A Victorian Sensation

"F/8 and be there" ......

       

Unattributed but possibly Weegee (aka Arthur Fellig - 1940s)

I was very pleased to be there though f/8 became redundant with photographs restricted to selfies in Victorian dress in addition to a final interactive opportunity in the Digital World section where you learn that more photographs are taken now globally in two minutes than were taken in the whole of the 19th century!

Visitors to the exhibition Photography: A Victorian Sensation are taken back to the very beginnings of photography and then able to trace its evolution from a scientific art practised by a few wealthy individuals from 1839 to the now widely valuable phenomenon it is today.

The exhibition not only showcases The National Museum of Scotland's extensive early photographic collections, some of which have never been publicly displayed before, but also objects and interactive displays with film clips of actors simulating these early Victorian photography pioneers.  The exhibits are laid out in a time-line format with large interpretation boards leading you along the weay through the journey of photography.   Cameras and related paraphernalia are dotted around in display cases and the large touch screens allow you to select any of the images on display, read a description and zoom in, enabling you to see just how much detail the cameras were able to capture.  Find out more here about NMS's selection process for the displays from the 20,000 plus objects and images available to them:-

http://blog.nms.ac.uk/2015/11/16/selecting-1467-photography-items-to-display-from-a-collection-of-20330/

Victorian Photographic Techniques

• The daguerreotype is a specific photographic process, invented by the Parisian entrepreneur Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851).  A daguerreotype is a single reversed image, made as a direct positive onto a silvered copper plate.  Its reflective surface is an easy way to tell the difference between a daguerreotype and an early photograph taken using a different technique.

  

  Daguerrotype camera - Paris - 1841

  
  

  

  Daguerrotype circa 1852
  Howarth-Loomes collection at NMS

• Henry Fox Talbot patented the calotype in 1841 with this process being the ancestor of nearly all photographic methods using chemistry until the emergence of digital photography during the late 1990s.  The calotype negative was made by projecting an image through a lens on to a piece of chemically sensitised paper fixed inside the camera.  When developed this produced a negative image.  In turn, the negative was placed in a printing frame with a second piece of sensitised paper and exposed to sunlight, which produced a positive image.

Calotype camera with lens circa 1840, used by Talbot

• Photography became cheaper in 1851when Frederick Scott Archer (1813-57) announced his new form of photography - the wet collodion process.  This combined the best of Daguerre and Talbot's methods bust was easier and cheaper than either.  The public loved it and Archer's process became the foundation of photography for the next 140 years.
• Ambrotypes (or wet collodion positives) were formed by painting the back of the glass negative image with black paint, or placing a piece of black card there.
• The tintype, or ferrotype process was a cheaper development of the wet collodion method producing a single positive image on a tinned or enamelled iron support.

  

  ambrotype demonstrating effect of dark background
  under bleached negative

tintype of family group from
Howarth-Loomes collection NMS

• At the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, the scientist Sir David Brewster introduced the stereoscopy for the first time.   Any stereoscopic image is called a stereogram and this originally referred to a pair of stereo images which could be viewed through a stereoscope which present slightly differing images to the left and right eye of the viewer.  These 2-D images are then re-combined by the brain to give the viewer the perception of 3-D. Both stereo-viewers and stereoscopic images became an instant success.

Brewster stereoscope c. 1860

• Parisian photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri (c1857) realised that he could reduce costs by taking several similar negatives on a single plate and created the carte-de-visite craze.  The carte-de-visite was undoubtedly the most popular form of 19th century photography - the Victorian's answer to the selfie.

Carte-de-visite of
  William HenryFoxTal

In 1888, George Eastman launched the Kodak camera in New York, revolutionising the market - this was the beginning of photography as a tool and a hobby for everyone.

"You press the button, we do the rest"

• The digital revolution in photography started in 1981 when Sony introduced the Sony Mavica, the first digital electronic still camera.

George Washington Wilson (1823-93)

I found the displays relating to the famous Scot, George Washington Wilson very interesting.  This crofter's son from Aberdeenshire worked as a joiner but went on to train as an artist in Edinburgh and London, before returning home to set up a business firstly as an artist and then as a photographer.  He was the first person to photograph Queen Victoria at Balmoral in 1853 and then went on to develop photography techniques outside the studio as well as starting mass production of photographic prints. In the 1860s he over from portraits to landscape photography and on is death in 1893, his family firm was employing 40 staff and was one of the largest publishers in the world of photographic prints. In particular I enjoyed his stereoscopic pictures of the Island of Staffa and Fingal's Cave, having visited there myself earlier this summer.

1863  - Fingal's Cave
Stereo albumen print from wet collodian negative

Fingal's cave - July 2015 -
Nikon D600  - DSLR

 Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79)

I was also tickled pink to view these two photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron, with them both having been presented to the class at the beginning of our course! (Is it only a month ago that I was not really aware of her existence?)

Julia Margaret Cameron's
The Red and White Roses

"I can't be anonymous by reason of
your confounded photographs" -
Alfred Lord Tennyson

Julia Margaret Cameron was a renowned amateur who took up photography at the age of 48.  As she was part of an intellectually-active artistic circle in London, she proceeded to photograph writers, artists, scientists as well as visitors, servants and children.  After visiting the Poet Laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-92) on the Isle of Wight in 1860, Mrs Cameron bought the property next door to him.  Her many photographs of him led to a critic saying "amateurs are not as a rule successful in portrait-taking, but we must make an exception in favour of Mrs Cameron ...."  This quote was in direct contrast to what Tennyson himself remarked (see above)!  Her photograph of The Red and White Roses" are a simple metaphor of youthful beauty, briefly flowering in early summer and then changed by biting frost or age.

Maeve in sepia - this is my attempt at photography
in the style of Julia Margaret Cameron

Another link to short film clips on Victorian Pioneers 
such as Hill and Adamson and TR Williams here:-


http://www.nms.ac.uk/explore/collections-stories/science-and-technology/victorian-photography/victorian-photography-pioneers/

the very amateur and yet to be discovered photographer
Janet MacLeod visiting the National Museums of Scotland
- Photography - a Victorian Sensation exhibition.




All in all a very valuable and enriching experience!  Now to be mindful of my photography assignment, I need to get back to concentrating on collecting images in appropriate styles for Ruraltopia which has once again been consigned to my next post ........

"The most important thing for a photographer to learn.."

"If you are not your own severest critic, you are your own worst enemy".

The above quote is from my recently purchased book on Light, Gesture and Colour and author Jay Maisel is not only known as a gifted photographer but also a mentor, teacher and trailblazer to many photographers.  So based on this statement from him, I now think that perhaps being overly critical of my own photography may lead to improvement (hopefully!).

Certainly the outcomes from the experience outlined in my last post made me rethink the homework task and restart it using the genre of Advertising.

My neighbour Alex is a car enthusiast and
I enjoy the fact that he is wearing deep pearl
blue which matches the car!

panning shot

what's in the boot

fast shutter speed

wheel section dressed up

F4 with shallow dof

f22 with greater dof

under the bonnet with the R32"s designer brolly!

So these are some of my photographs of the VWR35, a type of photography previously alien to me (having spent the last couple of years taking "nice landscapes")



I managed to captured two pics on aperture settings of F4 and F22 and then two motion pictures, using a fast shutter speed and also with a slow shutter speed and panning.


Great to have a young neighbour who was willing to share his hobby with me so thank you Alex and hopefully I have fulfilled the task requirements. Not sure whether I should consider a career in advertising or indeed find out whether I could get my course fees refunded!  The task required evaluation and I identify the need to get some tuition re focus systems and the D600 (and use of filters and layers in Photoshop).   I feel that I am the only person in the class who does not understand hyperfocal distance but my desire to learn overrides my embarrassment and I seek help. Actually, I worry too much and I now realise that:-

• hyperfocal distance is simply focusing 1/3 into picture, hold the focus by pressing shutter halfway down and then taking the shot at f22 - simple when you learn how!
• ISO - do not be afraid to INCREASE ISO indoors even to 3400 if needed on FF camera
• using flash is not BAD (i always try to avoid flash as think pictures are harsh (but now considering Martin Parr - hey, he's another photographer with which I am familiar) - last weeks' Powerpoint lecture of 139 slides is a powerful resource which has been shared digitally with us
• DUH - I have found out how to sort camera when I inadvertently set it to DX mode (cropped sensor (this will show as 16 x 24) when I press and hold front right button and move the dial which I regard as aperture wheel)

My next challenge is the Assignment entitled 'Ruraltopia' - (should be easily accomplished by a crofter's daughter who lived through the experience so why do I use the word challenge?).  I'm  still anxious about technical skills but I am enjoying the journey.   I am now hoping to feel that I am in control of the camera but I must learn to look and see and then capture the magic.  It's not all about nice views in my 'Ruraltopia'.

“In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.” – Alfred Stieglitz

YOU'RE LOOKING BLURRED .....

.... YOU MUST BE DRUNK!

      And no, this is not another famous photographer quotation - it is indeed my cheesy joke which is usually rolled out at Christmas to much groaning from family members when it appears and a reminder to share it, if it has not.  But being mindful, I should focus on the now which is the submission of the first photography assignment.

        Blur was very much part of my focus this past week as our homework exercise required the submission of four photographs, two from aperture exploration and two from shutter speed exploration, the former requiring the use of a slow shutter speed that records the subject's motion as a 'blur".  This is known as panning which is the action of following a moving subject with a camera to create motion and the end result being a picture with a blurred background and a crisp subject.  A monopod is a good choice for panning because it gives you freedom to move the camera laterally while preventing vertical movement.  So my recent purchase of a MeFOTO RoadTrip Travel Tripod which  quickly converts into a monopod was put into use for this task.

http://www.mefoto.com/uk/products/roadtrip.aspx

     So after a few attempts I was able to capture some images of the morning traffic (not quite city rush hour) coming in to Sleat.  The secret is to make sure you follow the shot through after depressing the shutter half-way and continue to follow the subject even after the  shutter has been depressed. This involves moving your hips with the camera which could be construed as a gentle morning exercise for those of us who are less fit!

Some images captured

showing the blurry background
which is effective in portraying motion.

       However, I discover a problem with these images as the shutter speed exercise required you to photograph the same subject by freezing the motion, but of course the afore-photographed vehicles had now escaped in a motion blur! Of course, the secret is to READ the exercise task thoroughly beforehand!

     That was not my only challenge - the 'mini' exercise also required that an appropriate photographic syle/genre be identified in which to locate the photographs taken. I'm not sure whether it is being a West Highland Gael that makes me have difficulty with the word GENRE, starting with its pronunciation.  Is it SHAW-RUH or indeed SHAUN-RUH and whatever it is I needed to choose one. Perhaps in the style of Lewis Hine (Social Documentary) with Powerhouse mechanic working on steam pump in the 1920s or Richard Avedon (Portrait) famous for his 1981 Ronald Fischer Beekeeepr portrait and a cracking shot of Bob Dylan.  The choice was endless and agonising but I decided I could attempt a surveillance style and go as a sleuth to see what UHI students ate for lunch by spying on them with panning shots from two floors above the refectory, resulting in this image:-

Panning was difficult from up above and not sure whether my shot was mean and moody to fit the genre

Anyway, when it came to Friday evening and careful consideration of my input so far, (while partaking of wine to help anaesthetise negative feelings of not having met the task requirements) I decided that indeed my pictures so far were exploration and that I needed to start with deciding on a photographic genre.  The following afternoon, it happened - a eureka moment and I became an advertising/product photographer on a photo-shoot!  So my, four digital images are being submitted, my journal has been written up with evaluation of the images and I am about to set off for my class.  I am hopeful that I have met the criteria although I took the long way round to get there! (My photography progress with this will be documented in my next post.)

"If I have any 'message' worth giving to a beginner, it is that there are no short cuts in photography"  Edward Weston

PS  My list of photographers and genres has grown now that we have studied the styles of at least twenty and seen some amazing photographs.  

Check out Sebastiäo Salgado, the greatest living photo journalist and his Bombay Train Station (framed print now valued at about £4,000).

My Photography Journey

"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst"

                                                                      Henri Cartier-Bresson

Well, there I was on Tuesday 27th October, clutching my photography quote nicely printed out in large font on A4 paper as requested, and attending the first photography class for session 2015-16 at West Highland College UHI.  This first meeting with fellow students was a gregarious affair with lots of opportunity for talk, and of course I talk, though usually too much while not wholly focusing on the icebreaker task in hand!  Perhaps I subscribe to the quote from photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995) "It is important to click with people than to click the shutter". (This quote being reassuringly given to us by tutor Simon Larson when sharing the Course Overview for SQA Higher Photography.) We are lucky to have a photography tutor of Simon's calibre to mentor us through the course - check out his Photography FB page Simon-Larson-Photography

Simon also shared these SQA Higher Photography objectives with us:-

• to communicate personal thoughts, feelings and ideas
• to develop problem solving, thinking and reflective practice skills
• to develop technical and creative skills and
• to develop knowledge and understanding of photography practice

Now my problem with being a reflective practitioner is that my self-criticism usually leads to feeling of negativity.  I question my own limited attainment of the skills, knowledge and understanding in art and design having been a class teacher who relied on classroom support from the visiting Art specialist (now sadly withdrawn from classrooms).  Thankfully my awareness of the mindfulness training which is an initiative prevalent in Scottish education at present kicked in!  I considered that subscribing to this philosophy could enhance my own well-being and performance so I follow it through.

 I need to direct my attention to my experience as it unfolds in the Photography class; I will aim to not dwell on past deep-rooted emotions of lacking creativity and also not worry about what might happen on this photographic journey.

Therefore, focussing on the now:-

1. I have already learnt and researched at some length two well-known photographs (my claim being that I could only name Ansel Adams and have vague knowledge of a few others;
2. My resolution is to discontinue my practice of clicking the shutter a lot (500+ captures on a recent weekend shoot!
3. I have purchased my journal and a book entitled Light, Gesture and Colour (Voices That Matter) by Jay Maisel, which means that I have researched a third famous photographer!
4. I have a Personal Development Plan stating my development objectives for the next three months.
5. And finally to quote Imogen Cunningham:-                                                                              "What is my favourite photograph?  The one I'm going to take tomorrow". 

                                         Imogen Cunningham's notable Magnolia Blossom