12 by 12 Challenge #1 Part Two

Following on from the first part of my 12 by 12 challenge, I made the same journey but in reverse - from Baker Street tube to Marylebone Station. In her challenge Vanessa Winship made the point that taking the same route may well lead to a different experience on another occasion. Walking in the opposite direction perhaps you notice things you missed on the way there - it's certainly always good to have an alternative viewpoint. Other factors will influence the look of the street - time of day, weather, amount of people and traffic etc. On my second trip it had been raining earlier, the pavements were wet and sleek in the sunshine, raindrops glistened on the reflective bonnets of parked cars....

The following month brings a fresh challenge which I will be documenting here later.  In hindsight, I found this challenge a little underwhelming but that was probably because I only engaged with it in a fairly superficial way. It's not too different to the way I normally operate when I go out with my camera in the city so I didn't really feel that I had covered any new ground! Onwards and upwards.....

12 by12 Challenge #1 Part One

12 by 12 is a year-long series of photo-challenges set by renowned photographers. Every month a new challenge is issued and group members are invited to interpret it by submitting their responses on Flickr or Instagram. The idea is to encourage creativity and experimentation, in terms of approach as well as aesthetics. The challenge is a continuation of previous tasks 52 by 52 and 26 by 26 examples of which are on the website. 

The first challenge was set by photographer Vanessa Winship and urged us to take a route you’re familiar with but have never photographed along and photograph someone or something every 100 or so steps. It's all about looking at a familiar environment with fresh eyes and working within a set of rules and a restricted framework. I really like the idea of imposing limitations on yourself - some may see it as a restriction but sticking to a set of rules can actually free you up. It's a bit like having too much choice in a shop - when you go into a shop which has a limited selection of goods on offer, it actually becomes easier to make a decision! 

Initially I struggled to think of a route to choose as most of my familiar routes are already well-documented. I realised though, that one route I have never photographed is the short walk on my arrival in London between Marylebone Station and Baker Street tube. I take this route on a regular basis but have never felt the need to photograph it as I'm usually focused on getting somewhere else. These are the results, all taken with my phone......

Drive By

Often when I'm driving along I get the urge to stop the car, leap out and take a photo. Obviously this is only practical if you are on your own! On numerous occasions I've been frustrated as I've been the passenger or else I have a passenger with me, or else I'm in a hurry or on a mission. I may return later only to find that the moment has passed, the light has changed or even that the subject has disappeared - the spontaneity of the moment has gone. Sometimes I may pass by a place regularly and not see its potential - then one day the play of light suddenly reveals its hidden beauty or spectacular clouds transform an everyday landscape. On go the brakes, out comes the camera....

Being inside the car is a bit like looking through a camera viewfinder - something about looking out of the windscreen, rear view or wing mirror and seeing the world ready framed. In his series America by Car, Lee Friedlander uses the car windows as a deliberate compositional device, the mirrors reflecting odd, unexpected fragments of the passing scenes. 

From America by Car by Lee Friedlander

Todd Hido's photographs of lonely rainswept American roads are similarly shot through the car windscreen, the rain blurring and veiling the sombre landscapes.

 From A Road Divided by Todd Hido

In the introduction to American Surfaces, Stephen Shore likens the effect of being in a car on a road trip to that of an 'explorer travelling in a bubble of familiarity'. Driving for extended periods puts him in 'a very clear and focused state of mind'. My journeys to the shops or visits to my father can hardly be compared to a road trip - we're not talking Robert Frank's The Americans here! But even on these short trips I find that driving is conducive to creativity - perhaps because there are few other distractions and the mind is fully engaged on the visual, or maybe it's just having the opportunity for some breathing space where the brain can empty itself of daily concerns.

From American Surfaces by Stephen Shore

  

The other day I found myself doing a U turn on a steep hill in the pouring rain just to take a photograph of a pair of roadside mirrors sitting incongruously on the edge of a wood! There is actually an assignment in the Photographer's Playbook by Steve Young which advocates doing just that:

U-Turn Rule

'Whenever you are driving, and pass something that makes you want to grab your camera, you must immediately pull a U-ey, go back, and shoot it. If you don't, you'll spend the next ten miles thinking about it, and then you'll have to add twenty miles to your trip.'

Here are some recent photographs all taken while driving within a 15 mile radius of home.....

RIP Lone Tree

This morning I went out walking on one of my usual routes - I hadn't been this way for some time and the going was heavy. Over two grassy sheep fields, is another large arable field which has a lone tree in the middle of it. The field had been ploughed over the winter into huge furrows and I felt momentarily disoriented as I scanned the horizon for its familiar outline only to find it missing! I felt sure I had made a mistake - perhaps the tree had been in another field after all. But as I walked round the edge, it became clear to me that it was definitely no longer there. Perhaps it blew down in stormy weather or more likely it was removed by the farmer to make ploughing easier. It had always been a landmark which showed the direction of the public footpath across the field, usually hidden by crops or ploughed up in the winter. No longer will it be there to point the walker in the right direction or to offer a bit of welcome shade on a hot sunny day. Another small change in the landscape, probably not noticed by many but sadly missed by me.

I have taken many photographs of this tree over the years, with various assorted cameras and in all seasons. Here is a selection.... RIP Lone Tree!

There and back II

Another day, another walk. This time across fields and taking in three ponds and some derelict farm buildings for added interest. The fields are heavy with mud which sticks to my boots, the wind is bitingly cold and my hands freeze but it feels good to be outside as my lungs fill with the fresh air, blowing away my mental cobwebs.

The ponds are a feature of the landscape round here - I know of at least half a dozen. They are fed by springs which trickle down from the Edge Hill escarpment, the same escarpment where the Royalists camped out and surveyed the battlefield in the Civil War. I have done this walk at different times of the year, but it is in the winter months that their stark and mysterious beauty is most appealing....