Photography and a family

Planning a trip abroad when going on a family holiday as a photographer is tricky. How do you balance the overwhelming urge to create your art with the overwhelming need of your family to have your undivided attention? In many ways this is impossible. There are however several approaches you can take:
1. You can ignore your photography
2. You can ignore your family
3. You can arrange a couple of days to yourself to pursue your art
4. You can go out at extremes of day and spend the days with the family
5. You can try surreptitiously to look after your family and pursue your art.

I have tried all of the above and there are advantages and disadvantages to each.
How can you ignore your art? To all photographers the disadvantages of 1 are obvious, especially as you are bound to see the shot of a lifetime. The answer is to go somewhere where you could not possibly pursue your particular type of photography.
For those who wish to remain married and remain alive number 2 is not really a viable option.
Choice 3 has some strengths, but can you arrange the weather, the light etc. Similar disadvantages apply to 4 as well as being exhausted at the end of the holiday.
On my recent family holiday to Rome I tried option 5. I planned to travel much lighter than usual, carrying far less camera gear. I bought a Sony compact camera system and carried it in a shoulder bag. I even travelled with only a small tripod, which I only took out a couple of times.
I had planned the itinerary so that my children, who are 6 and 8, would be shown all the key sites in the 5 days we were there, especially as they had been looking at Roman ruins in the UK. I then tried to make sure I could take advantage of the light, angle of the sun etc for some of the shots I had planned and snuck these into the walking around the city e.g. backlighting a fountain.

Fontane delle Naiadi, Piazza della Repubblica
Nex 7 E18-55 at 51mm 1/400 f8
Taken with backlighting and processed to highlight the water droplets as a main feature of the image.

This was achieved by using maps, Google Earth and The Photographer's Ephemeris and guides on Rome.
Gear:              Sony Nex 7
                      Sony Nex 5N
                      16
                      18-55
                      55-210
                      Lensbaby Tilt Transformer and single glass lens
                      ND, ND grad, polarising filters
                      Benro tripod
The gear was carried in a Lowepro Event Messenger 250 and the tripod was in the hold luggage. I also took a 15" MacBook Pro with 2 external drives. The images were processed in Adobe Lightroom, CS5 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

New gallery on the website - Liverpool

The images from my trip to Liverpool are now on the website mainprize.net. Check them out and let me know what you think.

25 June - Trip to Liverpool

Port of Liverpool building

Last month I went to Liverpool for a conference. As I always have a camera with me I could not resist getting out and taking a few shots.

Waterfront I

There are more images going on the website mainprize.net.

24 June - Monochrome it is

Tern dive

I now only take monochrome images, or rather I only show monochrome. All the colour images have gone from the website mainprize.net. I will still be taking colour photographs but they will be developed into monochromes. I will also take personal photos of the family in colour, but I even prefer those in monochrome, but most of the family don't.

Scarborough Spa I

So why monochrome? It is difficult to say other than the clarity of the images appeals to me. The image is broken down into it's constituent parts and I think my mind can concentrate on the main theme in monochrome, whereas the colour seems to distract me. This is why I preferred pastel colours to the usual bright 'in your face' colour that seems to be all the rage. Certainly when one looks at the most popular images on Flickr and Photo.net it is.

York Minster II

There is a lot written by many more erudite and knowledgable than me, but in my opinion all that matters is whether you find your image aesthetically pleasing. I find monochrome more aesthetically pleasing and most of the images that others have taken that I wish I had taken happen to be monochromes.

The Bay IV

So there it is. I am not going to rationalise why anymore. As the sky is full of variable cloud I am going out to take some photos.

June 23 - The last day of colour

Having returned from Rome with many ideas and a refreshed determination to pursue the images I like, today is the last day there will be colour images on my website mainprize.net.

Here are some of my favourites and why:

Cayton Blue

 A shot taken away from the sunrise. I love the blue tones of twilight, in this case supplemented by the pink of a developing sunrise.

Cayton pastel

 Up before dawn, by the sea, peace, beauty and then sunrise like this. What more can one want!

Moonlit Coble Landing II

 I had been waiting for a clear night and a full moon for close to 3 years when the moon would be in the right place for some shots over Coble Landing in Filey. I often venture out on a full moon only to be disappointed that there is too much cloud. When the moon is low it is often hidden by a bank of cloud on the horizon on this part of the English coast. This night was an exception and I spent several hours wandering and taking moonlit shots.

Rainbow over Filey

 What a day this was. We were driving back towards the coast following they almighty storm. The clouds were fantastic and the sun was shining in such a way that I knew a rainbow was imminent. We raced along trying to get to the coast before the rainbow disappeared. Of course when we got there the place was full of tourists and there was nowhere to park. Many were drenched as the downpour had passed through. Eventually we managed to park and as I always have camera gear in the boot of the car I grabbed the kit and the sturdiest tripod and dashed to the seafront. Although the rainbow had moved off the beach there were still some stunning scenes to be appreciated and photographed.

Moral - always have your gear available and always anticipate the weather.

Pastel Filey

A bitter February morning. This is a several second exposure to recreate the dynamism of the sea. Again this was taken just before sunrise, having spent a couple of hours on the shore awaiting and then photographing in twilight.

All of the above shots were taken within 5 miles of where I live. I am lucky to live in what I consider to be one of the most beautiful parts of the world.

Start of June - trip to Rome

I am about to go to Rome for a week to do some imagery. I am taking a limited travel kit and look forward to the images I can create. When I get back I am changing the website and removing all colour, replacing them with some new monochrome images, as well as some favourites. Blog posting will be more regular when I return and as I do when I travel I am hoping to upload to my other blog - Hipstamatic Traveller.

Bridlington South Bay

South Bay groyne 1

Having got a new Nikon system recently I am learning it's nuances. So I took a trip down the coast to Bridlington where I tried to capture the vast expanse of the south bay beach, broken up by a groyne. It was a very windy day, as is often the case on the Yorkshire coast, and my largest Gitzo tripod needed the bag hung underneath it to keep the camera steady. I will live with these images a couple of weeks before I decide whether they will go into my collection.

South Bay groyne 2

South Bay groyne 3

Motivations and appreciation change

Cornelian Bay 1

Having set out as a bird photographer and moved through insects and to colour landscapes, a couple of years ago I moved into fine art monochrome photographs. Then I realised that monochrome images were much more my thing, with me defining an image as something that is created from a photograph and a photograph as something that is taken and minimally manipulated. I then moved back into pastel colour photographs, but now I realise that what really turns me on are monochrome images.

Cornelian Bay 2

 I love long exposures or dramatic skies, in monochrome squares. I love the 2:1 format and I love the 5:4 format. I am not that partial to the 3:2 format. I also realise that I love playing with the photograph trying to create my vision both in taking the photo and then manipulating it to create the image in my mind. So imminently I am removing all colour from my website and putting monochrome images on it. The colour photos will still be available to those who want them, but I take and display images for me.

Scarborough Spa

Monochrome North Bays

Scarborough North Bay

 Here are two of my latest monochromes. I really prefer monochromes to colour images, although I have recently been exploring the light using colour, especially pastel shades and twilight.

Bridlington North Bay

Sunset surfers

Sunset surfers

Surfing in Scarborough almost never ends. I have seen night surfing but not often, and I rarely see surfers at sunrise in summer.