#NpMonthlyWord August
Hello again and welcome to another blog.
Hope you had a great August, again for me it was a tad disjointed as the continuation of my difficult year flowed into it but on a brighter note it does now look like settling down, hopefully, touch wood, etc…
As this is the first blog of the month l usually look back on the #NPMonthlyWord which for August was ‘Holiday’
Now I was very lucky to be able to get away to one of my favourite places on this earth for nearly a week which was lovely but as always, it’s never enough time to spend in this beautiful part of the world but it was very much welcomed. This also meant that I was ideally placed to make some images on the theme as I was actually on holiday at the time!
Time away is always great for photography for many reasons, I always seem to come back with thousands of images (it was 5k this time!) and at least a 100 new project ideas about how/what/why to make images from, increasingly though it’s my research practice that usually takes the lion share of this image process. For this break it definitely had a more relaxed focus on NathanPhoto as I’d already made a lot of images from previous visits, there was quite a few street images although with theme of holiday in mind they didn’t make the cut.
While reflecting on all my practices I was thinking about how commercially I’ve seemed to have had difficult in producing what people would call ‘Nice’ images, I always seem to go in a different direction to nice. This insight with a particular focus over the length and journey that my commercial career (secondary meaning of the word applied) contained. This is something that I may go into in a ‘rant’ type blog at a later date but for now my research practice is shouldering a lot of the ‘not nice’ imagery for part of a project.
Anyway enough of research talk, this is NathanPhoto time so let’s talk about the images I did make and here they are…
As ever I’ve given a selection, my usual 7 choices although I know the last one consists of two images for discussion, so it’s 8 images in total…
First up is what I think is always quite unique about holidays abroad and that’s the way the light wakes you in the morning, streaming through the shutters, can you almost feel the heat in this image? Can you? Ah the promise of lovely light all day long, it’s enough to get anyone out of bed, is it not?
Second up is a sort of follow up to that, it’s of the sky, specifically clouds which again when on holiday always seem to hit a little different, this image hasn’t been majorly touched in photoshop so you can see the raw saturation of the skies over the south of France in August.
Thirdly hopefully captures one of those moments when you’ve either wandered out for a late breakfast or an early lunch, you sit down to a café, out in the sun but protected by the shades, its then that you feel the relaxation bubbling up inside of you…what a lovely feeling.
Fourthly this image intentions are to brutally bring you back to earth with the abundance of that certain type of concrete, coupled with the bang of the foreign yet rendering something familiar, this one has sneaked in from my research practice where I have moved my desire to always seemingly to photograph brutal banal ‘urbanscapes’ of a city but couldn’t resist showing here, I do love concrete.
Fifth is an ‘ahhhh’ moment but again not done traditionally I left my new 1.4 hat on this one from my research practice, this has given it a certain quality, where it’s dropped the focus and the exposure is struggling to cope with the abundance of light so it’s starting to bleach, reminiscent of 70’s package holidays and past film stock.
Six is my attempt at the classic beach shot, a similar sight to many and which will occupy many brochures, adverts, tourist boards, restaurant backgrounds, stock agencies and editorial sections. If only there were no clouds and more people on the beach or maybe the space shows you where you can sit? A pretty non-descript image, exposed well, in focus, in portrait format of a seaside town. There’s not much else to say about this image
Seven is from a day trip out to that certain well know south of France car obsessed, F1 circuit of the rich and famous, (we’ll never tackle global warming via car emission till you make some inroads here) Now I’ve included two image here that contain some details that may give a different slant on its usage, one focusing on cars and one on bikes, walking and scooters. They were both taken within seconds of each other and of course neither would be used commercially as they both contain that ubiquitous factor of the modern-day symbol of prosperity which is the crane, but what’s a holiday without building work! Did intend when I took this to give it a tilt/shift treatment which I’ll possibly include later
What do we think?
My favourite and the one I’ve chosen for image of the month is number 5 which I think say holiday without any doubt, yet does have a certain quality that elevates it out of the cliché and makes the number of steps we had to climb worth it !
As ever any thoughts, comments, feedback or whatever’s through the usual channels.
And now we are in September hey, what a way this year has been going the speed only matched by the utter dejection of the news cycle and now we are in the final stages of ’22…only 3 months till Christmas…not long. Apparently one of the reasons why the year seems to be going so fast, is the close proximity of the moon so I’ve been told, ah the lovely moon influencing everything again.
So what does September bring?? Well as I sit here the most prevalent seems to be the return to education in school, college and university levels. I’m actually quite sad that I’m not involved in any of it this year, not for want of trying but alas to no avail.
Thinking of this month’s word and my thinking is that back to school would be a great theme for #NPMonthlyWord but I need to encapsulate that in a single word. I know that last time I said I would steer away from the abstract, but I can’t think of a single word that encapsulate the feeling of back to school so I’m going to have pick a specific one but with the idea being back to school.
I did have a look around for other words that may suggest it but couldn’t really find anything that summed up the feeling that I wanted to see if I can illustrate so here, I’m going to use the word ‘return’. Which is about as ambiguous as I wanted to steer away from much like the moons which govern us.
September’s #NPMonthlyWord is ‘Return’, that word again ‘return’.
As we have discussed images, I thought I’d leave you with a quote to balance the floor and this is from one of my most influential and favourite books, first discovered this when I was 16/17 it became my go to book for quotes and to answer what book influenced you the most, the 80’s/90’s didn’t hold with its ‘hippie’ ideals but it always struck a chord with me. And as I’ve recently re-read its genius has presented itself to me again, also it’s date of publication is the same year I was born so it’s coming up to a big anniversary.
The books main premises are up for conjecture but for me it is about teaching, establishing ones self, madness and quality, all of which can be applied to the photographic, and this quote about photography hits quite early in the book and is one to take forward especially now in the digital age.
“After a while he says, ‘This is the hardest stuff in the world to photograph. You need a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree lens, or something. You see it, and then you look down into the ground glass and it's just nothing. as soon as you put a border on it, it's gone’”
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Robert M Pirsig. 1974
Thank you for reading and your time, any comments, feedback, opinions and the such like, you can get me on the usual channels.