Eye for the Ordinary

Beside The Seaside, Beside Myself.

2011-11-09T13:36:00.001Z

Everyone’s photographing the seaside, what’s the point anymore?

It’s been quite a while since I got to indulge myself by heading to the coast for the day and doing my favorite thing, wandering about with a camera and just being creative for fun. This is the kind of photography that fired up my interest in the first place, a chance to escape from whatever else was going on and just enjoy and explore. Since I first started photographing the coast, two things have changed in the world: the first is that now I have a high end DSLR with all the creative flexibility that offers, and I have a level of technical knowledge and experience that I didn’t have before. The other is that we now live in the world of Flickr.

What Flickr has taught me is that every weekend there are thousands of people doing exactly what I have been doing. However obscure I thought some of my seaside locations were, someone else has always been there before, and indeed since. In fact, many people have. Whereas I assumed I was the only one wandering around Dungeness in November or Margate in February it appears everyone is doing it. And while not everything on Flickr had merit or originality, some of it was very good indeed.

At first, it made me question why I was doing it, and even what I was doing being a photographer when it seems there is nothing new under the sun, nothing new to say, no new angle. This type of photography was my thing, and I wasn’t sure if I was interested in competing with hoards of other people. It is perhaps symptomatic of the crowded market place that now exists with so many amateur photographers buying DSLRs. I certainly am not complaining that photography is so popular and so accessible now, on the face of it it’s in rude health, but sometimes you wonder where your own creative voice is in the avalanche of others.

The other thing causing me to question what I could say that hadn’t already been said was coming into contact with the work of Martin Parr, particularly his book The Last Resort. If you have never seen this book I strongly recommend it. Like all his work, it’s provocative, funny, tender, savage and beautiful. It was photographed in the 1980s in New Brighton in the Wirral and records the summer holidays of hordes of working class families. Parr was criticised in some quarters for exploiting or patronising the working class in this book, but there is clearly as much love and tenderness for his subject in his work as anything else. In any event in Think of England he goes on to turn the lens on the middle and upper classes just as revealingly.

Parr really has something to say about the seaside and people’s relation to it, and it made me look at what I was trying to achieve, and whether my work even had anything to say at all, other than just being pretty pictures. Parr approaches his subject in the diametrically opposed way to me. The Last Resort was shot in high summer on bright sunny days, his shots are full of people, shot wide angle very close to them, often using flash. It’s a very confrontational approach which is pretty brave, but it means his subjects interact with the camera, and thereby the viewer. My style involved photographing resorts out of season, when they are boarded up and rain-soaked, when there are only a few hardy souls about, and I prefer to shoot in black and white on overcast days. My pictures are concerned with composition and tone. I’m always more interested in what shadows reveal than light.

In a way I think that Martin Parr and I are both exploring the same territory, the relationship between ordinary people and our coastal towns, but we view the subject from different ends of the telescope. Parr’s intentions are well delineated: his subjects are brightly lit and brightly coloured like the holiday resorts themselves, his shots are superbly executed and we can see what he is getting at straight away. I came to realise that my images were about people too, even if they only appear peripherally or not at all. I am interested in the evidence of people, signs of habitation, what we leave behind. As I have come back again and again to the sea looking for something magical in this rarified space I have developed beyond merely photographing landscape and have started to explore and record our relationship with it. By questioning myself I have come to realise that I have a voice and a style even if I have never before had reason to ask myself what it is.

The trouble with Parr is that he does what he does so well, and his work is so well-known and influential that you can start to become conscious of not copying him, or aping his style. This is particularly true when sun does come out and it seems more appropriate to start using colour because black and white works less well with strong contrasts. This is when the trouble can start, and I might at one time have been tempted to hold back on a shot because it’s too like Parr. The fact is, I’m just doing my own thing and not trying to copy anyone else, I should just follow my creative instinct and not worry if someone thinks that it bears a superficial resemblance to anything.

At the end of all this, I’m glad to say that I felt like I had learned something. Before I was aware of Flickr or Martin Parr I just did what I was interested in doing instinctively and without reference to anyone else. Through my photography I was trying to understand what fascinated me about the little strip of land around the edge of our country, and why I was drawn to the periphery, what I was hoping to find there. And over the last 20 years or so of doing this I can see that a style and an approach has developed, and it’s mine. The great thing about that tidal wave of other voices is that it has made me go and find out what my voice is, and what I am trying to say with my work.

I’ve had a couple of opportunities to get the seaside in the last few weeks, firstly to Brighton on one of MelenCourse’s photography days (http://melencourses.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-photo-day-out-brighton.html) and a trip down to my old haunt Dungeness with my old friend Ross who has just bought a DSLR much to my joy! Unfortunately for me it was sunny both days which is not always what I’m after but I thoroughly enjoyed both days and came back with some interesting stuff.

For I Have Sinned

2011-08-14T22:46:00.003+01:00

Assisting Phil on the MelenCourses Wedding Photography course at Ashridge today gave me an opportunity to use the wonderful chapel there to take an unexpected art photo. It didn't quite start that way: When I spotted a beautiful carved covered seat it was crying out to frame a face, so I commandeered Phil to sit in it and give me one of his trademark crestfallen faces (cf. Wet Dog http://www.flickr.com/photos/alistairpeck/5399353464/in/set-72157625859558248). Phil agreed, despite being altogether too busy for me to ask him really, and this is the resulting shot. Despite being taken in a rather unplanned way, the great light and the setting as well as a great sense of sadness and regret give this a very still and contemplative feel. I really like the way the subject is surrounded by the artefacts of the church interior, from the hymn number board to the hanging lamp and the beautiful wood carving. And he is a bit good at the crestfallen face is Phil.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alistairpeck/6042759647/in/photostream/lightbox/

45 Degrees at the Hat Factory

2011-07-31T23:04:00.005+01:00

This Wednesday I went to take some pictures of my friends 45 Degrees filming a video for their track Hypanova at the Hat Factory in Luton. As soon as they told me it was being shot in the brick vaulted basement I knew what I wanted to do with the shots. This time I have gone for a much rockier, grungy feel to these images. As they were shot in low light they were generally quite soft on the focus and quite grainy anyway, so for the most part I went for a high contrast black and white with grain added to the shot. For the rest I went for high contrast, high saturation colour so the band have a halo of coloured light over their heads from the vaulted roof. As always I enjoyed the challenge of shooting live, candid images in effect, on the limit of what the camera could manage, trying to fit in around a film crew while staying out of shot. Next week the band are doing a video for their track Got You Where You Want Me, also at the Hat Factory but on one of the larger stages, so no doubt this will be a challenge of a completely different sort. Looking forward to it immensely.

http://www.myspace.com/degrees-47713620/music/albums/45-degrees-promotion-album-17769804

Pictures to follow shortly!

Father's Day - Keeping it in the Family.

2011-06-19T11:39:00.001+01:00

To celebrate Father's day, here is one of my favourite pictures of my son Cam, which I took yesterday, after we had bought him a toy camera. The shot is underexposed, the shutter speed is too slow, the focus is off, but it's all about the feel and the emotion for me. I was just pointing the camera at him and pressing the shutter so that it made a noise really, joining in his game of playing cameras, hence my camera wasn't set up at all. So it was ISO 400 indoors, 1/30 sec at f2.8. But the result of not really trying to take a photo was catching a real moment of us playing games.

Cam is copying what he has seen his dad do, and his eye is looking at me, not my camera, looking for approval.

I did a bit of split toning so it looks like an old print, and added some grain. It's a funny thing that so often you strive for a technically perfect shot that doesn't come off, and then a snap captures a real moment.

(Click on the image to enlarge.)

Get Your Band Photography!

2011-06-10T23:05:00.001+01:00

Albert Lee Live at the Tivoli DVD - With My Pictures!

2011-06-03T12:41:00.002+01:00

I mentioned a few posts ago that I had taken some still images at the Albert Lee and Hogan's Heroes gig at the Tivoli in Wimborne in December.

Well the DVD has just been released, and the cover and DVD menu photographs are my pictures. It's very weird to see an item on Amazon with my pictures on it and my name on the back cover!

My pictures are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alistairpeck/sets/72157625738217814/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Albert-Hogans-Heroes-Live-Tivoli/dp/B004UJ2L1S/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1307101141&sr=8-3

Upwards at 45 Degrees

2011-06-01T15:35:00.007+01:00

On Monday night I took a set of photos of the band 45 Degrees over in Letchworth. Conditions were a bit tricky as the room was fairly small and I didn't really want the walls in shot as they were covered in various pictures and memorabilia and the ceiling was also quite low, so I kept the background dark by keeping as low an ISO as possible to control the ambient light.

I'm pleased with the results, and I'm glad to say the band are too and it looks as though I will be photographing them on a regular basis from now on. Things are on the up for them, they have a track being played on Radio 1 at the weekend and are making some promo videos in the next couple of weeks, which I will also be photographing. They are a great bunch and we got on well, and they sounded very cool. If you like to rock then check them out! Their new EP is available on iTunes by following this link:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/45-degrees-promotion-album/id443923641

I've put a few images below, and there are more on my Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alistairpeck/sets/72157626730351083/

Business Cards

2011-05-03T16:08:00.005+01:00

My business cards went off to be printed today. Printing.com are doing two for the price of one throughout May, so if you are thinking of having cards done, now is the time!

Ashridge Art Exhibition: Margins

2011-04-21T19:46:00.003+01:00

After several trips to the seaside, including two memorable ones to Margate, a lot of Photoshopping and quite a bit of running round in a panic this week, my exhibition pictures for the Ashridge College art gallery are finally ready. I picked up the framed prints today and they were definitely worth all the work. Unfortunately the gallery isn't open to the public so I can't invite you to come and see the prints, but here is the text and images that form my part of the exhibition.

Margins
Our seaside towns exist on the margins. On the limit geographically, spiritually and economically. They are extreme towns, remote places you reach when the road eventually runs out and you can go no further: The final frontier marking the exact point where hundreds of miles of land abruptly end. Surreal and unreal, this is an environment of retirement suburbs, straggly goths and the faded iconography of the music hall.
These photographs use a mixture of candid and constructed images to convey the contradiction between the innocence and world-weariness in our seaside towns, and to explore the sheer strangeness of these places on the margins.

No Joke

Thick and Thin

Dreamland

Yawn

Chequered Table

Chips

Alistair Peck
While it was my parents who bought me my first camera, it was my love of visiting the seaside that fired my interest in photography. Firstly it was Southend where I used to visit my Nana as a child, and then further afield looking for rotting old boats and rusty machinery in vast expanses of shingle and sky in places like Dungeness and Aldeburgh. These days I’m increasingly interested in combining this type of landscape and observational photography with a stronger narrative element, encouraging the viewer to ask themselves questions about the image and to look beyond a casual first glance.

Fun and Games in St Albans

2011-04-20T22:05:00.002+01:00

Over to St Albans for a photography day out with Phil Richardson, Paul Gardner and Vanessa Nunes. As usual it wasn't just a case of shooting whatever you see, we had to stick to one lens (I went for my 50mm f/1.4) and we were given some challenges, including looking for signs and trying a Jan Vermeer style shot. Admittedly nobody managed the Vermeer in the time allowed, so we have saved this one for another day and a location with the requisite window light. All in all a fun day, and surprising how often placing restrictions on yourself involves getting shots you wouldn't have got otherwise, rather than being frustrated at the ones you missed.

Battered in Olney

2011-03-09T21:09:00.000Z

Had a fun trip over to Olney yesterday with Phil to photograph the famous pancake race for a bit of fun. The weather was perfect, and the town was full of colour and colourful characters, and all the hurley-burley surrounding this wonderfully eccentric tradition.

It was a good opportunity to practice some candid photography and a bit of action photography too. As we had two of us covering the event we decided that it would be a good way to work for one of us (Phil) to work with a wide-angle lens on the camera and for the other (me) just to use a long lens, with a view to using this as a way of working at future events.

It's well worth having a look at Phil's photos too http://melencourses.blogspot.com/p/days-out.html and comparing how using different lenses not only changes the look and composition of the image, but also the reaction of the subjects and the approach of the photographer. We both covered the same 1minute 50 second race, but ended up with quite different images. So this is definitely an approach for the future, and would mean the client getting a range of images expressing quite different viewpoints.

Don't Forget to Get Paid!

2011-03-03T11:55:00.000Z

It's a bit worrying the way that stock images are being used by some organisations these days, and it makes me concerned about where we as professional photographers are going in the future. Recently I was contacted through my Flickr account by an international travel website (I won't name them, though I'm tempted) who were keen to use one of my images as a banner on the front page of their website. Naturally I was excited about this for two reasons, firstly because it's always nice to be able to tell people your work is being published and it looks good in your CV, and secondly because it's getting paid for your work, which is, ultimately, how we turn what we enjoy doing into paying the bills.

The image in question was one of the Venice carnival mask shots I had done with Cat a few weeks ago. After the contact from the website had told me which shot he was interested in, and how it would be used, I told him how much I was going to charge him for using it. At this point his tone changed, and I was told in a very arrogant and patronising manner that they include lots of photographer's work on their site because it gives them "links, credit and exposure as well as added marketing ability". I was also told "We don't pay for our front page photos and have no shortage of participants". In other words, we don't need you, you need us. He also seemed upset that I had pointed out that the shots were not actually of the Venice Carnival, which is what they were publicising, but were shots of a Venice carnival mask taken in a studio in the UK. Let's be honest, it's obvious they are studio shots, but I don't see why this makes them unsuitable for publicising the carnival. Anyway, "It is a lovely mask your friend has" was the rather snotty response.

The trouble is that this site and many others like it rely on using shots, usually taken by amateurs, for which they receive no payment other than a credit, which in the unlikely event that it brings in any offers of work, I suspect won't lead to any paid work. It is, to put it simply, exploitation. I assume this guy runs a professional site from which he makes money, but for some reason he refuses to treat photographers as professionals. Perhaps I should book a holiday with him and suggest that I don't pay for it, but put a link to him on my website. No doubt he would tell me where to go, quite rightly.

Please, when you are tempted to work for free, or give away work for free, have a think about why you are doing it. It's not always the wrong thing to do, perhaps you want to take an unpaid job because it interests you personally, or because you are hoping it will lead to paid work in an area of photography that you would like to get into. But when a site wants to use your work like this, doesn't want to pay you, and then patronisingly suggests that having a credit on their site will help you, tell them no. Because a time will come when publications don't pay for their photographs at all, but will be happy to use second rate amateur shots and exploit people's hopes of paid work. When this happens, there won't be any professional photographers left.

I responded "I already have plenty of exposure and don't need to give away my images for free". I have lost nothing from refusing to let them use this image, because they were offering me nothing. Remember that your work costs you money to produce, and has value. Don't let these exploitative cheapskates rip you off.

Cat dressed as cat

2011-02-02T10:54:00.003Z

Cat Wilyman was visiting the studio yesterday as Phil wanted to do some promo images for a Valentine's event which we have coming up. After Phil had taken some shots I borrowed Cat for a few pictures of my own. She was already wearing a Venice carnival mask, and while Phil had been going for an angled close up concentrating on one of Cat's eyes (no pun intended!) I fancied trying a shot absolutely straight on with Cat looking directly to camera as I felt this would make a dramatic image. I also changed the lighting so that Cat was lit straight on and from underneath, and set up a black background.

In the end I think the shots work well and the low lighting angle gives the pictures a theatrical feel.

Sadly you can't really see Cat much so it could be anyone in there! Sorry Cat!

Lighting One.... At last!!!

2011-01-25T15:29:00.004Z

Finally I have completed my images for the Lighting and Portraiture One module of the diploma that I am doing through Melen Courses.

This image was my first try at a still life image and it took a bit of thinking about and planning. I'd had the idea for using brambles as water coming out of the spout of the watering can and wanted to make the shadow look like water flowing. I wasn't sure if I could make this work but as I had the studio to myself for a few hours I had the chance to experiment until I could get the effect I wanted.

Click To Read More>>

The rest of the images seem to feature Phil quite a lot, so I'll have to make sure that for the rest of the modules I use some different people for models! I'm going to be doing a big push in the next couple of months to get the rest of it completed so I'm going to be pretty busy. As well as Lighting and Portraiture 2 I've got NightTime and Low Light, Weddings, Business of and Understanding Photography, and then I'm onto the project based modules, including Still Life so I'd better start thinking of more ideas for that one now!

Albert Lee Live

2011-01-25T13:16:00.006Z

Just before Christmas I had the opportunity to photograph guitar legend Albert Lee and Hogan's Heroes doing a concert in Wimbourne Minster, Dorset. A DVD was being filmed and I was invited along to contribute still images, so I jumped at the chance to do some live music photography, and of one of the greats of guitar at that. Albert is very unassuming and down to earth and was nice enough to thank us after the show, a real gentleman. The DVD is being edited at the moment, and I am currently waiting to hear if they'll want to use any of my images for the cover, here's hoping.

I've put a few images on here, but the rest of them on are on my Flickr account.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alistairpeck/sets/72157625738217814/

Daaaahhhhhn to Margate

2010-06-27T00:13:00.009+01:00

Having returned from a well-appreciated holiday, I finally got round to starting on my art project, which is intended for exhibition at Ashridge Business School in October. I wanted to produce a set of pictures that reflected how I feel about the British seaside resort, which all stems from love/hate relationship with Southend, where my Nana lived when I was a child. I always felt Southend was a sad place, not in a depressing way (although it might have been if I had lived there) but in a melancholy way, with a sense of its best days being behind it with its peeling paint and its population slowly coming to the end of the line. So when I started to take photographs Southend and then the seaside in general called to me, and I tended to travel to holiday resorts out of season when they are locked up and broken down to catch a sense of their sadness and faded dreams. The job of the British holiday town seemed to be to peddle disappointment, but the small ambition implicit in a crazy golf course or crooked house has an innocent quality of childhood behind it.

In the past I have travelled to these places on my own hoping to find great landscape shots, to look for details of decay and dilapidation or to look for candid shots of people braving the elements in search of simple pleasures. This time I wanted to approach things differently though so with the promise of a day out and a free lunch I persuaded two friends to come down to Margate with me for the day so I could try to get more constructed images. I have posted a few of the results on here, a couple of which look like possibles for the exhibition. Margate is chock full of locations for this type of photography, in fact I reckon I could easily have done two days there, but spent most of the one I did have in and around Dreamland, the abandoned cinema, rollercoaster and theme park complex. Due to time constraints I came at completely the wrong time of the year, in the hottest and sunniest week of the summer so far. I was the only person in England praying for cloud that day, but while we were having lunch some thin hazy cloud did come over, so I didn't get the hard-lit over-contrasty light I was fearing. In the end it was a learning experience, I certainly got some interesting shots, but knew as soon as I got them home what I would have done differently and how I might change the method and approach a bit. I'll be doing another trip like this in a couple of weeks, possibly to Hastings or Eastbourne, or perhaps I'll get tempted to come back to Margate to do this awesome location more fitting justice!

Come on England

2010-06-12T09:49:00.005+01:00

I'm off on holiday today with the family for a week up in Norfolk, which will be a lovely break. Hopefully I'll get the opportunity to do some creative photography, although with young child in tow it may not be easy to find the time. Just got to keep my eyes peeled, you never know when a shot can present itself.

Took some pictures of Cameron this morning in his England shirt. If it's clean enough for him to wear by the time the game starts tonight it will be a miracle. Anyway, good luck England, I'm too cynical to get too excited about the prospect of actual success at this stage. I'm prepared for the gut-wrenching stress that is watching England play in a major tournament!

Battle Bex

2010-06-09T19:34:00.007+01:00

At the studio again today, this time for a trial run of the Aperture 3 course that Phil is planning. A good fun day, although hard going with a lot of information to take in. I've been using Lightroom quite a bit so although Aperture works in a similar way, I'm finding I'm a bit set in my ways and haven't really got round to experimenting and discovering some the advantages it has. Phil was explaining using Aperture at the centre of your workflow, and we also went through the adjustments panel and brushing in adjustments which looks very handy.

Bex had to leave early to pick up her son from school, and not long after she had left Phil had a call from her to say she had been in a car accident on the way and was in an ambulance waiting to be taken to hospital. She sounded very shaken as you would expect, and had hurt her wrist quite badly. Fortunately she had been able to make arrangements to have her son picked up. Phil and I went down to the scene of the accident straight away to see her and to rescue her computer from the back of her car. We then went over to see her at Hemel hospital where hopefully we were of some comfort and help in cheering her up a bit. Fortunately her wrist is not broken but she was bruised and shaken. Unfortunately Phil and I couldn't help mercilessly photographing her anyway (and the A&E department). Anyway, I think she will be resting for the next few days so GET WELL SOON BEX! I recommend the medicinal benefits of drink.

More Pictures from Lighting 1

2010-06-08T14:25:00.006+01:00

Yellow Melen Diploma: Lighting 1

2010-06-08T13:37:00.004+01:00

On Sunday I was at Melen Studios for Phil Richardson's Lighting 1 course. I do a bit of work for Phil, usually assisting or helping with courses and we have some personal projects in the pipeline for the summer too. Phil is great to work with and to learn from, good fun but passionate and knowledgeable about photography, as well just a teeny bit eccentric. For instance we learned about shooting with window light in his toilet on Sunday, which you don't get everywhere. Last time we worked on personal projects it involved me having my photograph taken sitting next to a muddy pond with no shoes on freezing to death and wondering why the spring is so cold in this country. "Try to look miserable" suggested Phil. I thought I already was.

Anyway I was doing the Lighting 1 course as part of the diploma which Phil offers through Melen courses. This covers photography right from beginner level through to professional, technical and creative use of the camera and lighting as well as specialised wedding photography, night-time photography etc through to image processing, selling yourself and the business of photography. Doing the diploma will enable me to gain a qualification as well as benefiting from Phil's insight and expertise across the whole range of photographic skills. And there will be a lot of tea and crisps which is generally a good thing.

On Sunday we had the lovely Cat Wilyman in the studio modelling for the students on the course while Phil went through using natural light for portraiture (yes, in the toilet, though you'd never know it from the shots that were taken) and setting up continuous lighting (fluorescent and tungsten) using a single light which gives and easy and effective lighting setup as well as being a good way to learn about achieving different lighting effects by changing the position of the light. In the afternoon we looked at flash lighting in the studio (using flash to light the background and subject) and using flash and reflectors to shoot portraits outdoors. I've attached a few images below, I'll add a few more of the outdoor ones later. All in all a friendly relaxed but above all very informative day as always. Certainly worth having a look at www.melencourses.co.uk

I am a Photographer

2010-06-07T23:09:00.004+01:00

Well I've finally got round to doing what I said wouldn't do, and I've set up a blog. Hopefully it won't be one of those affairs where I end up going on about what I've had for breakfast or what I think of Britain's Got Talent (I just don't) and I can do something a bit more constructive.

I am a photographer. For more years than I really want to think about that has meant what I am as much as what I do. I have wanted to take the beauty that I see around me all the time, and my experiences and the things that are important to me and preserve them so that I can communicate them with everyone. Every photograph is a record of a place I stood in the world and how it seemed to me that day.

And now I'm doing that for a living, so I want to use this blog as a record of that journey and share what I'm doing and where I'm going. I'll probably put a bit of other stuff in that I'm doing too and hopefully as I get the hang of this blogging lark it will all make a sort of sense to someone!