Undertaking projects as a photographer is a great way to keep focus, keep motivated and allow you to maybe get out of your comfort zone. Regular readers will know that the “big project” for 2023 is a story telling project that looks to build a story using various different elements of media, mine will mainly be images but video clips etc. can also be included. You will know that my focus is on the diversification of the farm that sits just above where Tracey lives in Bury, and will focus in and around Buckhurst Farm and Lodge-side.
I’ve also decided to continue working with Chris sale and signed up to be part of Chris’s new coaching programme. This will give me focus and will allow me to further develop as a photographer. Whilst I’ve signed up mid way through August, that means that I can participate in the challenges that Chris will be setting for the group, the August challenge is to get (at least) one image of the Industrial Heritage of the area that surrounds where I live.
So this weekend I spent some time working on the 2023 Project as well as the August Challenge. Here are the results of that work.
Update on 2023 Project
There is a lot to photograph in and around Buckhurst and the Lodge-side, and one particular location I have spotted can help me work on developing images that have a natural depth to them. The location is on the edge of the farm, just up the road from Nangreaves village. There is a track / road that runs into the farm, as well as layers of the farmland that lead the eye through the image, there is also a subject in the foreground.
As you can see from both images, one is a subset of the other, in that the first image is a wider scene, and the second image is within the first, so to speak. Another words I walked a little further up the road / track and have different foreground elements. I’ve submitted both of these images on my weekly tracker to Chris, and we can discuss these at my next 121 coaching session. I will update accordingly.
August 2023 Challenge – Industrial Heritage
here is no particular guidance on what this challenge is all about, thats open to interpretation of each of the group members. Living in the North West of England it’s not hard to think about what some of the Industrial Heritage could be. My first thought and the subject of my efforts on Friday was to take some images of the Mills around Stockport. Growing up in Oldham there were mills everywhere, so I’m familiar with them. I did think that there weren’t many still standing locally but I was surprised when doing a little research that there are quite a few. Most are used for small businesses to develop in that a normal premises would be too costly.
I encountered a number of problems on my first attempt at finding a good composition, these were (1) the sheer scale of the buildings (they are huge) and, (2) the multipurpose nature of them means that there are lots of other objects that can get in the way, things such as car parks, signage, additional cabling etc etc. along with lots of old and decaying parts of the buildings. That may well mean that those items could be featured, but my initial reaction was one wanting to avoid those.
The image above is of one of my childhood memories, and that is the chimneys that most mills used to have. Not all remain but this one is still intact and part of Pear Mill, not far from Stockport town centre. This image is just a test image and not meant to be anything other than that. I will go back with my full kit and take the final image, if this ends up being the scene I decide to submit into the challenge.