2018 - Project 52 Print - Donald MacKenzie

[Donald]

With all the interesting looking people in your part of the world, I've always wondered why you have done so few people shots.

So have I.

I've bought an 85mm f1.8 with the intention of using it for people, mainly. The problem is asking people if I can photograph them.

[billtils]

... My one and only image of a person. Taken in France (who would have guessed). It's framed on the wall in my house. I've sold it a couple of times as well ...

Superb Donald. More please!

[skitterbug]

Is it just me or does anyone else find that the bridge switches a bit one way or the other? Not an optical illusion but a bit of shifting of the grid work? Probably just me.....

BUT I really like the way this one grabs my attention. The light over part of the city, the shine on the water... It is a perfect picture!

Week 3 (was away last week so week 3 and week 4 will be published this week, but separately).

The perfect image with which to try out Permajet's Titanium Lustre 280 (just been voted best professional inject paper by the members of the Societies of Photographers in the UK), was this one.

As the blurb on Permajet's site says, "... you will not believe what you can achieve in the tonal highlights and greys."

[Urbanflyer]

I think the shift you see is caused by the middle support which is different from the other two in the way it encloses the gridwork.

interesting image

[Manfred M]

The problem is asking people if I can photograph them.

Like anything else, it's hard at first and once you have done it a few times, it becomes a lot easier. That is, of course, assuming you want to ask them in the first place. There is a place for both of these approaches and they yield different types of images.

[Shadowman]

Like anything else, it's hard at first and once you have done it a few times, it becomes a lot easier. That is, of course, assuming you want to ask them in the first place. There is a place for both of these approaches and they yield different types of images.

There is an interesting dynamic regarding an individual's personal space, when I attended a Cosplay/Comic Convention one of the cosplayers, who was serving an emcee for a contest; stated that photographers should ask before taking a photograph...unless they are at a distance where they are apparently free to shoot at leisure. Perhaps the unwritten rule of asking is just a nicety rather than behaving like a paparazzi and lunging into the cosplayers personal space and firing away. I suppose on the streets the same unwritten rule applies regarding shooting strangers however the strolling public isn't going to carry a set of rules around with them and usually they don't complain depending on where the citizen might be. I find it interesting that an artist can sketch someone in public without having to follow the same set of rules.

[ccphoto]

There is an interesting dynamic regarding an individual's personal space, when I attended a Cosplay/Comic Convention one of the cosplayers, who was serving an emcee for a contest; stated that photographers should ask before taking a photograph...unless they are at a distance where they are apparently free to shoot at leisure. Perhaps the unwritten rule of asking is just a nicety rather than behaving like a paparazzi and lunging into the cosplayers personal space and firing away. I suppose on the streets the same unwritten rule applies regarding shooting strangers however the strolling public isn't going to carry a set of rules around with them and usually they don't complain depending on where the citizen might be. I find it interesting that an artist can sketch someone in public without having to follow the same set of rules.

A photograph tends to capture and exactness that most people don't associate with a simple street sketch. Jay Maisel tends to shoot whatever he thinks will make an interesting street image. If someone objects, he will oblige and walk away though in many cases, he will simply go across the street, change lenses and make the shot anyway. I pretty much do the same though in regards to police, etc., I will not.

I've gotten to where I don't do much street work any more because the onus on personal space and some imagined right to privacy while in a public place makes many people rather snooty or snotty to the point of not making it worth the while. Of course, in most cases because of my personal aversion to crowds, I don't go where there are large masses. I shot the recent Mardi Gras from the back of a pick up truck for that reason.

[Donald]

Week 5

Another one of the Tay Bridge at Dundee. I've re-edited it from the original taken in 2010. Again, the paper for this was Permajet's Titanium Lustre 280.

Katrina, whose married to the guy who does my framing, has got this printed large and is hanging on her wall. It does look quite impressive. I have printed it at 14" x 10" (352 x 252 mm).

[Donald]

I've been over to Ireland twice in the past 2 weeks and have been pulled hither and thither. But, hopefully, life is settling down again.

I have printed this as a memorial to the aunt who died in Ireland. I went over two weeks ago to see her. I got home Friday, was just in the door, case not yet unpacked, when I got the phone call to tell me she had died. It was as if she waited to see me and then decided she could then pass away.

That led to be me booking a ferry and heading back for the funeral. I am now back home again.

I captured this image last May, when I was visiting her. The chair facing us was her chair. The one next to me was my uncle's (her brother, who died in 2013). They were born in this house (as was my mother) and lived all their lives there.

[Rita]

My condolences Donald. I loved this image when you first posted it and I like it just as much seeing it again. Such a great representation of a simple life. The history in this home, the newspaper, the buckets and laundry by the fire all make this an image to be treasured.

[Manfred M]

I've been over to Ireland twice in the past 2 weeks and have been pulled hither and thither. But, hopefully, life is settling down again.

I have printed this as a memorial to the aunt who died in Ireland. I went over two weeks ago to see her. I got home Friday, was just in the door, case not yet unpacked, when I got the phone call to tell me she had died. It was as if she waited to see me and then decided she could then pass away.

That led to be me booking a ferry and heading back for the funeral. I am now back home again.

I captured this image last May, when I was visiting her. The chair facing us was her chair. The one next to me was my uncle's (her brother, who died in 2013). They were born in this house (as was my mother) and lived all their lives there.

Nicely captured and printed Donald. The room definitely has that "lived in" look. The newspaper sitting on the chair draw's the viewer's eyes right into the scene, as do the clothes(?) hanging by the wood stove. The crutch in the corner tells us some more of the story too. You've controlled the light coming in from window quite nicely as it does not overwhelm, but I do find the light at the bottom right corner just a touch too hot and wonder if burning it down a bit might not be worth considering?

[Artshot]

I really enjoy looking at photos like the scene you have captured. What I don't understand is how you make them so they don't appear busy and full of distractions. Is this something in which B&W works better?
This photo really says more than a thousand words. Anyone care to explain the principles to do it properly.

[Donald]

What I don't understand is how you make them so they don't appear busy and full of distractions. Is this something in which B&W works better?
This photo really says more than a thousand words. Anyone care to explain the principles to do it properly.

Art - I think the question of B & W does have some validity, because you are obliterating one source of distraction - the colour.

However, more important than that is the composition. If this was a 'still life', I would have controlled all that was in the frame by placing it in, or leaving it out. And this is what I did, through my composition.

So, I do think that photographer is the most important part of the whole thing.

I'm interested in what others think about this.

[Shadowman]

To me I think Donald's image is busy; in the number of elements within (the patterns, the shapes, the light/shadows, the subject (s), but as Donald said these elements are subdued without the color and the viewer can if they want scan about the composition looking for clues on the inhabitants or just concentrate on the tones and shapes.

[Manfred M]

Art - I think the question of B & SW does have some validity, because you are obliterating one source of distraction - the colour.

However, more important than that is the composition. If this was a 'still life', I would have controlled all that was in the frame by placing it in, or leaving it out. And this is what I did, through my composition.

So, I do think that photographer is the most important part of the whole thing.

I also suspect that your familiarity with this place played a significant role in the way you composed it and printed it. Knowing the subject definitely gives that photographer an advantage that is something too many people discount.

The question whether colour is important to image making or a distraction is a long-debated subject with no clear winner.

[Donald]

I have fallen behind within my prints. Blame relatives dying and falling in love with someone who is currently 225 miles from me!

But to get right up to date. I have just printed the following image and it is drying as I write.

The person who lives in the lighthouse (they're all automatic now, so the lighthouse authorities have sold off the houses in which the keepers used to reside) saw the image on a Facebook group on Saturday and contacted me for a print.

I choose to print it on Permajet FB Mono Gloss Baryta 320gsm rather than on Matt 285. I think the gloss is better given that it is a dark print and is lifted by the gloss finish.

So, the print will soon be on its way to hang on the walls of the lighthouse. Which I am very pleased about.

[Cantab]

Donald, it's a great image. What size is the print?

[Donald]

Donald, it's a great image. What size is the print?

I've done it at 14" x 11" (353 x 279)

[Wavelength]

Aii nice works

[Donald]

Right - one post which I think takes me back up to date.

I have had quite a number of orders for prints following my, I think, very successful visits to Caithness, Scotland since the turn of the year. So, if I show 3 of those, I think that takes me back to where I should be.

These are very much a case, 'you've got to see the print'. I do think that the print is so much better than the images seen on screen.

All have been printed at 14" x 11" (355mm x 279mm) on Permajet FB Mono Gloss Baryta 320gsm.












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