I noticed a redundant noticeboard on Yarmouth Way, in Yarmouth. It had been stripped of all the flyers and posters. What was left, were the marks of the sellotape which with the sticky residue had attracted the dirt and grime. The saxophonist was busking on London St. in Norwich. I experimented by placing him in front of the abstract image, and hit upon the idea of swirling the air emanating from his instrument. This gave the illusion of the music being played. It took a LOT of attempts to achieve the satisfactory result – eventually! Of course the noticeboard is disproportionately larger than the musician.
Flatpak Construct
Walking along the path by the beach, I noticed the strip of land being developed between the path and the car park (No.11) on the North Drive in Yarmouth. They were obviously laying down paving stones to rest and establish beach huts. The sections were surrounded by a metal fence. I was drawn to the gate lying on the ground, ready to be attached to the gap in the corner. I included a section of fencing that I had photographed further along. I introduced the glass office buildings (in Melbourne) to contrast with the colour and lines in the foreground. The fence was limited in the original photo frame, so I extended the lines and then cut the sections diagonally to accentuate the composition. Finally, I saturated the colours to give the picture more punch.
Fergie
Leaving the pub one day, I noticed Fergie sat in the corner on his own. It struck me how the scenario reminded me of a painting by Edouard Manet, titled ‘L’Absinthe’ (1875-6). A bit tenuous,.. but hey! There he was, with his pint in front of him, deserving a photo. The resulting picture is different from the original photograph. The wall behind him was a pale yellow, with a poster in the shot. I have taken away the padded bench he was sat on. I then tilted him into the corner of the frame (notice his pint of lager). I then pulled the round table, like plastercine, into the bottom left hand corner, to balance the composition. The black oblong also balanced his shirt and hat. I saturated the yellow background which ‘makes’ the picture. Fergie is a local character, a lovely bloke who is a builder and decorator. He drives round in a beaten up old VW Beetle convertible.
Simons Rubbish Car
Hamish had just left the front passenger seat to get some groceries, whilst Kaye and I were sat in the back. The lighting and the curves of the interior with the ripped up door panelling, looked quite striking from where I was sitting. How to fill the window space? Back home in front of the computer, I saw a photo I had taken of a shopfront with a sort of small ‘front garden’. It is the fenced enclosure of an estate agent’s called ‘Minors & Brady’ on Unthank Rd, so I incorporated that image to expand the narrative. I filled the side view mirror with a photo of a kerb with double yellow lines, to be synonymous with the interior curves. I liked the contrast between the fluid shapes in the car, and the straight lines outside. Simon won’t mind me saying his car is rubbish,… because it is.. f++k him! Ha ha….
G-Force
Walking along Hunstanton Beach on one of the first sunny days of the year, the crowds were out enjoying themselves. There is a funfair section between the seafront and Seagate Rd. I took a load of photographs, especially the Helter Skelter and the Orbiter. I had a perverse idea of placing the Orbiter on top of the Helter Skelter. Then came the wooden planking of Cromer Pier, which was just drying out from the rain. Playing around, I turned the photo sideways and realised what a dramatic effect it had on the composition. The title came at the end.
Fantastic Two
This is another interior shot of the indoor marketplace that I used in the picture titled ‘Fantastic Too Two’. The workman in the cherrypicker was helping to dismantle some steel tubular stanchions in Lowestoft. It was the structural frame of a commercial building that was being demolished. The crossed tubular supports looked quite stark. I have included another two photos of them to create a crisscrossed pattern, suspended in the surreal and very ethereal setting. I applied a Paint Daubs filter to soften the picture and give it a dreamlike quality.
Fantastic Too Two
The canoes were moored together on the River Wensum, at a landing site by Elm Hill in Norwich. I was looking down on them from the river walkway above. These are two separate photographs I took. They are a ‘Pub & Paddle’ enterprise, which gives the public the opportunity to go up and down the river to visit waterside pubs. The dramatic building interior is a newly built indoor market, which is replacing the old jumble of stalls that have been on the Market Place in Yarmouth for years. The sun streaming through the horizontally slatted windows, and casting light on the wooden panelling was fantastic. I distorted the image to give movement and applied a Poster Edge filter to accentuate the grain in the wood.
Skyways
A window seat on my way to Australia. I couldn’t help taking a few photos of the wing, which I thought looked very sculptural and magnificent. I wasn’t sure what to do with the image. Trying different scenarios, I had another picture that I was working on, but had come to a dead end. That picture became ‘Work In Progress’, which I finalised later. In the meantime I looked at the shadow photos I had. They were of a lattice stud-work frame of a house that my sister-in-law was having built. I liked the pattern cast on the concrete floor. The shadow contrasted with the angular wing. I filled the silhouette with clouds, and set it on a flat blue background. Perfect!
Collision
Walking in West Earlham, I came across this shattered bike. It was still attached to one of the two tubular rings which serve as stands for bicycles to be locked and secured to. Obviously car had mounted the kerb at speed and ploughed into them. The first stand got flattened and the unfortunate bike took a hit. I noticed the wheels were missing, and the hoops looked like substitutes. I thought it was a very unusual scene, . . So . Click! After isolating the bike and stands, I created new background with lots of green spots of various shades and sizes. Then I swirled the result which looked apt. Experimenting further, I sharpened the image, which distorted the colours and produced red tints. This looked like blood or a continuation of the bikes movement, which gives the picture a dramatic twist.
The Sky Is Closed Today
I always take a camera with me and photograph anything that grabs my attention. I can guarantee that every twenty photos I take, one might be used in one of my pictures, however insignificant. Here is a good example; a gate padlocked to the entrance of a piece of overgrown wasteland. I liked the flaked painted gate, with another rusted ‘sunrise’ configured gate behind. I cut away the spaces between and considered what to put behind. The sky became the working result, but was a bit boring. Then I came up with the semi- transparent bubble which I created from scratch. I duplicated the original and sized the copies. This is something that came out of nowhere, and I was exhilarated by the result because of the journey I experienced, and the sense of achievement achieved ,….the title followed….reminding me of a time my sister-in-law and I travelled a few miles to have lunch at a certain restaurant, only to be confronted with a barrier and a sign reading “We are closed today”, without it being apparent which day.