Planning and Study Timetable

Page 12 of the course materials ask for planning!

Study schedule

My study schedule is Saturdays.  I have two Saturdays ear-marked a month that I will ruthlessly reject all social invitations for.  This gives me a minimum of 20 hours a month for shooting.   Up to now this system works ok.  I also quite often have Sunday mornings, which works out at about another 10-15 hours a month.  After that, I probably go to at least one exhibition, event, or seminar a month minimum, so let's say 2 hours (research!).  Then, I read on the train (or look at photos on my ipad) so that's another 40 hours a month (but can't really count that towards course work, as is mostly surfing).  The extra 10 that I am missing for course work come out of time after work (which is rare), or Saturdays that are longer than 10 hours' work, or the occasional day of work (also rare).  So it's a bit of a jumble, but I get through ok.  I do want to complete C&N in a year though, so I need to step up a bit!

I work outdoors for shooting - wherever I need to go - and for processing / blog writing on my laptop on the sofa (very bad) - and for reading, usually on the train to work.

Assignments

As I'm aiming to complete within a year, my assignment schedule looks like this:

• Assignment One - end September 2014
• Assignment Two - end November 2014 (India?)
• Assignment Three - end February 2015 (Japan?)
• Assignment Four - end April 2015
• Assignment Five - end July 2015

Travel plans

Hoping to make significant progress in travel / street photography this year and have trips planned to Varanasi, India in October (workshop with Maciej Dakowicz) and Japan in December (holiday including snow monkeys inspired by Jasper Doest!).  I'm not sure either will help with assignments (two and three) - and there is always the risk of needing to reshoot - which is not possible with travel), but we'll see nearer the time.   As I aspire to being a travel photographer (well one of the things I'm aspiring to at the moment) - I do want to use as much material as I can from travel experiences.

Maybe for Assignment Two, my list of things un-photographable could be emotions that I experience being on another continent, far away from home and husband, and then how I deal with the poverty, kids in the street, sick dogs etc that I will see in India?

Keeping the diary for Assignment Three during my two weeks in Japan might be an interesting exercise as I will be away from the routine and pressure of going to work everyday and more able to be "myself".  I can then try to take images later to represent how I felt in Japan - that would be an interesting twist!  Or try to capture a photographic journey both physically and emotionally.  I'm expecting Japan to be a mixture of wildlife, landscape and street photography (including street portraits).

So actually, I've already answered my own questions!  This is how my left-brain kicks in!

Right Brain Left Brain Photography by Kathryn Marx

I have just finished reading Right Brain Left Brain Photography by Kathryn Marx (published 1994 by Amphoto).  And having read this book, I think it's pretty clear (in fact beyond doubt) that not only am I a right-brain photographer, but it is also that right-brain process that I get a kick out of.  To briefly sum up, right-brain photographers do everything in the moment.  The planning happens during the shooting.  Left-brain photographers plan their shots (see post on Chris Weston).  This is possibly one reason why I like street photography so much - it's fast, random, hap-hazard, depends on luck, basically an adventure!   You could plan street photography to a point, but so much depends on chance happenings, i.e. the right kind of person to walk into the shot, the appropriate gesture etc, that you're really limited to just seeking out your location and time of day (light).

In the book, Marx maintains though that it's not always so clear cut - right-brain people will plan somethings, and they learn to plan in the moment, i.e. to think through exposure, composition, framing and so on, although with street and wildlife photography, there is not always the time to do that, and that left-brain photographers will also be faced with chance encounters where there is no time to plan - you just have to take the shot.  Left-brain photographers are also very good at processing composite images and creating something totally unique and new.  I struggle with this, for a start I'm not interested, but also I don't have preconceived visions of images.  I have seen though that there is an exercise on this in this Context and Narrative module, so I'll have to get to grips with it!  Right-brain photographers are very good at reacting to situations, documenting what they see, although some planning and visualisation might be needed in order to create a successful narrative.  Some people also successfully combine both sides of the brain.

This got me thinking about photographs I've taken in the past, and I have tons of right-brain photographs, particularly in street photography a lot of which happens in a panic.  I did recently try planning a street photography shot: I'd found a poster in Wardour Street and I made several visits to it to get the right kind of interaction, but unfortunately the poster was changed before I'd made a success of it.  Here is a very recent right-brained street photography taken on 27th July, on an unplanned route, unplanned exposure and unplanned situation, where I'd stumbled across these amazing twins on Oxford Street, who were not only identical, but were also dressed the same with the same facial expression at the same time:

Oxford Street

BTW - this is my first successful photograph in the style that David Solomons taught (what I call crowd-surfing) on the In-Public workshop!

I then tried to think about left-brain photographs that I've taken recently.  This was much harder, as there aren't many.   First of all, I struggled to think about a situation I'd planned.  Then I remembered a recent trip to Skomer Island in Pembrokeshire to photograph puffins on 22nd June.  This was my second trip there so, I knew where to go, what boat to get, what time of day and so on.  I also knew that if it was sunny, I'd need Active D-lighting switched on (due to the overhead sun, dynamic range issues, and black and white puffins!), and I had roughly an idea of exposure: wide aperture, fast shutter speed and ISO 200 (if sunny).  Thankfully it was sunny, but once I'd worked all this out, everything still happened in the moment as animals are unpredictable, but this shot was one I'd really wanted of a puffin face forward carrying fish with a nice blurred background.  I didn't draw it or caption if before-hand though in the way that Chris Weston would have done.

Skomer Island Puffin

Finally, I tried to think about shots that were a mixture of right and left-brained approaches.  I recently visited Felixstowe on 10th May to complete Assignment Three for DPP.  I planned the location and the scenes I wanted.  I didn't plan the exposure as I had no idea what the weather/light would be like (and it was amazing!).  The presentation came later, after I'd processed the images, the story came first in the planning.  So I would say this was 40% left-brain 60% right brain.  My favourite image though, (which is also the header for this blog!) was probably more right-brain than left, as although I'd remembered visiting the dodgems and wanting to go back to photograph them, I hadn't banked on finding them looking like this; hence this photo's caption, "Waiting for Summer".

Waiting for Summer

I haven't done the exercises that Marx recommends - simply don't have time at the moment - but I at least know they are there now if my right-brain gives me problems!

p.s. Interestingly in other aspects of my life, e.g. travel, I plan meticulously to the point of knowing what restaurant to go to on what night!  I'm unable to go on holiday without planning for fear of missing something that I really want to do.  This is very left-brained!  So is that why I am such a right-brained photographer - to escape the areas of my life, like work also, that are so tightly controlled?

References:

• Marx, K. (1994) Right brain/left brain photography: the art and technique of 70 modern masters, New York, Amphoto

Bibliography:

• Chris Weston Wildlife Photography available from http://chrisweston.photography/ [accessed 2 August 2014]

Chris Weston - 10,001 Art of Photographic Storytelling - Seminar

In July I attended a seminar by Chris Weston at the RGS where the TPOTY exhibition was hosted.   Weston is one of the judges for this annual competition.  To be honest, prior to going, I had no idea who Weston is, but I love wildlife photography and want to learn more about wildlife photography, lots more in fact, so I was very interested in going.

Weston began by making the Bresson point, that your first 10,000 photographs are rubbish; it is at the 10,001st photograph that they start to get good.  I have no idea how many I've taken.  I know it's probably in the mid-20,000s, but because I shoot loads and loads, sometimes on continuous, of the same thing, I don't know how many actually qualify as photographs I've selected and processed.  Working that out is not a job for now either!

Weston's "lightbulb" moment came when he realised he needed to stop making record photos and start capturing emotion and narrative.  What is the story in the photo?  For instance, Weston was photographing the wildebeest migration.  He realised that the story wasn't individual animals, but their collective journey; and so he introduced motion blur and grouping into the image.

The seminar progressed with Weston explaining how he now plans and preconceives images, even down to the caption, before he even gets anywhere near shooting.  He plans the title, the story, the composition (even sketches it), the lighting, the exposure, flash equipment, location, time of year, phase of moon, time of day, zone of sharpness, effect of moon on exposure,  etc.  Everything.  Weston believes that images never happen in front of you - you have to make that happen.

Weston is obviously a "left-brain" photographer.  I would never be able to do this; it would drive me insane.  For me the fun is all in the moment and particularly with wildlife (and also street photography); it is the sense of adrenalin when you know something good and unexpected is happening.  I want to capture what is happening as it happens.  I can't wait a year to plan it all and then go back....I am a right-brain photographer.  I can plan a location, time of year, time of day, lenses, and concept, but that is about it.  The rest I want to happen in the moment.  And I certainly wouldn't have the caption ready beforehand (maybe during though).

Another point Weston made is that you have to know your subject, which I agree with.  I think that by knowing this, you can work out what type of shots you want to take and at what time of day, but I'd still want to keep an open mind!

Weston also spoke about point of view and perspective.  Apart from not simply making record shots, he mentioned that you should have something interesting and new to say, and not take a photograph in the same way that other people would: show a view that you would not normally see.  For instance, this image of a tiger called "Cooling Off" (scroll through to locate) taken at close range (70-200mm lens) is definitely not a perspective I've seen myself!

In terms of context, apart from pre-visualisation (which I struggle with), Weston says to put the viewer in the moment - what does it feel like to be there?  Any communication in the photo has to be clear and concise, precise and unambiguous.  Whatever it is you want to say, it has to be the message in the picture.

Composition is also very important.  Weston recommends excluding unwanted information by:

• crop
• blur (shallow depth of field)
• compose (frame in camera)
• exposure (over expose background) e.g. animal in snow.

And to use rule of thirds (not sure this is always necessary)...or central and crop very tightly for portrait shots.  When framing a scene, look at every aspect in the viewfinder; do objects add or distract from your story (is there time to do this?)?

To get ideas for pictures, Weston asks questions e.g. why are zebras black and white (to confuse lions)?  When you shoot, ask how you are going to caption images.  And remember, all light is good for something, e.g. gorillas in the rain.  It's your mind that creates the reality and you are presenting what the world looks like to you.  Consider elements of design (lines, shapes, patterns, texture) when you are composing a shot and ask if you are capturing emotion in the process.   Deconstruct the scene in your mind before you press the shutter.

Interestingly, Weston says he uses a 70-200mm lens mostly (which is good as I have just bought one!), which surprised me.  I was expecting a much longer zoom plus extenders....

Weston then went on to talk about quantum physics, but this was too much and quite frankly, unclear how he connected it to photography.  I thought the photos he showed were nice but not great, but then they are certainly better than I can do!  I really like the tiger in the pool though - hope my 10,001 looks like that !  :-)

References:

• Weston, C (2014) Cooling Image [online image].  Available from http://chrisweston.photography/project/involvement [accessed 2 August 2014]

Bibliography:

• Marx, K. (1994) Right brain/left brain photography: the art and technique of 70 modern masters, New York, Amphoto

Websites:

• Chris Weston Wildlife Photography available from http://chrisweston.photography/ [accessed 2 August 2014]
• Royal Geographical Society available from http://www.rgs.org/HomePage.htm [accessed 2 August 2014]
• Travel Photographer of the Year Competition available from http://www.tpoty.com/ [accessed 2 August 2014]