“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson

Flip flops & F Stops.                                                                                                                  

Much of the pinhole work I did initially was often done when my wife and I were abroad during the college summer holidays. The light was usually excellent and fairly constant, and I had free time to go walking looking for inspiration. I did find another thing about working this way…being away from the pressures of teaching, I found ideas were flowing more freely, and some of my best images came from this period. One of my favourite ways of relaxing when on holiday was when I was just wandering around in shorts and flip flops with my camera and a lightweight tripod discovering the landscape around our holiday locations, and the people I met were generally intrigued by this madman, out in the mid-day sun, with this mysterious contraption and a tripod over his shoulder. Sometimes I saw something unexpected that inspired me, sometimes I came home without taking a single image…..but not often. That was why I was inspired to call this section flip flops and F stops. It summed up the period perfectly.

Turkish Tea Break

One of my early images was taken this way as a result of me finding a remote marble works in Turkey. There actually wasn't much to interest me around their yard, but the workmen were having a tea break and invited me to join them. During this extended tea break they asked me about the camera by means of hand gestures and pointing, then they asked me if I would take their picture. It was incredibly bright outside, but inside their workshop it was very gloomy indeed and calculating the correct exposure was a bit of a challenge in front of my new audience. I calculated the five second exposure for the inside light level, and let the outside take care of itself. They sat really still during the five second exposure, and it all worked out really well. It was a lovely memory of meeting total strangers with no common language, sharing a sweet Turkish tea and a few laughs about photography and football, on very hot afternoon. When I left one of the workmen ran after me and gave me a small marble ornament as a present. A lovely memory and one of my favourite images.

Easter Offerings

Not one to spend countless hours by the pool, I usually went off for long walks exploring the local area. This particular day I saw a small church at the top of a hill and thought the view might be worth the climb. I was rewarded by this lovely surprise. It was around the Easter period, a holiday which the Greek people celebrate more than we do, and I discovered that the locals had tied small offerings to the tree outside the church. I loved the combination of the tree laden with offerings in front the stone of the church. Well worth the climb for sure.

Concrete jetty

For me the beauty of using pinhole and zone plates was that the window of exposure moves significantly, and typically I would usually filter the scene with Neutral Density filters to allow me to work at around a five second exposure. Not too long as to cause exposure problems with reciprocity, but long enough to introduce a pleasing movement to the image. This worked particularly well with this image of a simple concrete jetty near the beach we were on. It was very windy and the sea was quite rough with the waves hitting the jetty throwing, spray in the air. The long exposure created an interesting contrast between the solid unmoving jetty and the lovely movement created by the constantly moving spray.

Argo Garden

I didn’t have to walk anywhere to find this picture. It was in the small garden of our apartment where we had our breakfast. It was decorated with a variety of old objects found locally and these, together with the lovely dappled light from the overhead vine prompted me to take my camera to breakfast one day. The head was the obvious focal point, but I also liked the spiral shape of the shell, another image which often appears in my images.

 Old table

I just happened to walk past this old discarded table not far from the local beach in Corfu. I loved how this old table was saved from the rubbish tip and someone had taken the trouble to put a flower pot on it….for no one in particular! The direction of the sun, as in most situations, was vital to show the texture of the wall….and also frame the image as I wanted it. I calculated the best time for the shot and returned the following day. The beauty about shooting in Greece is you can usually depend on good weather most days. The exposure in these very bright conditions with deep shadows can often be a challenge but I thought this shot worked out very well.

Village Well

Walking around the small alleys of the village, I came across this little old well. I’m sure in the past this was very much the centre of the village life, but less so these days. It still offered a pleasant area of shade and calm against the hot sun. It was a challenge to calculate the exposure which would record the contrast of light and shade and the range of textures in the scene, but what a lovely place to rest and take your time composing the final picture and meter the whole scene. This possibly showed just why I went on my walks with my camera and tripod in the first place.

Rooftop

I saw this rooftop on the next house to our hotel, so typical of places that live in the sun. Every available space is filled with a variety of odd containers full of the most colourful flowers. A line of white washing drying in the blazing sun bleached the most amazing white that we never manage in our country. And a solar panel heats their water supply for free. A wonderful space and they always make full use of the benefits of the sun; the blue sky completed the picture for me.

Spiral

There is a reference to spiral staircase in the Temple of Solomon in the Old Testament, which suggests that they were already in use by around 1,000 years BC. They were a very practical and space efficient way of ascending tall structures such as spires and bell towers and also gave architects and builders an opportunity to add beauty and inspiration to their buildings. Throughout the Middle Ages they became a well-established feature of many castles, in part due to the advantages they gave in helping to defend against attackers. As a child on a visit to a castle I became very nervous as I climbed higher while very unsure of what may be waiting for me around the corner, so have never been a huge fan in all honesty but totally appreciate the beauty of the spiral curve. When I came across this example at a hotel where we were staying, it had none of the darkness or threat of that castle staircase. The warm colours and blue sky took away all the fear and highlighted the beauty of the curves. The sun on the steps gave an added contrast to the composition.

Shot in Dallas

 The last of these images was shot in Dallas of the famous ‘Grassy Knoll’. The JFK shooting was a vivid memory for me from my childhood and like many people I do remember where I was when I heard the news of his death, and I always wanted to visit the scene. After being there and walking around the whole of Dealy Plaza, I was convinced that there certainly was a shooter behind the picket fence as it offered the best possible vantage point as well as the only escape route in the whole area. In the sunshine, years later, it is such a quiet peaceful corner of the busy intersection yet it could have been the precise location of one of the most famous murders which lasted just seven and a half seconds that changed American history.