Making pictures under pressure - in which I partake in a photoshoot.

I was involved in a photoshoot last week.

The lovely team at Subject Matter Photographic Art are gathering information about their artists, and wanted some video footage of me in action.

So obviously I had to look the part.

I got my hair dyed and threw off my old anorak in favour of a duffle coat that blended more gently into the autumn landscape.

"You got your hair dyed?" ........ I hear you say. 

NO OF COURSE I DIDN'T GET MY HAIR DYED!

JUST FIBBING.

WHO DO YOU THINK I AM?


But someone not far from here who shall remain nameless agreed that it looks less grey for 'having been treated', and if they can't tell the difference then its a very good thing that I didn't spend £100 and half a day of my life for the privilege.




 So what is it like making photos when being filmed?

Very strange.

Very inhibiting.

And very unnatural.

But it is interesting that the photos that I made bear a lot of resemblance the the kind of images that I normally make in more relaxed circumstances. Only a little less predictable.

So I shall share a few with you now.

All taken at Hawkwood, my suburban sanctuary, just before it poured with rain.

Leaves...

Reflected branches on my pond. Random compositions. Some rather fuzzy.

Some lone  leaves on hedges

As I have said before " I love it when there are just a few leaves left on the branches in autumn."

This is rough nature. No beautiful views.

 I was asked to point upwards .....


and a flock of crows flew over, crowing loudly above the telegraph lines and treetops.

When you try to capture a moving flocks of birds at very short notice there is no time to compose. I enjoy the randomness of the images.

crows over the hedgerow

 I like them even better in pink.

crows over Hawkwood

We fnished off down by the stream, and the old rope swing.

The swing has had an upgrade

swing last year

swing this year

Every time I go to Hawkwood I find something new to enjoy.

Tomorrow I am off to New Zealand, so I will leave it behind me for a few months, and will return when new shoots are appearing on these same branches.

It will be the same as always, and different as always. That is the pleasure of revisiting an old friend.

Gore (South Island, New Zealand), here I come.

Soon to become my new old friend.

Mixing it up a bit in my local woods in autumn with the Olympus OMD-5ii

Miffy's pond

This is the pond where the dog ( deceased) liked to swim.

I go there and remember the way that she loved to wallow around in the water. I spent many a happy hour spent exploring the light and reflections on the surface while she buried her nose in the mud.

Today the woods were graced with the song of the local parakeets. Imposters from foreign shores. Noisy and destructive.

The autumn colours are good this year.  Flickr abounds with autumn trees and misty scenes.

I popped down to Hawkwood this afternoon as a break from jobs around the house.

With my new camera I have the facility to watch multiple exposure images appear before my eyes. Live view on the OMD-5 gives a little more control to the random process that is multiple exposure.

cobwebs and mare's tail

leaves beneath my feet

twigs and leaves

autumn leaves on the pond

birches

forest light

I am practising for New Zealand. It is less than 4 weeks to go until I head back 'down under'.

 And if I can master the art of multiple exposure with this lovely little camera, then my load will be significantly lighter.

In which I find a man under a very small bridge and discover the secret world of Geocaching

remnants of a forgotten summer

Photographically I am stuck.

No idea what I am working towards.

Spending more time deleting images from my hard drive than creating new ones in an attempt to regain order over my collection.

One option might be to stop making new images and work with what I have.

Which sounds great in theory, but I make images in order to relax, and without a camera in my hand I don't feel right.

So this week I tried a new tack; take only a very small, fixed lens camera with me on a late afternoon walk as the sun was sinking after a day at work, and hope that I can find something to make images of, but also half hoping that I don't. Less images = less storage. Less images = better quality. In the days when each negative exposed had a monetary cost I was much less prolific.

hedge © caroline fraser

As usual. I got a bit obsessed with the hedges. Low sunlight catching the new growth waiting to burst into new leaf.

The small camera with a 20mm lens perfectly adequate for the job.


Not quite so good for the pond, but the blue skies reflected nicely on the very still surface.

pond

I tried to look nonchalant when pointing my camera at the top of the hedge; passers-by clearly not sure about my intentions.

But then I came across a troll, under the bridge over Kydd brook.

A troll with a white beard and a peaked cap.

His intentions were so unclear to me that I had to stop and ask him why he was 'trip-trapping' under my bridge.


At which point he became a very excited troll, and told me that he was 'GEOCACHING'.

At which point I displayed my ignorance and asked him what that might be.

At which point he got even more excited and started dancing around under the bridge in an attempt to explain.

'GEOCACHING' he said 'is the best thing ever'.

'My wife and I have travelled the world and had so much fun'

'We have come all the way from Zimbabwe to find treasure here'

'And what is the treasure?' quoth I .

In which team GBS find the treasure under the bridge

'It is this.........'

Team GBS in action

And indeed it was.

A small piece of paper hidden in a small plastic capsule under my bridge that I have walked over more than a thousand times.

He proceeded to expound on the joys of travelling to new places with the aim of solving clues, having wonderful walks in the countryside, and sharing his finds with over 2 million people over the rest of the world.

I have to say, he had me hooked. The enthusiasm was oozing out of him.

So what is Geocaching?

Basically it is treasure hunts for grown ups. The website is here


And here's a little video that explains a bit more.....

It turns out that there are many geocaches hidden in my woods.

And I never knew they were there........

Geocaches in Petts Wood and Hawkwood

It also turns out that my troll is Gavin Blair of Gavin Blair Safaris

You can see him here with his white beard and peaked cap.

I know, because it says so on his hat.

And what a delightful man he is.

And how extraordinary that he comes all the way to Bromley to seek out and photograph a small piece of paper under a bridge, when he could be out looking for elephants, lions and hippos.

What a wonderful world!

World cup trees - Greece -Costa Rica

Greece - Costa Rica

Taken during Netherlands - Mexico

Processed during Greece - Costa Rica

Branches of overhanging trees reflected in the pond at Hawkwood in the rain.

over and over again............happiness is a walk in the woods

bits 

I can never tire of walking at Hawkwood.

Christmas over.

OH at the football.

Youngest departed with a car full of hammers and drill bits.

At last; a walk in the woods.

Tout seul.

Bliss.

Late afternoon sun and plenty of mud.

pond

young oak

And an experiment in monochrome.

grass

Two hours to do a walk that takes 40 minutes without a camera.


It never fails to restore me to my calmer self.


Happiness is a walk in the woods.

free money for artists; have you claimed your Payback?

I was delighted to get an article into this summer's LIP magazine about my weekend with Independent Photography South East (IPSE) back in the spring.

LIP magazine is one of the publications that I am able to use for my annual claim for Payback.

If you have had your work published in any books , magazines or on TV you can claim royalties though Payback on an annual basis. The average payment for a visual artist is £285. All you need to do is complete an online form listing the ISBN numbers of all the publications that you are included in. The royalties relate to the public use of your articles/books by libraries and also cover secondary usage such as photocopying.

My first claim last year earned me a few pounds. This year I hope to earn more due to my publications that are now lodged in the British Library and other national libraries from my publishing house Hawkwood Press. (see here for my illustrated poem) entitled Hawkwood, about my suburban sanctuary.

If you are a visual artist then there is a good chance that you can claim something; what are you waiting for?!

Hawkwood ; a sanctuary in suburbia

Hawkwood by Caroline Fraser | Make Your Own Book

There is a real feeling of an end in sight for all the members of my course; today most of us have been busy printing off our final assessment of our projects, getting work ready to hand in tomorrow, and wondering how we will fill all the time that is suddenly going to become available. Already some of us have found time to read a novel, go to the shops and have a lie in. For myself, I find this weekend that I can suddenly sleep again; a welcome relief after weeks of waking up at 6am thinking about what else needs to be done. I was able to enjoy a walk on the beach at Camber without worrying about the time passing and feeling that I should be somewhere else. Most importantly of all, I actually wanted to take some photographs, something that I have been avoiding for the last 3-4 weeks, as I didn't feel I would have time to process them. I feel quite excited at the prospect of having some time to think.

So it is with great pleasure that I release details of my book "Hawkwood"; a very personal project for my family containg a poem I have written for them,with photos taken there in the last few months. Hawkwood is a haven in suburbia, owned by the National Trust. I have walked there countless times, and as I describe in my poem, it has kept me alive through good times and bad. My hand made book with the same title is still not right; I need to work on getting the paper and format perfect. In the meantime this softcover book will have to do. It forms another strand of my work for the London Villages Project in which memebers of London Independent Photography record their chosen localities within the London suburbs.