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peace

can

This photo I initially processed black and white and I liked it but I did another version (this one) which seems more correct to my eye. Quite happy to blow out the highlights, always happy to do that. I don’t like the border wordpress chose to frame this, detracts (in fact I disliked it so much I’ve changed the whole blog theme) [actually i had to change it back as it was cropping all the images, arrgghh!! my only solution is to host the blog myself. will get onto that tomorrow perhaps]

In my studies we look alot at how the brain processes expressions and also their universality. Closely related are emotions, most particularly not their differences but their overlap. For example I was reading the other day that angry and happy people act in a more similar manner than angry and fearful people. It probably comes down to the physical and biological manifestation of an emotion rather than the meanings we use to categorise them.

In this case Nipun is actually giving me a look of annoyance (i think i made some quip about her team) but the effect is something else. That is the power and the challenge of photography, you create a reflexive loop between the subject, the photographer, the moment, the camera and the viewer – bouncing iterative feedback.

I chose this photo for 2 reasons:

i)  There is something about people laughing, to capture that moment is something else . Of course there are a wide variety of laughs and smiles, many of them manufactured or defensive. These are masks and although interesting to photograph, they are an inhibition. A proper laugh, a genuine smile is something that cannot be reduced, it is genuine and to capture it is a gift.

ii) This shot proves I’m funny.  All my friends delight in telling  me that i’m just not funny – well here is proof otherwise   [unless she was laughing at me, but then again it's all the same]

I’ll leave it at that as I have lots of work to do, could twitter on about framing around her hair and the light etc etc but y’all can see it without me spoon feeding.

Well it’s been a long, hard and, for the most part, fruitful week. Tough though, its nice to just chill for a bit – updating this blog is a form of relaxation for me. I don’t need to be exact, I don’t need to play by any rules or structures. I’m by nature quite shy, quite introverted and guarded, so photography and writing all this is not always easy. But I do it and I am enjoying it.

This is a set of the very lovely Nipun, Sabri’s mum. I’ve only ever taken a few shots of her before, they’ve always been kind of joking and I stopped before I even started. I just couldn’t see how to take adults, it has been a big stumbling block for me.

This day I was hanging with them watching football and chatting, there was lovely sun coming in from the left and everyone was really chilled. The game was kind of pedestrian so as she watched I shot her, and this time I did it properly without holding back.

As happens at some point something switches and I forget I am non engage and become immersed in the act. Physically Nipun has extremely fine eyes, facial structure and hair but it is her spirit, slight vulnerability and sparkle that really stand out (not to mention her cooking skills )

I am really pleased with the photos but Nipun is not so keen on them. So on some level I am stuck:  my old demon rears its head and I am left wondering what is good, what is not, when, how, how long, why, who and any other question combination we can pose.

Then after it all washes around I stop, and let it be. Rikyu sums it up better than I ever can:

The art of the tea way, consists solely of boiling water, preparing tea and drinking it.

peace and God bless the Sheikhs

:-p

Sabri has the most beautiful eyelashes, I’ve been trying to get a decent photo of them  for an age. It is quite hard and I don’t think I’ve licked it. I’ll get it one day.Until then this is a good placeholder.

It is interesting how a few bits of hair are considered attractive or not. The evolutionary argument is that people with good eyelashes demonstrate good health and good protection of their eyes. Dunno on all that, but they are quite a subtle and powerful constituent of physical attractiveness.

The challenge is to see things differently, capture something that infers the total through fragments. That ultimately opens our eyes to seeing differently. That is the challenge.

And this is why I particularly love limbs or body shots. Sit with your friend, your lover, your child, your boss, the person opposite you on the tube and forget their face. Look at the way they move or gesture or fidget. Look at their elbow, their ankle and the flow of their limbs. Your mind is often carefully attuned to all this, reacting to it but you yourself are rarely aware, rarely look.

What I love in this shot is that it is so quintessentially the image of Sabri through my eyes ….  I could have shot it better sure, but perhaps part of the power of such an image is in the snapshot element of it. It is real and live. Perhaps.

Ah back to Sabri! Lucien and Sabri share a disproportionate percent of my total output. I use them as testing grounds

I have such a soft spot for him and I think he knows it. Taking photos of him is usually pretty tough though, static is not his natural mode. Unless you get him when he is catching an episode of Little Einsteins that is (such as above).

I have another shot that is a bit more conventional but this one is better. It is better I think, as the framing is more dramatic, the story is better this way, more dynamic.

Stuttering over words tonight so I’ll sign off.

Another one of Ava. If I could, I would put them up as a set of 4 or 6 as that would be better but y’know technology limits etc ……

Not much to write on this image. She had had a small altercation with the kitchen table the day before, hence the scratch. I think she knows she isn’t really meant to be on the chair,  hence the look of quiet triumph while looking over to daddy.

Well this is an interesting photo. Not just the cuteness of Ava, she was in top top form when i went to visit. A really happy baby, and such a lady:-). I couldn’t resist taking a few shots. Even more so as I haven’t taken any shots of her for around a year.

So no, not just that but more for the fact that this shot was taken in almost near darkness. Very very little light. Such is the wonder of modern cameras. It’s f/1.8 and ISO 800. There is quite a bit of noise but even so this isn’t a shot that you could have got without flash a few years ago.

This makes me think of full frame as then you can take a shot like this comfortably with less noise. I need to learn about strobes, but in my heart I love to shoot with what light  is around, I love the freedom of that.

Ok, I’ll put just one more up for balance. The other 2 are close ups which are not completely representative of the complete output.

This is a shot that interests me as I made an error by leaving focus on his mouth and thus blurring his eyes. I have a load that have the focus on the eyes but it is this one that interests me most I think. I actually saw a picture like this in the paper today and thought “aha, maybe I can call it a style rather than a mistake!” . For now no revision, thankfully my mess was rectified by Pete giving a great pose Now I’ve made it thought I will try it again as I like it.

Being really short sighted sometimes means getting good focus is hard for me. This was towards the end of the shoot, and my contacts were troubling as my eyes are constantly movinh. When the light is not absolutely optimal I have to run on instinct to an extent. It is a bit like playing rugby at school, couldn’t see a thing, so managed by working out what I thought was going to happen and shifting myself in that direction. Ah the joys of severe myopia!!

Arrgh!! One day I will get more technical skills such as learning photoshop or making a proper blog. This format is so limiting. I wanted to put 3 or 4 shots of Pete here in one go but it won’t let me. One at a time is the order.

Well I am putting up the one I worked hardest on, there are others I would to put up but the thing is that I get to the stage where there are 10 shots of almost equal merit. Lets leave it at that for now.

Well I’ve been a busy busy bee during reading week. In between doing various masters related things, extracting money from the financial markets and addressing some impending legal issues I had the pleasure of taking my camera out for a spin …..  and it was so nice.

First up was my actor friend Pete who needed some headshots. I don’t have any studio space or lights so we made do with a wall in the british museum. Mid afternoon the light was good, bright and even. I’ve known Pete for a good number of years but still we were both a bit stumped as to how to get what he wanted. It was lots of fun actually and once we hit the groove Pete just took off and I rolled with it.

We managed to get much better shots than I hoped for. After we got some good ones for the headshots we played around with some different styles and poses. As it is a public place and people kept having to pass I was very limited in how much space I had to work so again the skill required is to adapt and harness what you do have, rather than fixate on what you don’t.

I’m really into aggressive cropping at the moment which is why I chose this photo. I always like to introduce some feeling of instability or discomfort to a photo. Why? ‘cos that is just how i roll