Jane Pennington's portraits

These are the pictures I took of the lady who writes the press releases for the camera club.  She has a good imagination when it comes to describing activities and competition winners and has a very steady hand to get pin sharp images in her own images.  Jane supports the social secretary when it comes to suggesting and organising days outing and ad-hoc trips.

Jane's favourite image

Having shown Jane what I considered the best three images of our session at the local Heritage Centre I was surprised when she chose the image above showing her in the unrestored paint store at the back of the site.  What she liked about this picture was how she was standing looking around and raising her hands in despair and hope at all the work that would have to go into transforming this derelict store into a tea room.

My favourite image

I liked this image as it showed her climbing the shelves to look at the back to see what was in the boxes.  She looked interested in exploring the store room and discovering exhibits that could be used in future displays.  Jane explained that even though on each of the boxes there was written what should have been in each box, it was not necessarily so.  The volunteers and staff had a bad habit of looking in the boxes and removing items already listed or adding extra items if there was extra space in the box but then not noting it down on the contents list.

The third image I chose was the one below.

I liked this image because it showed a caring side to Jane's nature.  That probably sounds weird about a plaster boy and collecting box, but it was just the way Jane was holding it that was caring.

The whole shoot was fairly difficult as it took place in old buildings or store cupboards which had very poor lighting.  Add to the fact that I had turned my on camera flash to reduce the output so that I didn't get heavy black shadows behind the subject meant that whole areas were quite dark.

It was quite difficult to get into different positions for shooting pictures as the areas were so full of boxes, packages and equipment.  I would have liked to get round the other side of this 'boy' and shoot away from the windows but it was impossible as it was surrounded by parcels and wrapped stuff.

Jane is very committed to both the camera club and the heritage centre where she has been volunteering for about 12 months.  The area she enjoys investigating and organising is that containing old prints and photographs of Axminster.  As Axminster is a very old town, recorded as early as the 9th century, there's plenty of historical pictures of the town since photography began.

Dougie Adams

Dougie kindly allowed me to take pictures of him at home last week.  Whilst I took them we talked about various things including his love of parachuting, taking pictures and manipulating graphic images.  He had a small collection of vintage cameras which he demonstrated to me and showed me the oldest, his favourite and the one worth the most.

Here's the three finalists for him to choose one, me to choose one and the rejected one.

Here Dougie informs me of his life working with the Parachute Regiment and when he took part in competition and sponsored jumps.  He talked with verve and passion and seemed to miss his old life.

 

This roll film camera was one of Dougie's favourites and he showed how you had to release the two parts of the viewfinder to line up with one another to see what you were aiming the lens at.

 

Dougie is very keen to enhance his pictures and sell them to enhance his income now he has left the army.  His next passion is to gain experience with aircraft drones.

Dougie's favourite image was the first one where he is showing off his medals.  

His comments re his chosen image were:

Dougie: Nice fotos, tis the DY Medals picture for me..:>

Jen Hollands: Okay, can you tell me why please?

Dougie:  Because of the interaction with the medals.  I'm talking, explaining something or telling a story which would probably make the viewer curious.  The cheetah emerging from my right ear might be distracting though; ....D.

My favourite image was the second one of him showing his old roll film camera which was completely non-automatic even to the point that you had to fold out the viewfinder.  I think the way he holds it and looks through it to take a shot are fun.  

The third rejected image is one that doesn't quite work.  With most of the pictures with the iMac, when Dougie looked at the screen, you got a poor view of his face.  I asked him to look more to his left so I got a sideways view but this really didn't work as it looked unnatural.

 

Book: Women by Annie Leibovitz & Susan Sontag

This coffee table book by Leibovitz was featured in the manual accompanying the G&M course so I managed to get a copy from my local library to peruse.

The photos are beautiful and portray women from all over the US and with all types of backgrounds. There is also a short section written by Susan Sontag, Leibovitz's late partner, with background information about them.  The book helped me realize that there are lots of opportunities in life as one gets older. Many of the women in the book are old but they still seem very much alive. Most of them have done some astonishing things in their lives!

There are photos of actresses and other famous faces, but I prefer the pictures of "ordinary women" - the ones that we meet every day but don't pay attention to.  Whether famous or unknown each woman is photographed by Leibovitz to bring out their strengths. Image after image of staged and unstaged shots draw you through the book, revealing each woman. Ultimately it is a book which celebrates and empowers womankind.  The book is one I would like to own but its cost is prohibitive.

Pat Chambers' pictures

Pat is a woman who finds it difficult to stand still.  She's always busy rushing round seeing to other people's comfort.  I took some pictures of her at a club meeting and whilst she was making and pouring tea, my main impression of her was that of rushing about getting things organised. 

Pat is one of the main stays of the club where, as social secretary, she ensures that there is sufficient milk, tea bags and coffee for teas.  Pat also takes responsibility for organising trips out for the club members,  She researches modes of transport, interesting places to visit and decides on the cost etc, for members.

She is always ready to help anyone and walks round with drinks during the mid-evening breaks.  She liked this picture as it showed her at her best.  Whilst I had reduced the on camera flash to -1, it was strong enough to highlight her without throwing strong black shadows in the backgrond.

My favourite picture of Pat is when I tried to emulate movement.  I put the shutter on a very slow speed and stood in a corner to catch her rushing about, which she does fairly frequently. 

I don't think the picture above will be her favourite image but to me it epitomises her to a T.

The other picture I chose was when she went to help an older member carry her stick and cup of tea to her seat.  Pat is one of those people who can spot where help is needed before you realise it yourself and gently and tactfully helps out.

Pat is a lovely lady and if she ever decides to retire, the club will miss her willing ways.

Chris Sellers' portrait

I went to visit Chris with the object of taking some pictures of him in his own environment.
He is a Leica camera man through and through even though his choice of camera might not be the best for what he wanted it for.

Chris has been the chairman of the camera club for 12 months and has encouraged club members to do their best.  He's constantly coming up with ideas to boost moral when we don't do as well as we thought we would against other clubs.  He has also suggested speakers and subjects to be included in the programme to enable me, the programme secretary, a wide range of different items to keep the members interested.

When I joined this club about 5 years' ago, the membership ranged from about 60/70% social members and 30% keen photographers.  Through booking a wider range of speakers and workshops, I feel it's more like 60/70% keen photographers and 30% social members.  It's a friendly club where people talk to each other and offer / ask for advice on techniques.  We are growing the membership in the hopes of being able to offer better quality speakers in the coming years.

The picture below is my favourite.  Whilst I was at Chris' house he suddenly sat down at his piano and started playing boogie music.  Then he changed to a different style. After a few minutes he looked at the picture of his baby daughter of 5/6 months and explained about the picture of her on the piano.  Turning back to play again I noticed how alike the two expressions were and took a couple of pictures before we moved on to another part of the house.   If you look carefully, you can see that the baby Emily and Chris have the same expressions on their faces, priceless.  This is definitely my favourite image of the whole assignment. This was one that really caught my imagination.  What do you think?

I hadn't realised that the baby Emily was Chris' only daughter and he was immensely proud of her and his partner Margaret.  He's in his mid 60s and kept explaining how he never imagined that he would be so lucky to have a child.  I thought that as Emily was so important in his life I wanted to include her in this series of pictures, hence the following picture.

Once again, as I was in a home environment, it was difficult to get into the best position to take a well-balanced picture.  I'm not usually afraid to rearrange things for a better picture but with dogs, furniture, baby and piano it was virtually impossible to change things around too much.