Fame. At last....

Role out the red carpet, here she comes! The Famous Telegraph competition participant!!

I'm famous! Ha-ha... well, moderately, anyway. It was only 2nd place. So I can't get too carried away. But its fame, and I'm excited about it!

There is a weekly photographic competition, held on Flickr, but run by The Telegraph UK. They have different themes, this last week it was 'Buildings'. I submitted my photo of the Durban skyscrapers. And I came 2nd! And the blog I wrote about the photo was mentioned too!
Kate Day, the journalist who runs the competition, had some very nice comments to make about the photo. I'm thrilled!!

The link to the Daily Telegraph page: Photo competition: buildings


Durban city skyscraper, with barbed wire.

Its so great to be recognised for having done something good, even if it is a little weekly competition. For a complete stranger to acknowledge my photo, and see something in it, is quite fantastic. Kate Day's comments about the photo and the blog are very interesting as well.

Another member of the camera club I belong to, Allan Jackson, has also had a photo or two be featured in this competition, so the Hillcrest Camera Club is doing well to gain international recognition!

Of course, now the challenge is on to the rest of you. Lets see how many other Hillcrest Camera Club members, or fellow Durbanites can get their photos featured in international competitions like the Telegraph's.

See you on the red carpet!

Risk, Art and Hands

This is the photo that got me inspired. It is a Minkkinen "Self Portrait" done in his distinctive abstract style. I love this photo. I love how the two hands form a new shape, and how they seem poised to touch, but dont. The background plays a role in adding to the mood. And the tree is shaped like the arm. Or is it that the arm follows the shape of the tree? Once one begins to look deeper, there are questions as to how the shot was created. If it is a self portrait, how did Minkkinen shoot it?

On reading up on Minkkinen, I soon realised that my first assumption that these couldnt be self portraits, was wrong. He states that he took all his own photos. Its a tricky process, made even more difficult when done on a film camera, as his shots are. No digital memory cards of infinite quantities. Limited film meant limited opportunities to get the shot right.

Minkinnen quotes Georges Braque :"Out of limitations, new forms emerge." Minkkinen says that "Art is risk made visible". He meant that instead of being limited by his restrictions, he used them to make himself grow. And to take better photographs. He risked more, to create his art.

This is a philosophy that resonates with me profoundly. I have many limitations myself - my camera equipment, or the lack therof, my lack of experience and my lack of training. Yet in Minkkinen's eyes, these limitations should free me, and make me grow. I should be happy to take the risk, just to create art.

Its a kind of reverse phsycology that makes sense to me, somehow.

With this in mind, I have tried to 'copy' Minkkinen's photo. Its not easy - trying to explain philosophy and theory, while also getting the hand shape correct, to my 'models' Michele and Tanika was difficult! After a few shots where my 'models' attempted to 'strike the pose' but failed, I just took a deep breath, and let the process flow. I let them do what they wanted. I took many shots, with all sorts of hand poses. .

I didnt get the exact pose as the Minkkinen photo above, but I think Imight have got an even better pose. When I got back home, and looked on the computer, I realised that I had captured a lot of detail in the fingers and hands. Coverting to black and white made the character of the hands stand out even more. The light from the sun, and the flash, created an interesting contrast. I had also over exposed for the sky, so had created a strong background colour for the hands.

I think I got a magical shot. Their hands look amazing and I love the detail.

I am hoping to take many more hand shots. Right now, I am enjoying the challenge and the reward of creating something incredible out of something as simple as a hand.

Walking The Streets

I was walking the streets again. On a Sunday. Should have been kneeling down in religious prayer perhaps. Not kneeling down on West Street, taking photos. But in the street walking game, I guess any day is a work day, and I was definitely working last Sunday!

Its quite exhilarating. The cement pavement under one's feet, the concrete and steel surrounding one. Look up, and all one can see is the buildings reaching for the sky, and then the sky itself. Admittedly, one can also see rubbish and litter everywhere, and the smells are not exactly 'Lavender Fresh', but its gritty and its real. Its street walking, with a twist.

OK, so I'm not plying my trade, walking the streets of Durban, in prostitute mode. I bet that was your first thought. Silly you. I was on a photo shoot, a photo walk, an outing..... whatever you to call it. I was taking photos!

I was with some fellow photographers from the Durban Flickr group. We walked through the city, from the Workshop, through to the City Hall, down to the Embankment, the Courts and then back up through to West Street. It was quite a walk. Specially when the process is about as fast as walking a dog who likes to pee on every lamppost. Its a stop and start process. We like to take photos of everything, and with five of us, we pretty much covered every interesting item visible. I mean everything. See our Flickr photostreams to prove that.

But, anyway, back to the exhilaration. I guess at heart I'd rather be living in New York or London, than Durban. Just to be able to walk the streets and take in the sights. I love tall buildings, I love concrete, I love traffic lights. I love cities. OK, I also love the sea, the mountains, the sky. But right now, I'm having a little love affair with a city.

Before I became serious about taking photos, I was afraid of Durban. Just like everyone else I know. Afraid to venture the streets, and afraid to endanger my life. Admittedly, Durban is a changed city, and doesn't resemble the city that I knew ten years ago. The danger of being mugged, or hijacked is real, and is possibly higher in town. But you have to look beyond that threat, and ask - what else is stopping me from enjoying the sights? And quite frankly, its just fear. So find a way around that fear, and conquer it. Which is what photography has taught me, in a way. I wanted to take photos of the city, but fear prevented me. But I found a way around that.

A few week's ago, on another Sunday, I got in my car and drove down to Durban city. I figured that it would be quieter than normal, and I should get some kind of a photo opportunity. I also convinced myself that I was relatively safe in my car. I was in Drive By Shooting mode, (as discussed previously) and ready to explore.

And I was grandly rewarded! This was the result of that first city shoot:

I was in love. The shot looked so 'New York' to me, I was chuffed! And this was Smith Street! I have since been down to the city to take more photos from my car, and I have taken some lovely shots. Our city can look rather pretty. OK, yes, pretty from an angle, with a little Photoshopping. But seriously, wouldn't we all look a little better with a little 'work' done on us?

The opportunity to actually WALK the streets was exciting to me. And I wasn't disappointed. While everyone else was taking photos of the people in streets, or the other sights to see, I was standing up against the buildings, taking many shots. I think I got some good photos, and I like the oblique angles. I especially like the shots where three buildings almost meet in the sky, just because of the angle I took the shot at. Very much like the photos I've seen taken on New York's skyscrapers. Except for the barbed wire at the base of the building. I think that's possibly a uniquely South African feature!

Of course, now I'm hooked. I'd love to go back down those streets and take some more photos. But reality prevails, and I won't do it alone. I can't get my car into the tiny alley ways, I have to actually stand under the buildings! So I await the next opportunity to catch a glimpse of the object of my new photographic desires - Durban and its buildings....