A gentle whirring was all I could hear. I’m not talking about my motorcycle engine as I rode down to re-visit Weston-Super-Mare this week, nor was it the sound of the shutter on my camera, no, it was coming from those electric scooters. I know people need them to get around, offer some much needed mobility and it makes perfect sense, but there seemed to be a hell of a lot of them that day. There were also dog walkers, me with a camera, but otherwise fairly quiet compared to my previous visit. Please click here if you haven’t seen that blogpost. This one will be fairly minimal (not just the photos) and essentially for photographers.
The idea, which is laughingly the name I give to my random thoughts, let’s call it a question posed instead, was to see if I’d developed in any way. Had my style changed? Was I seeing any differently? Re-visiting would tell. Both regrettably and disappointingly the answer is no, not much. My father often says ‘There’s only so many musical notes’. I suppose he’s saying that often tunes will sound similar, accidental or not. I’ll come back to that thought in a moment. Here’s a couple of shots, variations on a theme, you might call them;
So we see that I headed straight away for the same location at Weston-Super-Mare as I did last time. There’s only so many notes! My friend Jeff Chane-Mouye wrote an article recently on how Social Media is Killing Street Photography , I think I may be doing it without the aid of social media. It’s really about creativity, for some it’s being stifled by attempting to copy what is popular on Instagram. I commented that there will always be the trend setters, fashion victims and dedicated followers of fashion. I think my own creativity is being blocked by the simple fact that I’m not very creative. Besides, how far do we want to push the envelope? The whole Street Photography community (it’s not that big) was up in arms a short while back because someone had tried something avant garde, resulting in arguments and quickly followed by resignations from key ‘street collective’ members. In other news; A Facebook friend recently had his photo accredited on Google to one Henri Cartier-Bresson no less. Quite an honour in some way, apart from the annoyance that it was his image, not HCB’s. It opens up many other questions relating to photos on the internet, also it follows on from the “only so many musical notes” my father is so fond of saying.
Last time I went under the Pier, here we go again;
I’m not entirely sure those shots above even qualify as belonging to the genre of Street Photography. How about these, backlit people in a Street, a couple smoking and some layering, okay someone talking with someone’s arse in the foreground ;
I’m far too traditional, I follow rules or guidelines on composition. I just see that way and of course I’ve been influenced, not by Social Media though. Take this next one, boring it might be, pretty much text book it is;
Mostly I’m just documenting a scene.
Last summer I started banging on about layering, in fact during my last visit to Weston-Super-Mare I decided that this was what I needed to be concentrating on. I’d like to point out that just because I don’t show many it isn’t because I’ve stopped trying, I just don’t seem to be able to get what I’m after and therefore don’t publish them. Generally they end up like these, it’s not really layering;
Well, they can say what they like, but I do at least work the scene. Perhaps it’s the wrong scene! Before I leave I’d better go on to the beach to see the traditional Donkey Rides, there’ll be a shot for sure. We’re out of season and not a donkey in sight…
Tomorrow I’ll be sorting out and posting “The Monthly” for February, this is my kind of review for the months photographic output. I’ve got a few in mind that haven’t appeared on the blog and you’ll see how we’ve gone from snow at the beginning of the month to t-shirt weather at the end…I blame Brexit ;-)
As always my sincere thanks go to anyone taking the time to read this blog.
All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are taken using a Leica M with Summicron 35mm Lens fitted.
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