It’s been a busy week for me. Not much time for either writing or photography at the moment. The shots I do take are mostly on my phone camera. I enjoy taking them but somehow it doesn’t feel the same as with my other cameras.
I suspect the idea of these images being taken without planning, in a way rushing them, is what makes me feel less enthusiastic about sharing them. This makes me less eager to shoot, which makes me less eager to plan. You can probably see where this is going.
Here is one of the better ones from the week. A cold morning with some nice fog as was waiting to get to work.
Cold and misty.
This week I did two things which I hope will push me towards something more professional when it comes to my photography – I started advertising my services as a photographer and I got some of my images printed. The prints arrived today and I’m putting a few thoughts together on them which I will share tomorrow.
I went into town to collect the prints and I took a few photos with my Kodak. These I don’t mind sharing because they weren’t rushed : ) Slightly edited in Snapseed because I needed to see something colorful.
Colorful.Boxing club.Gatekeeping.
By the time you’re reading this my latest newsletter should be published. Subscribers get it delivered to their inboxes and if you’re new to Substack then the Substack app is the place to read mine and other great newsletters.
I’ve been working on more interviews and the next one will be published on the 29th of June. I’ll be putting some of the interview as well as a few photos from the photographer on Notes during the week.
Before I publish this I have to add the best thing I’ve read during the week. If you’re struggling to stay focused on the craft and pursuing your dream of becoming a writer / photographer / artist then read this. You’ll thank me later.
Built of Spite and Bone by Justin Allen- Photographer
Its cold today but no as cold as the previous week. The winter here tends to have days where it gets extra cold. Or it could be us getting used to the cold until nature cranks it up a notch.
This morning I decided to take my camera with me. The past few weeks haven’t good for me photography wise. My motivation / discipline / passion isn’t there. I’m spending more time reading about photography and photographers than actually doing photography¹.
I’ve mentioned it before and you might have experienced this yourself. The auto-focus of a compact isn’t always the best. It might be time catching up with my Kodak or I am just too used to how quickly a DSLR can find focus.
With this being said I decided:
Why not use this disadvantage to my advantage? Why not use the second, perhaps two where the camera struggles to find focus? Press the shutter button and as soon as the screen goes dark, indicating it is in the process of capturing, move the camera.
Light trails or double exposure, I can never tell.
When I’m out taking photos I’ll rarely stop to look at what I’ve captured. One because the little LCD on the back of a camera tends to lie. Two I don’t have time to stop and check – I am on my way to work so I’m a bit crunched for time.
I suspect the difficulty to focus comes down to the lack of proper lighting. I turn the flash off and this time of the mornings there aren’t much light. Sun has not yet risen.
The next image is one of my favorites. I am walking downhill here. The house at the bottom is on the edge of a small stream. It is fed by a small lake further to the right of the image. This ‘valley’ is a prime spot for fog and it gets really cold in the winters because of the water.
Light figures, ready to bow.
At the bottom of this hill I take a right turn and head towards town. This stretch of road runs through agricultural holdings. This is one of the houses I find along the way.
On my home I decided why not try this ‘technique’ again and see what happens when it is sunset VS sunrise.
Winding down with some fake lightning.
The image above is close to home. Morning & evening photography gives you great silhouettes. Except for the crop and the resize on these images they are SOOC.
Looks like a double exposure again.
I like this last one for two reasons. The self-imposed shaky effect and the orange & yellow of the sunset. Winter sunsets are my favorite. Yeah it’s cold once the Sun starts to dip but it disappears you can marvel at these types of sunsets.
Moral of the story.
Just because your camera isn’t the best, newest, fastest with auto focus doesn’t mean you can’t take interesting photos. Apart from the auto focus I find these images have a bit more “grain” in them. I don’t think grain is the right term but it looks grainy. Probably has more to do with the low resolution or something.
Take your camera and do something weird. Shoot with different, not-your-normal settings. Shoot where there is no light. Or shoot where there is too much. Experimentation is part of the photography journey. You don’t make cool images by just sticking to the beaten path.
In closing.
If you’re interested in my newsletter you can subscribe on the page, to the right. I send out a newsletter every second Sunday and I write about photography and sometimes I interview photographers from the Substack neighborhood.
Want to support my work? Leave a tip or consider a subscription option via Paystack. And lastly, I sell images on my Paystack store front. Digital to oversees users at the moment but looking forward to shipping actual prints after I finish my research into a local print shop & courier service.
Thanks for reading
It isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering the quality of images & writings I find on Substack.
I haven’t invested a lot of time into photography over the past few weeks. Sundays most but nothing serious.
Last night I decided to change the status quo and headed out for a few minutes. My weapons of choice: Canon 1300D and 50mm f/1.8 lens. Shutter speed set to 25 seconds and an aperture of f/8.
Light trails.
This was the first photo I took and it was only when the camera was busy capturing light when I saw two people walking in front of the building using their mobile phones as torches. No idea what they were looking for but it was a great addition to the image.
I usually wait for cars to past by for straight light trails. White and red ones. The image above has a more human element. The structure of the windows and the lines of the complex VS the squiggly lines drawn by human hands searching for something in the darkness.
I’m so happy with this image that I have uploaded it to my Paystack shop front. If you’re interested in owning this image you can purchase it here.
In the process of…
When I started to consider selling images I was hesitant to sell physical copies of my images. Mostly because shipping them to the States or UK was something which would cost me perhaps a kidney.
I was reading up on local couriers and I found a business which does ship to the UK & US. I have signed up for an account and if all goes according to plan (which includes the cost of shipping) I might be able to ship prints to the US & UK soon.
Looking forward to see where this endeavor takes me.
In closing.
A few more people have subscribed to my newsletter and I’d like to say thanks and welcome to my journey. There has also been some more discoveries of other interesting photography related channels which I’ll share more of over the weekend.
Thanks for reading : )
If you’re interested in supporting my work you can do so in the following ways: My Paystack store front where you can purchase some of my photos. My Paystack payment page where you can make a once off donation {subscriptions are in the works} OR lastly you can subscribe to my newsletter on Substack.
Everything that’s created comes out of silence. Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness.
06:32 AM.
I woke up earlier but it’s cold this morning. I did however mention I wanted to get some photos early. And once you type it online it is set in pixels. Outside didn’t feel cold but as I stood there, waiting for the shutter to close on a 25 second exposure, I started feeling it. I also felt the quiet. The sheer silence of a Sunday morning. After a few minutes some birds woke up. A car passed by on a nearby road, the revving engine disappear to the south. An someone started playing music and this transported me to a different place in my mind.
If this reads more poetic or eloquent than what I usually write you’re right. It feels like it, né?
Today emphasized what I, and many others, have know for a long time – mornings tend to be a very creative time. I am unsure whether this is because we are fully rested. Or perhaps thoughts and mental notes fermented into ideas overnight. Like opening a window and morning light streams in to reveal all things in the room.
Just before sunrise.
These photos were both taken early this morning. The first one still has two starts in the top left corner. Without all the lights on in the evening this complex might look like just another normal set of buildings.
I also noticed the spots and marks I from earlier images are still there so it might be another issue but I’ll keep looking for it as I shoot more.
Head on.
Journaling
After 103 days of not writing in my journal I opened it again.
I started penning a few things about how the past 103 days have been difficult. How most of my days are spent just feeling meh. Going through the motions. Eat, sleep, rave, repeat.
But I don’t rave.
From tomorrow I think I will open my day with journaling again and see if it sparks more thoughts, sparks more reasons to keep doing what I do. Gain more inspiration from the challenges I find on my path. Instead of thinking “wtf” when I see varies things of sheer stupidity, try so think “this doesn’t bother me”. I’ve been trying this for a few days since reading a Substack article and I have to say I now care about a lot less small bullshit annoying things than I used to : )
Other notes
I read an Austin Kleon post as well and he mentioned analog zines.
Just before the start of autumn (fall for my American readers) I made a decision to take as many photos as possible in the three months which the season spans. It’s almost the start of winter, based on the calendar and what I learned at school about 35 years ago.
Those photos have to be sorted, picked, repicked and then placed into some form of story. The purpose thereof is to share with readers the mornings of autumn here in South Africa. I used mostly two cameras – my mobile phone and my Kodak compact. Once I’ve done all the hard yards of making my shaky snaps look pretty I will share it online.
In closing
Tomorrow it is back to the grindstone. The proverbial meatgrinder called Monday. I hope to carry this ‘happy’ mentally a bit further into the week. And I wish you a great Sunday and a better Monday.
Thanks for reading : )
If you’d like to support my work you can do so by following this link to my Paystack payment page. Support from readers will enable me to put more time into the things I truly enjoy. In doing so I can share more of these things and thoughts around them with you : )
Alternatively you can subscribe to my newsletter on Substack which you can read here.
It’s been a rough week. As most weeks are for me. Long hours at work tend to take their toll on all of us.
Working long hours tends to drains me. I’d like to get down after work and sit down, strap in and start to write at least for an hour but I can’t be bothered. Just too tired. This is why Saturdays & Sundays are my most creative times. No work. I have a rule which I enforce once I get on my bicycle and start my trip home: no shop talk at home. This is a separation for me. My line in the sand.
Perhaps I should stop writing about it as well 0_O.
I have been working on a topic for a future newsletter. A culture of sharing. I remember when the first mobile phones arrived in South Africa back in the 90’s. The size of a brick. With the battery life of a brick. And how amazed we were by sending SMS’s. We don’t do those anymore. We use WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal or whatever your poison is.
We don’t share photos like we used to. It was always in an envelope, sitting around a table or in group, taller people looking over your shoulders as you sorted through the images. Now we just click “share” and it’s away. It feels like the connection is lost.
What I’ve been reading
I’m not a film photographer for a variety of reasons. Prime one being cost. So while film and the development are still out of reach I enjoy reading about the subject as much as I can. If you’re interested have a look at this post plus some great photos by Suzi.
As I think more about my project about an apartment complex I take more photos – this one taken today and a lot earlier than the others I previously shared.
I got the idea to try and capture cars driving by with the long exposure and today I captured 3/3. I like the reflections in the windows of the apartments on the left. This block is different, probably because of the angle at which they are built.
Tomorrow I’m planning to get up at 5 and take a few photos in the early morning to see what these buildings look like when most people are still sleeping.
I cleaned my sensor the previous time but I still notice a mark appearing in the upper left corner. Will have to take another look at this today or tomorrow.
The sun sets in the west.
In closing
My next newsletter is going to be out on the 1st of June. In the edition I will be posting an interview with @okayphoto. Dan writes his newsletter on Substack and if you’re looking for interesting reads about film photography have a look at his newsletter. There is box on the right hand side just below the search bar if you’d like to subscribe to my newsletter. Currently every second Sunday but this might change in the future.
If you’re interested in supporting my work please have a look at my Paystack page. Here you can leave a tip, make a donation or consider a subscription based option.
The title is perhaps clickbait but it complements my thought process.
I had a haircut this morning and as I sat down one word came to mind: professional. Two young men from I think Algeria running a small barbershop at the local mall.
The barber recognized me from my previous job and we started discussion food, businesses and he told me about his brother who operates the local branch of a franchise selling vetkoek.
The idea of being professional in your job, whether you work for yourself or someone else is an important concept. A lot of people I worked with during the years tended to stop caring about this aspect because they didn’t like the job. My thinking was always you never know who is watching.
When you are professional at work it tends to [hopefully] trickle into other areas of your life. You manage your situation at work and so to your photography business. You manage your website or newsletter professionally and feel inspired to apply this approach to other pursuits.
Being professional has a knock on effect which we don’t always see or understand.
Shapes.
The past few nights I used a 18-55mm lens to capture images for my Apartments project. The focal length here is 55mm, f/6.3 and a shutter speed of 25 seconds. It has been cropped to a 1:1 ratio.
I like this image because of the primary colors and the shapes. The big square formed by the smaller squares draws my eye to these specific windows in the complex. In the top left hand corner is another sliver of light. It’s the bathroom window of the apartment at the very top on the left.
I don’t like this image because of the angle of the roof. Nothing can be done about it but with a tighter crop I could remove it but it adds some type of perspective on the building. Without it I think the windows might just ‘float’ in the darkness. Similarly the window to the left is a bit distracting. A better crop could probably also solve this issue.
Auto-focus problems.
I was out early this morning with my Kodak camera. It struggles with auto-focus when there aren’t enough light. These ‘mistakes’ do however make for some interesting photos.
Blurry tree.Specular.Sunrise.
Perhaps these aren’t as much problems as they are me just not waiting for the auto-focus to find its spot. I could play around with it in future, see it as an increase in shutter speed?
This finishes of my post for today. Wishing you a great Sunday and a blessed week ahead. The latest edition of my newsletter is out today and I talk about a fog filled morning in April. If you’re not a subscriber you can find my Substack here.
This is probably the only thing I miss from my time at school – having two days in a row off.
Photo from my project around apartments.
I’ve spent a few evenings this week taking some photos for my Apartment project. This is one of my favorites. I like the left side of the photo. The open window with a blueish tint and the orange & red windows next to it. Asking questions like what is happening here tonight. Or winding down for the evening.
I was fortunate to capture these images as the government is sponsoring power outages in the form of load shedding. If you aren’t familiar with this and you’d like to see the reaction of South Africans to this check out their X profile.
This is a photo I took back in 2022.
I’ve been spending a lot of time looking through my photos I took a few years ago. Mostly for sentimental reasons but also to see what I did back then when I got started with photography.
I took some photos during the COVID pandemic and I’m busy with something around those images. I’d like to see other photographers work around this – not the popular ‘togs but the snapped-this-on-my-phone type stuff. How the everyday Joe & Jane experienced it. If you’ve got something in this line I’d like to see it, feel free to share a link here or on Substack.
Somewhere in April 2024 I went for the final time [ based on my gym contract ]. A two year path had come to an end. I started lifting weights and training at 16. Nothing too serious but I was in fairly good shape.
Going to the gym was another one of those “out of the comfort zone” things for me. Introverted person going into a space where extroversion is the name of the game. The guy with the biggest muscles standing in his tank flexing. The three guys I see each morning working out together – motivating one another to get that final rep in.
Long story short I started lifting weights again yesterday. Just bicep curls and single arm rows.
But my story isn’t about gym or exercises. Nope. It’s about starting.
Starting [ your thing ] is a difficult thing. Uncertainty. Will I succeed? What will my friends, family think? I will look like a complete beginner. People will laugh at me. All these are thoughts which go through the minds of tons of people starting out. I know because they went [ and still do ] through my mind when I went to the gym three years ago.
They went through my mind on the first morning I went out with my camera to start taking photos of the streets. They taunted me as I started my Substack. And when I bought my domain earlier this year and launched my website.
Birds of a feather.
Looking back.
The best thing about starting is the part where you look back.
Hundreds of hours in the gym. Thousands of reps. More than 100 newsletters published. 38 posts. Thousands of photos taken. It is quite possible that you won’t believe how far you have come. We don’t really consider the journey, although we should. We tend to think about goals and achievements as a two part race.
Morning traffic.
The beginning and the end.
The part in between is just a important. It is where you reflect and look back. Where you take stock and look forward. These things, exercise, photography, writing they don’t really end. It’s a continuous thing. You summit one mountain and then see another in the distance.
Rinse and repeat.
Take a look at your own journey. No matter what you’re doing be glad you started. Keep putting in the reps. Day by day, line by line.
It will pay off.
Thanks for reading : ) If you felt inspired, motivated or enjoyed what you read consider supporting my work. I have a Paystack payment page in the side bar on the right. Alternatively please share my work or follow me on Substack.
“The best teacher is experience and not through someone’s distorted point of view”
Another Sunday.
Hope is has been a good one for you. For me it hasn’t been too bad. Spent the morning doing a few chores, finished the next edition of my newsletter and as I type a chicken curry is on the stove.
How many shapes in the shadow?
I enjoy spending time in the garden. I’ve grown chili quite a bit in the past. A few seasons back my yield from four plants added up to +/- 2 pounds. Doesn’t sound like a lot but it was – for the whole year I didn’t have to buy chili at all. I even shared a few with my friends and former co-workers.
Next season I plan to grow some again. Chilis tend to make the soil acidic and I’ve left the soil where they used to grow empty for the past year or so. I have a few varieties I want to try once Spring rolls [no pun] around – serrano peppers, thai chili, Habaneros and some cayenne peppers.
Hot stuff
I plan to take out the seeds and dry the chili for some chili flakes. I’ve eaten all of these peppers before and I’m looking forward to some freshly grown chilis. In small quantities obviously.
Other plants in my garden at the moment as thyme and rosemary plus some flatleaf parsely.
More thyme please.Rosemary.
The thyme was bought at a local nursery and the rosemary I grew from a cutting.
The next edition of my newsletter is about a Sunday morning a few weeks ago when we had some nice fog on the morning. If you’re curious to read about it you can subscribe to my newsletter on the right side of the page.
The photo project I am working on is coming along nicely. I went through some old photos today and found shots of the apartment complex from a few years ago. I’ll post some of these during the week on Notes.
57F according to Accuweather. A low of 39F tomorrow morning. It has been a busy week. Not much time for morning photography or writing. I did however manage to write the next edition for my newsletter which will be out next Sunday.
Lights and trails.
I took a few more photos this evening for my Apartment series. I’m starting to think about this project more often. I ask more questions around the subject. What. Who. Why. I feel this is as important as the images I take.
Tomorrow is Sunday (yay). Another opportunity to unwind from a work week. Another opportunity for writing and photography. My writing has taken a bit of a back seat lately. Mostly due to long hours at work. Getting home I usually find myself drained and I tend to eat, burn an hour on YouTube and then head to bed.
For the coming week I’m going to substitute my YouTube fix with writing. A pen, some paper and just scribble down ideas and thoughts. On the upside this is post no. 38 on my website which I’m impressed with. These small daily (kind-off) posts helps to keep building momentum and often spins into ideas for newsletter and more posts.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a splendid weekend : )
If you enjoy reading my work please consider supporting me via my Paystack page. I also offer some of my photos for sale.
