Watery thoughts

Water surfaces, Swaledale, June 2009

Why should it be that water fascinates me so much, photographically? Is it the variety or he fleeting nature of the image or a studied interest in details. Maybe it is all of these things. It is very hard for me to understand my own motivations sometimes. Not quite a compulsion but a sense that it is just the right thing for me to be doing.

Driving storm

Driving storm, Tanzania, January 2009

I'm not sure if this will fit in with the rest of my images in the series but it is a great process anyway. The herds follow the storms as they provide the water to drink and grow the grass. Yet when a storm comes through, it chases the animals ahead of it, lest they get wet.

It's a part of the idea of the Processes that I've been contemplating for a while - do I include wildlife and plantlife in the series as a part of the processes or should this be centred around geology, geography, weather? It all depends on whether the story hangs together as a whole or not.

The birth and death of mountains

Rock fall, Ladakh, August 2008

Things have been quiet on this series for a while as I've been doing a lot of street photography over the summer. My trip to Ladakh afforded me the opportunity to get amongst some of the biggest processes of all: the birth and death of mountains.

The entire Himalaya show the signs of the continental forces that threw them up and the on-going erosion and explosion by the action of water: the great river valleys and huge rockfalls. I took a series of shots during the trip that I intend to convey the nature of the processes.

Once again, I have used tighter framing in the images: a sense of scale is impossible to convey, and can detract from the core message of this series. By using framing that has the subject fill more of the frame I think it is more in keeping with my other work in this series. I also feel that a greater sense of nature at work is conveyed by such an approach.

Finding the wind

Wind in the trees, Kristiansund, June 2008

A couple of posts ago I talked about capturing the wind. On a recent trip to Norway I spent some time working on such an image. How I created it can be found on my main blog.

While this is fairly successful and certainly points me in the right direction, the question is what am I trying to show and how does that fit with the project? As I am trying to show the ways in which natural processes shape the world around us, a shot like this doesn't necessarily fit too well, even though the wind is an important component.

This points me to what is a major step in working method. I will work on capturing all the natural process shots I can, make the images and determine thereafter which fit together into the whole. Thus I'll apply as little pre-filtering in subject choice and see where it takes me.

How to capture the wind

Uprooted, Cumbria, April 2008

The wind is an important part of the natural process. It probably has the power to be one of the most destructive forces. We feel its effect every time we step outside. We see the results of its work in erosion, fallen trees or great waves. And yet there is no direct way to capture it in a photograph.

I want to capture more than just the aftermath, although that will be part of it. I shall have to find ways to introduce the concept of motion into images. Swaying trees are fine, but what about sand blowing across a beach? How to differentiate between a gentle breeze and a howling gale? These are technical and artistic challenges. Getting a technique right will open all manner of artistic possibilities in capturing motion.

I want to show both time elements in the process of the wind, the short term storm effect and the longer term patient erosion. And in there must surely be more than destruction for wind moves the clouds that bring the water and the fresh oxygen that bring life. All concepts that are hard to show in a static image.

I can but try. This will likely take time.