Happy New Year to one and all, I wish you all a peaceful and prosperous 2014.
As we enter a new year I am making some slight adjustments to my project.
My main album will continue to be B+W. I have a few ideas about taking shots in Loughborough and doing a bit more home studio work with my new camera. In addition to this I am sifting through my archive to find shots that I never appreciated when they were first taken. We will see how it goes. I am also studying the work of some of the great B+W photographers and am going to see if any influence rubs off. So we start with my favourite, Michael Kenna today. I have been waiting for a miserable day to get a shot that I could take and process like this.
This shot was taken at lunchtime at one of my old haunts. I am planning to take a photo here on the 1st of every month. The weather today is truly awful, it is dark, windy and raining sideways, I got soaked in the 3 or 4 minutes I was out of the car!!
The shot was deliberately underexposed to create the silhouette of the tree and hillside, and then processed in SFX Pro to add an ND Grad effect above the trees and balance the shot. Finally, there was a distracting sliver of water from a puddle in the bottom left corner which was taken out with the spot healing tool.
A quiet day today, I've just prepared a Beef Stew (under guidance from Rebecca!) and that will bubble away all afternoon in the oven while I watch the football. Tomorrow we are all off to London for a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament (No cameras allowed grrr.) then to see One Man Two Guvnors and then out for tea, after which our festivities are well and truly over!!
I'm FAVing this one as one I truly want to do myself. A great job on it. Very nice processing (as always!). You are forcing me to extend my bucket list. I am off to reprioritize it as well as spend a bit with Michael Kenna.
Nice 'less is more' shot, Sean. Like the use of space and the sky grad. Super composition as always. Best wishes for 2014, enjoy the H of Parliament - we have done that, interesting! Thanks for all the super comments, and especially the supportive words, during last year, they have been much appreciated during one of our more difficult periods.
So elegant, powerful and yet simple. Great use of negative space and processing. I like your goals for the new year. Taking a photo in the same spot every month will be very interesting too. Looking forward to it all! FAV
You never slow down! I applaud your attempt to try a new approach, and like the minimalist composition. I guess we all have different tastes, and despite the bucketful of favs this is getting, I wish the sky were a bit brighter just above the horizon to set the tree off better.
I love the dark mood and simplistic composition with lot of negative space. Michael Kenna is a great artist to start with. I´m also palnning to study b&w and monochrome shots for whil but mine won´t be nearly as interesting as yours.
Happy New Year, Sean. We share a passion for Kenna's work so I'm really excited to see your Kenna-esque work. Thank you so much for all your support, kind comments and friendship. Here's to 2014.
@japers45 thanks John, that is the highest compliment possible. It is possible for a 48 year old man to have heroes, Kenna is on my list. I met him in October!
Fantastic shot, absolutely love the simplicity of this photo and love black and white shots. Michael Kenna is one of my favourite photographers too and unfortunately I never made it to his exhibition in Chester back in the autumn, gutted! You can definitely see his influence in this photo, love it!
Happy New Year to you :)