In the middle of Eaton Park is a colonnaded pavilion with a domed bandstand at its centre. Surrounding the bandstand are circular rows of seating. I photographed one section, and as you can see, I repositioned a section of it. I was interested in swirling the seating to go off and beyond, creating a sympathetic composition. On a whim I put the engineer who was fixing a CCTV on Barn Rd., into the middle of the arena. Why?.. he just looked good being there, and gives the picture a focus. And the title? Well I had, as always have to subsequently come up with something which gives the picture a meaning which wasn’t intended from the outset. You should see how many ‘Untitled’ pictures I have produced…..zzzzzzz
I Hate Graffiti
There is a bike/pedestrian path which was a railway line. It runs from the Barker St, Barn Rd., St. Crispins roundabout to Costessey. Along it is a bridge that crosses the river Wensum, which is all heavy duty, thick metal girders and rivets. It had recently been painted black, to preserve a testament to our heritage. Then some mindless moron vandalised it with spray paint. I photographed the bridge, for the angles it exhibited, with a view to erase the offending marks in the computer. In the background is a big black, heavy-duty plastic sheet. It was being used by a farmer to cover a load of manure. In the process of creating the picture, I inadvertently twisted the image of the bridge to great effect. As for the graffiti, I thought “Hell!, leave the vandalism for all to see.”
Untitled No.28
Brisbane. What a wonderful city. There is a river taxi that zigzags up the Brisbane River, but I can’t remember how far it goes. Anyway, this is one of the many luxury apartments on the river front, I took the photograph at this angle from the boat, as you do… The blue water piping was laying in a field near East Dereham (ref. Abstract No.6). It took a very long time to isolate the pipe from its background, i.e. the muddy embankment. Once again the two items were married after a lot of experimenting. I filtered the buildings and sky, to blend in with the pipe. I love it!
Trying To Escape Into The Sky
There was some scaffolding on the roof of a block of flats, by the river, which attracted my attention. It included a frame to support a pulley mechanism, and a platform to receive the loads. I introduced the telephone engineer who was halfway up a telegraph pole on The Avenues street. I liked the string of lights that decorated a wall down near Trowse Newton. I also added couple more ladders, ‘borrowed’ from wherever, and changed the sky, which was originally overcast. I turned the lightbulbs ‘on’, in the computer, and had to extend the wires emanating from the pole, because of the limit created by the original photo.
It Gets A Little Congested At Lunchtime
This picture (and its title) is absolutey weird, totally left field, but I love it. The swimmers are readying themselves for the beginning of a triathlon. Believe me, the buckets and shovels of a digger were not there! I like the dynamic of the image; from the top left to the bottom right. The title reminds me of someone who went for a lunchtime swim, at the public swimming pool, and described it akin to a motorway. This is the result of a trying to mix and match images which I chose without any predetermined volition. Once a couple of shovels got involved…..I went mad for it.
Evening Stars
The composition started with the paper illuminated stars hanging in the Reindeer public house. I liked them, so photographed them. I also liked the candles arranged on the mantlepiece of a blocked off fireplace, in the back bar of the Plough P.H. I rearranged and added to, the stars, but kept the candles as they were presented. I used the line candles as a base for the image. The wonderful sunset was witnessed by some members of my family when we were in Australia. We had just buried my brother Barrie who had passed away, September 2018. We had a little picnic and a drink to watch the sun going down. Of course my brother was a STAR…I miss you X
Isolated Pockets
This took quite a while to do. Attracted by streetlights, normally taken for granted, I set about photographing the different designs, and the colours they emitted. The problem was that the light they produced, obscured the structure, and the photograph was unusable, (chromatic refraction); so I photographed them during the day, and added the light artificially, (you can tell, is it that obvious?). I took some time to think what I should do with them. Eventually I found a photo I had taken in Norway, and added a different skyline. I darkened the landscape to give some contrast to the lights. I liked the meandering road, which lent itself to the diminishing groups of streetlights. What is the collective noun for streetlights?
Untitled No. 32a
A bridge in Melbourne and a heater-skelter in a kids playground, (from opposite angles). I like the symmetry that it creates. When I put an extension on the title, be it an ‘a’ or 2, it’s because I have put the original through a filter to ‘pep’ it up, but still have the former image. The filter in this case is the Paint Daubs.
Dumpster 2
Yes I know, we call them skips, and the yanks call them dumpsters, but I think it sounds better. These were sitting outside the business premises on a quiet Sunday afternoon…who is going to steal them? So, four different photos, collaged together and coloured up to number 11. I liked the rust and the form of such innocuous objects.
Motorcycle Skylight
The skylight and wall below is in the Norwich School Of Art, my Alma Mater. I was attending an end of year show, and was stunned to see how much the building has been refurbished. Kids today eh?… don’t know how good they’ve got it! Anyway.. the Harley Davidson, which was parked up outside the Micawbers Tavern, looked good in the sunshine. And there it remained, stretched in the skylight until I came back to the picture a few months later, and added the handlebar photograph. This was a scooter that was asking to be captured. The sun direction complimented the existent image, so I included the collage. The mirrors of course, reflected me, so I grafted a photograph from my Australian trip and invented the sun.