I guess maybe it’s partly the aesthetic that I like about this photo. But it’s more than that. My tutors don’t seem to think that it says much at all. I don’t hesitate to disagree. I didn’t disagree in their presence. I don’t like to tell people they’re wrong, I’m much more interested in their opinions without my personal bias on it.
For me this photo is very representational, the subject is the old woman, bottom right. But the focus is on the couple further down the street – and the eye moves quickly from the woman to the couple – also the woman is slightly out of focus, she is passed over and ignored. If this image had been sharp on her, then this wouldn’t show how life passes her by.
The light is behind her, casting a long shadow in front of her – but it’s dark, this is her past, something she can look back on but never get back. The light behind her is very close now and though she’s turned her back to it, this is where she is headed and where she is closest to. Heaven.
It’s almost as though she’s standing on a ledge, looking over into a vast divide. It’s an almost suicidal thought, but instead of depressing, it’s more like she’s just gently pondering it – is it her time yet?
Almost all the other subjects are turned away from her, all the cars down the left hand side, the people. Only a single car is facing towards her and us, and it’s a taxi, with someone getting out. Whoever they are, they’ve been somewhere, done something, just like the couple walking away from her – they’ve been out, they’ve been doing things. She, on the other hand, is alone and she is looking over the metaphorical edge.
She carries with her a bag and her newspaper, it’s almost as though she’s ready to go – where we’re not sure, but she looks like she’s about to leave somewhere that is quintessentially hers.
In essence, this photo is actually about death and about moving on, coming to an end, and knowing it – looking over the egde, bags packed and maybe just stepping over into oblivion.
Thank you for your comments and time.
Contrast correction curves in photoshop.
HP5+ @ 2000 in Xtol (20 deg.C) for 14 mins 30 Seconds, 4 inversions every minute.
Leica M6
40mm f/2.0 Summicron Lens
f/2.0
1/15th
And this. I like the aesthetics, again. Relatively, this has little meaning, but I found the reversal of roles interesting, and the fact that they are both alone, the difference in body language is pronounced, and yet they end up in the same location, utterly by choice.
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Week 1/Week 2
I will be partially using my blog as a back-up for my ‘diary’ of what I do each week in Uni, apologies – but it will be updated with more photos soon!
Week 1:
Was ill. Played Space invaders.
Given my illness I mainly researched artist, mainly looking up on modern (and mostly unknown) Fashion photographers – Andreas Sjodin, Andrew Yee, Paolo Roversi and even coming across some of Kate Moss’ own work. I found an interesting RSS feed to use as a resource for continuing updates on fashion photography and advertising campaigns from various Fashion Labels (from Gucci to Miss Sixty) known as Carlikatel magazine – an online resource which catalog’s various articles as they are released.
Week 2:
This week, aside from undergoing the dyslexia test, on which I scored a 2.1, the main emphasis for me was dark-room printing, both colour and black and white – I caught up on the induction for black and white, processing a roll of HP5+ in ID-11 (19.5 dg.C for 13.5 mins with 4 rotations every minute) – which I still am not a fan of, finding skin tones to be a bit flat and grain to be unpleasing. I still look forwards to purchasing a couple of storage bottles and mixing up some Xtol.
In the colour dark-room I completed making a ‘neutral’ print and then went on to make different versions of it with various colour-casts (RGB + CMY + over/underexposed), which I’m going to stick up on my wall as reference pieces. I’m looking forwards to processing and printing my own negatives, but until then it’s hard to apply the relevancy in my mind of everything aside from as a test.
On the other hand we had out PPRD session which involved us seeing other people’s work, a glimpse perhaps into what people are about. I was surprised by some people, their style not fitting with how I would have imagined it to be. I was gutted to miss them and I look forwards to more next week, though showcasing my own I think shall be interesting, namely because whilst things in the photo are obvious to me, I don’t know if others will be able to see what I see in them and understand why they are important to me. During one of the exhibitions of photos the question was raised “But do we care about these photos?” and it lead me to think that perhaps whilst my photos are special to me, perhaps implied meaning will be lost on other people – but I think the style suits what I was trying to capture in each person photographed and it will be interesting to see whether other people get this.
In terms of research, I looked more into lighting this week and into buying film – SilverPrint.co.uk was indeed a worthwhile look – I found some APX100 in a batch of 10 for £24.00 and APX400 for the same price, a better price than I’ve ever found it for before. I also found Tri-X in bulk (rolls of 100Ft) for almost £50 which by my calculation gives me twice as much film as I would get per roll if each roll was purchased individually – but it requires that I buy a bulk-loader, but perhaps this is an investment worth making.
In terms of lighting, I looked a lot at the Y-setup that Marcus J. Ranum oft uses, which I find interesting, but I don’t think will work for the studio work I shall soon be doing, but instead stumbled across an interesting set up of using a strong soft-box directly facing the eyes of a subject that is not looking directly at the camera and then a second weaker soft-box that removes any other shadow details at an angle perpendicular to the first flash, this is combined with a stop and a half of over-exposure (set by skin) for very light and clean skin tones. I think that in conjunction with a mid-grey backdrop this will produce some beautiful lighting for some portrait shots.
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Fucking with the mind…
Now, I’m hoping that you’re going indulge me, and that you will read this all the way through. You should see why at the very end.
I’ve been rather inspired by Derren Brown lately, and I’ve been trying out some of his stuff here and there, with varying degrees of success.
Derren Brown, is, of course, incredible. Aside from being British to the core, he is possibly, the number one mentalist in the UK, using a bit of psychology, a bit of NLP, some mentalism, hypnosis and a few other tricks that he’s picked up along the way to create an astounding, scary effect.
One has to wonder, during his shows, if he’s subliminally telling you to do and buy things without you even realising that you are doing just what he wants you do do, and you choose one, of the brands that he is suggesting to you, maybe it’s himself that he’s constantly marketing, maybe not. Who knows? But his techniques are surprisingly powerful and real. We know that similar things already work on us because of advertising. Whether we like it or now, when you’re at a supermarket and there’s a choice of brands, and you get a one in your head, you tend to stick with one, probably that first thing that came into your head and the intrusiveness of marketing can simply bring it to the forefront of your mind when you’re searching for something and make it seem like a choice.
I was in town, with a deck of cards, as one does (as we english say), and stop on one, or two occasions, walking up to people to talk to them. After performing one, maybe two but often not, tricks on them I had them suitably prepared for something that was more along the lines of what Derren Brown would do. I’d sit them down in one of the nearby chairs with a table and do a bit of what some would refer to as mind reading. It’s actually just picking up on visual cues, allowing people to select random cards out of a deck and then letting them lead me to the card they picked. Sometimes they nod, ever so slightly, when they hear their number, sometimes their eyes flicker to one of their accessing cues to show they’ve visually remembered their card as you’ve said it. Lots of different things can lead you there. Sometimes it goes wrong, but when you get it right, it’s worth it just for the reaction you get.
It becomes harder though when you’re trying manipulate people. When you’re trying to tell them something without them realising it. I find when picking a number between one and ten, often people go for 7. So by talking about how people’s minds go blank when you ask them questions you can recreate that blankness, leaving a blank slate to work with, then telling them that luckily you’ve decided on a number for them, people are more likely to go for number 7 because 7 is meant to be a lucky number. Simply, easy manipulation, but it can work. By then holding seven fingers up just out of their peripherals, they unconsciously can pick on that. It’s amazing to get it right.
At this point, you’re probably wondering precisely why I told you that you should really keep reading, and this is the part. You see hopefully, if I ask you to choose a number in this sequence six, eight, one, four, nine and to stick with the first number you feel comfortable with choosing…
….with any luck you’ll find the number one sticks most easily. Now this is text and really this only works if you read this aloud in your head, and then you have to be a suggestible mood anyway, but if you read through the first couple of paragraphs you should probably see why you’re more likely to choose one….
Disguising them as grammatical errors, “Derren Brown is, the number one” notice here that the comma is unnecessary, but by breaking up the sentence and putting the unconscious pause in your mind, it makes “the number one” stick out in your head.
Now notice that it continues “the number one mentalist” and has a double space after the one. Again, the slight break in the pattern makes it stick in your mind.
Next, “what he wants you do do, and you choose one,” is a horribly obvious suggestion. The odd break up in the sentence, the suggestion, it’s all there in all it’s glory. Not even masked really that one. I threw it in in the hope that not knowing what was going on you wouldn’t pick up on it.
The next little bit was “and you get a one in your head, you tend to stick with one, ” what hopefully looked like a stupid error, was actually yet another attempt to just drill that number one into your head.
The last one was “and stop on one” again surrounded by commas.
Maybe it worked. Maybe it didn’t. Maybe you got bored halfway through and gave up. If it worked, leave some feedback. If it didn’t, leave some insults. Hey, maybe I’ll record me doing some stuff and I’ll show you just how powerful this can be.
Apparently, if I include the words fucksex, facefuck and the phrase “hot pussy” it will increase my page views ten fold. I don’t think Derren Brown ever quite occupied that low a level.
P.s. new lighting set up. What do we think?
Filed under: HP5+, Tri-X, leica m6, photography, summicron | 2 Comments
Mwahaha. New Xtol means new prints. Finally!
Today we shall study TMax 100 @ 50, Delta 100 @ 50, HP5+ @ 2000 and finally Tri-X 400 @ 2000 all in Xtol.
At first I thought I’d screwed up my TMax negs, but then got told by Bernhard that actually TMax 100 and Xtol don’t agree with each other. So only a couple of shots from that roll. It’s all a bit dotted around really.
I really like this shot of Joe. he has a certain glow about him. Kinda literally. Something weird went on with this neg. Sides had uber vignetting, so it looks like Joe makes everything around him suddenly Infra-red. TMax 100 – one of the few frames that is actually ok to print.
Jack busy laughing, in focus. I swear that he’s the only person I ever take perfectly focused pictures of. Everyone else is very slightly off. But Jack is in focus. Only person! Well… except… TMax 100… not nice tones here… nope.
Heart-Attack Woman! the only other person as in focus as Jack (you have to see the print to see what I mean, she is sharp in print! But… the scan loses it. I tried to make it right with unsharp mask, to make it look like the print, but it just didn’t happen). This is Delta 100, much nicer. But yes, old woman busy having heart attack. Dedicated to Bernhard.
But in case you wonder what kind of looks I get when I walk down the street, this is the most common 
And that is why! I look seriously fit here. Tri-X 2000 I remember this shot well because it was 1/4 of a second f/2. No wonder.
This is my father, busy taking over the world. Tri-X @ 2000 again
I have more photos along these lines, but I didn’t have time to develop them. This is actually HP5 @ 2000. Had mixed results on this roll. Exposure was all over the place. Some shots look like they have good contrast. Others look really flat. It’s weird. I think I kept the shutter/aperture the same for most of the time, except when changing rooms.
What is officially an un-attractive picture of Joe. I think he had lamb-hypnosis porn going on. HP5 again.
Mike busy being of the smoking variety of people. Very Cool. Smokers are jokers, which makes Mike a very funny guy. Some nice tree-bokeh though. I’m gonna reprint this methinks because I didn’t do a good job of the print, fixed in photoshop for now, but will do a better job later. TMax 100 (again) making this a pain to print in the first place.
Jack busy being in focus again. I haven’t printed much from this roll of Delta 100 and I think I’ll print some more, but I kinda ran out of time today. But yes, much nicer tones.
Meri busy being of the eating variety of people.
“Josh, don’t take a picture whilst I’m eating.”
“Ok.” *click* *innocent look*
Tmax 100. Urgh. Never printing this again. No offence Meri. Then again, not the best frame of you ever, eh?
Clever Gen. Funny faces + photographer = pictures on the internet. I told you I would. Gen, you are scarily symmetrical.
And now, Molly busy being Molly. She gives you this really cute smile, and then she attacks your knees with a chair. Seriously. Ask the seriously-in-focus Jack.
I’m afraid my next few rolls of film will probably have many old people in them because I had to shoot them (so to speak) for my Grandmother’s 70th. Make some noise for them, yeah? Because most of them are deaf.
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Golden Anniversary Shoot
So, I was asked to shoot a Golden Wedding Annicersary. And it’s been interesting – it’s actually very hard to shoot. Not an easy thing at all. But there we go.
Given that I haven’t posted on here in a while, I figured I’d make a post, though the plan is to update this blog more in the coming days – I have about 10 rolls of film waiting to be developed and I’m mixing up the chemicals today. Xtol. Yum.
I want to dedicate this post to Sean Flannigan who was who I based my style of shooting on over the weekend to try and get the feel right.
Ok, in all honesty really the full size thing needs to be viewed for a lot of these, but I odn’t have the space on here to add them and you can’t view them on Flickr because I’m paranoid everyone would steal them (I have no idea how to edit it )
I spent a lot of the time trying to figure out where I knew the girl in the middle and on the left from. Turns out I’ve photographed both of them before at my school for a play. I knew it, but I couldn’t very well walk up to them and ask them.
Alice, who is the girl in the middle, sang for the party. She has a gorgeous voice. Brought a tear to many eyes. To be honest they both do, Milly (on the left) I have seen sing before. And she too has a very pure feel to her voice. It’s a shame – I doubt I’ll ever see them again.
I kinda get a Chris Weeks vibe from this. It was hard catching the smile with the lag on my Canon. With my Leica, this would have been no problem. But I’d like to thank Derren Brown on learning how to notice when someone is about to smile a really genuine smile.
This, also, has a feel to it. Chris Weeks? Maybe. I don’t know. it’s unsharp…. but I still like it.
Last three… can’t be bothered to resize any more than this… it’s not film…
More to come though, yes?
If I made every frame work on my 10 rolls… then… 360 more…
Maybe. I doubt it.
See you all soon.
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My Website going Live
It’s not fully finished (I shall probably make a couple of tweaks here and there over the next couple of weeks, possibly change the image headers possibly add a link or two) but it’s ready for public release.
So, without further ado – I heavily suggest that you go check out http://www.joshcarroll.co.uk
I would like to throw my thanks at Simon who did most (*coughall*) of the work that went into making my site.
For those who follow my blog and not my deviantART you’ll find a couple of images there that aren’t on here, and even more over at http://joshc.carbonmade.com – though that shall soon be rectified and you’ll find all of them on my WebSite.
In answer to “Where have I been?” – I’ve been shooting a lot, developing none, writing words on pieces of paper and pretending that the paper is important and letting an external person (known as an examiner) decide how well the words on the paper score. And I’ve been developing my memory skills, I have recently learned how to remember a list of words/dates/times/places etc (purely as an exercise I learned: “telephone, sausage, monkey, buttons, book, cabbage, glass, mouse, stomach, cardboard, ferry, Christmas, athlete, key, wigwam, baby, kiwi, bed, paintbrush, walnut” in the space of about a minute in order and the list itself was just recited from memory) in a very short space of time. God knows I wish I knew how to do this for my GCSEs and A-Level chemistry.
I’m getting some new developer soon hopefully so I’ll be developing some more images to post soon enough.
Lots of Leica,
Josh
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Suuuushi?!
Miss me?
I know. I did too.
Chronological order, hopefully these photos should look ok onr your screens because I’ve worked on a quick custom curves that darkens the image to approximately what it should be for you guys. Maybe will look slightly better. Looks worse to me. There we go, eh?
Louisa was introduced to sushi. But was confused as to why Yo! Sushi! wasn’t all raw fish. She looks rather tired, but it’s still cute pic.
Louisa’s natural reaction to having a camera pointed at her is to close her eyes, thus ruining the shot, clever defense mechanism
I would like to apologise to my mother for taking this picture. Gorgeous midtones though. And if you look to your right you will see some bokeh madness.
The ever lovely Meredith, pushing her phone’s buttons more bokeh to the right. everyone loves Summicron. I think I might have focusing issues on my Leica though. “Infinity” does not focus.
This shot is almost sharp as Severin Koller’s, or Bernhard Wolf’s. Maybe? Maybe.
Louisa becomes interested in her drink. Very interested.
This man smiles and is happy. Grad 2. Happy, Bernhard? Now who’s negs are thin, eh?
Now, for a treat – you get to see my face as it truly is….
Hot, non?
How y’all been?
I have an interview with Bournemouth this Friday. Should be good. I hope.
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A Re-submission of sorts.
Filed under: HP5+, Tri-X, leica m6, photography, summicron | 3 Comments
Anyone like negative space?
I do.
Negative space = hot.
So, negative space shot at Brighton Uni. Open day.
Lara will remember this one.
That’s HP5+(+1) btw, in xtol.
I remember how Lara and I trekked up to the top of the hill, had to get on a bus that kept f**king running away from us, even though I got my hand on the door just as it closed.
And we got up to the top of that hill… and got told we were at the wrong campus. Fuck.
We were late already, and this guy gave us a lift down to the other campus, which was bloody nice of him. Well decent bloke. And we got in, and they were like “Oh the talks finished. But you can join the photography tour now.” and then for some reason they gave us some other talk. It was all rather odd.
Anyway, I didn’t like that place very much. So I’m not going there.
This next was on the bus on the way up the hill, not in the right order… but since when did chronological order matter?
I call that shot Mr Parallax because I’m going to use it to explain parallax error in my photography. Also HP5+ (+1) in xtol.
This next shot was a hipshot. You can kinda tell from the angle it was taken from. I was quite pleased with my focusing.
Still on that same roll of HP5+.
This next shot I remember because she heaved this really big sigh that I could hear all the way from where I was sitting, she seemed so alone, but then this guy came along and smiled at her, and then told her she should continue with her work.
Some people, eh?
(That’s Tri-X (+1) btw)
And that’s it for today.
They were meant to stop me from going in the darkroom, but they failed. Mr Garner gave in. I didn’t even have to try really, I just said I wanted to do a couple more frames, and he let me in.
They’re blaming me for some massive budget somethign or other, but if you look in their fridge they have 15 boxes of developing paper and 60 rolls of film. they did have 80, but they gave out ten and I ‘liberated’ ten rolls. All HP5+ but it’s better than nothing.
Filed under: HP5+, Tri-X, leica m6, photography, summicron | 10 Comments
How did it get to this? Here come’s the promise of summer, let’s do things proper, let’s seal it with a kiss.
+44 Lyrics who I saw live with Mr Guy Love and the Douchebag. T’was hot.
Anyway. Photos?
Yes, photos.
Summicron 40/2 on Tri-X (+1). My neg scanner made such a mess of this photo. Good to see the print. Neg scan made him look out of focus. I was not impressed.
This is Sarah, she used to attend my school. Now she works where I get my videos.
“You better not be taking a photo”
*quiet click*
“You understand me Josh? No photos.”
*looks up from viewfinder, smiles and lowers camera*
HP5+ (+1)
This guy was pretty cool. Can’t remember what we talked about though.
For a moment, I thought he’d spotted me. But when i took a step to the side, I realised he was looking really intensely at the guy next to me and hadn’t noticed me at all.
Some guy watching the screens for his train. I think I’m gonna work on this print a bit, I think it has a lot of potential.
I have no idea what he was shouting for. I remember buying a spring roll in the store he’s standing in the doorway of.
He’s frame left here, but I was more interested in the girl with her mobile phone now. Train stations are surprisngly well lit places.
Not the best photo to end on, but I’m going to bed soon after this and scanning takes a long time with my scanner. I need a better one.
Oh yeah, and I have a new girlfriend.
That’s right. I’m taken. Again. Sorry ladies, you’re just gonna have to write me down for your stocking present to Santa and hope.
Local Drummer of the Year awards was good. I think I did a good job presenting and the joint piece us tutors did was pretty fucking cool.
Tomorrow, Joe me and music, then Louisa and I are spending some time together. She’s at a Hen night tonight. I bet that was an experience and a half.
Filed under: HP5+, Tri-X, leica m6, photography, summicron | 1 Comment
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