Perth photography workshop filling up fast.
February 17, 2012
Places are filling fast for the March 24th workshop. If you want an opportunity to see what large format photography can offer in realising your photographic vision, then this workshop is for you. We will be outdoors, using 4×5 cameras, you and a workshop colleague setting up a camera, viewing the composition, getting first hand experience and expert guidance. We are not just stuck in some boring classroom discussing theories and looking at an example. Only two spots left. So grab a spot before they run out! Details online.
Intro to Large Format Photography
February 6, 2012
Introduction to large format photography workshop, Point Walter, March 24th, 2012, 1.00pm to 4.30pm
During the month of FotoFreo 2012 I will be holding an introductory workshop to large format photography.
The aim of this workshop is to introduce you to a large format 4×5 inch field camera, provide some first hand experience with its workings and techniques, with applications for both portrait and landscape work.
If you have ever wondered about the advantages of using a large format camera in your work and what’s involved, or are considering large format for your photography, then this is for you.
This workshop will be conducted outdoors along the foreshore of the Point Walter Reserve, so you can see and experience using a 4×5 field camera on location. Through discussions and field demonstrations, I will guide you through the process of setting up, and the camera techniques in using a large format camera. I will also talk about choice of film types and applications, film loading, processing, lens choices and printing options including digital output.
Point Walter Reserve will provide ample subject matter in a relaxed learning environment for participants to gain experience in using a 4×5 field camera within a group setting. Participants who don’t own a 4×5 are encouraged to attend, if you have one then it bring it along. To maximise the experience, workshop numbers are limited to 6 people.
During the workshop I will be assisted by friend and colleague, Peter Kovacsy. We are holding an exhibition, “Changing Places” at the Barracuda Studio Gallery, U3&4/56 Pakenham St, Fremantle, March 17th to 31st, as part of the FotoFreo Fringe Festival 2012.
After the workshop relax and enjoy a coffee at Walters Cafe. Peter and I also invite you to a special evening viewing at Barracuda Gallery, Fremantle, on Saturday 24th March from 6.30PM to 8PM, where we will discuss our work.
Book online or download a pdf form and post to Alex Bond Photography.
Western Australian Stock Photos
February 3, 2012
Pemberton Wine Region is emerging as one of Western Australia’s premium cool climate wine regions. Since completing my book ‘Pemberton Wine Region, Western Australia‘ I have had numerous requests for wine making related images from Western Australia. I am pleased to say that I now have a range of images available on my stock photography web site www.stormlightpublishing.com.au , available for editorial use. Stormlight Publishing provides high quality stock images of Western Australian landscapes for editorial use in books, magazines, corporate reports, brochures and calendars. Rights can be purchased from anywhere in the world and images are immediately downloadable upon payment through a fully integrated online delivery system. Use the web site’s search facilities to assist your image research and then create, edit and email image collections to your design team as well as download position pics for page layouts.
If you have specific image or licensing requirements please feel free to contact me.
In time I will be adding more images to the library, both from the 20,000 plus film based images plus new digital images. Fine art prints are still available from my web site www.alexbond.com.au.
Foto Freo 2012 Fro on the Fringe
January 6, 2012
Yes, the news came through this afternoon in a collective email from Foto Freo headquarters for this year’s fringe dwellers to be given the “go ahead”. So there we have it, ladies and gentlemen. According to Bob Hewitts’s Foto Freo December 2011 newsletter, “Landscape photography, along with wild life photography, has not received much attention in past Festivals.” So I am pleased to assist by doing my small part in addressing this imbalance by participating in this year’s Foto Freo Fringe Festival 2012, along with my good friend and colleague Peter Kovacsy. Our exhibition, “Changing Places” will be held at the Barracuda Studio Gallery, U3&4/56 Pakenham St (corner of Pakenham St and Nairn St, Tele 08 9430 6606), starts March 17th. Come along, see some traditional hand made prints and catch up for a chat.
Spring time ramble.
October 23, 2011
Spent the last week in the south west and Spring is definitely out. I was doing a few coastal walks, the weather was wonderfully changeable, rainy and blustery one day, then calm, fine mornings with light wisps of high cloud the next. Just the sort of conditions I like most as it offers a wide range of photographic opportunities, from different light qualities to varying subject matter. On my way back one fine morning I sheltered for a while under these peppermint trees which were laden with white trails of bloom. There was the added bonus of a small brook and the sound of running water. So nice to see some water flowing in the brooks and streams this year compared to the dryness of last year. It’s a great time of the year to get out and do a bush walk, ramble, hike or what ever you choose to call it.
Reflections about old(er) colour negative film
August 2, 2011
Reflections, second hand bikes, South Terrace, Fremantle 1982 (colour corrected)
I was going through my photographic archives retrieving a negative that I had made of someone in a studio nearly 30 years ago. The film was C41 120 professional roll film, popular with portrait and wedding photographers at the time and was processed by a professional colour laboratory here in Perth. The negatives have been stored since in archival sleeves within a binder in a dark place (ie filing cabinet in room temperature). Admittedly it’s not a perfect temperature and humidity controlled environment such as a museum, but it’s within range of what is practical for most photographers. Even so, the negatives had undergone a considerable colour shift in what I consider a relatively short period of time. If I had tried to print them with a conventional colour enlarger, I would have encountered a major colour shift towards cyan, which would have been unacceptable. So profound was this shift that I am not sure I could have balanced the magenta and yellow densities to achieve an acceptable colour print using this method. As I nolonger have access to a colour darkroom I scanned the negatives on a Imacon scanner. With some colour balance and density adjustments I was able to obtain an acceptable colour print. Interestingly, I also noted that some of these older colour negatives also produced white “snow” like artifacts on the scan which created a considerable retouching problem, yet I could not perceive these on the negs even when I viewed them through a magnifying lupe on the light box. However, I could see flecks within the emulsion as it curved under the scanner’s light source, but have no idea what they are. I have had no problems of this type in the past when scanning with the Imacon using current transparency films, so I suspect it is something to do with the age of the colour emulsions.
I was never a great user of colour negative film, opting for colour transparency film for publishing and black and white negative films for prints. However I am amazed at the rate of deterioration which the colour negatives have undergone compared to my colour E-6 transparencies and Kodachrome slides from that era which are still good.
Regarding the studio image I was retrieving, I was luckily able to obtain a high quality scan of the colour image and process it into a high quality digital master file. Had it been left for another 5 or 10 years it may not have been possible to obtain an acceptable scan from the colour negative.
Reflections, second hand bikes, South Terrace, Fremantle 1982 (uncorrected scan)
Ignore the desire to control
May 15, 2011
I have been playing around with my 35mm film camera lately, taking it with me on my daily travels. It’s an activity which I have found both challenging and rejuvenating. Unlike using the 4×5 where everything is slower, more contemplated and on a tripod, finding images on the move pushes me to the other extreme. I fumble as I try to control all the variables that rapidly present themselves, and then, in a leap of faith, I ignore this desire to control and let go. Fluid moments form and disintegrate before your eyes. There is so little time to process in your mind what you are seeing before another image appears. I think that’s part of the buzz I get after developing the film, finding those little surprises on the contact sheets. For a split second did I really see that?
Available light is any damn light that is available! – W. Eugene Smith
Introductory Large Format Photography Workshops
April 25, 2011
Swamp Sheoaks, Canning River Reserve
During May and June I will be offering some introductory workshops to large format photography.
The aim of this workshop is to introduce you to a large format 4×5 inch field camera, provide some first hand experience with its workings and techniques, with applications to both portrait and landscape work. If you have ever wondered about the advantages of using a large format camera in your work and what’s involved, or are considering large format for your photography, then this is for you.
This workshop will be conducted outdoors along the wooded banks of the Canning River Reserve, so you can see and experience using a 4×5 field camera in a real life situation. Through various discussions and field demonstrations, including some with Polaroid instant 4×5 film, Alex will guide you through the process of using and choosing a large format camera. Discussion will also include choice of film types and applications, film loading, processing, lens choices and printing options including digital output.
The Canning River Reserve will provide ample subject matter and an ideal learning environment for participants to gain experience in using a 4×5 field camera within a group setting. Participants who have their own film or digital camera, regardless of
format, are encouraged to bring it along.
To maximise the experience, workshop numbers are limited to a maximum of 6 people. For more information about dates etc, you can down load a printable pdf or you can get more details and book online.
You will be the envy of other photographers with the strikingly fashionable dark cloth hairstyle.
Groundhogs Day
November 8, 2010
I often rise early before sunrise. I like to think its because I am a dedicated landscape photographer, but truth is this: the cat has me trained so well to let her out at that time in the morning it has become a habit. When I am at home the morning starts with a brewed cup of coffee. As the predawn light softly filters through the kitchen window I survey the sky for a whisp of cloud or any other clues as to what the day is bringing. At this time of year, Perth summer weather can be very predictable, just like in Groundhogs Day. Today was no different, the cloudless grey sky was slowly turning blue and a gentle but persistent easterly breeze was coming off the scarp, just like yesterday.
I went into the backyard and stood under the jarrah and marri trees with my cup of coffee. Above me in the trees I could hear the industrious sound of insects buzzing. Looking up, the jarrah tree was heavy with tiny yellow blossoms, which stood out in the soft predawn light. With the extent of its flowering I wondered why I had not noticed earlier? During the day when the sun is blazing in the cloudless summers skies, these soft yellow flowers become almost invisible, lost amongst the bright light and glare.
I got out the 4×5, and focused in tight on the tiny flowers and a cluster of seed pods. The magnification was life size on the film and with every breath of wind the pods and flowers jumped in and out of my ground glass viewing frame. Working at this magnification depth of focus is very shallow and I used some back tilt on the camera to help bring the foreground seed pods into the plane of focus. For just a moment the breeze stopped. In a rush I placed a single sheet of Polaroid Type 55 PN film into the camera back, set the shutter for 1/2 second at f8. Both these settings were a compromise to sharpness, but it was all I could get. To make matters worse I could hear the leaves in the tops of the trees rustle in the breeze as I pressed the cable release to make the exposure.
I like to process my Polaroid in the darkroom, preserving the negative and clearing it in sodium sulphite solution whilst in complete darkness. Most my Polaroid prints are overexposed as my aim is to obtain the negative, which I expose at the slower 32ISO rather than the recommended print speed of 50ISO.
The first rays of sunlight began hitting the blossoms, the sky turning a bright pale blue. It was going to be a fine summer’s day in Perth. What remained of my coffee had gone cold, but at least I had awakened my senses as to what was happening in my own backyard and saw something anew. Maybe it wasn’t going to be another Groundhogs day after all?
Be tenacious.
October 20, 2010
These wind swept branches are an example of how tenacious life really is, even in adverse situations. With its roots wedged between massive granite boulders, the sheer force exerted by millions of minuscule living cells is sufficient, over a long period of time, to lift and displace these rocks just enough to allow this tree to grow. And given its size it has successfully adapted and overcome environmental extremes such as no soil, prevailing winds (sometimes at gale force), salt spray, diminishing rainfall and intense sun exposure.
I can only guess how old it is, but this is one of a few larger specimens that sprawl out for several metres over the boulders at Cape Naturaliste.
