Festive Wishes

3 months after the first Christmas items began appearing on the supermarket shelves, we have just one more sleep before the day itself.

I picked up my son, Rogan, from Edinburgh on Thursday; my daughter, Meg, has finished college; and my stepdaughter, Holly, will be staying over tonight with our new grandson, Alfie, who will be experiencing his very first Christmas.

Most of the presents are now wrapped, and Maggie has been busy cooking and baking for a good couple of days, preparing enough food for a small army – as she does every year - despite there only being 5 adults and one baby to feed this year.

Everything seems pretty much under control.

All that remains is for me to post a suitably seasonal image on this blog and wish everyone who visits here all the very best for the festive season and year ahead.

Despite the snowfall a few weeks ago, I didn't manage to get a single photo I thought looked vaguely Christmassy. However, when the tree was going up, I noticed Meg's fairy/angel (frangel?), which she created in primary school and still puts a smile on my face. I did use it as my season's greetings image 9 years ago - https://kimayres.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/happy-festivities.html – but I thought I'd give it another go.



Whatever your social, cultural or religious beliefs, I really do hope the festive season is good to you and 2018 brings you closer to your goals and desires.

Plasma Cutter

Earlier in the week I did a photo shoot out at the forge of artist blacksmith, Adam Booth. More on that will appear on this blog in a month or two.

However, several days earlier I went out for a recce. Although I've been there a few times, I needed to work out the best angles and potential lighting solutions beforehand. During the shoot it was important that I was able to concentrate on arranging people and props rather than rearranging the space.

Adam was quite happy to leave me to get on with it while he was busy cutting a sheet of steel with a plasma cutter at the other end of the workshop.

At one point I glanced over, and with the glow of the flying sparks it looked quite amazing, so I couldn't resist firing off a couple of shots.

I was quite pleased with how these turned out.

Is all photography abstract?

I was recently roped into a "Facebook Challenge" where participants were asked to post black and white photos with no people in them, and no explanations or backstories.



Because I'm a professional photographer the expectations to deliver something reasonable are much higher than they are for most people. Every time I post an image, my reputation is on the line.



But as someone who specialises in photographing people, this took me far further out of my comfort zone than it would for a wildlife or landscape photographer.

I spent (way too much) time going back through folders of images on my computer to see what I could find, and before long I started thinking about the nature of abstraction.



And with these thoughts whirling around my mind, I found myself selecting images where you could recognise what the subjects were, but you were not seeing them as you normally would.



In all photography the moment we frame the image, we chose what we are including and what we are leaving out.



The shutter speed we select might have the effect of creating interesting blurs, or making a movement static so we see things frozen in a way our eyes would never normally be able to capture.



The aperture we use affects the depth of field – what is in focus and what is not. The settings can create an effect where pretty much everything is clearly visible, or only a very small part.



And finally, when you remove the colour from an image, unless you are completely colour blind, the process of abstraction shifts up another level.



Whoever said "the camera never lies" was clearly a first class bullshitter.



So this post includes the images I ended up selecting and manipulating, plus a couple of extra ones.



Let me know in the comments which, if any, speak to you.

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