Andy Brown (mrbuk1)'s photostream  

Best viewed large on white.

Each generation I'm sure must perceive it's own series of momentous, or life changing, inventions, natural phenomena and humanitarian events. I was 42 on the 3rd of February, and although I missed out narrowly on the moon landing (conspiracy theories aside) which would have had to be up there, for me the most significant single 'happening' is without doubt the creation of the internet. Cummunication is key, and the possibilities our friend WWW has afforded the world is truly mindboggling. The concept alone would have been almost entirely alien just a few short decades beforehand, and yet now it's possible for me to order goods, pay bills, video-link to friends in Canada, view exotic nebulae courtesy of Hubble and generally faff about all from the comfort of my front room. Or from my phone - anywhere (well, nearly...).

There are of course the dark, secret pleasures of the web (I was referring to my previous addiction to online FPS's, particularly multiplayer Battlefield 2 - what were you thinking of?) but again the core concept revolves around communication, and the opportunities it offers us as a worldwide society and community. For me personally, I doubt I would have been as likely to embrace photography as a serious creative outlet had it not been for the wealth of visual images now available as stimuli. I've been taking pictures for a comparatively short period of time, and my interest has grown ten-fold thanks in no small part to the work of others that I can access so readily on the net. Yes, I would still rather a photograph in it's traditional manner - i.e. printed, and I own perhaps two or three dozen 'good' photography books ranging from Ansel Adams to Gregory Crewdson, and from John Sexton to Martin Parr. Site's like flickr engage with and capture the imagination of millions (because they offer the images of millions - unlike the number of books I can afford or store), and it always amazes me that I can reach an audience anywhere in the world simply by displaying my work here. Of course, sites are constantly evolving - some come and go and the pool is muddied and stirred until it can become difficult to unite that which interests you in one location. Over the last couple of years I've posted work to other forums such as Art Limited, 500px and most recently Google+ to name but a few. This allows me to potentially reach an even greater variety of people, yet simultaneously makes it harder for me to keep track of the work of others whom I wish to see and discover. Pros and cons, as with so many things...

For these reasons, I have resisted the urge to spread myself too thinly and continue to concentrate predominantly here on flickr, partly because the time involved to dedicate yourself to the plethora of available photography sites can quickly become all encompassing. I want to be out taking photographs! I still rue the 300 plus hours I clocked up on Battlefied 2 some years ago (I'm sorry if you played and 'mrbuk1' sprinted in front of your ATV, dropping mines as he went!), and am thankful I never seriously considered MMORPG's like World Of Warcraft. Had I done so, you might not have seen any actual photographs from me at all, nor I from you.

Despite this, occasional diversions can concentrate the mind and add perspective, hence I remain an active author at the lavishly presented online Landscape Photography Magazine. My shot 'Dark Canopy' (elsewhere on my photostream) will be appearing along with a write up in a forthcoming issue, and I've been approached regarding options for increasing my involvement and profile there (more on this if and when). I've also recently taken on an admin role over at what I consider to be one of flickr's finest black and white groups Monochromatic Visions alongside Jon DeBoer, thanks to an invite from head admin Brian Day. I expect, like me, many of you will find yourself torn between various internet commitments, but I'd recommend either of these platforms in terms of both quality and content.

Then of course there's the creation of my own personal website to focus on - providing of course I can steer clear of the new Battlefield 3. Damn, watching those LAV-25's explode was satisfying...

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 to 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!