Category Archives: 6×6

Retrospective Book

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I’m about to start on another photography book release via blurb.com that should take me most of the winter to put together. This is going to be a big project and an important landmark book (at least for me!) that completes the first phase of the Norfolk project.

Ten years ago, i decided that i needed a long term photographic project. What began as a loose kind of photography exercise in Norfolk, ended up gathering pace and direction. After ten years, it’s time for a break and some contemplation of where to take it next. I have lots of options open, plenty left to photograph in the county, and after a year or two i’ll return.

Over the next few months I’ll be putting all of the photography  together, around 80 images or possibly more, to make a retrospective book that , I think, will be the perfect way to present the first ten years of work. The majority of the photographs that have been released online have focussed on the landscape side of the project, however, the book will stay true to the original idea with a broad mix of landscape and documentary photography. I aim to release the book on March 21st 2012.

Through the Gate

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So there we have it. The final Baldixette photograph taken from the roll of film shot in North Wales in 2004.  I love this remarkable little camera. It’s simple to use and importantly it  puts you firmly back into the driving seat as a photographer, delivering great results with a bit of effort. You have to think and work with the camera to get an image. That’s not a bad thing for a photographer to experience in this auto-everything world.

Over the Hills

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Another shot taken using the Baldixette camera. The camera was purchased in North Wales back in 2004, although sadly I can’t exactly remember where i found it. I think it may have been a charity shop in Conwy, but I could be wrong.

I’ve only ever put one film through the camera (in North Wales) just as an experiment and to see how the camera performed as an image making tool. It was easy to use, however you had to prepare yourself before carefully clicking the shutter as it seems to fire only as quickly as you can press and release the button. There is no set shutter speed from what i can gather, making the film exposing process an interesting one.

It was fun going back to a basic camera like the Baldixette. It is a true photographer’s camera; no gadgets or software to get in the way of the picture taking. The photographer controls the whole image taking process. Hmm I may just put roll number two through the camera this summer just to see what I can get.

Next Year…

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Looking back towards Blakeney – Norfolk, UK

I’ve already started to formulate some plans for next year. After all, a year seems like a long time, but it soon goes, so I’m just thinking about where to take things next year. 2011, I think, will be a year in which I want to push my multimedia ideas to the next level - video, audio and photography. Heck yeah, that sounds like fun and a challenge too. I’ve started experimenting around with video recently, shooting and editing material I’ve done via my iPhone, however I really want to move to a much higher standard of work by this time next year. I think that the return to shooting in Norfolk next year will be a great place for developing a large-scale piece of multimedia work.

A couple of items needed to help me along. First is a compact digital HD camcorder, and second is software to produce professional photography slide shows with audio…. with the addition of video too.  The camcorder will also be used for video podcasting, something I want to commence doing later this year. My only worry is the potential pitfalls of shooting video and still images at the same time. It rarely works well – both need different mindsets. I always remember a Larry Burrows (one of my photo heroes) remark that he would shoot black & white OR colour…. but NEVER both at the same time. 

Ways of looking, ways of seeing  and the visual interpretation of a scene – it depend to some degree on the medium you use and sometimes it’s just better to focus on one, than try to do several at the same time.