Rainbow Journeyman’s diary

Looking back on last year, 2006, I found it easy to see where photography has taken us over South West Devon and Cornwall. So as part of the process of producing photographs that you seem to like, I tried to analyze where our cameras should take us this year.

In some ways we are spoiled for choice. As the heading says “The Road goes forever on!
In the North of Devon and Cornwall we have rugged cliffs, craggy coves, and some incredibly deserted beaches. In the South subtle differences; tighter bays, and more people.

I suppose one of the benefits of living in this most beautiful area is to have the playground to ourselves, once the tourists have gone, so to speak. And out of season we do.

To park a car; releasing the dogs from their temporary captivity, watching them do a lightning recce of the area. then walking down to a deserted beach is magic even if it is raining, it is exhilarating.
To see the same when the sun tinges the top of the steep cliffs with shades of purple before flooding the beach with its soft diffused light is pure magic. Then the bonus. To follow the seasonal ebb and flow of the tides, watching the magical effects on the sand as the sea sculpts it on a whim, is the cream on the cake. I call these sea effect shots, “sand sprites”..
Everything can be done by the sea, from full blown emotive sculpting to twirling nodules of sand; to placing a ripple effect across a sand bar that would have taken us hours, as humans, to perform. Even down to minuscule detail like grading the colour in the sand. And whilst we ar eon that subject.

A colleague of mine, recently down from the big smoke, London, spent a little time down at St Ives. He wasn’t staying with us at the time and was using the time-honoured method travelers use of lodging in B&Bs. On his way back home to the big smoke he dropped in for coffee and a chat. It would be less than honest to say that the topic of conversation did not get round to photography. It did.
In previous years when Mike has made his passing visit, he was convinced that every photograph that we had taken was being computer tweaked for effect. On this visit, he had been enlightened and his tune was different.
Let me explain. Over the winter months because of the Atlantic air, which as you know is very pure, we are blessed with days where, in reminiscence of my being at sea many years ago, we would say “look at that, you can see forever”. And you can!
Mike had just experienced one of these days down at St Ives. He commented to me “The effect was unbelievable, everything was so clear. Now I see what you mean about the light down here. No wonder there are so many painters pursuing their art in various studios dotted all round St Ives”.
Eureka! I would’ve cried. But in my new role of being the more serious studious type, my comments were more mundane, something on the lines of “Smirk, smirk, now you see it, now you don’t”. So……… I am sure you don’t need me to tell you that many of the pictures, in fact most of the pictures you see on our site, are first Prints. That is, not tweaked at all. Not none, no how!

Yesterday, I was at a meeting in Launceston. I won’t tell you what the locals call it as it is nearly impossible to put it into print. Even D’rectly, that lovely Devonian saying when they are not sure when a job should start, means possibly a year later that Manyana. Anyway as I was saying.
My meeting was with a very professional photographer and friend. The well recognised and locally known, Philip Glew. Phil’s speciality is Bridal Art. Some people take photographs at weddings. Phil’s work behind the lens, leaves the family and the happy couple in total bliss, reminiscing for ages over the wonder and splendor on how a camera can produce such beautiful picture. Anyway, again I digress. Where was I! Oh yes.
It was no surprise, the conversation got round to talking about cameras and photography. Just to fill you in on a little bit of the background detail involved with this, I have to tell you that four years of controversy between the “Professionals” has surrounded the method of storing pictures on your camera’s memory prior to bring it back to base for studio work. Some people prefer RAW photography. Others JPEG. So, what’s the difference I hear you say? Well, tis easy. Pictures captured in raw store a huge amount of detail about the picture you have just taken but do not use any specific colour setting, contrast, or white balance correction. Leaving it to the professionals to load it into Photoshop, or one of the other professional programs, to do the business of twiddling the knobs, making a photograph look like a photograph etc Bells, whistles and all.
No, no we said! If you understand your camera, and most of us who use them in the field try to. We would take time to set the camera up to take the photograph correctly in the first place. After all, short of there being a complete change of weather within a few hours of leaving base and arriving at the shoot. There should be no need to tweak the camera to make it do the things that the camera is supposed to do.
Now the purists will climb out of the woodwork at this remark and baffle you with arguments about lossy files and so on. My only comment. As often put by a good friend of mine when he knew I was wrong was “I’m sure you are right.” But if you doubt oh faint and feeble reader, look at the A0 pictures that we produce from our prints. They are mind blowing. You will catch your breath. You will, you will!! They are really stunning. (Trumpet blowing done by author)
So, to continue. Arriving on site, my only interest is what the subject is, and whether to use depth of field focusing, to enhance or deny the background.
And for those of you who are caught out there with the same dilemma. Our advice for what it’s worth. If, you are unsure whether you want to shoot in RAW or J PEG. Take a positive decision initially………… and do both. In all probability, and speaking from our experience, you will probably dump the RAW within short while. The least point of the argument is RAW settings chew up disk space. And, anyway, most cameras today will do bracketing for you. (That’s where the camera would take three photographs in rapid succession. One on the setting you’ve given it, one under, and one over.)
If that doesn’t give you a good result there is always E-Bay.

More soon. Be Happy!

Mike Tyrrell for Rainbow Journeys South West