A year ? and a bit

A year – and a bit

I don’t really do anniversaries: it’s a minor miracle that I remember my own wedding anniversary, really, after 41 years practising. So it’s unsurprising that I failed to mark the one-year point of regular blogs posted here, despite checking when it was a few days ago. 23 March 2020 was the first of the series, and it’s a moot point whether I should have celebrated on 22 (a full year blogging) or 23 (the start of repeating myself). Really, it’s much easier to look back and reflect, today.



I’ve had help: Phil Taylor has contributed several long pieces based on his experience, and loads of pictures – there’s another one waiting in the wings, about photographing the unacceptable for news stories. (I’ve also got the results from a telephone conversation with someone who used to shoot for a top shelf men’s magazine pending a final edit – both will be hard to illustrate…)



There have been suggestions from several people, and others have sparked off ideas unintentionally, or by asking general questions with their posts here at EPZ. Thanks to everyone, because you’ve broadened my knowledge of photography, and often forced me to expand my own understanding. They call it research.



I’ve shot different genres, learned to greet the local tree stumps as friends, and yesterday ordered a geared tripod head for greater accuracy in aligning still life pictures (there’ll be a blog in that when it arrives from the Far East, I reckon). I’ve bought online courses, in one case leading to further expenditure on new software (which I’m using a lot) and a book (which has inspired a blog or two). I’ve evolved, and am evolving.



The lead image is an evolution from yesterday’s gallery post, which used a favourite in-camera digital filter: I liked the geometry of the background, and wanted to use it again, combining digital scales and old weights with a feather. I love the idea that occurs in religious myth that an angel weighs each heart against a feather – and that the feather can be heavier. (That, by the way, is an insight into the creative process – free association and emotion rather than hard logic. Make what you will of it…)



Other shots from playing with my compact Olympus, and what have become regular walks on the local canal bank – and they remind me –vaguely – of Mile Janic’s regular early morning walks in the city (if you don’t know his portfolio, go and have a look today! They are far, far better than my daily walk pictures.) And I plan to continue blogging after lockdown, though the frequency will drop as normal life resumes… Plus a screenshot from playing with mono conversions in Elements, so there's a shot of Stephanie Dubois here as well.