The argument for Black & White in photography is that it removes a distraction, the link colour has to reality. It focuses the viewer’s eye & mind on texture, form and tonality. Black and White is the medium’s true language, a way of seeing that doesn’t exist elsewhere. As such, Black & White helps move photography from a record of reality into an interpretation of reality, in other words – an art… On the one hand I do agree with this interpretation. On the other, I still love colour photography too… Make up your own mind, which do you prefer?
Lockdown is slowly lifting, it’s still almost impossible to go abroad, staycations are the order of the day, so we went to Wales – deepest Pembrokeshire. It was empty. Where is everyone!?!?
St Martin’s
For once I didn’t bring the big camera…, but luckily still had my iPhone! Love it! The best camera is the one you have with you, they say, and quite right too!
Pembrokeshire coastal path
Long walks along the coastal path. Lots of shrieking from Isobel not to go over the edge (she was worried about the dog, not me…). But at least we did manage to tire Rufus out. He slept very very well….
At last! A lockdown-lifted chance to visit my Dad. And a chance to put some of the lockdown off camera flash practice to the test. And a bit of acting into the bargain: A calm photo, and then a barmy one. Moses excoriating the unbelievers…
Some places are just worth going to again and again. This is one of my favourites – Embleton Bay looking towards Dustanburgh Castle in the distance. Dawn is great for colour in the skies and reflected in the water – but watch those boulders, very slippy! The late afternoon is equally dramatic, with a long exposure to blur the skies. Fantastic spot – can’t wait to go again!
This is Steve. He’s a tiler by trade, and he just laid our new kitchen floor. We got to chatting over the obligatory cup of strong tea, and I asked him what he did in his spare time. “MMA” came the answer. I was none the wiser… “You know, cage fighting!” I was slightly stunned, took a moment, and then seized the moment: “we should do some pics.” So, here’s Steve, the Cage Fighter, in my living room. You never know who’s going to walk through the front door!
Lockdown hasn’t been easy for a landscape photographer… So I’ve been branching out, and taking on one of those photo areas that I’ve previously shied away from, portrait photography using flash. And it’s been lots of fun! Press-ganging the family into posing. Here’s Immy looking very like Twiggy, make up, pose, expression, the lot. She is quite the actress…
I haven’t posted for a while. I wonder if anyone is still out there? Let me know if you see this post. Here’s my thought: How much do I look like my father…? And if I do, what does that mean about us, both….? Photographically, the removal of colour allows a focus on form, shape, texture. I think it brings us together….
There’s an awful lot of tosh spoken about Iceland in the photographic community (it’s too full of tourists, all cliché, nothing new to photograph etc etc etc). All of which is rubbish. Iceland is still one of the most dramatic places in the whole world for wonderful landscapes, and if you take your time to see the vistas on the side of the road, then it’s easy to come away with images that don’t contain a cliché view amongst them. Here are a few of mine from our Quest photography trip just before lockdown.
An awesome place, for awesome photographs. Can’t wait to get back there again!
Lockdown. Weeks and weeks of it. Time to learn something new, so I’m learning flash photography. And the family is being press-ganged into posing for me, including the dog…
A year ago I ran a lovely workshop in Paris, with my colleague Noel Baldewijns, photographing the architecture in La Défense. Modernist, curvy, architectural heaven. Can’t wait to get back there…
There is something exquisite about glass, steel and black & white fine art photography. All go very well together. These would make for excellent large prints and look very dramatic in the right location.
La Défense has still got a very French feel to it – even though it’s a financial district dedicated to the pursuit of filthy lucre. Perhaps it’s all the restaurants underneath these steel towers that give it that je ne sais quoi… Macron said the other day that restaurants and lunch were part of ‘the art of being French’. He has a point – dining out for lunch is still sacrosanct in la belle France, and as soon as lockdown is over I’m sure the resto-trade will boom again.
We will be running this tour again, possibly next year – keep an eye out for the Quest brochure when it comes out in a few months… In the meantime, here’s another pic of what Paris is famous for…
Thomas Peck Photos 