A career in photography - 3

Well, you asked for it... here is the 3rd part of the story of how I got into photojournalism:

Despite having a clear idea of what I wanted to do, it was still compulsory for all school leavers to attend an interview with the careers officer, who had an office in a grim brick building at the back of the hospital morgue. I presented myself there for an appointment with Mr. Turton, the Chief Careers Officer, on the stroke of nine one wet Monday morning. I have changed this man’s name because he was an incompetent idiot.

It was all a waste of time, I thought, but at least it got me out of school for the morning. Then, as I climbed a well-worn wooden staircase to this man’s office, it dawned on me that maybe I might be able to enlist his help. Surely he would have some contacts within the local weekly newspapers. Perhaps he would know someone I could write to, or talk to for advice. My hopes of breaking into a career in photography came flooding back as I mounted those stairs.

Now I stood in a gloomy office whose grime-streaked sash window overlooked the hospital morgue. Behind a battered, ink stained pine desk sat the great man, Mr. Turton, himself.

I tried to take in what he was telling me.

“No, no, no, lad. That’s not for the likes of you.”

He was a large, florid man. He pushed his chair back from the desk, put his thumbs behind his braces and let out a great boom of laughter. He leaned the chair so far back on its two back legs that they creaked under the strain of his great fat body. I hoped that they might snap and he would topple over backwards onto the floor. I had just confessed to this man my ambitions to become a professional photographer, my desire to travel, and my plans to work my way up the professional ladder to work in what was then the world’s pinnacle of journalism - Fleet Street.

“Now, let’s be more sensible,” he said, still shaking his great fat head and heaving his shoulders as he tried to contain his amusement. He lowered his chair back onto all fours with a bump and became businesslike, shuffling though papers.

“I really don’t know who puts some of these daft ideas into boys’ heads. Now, these are more like it,” He said picking out two cards. “There are some ‘prenticeships going at the engineering works, and they are looking for likely lads at the bakery. That’s more your line, you know. I’ll put you down for the bakery, shall I? What do you say? Nice steady job. You won’t regret it. Then you can tell your mam you’ve got a proper job and can bring a bit of a wage home every week to help her with the housekeeping.”

Anger, rage, humiliation, all welled up inside me. I was fourteen years old and felt foolish and small in front of this big, ignorant man who wanted to consign me to a life of wholemeal baps and bread trays. The tears welled in my eyes, I tried to speak, but couldn’t get the words out. I looked at Mr Turton through an increasingly red haze of hatred and despair. Then, all the frustration rushed to the surface and I blurted out:

“You can put me down for what you like, Sir, but I shan’t be going to no bakery. And I’ll tell you what, I’ll come back and laugh at you when I’m a press photographer in Fleet Street.”

The expression on Mr Turton’s face showed his shock and utter disbelief. His flabby jaw dropped. He started to squeeze out of his chair. His florid face flushed even more and his cheeks went purple.

“Well you cheeky little bugger, I’ll…”

But I didn’t wait for him to finish, I turned and fled out of his office, down the stairs and out into the rain.

The headmaster sent for me when I got to school that afternoon. Mr Turton had been on the phone with a vivid report on my behaviour.

I was publicly caned on stage in front of the entire school for, among other things, insubordination, bringing the school into disrepute, lack of respect… the list was a long one, and so was the cane. Every stroke of that rod across my backside fired my determination to succeed. I’d show the stupid buggers.

Photographing in hard light - part 2

As promised yesterday, here’s the other – very different - photograph taken for The Sunday Times at Aberdaron in North Wales.

This time, rather than use a wide-angle lens and move in close, I have moved right back from the scene behind the village churchyard and looked at the beach through a small telephoto lens. I’m still shooting into that hard, contrasty light, but the effect is quite different.

The outlines of the gravestones are picked out by the backlight – remember, backlight exaggerates outline shape – while the curve of the beach stands out because of the glare of the sun on the breaking waves. This backlight has also isolated the silhouette of each of the small figures in the water and along the beach.

Slight under-exposure has given an almost ‘moonlight’ effect, but in fact the shot was taken around midday with the sun very high in the sky. This under-exposure and ‘night time’ effect can be even more noticeable when shooting into the light and using colour. It is most noticeable when shooting into the light over a bright, reflective surface – like the sea.

How to photograph abstracts - part 2

Pablo Picasso, arguably the greatest abstract painter of all time, spent years learning the craft of fine draughtsmanship before he created his unique abstract art. The moral of the story?... learn the rules before you go and break 'em

So here are just ten practical ways to get more from abstract photography...

Practical camera skills will lead to better abstract photographs.

Look more closely at everyday subjects.

Look for strong colour, lines, shapes and textures.

Shadows can be included to create abstract shapes.

Place your rectangle around the most interesting part of the subject.

Try to exclude any obviously recognisable elements.

Create visual puzzles to make your viewer think.

Don't always tilt your camera at an angle this is a hackneyed, overused idea.

Look closely at the natural world to see beautiful abstracts.

Think about presenting a finished set of abstract photographs as a montage.

Photograph above:

So what is it? This type of puzzling photograph doesn't actually need and answer. For me it is enough to enjoy the diagonal bands of colour and the shapes created by the shadows. If you really want to know, it is a picture of upturned canoes

How to photograph abstracts - part 1

Let your imagination off the leash and photography becomes far more than a means of capturing the literal world however beautifully or skilfully that may be done. Once you start to look beyond obvious reality, a whole new world of shape, colour and form begins to reveal itself. Capturing and portraying abstract design is not just the preserve of painters who have it easy because they can paint what is inside their heads and claim the result to be art. The photographer needs an actual subject, and must think objectively before he, or she, can convey a subjective view of it. Practical skills and visual perception are needed in equal doses to release a subject's full potential.

Of course, you must look further than a simple representation of the obvious world, but unless you just get lucky, those basic practical photographic skills are essential before worthwhile abstract pictures can be produced with certainty almost every time.

And that is where many newcomers to photography come unstuck and need help. The 'abstract' genre is so often an excuse for poor, lack-lustre 'arty' images. It is also where I part company with the teaching methods in many colleges and universities these days. I have lost count of the number of youngsters who have come to me straight from college and told me they only like taking 'abstract shots'. Why? Because they don't know how to photograph anything else. They have not been taught the essential practical skills of photography that will enable them to be fully creative. They have been sent out unprepared and told to 'be creative' as if this by itself will produce 'art'. What utter nonsense. The methods encouraged vary from waving the camera about with a slow shutter speed to angling every composition at 45 degrees. These half-baked teaching methods are cheating our youngsters; filling them with false hopes and denying them access to professional standards though which they might find employment and personal fulfillment.

To me, an abstract picture is one that draws on the less obvious elements of a scene or object such as line, shape, texture, tone and colour purely for their own sake. Often it is the type of image that stretches the imagination of the viewer that is most successful. A picture that puzzles or intrigues; the one that makes someone look twice and then hold their attention.

Start by looking at an everyday subject it might be an interesting modern building or perhaps a river view with reflections. Look for lines, shapes, colour, anything that you can identify as having some visual appeal. Then frame these elements of the subject carefully, placing your rectangle around them tightly so that you isolate them into one strong composition.

The joy of seeking abstract images is that everyone sees things quite differently, in fact some photographers just cannot see them at all and prefer to concentrate on more obvious subjects. It's all subjective and in each individual's eye. Once you start to see abstract pictures, though, you will soon realise that they can be found everywhere in the natural world and in the everyday manmade world as well. So far as my pictures here are concerned, they were all taken purely for the fun of capturing them, and they make no claim to be art… and if I can spot the visual potential of simple subjects like these then so can you.

One of the best ways to start recognising the abstract potential of a subject is to take a closer look at an everyday subject. Try to home in on one particular area of the whole. Find something that has strong colour, good lines or outstanding shapes. Don't fall into the trap of tilting the camera to one side every time in an attempt to inject an unusual angle or viewpoint. This is a hackneyed idea. Try, instead, to compose tightly and if possible crop out any obviously recognisable elements.

Photograph above:

I found this fairground a fertile ground for all sorts of abstract pictures. It was closed during the daytime and the canvas covers of some of the rides have helped provide an intriguing point of view. I like the bright colours and the fact that the clown's picture can only be half seen

Photographing reflections - part 2

I try to persuade my students not to get too hung up with the importance of depth of field, but it really is a vital factor to consider when photographing reflections, and, for maximum depth, the smallest possible aperture should be used. It is not just the object reflecting the image that needs to be in focus, but the reflection itself, which could be some distance away. For maximum depth of field, focus on a spot about one third the way between the nearest (the reflector) and the furthest (the reflected images) points which need to be sharp. The depth of field preview button on your camera can be very useful for checking that everything will be in focus.

With most reflections, except those on metal surfaces, a polarising filter can intensify the colours and clarify the reflected image. It does this by removing indirect light reflections. In effect, the polarising filter removes the ‘film’ of reflected light from the surface of the reflector, so increasing the clarity of the reflected image itself.

Frontlight
With the light directly behind the camera (frontlight on the subject), the boats in the picture above have been brightly lit. This has caused the colour of the reflections to be very intense. It is worth remembering that if you want powerful colours in your reflections – use frontlight.

Polarising filters
For the picture of the small boat, a polarising filter has been used to take away the ‘film’ of white reflected light on the surface of the water. This has intensified and deepened the colours of the reflected image. Slight under exposure ( by ½ a stop) has helped saturate the colours even more. Remember – a polarising filter will not take away the image of the reflection – only that ‘film’ of reflected light. Very useful!

A completely abstract design has been made from a very ordinary white-painted factory building. Looking into smooth, but slightly undulating water like this can often reveal really lovely images of very mundane and everyday objects

Reflections do not play a major part in the picture of the harbourside building at sunset. They just help add interest by drawing the colours right into the foreground. I used a slow shutter speed of one second so that the gently-moving surface of the water would show the reflections of the lights in the windows as a series of wiggly lines rather than a series of ‘pin pricks’. The reflected colour of the sky has been captured as a more general colour on the surface of the water

Photographing reflections - part 1

The ‘reflection’ theme is a regular subject for camera club competitions, and rightly so. It’s a theme that’s open to all sorts of imaginative interpretations - from abstract ideas to perfectly symmetrical mirror images.

The idea of including mirrors to reveal an part of a subject that is out of the framed picture itself is far from new – artists have been using it for hundreds of years in portraits and interior paintings. The effect can be to bring an intriguing illusion of the third dimension to a two-dimensional iamge. Done well, it can also inject a sense of mystery, compelling the viewer to look more closely – and so get drawn into your composition.


The mirror inside Lincoln Cathedral (picture above right), was positioned so that visitors could see the roof without craning their necks. I preferred to photograph the stained glass windows through it. I used a small aperture, f16, which meant I needed a slow shutter speed of 1/4sec. The camera was put on a tripod. Using the centre-weighted exposure mode, a light reading was taken from the window’s reflection, this has underexposed the interior of the cathedral – just the sort of contrast I wanted

Simple reflections can virtually double the amount of colour, form and interest within your picture. They can reveal the most amazing abstract shapes by breaking up the form into waving patterns of colour and shape.

In town, reflected images seem to be everywhere we look, even more so in our modern cities with their glass-sided office towers. There are reflections in shop windows, pools and puddles – even the polished paintwork of cars can reflect interesting images worth photographing. Intriguing contrasts can be created when new glass office blocks reflect older architecture. Perfectly still water can mirror buildings, people and landscape, but lightly rippled water can sometimes produce even more interesting photographs – back to those abstracts again.

Each pane of glass in this tower block has distorted the reflection of the building behind the camera., creating an abstract design. The window cleaners’ box has helped bring a sense of reality to the picture and added a focal point to the pattern

Next - in Part 2, water reflections