Topsy-turvy

A different way of seeing Lacock Abbey… from inside a camera obscura placed in the grounds. The projected image is always upside down, hence this topsy-turvy view. William Fox Talbot used a similar one at the Abbey for his research into photography.

It would be great if the National Trust moved theirs in front of the window which Fox Talbot used to produce his (and the world’s) first print from a photographic negative. It would have a sense of the world turning full circle.

It was a strange feeling to be in what looked like a shepherd’s hut and to find this projected image when the door was closed. Even stranger to see other visitors upside down as they passed by!

The National Trust have at least one example of a camera obscura view of the Abbey in their archives. This one is a view of the cloisters.

 

Inside Outside

View From Westminster Bridge

Friday Bench: Illuminating Lacock

I loved how this illumination picked out the detail of the stonework behind the bench. Illuminating Lacock is celebrating 175 years since Fox Talbot announced his photographic negative process which he developed (‘scuse pun) at Lacock Abbey. There’s more on this over at Veg Plotting today.

The illuminations are 4-7pm from now until 9th February 2014.

Posterized Knit Corsham

A technique I found hard to do when processing film, but is very easy when using Pic Monkey 🙂

Pull

A window into the world of Martin Parr: the recent magnificent Bristol and West exhibition at the newly reopened M Shed in Bristol.

Friday Bench: Britain From the Air

This group appeared to be totally oblivious to the view of Bath Abbey behind them whilst sitting outside Bath Abbey.

International Photographer of the Year

Just one week left to see these at Lacock Abbey, or some of them can also be seen at Westonbirt Arboretum until May.

RPS Print Exhibition

I visited the Royal Photographic Society’s 152nd print exhibition at the Victoria Gallery in Bath with a couple of friends yesterday. Lots of stunning images and ideas, but I found I still go for the less manipulated images.

It was interesting to see how the curator of the exhibition had grouped them.

I was particularly taken with this couple, partly because they were the only people wearing hats (despite the cold day outside), but the gentleman was giving a critique of every single image. Nothing appeared to be coming up to scratch in his view. I’d love to know who he actually was.

What Makes a Picture?

A couple of weeks ago I published a picture of this tree over at Veg Plotting because it was the most spectacular combination of lighting, leaf colour and structure I’d found on the day. My intention was to focus on the tree and so waited quite a while for the family to move before I took the second photo shown above.

However, it’s the first photo I took within seconds of arriving at the scene which I actually published.

Do you think my choice the right one?