The blog of photographer Kim Ayres

Photographing Drew Forsyth

Continuing my involvement with the Urr Historic Landscape Project, I was asked to photograph Drew Forsyth. Born and raised in the village of Haugh of Urr, he left the area to pursue a career as a joiner and cabinet maker. Eventually he returned to the village when he retired.

Behind his house is an old stone building. Not only did it contain all the usual garage and shed kind of things - lawnmowers, old bikes and bits of plastic tubing etc - it also had a workshop area. Every other available bit of space, it seemed, was piled up with various chunks of wood.

It was quite dark, so I set up the off-camera flashes, much like I had with Adam Booth (see Photographing a Blacksmith), but try as I might, I wasn't happy with the results I was getting.

However, there was a window in the south wall and the sun was making a rare appearance, so I decided to see what I could do with just the available light. The downside was I had to greatly increase the ISO - which for those less familiar with the technical sides of photography, means the images tend to be noisier, or grainier.

Despite this, the results were considerably better, and once I converted them into black and white on the computer, I was quite pleased with the results. Below are the best of the bunch.

As always, feel free to click on the images for larger versions.









9 comments

maurcheen said...

He looks like a man I would enjoy a drink or three with. Great pictures as usual, :-)

hope said...

I love the concentration but the hands are a work of art in themselves.

Hindsfeet said...

the second and third ones are my favorite....beautiful....you know they're good when you'd hang them in your house without knowing the person....

: )

Anonymous said...

These photographs are wonderful, Kim. I feel some of your best.

Eryl said...

These are great, and I think the grain adds to the story. I used to get terribly upset by the noise in my images, but you, if you remember, told me to embrace it. Now I find it quite useful at times.

Attila the Mom said...

Oh, love love love this!

Kim Ayres said...

Maurcheen - He does have that look :)

Hope - those hands have so many years of experience...

Liz - thank you :)

Allen - thank you :)

Eryl - it's always good to get advice back that you've given out and forgotten :)

Attila - thank you :)

LL Cool Joe said...

What great photos. I love them.

Kim Ayres said...

LL Cool Joe - many thanks :)

All content copyright of Kim Ayres. Powered by Blogger.