31/03/2009

19th March 2009

So it has been a couple of days since my trip to Virginia Water

Strange how spring and sunshine makes places look and feel different. Got the impression today on the train that these spaces I saw from the window were great arid bright and very flat. Something I seem to have missed through the winter months. I know this journey, it is one I have taken many a time. It has before seem so close and enclosed, homely and at times a little stifling.

Is this because spring seems to have so suddenly and so strongly arrived or is it some psychological after effect of going on location twice in a week and falling into that associated mindset. Will, after this period of almost summer weather makes way for more usual spring weather, it remain?

No postcards here nor any photos, I know this feeling is not one that can be captured through photography, certainly not from a train. Maybe I should have tried however.


28/03/2009

Virginia Water Lake - 18 March 2009

So it has been a couple of days since my trip to Virginia Water and already the details are fading. This saddens me somewhat and I feel that revisiting the images may help however the room I am in is cold and I just want to write this as fast as possible.

I had very few preconceived ideas about Virginia Water, last time I had visited I had been tiny and although I remembered a great expanse of water and the existence of a totem pole nothing else is there bar a sense of excitement. I knew from research on Wikipedia that my idea of what the totem pole looks like was misremembered and I certainly was not aware that there were such extensive gardens as part of the park. Something I found out while printing out a map of the area and soon proved to complicate my idea of a nice simple stroll around the lake.

I severely doubt as a family with two small children we walked the entire 4ish mile lake walk and certainly not the slightly more extensive ramble I embarked upon amongst the gardens on the north side of the lake.

But I was excited about this trip, more so than I expected to be. It had been planned for a few weeks and I was glad of the sunny day and its previously unforeseen proximity to Windsor (How did I not know it was part also of the Great Park. Or Royal Landscape as they put it, an appellation which after seeing it for the first time on Sunday made me snigger and which continues to do so every time I see it. I guess it's an accurate term for the area but it just seems a tad pretentious to me).

I had, as I have already said, undertaken some small research into the area, mainly Google Earth and Maps to fix a good route both for car and potentially for walking. I also ended up in Wikipedia as links to the wiki article and photographs of the Totem Pole were on Google Earth. I visited the Great Park site as well to check on the car park charges and print off a map with viewpoints marked.

So on a beautiful sunny day and after a very successful trip to Windsor I was looking forward to this one. Somehow the pressure to find images was lessened and although I would have been upset to come away with nothing I doubted this would be the case. My most pressing concern for the day was focussed around a desire to get an up close image of the Totem Pole. I had had it in my mind for some time to use a visually straightforward but strong icon like a close up of the Totem Pole on a small canvas like I had done previously with the ice-cream van and other unseen as yet paintings.

What I hadn’t expected was the utter sense of calm that pervaded that space. I feel like I should have expected it, as it was akin to the heightened feeling of tranquillity that I had previously discerned by the riverside in Windsor. The lake was beautiful and wide and blue. The trees were reflected in it in such a way that I could have just stared and photographed them (and most of them were still in winters brown without any sign of spring growth). The Totem Pole was skinnier than I remembered but I feel that that was due to it being a lot taller than I expected. It actually proved to be a right royal pain to photograph just for its exceptional size. I feel to adequately portray it in any medium it would have to be a very tall and thin portrait format. A format not so well suited to showing in most gallery spaces. But again at home the next day I was proved that more often than not the images off my camera look much better when seen on my computer at a sensible size.

The gardens to the north of the lake were wonderfully planted and even in such early spring weather remarkably warm. I imagine in high summer it would be a lush paradise. The 10 metre tall Cascade and bridge on the other side were also highlights. Unfortunately time and circumstances weren’t in my favour with the light fading to a hazy brilliance by the time I got to the 5 arched bridge and the sun in completely the wrong direction for the Cascade and Roman Ruins (which were also undergoing restoration work and so had many steel fences and portacabins in the way of a good photo).

I could wax lyrical about all the tiny details and I do seem to be finding myself doing this only to realise that there was a secondary point to this post. Having already posted a number of entries I also realise that for all my posturing on not being able to write I actually can find quite a lot to say about a particular place. So what else did this trip make me think about?

Taking photographs in a place like this is a lot about waiting and timing. If you want to take a photograph you must be unobtrusive and as quiet as if you were trying to take a photograph of the many animals in the area. If you are happy with just wide and wonderful landscape shots, being noisy is less of a problem but try to get people in it it becomes more tricksome.

In a city like London you will find that people don’t get out of your way, they are too busy to notice you or care about what you are doing. They are used to irritating tourists taking photos of random buildings and on the most part pay very little attention to you. There are downsides to this which I hope to go into when and if I ever write about that kind of experience. In a quiet countryside environment however people are more inclined to notice you.

They try to get out of photographs or on occasion stare into the camera in a way that for me frequently totally ruins the image I was trying to make. They have the space to walk around and or behind you, basically anywhere which avoids the camera's stare.
This is irritating but understandable as most people don't want a stranger in their image of a place. In fact on some occasions there are so few of them around that making sure you have people in the photograph can be tricky in itself.

So for me who wants people in her photographs, I have the situation where you think you can see where a good photograph might be and are forced to either wait there until something comes along or almost stalk the unsuspecting people to get an image with them in from exactly the right place. If and when you manage either of these you then have to take as many photographs as you can, hoping you get a good one, until A the subjects move on or B the subject spots you. Frequently I end up with paintings of the backs of peoples heads, but this is OK with me because I am rubbish painting faces.

While by the lake I had many of these situations. Happily there is one thing about the lake in particular that works in my favour. People gravitate towards it and seem to prefer to set themselves so they are staring at it. It is after all the main focal point of the place. So all my photographs of the backs of peoples heads make sense in the context of them admiring the lake.

27/03/2009

Windsor - 15th March 2009

It's a funny thing but more often than not I haven't investigated places in my local area, instead going to places like London. Now while London is, as I have said before, a very important urban centre especially with regards to my work. I kinda feel however like I might have been missing a trick in not doing these places close by. I think the reason for this is because they are close by, I feel like I know them or at least think that I do. What I have realised is that actually I really have no clue and on top of this there is a particular mind set I feel I have to go through or get into, if that makes any sense.

So what is so special about Windsor? Well to answer that I shall quote a friend on msn I talked to the morning after the trip. Unfortunately I cannot quote it verbatim as I shut the window (I have the setting to save the conversation switched off, saving space ftw).
“Can't say I know much about Windsor other than:

1. The Castle

2. Legoland
3. Legoland has a scale model of the castle at point 1”

Apparently point 3 was made up, and after Internet based searching I can neither prove nor disprove it (would anyone like to pay for me to visit Legoland to find out :P).


What I am groping for here is the point that Windsor is very much based around the castle. 90% of the postcards I have found depicting Windsor are of the castle, however this is understandable for just how a dominant and important structure it is. (It is important to note as fully half of the postcards in Windsor do not actually depict the castle but instead are images of the royal family)

Wikipedia says:

Windsor Castle, in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, is the largest inhabited castle in the world and, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, is the oldest in continuous occupation

In fact I found the full wiki article very engaging and interesting and encourage you all to read it as I will be doing once I finish this first draft.

The castle was based of a motte and bailey type structure and has expanded over the years. Due to this and possibly a natural hill as well (It certainly seemed that way while in town but I couldn't find anything to quote and prove it so) the Castle overlooks the town of Windsor. In fact it is so dominant that I found it a hard task to not inadvertently photograph it. Add in that it is the favoured weekend retreat of Her Majesty and you have a tourist paradise.

However I don't think this dominance is a bad thing. It is a good looking building and around it has grown the town, so happily there are plenty of older buildings. Now I pride myself on being able to find interest and beauty in any place I visit but it is made much easier in places with a little history behind them. Maybe the buildings just have that little bit of individualism that sets them out from each other, maybe I just find them more aesthetically pleasing than masses of glass, steel and concrete. Possibly it is nothing more than while trying to act as a tourist to these places I get wrapped up in the atmosphere and advertising of these older places and my notions of holidays in Britain. Anyway I really struggle when faced with ,what I see as faceless, shopping malls and city centres and frequently find myself attracted to churches and occasionally pubs.

Actually I think that the major thing for me is that I want myself and by extension the people who look at my images to be able to say of yes that is London or wherever, without me having to put text on the image to that effect even though I generally will anyway. I realise that this is a little irrational and that I have many an examples of a postcard that is of some cottage in a tiny little village somewhere which would have made no sense to me if it wasn't for the text.

Anyway Windsor is in that regard a joy to photograph and of the almost 300 photographs I took I am sure that I will find many many potential paintings, drawings and images from them. And every one will stand a good chance of having the castle in them.

Seriously, go down to the river and turn around, there is the Castle.
Walk to Eton, the Castle peeks over the rooftops.
Wander the depths of the Great Park and there is the Castle on the horizon.

In fact I actually started my day in the Great Park and the further away I walked from town the more of the Castle I could see, mainly becuase I was going up a hill in the park. It reminded me of the time years and years ago (I think almost 20 but I can't be sure) when visiting Windsor with my father we parked in a nondescript multistory car park at what felt like miles from the castle. Even so we were able to see and photograph the castle with even my rubbishy compact camera which I found very exciting. Which proves that some things never really change. Unfortunately the photograph I took I seem to have since lost.

I did however find this unrelated and previously forgotten about photograph. It was taken about the same time as the Windsor ones on my first visit to Alton Towers.

I took it because (and I remember this very clearly unlike the rest of the trip) I liked the way the crazy dark sky looked so strange in contrast to the bright shiny sunlit Windmill.

Well wouldn't you know.

26/03/2009

Thoughts on Blogging

You know there is a whole world of difference between thinking about writing something and actually sitting down to do it. I do not feel entirely comfortable writing (it is something I haven't really practised in the few years since finishing University) and I am aware that my turn of phrase can be fairly unique, maybe even over convoluted and needlessly verbose. I am also aware that I tend to ramble and that my use of punctuation less than perfect. Never the less I will endeavour and hope you all don't get too confused.

While walking around Windsor I started thinking about the nature of Blogs (and by extension Facebook and Twitter). From this came thoughts about writing as part of my practice. (Actually now as I write this I am not sure which came first. Each seems to feed the other). That the events and feelings I get when I visit a place to photograph would add interest to the images and paintings I finally create, a little insight into the creative process if you will. I also feel that this will extend, even if only slight, into times when I travel for other reasons as any kind of travel sparks this very individual and unique thought process in me.

However before I could get to deeper thoughts on my work or of Windsor this string of thought led, while wandering across a bridge of all places, to a discourse on my stance on these online diary entries. This is something I have thought about many a time but never felt the need to write about. And you know I'm not going to write about it now. I did write a long entry about how I see other peoples blogs but I fear that I am generalising and so these thoughts will remain unfinished. Maybe one day, but maybe that is a thought for a different kind of blog, one not devoted to my practice. I would say one that assails you all with my opinions but how would that differ from this one. ;)

As I said I plan to Blog about very specific events. I have always sucked at keeping any kind of diary or journal so I will write about times where I have gone to a place, travelled etc. (no, they are not the same thing) and not about everything else in my life. These are big events that I will be returning to many times over a period of days and weeks as I sift through and play with the imagery. Hopefully these events will work like an ongoing project diary. Don't expect it to be updated often. Weeks and or even months may pass in between events and then, in a gloriously sunny week like the previous few I might be going all over the country and bombard you with multiple entries. That being said if it takes me this long to write and refine the entries....

In fact I find it very hard to articulate these thoughts in writing. While in Windsor, when I was thinking about these things, I knew the shape and form of what I wanted to say and although it remains like an itch I cannot scratch while I write this and try to write the next entry about Windsor it just refuses to come out.

I worry now that all my thoughts about Windsor have become lost and fuzzy so I shall go now and battle with Windsor.