Self Portrait

I’m very fussy about portraits, especially self portraits. Too fussy probably. How you look on camera is often different to how you see yourself. I’d love to be one of those gorgeous people who can be photographed at ANY angle and still look fantastic. Saying that, the great Marlene Dietriech only allowed herself to be photographed under certain lighting conditions and always from a certain direction.  In the era of Photoshop, it’s often tricky to know what is real and what isn’t. Smoke and mirrors.

This shot was taken using the iPhone, put through the excellent CameraBag app twice and hey presto. I’m going to shoot some more portraits to see what i can get. I will post the best ones. Pretty happy with this though. A bit rock n’roll in tone, it has the feel of an album cover photograph. Most pleased.

Church door – Newcastle Upon Tyne, North East England 

A couple of photography books were among my presents this year. The first was the World Press Photo yearbook and the second was a book containing reviews of Magnum photographers BY other Magnum photographers. In Magnum Magnum, Magnum photographers get to pick their favourite images by other Magnum members, both past and present, with some surprising results.

The choice of photographs made by various contributors to the book  is sometimes enlightening and sometimes puzzling. Robert Capa is especially let down by a poor choice of images by Susan Meiselas. Her choice of Capa’s Spanish Civil War photographs are adaquate but hardly let Capa’s talent shine through. That is just my opinion though, and opinion is what makes a photography so exciting . How different photographers think, understand and view photography is always fascinating.

Going across the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle Upon Tyne, Northern England

I’m about to start writing my own personal ‘end of year review’, something that i always do for the last post of the year on my main photoblog. It’s a post where i reflect on how i’ve done creatively regarding work and photographic ouput over the year. Have i produced photographs that i like? Have i improved on last year’s work? So far, after a couple of strong creative years with 2007 and 2008, the jury is out for this year. I do expect a fair judgement when it comes though. 2009 wasn’t too bad, but i do intend to make 2010 a more outgoing and vibrant year photographically. More on that in the last post….

Meeting all the criteria for the Darker Skies blog, this image was taken at Burnham Overy Staithe on the north Norfolk coast during a wonderfully peaceful sunset. The photograph was taken on a Bronica SQAi camera using Ilford FP4 film.

Oh dear! It’s been a while since my last post on Darker Skies. I’ll be making up for the shortfall with a post, just a photo or maybe a photo and text, added everyday until the New Year starting on Christmas Day. The shot above was  taken on my iPhone and altered using a rather good photo theme app called Camera Bag. The theme used on this photo was cinema. The iPhone’s camera isn’t quite as good as those on the Nokia phones, but the vast array of post production apps available,  more than make up for lack of the Nokia’s Carl Zeiss lens.

The bus station in Norwich, Norfolk, UK

The month of November has been a month of waiting. Waiting for payments and waiting for refunds. As if making a living from photography isn’t hard enough, clients can have the tendency to forgot all about paying you. They scream for the photographs to be delivered, but when it comes to coughing up the money…. they slow to a crawl.  Ahh the fun you can have combining the arts of photography and trying to earn a living.

 The wonderful Welsh hills near Conwy, North Wales, UK

Looking down Chapel Field Road, Norwich, UK