The B23, Main South Rd. runs down a hill and sweeps west to Sellicks Hill, and then on to Adelaide. It is here in a lay-by that a load of gravel had been dumped for roadworks. The curve is like turning a corner, that leads to the straight road onwards. Spread upon the pile of gravel, are protective brass corners, that I found myself polishing, before fixing them on to display boards. I was doing this for Ronaldo Ices who I used to work for. I delivered all around East Anglia and loved it, and Simon my boss. So.. I thought I would take the opportunity and photograph them. Obviously they are much larger in the picture than they would be, in relation to the pile. Cornering…geddit?
Subject: Landscape
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Lattice Girl
I saw this dress makers modelling figurine, outside the Red Cross charity shop, on St. Benedicts St. I asked if I could photograph it, so I stood it against the plain wall next door to record it. The setting is a collage of two different landscapes in Australia. The pipes belong to a hydro electric generating station in Tasmania. The landscape beyond is somewhere between Cooma and Tatura in NSW, probably in the Wadbilliga National Park. I created the shadow on the crash barrier.
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GM Flowers
After a few glasses of wine, even the table decoration seems attractive! I was having a pub lunch in Darbys (Swanton Morley) with my sister Janie, and my brother in law John. If one duplicates the flower vase and the simple arrangement, and puts them in a field:; this is what you get! The view is from the Glastonbury Tor, looking down on the Somerset levels. I ramped up the colours, to match the vase.
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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?
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Song
Going through my library of photos I came upon some commissioned images for a musician, who didn’t use the finished product, i.e. for a C.D. cover. Here was a lovely picture of a Rickenbacker 4003 Bass guitar, (mirror-imaged, for effect) lying on the floor. The landscape was of a half dried up lake in Western Australia, and yes it was that colour. The birds were flying above me, on the coast in Norfolk, so I’ve multiplied them to cover the sky. The fire is of an oil barrel bonfire, at a fireworks party, thanks Bruce.
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Not Full.
The landscape was an flooded field, from the river which had burst its banks. I did a ‘stitch’ panaromic photo collage. The glasses were photographed in the back garden (what’s new?), cut out and made transparent. The optical distortion in the glasses, shadows and highlight spots, were all conceived in the computer, and it took a VERY long time to achieve! Is your glass half empty, or half full?
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A Good Drying Day.
The clothes peg as an object, to me, had some resonance. I photographed them, as usual, in the garden and transferred them to North Norfolk. The landscape is one of many that caught my attention, whilst delivery driving around Norfolk. I took the photograph in a field just outside Paston, on the Mundesley Road. Once again it is a ‘stitched’ panoramic view. This was very much a learning experience with Photoshop, and realising what could be achieved once I started taking pictures and expressing an unlimited imagination.
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A Different Idea.
Electric bulb and organic flower bulbs……get it?…hmm. I was struck with beauty of the clear glass light bulb whilst changing one. The trick was to ‘light it up’ in the computer which took some experimenting. The landscape is in Norfolk where tipper trucks had been off-loading tons of sugar beet, you can see the tyre marks. I was standing on a hill of them in the pouring rain to get the shot. The different idea, is the silvered spot bulb, held by Sue in the back garden. You can see the reflection of me and the blue shed door. The light bulbs come on, when they float up from the field. I learned a lot when I was creating this picture. It was a case of striving to achieve an objective and muddling through. No easy compromise was contemplated, but it was gratifying, and I had an education in photoshop which I didn’t get towards the end of my degree.