February 2023 – Timothy Moss

Here we are in week 5 of following the projects in the book 52 Assignments: Street Photography by Brian Lloyd Duckett.

After the randomness and spontaneity of last week’s ‘no viewfinder’ assignment, this week was a much more structured task, to use the relationship between similar colours as a visual ‘anchor’, to keep the viewer engaged in the images for longer.

I’m not sure if I was supposed to just use the same colour for all six images, but anyway I didn’t do that. I found it a real challenge to keep observing colours and yet still create an image that would have some depth and interest to it beyond that element. The colour is supposed to hook the viewer in, but the story of the image still needs to be present. So a lot of concentration needed, and much more deliberate compositions this week. At times I felt like a camper, with an image all lined up and just waiting for the final element to enter the frame. I tried not to move any objects, but rather to wait for the scene to unfold organically in front of me. I was also very conscious of the backgrounds, trying to minimise any additional colours in the scene without relying on the dreaded ‘colour pop’ technique in post processing.

In the end I was pretty happy with this set, and as with the previous weeks, I found this assignment to be a great visual exercise. Give it a go!

Here we are in week 4 of following the projects in the book 52 Assignments: Street Photography by Brian Lloyd Duckett.

Took a few weeks off there – the demands of my day job, plus a long-overdue (for me) road trip, meant I wasn’t able to attend to a project. I’m back now though!

Sharon joined again this week, where we explored the ‘no viewfinder’ prompt. The task is to spend half a day taking photos without composing using your viewfinder or the back of your camera at all. Just stick the camera out in front of you and see what happens. This is a good opportunity to play with different camera angles, and see just how interesting some of the ‘happy accidents’ can be. I was really pleasantly surprised with this technique. In some ways it reminded me of film photography, in that it really separates the act of taking images from the subsequent review and editing process, and that’s quite nice in terms of getting ‘into the groove’ of noticing. But film photography requires great care and attention to composition and exposure so as not to waste film, whereas this was more spontaneous and free ranging. Sharon and I spent an hour or so walking the streets of Malvern together, and then I spent another half hour or so in the CBD to see what else might come my way. The results are below – there was no ‘quota’ or limit this week, so there are a few more shots this week than usual!

Malvern: