The Ramblings and Discoveries of Gareth Partington

Trying To Work Out Who I Am

Gaz — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:30:45 +0000

An exploration of my self portrait. This is the final order the images should be in.

So this mini project of mine was inspired by a class I am currently teaching to a level one group which was all about self portraiture. I must admit I’m sure the class are less enthusiastic then I am about my assignments, but hey I thought I’d have a go at it.

I’ve done lots of self portraits over the years and wanted to teach myself some new lighting set ups, so it became a technical exercise in lighting as much as it did a project about who I am. Each photo had a different light set up, all done in the tiny confines of my bedroom with little speed lights (for those geeky photographers).

The idea was written in my note pad at about a 12.00am one day and it sat there for a few weeks. I kept saying lets make it then got distracted and found my playstation more alluring. But finally I kicked myself up the bum and got making them.

The first photo to be created was the cyclist one. I wanted to shoot a picture of me in my club kit (Lichfield City Cycling Club) showing off the strange lycra fetish I have at weekends.

This was made using two speed lights with grids either side of my face, then another speed light was added with a shoot through umbrella facing me. I wanted to create a gritty sort of look I had seen in some magazines. I think I kind of pulled it off but the light is a little uneven. Sorry any pros reading.

The second photo in the series to be made was the geek one. I am a massive geek at times and I’m quite proud of it. I was going to wear my Star Wars dressing gown but opted for a more modest cool Haynes Manual AT-AT T-shirt instead. To complete the look the mop was side swiped over bringing back horrors of childhood side partings.

In order to photograph this one it was a pretty easy light set up. One homemade ring flash positioned in front of myself but I soon found out ring flash in glasses is not a good look. So a slight turn to the side sorted that out although you can still see it in the corner.

The third photo to be made was the “I’m a Photographer” one. I really couldn’t work out how to make this look interesting. I tried lots of ideas out and in the end just resorted to the over used, over created, put a camera over my face. I wanted to have photos drifting down around me but throwing them up, putting the camera to face and firing off the digital camera really wasn’t happening. I did try adding falling photos in post production but it looked fake so took them out. For anyone who is eagle eyed though you will notice my name is on the lens.

This was lit by two speed lights, 45 degrees to each other one with a shoot through umbrella the other was a silver reflector.

The forth photo to be made was “I’m a Me” I tried lots of moody looking, pouting, straight glares, poser shots but in the end picked one where I was bored and pulled a face. I don’t know if this really sums up me as a whole but I quite liked the light on my big hair.

This was shot with a speed light directly behind me, a snooted speed light top right and I think I filled in with a shoot through umbrella just so the jacket had some detail.

This was how the photos were going to end but I thought I needed to remake the photographer one so sat down trying to work out how to do this. I came up with an idea of having photos stuck on my face. But when it came to making it I really didn’t think it showed me as a photographer, I decided to break up my face a bit. The enlarged eye and mouth made it a little difficult to work out who I was and as a series of images this fitted perfectly before the final one.

Lit by a single umbrella to camera right up high.

So there we have it my set of images about me. I’m a little bored of starring at my face now but as a series it shows off a few of the things I do, some of my personality perhaps and I learn’t quite a lot along the way. I think my favorite is the “Who am I?” or “I’m a Cyclist”.

If you just read all that, well done to you, if you skipped to the end like I would after quickly looking through the photos, you just missed out on some riveting gossip about my inner soul and self discovery and how profoundly disturbed I am, but you can probably get that from just looking at the images too, so don’t bother going back to read all this.

But thank you for looking at the images, I’m slowly getting back into my photography.

Right whats the next lot of photos? I really want to get out in the landscape again, or make some horrible manipulation.

24 hours of my life

Gaz — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:17:44 +0000

This was a little project I did back in November after watching a TV show about peoples lives over the duration of 24 hours. I wondered if I could take photos continuously throughout my day and put together a little slideshow.

Editing down the images from about 300 to 50 was quite hard and I wanted to make sure the identities of other people remained anonymous.

They are not the most amazing pictures in the world, but I didn’t want to edit them or set up shots. They had to be quick snap shots throughout the day with not too much thought.

First Photos Of 2012 – Cannock Chase is Hard To Photograph

Gaz — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:12:50 +0000

Well yesterday I decided it was high time I got out and took some photos. So blearily eyed I wake up at 6.30am and get my stuff together and head out to Cannock Chase. I wasn’t really sure what I was hoping for or looking for but I ended back up on the heather moors near Spring Slade Wood.

The sun was just coming up as I got there and I managed to get a nice photo of a tree with the sunrise behind. Lots of frantic “Shit that looks rubbish” comments to myself as I tired to find a composition that worked.

Sun Rise over Cannock Chase

It was a weird day though, the sun rose and for 15 minutes I had nice sunshine but then the clouds rolled in, a massive grey curtain came over the top of me and then the rain. I got a bit lost looking for my car on the way back I can never work out which direction I come from up on these moor land heath thingys

I took about 50 photos and out of all of them only actually liked about 3. Not photos that are going to win prizes, or make people go oowwwww. But I took some, I had a massive walk with Dylan (My Dog), and it got me thinking like a photographer again.

I have decided though Cannock Chase is a really really hard place to photograph. I love it there but trying to find images that are interesting for a viewer to look at is another thing.

This one isn’t a great shot, it was the first photo I took, I like bits of wood but I don’t think it’s atmospheric enough. The bleached out sky doesn’t help but the sun was rising just behind it, so forgive me and my technical incompetence a little will you?

Cannock Chase 2012

As I continued exploring the rolling hills, I was trying to photograph the grass but there wasn’t enough wind to make it interesting. I did come across some flowers tied to a tree though. The flowers were dedicated to a dog that had just passed away saying how she loved to chase the rabbits up here. Can’t say I saw any rabbits today, lots of rabbit poo though which my dog loved to walk through and have a good old smell of.

The passing of a Dog

I’m not so sure on this photo there’s a bit too much going on to make it interesting but I was just having a play with my 10 stop ND filter which has made the sky appear like it is moving. Nice idea I think but not much else to hold your attention so move on if your bothering to read any of this stuff. But there is a creepy figure in the picture, see if you can spot him.

10 Stop ND Filter Cannock Chase

I walked up and over the horizon of the previous picture but really couldn’t find anything else that was interesting me. I tried a couple of long exposures but the rain started to come down covering my lens in lots of little droplets that didn’t look so good on the pictures so it was time to head back. I did see some nice tree roots exposed out the side of a bank so took a couple of shots but they aren’t great and I couldn’t find an angle that worked with them. I still like them for what they are.

Exposed Roots

After that it was really a case of spending ages trying to remember where I parked my car. Like I said at the start, not the greatest photos ever but it’s a start to using what has become a redundant expensive box of late.

Right new years resolution use my camera A LOT more!!!!!

Happy Christmas Everyone

Gaz — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:30:30 +0000

This was my design for my Christmas Card 2011. It’s not quite as good as last years but it continues with the same characters in my dark and disgusting fashion.

Trying a light set up from “Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it”

Gaz — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:28:13 +0000

I recently brought myself a book by “Scott Kelby” called “Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it” and was reading through it yesterday. It’s a brilliant book and I would recommend it to any photographers, even if you think you know it all. The first chapter was about clam shell lighting and last night just out of curiosity I wondered could I do something similar with my little flash guns and random light modifiers I had.

Working in my tiny room was a little difficult and trying to do a self portrait with so little space got a bit annoying at times. Now I don’t think these are amazing pictures, I don’t think my light was great but it did work. I also learnt loads of new stuff in Photoshop I didn’t know from the book.

This is my set up as you can see a bit chaotic. Hopefully clicking the picture will open it bigger.

Now I don’t think I suit soft light at all, my face is far too weathered to stand in front of pretty light but as an experiment it doesn’t look too bad. I recon I could fobb someone off saying it was shot in a studio.

I did have one other random idea whilst I was doing this could I make a face photographic joiner, seems as I was teaching my students about joiners the other week. It was done very quickly, it’s not seamless and it could be a million times better but as a start again it kinda works. So think of these few pictures on this post just as a test and work in progress.

Using Warp tool and content aware in CS5

Gaz — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:23:16 +0000

I was just searching for some videos to show my university students and came across this retouching video. It is quite long in length but it shows some ace editing using the puppet warp tool, warp tool, masks and content aware fill. It’s a very geeky Photoshop video so anyone not interested in Photoshop will soon switch off but but thought it was amazing.

Experimenting at Cannock Chase

Gaz — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:18:03 +0000

These are a couple of shots I took at Cannock Chase on Monday 26th September, the sun was very bright so it wasn’t really ideal for what I wanted to achieve but I still got some interesting images. I think I’m more drawn towards the images that are not necessarily landscape ones, such as the close up of the grass.

I was using the IR filter again on my fixed 24mm Nikon lens. I haven’t really spent a lot of time at this part of the chase, I call it the heather fields (no idea what it’s real name is) and as such I was just wondering around up here for 2 hours.

Click to view slideshow.

There’s nothing really amazing about these photos but I’m just playing and getting use to using my camera again. Using the blog as a sketchbook as such.

I’m just including the before and after shot of what it’s like when the IR photo comes into photoshop. It’s a mass of red that needs to be converted to black and white. As you can see in this photo it’s quite underexposed but a bit of playing with levels and curves and it can turn out ok. If I could master the exposure of the IR pictures it would be alot easier but most of the time I’m guessing at exposures of 1 minute or longer trying to see what comes out ok on the camera by checking the histogram.

Idea for an Exhibition

Gaz — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:30:29 +0000

So I got talking to a chap, John Simpson, whom I work with who is an artist and he has suggested we put on an exhibition together as I was inquiring about a gallery in Lemington. I was a little hesitant at first but I think I’m going to do it. I haven’t really made much new work in quite a while and it would be a kick up the backside to get me making something.

For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to think what would make a good exhibition and not really came up with many ideas but after playing around with my infra red filter again I think something sparked off in my head.

It would be a quite a somber mood to my theme if I decide to do a new body of work something to do with the fragility of time.

I think it started with a picture I took when on holiday of three little girls stood on a rock as the tide came in down on White Sands Beach in South Wales. They appeared like ghosts and due to the long exposure of the picture the sea became a blur of movement. It was a moment in time captured and showed that nothing was permeant and or forever.

I have this picture now on my wall in my bedroom and looking at it as I was pondering for ideas it’s the only picture that got me inspired again, well the only picture I had made that inspired me a little.

So far I have a couple of little ideas for directions I could move in for some new images, so I just need to make them. I am going to get myself a 10 stop ND filter so I could experiment with very long exposures in colour and see how they come out. Thing is these filters are very expensive, I’m just waiting to see if a seller on ebay in Japan will accept my silly low price I offered for one. If not then I’m going to have to take the plunge and spend the £120 or so pounds on one

It’s typical I wanted to go out and try some ideas today but it’s turned into a beautiful sunny blue skied day, not suitable for my moody somber pictures.

If any one does read these things keep your eyes peeled for new work. It may happen one day from the lazy pretend artist Gareth Partington

Out-of-focus pictures eliminated by photography innovation

Gaz — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 07:22:28 +0000

I can’t work out if this is a great invention, a gimmick or a waste of time but it was interesting anyhow.

Out-of-focus pictures eliminated by photography innovation

Inspired for the first time in a long time by Dave Hill

Gaz — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:32:37 +0000

I was at work today and on my dinner trying to find some inspiration for ideas for projects.

I came up with a couple of ideas I liked then thought I’d do a bit of tech geekery and look at lighting websites for some more ideas. I went on the www.strobist.com website and came across this video for Dave Hill.

I can honestly say my mouth just dropped to the floor and for the first time in a very long time I was awestruck. This is the kind of direction I wanted to take my work in, very theatrical stylized, staged images. This video shows how the images are built up. If you are a Photoshop geek like me then you will just love this.

It’s been along time since a photographer inspired me, but this guys work really made me feel like I was 16 again and in my head I kept say “I want to do this kind of thing”

I hope you find it as inspiring as I did.

Enjoy