Research

Research Document

Research

This has been copied and added to from what is left of my now Defunct Adobe Spark Raw Project. This is because Adobe decided to abandon the program and neglected to inform users. What they now have is an Adobe Creative Express which will only give you one page I was only able to get to my Projects because of the links I sent out to my tutors and the site is now unworkable

For my Raw Exhibition title I decided that it needed to be in line with the statement of something Raw .The project will thus be titled, the raw land, or as a dictionary describes the raw landscape as land in its natural state and which has not been prepared for building or for growing crops on.

Therefore, in any of my images I feel that my landscape images should not include anything that is man-made. This would include, any forestry plantation like pines trees, Quarrying, man-made lakes, Coal or quarry tips, ploughed fields any fields at all as once they are hedged or fenced, they become a man-made enclosure. We have an abundance of raw landscape in Wales and also within the UK, with all the mountains and surrounding moorland areas. This could also include common land which is used for grazing only but not unploughed fields as they may have been prepared for crops in previous years palso I think I will include wild beaches like Monknash, Nash Point Merthyr Mawr although it now seems that Merthyr Mawr has indeed a lot of human management and thus is now off my list.

This is an area of ancient wood land in Devon which will be of interest to me

https://visitdartmoor.co.uk/attraction/wistmans-wood

Wistman’s wood Dartmoor

https://www.google.com/search?q=wistmans+wood+devon

This is a natural oak wooded area on Dartmoor that fits the bill for raw land and contains mosses and lichen that grown on both the trees and boulders in it.

There are other images below which could also be taken at the same time as the visit to Wisemans wood in Dartmoor two are illustrated below.

There is a need to check out the landscape in my area which is not far from the Brecon Beacon national park and see if I can get good interesting shots without having to walk to far. Do I get up for a sunrise now that it is winter and also sunset checking on photographers Emphasis to see in which direction, I will need to point my camera.

Below are 2 images taken in the Brecon Beacons which are of interest to me because they show no man made object in them whereas images by both Nick and Nigel will often do so, therefore I cannot rely on their images as representation of Raw land but must do my on research using Google maps and my own knowledge of areas that I have previously visited.

Below the 2 images of the Brecon beacons using Google search.

https://www.google.com/search?

In both instances the photographer is not named because of the numerous images that litter the google search engine and really the images themselves are common sense landscapes pictures that just need research to find them.

Two photographers Nick Jenkins who runs Free Spirit images and Nigel Forster both take images in this area and both run tutorial days and photographic holidays out in the Brecon’s. They are both extremely good at what they do and have published numerous books each.

https://www.google.com/search?

Nick Jenkins photograph

Nick Jenkins.

One of Nick Jenkins books.

About Nick Jenkins https://freespiritimages.com/biography-of-nick-jenkins/

Taken From Nick Jenkins biography

I have been a keen landscape and outdoor photographer for the last 15 years or so. My interest stemmed from my complete inability to capture through a viewfinder the sense of awe I felt when out walking in the British hills. It was then that I was determined to do something about this inability and set about teaching myself how to capture landscapes that meant something to me when I got home. After putting a portfolio together of my best British landscape images, I achieved my Associateship

of the Royal Photographic Society, followed by Associateship of the Welsh Photographic Federation.

In 2001 I left corporate life behind and in 2002 set up ‘Freespirit Images’, the business
I now run to market and promote my photographic images. This ranges from tutoring and advice on my courses and workshops to producing images for magazines, greetings cards and calendars, throughout the UK. I supply several photographic agencies with travel and general stock photography. I also give talks and presentations to clubs and societies all-round the country, including camera clubs and professional organisations.

Initially much of my time was spent photographing the great outdoors for clients such as AA Publications, CADW, Cardiff City Council, Isle of Man Tourism, Newport City Council and the Brecon Beacons National Park. More recently I have been shooting for commercial clients; for their Annual Reports, websites and business flyers. This is a different branch of photography for me, but one that is so enjoyable, and I am attracting new clients all the time. See my https://freespiritimages.com/ website page for more details.

Nigel Forster https://nigelforsterphotography.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Landscapes-of-Wales-2-reduced-1.mp4

https://nigelforsterphotography.co.uk/index.php/buy-photographic-images-by-nigel-forster/

https://www.creativephotographywales.co.uk/About-Nigel

Image by Nigel Forster

Both Nick and Nigel are extremely good photographer but, in their photography, they often include man made objects of places which have had human interference therefore would not be usable in this project.

Nick, I have known for some time and often comes to our camera club to give talks he is well presented very knowledgeable and an all-round good photographer.

He has done a few books I have one called Moods of Cardigan bay published many years ago.

Another book by Nick Jenkins.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moods-Mid-Wales-Nick-Jenkins/dp/1841142956

Nigel Forster lives in Talybont Powys opposite the Star Inn a well known real ale public house and like Nick does talks for camera clubs and runs photography tours in the Brecon Beacons and elsewhere.

Nigel can be found on Facebook as well and can be often seen at his stall in the photo show in the NEC in Birmingham.

So, looking at both photographers I can see they are extremely good professional but for me they are doing the normal landscapes and not the Raw Landscapes. I think I will have to use my own knowledge of the area and google maps which I constantly use when searching for good landscape image.

I googled an area of the Brecon Beacons as part of my research, to try to find a remote part of the Brecon Beacons and saw the valley between Hirwain to Sennybridge had part of the old Roman road called Sarn Helen.

Having been there before I knew it could be what I was looking for. I needed to photograph an area beyond the pine tree forest plantation (a crop)as this would furfill the Raw aspect of my project.

Below are samples of the images from October 3^rd that were taken from this shoot, of the moorland high in the Brecon Beacons with added mood to emphasise a Raw Image. This subject has to be by trial and error and numerous visits to find and take images that do not have man-made object showing in them.

2 Photographs of the Brecons by Ron Lines for my Raw Project.

I also researched an area south of Ebbw Vale called Silent valley nature reserve. this has some old trees in its woods and I went to see if these were also suitable for my project.This is a large nature reserve and does not have many man made objects in it.

Silent Valley nature reserve. Both images are taken by myself and these seem to be ideal for the Raw Project where nothing is man made.

A the need to do a new project.

Unfortunately, I have had to reconsider my option of the Raw landscape because in the process of growing old I get all sorts of ailments which I really don’t want but now have started catching me up, limiting me on what type photography I am able to do.

So the change of plan will be implemented here due to my ill health, I now feel it will be too dangerous to attempt this type of landscape photography anymore as I do not have very good stability and also vertigo, and because of this I felt very unsafe while working in Silent valley nature reserve. I realise now that any work I do must be on quite flat land or with a large amount of people who can call an ambulance or help me up. I decided that it must be a type of SPORT that I do and after thinking about it, I have gone and taken other images using this different type of project to use in the exhibition.

Sport.

Raw Power Grasstrack Motorcycle racing and or Cycle cross using pedal cycles over country terrain.

Having been to a Grasstrack race organised by Ledbury MCC which is grass track motorcycles roaring around a circular track, there are plenty of people around plus ambulance services, so it seemed to fit the bill.

So, I will now change to Raw Power using images of Motorcycle Autograss and or pedal cycle cross images.

The decisive moment

With any sport it’s all about catching that decisive moment, the most famous person to use this method was Henri Cartier Bresson. The moment has to be precise, so it makes the image look good and must not have any other converging lines or objects in it. The image must not have too much going on in the background but must be a high impact sharp and well-lit.

A famous image by Henri Cartier Bresson, It’s all about the decisive moment .

Image from google search Cartier Bresson.

Talking about Henri Cartier Bresson

Here we see Henri Cartier Bresson’s image of the cyclist going around a corner of a street, it’s a cobbled street so add interest, but the major factors for me are the fact that neither the rear wheel nor the front wheel merge with anything else.

If the rear wheel was behind the railing, I feel the image would lose a lot of the impact that this image gives us. Similarly, if the front wheel were behind the building then not only would it look odd it would throw the whole image out of balance and the impact of this image would again fail.

Henri Cartier Bresson practised this type of work a lot I have seen many of his images catching people jumping over puddles and Bresson makes sure they are in mid-air.

For me Bresson must have practiced and practised even more to have been able to capture that type of photography, he didn’t have a motor drive on his Leica so it must have been single shots on film. Now how many times did he get the cyclist to ride past this balcony I wonder, because to get this shot even with the camera lined up on the area, he would have to have been very quick.

But this is what sports photography is all about, getting that decisive moment, the camera must be held to the eye the finger ready to press the shutter button and the brain watching for that moment seconds before it happen. It’s really down to training you whole body to see hear and predict that moment.

Cartier’s training of people jumping over puddles made him acutely aware of what was going to happen seconds before it does and that is what is needed to become a good sports photographer.

http://www.eamonnmccabe.co.uk/biography.html

Eamonn McCabe

http://www.eamonnmccabe.co.uk/biography.html
Biography of Eamonn McCabe

The famous footballer Marradonna the dive taken by Eamonen McCabe.

Information copied from his website above.

Started off photographing for local papers before freelancing for The Guardian and other national titles.
Joined The Observer in 1976 and won Sports Photographer of The Year a record four times, covering three Olympics.
In 1985 was named News Photographer of The Year for his work at The Heysel Stadium disaster.
1988 Fellow in Photography at the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television.
1988 joined The Guardian as Picture Editor, winning Picture Editor of the year a record six times.
2001 returned to freelancing, photographing mainly people in the arts for The Guardian but also other newspapers and magazines.

Has produced several books on photography:

Eamonn McCabe Photographer.
Eamonn McCabe Sports Photographer.
DECADE published by Phaidon 2010.
Artists and Their Studios published by Angela Patchell Books.
The Making of Great Photographs published by David and Charles.
The Pope’s Visit to Great Britain 1982 (Official photographer)

Awards:

Fellow of The Royal Photographic Society.
Fellow at The National Museum of Film, Photography and T.V.
Prof at Thames Valley University.
Doctorate University of East Anglia.
Doctorate Staffordshire University.

Appears regularly on radio and T.V. talking about photography and has exhibited widely in Britain and has several pieces of work in The National Portrait Gallery collection, London.

Eamon McCabe an exceedingly good sports photographer in all types and aspects of sports photography, in his talk to our camera club he told us that he would walk the whole length of the course or the sports field or arena looking for areas that would give good backgrounds and high impact shots and would then sit and wait for the action. He is good ,very good but he has been at it for years and he does all types of sport while I concentrate on just some, so many of his images are irrelevant to me.

Being a professional sports photographer means you have to have a website you also must have a very good CV and that you have taken a long time in getting to know sports organisers and organisations and showed them you are a very capable photographer to be allowed into major sporting events. This is why I go to smaller events as its much simpler to get in and take photographs, but a Public Liability insurance is a must.

Below is a photograph I took at a recent Motorcycle trials event on the 6 March 2022. this is an image that has both power and imapact, its been caught right and would make a good image in my new project called Raw Power.

Photo taken by Ron Lines.

Looking at other motorcycle events I also photograph grasstrack events which are large motorcycles racing round a field in a large circle with both solo and sidecar events.

It is hard to find proffesional photographers who do this sport but looking on facebook and instagram I find Sarah Dawe of TTL photography.

This was taken at Sperrington Farm Penscombe near Ledbury and is the home of Ledbury MCC.

This is a photo of her that was taken by myself,

Sarah Dawe by Ron Lines.

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sdsportspics/?hl=en

In the image below taken by Sarah Dawe I find that althouigh there is great action going on the background is a little to busy and distracts from the scene.

Taken by Sarah Dawe of TTL photography.

at Sperrington Farm circuit.

One of the girl riders at the Ledbury event I will admit that I do like this image showing a very lovely and relaxed girl sitting comfertably on her motorcycle sidecar.

Researching and looking at Sarah’s images I find that she just goes for as many images as possible and does not really care about how the background looks.

I have always positioned myself on the corner of the circuit that has a hedge behind it and thus gives a pleasing appearance. In the image below which I took you can see that the two girl riders are on the motorcycle but have the hedge behind them.

Image by Ron Lines at Sperrington farm on the same day as the above images in my image I have choosen to show both of the female team who ride the number 55 motorcycle.

In this image from TTL Photography it shows the no 9 500cc sidecar machine https://www.facebook.com/TTLPhotography71/photos/pcb.595484618480213/595483845146957

taken by Sarah Dawe of TTL Photography

Another side of this project I reseached was the Cycle Cross which is a field event for pedal cyclists again who race round a circuit to find a winner

It was to be held on the 31^st October at Newport . I had never heard of it and knew nothing about what it entailed. It was done on short notice of about a day and I had to google the area where it was being held. When I turned up found I was a good distance away from where the event was being held and had a 15 minute walk, it was easy to find I just followed the constant stream I was very intrigued by the chance to photograph a different sport;

I met another pro photographer at the later Caerphilly event on the 28 /11/2021 and found him and his images on Facebook.

My research and analyses of his work is that he is extremely good at doing, this I saw him walking the course and then lying down on the ground to take pictures of the cyclists as they came past. Below are some of them. You can clearly see that his ground level photography has paid dividends on impact, as can be seen from his images below.

Howard Goldberg pro photographer welsh cycle cross and sport photographer.

https://www.facebook.com/howard.goldberg.98

Images by Howard Goldberg from his Facebook page.

Research on hanging an exhibition for my raw project

Other Exhibitions

The Facebook page of Photography Exhibitions worth seeing UK https://www.facebook.com/groups/213217131022770

Below Images from The Stephen Gill exhibition Bristol https://arnolfini.org.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/NottinghamNottsPS/posts/exhibition-news-the-print-project-group-exhibition-is-currently-on-show-at-the-b/4483502858348920/

Print Project group exhibition Nottingham.

https://www.facebook.com/NottinghamNottsPS/posts/exhibition-news-the-print-project-group-exhibition-is-currently-on-show-at-the-b/4483502858348920/

Print Project group exhibition Nottingham 2021

Research on Health and Safety at the Newport Exhibition

I have a level 3 Neebosh General certificate (national examination board for occupational safety and health) obtained in 2010 and thus have have enough knowledge about Health and Safety.

Bibliography

1 https://www.welshcycling.co.uk/events/welsh-cyclo-cross-league-2021/

2 https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/wales/cyclocross

3 https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/getintocyclo-cross/?c=WA

4https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events

5 youtube video of the Newport Event women

Youtube video of Mens racetredegasr park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9YSpAbO3dM

6 http://www.cyclocrosswales.co.uk/

7 youtube 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR_Bi8h24kE

Grasstrack

1https://formulagrasstrack.com/