More One a Day

Thank you Tony D for your comment on the last collection of images. 

One of the things this project has done is to radically change my approach to work for this exercise. Normally I know roughly what I’m looking for and may have done quite a bit of research on the subject. With this project I’ve found it’s better for me to go out with an open mind and keep my eyes open. Something will usually attract my attention and then it’s a case of worrying at it. I think someone who has never used film would take lots of digital images and then sort them out latter. That goes against the grain after all those years shooting film, I normally take the shot that first attracted me and then look for other angles in my mind then take one or two more shots, rarely more. The most I’ll post process is to colour correct, apply a slight sharpening and if required a trim; definitely no funny faux HDR or other ‘improving’ software. I tend to use a fairly high ISO to get some slight noise to give a similar effect to grain.

There seems to be a growing return to film especially with us oldies who grew up with it. My friend Andy Biggs has recently written about the reasons for his return to film in that super little mag INSCAPE. A couple of quotes from his article…

“Photography is a very simple activity, made complicated by some peoples approach. What it should revolve around is where you stand and when you release the shutter.”    

    

“(the film images) had texture to them; something which is lacking in the perfect world of digital capture where the resulting pictures are just too good, which leaves the viewer uncertain if they are real. Their plastic texture and false colours create a false image. It is of course possible to use a digital technique to make your images look like they were shot on Tri-X, but I would argue why not just use Tri-X in the first place.”

Before you write Andy’s comments off as an old Luddite having a grump have a look at his work HERE.  To my knowledge he has never been in a camera club but has talked to many in the midlands before he moved north. 

Tony Middleton