Here's looking at you

Bindweed

I've been ruminating on my photography as I head towards the end of summer and a change over to A Winter Lens. The biggest change for me has been making more use of the scanner to make images. As a result I've done less seeking out of scenes and become a collecter, ambling along the sea shore picking up things that interest me. Here's one of the better results - the common bindweed. For gardeners it's a problem but it is very elegant.

View to Burntisland

I'm not usually one for picture postcard images but I did like these scenes looking across Pettycur Bay with the evening sun going down over Burntisland.

A Scottish Embrace

"Late in the summer of 1263 King Haakon of Norway, intent on conquering the Scots, set off with a sizeable fleet of longships for the Scottish coast. Gales and fierce storms forced some of the ships onto the beach at Largs in Ayrshire, and a Norwegian force was landed.
Legend has it that at some point during the invasion the Norsemen tried to surprise the sleeping Scottish Clansmen. In order to move more stealthily under the cover of darkness the Norsemen removed their footwear. But as they crept barefoot they came across an area of ground covered in thistles and one of Haakon's men unfortunately stood on one and shrieked out in pain, thus alerting the Clansmen to the advancing Norsemen.
His shout warned the Scots who defeated the Norsemen at the Battle of Largs, thus saving Scotland from invasion. The important role that the thistle had played was recognised and so was chosen as Scotland's national emblem." http://www.historic-uk.com/

Interesting stuff. And did you know that England shares the floral emblem of the rose with some other countries?

Iraq, Iran and the USA.

Play

I showed this photo on filmwasters.com and someone posted that I'm lucky to have memories like this. They're right; a lovely, oblique reference about the beauty of photography too.

Daisy Heads

The petals are dropping off most of the flowers that grow along the beach, such as these giant daisies. Tonight I took my 6 year old son out to look for animals in the woods. He'd been asking to go all day but when we got there he wanted to go home because he was scared. We laid out some monkey nuts and left, eating our biscuits on the way home. The sea was crashing over the sea wall - as the season changes so does the tide.

A sculptural branch

I was out on one of my usual walks with the dog and I passed this branch on the way back to the car. It was quite striking seeing as it looked so human. The trick, as I have learned, is to pretend that I haven't seen it. This allowed me to reach the car, put Skipper in the back and then go and take a photograph. You see, if I show an interest in something, Skipper does too and then he destroys the scene/object. It doesn't help that I get drawn to things like old boots, seaweed and driftwood which may as well have 'chew me' written on them.

Gypsy Rose

It has been a spectacular summer for wild flowers. This was taken down at West Wemyss on the Fife coast.

Inchcolm Abbey

The island of Inchcolm lies in the Firth of Forth. In the dark ages it was home to a hermit but emerged as a prominent religious sanctuary in the 12th Century when it became a priory for Augustinian canons. It's existence as a religious institution ended with the reformation in 1560 and it was used as a strategic fort during the second world war. Today you can visit by boat from South Queensferry, buy beer and crisps and look out for seals.

Best Day Out In Scotland

Robert Louis Stevenson had a grudge against the Scottish weather, in particular here on the east coast, which he described as having 'one of the vilest climates under heaven'. Here is a shot taken at the end of July looking across to the promenade in Kirkcaldy. RLS got the summer spot on: 'shifty and ungenial'. The cold sea fog is called the haar and it appears out of the east, a spiteful gift from the north sea when the sun shines and dares to warm our faces. I've got it into my head that we must somehow anger the sun god, to whom I am particularly worshipful.

Throwing paper planes

school's out and you can't beat a good paper plane when you are 5.

I've never taken a polaroid, so there

But I have been trying out pics with the Fuji Instax 200. A bit of an odd experience to be truthful. The camera is huge and unwieldly and the viewfinder offers a vague idea of what might be in the frame, perched as it is on the extreme end of the body. It was originally advertised as a camera to take to parties but I don't know of anyone with a handbag big enough. Difficult to lose I suppose. The exposure capability of the meter is minimal so the flash kept firing (memo to self, tape over the flash). It popped out a few that I liked.

I Support Photovoice

You can too...

http://www.photovoice.org/

Untitled

But they're shells, ok. More from my wild Saturday night in with the scanner, 2 bottles of wine and some black fabric. Does life get any better than this? The effect from direct scanning is comfortingly old-fashioned and lends the image quite a painterly feel. My thought of the week is this: How far has digital equipment really enabled us to travel?

aliens

Angry alien

Unhappy alien

Shy alien

My boys found a sunglass case full of alien figures when we were camping last weekend. I'd been reading Exploring Colour Photography by Robert Hirsch. Tonight, I decided to bring the two together using a flat-bed scanner and a black cloth tent suspended across two wine bottles.

City at night

I was down in London for the FA Cup Final and we took a taxi back to my friend's house through London. It's probably one of those things that visitors experience rather than Londoners, but driving slowly in a well-built taxi cab across one of the bridges has a very cinematic feel about it. I was looking out of the window taking the odd snap.

Shadow

I've been working on the subject of shadows, which is developing into a more tightly woven set of pictures around the idea of City of Shadows.

Walk Away

I first saw this last November when I was on a day out photographing in Edinburgh. I went back recently because I wanted a version on negative for some work I'm doing with liquid light emulsion. The negative version was so much better than the digital image - full of texture and detail. The amazing thing was it was taken with a point and shoot that I got off Ebay for 5 quid. A mere 755 pounds less than the digital slr.

Summer's first try in Scotland

Here are some pictures taken at Tentsmuir, in the lovely East Neuk of Fife. The weather forecast had been for cloud but we got a day of sunshine. It was warm and the heat caused steam to rise from the shallow water pools that stretch along this bit of coast. It was floating across the coast and looked very eerie. I dared a swim in the North Sea and a couple of grey seals came swimming by to look at us all.

A new second hand Holga

A couple of weeks ago I picked up my holga from the royal mail depot. It's one of the early incarnations with absolutely no frills or flash which is just how I like them. With some Neopan 400 at the ready I unpacked it, loaded the film and headed straight to the beach to walk the dog. Here was the first thing I saw complete with exposure suggestion! The Holga only came with a 6 x 4.5cm mask so I've been busy with a stanley knife and a hot flame...

Walking

The act of walking alone along the sea shore remains one of the great pedestrian romantic traditions. This was taken between West and East Wemyss, Fife, last weekend. Some asked me recently about why I don't just use digital for all my photos. My response was I do - I scan negatives and use the internet to display images. I often use a digital slr. The discussion got on to one of the percieved great advantages of digital imaging, that of being able to see your image straight away. I admit there a real advantages here and the digital slr gets me taking photos of things that I would have given up on with a film camera. Equally valid though, I pointed out that there is another kind of memory card, in the mind, and that 'card' carries more resonance than the electronic one. Film negatives are latent images.They need to be developed, worked on, and I think that's often how the brain works, if you embrace a little patience and allow yourself to daydream. Like you do walking along a beach, alone.

the art of cheap cameras (1)

Here are some pictures from the first roll of film taken with my 'new' point and shoot, a Rollei Prego with a fixed 35mm lens. It cost £5.01 from Ebay and has no instructions and smells of pipe tobacco. But hey, it's a point and shoot. Having said that it does have some rather nifty little modes, like the ability to take a photo overy 30 secs, 10 mins or 30 mins. The film is Agfa apx100 in xtol for those of you that are interested, and I've made a few photoshop tweaks. My favourite is the one of the church and collapsed shed. Somehow the roof stayed in tact.

I am in search of the camera I can have with me at all times and thought I'd try a few out so the Rollei is the first and is on trial. I'm already a fan as I have a Rolleiflex TLR which is nothing short of fantastic. In spite of partly embracing digital I still get annoyed by 0's and 1's inability to restrain tonal ranges. A lot of my images are taken by the sea and digital just seems to blow out. My ideal scenario - a small, palm sized, film PAS with a class lens and a shutter with no lag.

Shorelines

A construct

An attempt at public art on the shoreline with a found, broken half of a picnic cup and a patterned rock. I guess I could call it a temporary installation as I don't think it will last the next tide. There's a spooky face just to the right of the cup.

Junior Church

I was taking some pictures of a lovely, snow covered church at Inverduie, by Aviemore. It was one of those moments where you see a scene from the car, stop to take a photo; but it doesn't work out. This caravan, tucked away behind the church, interested me more.

Spring Equinox

It just goes to show that creating labels for yourself doesn't work! I had decided that my 2 blogs (asummerlens and awinter lens) should have cut off points, and they should be the dates of the Spring and Autumn Equinox (is this a plural? Equinox's sounds wrong...).

So here is the first image that I want to post a day after the Spring Equinox. It's completely wintery, more wintery than anything on awinterlens. We were up at the top of Cairngorm celebrating my partner's 40th birthday.