Spooks Apprentice - Downham

This is the second set of images that have been inspired by the writings of Joseph Delaney - Spooks Apprentice. In book four 'The Spooks Battle' young Tom and his master travel to the district of Pendle to sort out the witch clans. They are sheltered by the local priest of Downham village.

As with the first set of images I wanted to re-create the atmosphere described within these books, hence the dark, moody and eerie manipulations to the final images. However, I am not that happy with the images. The weather on the day of the shoot was sunny and bright, not the best for my intentions. Due to the fine weather there were more people and cars around the village - what can you do! I should have chosen a different day, but I had arranged to take a fellow student who is from Greece and show him a different part of Lancashire.

The image above is of the small row of cottages at the top of the hill in the village. These cottages typify the style of building as described in the 'Spooks Battle'. I have adjusted the image with the 'Selenium Tone' preset and added a strong contrast curve, and then brightening the image with the tone sliders. I used a 20mm wide angle lens, I wanted the picture to be sharp and have a lot of detail, so chose F11 ( I had read the f.11 to f.16 offer the best sharpness with landscape photography). The speed was fairly high due the the brightness of the day 400th sec with the f.stop chosen. The one downside to this image is the vapour trails left by aircraft.

This next image was taken due to the fact all the chimney pots were all still intact, which with modernisation is hard to come across. I have used cyanotype to creates the atmosphere and due to the extremely bright blue sky I thought this effect would suit. I used a zoom and small aperture to capture detail. Focal length 70mm and f18, speed 100th sec. The second image was taken for the distant view of the church. I also like the horizontal lines created by stone wall, wooden fences and buildings. I wanted to try a different effect but keep the same mood. I have de-saturated the colour to obtain the aged look.

The next two images are of the village looking up from the small village green. I have converted to greyscale to loose a bit of clarity and detail, due to cars and people, also to keep within the theme. I also wanted to capture the dominant church at the top of the image.

The next series of images are all taken around the church itself. The first image is of the tower. I really don't like this shot but have include it to show the dreadful shadow that has been cast to the right hand side. This has taught me a lesson - always look for the shadow on bright sunny days. I have taken the second image to show what the parishioners of Downham would be greeted with on being released from Sunday service. I also though it was a good way of showing Pendle Hill which features heavily in this story.

With this image I have purposely captured the branches of the tree in frame, I like the shadow that has been cast by them. I have converted to greysale to add to the mood. I chose a slight angle to give the image drama. The second image is of the front of the church. As the ground to the front slopped away I was able to obtain a view looking slightly upwards.

The last two image are taken on the pathways leading to and from Pendle Hill. In the story the author describes these pathways and they add quite a bit of drama to the plot.

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People - Enviromental

Unfortunately I am not going to put a blog up for this section of the People module. I will hand in a paper format for assessment.

Candid Portraits - Derek the Master Farrier

Background....

So what is a Candid Portrait? After searching the Internet and finding a whole host of explanations as to what is and what's not  candid photography I was none the wiser. At the planning stage of this module I had looked at the work of Weegee for the candid category.

In the above photographs taken by Weegee you can see they have been taken without any direction from the photographer,  but the subjects in the photograph know of his presence and what he is doing. They are totally spontaneous in their actions and its down to the photographer when to press the shutter.

For the Candid Portraits I was lucky enough to capture and record a master craftsman at work. The gentleman's name in question was Derek. Now into his seventies he still has the skill and stamina to make many a young Farrier green with envy. His foundry is on the border of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, in an out building on a farm. Lit by a mixture of fluorescent and daylight, and the glow of the intense foundry fire. The only direction I gave him was to work as normal as if I wasn't there.

This first image is actually the last image I took at this session.  Derek was just chatting away and  just looked up at an opportune moment, I was fairly close at the time and the backgrounds were somewhat confusing. You will see in some of the other images the wires and metal covers which distract the eye. I also used a shallow depth of field f2.2 to further omit detail in the background. This image is slightly soft which I thinks adds to the overall feel.

I wanted to give the impression that I was not always focused on Derek and so took certain still life objects within the forge. I also wanted to use the new found skills form the first module and carry them over into this. The second image is the starting of the fire in the forge. There is an image below that shows it at full force. I used a slower shutter speed to create the sense of movement within the flames.

I took these next two images of Derek to show the heat of the metal being worked. I also liked the glow that can be seen in his face. I struggled with light throughout this session, I had to use a shallow d.o.f to allow more light to hit the sensor as I needed a fairly fast shutter so that the images didn't blur.

The first object is an examples of basic metalwork. Derek worked this metal with such ease and craft.  It took him all of about 10mins. I placed them on the stone floor where they caught the window light. I converted to greyscale as I think the overall composition suits the effect better.

With the second object image I saw a number of horseshoe blanks laid on the floor next to the forge, I was taken a back by their blue colour. The final image has been cropped to tidy up the edges and help draw the viewers eye into the centre of the composition.

This next image is of the large metal tongues positioned next to the forge. They are used to position the metal in the fire to get to temperature before working. I took this image dropping the focus to the foreground and background, creating a clear sharp area of focus in the centre of the composition.  I captured the image along the length to draw the viewers eye to the centre and help to produce an abstract image. The image on the right show the concentration of Derek working the metal. I used a fast shutter speed to capture the motion of the hammer. If I was taking this image again I would slow the shutter down to create increased motion within frame.

With this shot I was able to capture shards of metal sparking off the forge. This is the kind of image you expect to see from a farrier.

Another shot showing the total concentration of Derek.

I saw the above wording hanging in the store room next to the forge. I liked the way the light caught the edge of the word and then the dark metal work against the very light background. I used a shallow d.o.f as the store room had tools hanging against the wall which would have caused a distraction.

The final image was take to show the intensity of the forge fire. I have turned up the saturation to bring out the wonderful colours that can be seen in this image.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Some of these images are slightly soft. This is due to me not being very observant. I had just bought a Sigma 28mm prime lens and was itching to use it. This lens has a known problem of sometimes not  auto focusing properly. Lesson learnt - always check your equipment before and while the session is taking place.

2. Another rookie error. We think of Farriers/Blacksmiths wearing used leather aprons, with the shirt sleeves rolled up, not cardigans. I could/should have got Derek to wear his protective clothing as it would have given more credibility to the images, but this could have been classed as direction!

3. Have a plan of action. I should have researched a bit more for images of Farriers/Blacksmiths and had more of an idea of what I wanted to achieve. This would help in being more creative.

4. I learnt something about myself with this shoot. Altogether I enjoyed the experience but I realised I preferred the controlled environment of the studio. As I turned up with my camera and little else I didn't enjoy not being in control of where the light would fall. Just a personal preference!!

5. Sometimes its not possible to see the location before the shoot. However if you can do some prep then do. If I had know how dark the Forge would be then I would have looked a bringing lights. However, is this then moving out of candid into environmental?

6. I could have converted all the images to grayscale to reduce the distraction in clothing and backgrounds. However, I think this would loose some of the intensity of light and heat that have been caught within frame. Also trying to keep within the spirit of Candid photography I have tried to make little or no alteration to the captured image.

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