RPS – 155th International Print Competition

Every year since 1857 the august Royal Photographic Society, (RPS), holds a print competition  – you can see last year’s winners if you go here.

You are allowed to mix black and white prints with colour, so for this year’s entries I’ve sent in, two B&W and three colour.  The B&W’s (Molly at Sixteen and Solitary Tree – Villebois Lavalette) can be found elsewhere on this website.

The three colour ones, however, use a new method of artwork creation that I’ve been honing away at during the winter months.  They take hours and hours to edit but the final result is, for me at least, very satisfying.  Basically each image comprises at least two photographs that in every case have been shot in and around Studio Lavalette.  The backdrop is a wall and the central narrative is of a town or city.   In the pictures below, there are two of Angoulême, (the bottom two), and one of Saint Emilion, (in the middle of the five images).   The original photo of Saint Emilion is here. If you decide to come on one of our advanced photography courses in France, I’ll show you how to achieve these artistic effects.

The competition closed on 21 March 2012 with judging taking place on 14 and 15 April.  You don’t have to be a member of the RPS If you want to enter their contests, so if you want to have a go follow this link.

Molly at Sixteen

Solitary Tree, Villebois Lavalette

St Emilion

Rooftops, chimneys and aerials - Angoulême

Les Remparts, Angoulême

British Airways Flight BA 216

Since the late 80’s I have been a regular traveller to and from the US and my most frequent return flight has been BA 216.  It departs from Dulles Airport (the international airport that serves the Washington DC/Metro area), and lands at Heathrow Airport near, London.  I confess that I hate flying: there’s something really unnatural about moving through the air at 600 miles an hour, at a height of 35,000 feet, in a metal tube.

But in the summer months, as you approach the UK, you can get lucky and see some really exotic sunrises.  You only get a few minutes between the sun peeking over the horizon and blazing sunshine.  At first the the sky turns from black to deep blue; then orange; and lastly a rainbow of colours and white light that are simply spectacular.

I’d like to thank the cabin crew of BA 216, who on 1/2 July 2009,  allowed me to hop from one side of the aircraft to the other, whilst I took a bunch of photographs, (on my knees through the porthole-windows), three of which I’ve included below.

BA 216 - 1

BA 216 - 2

BA 216 - 3

Studio Lavalette – it’s started…!

It’s all very well dreaming and writing about opening a media/photo studio, but at some point one actually has to get the project started. Well….yesterday during a two hour meeting with our architect, Alain de la Ville, I gave him the green light to begin the planning/drawing process.  The project to convert the old barn has finally started – phew!  We hope to get some preliminary drawings through in a couple of weeks, we then need to approve them and finally they get submitted to the Mayor’s office to get planning consent.  This last step could take up to three months, (eek!), but only then can the building work begin.  And believe me, with the roof needing replacing, the end gable wall rebuilding, there’s about 9 months’ work to be done.

Here’s three photos of the outside of the old barn, (soon to be the multimedia Studio downstairs with accommodation upstairs), that I took yesterday afternoon:

Studio Lavalette - 1

Studio Lavalette - 2

Studio Lavalette - 3

Minneapolis Institute of the Arts

I recently went to one of my favourite art galleries in the States,  the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts.  Their current photography exhibition all pertains to American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey in Minnesota and Minneapolis in particular.  Not being a big fan of any these sports, I confess I hurried round the exhibits paying little attention.  However…in the adjoining gallery is a wonderful portrait by the American artist Chuck Close – it’s simply called Frank.  Using my point and shoot Canon Ixus 210, I discreetly took this photo:

Frank by Chuck Close - 1

Now there are several things to note here.  Chuck Close is one of the world’s best and leading photo-realistic painters, and Frank may look like a photo, but it is in fact a painting.  But what is even more remarkable is that the portrait is huge.  To give you an idea of the scale, here it is again with an on-looker:

Frank by Chuck Close - 2

To ensure that this is in fact no photograph, you have to get very very close – and I do mean very very close. The giveaway signs are the brushstrokes used for the highlights on Frank’s beard.  It is quite brilliantly executed.

For more on Chuck Close, follow this link.

Luray Cavern, Virginia, VA

I go to Virginia (in the US) about three times a year as I sit on the Board of Alexander Street Press LLC, (academic art & humanittes text/music/video publishers).  I was there a couple of weeks ago for our first Board meeting of 2012.  However I was lucky to be able to sneak off one day and play tourist with some friends, (from Alexandria, VA), who took me to the quite awesome cavern/cave at Luray.

The underground trip on foot takes about 75 minutes and you walk for about 1.25miles.  At its deepest it is 164 feet below ground and the visitor centre boasts that it is “..the biggest cave in the world..” – well… being in America it would be the biggest, wouldn’t it!

I used a tripod and remote shutter release, (as I was taking long exposures), to shoot 62 photographs of some quite extraordinary sights.  The first photo includes people so you can get some idea of the scale and enormity of the cave.  Whether it is the biggest or not I don’t know, but it is a breathtaking place.  The cave has a number of large pools of water and the fifth/last photograph, (below), shows the reflection of the roof.

Luray Cavern - 1

Luray Cavern - 2

Luray Cavern - 3

Luray Cavern - 4

Luray Cavern - 5