Getting my eye in

[Rob MacKillop]

It’s been a couple of years since I was seriously committed to taking photos, apart from one quick roll to test an eBay acquisition. This week I’m on holiday in Oxford for five days and London for two days.

It did feel like I’d completely lost my mojo as I walked around the beautiful Christ Church Meadow, on a beautiful, sunny morning. I just felt I was taking pretty pictures. I finished three rolls, two b&w and one colour.

My last project was spending a year with one stretch of river in Edinburgh, the Water of Leith, and I didn’t (deliberately) take pretty pictures, but felt I was doing an interesting project, discovering how I was thinking about and reacting to the annual flow of the river through the landscape. Whereas here in Oxford I’m a brief visitor, with not enough time to spend thinking about what I was doing.

It will take two or three weeks to get back scans of the negs, and I’m curious if there will be any worth in any of them at all. But that’s what we do, mostly, in photography: walk around, taking shots when we feel moved to. Nothing wrong with that. I just get the feeling it’s not enough, and I’d be better putting more thought into new projects.

On the other hand, I also like pretty pictures sometimes…

Sorry…no images for two or three weeks.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

PS And I’ve just realised I left an orange filter on the lens when changing to colour film! What effect will that have? Awful, I imagine.

Maybe changing them to b&w might salvage one or two shots.

Yes, it takes a few rolls to get your eye back in and your (my!) brain working!

 

[Brian Moore]

I'm looking forward to seeing your foties, Rob.

It did feel like I’d completely lost my mojo as I walked around the beautiful Christ Church Meadow, on a beautiful, sunny morning. I just felt I was taking pretty pictures. I finished three rolls, two b&w and one colour.

Also,...I think I know what you mean. I think most of my recent pictures (the past year or two) have been little more than just attempts at pretty photographs. And where I have succeeded I have often wondered what was the point.

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

You're all getting me worried about my pictures! Course they're not all pretty, so maybe it's not all bad...
I think for me I still subconsciously feel that I'm a beginner so any photo that seems interesting feels like a win.
Although, I'm starting to think that a photo needs some kind of back story or reason for being, apart from just looking nice. But that doesn't work for some of the more 'fine art' kind of work.

Ever read The Meaning In The Making by Sean Tucker? I've got a nasty feeling I've mentioned it before on this forum... but regardless I found it well worth reading. Possibly not quite as in-depth as it could be, but a very interesting run through the author's views on why we photograph/paint/compose/whatever (written by a photographer).

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Stevenson, I’m not one for reading books on the theoretical and philosophical concepts behind photos, as I’ve done all that with my main subject: music. But I do like to think.

When I first started - and shared my images here - I shot everything that took my interest. That was a LOT of images, and they soon filled up my hard drive, not to mention being copied onto an external hard drive, just in case the originals disappeared After a few years I became dissatisfied with this approach, so decided to work on projects. After deciding on the project, I soon realised that not all the images had to stand alone as ‘good photographs’, but they had meaning within the totality of images within the project.

After a break from photography I find myself potentially starting again with shooting everything that doesn’t move, and I think I need to step back a little before filling up another hard drive.

Anyway, the Oxford-trip photos will form their own project, but I wish I had narrowed-down my - ahem - focus to one aspect of Oxford. Too late now, but it has been a good reminder to ‘think before you blink’.

On the other hand, I do like looking at single images by others…

 

[Ralph Turner]

I like the idea of projects, but I’m seldom mentally focused enough (excuse the pun) to keep the momentum going with one lol. Most of my efforts tend to be of the wandering around ’ooh, that’s pretty’ - snap snap! variety .

 

[Ivar Dahl-Larsen]

It’s been a couple of years since I was seriously committed to taking photos, apart from one quick roll to test an eBay acquisition. This week I’m on holiday in Oxford for five days and London for two days.

It did feel like I’d completely lost my mojo as I walked around the beautiful Christ Church Meadow, on a beautiful, sunny morning. I just felt I was taking pretty pictures. I finished three rolls, two b&w and one colour.

My last project was spending a year with one stretch of river in Edinburgh, the Water of Leith, and I didn’t (deliberately) take pretty pictures, but felt I was doing an interesting project, discovering how I was thinking about and reacting to the annual flow of the river through the landscape. Whereas here in Oxford I’m a brief visitor, with not enough time to spend thinking about what I was doing.

It will take two or three weeks to get back scans of the negs, and I’m curious if there will be any worth in any of them at all. But that’s what we do, mostly, in photography: walk around, taking shots when we feel moved to. Nothing wrong with that. I just get the feeling it’s not enough, and I’d be better putting more thought into new projects.

On the other hand, I also like pretty pictures sometimes…

Sorry…no images for two or three weeks.

"with not enough time to know what I'm doing," is hardly my perception of Rob I'd say! Or is it?

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Who knows...

 

[Ivar Dahl-Larsen]

Stevenson, I’m not one for reading books on the theoretical and philosophical concepts behind photos, as I’ve done all that with my main subject: music. But I do like to think.

When I first started - and shared my images here - I shot everything that took my interest. That was a LOT of images, and they soon filled up my hard drive, not to mention being copied onto an external hard drive, just in case the originals disappeared After a few years I became dissatisfied with this approach, so decided to work on projects. After deciding on the project, I soon realised that not all the images had to stand alone as ‘good photographs’, but they had meaning within the totality of images within the project.

After a break from photography I find myself potentially starting again with shooting everything that doesn’t move, and I think I need to step back a little before filling up another hard drive.

Anyway, the Oxford-trip photos will form their own project, but I wish I had narrowed-down my - ahem - focus to one aspect of Oxford. Too late now, but it has been a good reminder to ‘think before you blink’.

On the other hand, I do like looking at single images by others…

I just answered something you said in January this year Rob, now seeing, that I did not have to have done this. I am glad. You'll understand what I mean when you see my previous answer to you. Me once a fool, always a fool.