#NPMonthlyWord for March.
Hello again, welcome to another blog from the inner workings of NathanPhoto, as this is the first one of the month and in following my new formula, this musing is going to explore the #NPMonthlyWord which for March was Spring.
Now as this is the second year of the Monthly word then I have to be wary of repeats, must be careful not to be too wary as then not sure you’d make anything, also have put my ‘determined to make a typical stock image’ hat on so I have made these accordingly. Now while I think may have done that, I do wonder if it may be a little too late as from what I can currently see stock may be dead, and alas this wouldn’t be the first time NP has gone down a dead-end alley but we power on. So with the idea of what was made for last year in my mind, I have tried a few different types of approaches, and although I’ve repeated the flower motif, I have chosen a different flower and different colourways of them as well as making them in slightly differing styles, (I hope that counteracts the similarities.)
The images are split into groups, there could be many ways to classify these such as ‘in through the box in which they were recorded’, ‘the style in which they were made’ and the ‘subject within them’ as well as the ‘place they were made’. I’ve simply grouped them in a loser way together in a manner which I think works.
First up is a set of pictures of where I was when Spring ‘23 first hit me, which is bizarre as I was further up north than normal, up in the wilds of Scotland when I saw this scene. I made a few in both portrait and landscape formats as well as offering a few differing edits, I’ve really pushed some of them, so apologies for any purists out there! I have included the first one as an example of the base from which I was working from though to appease any offended purists. I do think this says spring rather than summer cause you can feel it’s only slightly warmer rather than the intense warmth of summer, can you see that or am I just seeing that in the picture because I was present when the image was made? That’s an interesting concept to apply to the images, one I may try in teaching. Think you always have to be aware of this when selecting/editing images, for example the one that you spent the longest time capturing, may not always be the best one.
Ok so think my favourite out of this set is number 3 for the stock and number 4 for the content but as this being judged with stock in mind it’ll be number 3. I like the way number 3 sits and could see it being used in a guidebook or in some travel piece, it may lack in certain elements though so I’m not sure it would ever get used but we shall see.
Next up is a collection of outdoor based images, made back in Manchester as well as on my travels, I basically looked for any sort of spring elements and made pictures of them, as well as one ‘funny’ one I saw along the way, this is a real hotchpotch of images and sums up my month really.
Think from this set my favourite would be the blossom, I absolutely know this wouldn’t make it as stock as the focus is out and narrow, but I like it none the less, sometime you need something different in there don’t you?
The third set consist of two shoot of Tulips, going into the ideas for the Spring image this was the one that I thought would be it, the white tulips absolutely say Spring (not to all I gather) but according to an incredibly well trusted source they do. Just for balance I also photographed a set of rainbow tulips, in a slightly differing way.
I used two different flash techniques with these for the white tulips it was a mixture of flash/natural light with the warmth of the sunlight counteracted by the harshness of an open flash, which I think works. For the rainbows I used full on flash with 3 heads balancing out the darkness of the set.
I do realise by looking at these that there is perhaps a lack of sophistication in the lighting but maybe that adds a touch of realism to proceedings? I am trying to unpick techniques in stock imagery for various purposes and as an exercise so feel this may benefit that enquiry.
My favourite from the white tulips set is number 3 and for the rainbows I’m going with number 2.
That leaves me these four images and that is a tough choice to choose between these quite disparate images. Think it will have to be the landscape wont it?
Let me know what you think.
The #NPMonthlyWord for April is ‘Regular’ as April is the month of tax returns, sunshine, showers and a return to regularly scheduled activities possibly? Though the word would typically establish itself as lending itself to making something abstract, I’m strictly going to apply the stock image aesthetics to it and see what I can make. This sh(c)ould be intersecting. Anyway if you’d like to have a go then please pick up a camera and let us see what we can get.
As I’ve spoken about imagery, I shall leave you with a quote from Vogue April with the excellent article by Janelle Okwodu, who interview’s the new supermodel cover stars of Paloma Elsesser, Precious Lee and Jill Kortleve. As part of this a very intriguing idea is mentioned, especially for me as a photographer, wherein a link regarding ideas about photographies output and eras of beauty standards, here it is:
“ln an era when the rigidity of beauty standards has been repeatedly called
into question, young people value service over status and the
unfiltered naturalism of point-and-shoot disposable cameras
has become buzzier than Instagram, this new breed of
down to earth supermodel seems appropriate.”
Now I’m old enough to remember this style of making images the first-time round, I can remember the art movement that formed around this device, the reasoning and the ideas, both in pre approach and in post modernism ideals. Can I ask something though that now the young people want these types of images, do they want help, history from the authentic people that were there and with it, to help in spreading the word?
What do we think? Any good?
Thank you for reading. And if you have any feedback, thoughts, comments or anything’s, then please get me though the usual channels.