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Languedoc, France

susanfurber — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:17:35 +0000

I spent a week in France last week, on an Ocean Capture workshop, discovering some of the Languedoc region. I arrived a day early and had the opportunity to have a walk around Perpignan, an interesting town. Almost 30 degrees though, the camera didn’t manage to come out until the next day. The workshop was a group of 5, and was based around some amazing coastal locations. The main task was black and white long exposure and the week provided some great opportunity to photograph at different times of the day, with a range of weather conditions.

We stayed at an amazing local winery for 3 nights, so as well as photography, there was lots and lots of food and wine flowing, and some really nice friendly owners of the winery who treated us extremely well. We even had coffee before our early morning shoots…bliss!

Because I managed to forget to take my battery charger with me, I effectively had to be careful with my battery power, which was a challenge to not waste shots and to treat each capture with the need for it to be important and right to take it. One of the shots I was most excited about in camera, was taken at Bages, a lovely coastal spot with lots of interesting subjects. I had this shot in my head during the first visit and on the second visit was able to make it a reality. I was slight worried I would be dissapointed on edit, but after spending some time on it tonight, I am pretty happy. I processed two images, both with intentional blur on the boat, but the one I have selected is hopefully a subtley better composition.

I am still working through my full set of selections, hopefully another couple to process to create a set of 4 or maybe 5, and then I will be updating my website. Was a fabulous week…

Devon Panorama

susanfurber — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:25:31 +0000

I may have mentioned in a previous post, that I try to take a panorama, wide angle type shot at every new location shoot, as I am currently quite attached to the wide angle views of landscape….bit of an addiction. On my recent trip to North Devon, the opportunity arose to try out a very wide shot, and this is the results. I am a little in two minds on the composition – it is a bit risky with such a strong foreground, but I have looked back on the shot a few times and something catches my eye and I quite like it…and it has a balance to it that kind of works for me..

I am tempted to buy a wide angle lens, or even something like a fish eye, just for experimentation…maybe one day. Infrared first! In the meantime, my trusty 18 – 135mm and photoshop stitch are the way to go! Let me know what you think.

Weekend in Devon and experimenting with IR

susanfurber — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:50:02 +0000

I spent a couple of days of this bank holiday long weekend in North Devon, with a friend and photographer, exploring some new locations and doing some shoots. Part of the excitement of the trip for me, as well as the new locations, was the opportunity to borrow my friends camera to have another little experiment with the world of IR (infrared). I did a course with her to learn about it, probably about a year ago now, but at the time was living in London, struggling my way through a mentoring program and trying to lift my game generally with my photography. Another challenge in amongst all of that, while tempting, I decided against. With summer approaching (the prime time for IR due to more sunlight), and the interest in something new, I am very very tempted to convert my 400D and try it out over the summer months. Of course a weekend of hearing, seeing and trying has tempted me even further, and I am pretty sure next pay day will see me move forward on it. Stay tuned

In addition to the IR, we founds some very cool locations and in a part of England I haven’t yet had the chance to visit and so had the opportunity for some long exposure and black and white, and a real workout for the new tripod, which was amazing. I am feeling rather refreshed with all the new scenery and shooting opportunities, as well as excited with the prospect of a new project. This will give me 2 projects to work on over the next 3 months, I expect that should keep me busy shouldn’t it.

See what you think of my first IR effort of the year!

New project

susanfurber — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:35:08 +0000

This last week I have found myself getting progressively frustrated. Weather, lack of shooting, lack of focus (no pun intended), uncertainty, all creeping in there. Even the arrival of a new tripod and some fabulous paper/books were shortlived in the motivation department, which is very sad…I had a great shoot on the beach today with my new tripod, stretching and collapsing, trying different things, but I am honestly a little dissapointed by the results, they are not crisp enough and I feel I have to ‘learn all over’ a bit with the new equipment and try and work out what is needed to get the optimal results. I think the answer, having thought about it all week is two-fold for me…

- I feel like I need to take a bit of a social media break – ie facebook is the main culprit. I love engaging on facebook, posting photos and seeing what others are doing, but it feels a lot of ‘talking to myself’ at the moment, and I am not sure the photography facebook page is really progressing as I would like it, so I might take a breather on this front for a bit…a step back to inhale.

- Work on a project. A born organiser and ‘project person’ I tend to do best when I have a plan, something to strive for and hopefully results at the end. I am working on a magazine submission at the moment, which is going through the printing this weekend…which is good as a goal, but I need something that is going to push me a bit, on the planning and shooting front. I need something to take me out of the comfort zone of ‘shooting groynes’ so I can improve and progress. I need something that is as important to me as Southern Soul was….a journey.

I have an idea already, and I am going to work on the proposal this week – every night until I have something that I am happy to work with – a 3 month plan! Its a goal to strive for anyway.I’m sure I will make some progress soon

London photo exhibit

susanfurber — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:58:38 +0000

I spent an indulgent few hours on Wednesday night, visiting the agency of Berghind Joseph, and seeing my image of ‘Determination’ in an exhibit of the top 10 images from their photo competition. I left work a bit early and got the train in, and then stayed overnight, so it was a rather expensive night, but I wanted the opportunity to meet some people involved in the competition, and also of course to see my image in print and exhibited. I was very pleased that I did visit, as it was a great opportunity to realise what I have been working toward for about a year, and to confirm that I want more!!

I have now got to refocus on my next short-term goal, which I have now decided on, and keep working towards it. It also helped me think about my longer term plans as well, which as I mentioned in the last post I have decided to change from what I had originally planned. Starting to form it in my mind…

In the meantime, I had champagne, canapes and people that wanted to speak to me and congratulate me on my image – a small taste of what I would love to achieve..Inspired, indulged and ready to put my head down again and work hard for the next glimpse of success.

Shifting sands…well pebbles…

susanfurber — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 14:59:01 +0000

It feels like things are shifting on my journey again. I can’t yet tell whether this is a good thing, or not, but it definitely feels different. After a couple of great nights shooting ‘moody skies’ at the local southbourne beach last week, I have just spent the weekend away in West Sussex. I found a couple of potential locations to visit and booked myself a one night stay in a great little pub nearby to them, so that I could optimise the time in the evening and morning. It also gave me a bit more driving practise, further and further afield is the plan…

I didn’t plan to the n’th degree, but I did find some locations and I did some research on tides, sunrise and sunset locations and weather, mostly ‘in the field’ as it changes so flippin rapidly around here that you can’t really tell. Today was mostly exploring, Sat mostly shooting. I especially enjoyed last night. Although the area I chose is a popular spot, it is just before the busy season at the moment, so I basically had the beach to myself at some points in time, and even when there were people around, they were few and far between. Gave me some time to contemplate, try a few things, find my compositions…really nice. Only had one incident of dog v tripod, right at the end of an 18min exposure, but luckily they didn’t connect! I am now back at home, downloading and pondering my approach at the moment.

The thing is, if I am going to be honest, I had a long term goal when I came back to the UK a couple of years ago. It seems like I am getting closer to accepting that it isn’t going to pan out, so now its time for Plan B. Day to day, still wax on wax off, no changes there, but my ultimate plan is shifting, a bit like the pebbles that I have been walking over for the last two days! Stay tuned..

Southern Soul

susanfurber — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:33:10 +0000

Southern Soul profile now live

Simple compositions

susanfurber — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 09:42:54 +0000

One of the big shifts that I have had to make in my composition, and photography in the last 3 or so years is that of simplifying my composition. I think I am a lot better now, so much so that when I see a really ‘busy’ image or a pole or a post (or person) in the background that doesn’t work for me, it now annoys me in a photograph – where as before I doubt I even saw it, Sometimes, I like to challenge myself and really take the image back to basics. A couple of photographers I have studied over the years do this, its really minimalist stuff, and not for everyone for sure, but it is a challenge to see if it works for me.

On a rather grey and dull day, when I cannot convince myself to go out at the moment, I have been having a bit of a look at my back catalogue and picking some images to edit. This was one I took in Africa last year. I thought at the time that my timing was perfect that the bird was just taking off at the point of capture. On first glance and even second glance though I didn’t think that I had been close enough. Today, I thought I would try it more as a silhouetted shot and thinking about some Nick Brandt work and the composition and placement of the tree and the bird to try and add some interest. I was extremely pleased to see I have a very small amount of separation between the bird and the tree – which at split second capture was definitley more luck than planning – but all good…So, I played with the levels to bring out the sky a bit more and voila – minimalist bird in flight – am quite happy – let me know what you think folks..

Wax on…wax off

susanfurber — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:08:10 +0000

For the first time probably this year, I have hit a bit of an ‘uncertainty spot’ with my photography. It has been a brilliant few months and I feel like I have made a lot of progress, but lately I have been going between thinking I am doing nothing but photography (ie no social life) and then still feeling I am not progressing well enough. It is a tough spot, as there is not really a clear path and I am finding myself thinking forward and planning for the future, 1 year, 2 years which while this has its purpose, is not really a beneficial approach. So..having had a few day of mental gymnastics, I have called back on some advice I was given last year. Wax on…wax off. Like the Karate Kid movie. One little step at a time, over and over. I am trying to put the big picture on hold for now, and focus the energy on shooting, shooting, shooting. One day at a time, one step forward each day.

I have already thought through a plan for the next portfolio and so I will go forward with my idea and see where it takes me. April only on the radar for now. Wax on…wax off…

Lyme Time

susanfurber — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 15:22:34 +0000

I have just returned from a 2 night stay in Lyme Regis, in West Dorset. Some shooting, eating, drinking and some relaxing by the sea, in what turned out to be an extremely warm weekend for this time of the year. The conditions were somewhat challenging because of it, and even an attempt at shooting early, 5am, didn’t really reap the results I was hoping for, but did get plenty of time to explore, try some different things and enjoy some spring sunshine. For example, Sat night was extremely hazy, so the challenge of finding a composition that worked to my advantage in those conditions was set. I did initially think I might add a photograph to my next portfolio set, but I honestly don’t think I have nailed it, but I will leave the shots for the now obligatory week, before processing and see what results I have to share. We spent the morning in a place called Seatown, basically lots of pebbles and sea, but it is a place that I really really like. My first visit there back in September it was lashing rain and so windy I could hardly stand myself up, much less the tripod, this time it was blazing sun, so neither has been ideal shooting conditions. At least this time I could get out there and try some things without being blown over and I am hoping there may have been 1 shot where I kept the sun under control. Despite the fact it was quite busy, and mid-morning, you could walk far enough so that the people were limited – only the hardy few walking or fossil collecting. As compared to Lyme Regis, on the Cobb last night which was just busy as and no hope of a missing people shot at all really.

Sometimes, I think despite not getting the ideal shots, the process of adapting to conditions and chosing locations is a hugely beneficial one for me. I need to do a lot more of this to keep getting better, and luckily it is something I really enjoy doing. Creative juices are flowing again now, aided by my purchase of an Adventurine mineral, from the rock, mineral and fossil centre, which is supposed to aid in creativity (amongst other claims to fame in the new age world)…and I am already thinking about what next weekend may bring!