Andy Brown (mrbuk1)'s photostream  

I made several stops and starts while attempting to write up this description, which is perhaps appropriate given the shot bore fruition in a similar manner. I generally make a quick test edit or two just to give me an idea how an image is likely to respond to whatever 'feel' I have in mind (as I did with this one), and when doing so I collapse layers prematurely and don't pay too much heed to the subtler nuances that help refine any actual finished file.

Normally this approach works well for me. I've dismissed many images pretty much from the outset when viewing the RAW back home, only too find if I tweak this, nurture that and coax the other during a cursory test edit then suddeny I can get pretty close to what I envisaged in the first instant. Of course, it doesn't always work in my favour - there are plenty of RAW's jostling pixelated shoulders with one another on my hard drive which started life as imagined dead certainties. That is, at least until I started processing them and it all went horribly wrong... If we're honest I think few, if any of us can say our processed photographs turn out exactly how we imagined them at point of capture. This is certainly true for digital LE work where I feel a certain level of processing skill and dedication is absolutely necessary in order to realise the photographer's full vision - this is a niche where SOOC or anything approaching should be beaten into the corners with a big pointy stick! Some of you will agree and some of you will disagree, but whatever you believe a camera is just a soulless box. The person adjusting it's dials and pressing it's buttons ignores real opportunities if they turn their back on the digital darkroom - it's an artform to remain true to the original essence of an image while imprinting something of yourself on it and this simply can't be achieved any other way.

However, this shot took an unusual turn of events in that when doing the test edit (in a room that was far too bright whilst my daughter was leaning on me and my wife was chatting on the phone), I found when I viewed it later it looked pretty damn good... Of course, when I then tried to replicate what I'd done as part of my proper editing process, the file stubbornly refused to cooperate and decided to take a alternate course all together. So it is then that I have around five versions of this image (all of which might look lovely framed together if I could produce a sixth!) that all present differently.

Technically, this is certainly not the strongest of them. But it's the one that most closely resembles what I had in mind when I pointed that soulless box at this scene and it's the one I'm going with. My camera didn't make this and nor did my computer.

I did.

There's no denying what a draw out of season, desolate and seemingly remote beaches are to a black and white photographer. Stripped not only of colour but also the trappings of the tourist season, locations like this one take on a certain air that the hordes of flip-flop wearing, ice cream eating, deck chair lazing people will never experience.

Back in the summer I dropped in on this beach a couple of times. Well, I at least tried to. The first occasion I was deterred by the logistics of trying to combine three equidistant points on the sand to place my tripod without spearing a sun bather. The second I couldn't even park - I cruised by at the speed allowed by the rest of the queing traffic (approx. 1mph), and proceeded to get caught up in a horrendous one way system courtesy of numerous inter-connected road works. What council plans road works in a seaside town in the middle of summer?!

Compare this then to a couple of weeks ago when the only people I saw here were either other photographers, or quite mad. Or possibly both. One thing's certain though, you're much more likely to find me with my camera on a beach come January dressed in jeans, boots and a wooly hat than in July wearing sun glasses and shorts.

Winter is for moody, introspective mono. Summer is for polaroids.

There are whisperings afoot.

Muted, conspiratorial, secretive mutterings ruing the all evasive popularity of 10 stop filters and their overuse in contemporary photography abound. Perhaps as recently as a few months ago those who turned to the Black Glass would have jumped for joy at the sight of a minimalistic seascape opportunity. Jetty? Check. Pier? Check. Groyne? Check. Yet now, many find such things almost recoil as they are approached - stalwart tripods and cable releases seemingly betraying intent upon arrival. Throw into the mix a mono conversion, a 1:1 crop, a spurious title and copious amounts of virile cloud and the disgruntled murmurs are reinforced with accusatory finger pointing.

(EDIT: At this juncture, if you're stumbling across my photostream as a newcomer then there's no need to look to page 2 or beyond. Be assured you'll find no such offending material there - just lots of pet photos and glamour models. Oh, you looked... It was the glamour models, right?)

Some were quick to foresee the simmering backlash and fled the beaches, turning instead to architecture for refuge and solace - how different the facade of modernity's brick faschia to the milky sheen of the ocean after all? Yet they too are now threatened, and every twist and turn of the way finds a new pretender swearing allegiance to Lords Lee, B+W and Hitech, infiltrating each subtlety and nuance of original subject matter...

Where will it end? Will 10 stops go the way of their ill-fated brethren, the starburst and tobacco filters of yesteryear? Derided and snubbed, their welcome revoked by the dictates of fashion? I certainly hope not. There are of course genres of photography that will never (can never) disappear, although their credibility fluctuates with trends. Portraiture, reportage, still life, abstract, nature, and landscape to name but a few are constant mainstays. It could be argued long exposures are a sub-genre, and 10 stop enabled ultra long exposures an addendum after that fact. Two days ago, I spent an unhappy few moments studying and weighing up the options presented me by three adjacent jetties running out to sea. I couldn't bring myself to shoot any of them, and instead wished I'd found them some short time previously before the nagging voices arose. I argued recently that there should be no taboos - all things are fair game and ultimately it boils down to the skill and vision of the photographer to make a scene work. I stand by this, but while I have no inclination to move the majority of my work inland let's just say it's getting harder to find subjects that work for me - and that's genuinely who I shoot for first and foremost.

I think it will be interesting to see what direction those of us who use ultra heavy neutral density filters take over the next year or so - I have to say when done well I still find the results some of the most compelling works I've ever witnessed. Perhaps some of you already have your own ideas, exciting little concepts and notions to be squirreled away until they reach fruition. Or perhaps some of you are just like me - stumbling along! Whichever, I hope the whole thing doesn't just come to a grinding Big Stopper. (Sorry!)

On a side note, many thanks to Martin Mattocks for accompanying me when I took this shot, and also to Andrew Gibson for including another of my photographs once again ('On Mill Pond' - elsewhere on my photostream) on his blog post www.andrewsgibson.com/blog/2012/01/40-beautiful-square-ph... focusing on square format pictures. It's really worth checking out as there are some terrific images featured. Great to see several of my contacts represented there too - looking good guys!

My tripod died yesterday. I was beneath a footbridge on Torquay seafront late in the afternoon, about to set up for my first shot and one of the legs kind of... fell off. It being Friday 13th I suppose it was appropriate somehow - following a couple of hours in the early morning when I'd driven around like a loon chasing forecast mist and fog that failed to make an appearance quite where I wanted it, and several hours at my mother's house lifting floorboards and replacing a section of wastepipe from a sink that had leaked on to the ceiling below.

Mind you it's not all bad, I've been using the same relatively cheap simple pan and tilt model for the last few years and it was due for replacement. I've put up with it's occasionally sticky leg locks, the lower central column section I lost ages ago having removed it during a night shoot after being distracted by a chatting passerby, the main column's lack of appreciation for the word 'rigid', and the encroaching salt deposits from hours spent in and near the sea - despite several baths once home! But, I liked that tripod all the same - it was familiar, comfortable, and although too heavy for some felt reassuringly weighty in my hands. I knew it's inconsistencies and eccentricities, was well versed in all of them, yet all the same it felt like a trusted confidante in an odd kind of fashion. I'd resisted the urge to splurge on new technology (which is unusual as I normally can't), and had by and large ignored the rigours and dictates of fashion - even gaining some smug satisfaction (no, I'm not proud) when encountering the 'all gear - no idea' brigade...

Oh, I know expensive equipment does not a good photographer make, but looking rather forlornly at my apparently inoperable companion I have no option but to retire it despite long and faithful service. So now I have a good reason to spend. I've watched incredible cloud skirt hurriedly across the sky all day and have been unable to take advantage, so as soon as I've finished this post I'm putting in an order for a new tripod. I've done my research, and hopefully within a few days will have a lovely new carbon fibre model with a quality ball head. Well, I never said I was completely immune to the fancies of progress!

So, it's a dark and windy start to 2012 - and a dark and windy (as in curvy!) first upload from me for the beginning of the year.

This is probably the darkest shot I've done to date in terms of tonal balance, and for those of you familiar with the zone system pioneered by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer, I really wanted to reduce this image to a fairly basic construct by representing the wall and ground primarily in zones 1 and 2. Accordingly, whereas I often might strive to process highlights (particularly specular ones) closer to zone 9 or occasionally 10, here the whole scale was anchored much lower, hence nothing other than the brightest tones of the light hitting the top of the wall itself register between zones 7 and 8. Of course, unless you're viewing on a properly calibrated monitor (you are, right?), then much of this is meaningless...

This created a problem for me when preparing the JPEG for web display. I'm not sure whether there is some sort of algorithm that works on increasing overall contrast of photographs once uploaded, but certainly I see a noticeable difference between my web-hosted JPEGS and my original files unless I prepare a tailor-made JPEG, to resemble the original as closely as possible. Unless I'm losing the plot entirely (which admittedly is a distinct possibility), it seems to me that very dark/bright tones are more obviously affected. This is a complete pain in the proverbial when you primarily work in a mono colour-space where tones are so crucial. For this JPEG, I had to work on reducing the contrast below the horizon quite significantly in order to best replicate the original. I got pretty near in the end, but not without some effort - and I'd still feel much happier were I able to wave a proper print under your nose!

I appreciate there are all sorts of issues with internet colour-space, JPEG compression and suchlike (anybody else slave for hours on a shot only to see the web carve up your sky with banding?!), but does anyone have tried and tested workarounds or workflow solutions that they believe help and would care to share?

I shall be producing some... lighter shots as the year progresses (alongside some black ones!), but if I've whetted your appetite for The Dark Stuff then perhaps the question should be just how dark can you go and still get away with it? Well, maybe this example from one of my absolute favourite photographers on flickr, Jeff Gaydash, demonstrates better than I can express in words. Or, how about this one from the incredibly talented Joel Tjintjelaar. Enjoy!