As you may know I'm not posting very regularly at the moment, the reason is that this moving house business is all consuming. If all goes well (and with moving there are always plenty of things that can go wrong!) we might be in by Christmas, or maybe early January. There is really a panic inducing amount to do, we have lived in our current house so thirty-three years so you can imagine the amount of clutter we have collected!

I have recently started a photograpy course in Salisbury, the city we are moving to, which is around an hours drive from our current home. Our first assignment was to produce two pictures one illustrating where our heart is and the other where our head is.

This is what I am taking to class tomorrow night -

My head picture. This is attempting to illustrate that I am wearing way too many hats at present. Wife, mother, employee, project director to name but a few. I like the writing on the phrenology head as it references how much my head is buzzing with stuff, different projects, different lists, different agendas. I know it will get worse before it gets better, but it WILL be worth it! (I should perhaps also add that my husband is pretty busy too!)

This is my heart photo, I took it last week on a photo shoot with the class.

“the Cathedral was enlarged upwards between 1300 and 1320, by the incomparable tower and spire. This development was not unique to Salisbury – the cathedrals in London (old St Paul’s) and Lincoln both had taller spires, if only of timber and lead – but this one has proved the longest-lived, and since the late 16th century has been the tallest in England, standing at 404 ft/123m. ”

— http://www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/history/adding-spire

My heart has definitely moved to Salisbury and the cathedral, especially the spire, is the symbol of Salisbury. You can see it from almost everywhere in the city and it acts as a marker or guidepost in the city's life. I choose this photo because I liked the way the birds were juxtaposed with the spire and the black and white really draws attention to this, although I also like the coloured version with the evening sun turning the stone a glorious gold

While I'm here I can't resist adding a picture of the chapter house from the cloisters. This magnificent building houses one of the 4 surviving originals of the Magna Carta

“Magna Carta is famous as a symbol of justice, fairness, and human rights. For centuries it has inspired and encouraged movements for freedom and constitutional government in Britain and around the world. But when it was issued by England’s King John in June 1215 it was an attempt to prevent a civil war between the king and his powerful barons.

Magna Carta means simply ‘big charter’. A charter is a legal document issued by the king or queen which guarantees certain rights. This charter has over 60 clauses, covering many areas of the nation’s life, including the right to a fair trial. It is one of several copies written immediately after King John agreed peace terms with his barons at Runnymede, which were sent around the country as evidence of the king’s decision. Salisbury Cathedral’s copy is one of four which survive from this original issue. It was written in Latin by hand, by an expert scribe, on vellum (preserved animal skin). Medieval documents like this were not signed, but sealed, and at the bottom of our Magna Carta you can see the marks where King John’s seal used to hang.”

— http://www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/magna-carta/what-magna-carta

Finally I had to include this - I haven't seen a clerical hat like this in the UK for decades - welcome home Father Brown!

Yes, there is no doubt about it, my heart has definitely moved to Salisbury!

Yesterday we visited a small local craft fayre. There was a variety of goods on offer, including some very attractive pottery, some wonderful coastal paintings and some photography.

I was drawn to a stall selling cards of flower and wildlife images, with close ups of flowers very similar to ones I have taken. On the stall there was a notice saying that none of the pictures had been digitally enhanced, no Photoshop had been used in the making of these pictures. I checked with the photographer if this included Lightroom and it did, the photos were, he said, straight out of the camera. There was an implied inference of moral high ground here.

I suppose it all comes down to why you are taking pictures in the first place. To capture the moment? To preserve the beauty of the scene? To record the facts as they are? Or to make art? I'm not suggesting any of these are mutually exclusive, rather that they are a variety of lenses through which we can view our photographic images.

This is a photograph I took of a deckchair at Shanklin earlier in the week. I took it because it epitomised the seaside of my childhood - I haven't seen a deckchair with a canopy in years - yet unenhanced it doesn't quite capture what I felt to be the vibrancy of the scene.

I feel this second version is a far truer capture of what I was experiencing when I took the photograph. I was experiencing a vibrant seaside resort in full swing on a sunny day in August not a faded out of season vibe. So I cropped the photo a little, bumped up the contrast, clarity and vibrance and enhanced the blue in the picture. I have chosen this example as it is easy to spot the difference between the two pictures. Often the digital enhancements I make are much more subtle, barely visible at all.

For me there is something about honesty here. If I am viewing a photograph in a guidebook or botanical guide, I want to be able to identify the plant or see the view as pictured. I don't want the removal of unsightly pylons to make the scene seem other than it really is. If, however, I am looking to hang a picture on my wall or buy it on a card I want it to look as good as it can, whilst preserving the essence of the subject. I don't for example see anything very wrong in bumping up the vibrancy of the blue on a sea scape, especially if you have seen the sea just that colour blue on a previous occasion. Nor do it see enhancing the colour of a flower to highlight its vibrancy an unforgivable sin, merely exaggerating its jewel-like appearance to give increased pleasure.

This is a photograph of a waterlily straight from the camera. Below is the digitally enhanced version. In addition to the usual adjustments to clarity and contrast etc I have taken down the exposure a little, cropped the image to give greater focus on the lily, and removed a small insect from a petal and a distracting blemish from a leaf - is this version less 'essence of lily' than the other? Not to my mind.

The old adage 'the camera doesn't lie' is of course the biggest lie of all. As a photographer you select the angle and perspective from which you take the photographs, you chose what to include and exclude. In post-processing you enter your digital darkroom to develop your photograph in the way which most resonates with your experience of the view or object that you have taken. It has always been thus.

The advent of Photoshop has however allowed the possibility of new dimensions to our photograpy by adding textures and blending photographs together. I have recently started a new Photoshop course called Fine-Art Grunge which takes photography to a whole new level. This is not about capturing the reality of what we see but rather using individual photographs as tools or matter to create art. I am still very much at the beginning of this journey but am loving it!

I took these photos in the silversmith's in Newport on Friday, they make the most amazing silver spoons. I used the photos I took to play with some of my techniques from the new course - here are the results.

This is a fairly minor adjustment with only a couple of layers - I got braver!

And the final one where I went a bit OTT with the number of layers and textures

Lots to learn on this course so watch this space!

In conclusion I believe that all forms of photography are valid and that none has moral superiority over another. We all have our individual realities and if several of us were asked to write a description of the same photograph we would all write something slightly different, highlighting the different features that spoke to us as individuals. The truth is perhaps that we all see life, pictures, and anything else you care to mention, through the lens of our own interests and experiences so that the viewing of the picture is a dynamic experience. Long live diversity!

I would love to hear your views on this topic so do leave a comment and get the debate going.

Head & Heart

Digital Enhancement - The Root of All Evil?