Well here is the three monthly catch up one month late, but there will be a change here, finally this blog will be in three languages. Not that I will be writing in another language other than my own, but I will get them translated (and I will retro translate the previous blogs one by one).
As I mentioned in the last blog, I had some serious back pain, and at the beginning of April I had a scan, some x-rays, and visit to the orthopaedic surgeon. I have two damaged discs which will not get better, but if I look after them they shouldn’t get too bad either. I’ll just have to modify my lifestyle. The doctor said that I won’t be able to run anymore, now I have yet another excuse not to do that. The good news, cycling is not affected. It’s annoying that I can’t do what I used to do before, but it is good practice for getting old.
On the 17th of April, with a very good friend of mine I went an hour’s drive away to take some photos and have a day out. In a way you could call it a fashion shoot, as we borrowed some clothes from a friend’s shop and found locations to show them off in. I mentioned this in the previous catch up but here is an image.
On the 15th of May I went to Maldà to take some prints which would be hung in an exhibition the following week. They are the photos that you saw in last quarter’s catch up when we were criticising the way that women are treated in our society. Interestingly enough, I read an article yesterday which seems to suggest that social media is actively taking us in the opposite direction. I don’t understand why half of humans are considered inferior, especially when we would not be here if not for them.
The following week I returned to photograph the body painting festival. I had photographed this festival a couple of times before and this time was the first time since the pandemic. We kept it quite small just four artists and models, but it really was fun and everybody had a good time. After all, that’s what we should be aiming for, enjoying ourselves while doing something we love.
At the beginning of June I did some photos for a local magazine that I helped start. We do a section of ‘an interview without words’, and this time it was an actress with Down Syndrome. I think we managed to show this woman as an actress and not just someone has a little more of a challenge being an actress. It’s very easy to be ableist without wanting to be, and I always try to show people as they are, which is not always how society sees them.
A week later I experimented some more with smoke and I managed to get what I wanted. But I need to do it all again because I I know I can do better. There isn’t anything wrong with the images, just that I know I can do better.
On my birthday I had pre-wedding shoot for a very good friend and her then girlfriend (they haven’t split up, now they’re married!). We wanted to get some good images and also, as her girlfriend had never been photographed by me, she could also find out how I work and what it’s like to be on the end of the lens so to speak. It was good, unfortunately very, very hot (as was most of the spring) and also much windier than I wanted but it did give us some opportunities for crazy hair shots.
Near the end of June I bought another camera. Not a new camera exactly, the same model that I have now just with 120,000 fewer images on its shutter. As I had to photograph the wedding in July I didn’t want to risk anything with my trusty workhorse (in the end, it didn’t let me down, of course). I bought a secondhand body as it was the cheapest and best solution. I would love to be able to buy a new full frame camera or perhaps complete my migration to mirrorless APS-C sensors, but the economy is not too stable at the moment. It’s hard to justify spending so much money on something that would really only be a slight improvement (focus peaking, which would help my failing eyesight no end and ensure that I get images in focus).
On the last day of June I opened a ‘Then and Now’ exhibition in a local gallery. I tried to capture the essence of each old image to show just how much (or how little) things have changed. My main problems were trees, cars and rubbish bins. One of those is relatively easy to fix. In the image below, very little had changed from the original photo (not published due to copyright) except for the carpark to the right and some superficial building changes.
Well, that’s everything that happened to me between April and June (the English-photography classes didn’t work out), I have done the wedding, but that was in July so you will have to wait to find out how that went. At the end of June I had a couple of conversations with an existing model and a new model to continue my body project a little further. I see it going in different directions with each person. That said, what I think now may change – we will have to wait and see. Have fun!
