the art of living dangerously............advice from a Hasselblad master at sunset

Sunset over Camber Sands

Strange things happen when you least expect them.......

Last night after finally finding the sun at Camber Sands and escaping the grey clouds over London, I left dog sleeping quietly and popped out onto the dunes to watch the sunset with my smallest camera.

Other half was busy eating hog roast in Burnham on Crouch, and I was home alone.

As I stood on top of the dunes a man approached in the dusk, wearing a woolly hat. "You'll need a bigger camera than that to capture the sunset" said he. It seems he was a friendly sort, so I responded with a suitably inane comment, and we got chatting. He informed me that he was a photographer. I replied that I was keen as well. He told me he had just bought a house by the dunes and had fallen in love with the place. I explained that my tiny camera was OK for long exposures of waves at dusk, and that I got on just fine with it.

" Are you a professional photographer" he asked.

 "No", I replied

"Are you a psychologist?"  he asked.

"No" I replied. "What makes you says that?"

I was not in a hurry to give my true identity, as it can alter an easy conversation.

"Something about the way you talk", said he....." So what are you?"

It seems the truth would out.

"I am a doctor, but photography is my passion"

Ahh.............  as predicted everything changed, and he started telling me how healthy he was.

"Everyone says I don't look my age". He told me how old he was and I was not in the least surprised. He went on to detail his exercise programme and work schedule, and to tell me a lengthy
saga about a stye in his eye that all started when he went to a chemist and asked for a tube of the antibiotic ointment that defies gravity by expelling the entire contents of the tube when opened. I listened  and then, to my horror, he started taking off his jacket to display his physique as if to give proof.

"I hope you are not going to take any more clothes off" said I slightly nervously, thinking about what my other half would think of this conversation in the dark with no-one else around. Stranger danger was in the back of my mind as he assured me that he wouldn't.

Then I found out that he is a Hasselblad Master.

 If you don't already know, a Hassleblad master is a seriously good photographer. Only 12 people get this accolade each year. His camera cost around £26,000.


We are in completely different photographic leagues, and somehow everything changed again. This time I was in awe, and when he asked to see my pictures I felt totally inadequate and hurriedly showed him a Hipstamatic print from my phone.

Bins at Camber Sands

"Can I give you a tip" says he........... "use the rule of thirds" .................



I mumbled something and quickly showed him another.

Red zone at Camber Sands

"I like that" said he.

I felt relieved, and hurried off home before it got so dark that I couldn't see my way, and before anything more surprising could happen.

I looked him up on the internet and found a seriously professional fashion photographer who has photographed a number of famous individuals including Robbie Williams.

Strange things happen when you least expect them.

the art of living dangerously......... collaborating with a stranger

my life-your life

I have been engaged in a photographic collaboration with a stranger; we have never met, but have seen each other's work on Flickr. I responded to his invitation to take part in an experiment with double exposed film.

I volunteered out of curiosity, and as I have been experimenting with double exposures already, this seemed a natural progression of my experiments.

My other half was not informed. Being naturally suspicious he would immediately have told me to withdraw for fear of invasion of privacy/ putting myself at risk of 'stranger danger' or just because it isn't the sort of thing that his other half should do.

Maybe I would meet this person and fall in love? Or maybe they would draw me into a trap and something bad would ensue. The possibilities for disaster could be endless. So he doesn't know, and I am still alive and other half and I are still together.

Stranger and I agreed to each shoot a roll of film, then post to the other who would re-shoot the entire film before developing.

Having agreed to take part, my own anxieties took hold. What if the images that I had developed were unsuitable? What if it really was a trap? What if the film I received contained 'unsuitable' content? What would the man in Snappy Snaps think? Would the police get involved? I had no control over what was on the roll of film that I received in the post, and that added to the fun. I discussed these anxieties with my second born, who suggested that I pre-empt any unsuitable content by creating my own unsuitable content. Clever, but not something I chose to do. I trusted my instincts and got on with the job.

Wandering around with a  film and my old Fujica I started to think about what I was trying to convey about myself with the images that I took. I made the mistake of shooting the first roll on a Canon EOS. The rewind is electric, and before I knew it the end of the film disappeared into the canister, never to be seen again. So I tried again with my old manual rewind camera, and felt the joy of one of my first manual cameras that I hadn't touched for years. I still have the first roll, undeveloped, and have been considering developing it to see exactly how I had represented my life to a stranger. This might be the most interesting part of the whole experiment.

So what was on my roll of film?

my life-your life 2

I had shown small details from around my home ; not enough to give away my identity, but enough to show a little of my life and immediate enviroment. I showed books, nick knacks, old photos and scenes from the streets around the block. I showed Camber Sands, and the sea (ref. my need to escape suburbia).

Stranger showed me his vegetable plot, his home, bed, shadow, hands. it struck me that there were a lot of similarities in our choice of personal details whilst maintaining anonymity. The shots were not lined up, and the developer had chosen stranger's frames to show as complete images. Mine are therefore cut in half, creating the need to see a strip of images to understand what I had photographed. I am not sure how one gets around the problem of ensuring that both frames are overlaid precisely when the film is removed and reloaded before re-shooting.

my life-your life 3

my life -your life 4

my life-your life 5

What to make of all this?

It was fun; I am still looking forward to seeing the product of the process in reverse, shot in black and white.

There are techincal dificulties to be overcome; much of the roll of film that I received failed to show both parties' images for reasons that are unclear.

Which way should the film be spliced; or should it be viewed as a complete roll, uncut and thereby telling a better story?

The issue of ownership is to be agreed; it seems that we should both own both films, and in due course we hope to scan the negs and share them. What we do with them after that is another question. I am not expecting instant worldwide celebrity as a consequence of this experiment, so the question remains more theoretical than practical.

My thanks to Stranger  for suggesting this.

It has been fun.

 I'll let him decide whether to reveal who he is!