As I said in my previous post the last few months has been a time of reflection and consideration as to where I want to go next with my photography and image making. Much of my photography is landscape work. And whilst I still love the grand vistas I have taken increasing pleasure in small details of landscape, and anything else, where the image provides complex asymetric patterns, shapes and colours, often to the point of becoming abstraction.  And whilst this was going on I went to the exhibition of Abstract Expressionism at the Royal Academy in London. It was an art style that I had encountered before yet not given much thought to. And the movement sought to describe the artists feelings about a subject through the abstract form. And in the exhibition yes there were paintings that I felt were of no significant merit, even just a trick for the gullible. Yet there were also shapes and patterns, some of incredible complexity (the Jackson Pollocks were fascinating) some simpler, that I found a resonance with some of my work. And yes, though photography and its recording of what was actually there might seem the antithesis of abstraction, there were abstract expressionist photographers. So whilst I will always publish a mixture of images, for the time I will explore this new form and see where it takes me. In some images the abstraction might be the result of nothing more than very close cropping, in others there may be more manipulation, and I will not always, or even often, say which or when or even what the original subject was; it is just about shapes and patterns, and my feelings about them and exploring the world around us through this medium. Hope you enjoy.

I haven’t posted anything for a few months. ‘Why?’ I hear you clamouring … OK someone please clamour. Well I have been taking photographs for longer than I care to reveal (but my first camera was a Brownie 127 ) yet it was only 2 years ago that I joined the Royal Photographic Society. And I joined deciding to work for a distinction and whilst it is achievable for many capable and experienced photographers, and after all how hard can a panel of 10 images be; and the answer is quite hard, with much agonising over choices, self-examination, peer reviews, letting go of some cherished images, incorporating new images, adjustments in photoshop, removing over adjustments; you get the idea.

Well at the end of last year I was awarded the distinction of Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society. And yes I am very pleased , proud and honoured. Yet that is only the beginning. Not only do I now want to work for the next level of distinction, associateship, but also the whole process of achieving my current level has caused much reflection and thought on photography and the process of imagination to create images.

So now I am ready to move on and whilst I will always have time for the sort of images I have posted in the past it is time for change and some new thought processes. Watch this space.

Notwithstanding this, though most of my licentiateship images have been seen individually on this site, here, perhaps for their last performance together, is the entire panel. I hope you enjoy.

So I was coming down from a long walk on the moors to the east of Ullswater.. Not steep walking and pretty views. And as is the way of Cumbria, that which is not steep is boggy; so though not steep it was quite hard going. And as we came down the thought of a refreshing pint of beer was most alluring. And then, what had up to that point been a misty day, lit up with late afternoon sunshine. Beautiful, yet the images lacked a focus. Then the Ullswater steamer came out of Sharrow Bay. Timing!

A few days ago I went to visit some friends. They live on a small hill overlooking the Somerset Levels. And the Somerset Levels are, well, flat; goes with the word level really, so I’ve never had much interest in them other a than a small hillock that sticks out of them; Glastonbury Tor. Yet, one evening one of my friends invited to go out for a stroll and drove down the hills to the levels. A photographic challenge; no medieval city, no waves (big or small), no waterfalls, no majestic mountains or tumbling streams, no rolling hills or tidal waters; even the ‘rivers’ are mostly drainage ditches, slow and sluggish water. In short nothing from my usual subject matter. Yet it was early dusk on a warm spring day, and, in the course of an hour’s stroll,  I discovered there is beauty down there; so I shall share some of it.

I have just managed to get a new version of photoshop installed, and what a performance it was (minus brownie points for Adobe). One of its new facilities, and oone they do not proclaim loudly, but should, is the ability to process RAW files directly from within photoshop, rather than having to convert them with Canon’s software first.

So I started playing. And this shot was taken a couple of years ago, late afternoon, almost dusk, coming down from Bleaberry Fell and overlooking Cumbria. Just a touch in the RAW software and this picture came to life.

I saw a quote the other day on facebook; ‘Geology is the music of the Earth’. I liked it yet felt that Meteorology was a better link to music; now ‘Geology is the dance of the Earth’ or ‘Geology is the dance of Gaia’ appeals to me as a geologist, photographer and writer of this blog. Cue some geological images.

This first is banded gneiss from southern Sweden; a real geologist explained it to me as a meta greywacke. A greywacke is formed from mud, sands, rocks slumping down the edge of a continental shelf in a turbidity current, often triggered by an earthquake, or just plain gravity (weight of sediment). This jumbled sediment will, over time, be compressed by the weight of new sediment falling on top of it, lose water, and consolidate to rock. If, however, the rock is caught in a zone of plate ‘collision’ it will come under extreme pressure and high temperature, and a meta(morphosed) greywacke. If the temperature dominates pressure and is high enough,  it will melt and form volcanoes along the plate boundary (think Pacific rim). If pressure dominates temperature then it will start to re-crystallise and re-orientate in situ and form bands at right angles to the direction of pressure. And the rock now being in a state that is loosely analogous to plastic, if the pressure continues, the bands will be twisted and deformed; a banded gneiss …. actually if the rock was originally mostly mud it will go from mud to shale to slate to schist, if sands and gravel from sands to sandstone to gneiss, and if animal shells then from shells to limestone to marble.

Sri Lanka is flawed paradise where the most peaceful of religions, Buddhism, has taken a nationalist and militaristic turn that the Buddha would have been ashamed of what is being done in his name. Yet it is a beautiful and fascinating country where I met lovely people of all religions. And there are fascinating archaeological sites.This is a statue of a reclining Buddha near Polonnaruwa, a temple/palace complex from the 12th century. It is carved in solid banded gneiss.

As I have commented in earlier posts I do recognise that I am fortunate in being able to travel widely so I talked about looking for photo opportunities wherever you live. I am also aware that I am fortunate in having good camera equipment (Canon 60D), though I would like to invest in even better, fortune that not all others have. So I share this image  to say that expensive equipment is not always a required to capture a good shot as it was taken on a very modest 5mp compact, at a time before I went digital for main camera, whilst walking in the Dolomites. You too can do this.