Not nice !

Now don't take this as a moan, but i really find the phrase 'nice photo' a bit lacking in detail. I put some new images on my MySpace page just recently and got two comments. The first was brilliant, commenting on the contrast and textures contained in the image. Super! A comment with some detail. The second comment?.....well it was just 'nice photo'.

Am i just being overly sensitive when i say that it doesn't seem to say that much? It was great for that person to say something but 'nice', for me, doesn't say anything really. I once remember one of my lecturers saying that very thing many years ago. It didn't register then, actually i thought he was being rather fussy, but now i think he may have had a valid point.

Nice? What exactly does that mean !!!

Creative process

I must admit that i wish that i could paint; that i could just grab a canvas, a brush, some paint and create a landscape or portrait. Unfortunately i can't paint for toffee, nor sculpt, nor draw or anything remotely like that. As i go about places, i occasionally bump into other artists who either paint or sculpt, and i always come away feeling that photography is a bit of a cheat when it comes to creating something visual.

Let me just explain. With the other art forms you usually start off with a completely blank set of materials, whether it be a canvas or a piece of clay . Then you start working on the piece of work that will hopefully will be a brilliant piece of art. It can take a long time or a short time but usually it's an intense process of creativity. Some photographers work that way too but for me its always been in the blink of an eye. Click ! got it !

OK, it may seem unfair to photography but the click of a shutter button seems a little too easy, a little too quick. I've always like working in the 5x4 format because you end up having to take time setting up shots but it still comes down to a shutter firing.....or does it? Maybe I'm forgetting the focusing, the exposing, the composition, the developing, the printing, the Photoshop work, the framing and many other things as well. Hmmm you have to do all that too !

Red Bubble

A selection of Richard Flint Photography images are available to purchase as prints and greeting cards at redbubble.com. More images will be uploaded during the summer months and plans are underway to launch an RFP 2009 calendar (plus a few other products) via the redbubble site.

The Richard Flint Photography page at redbubble.com is located at :-

http://www.redbubble.com/people/richflintphoto

Film mix

Beach break sign - Hunstanton beach, Norfolk

The film has been ordered and I'm getting ready for shooting images in Norfolk. The ratio of Ilford Fp4 to HP5 is 2:1 as this year i want to shoot finer grain film. The mix last year was about 50:50. I wasn't disappointed with the results last year from the HP5, but on the other hand, i did start shooting HP5 at 400asa rather than my usual speed of 800asa - so there must have been something that i didn't like.

The one thing i hope to avoid is the repetition of images; you know, that sudden realisation that you've taken this image probably four or five times before. Hopefully i can stay clear of that and produce some photographs that add to the my photographic view of the county.

The colour images taken this year are going to be a mixture of digital and medium format 645 & 6x6 transparency. I did consider taking some colour negative film but decided against it. Digital will easily do everything i want...and more. I will probably take too much equipment, some of which i won't use, but that's just part of photography. Leave that piece of kit behind and you can guarantee that you'll need it for a shot! :-)

Photographer's rights

Here are three rather useful links concerning the rights of photographers and the law.

If you would like to know the current law regarding image taking in the UK, USA and Australia then a series of PDF downloads has been made available with the details of the law and photography in those countries. They are not definitive guides to the law but they do give a good idea of your legal rights when taking images.

Click HERE for the UK version

Click HERE for the U.S version

Click HERE for the Australia version

Deep red

This year's poppy photograph taken just a few days ago . No matter how much i see those red flowers.... i just love seeing that deep red colour set against the green background of the foliage.

The poppy is a symbol of remembrance in the UK so I'd like to dedicate this post to the men (especially my great uncle Norman Davison who was badly injured) who took part in Operation OVERLORD; the D-Day invasion that took place on 6th June 1944 - sixty four years ago today.

Circus show

I always carry a camera with me. It sounds like an obvious thing for a photographer to do but you'd be surprised how many don't. I think this 'habit' has come from studying documentary photography - i just live in fear of missing the shot of a lifetime.

This shot was a quick grab. One of those point and shoot moments where you hope that the camera is set to get an OK photo. The Billy Smart's Circus truck has been driving around the town for the last few days, drumming up trade and giving the Circus a noticeable presence.

In days long ago they would arrive and parade through the town with the exotic animals, acrobats and clowns being centre of attention. I suppose this advert truck is the 21st century version of a parade.

Trained eye

8th June 1968 - Americans pay their respects to Robert Kennedy

A few years ago i saw a set of images on the TV that really caught my attention. Unfortunately i never noted the name of the photographer at the time but thankfully a recent post on the blog 'The Year in pictures' featured the photographer Paul Fusco, who took these fantastic images.

On the 8th June 1968, the body of Robert Kennedy was taken from New York to Washington so that he could be buried beside his brother at Arlington. Paul Fusco accompanied the train as the photographer for LOOK magazine and was surprised and fascinated to see vast numbers of people, who had spontaneously come out to pay their respects to a man who had been one of the most inspirational politicians in American history. During the slow eight hour journey, Fusco took over 2000 images documenting the estimated one million people who had turned out on the unusually hot Saturday.

Paul Fusco believes that the event and images represent the end of hope but for me, the images show the real respect that many Americans felt for Robert Kennedy- they also show that unshakeable American spirit. My favourite image is of a family, all lined up as if they were on a parade ground, honouring the man as the train goes by. That image seems to stand out from among the other fantastic photographs; each one a valuable record of the USA at the end of the 1960's. The images are like a mass portrait of America in 1968, the faces, fashions, cars, streets captured as they really were. They not only document the event -they also document the USA and, best of all, its people.

A book by Paul Fusco called 'RFK' will be published in September by Aperture.

The New York Times has a great audio visual piece that can be viewed HERE

A superb NYT article about the event and images that can be viewed HERE

The Year in Pictures/ Pictures from a train