Archive for category General
Scenes from the Halifax Farmers’ Market – Sat 18th July 2009
Posted by Damian in Contemplative, Farmers' Market, General on July 20th, 2009
Each Saturday I sell photos at the local Farmers’ Market and of course I take my camera. I walk around the market in the morning before I start selling and shoot pics. The Market is full of visual splendour. To capture llittle gems one just needs to remain relaxed and have an open eye and they will jump out at you. Enjoy.
Green onions and berries
Courgette flowers
Courgette flowers in transit
Farmers' feast
Flowers and broom
Evolution of my photography- Part Three
Posted by Damian in Contemplative, General on April 21st, 2009
Part three - what I found
After spending time in England shooting brick walls and plant pots I returned to Halifax. While in England I had decided to pursue my photography more seriously and to understand why my style had changed. While looking through The Coast I came across an advertisement for a course on contemplative photography named Miksang. After reading ahout this approach to photography I was totally taken by it and decided to take the course which fortunately was based in Halifax. I have now completed two levels of Miksang and fully intend to pursue it further. I would like to take you through the idea behind Miksang so you can better understand and appreciate the changes that have occurred in my photography since Miksang has become a strong foundation of my photography.
Michael Wood 2006, Halifax
Imagine you are playing a game of basketball. You are totally engrossed in the game, following your players and the ball. Suddenly the ball hits you in the face. At that precise moment in time everything seems to stand still and you are captured in a, albeit, brief moment of time. This is akin to the experience of a perception in Miksang. As one walks down an ordinary street something jumps out at you and stops you. This red sweet was one such perception. Brilliant red on grey stone I immediately stopped and looked.
These colourful cones against the drab grey pavement is another example. In these two examples it was the colour that stopped me and held me in place.
In this example, it was less colour and more textural; the warmth feel of the blankets. These blankets and matresses were on the side of a street and as I walked past I saw them and stopped.
So the perception, or the moment when one sees something that stops you is a very strong experience with elements of strong colour, rich texture; its an intense moment, the preception is sharp, brilliant, clear and most importantly free from distraction.
One is able to experience these perceptions through the practice of Miksang. During the instruction, one is taught to control the mind to free your ‘vision’ of distracting thoughts, judgements, labels, associations, memories, etc so that when one sees something one experiences the raw elements of the perception. For example, often when we see something we immediately label it, e.g. that is a bus, this is a car, that is a dog etc. We add judgements, e.g. I like that, I don’t like that. We associate what we see with other things and we recall moments when we saw something similar. Essentially, in no time at all we have a dialogue occurring in our mind based on what we saw and this pulls our attention and focus away from the image that stopped us. In Miskang, one is taught to stop this dialogue from occurring so that one develops and maintains a direct connection with the image; we are held there in this perception experiencing its raw elements. It is an unconditional perception.
Stage Two: Visual discernment
So this process is very meditative. One is held in the moment connecting with the richness and beauty of the image. At some point one moves toward an analysis of the image, while remaining in the perception. One asks “which elements in this image stopped me. Which elements are clutter”. One removes any element in the image that was not involved in the perception. Through this process the image becomes very pure so that all of its elements played some role in the perception. Essentially, we are composing.
The process of visual discernment occurs without the distracting thoughts previously mentioned. The experience remains relaxed and meditative as though one is falling into the image. It becomes quite clear which elements are important and which ones are not.
Stage Three: Forming the equivalent
During this last stage, the camera arrives. Everything before this was done entirely through looking and connecting. But at some point one woudl like to capture the moment on ‘film’ and this is referred to as ‘forming the equivalent’. Here, your skill in using your equipment comes into play; which exposure should I use, how fast should I shoot, is this a vertical or horizontal shot. Once such matters have been worked out, one raises the camera to the eye and shoots.
Helen, Halifax 2006
Although the process may appear lengthy, it all occurs quite quickly such that moments of richness and beauty that occur during the thinnest slices of time are captured.
As mentioned previously Miksang is based on the art teachings of the late Chogyam Trungpa and he provides a wonderful quote of this process:
What a work of art is all about is a sense of delight. Touch here, touch there, delight. It is an appreciation of things as they are and of what one is — which produces an enormous spark. Something happens — clicks — and the poet writes poems, the painter paints pictures, the musician composes music.
Next week: Part Four - where I am
As I engaged in the art of Miksang, my photography began to change. Next week I will show my work from Sable Island and how the practice of Miksang has changed it. This is where I am.
Evolution of my photography – Part Two
Posted by Damian in Contemplative, General on April 13th, 2009
Part Two – Where I went
From the early 1990s to the 2005 I enjoyed photography but often became frustrated because the images I saw often were not on the prints I developed. During the early 2000’s I was not that productive in photography. In 2005, my father died rather suddenly from pancreatic cancer. I found this event very dramatic and it shook my life as though it was a milk shake.
After my Dad’s death I returned to Halifax, Canada. However, after several months of struggle I returned to England and stayed with my mother. During this period I was unable to do any work and found that the only thing I could do was my photography. At this point I had moved over to digital and had a simple point and shoot camera.
Strangely my photography changed dramatically. Rather than shoot nature and landscapes I found myself attracted to very simple images such as this brick wall with its bright and dull bricks.
Some images were not particularly attractive but were still attractive to me, such as the rust coloured concrete above.
Often the images were simple and something that one sees in every day life, such as these pebbles on Brighton beach.
The images often had a strong sense of form.
and strong colour.
Another example of strong colour and form
Simple, every day objects
While in Egland I mostly stayed with my mother. At her home, she had a forecourt full of pots and plants. I remember spending many hours in this small area shooting pictures of the different coloured and shaped pots and their plants.
Again these images were not terribly attractive or interesting to anyone else, but to me they were quite powerful.
Another example of a strong splash of colour
Next week, 27th April – Part Three – What I found
Evolution of my photography – Part One
I recently presented a talk to the Contemporary Arts Society on the evolution of my photography from when I began in the early 1990s to my present day work on Sable Island. The talk was very well received and was interesting to me too since it allowed me to see how my photography has changed and the elements that have shaped it.
This presentation will be posted on my blog in a series of four parts over four weeks: I. where I was, II. where I went, III. what I found and IV. where I am.
I. Where I was
My interest in photography began in the early 1990s after I graduated from University of Reading with a Bachelors degree in Zoology. From then to the present, my interest has been in nature photography. When I was not working I would visit places to photograph nature and landscapes.
I became very interested in marine mammals and this work took me to some wonderful and isolated places. I always had my camera with me and enjoyed shooting pictures of landscapes.
Often my photographs were of the wildlife I was studying.
Some images were indeed quite special and remain so.
I recall the process of shooting photographs. I would see something of interest, such as a nice light, and become very excited and focused on that aspect. My eye would be against my camera and I would shoot until I felt happy that I had the shot I wanted. I didn’t really engage myself with the subject because I was too keen to get the shot.
I found photography very rewarding and it took my mind away from everyday life. It was like an escape.
However, the process of capturing images was quite aggressive. After seeing something special and becoming excited I would focus entirely on getting the shot; the shot that would capture eveything I saw amd because what I saw was so special I would do anything to get it. I would become intensely focused on this task, such that not much else mattered at the time. I find this approach very aggressive and Iexperienced it with the people I photographed with. Further, this aggression seldom got the photo I wanted. What I saw was not always on the print.
I spent 15 years engaged in this process; being aggressive and frustrated. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it all!
Next week (13 April): Evolution - Part II. where I went
Passionate about Food
These images were taken while shooting a series of images for my brother’s Hotel business in England. We visited five places; a fish market on the Grimsby docks, a small cheese farm, a coffee roasting house, a butchers and a free-range turkey farm. By brother wanted images of him interacting with the retailers and their product.
Typically a photographer would arrive with a camera (or two), a couple of lenses, flash and maybe a tripod. To me, this is an expression of control: requiring certain images and using the mind and equipment to ensure that those images are captured. Thus, the photographer arrives with ideas in the head of what he/she wants.
I arrived on the fish docks at 630am in the morning with a camera and a 50mm lens. I was excited about shooting for the day. All I had to do was sit back and observe and I was confident that the required images would appear. And they did. The reason being that my mind was free of expectation, rules of shooting, anticipation; I just needed to observe and wait for moments to arrive. As long as I was open those moments of perception would appear.
Here are a few of those images.
Cow and milking shed
This image just appeared in front of me. When one first starts taking photographs of images that occur in a moment, in a flash of perception, one needs to study the image to really understand what components of it
really saw. Only after you have connected and studied the perception can you raise the camera and shoot. After a while this process occurs quickly so that images like this that are there for a split second can be captured.
Coffee
I was inside a very old coffee roasting house and saw this image. The old window and the old coffee sign seen through it captured the moment.
Passionate about cheese
One hand on the cheese, the other expressing its love for it.
Hand on fish
I can’t say much about this shot. I just love it.
Damian’s photoblog
To keep up with the latest trends I have created this photoblog. For me, I hope this blog will allow those curious souls to better understand how I photograph through the images that I post. I also hope to offer advice on photographic techniques and how to improve your ‘eye’.
