Day 48 : taking the time!

The intrepid photographers have been lured into one of the several retro sweetshops lining the windy lanes of Rochester. The thoughts of Sour Apple Cubes, Sherbet Fountains, Cola Pips, Space Dust, Liquorice Laces and Cinder Toffee drew us in away from capturing the castle we’d been planning to. On leaving that little school days moment, clutching our crumpled paper bags there is an artist painting a picture of said sweetshop, totally dressed as you would if you were going to a fancy dress party as an artist. Outside also is an old man, looking rather dapper with a wonderful charismatic face. LA starts talking to him and asks if he can take his portrait. I can tell he’d make a great photo but I'm not inspired enough to lift my camera to my eye because it’s not generally the sort of photo I'd take.

The elderly gentleman mentions he’d like to include his pocket watch in the portrait. And in that moment, if there was any doubt how LA and my photographic influences differ, I immediately step forward to take a macro shot of his hand in fingerless gloves holding the watch (closed in my previous post) and open exposing the intricate workings here. LA gets him to pose looking stately, holding his watch proudly and has probably captured an amazing, touching portrait as is his wont. I’ll have to make do with the gold watch glistening in his palm.

 

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Chasing the dragon

Frui haven't run one of their mystery days for months now so I was keen to congregate again at a London train station and receive our mystery assignment. Today’s plan was to travel to Rochester Station photograph the late Chinese New Year celebrations in Chatham in the morning and then after a pub lunch head into Rochester to check out the castle and environs.

This morning’s challenge was to try and avoid just photographing the parade itself and turn the lens to crowd, the streets and the general detritus surrounding such an event.

I did take pictures of the other photographers and the increasing clumps of people congregating in the streets flanked by the mostly cheap and gaudy shops but the lure of the vibrancy of participants of the parade and their interaction with the crowds intrigued me most.

I liked the fact that some of the costumes were intricate and elaborate and then others were definitely not. Some of the routines were obviously well rehearsed, the elderly Chinese group elegantly demonstrating their t’ai chi moves counterpointed with the sharp cracks of their fans, the spiralling gyrations of the dragon and the exuberant lion dance. There was a sullen group in dark grey and black carrying an oddly formed snake. Various local martial arts groups had turned out to promote their clubs and an incredibly bubbly pink satin clad dance troupe who never tired of posing for the cameras though I didn't spot any dancing from them.

There were several mayors and mayoress all decked out in their robes heading the parade and attempting to deliver an inspirational speech to the masses but sadly it just couldn't be heard at all above the general cacophony and even the performers themselves were chatting during the efforts.

It was a burst of colour in a strangely uninspiring place, once the parade dissipated we reconvened to decide on our next photography opportunities.

 

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If a picture paints a thousand words, how many does three?

The one off Frui workshop this month is all about the three picture story. This device was often used in newspapers reportage to assist with the storytelling. The general idea is to begin your story with a wide shot to set the scene followed by the main theme of your piece and ending with a bit of detail or colour. However sometimes it's not so structured and perhaps the pictures follow on from one another like a minimalist flip book or just complement one another in some aesthetically pleasing way.

Filski set us forth to practice our craft in a very crowded Borough Market. Being so fond of food photography I was very happy with macro/detail shot but some of the proceeding shots didn't please me as much. After photographing fishmongers filleting, butchers chopping, artisans slicing salami, cheesemongers proffering morsels of cheese and the green grocers weighing, selecting the plumpest and twisting brown paper bags bulging with their wares I settled on the very popular raclette stall.

The half moons of raclette cheese bubble beneath the grills and the servers having been shown the correct prepaid ticket scrape gooey rivulets of molten cheesiness onto a plate of potatoes and gherkins or just potatoes. A wooden fork, and a push through the crowds with your steamy bounty to find a place to perch and then cheesy heaven! Yes, surely a photographic story here.

To make it a little more challenging we were then tasked to create another trilogy but this time avoiding the obvious material of the food stalls.

I plumped for photographers as second to people joyously relishing food are the others photographing food and some eating and snapping. I had a couple of ideas in my mental storyboard. I wanted a shot over a photographer’s shoulder so I could see the obligatory review of the last image, or else live-view depending on the camera. Next one of those unique postures photographers tend to adopt and finally that special camera cradling you see especially with the big cameras as the fingers gently cup the lens. I couldn't do that maneuver until I'd attached my extension tube but I do now find myself mimicking this protective stance. Luckily there was plenty of material.

When we reconvened after completing our mission we uploaded our pair of threes on Filski’s laptop so we could share. It was interesting to see the different interpretation of especially the second challenge. There were buskers setting up, then playing and then the “money shot” of the tossed coins in the double bass case. There was a slice of café life, a red and smoking theme and finally some happy eaters.

This definitely seems to be an interesting device to adopt for the holiday snaps. I noticed how many times in Iceland I went for the wide landscape followed by the macro detail shot. I wanted to record those unique vistas, the tranquility and majesty but I was also attracted to the tiny icicles on the grass, the patterns made in the iced puddles and the melting ice cutting through the dense, black ash. Next time, I'm going to aim for the three picture story rather than the two.