Inside Front Cover Image: by Stan Farrow FRPS ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
A View from the Chair
MARK DEUTSCH LRPS
Welcome to the Visual Art Group’s Magazine, edited by Linda Wevill FRPS.
You will have noticed that this magazine is arriving rather later than we might have wished. This has been occasioned by the untimely death in April of our coordinator, Wendy Meagher, who will be greatly missed, both as a most efficient organiser and as a good friend, not only personally but of the Visual Art Group. However, I am delighted to tell you we have persuaded Sam Ruth ARPS to take over as Magazines Co-ordinator. We wish her every success.
The wide range of styles and techniques shown by the featured writers continues
to amaze and impress. I am in awe of the patience shown in the preparation of his images by Stan Farrow FRPS – a true example of making the best of limited circumstances. To then turn the page and find the beautiful naturebased images of Jocelyn Horsfall ARPS is a delight. I immediately want to go and try out her techniques myself. In addition, Simon JG Ciappara FRPS’s experiences with a stuck filter show yet again that the equipment you have with you can still deliver astonishing results. I really enjoyed Andrew Moss’s exciting images. Having tried some of these techniques myself – and mostly failed –I am now motivated to have another go.
Editor’s Comments
I hope you have all enjoyed the summer and found the opportunity to take images that you are pleased with. I do enjoy the sunshine but, as I have spent quite a long time in France this year hiding behind closed shutters when it has been over forty degrees outside, I am really looking forward to being in the UK and out in the autumnal misty mornings.
I am delighted to put together another edition for you and I hope you enjoy the variety of approaches and styles included in this issue.
Jocelyn Horsfall ARPS is influenced and inspired by nature and she wants to portray its beauty in her images. She especially enjoys the colours of flowers and captures her images in a painterly, impressionist style. In the beautiful work she is sharing with us, we see nature’s palette throughout the year.
I believe that creative techniques can be
applied in any genre of photography, so when Andrew Moss accepted my invitation to write an article for us, I was delighted. Andrew is a sports photographer and uses techniques such as long exposures, multiple exposures and intentional camera movement (ICM) in his images. They capture the movement of his athletes beautifully and I hope you enjoy reading about his insight into their creation.
Mark Reeves FRPS shows us in his fascinating project ‘Crossing the Lines’ that we don’t have to fly to exotic places to find beauty and meaning in our photography. Instead, images can be found on our doorstep and, although challenging at times, can be more rewarding both creatively and personally.
Stan Farrow FRPS has been a photographer from a very young age and incorporated his skill into his
Mark Reeves FRPS’s fascinating project puts me in mind (just a little) of some of the TV Challenge programmes popular at present or the BBC radio programme “The Patch”. A great idea, Mark. Please share this Magazine with your photographic friends and encourage them to join us. Please also provide our secretary, Carol, with material for the VA Newsletter. You never know, you could be asked to contribute to a future magazine. The Group exists solely for the benefit of its members.
As ever, I hope you continue to enjoy membership of the Visual Art Group. Best wishes, Mark
working life as a teacher. However, after having suffered a major stroke, Stan found himself on a journey into abstract photography, where he now creates his images based on anything from curved paper, to salt crystals, or macro images of flowers.
Simon JG Ciappara FRPS describes for us a trip he undertook to see Wells Cathedral in Somerset, one that he had wanted to do for many years. He was not disappointed and embraced the atmosphere as he wandered ‘around the marvel that is Wells Cathedral’ making his images.
I would like to thank our designer, Jacqui, for putting together this wonderful magazine. Many thanks also to our contributors for sharing their thoughts on their own photography and sharing their images with us.
Linda
LINDA WEVILL FRPS
The Road to Abstraction
STAN FARROW FRPS
When I was a child my parents didn’t have many books in the house, but among the few that they did have was a copy of the Agfa Gevaert Yearbook for 1953. I have no idea where it came from, but I loved it. It was full of wonderful creative images by people with the letters “ARPS” and “FRPS” after their names. I suppose it was the first major influence that photography had in my life and it certainly prompted me to start saving my pocket money for my first camera. I have been a photographer ever since.
Fast forward to 1973 and I was at the start of my teaching career and working very hard at that. Too hard perhaps, because my wife complained about it, and suggested that I needed a hobby so that I had a little time to myself. That pressure led to the purchase of my first “proper” camera and the start of a life that has involved photography ever since. For a long time my photography remained centred on my work though, and I enjoyed producing teaching materials. Later when my career took me back into university life, I used my photography for the publication of the prospectus and other similar
publications. It helped enormously that in my Postgraduate Diploma in Educational Technology in the 1980s I had gained a Distinction in print design.
In 2001 my life had an unexpected and major upset.
I had a particularly stressful week and woke up one Sunday morning and found that I was unable to move my left arm and my left foot was dragging. I had had a major stroke, which of course was perhaps nature’s way of telling me to slow down! It led to my early
retirement in 2005 and after that I was left looking for something to do with my life. One of my friends had often said that ”There is always time in life for one more adventure!”. But what was it to be for me? I enrolled on a part-time degree in Art History, I joined the local camera club, and I also started going to painting classes and visiting art galleries.
A new interest in Modern Art was quickly born. This has been a major part of my life for the past twenty years and a great joy as well!
Just after my stroke I bought my first digital Canon Ixus camera, which cost me a fortune, and which only produced 2-megapixel images. Nevertheless I could use it with one hand; it was a first stepping stone into digital imaging and the many delights of Photoshop. All these years later I am still exploring these delights.
Around the same time that I had my stroke, my former secretary had suggested that I should exhibit some of
Acetate Abstracts – These abstract images were created using acetate and perspex, cut to size and arranged on an LED light pad.
the photos that I used to have hanging on my office wall. These were large Cibachrome prints of rather abstract rock formations in Antelope Canyon near Page in Arizona. To my great surprise she called me one evening to tell me that she had arranged an exhibition for me. That was my first major step into exhibiting my work publicly and I have had several exhibitions since.
I did read somewhere of someone who claimed that a stroke has “rewired” their brain and made them more creative.
I am a bit sceptical of that claim, but I rather think that I always had a latent artistic side to my skills that had perhaps been held back by the scientific side.
My art teacher knew that I was a photographer, and he urged me to move away from representative images in my paintings. “You can do that with a camera, why do you want to paint it too?” My paintings became quite abstract, and I was lucky enough to sell a few, which was a spur to me continuing in that direction, and that influenced my photography too.
One of my close friends was a very good artist, and every so often he would exhibit his abstract work in the Scottish Gallery. I loved this work, and once when speaking to him about his success he said that the important thing was to draw something every day, “… even if it is just a straight line on a piece of paper”. That seemed to be a sensible approach to photography too, so when Covid came I started looking for photography projects that I could do in the house in lockdown, and I found that many of these projects led to rather abstract images.
This spurred my interest in abstract photography too, and where many folk had put their cameras away, I tried to take some photos every day.
Feathers Rotated – I use feathers a lot in my work, often sourcing them from eBay. It is fun to create kaleidoscope-type patterns by rotating copies of feathers that have been photographed against a white background.
Flowers in Ice – We have all seen photographs of flowers which have been frozen in ice. I had long been thinking that there must be another subject that would work equally well in an abstract manner. With children’s marbles I found my answer. The advantage of using marbles is that they are translucent and so allow for backlighting through the ice. I work with the sort of marbles that have a frosted glass surface, which works well with the ice.
The result was several hundred abstract images based on everything imaginable from curved paper, to salt crystals, or macro images of flowers.
Although both my ARPS and FRPS panels were abstract in nature, there was no digital processing involved in either of them. My current Fuji camera is capable of magic! In-camera processing has never been so easy, and it is light
years from that little Canon Ixus that I bought in Jersey 20 years ago.
Coupled with the alchemy of
Photoshop
processing, I am now happier with my photography than I have ever been, and every day sees the production of new images, mainly abstract.
However, I have always maintained that the most important camera accessory is the “external control module” which lies somewhere between the ears of the user. It is so important to have an idea of what you are trying to achieve when starting out to create abstract imagery.
www.stanfarrowphotography.co.uk
Nature’s Palette
JOCELYN HORSFALL ARPS
I have always been influenced and inspired by nature, both photographically and from the emotional benefits that I can find there, stilling the mind and renewing the spirit. So, I want to reflect this and capture some of its beauty and harmony in my images. In particular, from my early days in photography, like many others, I’ve been attracted to the natural beauty of flowers –the colours, the curves, the delicate textures and their very transience. So they have been my main focus over the years, extended to include
foliage, trees and all things botanical in the natural world.
In the search for atmospheric and evocative images, colour has always been important to me – I’ve dabbled in black and white and infra-red, but at heart I’m a colourist. I also trained many years ago as a colour therapist – using colours for healing or different energies and I like to think my work reflects that. Depending on the colour palette that nature has provided (or that I choose to use), the images will project a different feeling or association – whether calming and nurturing, or stimulating and
optimistic, or cool and fresh, or subtle combinations that affect people in different ways. As Kandinsky said:
“Every colour is inwardly beautiful…. because every colour creates a spiritual vibration and every vibration enriches the soul”.
I’ve always been into a more painterly, impressionistic style, even back in the days of film. I liked softness and gentleness for my flower studies, often
Wildflower Meadow Blush
achieved by shooting through textured glass, or ultra close with shallow depth of field, or using water or ice for textural effects.
I sometimes feel I’m a failed watercolourist, as that fluidity and translucency is frequently the effect and the feel I would like to create.
These days of course, with digital, there are so many more ways to be creative and produce painterly images, both in-camera and in processing. I’ve played around a bit with intentional
camera movement (ICM), but I then discovered multiple exposures (ME) with the help and guidance of Valda Bailey and Doug Chinnery. Their teaching and encouragement have been wonderfully inspiring – all about cultivating and developing creativity in your photography and finding your own style. Most of the images here are in-camera ME, usually just two or three shots, some deliberately out of focus, some with camera movement and using different blend modes to get different effects. I have a Canon EOS R which gives me four blend modes to play with and allows me to pick up an earlier image on the card to use
with a new sequence. My go-to lens is a Tamron 28-300mm, which gives me flexibility of viewpoints in one lens and I also have a Canon 100mm macro for intimate details and, most recently, a vintage Helios lens which both create lots of beautiful blur when shooting wide open.
If you focus on botanical subjects, then you are, of course, dictated to by the seasons.
You have to be ready and available to catch the blossom in spring or the leaf colours in autumn.
There’s often only a small window for these things before they are gone, so you are also at the mercy of the weather for these times too.
With more creative photography you are fortunately less dependent on the perfect sunny day, but torrential rain and howling gales might not be the effect you are looking for with those delicate flowers!
I have chosen images that take us through the seasons, from ethereal magnolias and almond blossom in spring, through sunshiny wildflower meadows and grasses in summer, dramatic autumn colours and cool winter rushes. They vary in terms of the amount of abstraction in them, but most still have a recognisable botanical element, even if somewhat fluid or impressionistic. The amount of processing will vary considerably, sometimes more dramatic than at other times.
Usually, there will be “digital gardening” to tidy up stray leaves or branches, and some colour adjustments of varying significance.
Sometimes I add a painterly filter to soften the image or adjust the look. For example “Fire and Rain”, which was a double exposure in-camera – a vertical ICM and a straight shot of the tree – has
had a painterly filter applied (Topaz Simplify) to create more of a fairytale effect and enhance the ‘Japanese’ feel that I was trying to produce. I was thrilled to get an International Garden
Fire and Rain
Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) Finalist Award with this one in the Abstract Views category last year.
Finally, I have included a few images that are moving more towards the abstract, which is a direction I would like to explore further. “Leaf Artistry” is three shots in camera taken through the windows of a tropical glasshouse at Kew Gardens early in the morning, where the condensation on the glass creates a wonderful texture through which you catch glimpses of the plants inside. Usually there is no need for ME here as it can over complicate – the diffused and distorted foliage seen through the condensation is sufficiently atmospheric in its own right – but occasionally a combination in-camera just works. Then a little colour enhancement, a bit of digital gardening and a smidgen of Topaz Simplify was all that was needed.
“Wildflower Meadow Blush” is a multiple exposure with some ICM of a carpet of bluebells, where I inverted the colours to give it a completely different look and feel. But “The Space between Thoughts” was a very complicated creation in Photoshop – a result of lots of experimentation and “what ifs?”. It started life as an abstract reflection in the shiny surface of a blue garden pot, to which I added two multiple exposure camera images of reeds and grasses with different blend modes.
Then serendipity in the form of a drastic colour change created the dark blue background with intriguing green accents. I have no idea how.
Eighteen layers at the final count, which is not something I do regularly!
So, a small collection of images demonstrating nature’s palette across the year, which will continue to be an inspiration for my work.
Jocelyn Horsfall is an awardwinning photographic artist, specialising in impressionistic images inspired by flowers, foliage and the natural world.
Website: www.jocelynhorsfall.com
Instagram: @jocelynhorsfall
Leaf Artistry
The Space between Thoughts
A Saunter In Somerset
SIMON JG CIAPPARA FRPS
For many years now I have wanted to visit Wells in Somerset, principally to see “A Sea of Steps” at Wells Cathedral. This came to my attention primarily because my good friends David Jordan FRPS and Joan Jordan ARPS have mentioned it fairly frequently. The original photograph
taken by Frederic H Evans in 1903 has long been an image I have been drawn to and is held at MoMA in the USA.
My beloved scoured TravelZoo deals (other agents are available) and came up with an offer in Somerset too good to refuse and the trip to Wells was on.
We were able to park very close to the cathedral and strolled past Vicars Close, “the oldest medieval street in Europe” and I was sucked in. The waves of Japanese tourists following red umbrellas subsided and I was able to crack off 5 or 6 shots with nobody in the frame, RESULT.
More and more nowadays, I like to make images that are about ideas rather than straightforward representational shots. This, of course, requires an idea in the first place.
Thinking about getting a bit “arty” I screwed on a prismatic filter, not thinking that as we had been heavily using “aircon” in the car, all the metal was cool. As it had been one of the hottest days of the year, everything had expanded and the filter, once fitted, wouldn’t budge.
Proceeding to the Cathedral, with the filter firmly stuck, I was kicking myself and giving myself a stern talking to, eventually deciding to “embrace” the situation and carry on without sulking.
I made a couple of images of the clock on the outside and proceeded round the outside to find the whole front swathed in scaffolding and plastic sheeting; the entry fee was extortionate but undeterred we found our way in. Our paths separated as my beloved always reads every single label or information in evidence and for me, being dyslexic, they all slip under my radar. So, I proceeded to find the “Sea of Steps” and the Chapter House. They were so much better than I had ever imagined; ten minutes absorbed in the spectacle and looking for angles for shots before getting the apparatus out of my bag. Filter still stuck to the front, I made some images that pleased me
through the viewfinder. I wandered up the steps to the Chapter House and made a few shots of the ceiling. Whilst in the Chapter House I found a couple of serious photographers, Rose Atkinson ARPS and a student, so taking my courage in both hands, I asked if they might have a “filter wrench”. No luck! I was looking at the worn steps, ancient clocks, medieval cloisters and the sunshine falling across elaborate tombs and gravestones set into the Cathedral floor. Being present in the moment and embracing the atmosphere all contributed to a feeling as an idea began to take root. The photography became more focused, intentional, the filter proved to be a
FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER
boon and the realisation of the idea coalesced in my mind’s eye. I continued to wander around the marvel that is Wells Cathedral cracking off shots and hugely enjoyable it was. Forty-eight frames later I knew how I was going to assemble the ideas on my iPad.
The images here are the developed RAW files and their amalgamation to create the ideas I had whilst in the
Cathedral. I include screen shots of the “Photoshop” development of the realisation of my ideas.
The last set is the result of my beloved spotting a “beautiful” young man whilst we had breakfast in a cafe.
I have long been a fan of Leonardo DaVinci’s and Caravaggio’s sketches
of people in profile all captured live in markets and streets in situ.
The light and chiaroscuro realised in charcoal on scraps of paper and the backs of letters and bills etc. This image was a first for me, asking for the picture, placing the subject in the window to backlight him and taking three frames. I have often just approached people in the street but they have been solo or in a couple, whereas this young man was in a group of about ten loud
and jocular post party breakfasters. To my amazement he was chuffed to be picked out and the vapid blond with a pneumatic chest and voice to match had her nose put out of joint not to be the centre of attention.
The light in the window was all I could wish for and exposing for the light beyond the subject “rim lit” him just as I wanted. I created the background from a couple of shots I took in Minehead a few
days before. I’m always drawn to blown plaster, peeling paint, etc. and actively seek it out wandering behind shops in high streets and abandoned garages. “Keep Out” applies to everyone except photographers. I have been stopped and asked what I’m doing; a wave of the apparatus and a cheery “Collecting textures would you like to see?” usually allays suspicious folk and often leads to hitherto undiscovered treasures.
I am allergic to motorways and the drive home to Norfolk was a joyous A and B road visual journey through the heart of England, mentally editing the images stored on my SD card when stuck behind tractors and the machinery of rural life.
s.ciappara@icloud.com
+44 07766378065
Frozen in Motion
ANDREW MOSS
I am a photographer who specialises in shooting sport and action but also enjoys pushing the boundaries in many other areas. I relish the technical challenge of taking photographs in challenging situations yet still ending up with arresting images. My hope is to find a fresh view which not only informs and excites but also questions our preconceptions of the world around us.
The majority of sport photography is, in effect, reportage. I enjoy being at a wide range of sporting events and, if I have been given full access, being able to shoot the action from a position to make the best factual image possible. I will try to find the most interesting angle to capture the participants, look for interesting light or aim to capture the action at its peak.
However, when photographing sport, or indeed any editorial images for publication, there is very little processing that is permitted to be done to the photograph once taken.
Sport and action photography is generally done at a minimum of 1000th of a second, and often much faster, in order to freeze the action. This means that everything is sharp in the image, such as water droplets around a canoeist or the feet and arms of a sprinter.
A side effect of this is that the result can look posed and sterile and give no real sense of the motion involved. If the
wheels of a moving vehicle look sharp, then it might as well be stationary.
Longer shutter speeds are usually used when panning, to follow something moving across the field of view, such as a motorbike racing past. The shutter speed is chosen so the subject remains sharp but there is some blurring of the background which gives the sense of motion.
Long exposure photography gives a unique look by capturing motion in a way that our eyes don’t normally perceive.
It manipulates time in an image, showing a period of movement rather than a single instant. This can lead to
striking and imaginative visuals that differ greatly from traditional sport photography. Long exposures can reveal the flow and energy of a sport, showing how the athletes move and interact with their surroundings.
Our eyes perceive motion through a combination of capturing sequential images over time and processing changes between those images.
A camera can only take one image at a time but by increasing the length of the exposure a sense of movement can be conveyed.
To capture an image, I will keep reducing the shutter speed until things start to get interesting! If a normal panned shot is taken at 1/125th to 1/100th, then I may go down as low as half a second to find what is, for me, the sweet spot for that particular sport and
context. As the subject matter is not normally sharp all over at these speeds I am looking for an effect rather than absolute sharpness.
There are so many factors that affect the result it is hard to pre-visualise.
It becomes intriguing trying different speeds and apertures to create a result that works. This is very different from ICM as I am trying to capture something sharp amid the blur.
I use Lightroom when processing to create my final image, as it gives me more than enough options and flexibility. I will play around with the texture and
clarity sliders and the tone curve to see what emerges. Sometimes the endproduct remains like a conventional panning shot but usually the more extreme settings give the best final image. The EXIF data shows that I quite often end up around 1/13th of a second. Depending on the sport and the lighting, I will sometimes experiment
with in-camera multiple exposure.
I tend to keep the settings on five exposures as more than this can result in a cluttered image. I will always try different blending modes to find which works best. (Sony generally don’t offer this in-camera and Canon has slightly different settings to Nikon). The biggest challenge is keeping the camera still so the background doesn’t change. Using a tripod when shooting sport is generally not permitted. This can be even more hit and miss than the slow shutter speed shots, as I am trying to predict movement that will work well in a single frame before it happens.
A completely different image results when taking slow-shutter shots from a moving vehicle.
Julieanne Kost explains this technique in her book ‘Passenger Seat’. If you set a shutter speed at something around 1/40th and pick an object out as it approaches, you can pan backwards as it passes by a side window. This does take some practice and relies on the camera picking the right point of focus. It can result in some unusual photos as the subject appears motionless while its surroundings are in motion. There is no way to predict what the final result will
look like as it is a combination of shutter speed, rate of panning, the subject distance, vehicle speed and point of focus. For more on this watch the video ‘Intentional Motion Blur//Capture and Edit with Julieanne Kost’.
All of these techniques involve an amount of luck for everything to fall into place to result in the final image. Even with practice it is worth persevering and taking multiple images, to find the one which works and stands out from the others. I enjoy trying to find something we cannot see and yet still recognise.
Website: andrewmoss.smugmug.com
Instagram: @mossfoto
How I found a goldmine around the corner
MARK REEVES FRPS
As photographers, we’re often tempted to believe that compelling images lie somewhere else; in distant mountains, on majestic coastlines or among exotic cultures or creatures far from home. But for me, the richest source of creative inspiration I’ve found in recent years has been just a short walk from my own front door. The belief that there is photographic treasure close to everyone’s home is at the heart of my project, Crossing the Lines.
Until recently I was a committee member of the RPS Landscape Group and, in this capacity, I was responsible for running many of our events and special projects. One of the projects I conceived and organised was called “By Degrees”, which involved members
making images at the 45 points where lines of latitude and lines of longitude intersect over the UK. If you are interested, you can see the outputs from the project on the RPS website at https://rps.org/groups/landscape/ projects/by-degrees-home-page.
Because it covered the whole of the UK, By Degrees was, out of necessity, a collaborative project with many members taking part and photographing at their nearest intersections. But once the project was completed, I had the idea of a hyperlocal version of the same thing that I could complete myself.
Anyone who uses Ordnance Survey maps will be familiar with the
thin blue lines which cross the maps at 1km intervals.
This grid system was originally designed in the 1930s as an aid to accurate navigation but, for me, it has become more than just a cartographic tool; it is a rich prompt for photographic exploration. I decided that, starting with the closest, I would take photographs at the OS gridline intersections around where I live, on the west coast of the Wirral.
Each intersection is denoted by two letters and (usually) six digits. On the Wirral all locations begin with the letters SJ.
Of course, these are not necessarily places that we would usually consider to be photogenic; they might be suburban
Ordnance Survey map
FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER
streets, industrial estates, agricultural land or somebody’s driveway. But this was not a deterrent from embarking on the project – it was the whole point! It’s all too easy to go to iconic locations and take wow-factor images to impress our friends and family, but where’s the challenge in that when it’s all been done so many times before? I decided to call my project Crossing the Lines and to give myself a strict objective i.e. to make the best landscape image I could at each location whilst ensuring that the position of gridline intersection is within the frame of the photograph.
Inevitably some locations are very photographically challenging but I wanted to see what happened when I used this arbitrary grid structure to guide a creative journey.
My experience so far has taught me that it is so much more rewarding to make images at difficult locations than it is at easy ones
Aside from the joy of the photographic challenge, it has also been very
satisfying travelling to all my locations on foot, by bike or by public transport. As such, it has had an almost zero carbon footprint. There’s something deeply rewarding about creating meaningful work without needing to drive hundreds of miles or board a plane. Furthermore, when the project is close to home it opens the door to revisiting locations — something that’s sometimes critical to working with the best conditions. I’ve returned to some of these intersections several times in order to see them in different weather, at different times of day or different states of the tide.
An additional – and entirely unexpected – impact of the project has been my discovery of places on my doorstep that I didn’t know existed.
Some of these have just been footpaths or cycle routes that I followed in order to get to my locations but others have been at the locations themselves.
Torpenhow – now converted to private residences – is a grand Edwardian manor that lies hidden from the nearby road by tall trees. It was originally built as an “open air school” with the aim of providing a healthier environment to improve the physical and emotional wellbeing of inner-city children suffering from respiratory diseases.
The challenge of creating engaging images from the mundane necessarily led me to consider various creative approaches to my photography so as to
add interest. At some locations I found that using a Lensbaby lens was just the answer.
Grid reference SJ 210 890 lies on the beach at Hoylake, just below the mean high-water mark. It’s not particularly scenic or interesting but for the fact that, in recent years, the beach has been colonised by plant life.
The scene in my image shows some of the early plant growth and a puddle left by the receding tide.
SJ 210 860
The impact of the lens is to create the impression of an image with a lot of depth whereas, in fact, it stretches only about a metre from front to back.
SJ 210 890
SJ 240 860
At SJ 220 860 I again used the Lensbaby, this time to add a feeling of mystery to an ordinary suburban street
Why did that car drive past at exactly the moment I opened the shutter?
The north and west coasts of the Wirral are characterised by extensive wide flat beaches from which the sea withdraws a very long way at low tide. The flat sands can be photogenic in some conditions but can, equally, make a difficult subject
for the landscape photographer and so, again, required a bit of thought. At SJ 200 880 I struck lucky. There was a rare sea mist and I spotted a lone distant figure walking on the sands, making for quite an atmospheric image.
SJ 200 880
SJ 220 860
At the neighbouring location SJ 200 870, which is also in the middle of nowhere out on the sands, I experimented with photographing at “high tide”. I use inverted commas here because for most of the year even at the peak tide the water is below waist deep. To take this particular image I was standing in about 15cms of water and bending over to hold my camera only just above the surface.
SJ 230 880 is located in a very uninteresting field. I have visited it many times since I started this project and it has only ever been filled with grass. So, I have tried different approaches including almost ignoring the field and capturing dramatic clouds above it, photographing in infrared, photographing at night and creating a David Hockney-style collage. In the end I felt that the collage gave the most interesting result.
I’m a firm believer that we don’t need to chase the spectacular to make powerful photographs. There is beauty and meaning in the overlooked, the local, the familiar. Crossing the Lines has reaffirmed my belief that photographic projects rooted in place — not just any place, but your place — can be deeply rewarding, both creatively and personally.
Photography has the power to reveal, to connect and to celebrate the places we inhabit. In a world increasingly defined by urgency and movement, there’s something exciting about staying still and about looking with intention at what’s already around us.
Mark is a Fellow of the RPS. More of his work can be seen on his website at www.markreevesphotography.co.uk
He is available for talks, workshops and private tuition.
SJ 230 880
SJ 200 870
Members’ Print Exhibition 2025
To see the whole exhibition digitally, please scan the QR symbol above.
