like to do some research when speaking about photographers and many of you, who know of Atget's work, will probably know how much his work was appreciated by surrealist photographers and how much his work inspires photographers to create 'another' perspective on a well-documented city.

In Atget's photographs of the deserted streets of old Paris and of shop windows haunted by elegant mannequins, the Surrealists recognised their own vision of the city as a "dream capital," an urban labyrinth of memory and desire.

I have a copy of A History of Photography from Taschen and in that book it displays some very fine works of Atget and his unintentional collection of surrealism. His works are absolutely astounding, what really opened my eyes was he had such a great eye for detail and humour and humility, those photographs are there thankfully recorded and held my attention and I realised that Atget could also build a sense of mood in the frame with the natural light used, not only was he a photographer, he was in fact a light painter!

©Atget, Eugène.

©Atget, Eugène.

His works are brilliant, here is an example of one of his nudes, in this particular shot you can clearly see how greatly he influenced and certainly I would suggest Bill Brandt the low key lighting is not dissimilar to that of Atget. So high contrast and moody at best, looking at this work I marvel at those past masters, and how they created that art form of dodging and burning to create a piece, and photographing a scene that would be viewed and admired and possibly critiqued for years to come.

In essence these works of these past masters are in fact timeless creations, we all aspire to and you can emphasise with the movement of Surrealism that these works are surreal in nature unintentionally but they're none the less surreal. The other key aspect about Atget and his work, is how significant the perspective and compositional elements tie the subject matter together.

The next two examples clearly show the use of the golden rule and the rule of thirds:

Now if you were to apply these rules in to your photography, the compositional elements would make the photograph more appealing and most importantly make sense, so next time you look through the viewfinder try and look for certain shapes, and features be they linear like a fence or railing or even the vertical height of a row buildings.

You could adopt an approach were by you seek out leading lines or curves or even a particular colour, these elements that make up a photograph and make it stand out from the rest.

Eugène Atget had a very keen eye, and these images show how much an influential photographer he really was despite not embracing new technology, it shows that while he was a traditionalist he could create timeless pieces. 

Eugène Atget has a variety of works available in the form of books too, and if like myself you collect Photographic bibliography you will be pleased to know they're plenty to go at. One that certainly comes to the fore if your into fine art, is Atget's Garden Photographs (A Dolphin Book)  A fine collection of photographs depicting some fine sculptures in the many gardens of Paris, not just that but he composes some fine reflections too, use of the equipment he had large 18 x 24 Plates, much like his predecessor Charles Marville (Marville trained as an illustrator and an engraver) his works can be viewed at the MoMA .

The similarity between Marville and Atget is incredible; from studying Marville we can begin to understand Atget. So was Atget following in the footsteps of Marville? He was definitely an influence in Atget’s' work. Looking at the garden photographs we can see that Atget viewed and photographed them as a pedestrian would also view them as a passer-by if only to stop and take a brief look, one would then enter the world as Atget perceived it.

This is very exciting to me, it seems am going further back historically the more I look at Atget. Over the last few days though, interestingly I have been posting my works on my site here

This series of images from myself are very surreal in perspective, though they do convey a message of realism. You may recall an earlier post referring to  metaphors in photography 

Looking at those images it is hard to clarify why am talking about Atget, he photographed people too though, when I photograph people I interpret their persona in my self portraits and try to re-enact the scene through my own expression. 

Check out those latest works and share the links too. 

Have a great weekend all.

Stop Legalised Theft of Copyrighted Works

Well it seems once again that this topic has surfaced, the unfortunate 'Us' photographers and illustrators alike are subject to copyright theft. I myself have been unfortunate and have discovered my images having been tampered with or not received a credit to my work.

David Bailey has also voiced his opinion once more and I am posting a link to an e-petition you can also sign electronically and help get 'our voice' heard.

It seems as though even those who have taken steps to secure their works either through Digitally Watermarking or registering their respective works with Intellectual Property Office

Remember in the USA your work is automatically copyrighted as like the UK for the US go to the US Copyright Office Whatever your choice PLEASE DO NOT USE My free copyright.com The afore mentioned site is now officially a SCAM it was initially set up by Mathew Whittaker.

When Matthew Whittaker launched MyFreeCopyright.com in 2006, many people questioned whether the service was a scam. Legally, the service is not linked to any government copyright office. What it was designed to do was to prove that a person had created a specific work on a specific date and time, by digitally registering that work. Since there was nothing illegal about what the service was, and it did that service well, it became popular with thousands of bloggers, web site developers, artists and others creating intellectual property that they wanted proof of creation for.

Now, all that has changed. In May of last year, seven years after he created it, Matthew Whittaker sold the web site and it appears that it is now owned by one Regge Chan in Hong Kong.

By June, people began to talk about the site being down and then once it was back up, complaints began to slowly trickle out that people had their accounts deleted. The first assumption was that their accounts had been hacked, however, one account holder, who has asked to remain anonymous, suspected that this wasn't the work of hackers.

He began his own investigation and found that systematically, accounts were deleted, emails to the service were going unanswered and all the works associated with deleted accounts had been removed from the site - all without warning.

So your best bet is to do it the hard way and probably the way we should all go be you a photographer, an illustrator, a poet or a musician in fact anyone who creates a piece of work.

So lets do our bit and sign that e-petition

Cheerio for now

David