Northfield, Birmingham, May 5th
Just got a batch of prints through from Photobox (who still come recommended) comprising the last month or so of shots uploaded to Flickr. As before there’s a significant difference between the ones I think look great on the screen and the ones that look good on paper. Not a big surprise, maybe, but certainly noteworthy. This one in particular, taken from the top deck of a very clean bus, jumped out as a classic example – it’s nothing special in pixels but comes alive as a print.
As I continue my struggle to improve my photos I’ve had some very useful discussions with Housemate Zoop as he’s on a similar kind of path with his art, trying to move from pieces which are adequate to that ever elusive… something. This evening I found him sifting through the prints and I mentioned how I felt I’d hit some kind of wall, albeit one that’s surmountable if I could just find the right metaphorical angle with which to progress.
With some gentle nudging we came to the conclusion it’s people that are missing. I’m representing a sense of place but it’s unpopulated. So I need to take photos of people.
This, of course, is easier said than done. A building doesn’t mind you staring at it for five minutes looking for the right angle. A person is going to want to know what the hell you think you’re playing at, unless you ask permission before hand which kinda ruins the naturalism. Plus I’m a fucking coward.
But it’s probably something I’m going to have to do. Any tips?
(ATP report to follow sometime over the weekend. Along with the photo delivery the last episode of Lost season 2 kinda ate up the afternoon…)
Couldn’t immediately find where you talked about Phootobucket before so thought I’d just comment quickly to ask — do you have to have a separate photobucket account in order to get those prints? I wouldn’t want to bother re-uploading (or transferring) photos I’ve already got on Flickr.
It’s not PhotoBUCKET – that’s a different service. PhotoBOX just do prints and, yes, I have to upload them seperately as Flickr don’t have a printing service in the UK.
Pete, I actually kinda like your empty urban landscapes of decayed buildings.
Sorry, yes, my mistake (Photobox/bucket)!
I’ve got back my little booklet of photos from Qoop now and am going to blog about it shortly — I’m very pleased with the way they’ve come out and am going to try again with some different tweaks. Not having to move them from Flickr has advantages but also some disadvantages (for instance, the caption text as I originally created is not necessarily the right text for a little booklet, but there’s no way to change it in Qoop).
Not to get all photography theory, but i find that the level of composition in a lot of your images is so good that it implies enough of a human presence.