GregRob: SoFoBoMo blog

Yet Another Theme

Yesterday evening after thinking about the book “André Kertész: The Polaroids” and the photos I had taken inspired by some of the images in that book, a new theme has come to mind: Refraction

I like this theme for a few reasons:

• Fun theme, involving playing with image creation.
• Varying sub themes possible within the main theme.
• Simple book title.
• For a book to be completed in 30 days a simple theme, that allows for studio shooting, may be easier to execute.

My basic idea in this theme is that each image involves refraction in some way.  While shooting through a camera lens involves refraction, that doesn’t count.  I am thinking of more extreme situations/results.  As seen in yesterday’s post there is already the glass brick as example.  I have seen some great images created by shooting through water bubbles.  Trying to capture the heat waves above a campfire could be a pleasant excuse to head to Algonquin for a weekend.  There could be variations on a particular subject by shooting through different coloured mediums.  Some cold beer could be involved, and don’t forget a magnifying glasses, stained glass windows, and telescopes.

So this is the latest idea, just adding it to the mental stack of idea still percolating down through my brain.  Now if I could just remember what were all those other ideas….

Glass and Colour by: Greg Roberts

Brainstorm 0.13

And here we go with some development of some of the 0.03 brainstorming ideas:

Highway cloverleafs over/underpasses

This is an architecture subject.  Taking pictures of something we all see everyday, but presenting it in a different way.  Wide angle, and panorama images are needed to communicate the subhect.  Taking photos later in the SoFoBoMo period would be best as you’d want the grass to be green.  Different times of day would really make a difference in the images, sunrise, late day, etc.  Shooting weekend mornings would be required to minimize the cars in the images.  Long exposures could also make interesting images.

Long exposure night views around the city

Another way of looking at the city, going out with a tripod at very late or very early hours.  Maybe throw in some HDR images.  The city without people.

Water and Sand, a study of the recreational interface between land and lake

In this topic we can have both detail and great vistas.  The rest is pretty self explanatory.  

Pints – a photographic pub crawl

A good excuse to drink, probably not really a good topic for a book of photos.

Colours- Oil, Water, and all that

There are very interesting images you can create by throwing together liquids that don’t actually mix.  Oil on water, gas in the gutter, soap bubbles and food colours.  The very small can look grand and the very big is full of details.

Brainstorm 0.03

And another post on some train of thought brainstorming for book ideas.  I am starting to feel dry, but figured I would give it another go.  There are quite a few ideas here now, and I should be able to begin the process of letting things percolate.  I have found writing them down to be helpful in moving the creative process along.

In times past I have carried a small notebook so that I could sketch photo ideas as they came to me.   From time to time I would pull the book out for inspiration and go shoot something that I had previsouly visualized mentally.   Writing this blog seems similar, although having an audience causes me to edit a lot.

So here goes the latest list:

• Garbage – piles of it, dumps, on the curb, trucks
• Shoes, feet, walkng, moving
• Wire, cable, posts, poles, & rights of way
• People’s faces as they are playing video games
• Highway cloverleafs over/underpasses
• Long exposure night views around the city
• Water and Sand, a study of the recreational interface between land and lake
• Pints – a photographic pub crawl
• Colours- Oil, Water, and all that
• Neighbours – a portrait study of the people on my street in Brampton
• Collections – Lots of little things accumulated 
• The modified city – photoshopped images of Brampton (or somewhere else)

Macro Test Image

I shot a test image using my Bender 4×5 racked out all the way with my 150mm lens mounted.  The image is a shutter from a Agfa Isolette that is currently partially disassembled.  The exposure ended up being 72 seconds at f32 on a Polaroid Type 51 negative.

The shutter is floating on the end of a Manfrotto Flex Arm.  It is stuck there with some silly putty.  The background is about a foot back and is simply some black fleece from a fabric store draped over the back of a chair.  Lighting is from two continuous 46 watt (150 watt equivalent) daylight balanced fluorescent lights in reflectors.  One to the left of the camera, and one directly above the shutter.

The setup shot is on flickr: 

Brainstorm 0.22

Again today I am adding some development to ideas from a previous brainstorm list. And as always method plays a role in some of this photography. But if I can make the method a part of the book, then this should be ok.

Canoe trip in Algonqiun

I think that to really do this item would require taking a week off, to really have a good trip, and the opportunity to do a lot of shooting.  I don’t think day trips, or a single night trip would really suffice.  The basic idea is captured in the title:  I/we go on a canoe trip, and during the trip shoot a lot of stuff.  There are multiple elements to the story.  The nature around us, the camping experience, and of course the canoeing.  Since Algonquin is pretty far from city lights, there could even be a chapter of night shots (astrophotography).

 In all honestly as with any location based book it would be best to actually shoot for a year or two and then sort through the pictures to filter out a good collection.  But the nature of SoFoBoMo does allow that, and thus documenting a single journey may have to suffice.

Niagara Falls – sans falls

If you have been to Niagara falls you know that there is a lot more to it than the falls.  There is a real kitsch to entire streets, and the money vacums are running at full strength to get a piece of the tourist dollar.  With this is mind a lighthearted look at Niagara Falls the city could make for an interesting book.  As well as the kitsch the city does have history, which I like shooting, and that would help balance things.  On the plus side it is not too far a drive from my home, so multiple trips would be possible.   

Macro shots: clocks, watches, and shutters (springs & gears)

In this idea I am thinking of Paul Strand’s photographs.  Particularly his images of an Akeley Motion Picture Camera which I have always found amazing.  As camera parts have been greatly reduced in size, this would today be a macro study.  I like the details in the gears and springs of camera shutters, and I currently have a couple lying about disassembled.  To flesh this out to book length I would also shoot details of clocks and watches to follow a similar theme.  

I don’t really have a good macro rig, so a portion of this project could be to construct a macro rig to work with my Minolta 7D.  In this case the method could become a part of the book, as mentioned previously the actaul construction of the macro rig could be done during the SoFoBoMo month, and documented photographically to be included as an appendix to the book.  

I could also shoot some images with my Bender 4×5, since it can rack a lens out extremely far.

Paul Strand Double Akeley, New York 1922

Formal Street Portraits

I came across this link on The Strobist and since it relates to some of the street portrait ideas I have I figured I would share it. In this video Nick Turpin is shooting for Men’s Health magazine. He just approaches strangers that fit the look he is going for, and a moment later he has a street studio going.

Nick Turpin street portraits for Menshealth from Nick Turpin on Vimeo.

Okay, so he has a crew of four involved here, but you still get the idea. I’d love to have the confidence to try this.

Brainstorm 0.02 version 2

Well I tried to post this from my Blackberry while riding the GO train to Toronto this morning.  I am on training this week, and thus I have been on the GO again.  I had the post all typed, I pressed the publish button, and…….. nothing.  It disapperaed, and I can’t find it anywhere.  So here we go again, now from my laptop, this will be short since the course is starting shortly.

• Musem tour
• Art gallery tour
• Canoe trip in Algonqiun
• Hiking in Algonquin
• Niagara Falls – sans falls
• Candid: People driving
• Time Study: Plants growing
• Macro shots:  clocks, watches, and shutters (springs & gears)
• Paired shots macro + normal

Brainstorm 0.11

Whoa, are we counting version numbers too fast?  Don’t worry I’ll have a brainstorm 0.02 and probably a 0.03.   But In today’s post I am developing some of the ideas from Brainstorm 0.01.  And please comment if you have any ideas you would like to throw into the mix.

Man made objects in the landscape

 In this theme the idea is art via juxtoposition.  For example taking a common household item such as a kitchen chair and put it somewhere into a nice landscape photo.  Try to photograph the setup such that it is a pleasing picture of both of the two elements, whether the other was present or not.  So for example light and shoot the chair as if you are doing a product shot, but at the same time make sure the landscape is not a background, but actually a nice landscape photo in itself.  Try to combine items that have no reason to be joined.  

Perhaps the scene is more complex, with more than a single object.  A small scene, like a patio table from a bistro, including place settings etc. set in between the trees of an oak forest.  A coat rack, hung with a trench coat and a hat sitting in the Brampton Badlands.  

Think about the cover of Pink Floyd’s, “A Collection of Great Dance Songs”

Informal Street Portraits, Formal Street portraits, Farmer’s market attendees 

So there were a few portrait ideas in Brainstorm 0.01.  I have always wanted to be able to do portrait photography, and took a nice couse at the AGO on the topic.  But I have trouble approaching people, and having confidence to do these photos.  However having an excuse to approach people can really help with confidence, and provide an opening for the conversation.  

The three items of this section are all similar in concept in that I am photographing strangers in an outdoor context.  I would have their permission, and they would be posing. 

The differences between the three portrait items is how the people are approached/attracted to be photographed, and how the background is composed.  

For informal street photography, I am walking around, and introducing myself to people, and then proceeding to photograph them then and there.  The backgrounds for these photos would be what was there at that moment.  Preferable I would be shooting against buildings, and not having the backgrounds full of streets full of cars.  Thus a context of a location is in the photo, and in my opinion different buildings as backgrounds would be more interesting than endless cars.

For formal street photography, I am staying in one place at a time, and introducing myself to people who walk up.  I would then ask them to pose in front of a backdrop and would shoot the portrait.  Of course with a backdrop setup I would hope to have people walk up to find out what was going on.  If I shot with Polaroid Type 55p/n, I could even give them the positives.  Another option for immediate feedback would be to have a portable photo printer along such as an Epson PictureMate, or even a Polaroid ZINC printer.

For farmer’s market attendees, I am at staying at one place for a half day and operating from a booth/tent.  The idea does not have to be a farmers market, but the intention is to be in that type of setting.  Similar to the formal street photography idea, the differences are that the number of people available in one day is much greater, as many people are coming to a farmer’s market on a typical morning.  Another difference is that the location is reserved, instead of worrying about police or security guards asking why I have a backdrop, tripod, laptop, and printer set up in some random location.  This idea has the risk of being too sucessful and potentially running out of resources (batteries, paper, film…) before the market ends.

Examination of the details of an object captured both at gross and fine scales  (architecture and/or landscape)

For this item I have an idea of both a theme and a process.  A part of the process is the book layout which attempts to relate the images together.  Each location photographed results in a section in the book.  The opening of the section is the big image a grand scenic shot, potentuially captured with a large format camera.  Follwing this big image the following pages in the section are detail shots of things you could see in the big image.   The details could include a macro-photography picture of a flower petal on a single flower in a garden seen in one corner of the big shot.  The details could include the texture of peeling paint on an old door of a house in the photo.  

Each section could end with some representation to help the reader find where the details pictures appear in the big picture.

A variation to the idea would be to shoot the detail images using different formats of camera and process.  

Since we are trying to make an entire photo book in a single month this idea lets us expand upon the few good landscape shots we can get it a month, and instead each landscape becomes 10 or more shots.

So the underlying theme is to shoot either landscape or architecture while choosing scenes that have elements in them that could them be further explored with the camera.

Highway 69 (road to Sudbury), Highway 144 (road to Timmins)

This idea like the one before it comes from the question, “How do we get enough photos for a book in such a short time?”  The solution is to travel a great distance taking many many pictures of places and things along the way.  This can be repeated a few times during the month, and differences in weather, time of day, foliage etc can add to the generated set of photos.

Then the theme can kick in and bring the photos together.  We draw from our large pool of captured images to develop a narative, and the road itself carries the story along.

We are shooting both the road, and where it takes us.

Brainstorm 0.01

I’m giving this post a very low revision number. Not because I figure it will take some time to really develop the theme for my SoFoBoMo book, but rather because I think this first brainstorming post will not relate strongly to the theme I eventually use.  I’m going to use this space to just let random ideas flow out, and see what ends up on the screen.  So put on your helmet, and tighten the chin strap, here comes a lot a crap:

• Brampton

• Architecture
• Industrial Architecture

• Architectural details in old buildings

• Brampton Architecture

• Water
• Rivers
• Bridges

• Railway bridges

• Trains
• Railyards
• Fences

• Man made objects in the landscape
• Motion
• Roadtrip
• Biketrip
• Portraits

• Informal Street Portraits
• Formal Street portraits (use backdrop and maybe flash)
• Candid Portraits
• Pseudo Photobooth portraits

• Farmer’s market attendees ( SoFoBoMo is too early?)
• Declan’s energy
• Gemma’s playfulness
• Spring
• Rivers & Creeks
• Creeks in the urban environment
• A journey from source to lake along a creek
• Spring in Algonquin

• A wilderness camping trip

• A hike in the woods
• Sudbury rocks
• Lake Ontario shoreline
• Time of day and day of week architectural study
• Examination of the details of an object captured both at gross and fine scales (architecture)
• Examination of the details of an object captured both at gross and fine scales (landscape)
• Brick works
• Abandoned buildings
• Bridges of the Humber (or some other) river

• Oakville waterfront
• Consulates
• Brampton trails & parks
• Highway 69 (road to Sudbury)
• Highway 144 (road to Timmins)
• Toronto Beach/Boardwalk
• Everywhere Inukshuks
• This is the internet (wires)

• Airplanes approaching