Restart- photographs in quarantine season

Studio printmaking is now on ice; it has been for some months and it’s hard to tell for how much longer. Opportunities for studio practice are limited by expectations to minimise travel and physical contact with others. This has changed work and family commitments. So, what's possible and relevant to my practice? Taking more photographs, and taking them locally seems both possible and relevant.

So, in recent months I've upgraded my camera and lenses (sticking with the mirrorless micro four-thirds format). Both are a great boon; I can now work quickly, hand held, and extended exposures are now possible even in even relatively low light. 

Fortunately there is plenty close at hand by way of landscape-related subjects. Our local footpath network gives us access to a varied landscape of woodland, hills and streams punctuated by marks of industrial history. So, plenty of opportunities close to home.

As well as taking more photos, I've been improving my image processing and editing. While it is perfectly possible to leave all the decisions to the camera’s own algorithms and still produce great images. But to get consistent focus on the subject, it really helps to remove odd colour artefacts and other distractions. This is just as relevant and important as in any traditional darkroom. Sadly, it isn’t obvious that early experience of printing from my own black and white 35mm negatives with an enlarger, trays of developer in my makeshift darkroom shortcuts much of what I now need for processing digital images.

So, there’s a lot to learn and I’ve been learning differently, mostly through the generosity of those who’ve shared their knowledge, skills and insights online. 

I am now  sharing the output of all this- posting an image a day (see my Instagram profile), and am compiling these by adding new sections to the website. The first of these being Water- as there is plenty of this about- images of local streams and cascades.