Now where’d I put that point’n’shoot?
November 21, 2008
I think I’m slowly coming to the conclusion that perhaps, photographically speaking, I’m going through a “down” period.
(Yeah, ok, so it takes time for these things to filter through my befuddled brain but I get there eventually… sometimes).
Whatever happened to the good old days, all of a couple of months back, when I could simply point the camera at something, click, and my only concern was whether or not Flickr would be playing up.
I say this because my most recent little photographic escapade turned out to be one more screw-up in what appears to be turning into an almost unbroken series of rather less-than-satisfactory sessions for one reason or another.
In fairness this latest experience of how things can go pear-shaped wasn’t totally unexpected… but nevertheless the fact that it did go pear-shaped was still a tad irritating.
Wednesday 19th November. Evening. Public Debate (that is, a debate attended by members of the public) on the topic of “Islamic Values vs Secular Values”. To which I’d been invited for the purpose of taking photographs. So far so good. Bit of a breeze really, you’d think.
Ahem. Not quite.
Y’see, the venue for the event was a place named The Harpur Suite (in Bedford town centre). I’ve been there before, taking photographs. In fact more than once.
Very first time was in the days, years ago now, of the antiwar protests. We’d organised a public meeting there to be addressed by a prominent MP, local dignitaries etc, and I thought it’d be a good idea to grab some photos of it for the website of our local antiwar campaign.
Used a 35mm film camera I’d acquired from somewhere (not too sure where now). All the pics were rubbish; couldn’t use any of them. Not surprising really. I never did get on with film. Of course, if I’d known then what I know now I could have easily identified that what was wrong with the pics was the white balance. Might even have been able to remedy the defect (to a large extent anyway) once they’d been digitised and converted to JPEGs… had I known then what I know now. But I didn’t, so I hadn’t. And they were a bit blurred. Um… very blurred actually (didn’t have a clue about tripods then; and on recent showing anyone could be forgiven for thinking I still don’t have a clue). Consequently there was a marked absence of photos of that event on the campaign website.
More recently, the last event I attended at the Harpur Suite (again for the purpose of taking pics) was quite a few months ago, possibly last year now I come to think of it.
And once again I came away with nothing. That time it was all down to my own pet idiocy. Yep, you guessed it… not taking a tripod.
What these experiences have done is make me very much aware of the, um… “peculiarities” of the venue.
I have a sneaking suspicion that when the place was decorated and equipped the particular needs of photographers weren’t high on the list of priorities.
The main issue with the place (in fact, possibly the only issue) is the lighting. Its weird. Its deceptive.
For starters… as a visitor, and to the human eye, the place appears to be very well lit. Quite bright in fact. But its deceptive. Very deceptive. Cos to the camera’s lens it isn’t! In fact, the lighting’s actually quite poor.
Most of the light fittings are in the ceiling, which is quite high, with a few shaded ones high up on the walls. And the walls are painted in a sort of darkish cream/magnolia type colour. No doubt its this combination, plus the “airiness” of the place, that contributes to the illusion of being brightly lit.
Well, I already knew all this, from the experiences previously related. I also knew that, given the nature of the event and the way such things are run by these particular organisers, use of a flash probably wouldn’t be appreciated.
So, in a complete departure from my normal carelessness and/or forgetfulness, I took a tripod. And not just any old tripod, but my super-duper rock-stable beast of a tripod… the Slik! “Hah!” thinks I, “well sorted”.
Arrive at the venue in plenty of good time, whilst they’re still getting the place set up. Sort out a few really good vantage points for myself (even getting them to move a complete row of chairs so that I’ll have comfortable access all around the perimeter) and take a few test shots. White balance will probably need tweaking a bit when I get to process the RAWs, but that’s no big deal (I can remember from last time that there was a huge shift to the yellow).
But then occurs the first hint of things to come.
Someone decides they don’t like the layout… it all looks a bit too “formal” apparently. So everything’s rearranged… and my chosen vantage points go completely out the window.
Modify my plans somewhat and come up with a scheme that though not giving me quite the same all-round coverage, will just about do.
Then the next snag reveals itself.
By now members of the great British public have begun to arrive and get themselves comfortable. The majority of whom are Muslim. As was expected. About two-thirds of the seats have been arranged one side, one-third on the other side, the two sections separated by the width of a couple of seats or so. That’s fine. The larger section accommodates the men, the smaller the women. That’s fine too.
But then one of the organisers requests that would I please avoid photographing the Muslim women.
Ok, anything to oblige. But that suddenly imposes quite a significant limitation on the angles and shots available to me. Dammit!
(That particular request was later countermanded by someone else, but by then it was too late.)
Well, the debate gets under way. And then I hit the next snag. No-one stays still! Not the moderator. Not the debaters. Not even the audience. Fidget fidget. Twitch twitch. Nod nod. Sway this way, sway that way. And I’m on longish exposures. Dammit again!
And of course in this sort of situation there’s no time to experiment, to play around with different settings (ISO and shutter speed sprang instantly to mind). You don’t really get the chance to try something then, if it doesn’t work, try something else. You’re doing it all real-time and no-one’s going to wait around while you get your act together. And you’re totally reliant on what the LCD’s telling you… no opportunity to quickly offload a batch to a laptop and see what they really look like. And past experience has taught me not to rely on the LCD overmuch anyway. Dammit once again!
But the real whammy is yet to come…
The principal source of recorded imagery for the event was intended to be video, with photos as a backup. Suited me fine. And that was sorted. I’d brought along a videocam and extra tripod and delegated its operating to a couple of helpful folk. No headaches there.
But the event turned out to be not quite as, um, “inspiring” as had been hoped. So they decided they wouldn’t use any of the video at all. Just go with the stills. All down to me then. Da… no, I’m getting fed up saying “dammit”.
Well, I finally managed to burn a CD with close to 40 so-so pics on it, but nothing to write home about.
What I’ve come away with is the growing suspicion that I probably need to revise my technique a bit for this type of event… at that particular location anyway.
Hmm. Time for a bit of experimenting methinks.
And there’s a particular person who first got me into this whole caper who’s now owed another thump… not once did he warn me that I’d actually have to work at this photography lark! I’m deeply unimpressed.
Wow, I actually remembered!
November 20, 2008
So miffed were we with the disastrous night shots of the other day (er… evening) that mate and I decided to have another bash at it. And this time we actually remembered to bring tripods! Wonders will never cease.
All well and good ‘cept (and I can’t speak for mate here cos I ain’t seen any he’s uploaded yet) Flickr decided to mess me around this time!
Bedford has this bridge for traffic coming in and out of the town centre from the south. And at night its illuminated with blue floodlights. Gorgeous blue floodlights. Looks real pretty it does. So a significant number of the shots this evening were of that same bridge.
Looked brilliant they did… on camera and in Lightroom. So I processed the RAW files and converted to JPEGs… and they still looked brilliant. So I uploaded to Flickr and… what on earth happened?
The blue looks terrible. Oversaturated, garish, nasty. Dunno what Flickr’s done to them, but they just ain’t right. Consequently I’ve deleted the worst offenders, which of course has reduced by a significant amount this most recent upload batch.
One day perhaps everything will work out as I intend 
Revitalised Bear sessions (or should that be beer sessions?)
November 18, 2008
As regular visitors here will know, I tend to shoot quite a lot of pics at The Bear pub in Bedford. For that matter, so does my mate… who happens to work there. Which partly accounts for the reason why we seem to have loads of damn shots of the place. So many in fact that a while ago we began to suspect its probably the most photographed pub in the town.
However, as said regular visitors will also know, one effect of this Bear-related photographic gluttony is that we’re both fast running out of things to shoot there, and even inspiration for same.
Well, sod ‘im is what I say… he can find his own inspiration. After all, he spends far more time there than do I. Despite possible appearances to the contrary.
Doesn’t solve my problem though.
But then a WP contact of mine did a blogpost about…guess what?
Beer bottle labels!
Quick as a flash I could see the potential with that, so promptly nicked the idea.
Oh, an entire vista of exciting new shots opened up before my mind’s eye. Wonderful! And just to make it a bit more interesting, I thought it’d be a good idea to try to concentrate on UK-brewed bottled beers. Or rather, the labels thereof.
Another motive for that being by way of a thankyou to the lass who’s idea I nicked cos I reasoned that, not being in the UK, it’d give her the opportunity to enjoy labels she may not otherwise see.
Um… slight snag…
The Bear doesn’t actually have all that many bottled beers brewed in the UK. Bugger.
So what seemed like something that would occupy huge wodges of the time I spend at that establishment has suddenly shrunk to, at best, probably no more than a half-dozen shots or so.
But the idea’s such a good one that I’ve now become quite engaged by it. Which means I’m gonna have to venture a bit further afield and probably end up buying bottles of beer. And that, in turn, probably means I shall have to drink them as well. Bugger again. How absolutely hellish for a dedicated whisky-drinker such as myself.
Oh, the trials I put myself through in pursuit of this photography caper.
Nevertheless, here Maggie, specially for you, are the first few shots to launch the new set, to which I’ll be trying to add at least one a week or so. For the time being anyway.
Enjoy 
Bedford is closing down!
November 18, 2008
Global economic crisis; recession; businesses going bankrupt, closing down, or otherwise ceasing to trade. With repercussions filtering down to the small trader and the man in the street.
Dire times indeed!
But, it always having been in my nature to look for the silver lining, what a super opportunity for a sort of photographic social documentary!
Hence, a newly-created set on my Flickr entitled “Bedford’s Closing Down”.
Now, I have to confess the theme was inspired by some recent work of a mate who’s been documenting photographically a similar situation in another UK town… his set is here.
But I haven’t just surreptitiously nicked the idea. Oh no! In fact we exchanged some emails about it and he suggested I might like to try a similar thing myself. And indeed its such a good idea (with potential important historical significance) that I think other photographers should get in on the act too, in their own towns.
That said, its not a totally new idea for me. Something very similar had occurred to me to do a coupla months back, that I kicked off with some shots from another part of Bedford.
But, having done that, somehow for no accountable reason the project slipped my mind.
However, wandering around town camera at ready, looking for relevant shots, I was struck by how many I actually found… far more than I’d anticipated. And this was after I’d filtered out those businesses that have closed clearly due to relocation, expansion or whatever.
In fairness I have to say that the initial pics launching the set are not all of businesses that have closed as a direct effect of the present economic crisis… some of them have actually been closed for quite a little while. But you can be sure that from now on I’ll be keeping an eagle eye on town centre businesses, so watch out for further additions to the set!
An object lesson
November 15, 2008
Having made a bit of a meal, as far as blogging’s concerned, out of last Wednesday’s little adventure and with particular emphasis on the climax to the adventure (the disastrous episode with the evening/night shots), I thought I’d inflict even further misery upon myself by revisiting the offending pics before binning them for good.
Yeah, I’m a bit of a masochist like that.
It then occurred to me that if I could possibly salvage one or two from the fiasco (the best of a bad bunch so to speak) and upload them to Flickr it might be informative to others as an object lesson in how not to approach night-time/evening shots.
So, with another vicious kick to the ego, that’s what I’ve done.
Managed to recover eight out of I really don’t care to think how many and they are now, in all their crappiness, prominently displayed on my Flickr photostream for the entire world to mock.
Told you I was a masochist!
All I’m hoping now is that my mate fared better than I.
Unmitigated stupidity
November 14, 2008
Here we are then. End of day. Me and mate. In The Bear. His shift about to end. An hour or so to kill.
“So”, sez I, “we up for some photos then?” What with him not having done anything at all photowise during the day and me only having grabbed a mere couple of shots since my arrival there he naturally acquiesces.
So we spend a few idle moments mulling over where to go. The river! The town side of the river. “Haven’t taken any photos there with my new camera” sez he.
However, its now winter. And its early evening. Which means its dark outside. And there’s not much artificial lighting down by the river, either the town side or the Embankment side. Should really use a tripod.
But of course neither of us bothered to bring one. However, I do have the monopod in the backpack.
I have to confess, I’ve not had a great deal of success with the monopod in the past. Not that I’ve used it too much. Mainly because on the few occasions I have used it I’ve not had a great deal of success with it.
And the coupla times mate’s tried using it he’s not had much success with it either.
“Oh, it’ll be all right”, I declare optimistically. “We’ll manage”.
So with his shift ended off we trot, down to the town side of the river.
Both of us manage to take loads of pics. Of traffic crossing the town bridge. Of the bridge itself, beautifully illuminated by the blue spotlights. Of canoes on the river, manned by stalwarts from the local rowing club. Riverside lights and lights from the college towerblock reflected in the water. Darkening clouds. The eerily-lit pathway alongside the river. The moon rising over the Swan Hotel. Illuminated shop-fronts and building facades along the High Street,
Wonderful shots! Really beautiful captures!
Admittedly, reviewing them on our cameras’ LCDs it was quite obvious that some were a bit naff. But the majority of them looked really good.
Well, having satisfactorily filled the spare hour or so we hooked up with mate’s girlfriend and wandered over to the local supermarket for our weekly shopping expedition.
En route to which, and for the second week running, our eyes are drawn to the superbly illuminated “Big Top” and other tents of the circus that happens to be in town.
Its just gotta be done… after all, we may not get the chance again. So out come the cameras and click, click, click. Another batch of lovely night-time shots on the memory cards.
Once back home I’m eager to offload all the pics to the infernal machine and start developing.
Here we go then…
Yep. Some nice shots from the first part of the day, the Kempston session.
Yep. Some more nice shots from the second part of the day, the walk along the riverside.
Hmm. Nice shots from the third part of the day, in The Bear. Problem is, not enough of them.
Then there’s the fourth part of the day, the town side of the river at night etc. Probably the less said about those the better. But I just can’t restrain myself.
They’re ‘orrible. Crap. Sheer unadulterated rubbish! We really shoulda used a tripod.
Some useful additional things were discovered though. Or rather, things previously discovered that have now been confirmed.
First, that camera LCDs are not to be relied upon!
Second, that monopods are probably the most useless bit of photo kit that I’ve yet encountered! Maybe they’re not intended for use in the evening or at night. Maybe they’re meant simply for poor daytime lighting use. But far as I’m concerned they’re a complete waste of time.
But the real lesson, that I seem totally incapable of learning, is that this sort of night-time session absolutely demands a tripod. And no amount of optimism will change that.
So, as the nice men in white coats finally take me away to a place of safety where I can no longer beat mate around the head with a load of useless JPEGs, if you listen carefully you may hear the mad mumbling of “Shoulda used the tripod… shoulda used the tripod… shoulda used the tri…” [fading into distance]
As it happens I did end up with a couple of shots from that last evening part… which I may post to Flickr… if ever I recover from the insanity that seems to afflict me whenever I confront the “night-time + camera” equation.
Still Wednesday!
November 14, 2008
Onward then to what became the third part of Wednesday’s photo epic. And this is where it all started to go downhill.
Finally reaching Bedford’s town centre once more the camera gets stowed away, and once again I find myself firmly ensconced in the familiar surroundings of The Bear.
Now regular visitors to this little blog of mine (yep, I like to kid myself I do have regular visitors) will be well aware of the equation “me + Bear + mate at Bear = photos”. That is, the taking thereof.
But this Wednesday past? Huh. Somehow it looked like it wasn’t going to happen.
No new fittings; no new angles that we could find; even the flowers hadn’t been replaced! And frankly inspiration, or just interest, was almost completely lacking. Mate didn’t even manage to get his camera out! Oh, what times are these that we should find ourselves so lacking in the pic-taking urge.
Admittedly at one point, when mate and I had wandered into the back yard for a quick fag, he did point out to me some rather tasty sunbeams bouncing off the wall and even penetrating into the inner depths of the bar.
Just so my visit there wouldn’t be a complete washout picwise the camera gets hauled out once more and a few shots fired. The results of which I actually quite like, but oh so few!
And the tale hasn’t yet ended…
