Getting off manual

My first SLR camera was a Zenith 11.  It was a big solid Russian brick and for me it was the perfect introduction to SLR photography.  The camera was manual focus, with needle and ring metering  You had to set the aperture and shutter speed for appropriate for what he needle and ring meter was telling you.  In other words it was completely manual.

I now have a Pentax K1000.  That too is a fully manual camera.  The difference between the two is that the K1000’s light meter is in the viewfinder.  I don’t need to take the camera away from my eye.

My Micropress 4”x5” pinhole camera is totally manual.  It doesn’t focus.  It doesn’t have a shutter and it has a fixed aperture of f512.  It doesn’t even have a light meter.  I have to work that out in my head using ‘sunny 16’ rule or use an app on my mobile phone.  Generally, I opt for ‘sunny 16’.

I also own an Olympus Trip 35.  It’s a fantastic little camera.  It’s mainly automatic.  You use a zone focus system to focus the lens and the aperture and shutter speed are chosen by the selenium light meter.  It’s such a clever piece of engineering it doesn’t even need batteries.  I love using this camera.  It’s so much fun.  Even my kids like using this camera!

My DSLR is a Pentax KX.  I love this camera too (as you have probably gathered from previous posts).  It has these nifty little modes on it PASM.  I use PAS a lot.  I only use M on very limited occasions.  It has autofocus.  Again, I use this more than I have it turned off.

Does this make me any less a photographer?  The answer, in my honest opinion, is a resounding no.

I do find it amazing that some photographers believe they are not a photographer unless they are shooting in manual mode.  I would love to know where this opinion has come from because I do believe it to be utter nonsense.  Why?  Well read on and I’ll tell you why.

Let’s start with autofocus.  The autofocus on my KX works.  It nails the point of focus I am after 99% of the time.  The only time it starts to fail is if there isn’t enough light or scene contrast.  I know my camera well enough to know this and will then flip to manual focus.  That being said, there is absolutely no way I can focus as quickly and as well as my KX.

Now on to determining shutter speed and aperture; whenever I have seen someone using manual I have asked them how are they are measuring the light.  All of them have told me they use the cameras light meter.  Now forgive me if I am being naïve but as I understand it, in any of the automatic modes the camera measures the light and sets the ISO, aperture and shutter appropriate to the conditions in order  to give you the best photograph possible.  If the camera is in aperture priority mode then it will measure the light, and set the ISO and shutter speed appropriate to the aperture that you have chosen.  The same can be said for shutter priority mode where the ISO and aperture are set for the chosen shutter speed.

Again, my KX has software built in to it that can make these decisions in a fraction of a second.  I know I cannot possible read my light meter and dial in the appropriate settings anywhere near that.

I suppose that the point I’m trying to make is that the major camera manufacturers has invested millions in to developing Auto PAS systems that are quick, efficient and accurate; they have invested time and money to make it easier and more practical for you to go out and shoot photographs.  You have spent hundreds if not thousands of pounds buying a camera that has these capabilities.  Why turn them off?  If you want to learn how to shoot manually, why not buy a totally manual film camera?

Shooting in Auto PAS modes does not make you any less a photographer.  It makes you a wise and happier one!

Happy Birthday Photoshop

Just a quick post to say happy birthday to Photoshop and congratulations to Adobe for keeping such an innovative and iconic piece of software at the forefront of photography and the digital arts scene.

Updated: Blackburn's Cinematography Pioneers

I had a nice surprise in my emails this morning.  Barry Noon, the President of Blackburn and District Camera Club and friend forwarded an email about an 1880 camera built by Sagar Mitchell of Northgate Blackburn.

Sagar Mitchell

It turns out that Mitchell was one half of Mitchell & Kenyon that were early film pioneers in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Mitchell had been a photographer and manufacturer of photographic equipment while Kenyon had manufactured automated slot machines.  The combined talents of the both of them would lead to developments and archives that still exist today.

They formed their partnership in 1897 under the trade name of Norden and the company became one of the largest producers of film in the United Kingdom.  Their first showing of a film was reported to be of Blackburn Market (that was located in King William Street adjacent to the clock) and was show at Mitchells premises of 40 Northgate on the 27^th November 1897.  In 1899 a travelling showman commissioned the pair to make a film of people leaving factories for the Easter Fair.  The same year Norden released three fictional films, The Tramp’s Surprise, The Tramps and the Artists and Kidnapping by Indians.  These led to more and more commissions from travelling showman and cinemas.

Norden soon outgrew it premises and the pair bought 22 Clayton Street which would become Blackburn’s very own film studio.  Although their production of fictional films was limited they had an indoor and outdoor studio at the premises as well as using locations.

The pair made films across many genres their most famous and historically important being their ‘topicals’.  These were documentary films that depicted ordinary life in Edwardian Britain.  They feature mill workers, Easter Fairs, Temperance marches, Wakes Week holidays in Blackpool and Morecambe and emigrants boarding ships in Liverpool bound for Boston.

News also became a big part of the company’s business.  The film troops leaving and returning from the Boer War, shot war re-enactments in the surrounding countryside of Blackburn using smoke bombs and guns for special effects; they were responsible for the first crime reconstruction film, The Arrest of Goudie in 1901 which was made and show just three days after the arrest of Thomas Goudie.  Sports news also became a regular feature of their work with local football teams often being the subjects.

They also shot some slapstick comedy films that no doubt influenced the Keystone Cops and Charlie Chaplin (Chaplin performed at the Theatre Royal, Ainsworth Street, Blackburn in 1903 and 1905).  Their most famous comedy film was called Diving Lucy of 1903 and was filmed in Corporation Park.

In 1907 Mitchell resumed possession of his original business in Northgate and from here on the volume of film production began to decline.  By 1909 films were only being made in the local area with the last surviving film being made in 1913.  In 1922 the partnership was dissolved with Kenyon dying in 1925 aged 75.  Mitchell continued to runs his photography business with his son until his death in 1952 aged 85.

Many of their films were stored in the basement of the Northgate business and were uncovered by workmen.  The films have been restored and are now in the possession of British Film Institue.

Thoughts from across the pond

One of the great joys of the internet is the way it breaks international boundaries, even Pixel has an international audience.

Pre-Internet a few of us may have heard of great American magazines but few of us ever got the chance to read them but now....

There is an interesting essay in the online edition  of The Atlantic discussing, not for once on whether photography is dead or if its an art but looking at the more fundamental question of whether the nature of art and artists is changing and our current view of art as "That which you see in a gallery" is becoming out dated.

When works of art become commodities and nothing else, when every endeavor becomes “creative” and everybody “a creative,” then art sinks back to craft and artists back to artisans—a word that, in its adjectival form, at least, is newly popular again. Artisanal pickles, artisanal poems: what’s the difference, after all? So “art” itself may disappear: art as Art, that old high thing. Which—unless, like me, you think we need a vessel for our inner life—is nothing much to mourn.

Link to the complete Article

Landscape Photography

Over on Petapixel, Ugo Cei has posted an article called 'Will the real landscape photography please stand up'.  In the article Cei discusses getting away from what a lot of photographers perceive to be the standard for landscape photography.

While I do believe that a hobbyist photographer should be happy doing what they want to do, I couldn't help feeling that what Cei is saying resonates with how I feel and approach my own landscape photography for some time.

Have a look and see what you think.

Photography Events 2015

Amateur Photographer Magazine are publishing a Photography Events Calendar on their website.  The calendar covers the period from January to May and will be updated on a regular basis.  It included details of exhibition and major competition deadlines.  A useful resource for anyone wishing to see or do more with their photography.

The calendar can be found here.

Lancoast - The Way Forward

Pixel editor, Lee Johnson, has posted thoughts on his latest essay, Lancoast on his blog.  Lee has been battling with his original idea of shooting the entire essay on film before salt printing the neagtives or the option of using digital.

Lee said 'My internal editing on the fly machine began to work and a way forward found its way.

As much as I love film and wanted to do this in film it is impracticable.  The cost and time in getting each image in 4”x5” format would out way the advantages and look.  If I were to use 35mm although it would work I would still scan the negatives, carry out some Photoshop work (levels, scratches, dust etc.) and print the large scale negatives.

Digital has become the answer that I didn't really want it to be.  Cut out the middle section of developing film, shooting with different film and/or cameras and I still end up with the outcome I want.'

The full story can be read on Lee's Lancoast Blog here.

Reaching 5000

The beginning of this week sees a little landmark reached for us here at Pixel.  We have had finally reached the 5000 read mark for our website.  Considering the amount of photography related websites out there and we cover just a tiny area within Lancashire this is really impressive.

We would like to thank everyone that has taken time to stop by and spend a little time with us.  Don't forget we're here all week so why not pop back or even drop us an email.

Thanks again!

Simon Roberts

We know Simon from his documentary work and his books and exhibitions including We English  The Olympiad and Pierdom. These were all projects made using a 5x4 view camera. We were able to publish a sample of his work in Pixel some little time ago.

He has recently done something completely different and worked on a commission to create a print advert for Citizen’s first ever global advertising campaign. This video shows some of the behind the scenes action

Here’s more about the project:

“Citizen Watch Co., Ltd embarks on a race against time in CHASING HORIZONS, the 84 year-old watchmaker’s first-ever global campaign that launches today. Created jointly by Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo and Amsterdam, Citizen’s first global campaign challenged photographer Simon Roberts and ex-NATO pilot Jonathan Nicol to chase the sunset across the Earth’s time zones.

Influence & Inspiration - Robert Frank

Robert Frank is an American photographer and documentary filmmaker. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled The Americans,

Critic Sean O'Hagan, writing in The Guardian in 2014, said The Americans "changed the nature of photography, what it could say and how it could say it. [ . . . ] it remains perhaps the most influential photography book of the 20th century."  Frank later expanded into film and video and experimented with manipulating photographs and photomontage.

Born in Switzerland Frank states in the 2005 documentary "Leaving Home, Coming Home" by Director Gerald Fox, that his mother, Rosa, had a Swiss passport, while his father, Hermann originating from Frankfurt, Germany had become stateless after losing his German citizenship as a Jew. They had to apply for the Swiss citizenship of Frank and his older brother, Manfred. Though Frank and his family remained safe in Switzerland during World War II, the threat of Nazism nonetheless affected his understanding of oppression.

He turned to photography and trained under a few photographers and graphic designers before he created his first hand-made book of photographs, 40 Fotos, in 1946. Frank emigrated to the United States in 1947, and secured a job in New York City as a fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar.

In 1950  Frank met Edward Steichen and  participated in the group show 51 American Photographers at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Though he was initially optimistic about the United States' society and culture, Frank's perspective quickly changed as he confronted the fast pace of American life and what he saw as an overemphasis on money. He now saw America as an often bleak and lonely place, a perspective that became evident in his later photography.

With the aid of his major artistic influence, the photographer Walker Evans, Frank secured a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955 to travel across the United States and photograph all strata of its society.  During the trip Frank took 28,000 photographs of which 83 were selected by him for the publication The Americans.

Shortly after returning to New York in 1957, Frank met Beat writer Jack Kerouac on the sidewalk outside a party and showed him the photographs from his travels. Kerouac immediately told Frank "Sure I can write something about these pictures," and he contributed the introduction to the U.S. edition of The Americans.

This divergence from contemporary photographic standards gave Frank difficulty at first in securing an American publisher. Les Américains was first published in 1958 by Robert Delpire in Paris, and finally in 1959 in the United States by Grove Press, where it initially received substantial criticism. Popular Photography, for one, derided his images as "meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons and general sloppiness." Though sales were also poor at first, the fact that the introduction was by the popular Kerouac helped it reach a larger audience. Over time and through its inspiration of later artists, The Americans became a seminal work in American photography and art history, and is the work with which Frank is most clearly identified.

In 1961, Frank received his first individual show, entitled Robert Frank: Photographer, at the Art Institute of Chicago. He also showed at MoMA in New York in 1962.

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the first publication of The Americans, a new edition was released worldwide on May 30, 2008.

The National Gallery of Art based in Washington DC owns the largest collection of Robert Franks works and to celebrate Franks 90^th birthday they have digitised and developed an online repository of his work.

It includes 624 photographs, 2,967 contact sheets, and 1,344 work prints that span from 1937 to 2005.  It is a must see for anyone interested in film or street photography.

The Robert Frank Collection can be found here.

The Film Photography Project - An Introduction

The Film Photography Project began about five years as a bi-weekly internet radio show, The Film Photography Podcast.

A staff of volunteers headed up by Michael Rasso produce a bi-weekly show (what show) aimed at informing, engaging and inspiring film photographers around the world.

Since its inception the FPP has gained a lot of interest and has built a community of photographers that are interested in film photography and offers opportunities to share their creative output, experiences and passion for film photography.

The FPP also does something else that is quite remarkable.  Listeners send in equipment they either come across or no longer require and the FPP re-distributes camera, lenses and other sundries to anyone with a genuine interest in film photography and wishes to have a go.  Recently, the FPP donated 15 film cameras and 150 rolls of film to a project in Africa.  In addition to this they have also supported projects in high schools with the gift of cameras and film.

Michael and the team also organise Walking Workshops that like-minded people can book to attend and head out with the team to take photographs.  Many of these are in the US where FPP is based but they have been known to venture over here!  The hope is that one day they would like to return (maybe to the North, this time lady and gents!).

Over recent years the FPP has grown to include its own store that sells film cameras and supplies at very reasonable rates and excellent service.

One thing is guaranteed, the enthusiasm for shooting film (and Tim Tams) shines through each and every show.

The fortnightly podcast can be downloaded from iTunes or the FPP website.

Photographs from the team and its listeners can be found in its flickr group.

The new show is out today and is well worth a listen.  Well done FPP keep up the good work!!!

The River - Lee Johnson

'Oh my God!' A damp feeling ran down the shin and calf of my right leg. The cold shooting through my body was intense like being wrapped in a blanket of ice. It could not have been worse than if I had been slapped in the face with a wet trout.

A welly filling with ice cold river water in the middle of December is probably not anybody's idea of fun. Well, perhaps only fishermen and photographers. It's funny, now that I sit here at my desk I remember just how cold it was. At the time getting home, the comfort of central heating and a few hot chocolates quickly dissipated the memory.

It was on a whim that I visited the waterfalls of Earby. I didn't have any particular shot in mind. The only thing that I had actually thought about was that I wanted to make exposure time quite long. By making long exposures the water becomes blurred and often gives an impression of movement throughout the picture.

When making landscape photographs I tend to start with a very wide view taking in as much of the scene as possible. After a while I begin to settle in to what I am doing and see the micro landscapes and abstracts that I actually find infinitely more interesting than that of the whole. I guess I like details.

A few hours sat at my PC and the cold amnesia had firmly set in. The collection of images I had made were good. In fact it is fair to say that an abstract from the set is one of my favourite photographs I have ever made. I should really find a way of making a nice print of it.

The thing is shooting something like this is a really bad idea for me. I don't really tend to work in single images. I actually prefer to make essays. That is a collection of photographs that tell a story. So when I see something that is beginning to work it tends to start the steam engine to whir the cogs of my brain and the Christmas holidays gave me plenty of time to think.

Taking these shots also coincided with me reading Ted Hughes book of poetry on the River Dart in Devon. Each poem is accompanied by a photograph by Peter Keen. So it was no surprise that my brain went into overdrive. However, there was no chance I was going to attempt to write poems to go with my images. It's one thing writing an article for my blog or a magazine but a completely another world writing poetry and I don't think my command of the English language extends that far.

The festive season came and went and the idea of The River had firmly set in. As with all my ideas for essays the initial idea behind the project had started off too big. Originally the subject of The River was going to be the River Ribble but with a timescale of nine months this was not going to be possible and so I had a re-think. The answer to the brainstorming session was to document a river that was and continues to be much closer to my heart; one that I could visit easily when I had a spare hour or so; the answer was Colne Water.

Colne Water is a river that stretches around five miles from the hamlet of Laneshawbridge, through the town of Colne and ends in the village of Barrowford. Unlike the Ribble it has a very definite start and finish. Very much like the Ribble it has a variety of landscape characteristics from rural through urban fringe, industrial and back to urban fringe.

It turned out to be a good time to document this river. Major changes to it were about to happen. Some of the wiers were removed to allow breeding salmon upstream. No bad thing at least not in my book. Also permission has just been sought to generate electricity from another part of the river. Again, in my opinion no bad thing. And then there was also the demolition of the mill at Waterside.

I tend to take some test shots before I settle in to producing an essay properly. It quickly became apparent that I had found a look to the images that I was happy with. This wasn't going to be about big beautiful landscapes taken during the time of days referred to as the ‘golden hours’ (that is sunrise and sunset). It wasn't going to be about the wildlife of the water course and although there would be some small space for it within the essay the final piece would be more abstract than that.



Beth Derbyshire & The Ark

I began shooting the images that would be included in the final piece without an idea what the final presentation of the piece would be. In general when I start out shooting an essay, I only have a vague idea of what the finished piece will be like. This usually evolves and clears as the process of making photograph continues along. In terms of The River the final piece would become an audiovisual presentation.



Model of The Ark

Some time ago I got involved with Beth Derbyshire’s Ark. This was a converted canal barge that travelled up and down the Leeds Liverpool Canal showing a multi-screen video installation and this proved to be an influence on my final piece. Not having access to multiple screens or projectors I decided that I would create slides with a series of interchanging images from up and down the river. The soundtrack to the imagery would be a soundscape created by recording my walk along the river bank. This hopefully meant that the viewer would be immersed in sights and sounds that I was seeing and hearing.

The River is made up of around 70 images most of which are quite abstract or show some small detail often missed by someone walking along the course of Colne Water. There are some images of the landscape that it sits in; there are some photographs that document some of the wildlife; some are quite pretty; others are quite hard to look at.

The River was never going to be a beautiful celebration of a prized landscape feature. It was always intended to show the viewer how nature and man affect the landscape in a warts and all manner. I think it achieves this.