Gold for Gushet, and film failure.

I just received a nice salon result. At the Midland Counties International Salon of Photography I was awarded a gold medal and two ribbons. The gold medal feels very special, it’s the first of my Glasgow Gushet series to be accepted and the first to get an award. I blogged about taking these pictures earlier, you can see them all here.

Here’s the medal winner.

 

The two ribbons are for pictures that have done pretty well elsewhere. 

Wall St and Pearl

Through the Glass.

New Project

I’ve offered to take portraits of people affected by trauma and loss, to support the 12 Big Things project. In case you don’t know about it, 12 Big Things is a series of events being run throughout this year by Katy Brown and Lorna Mae Hellam, to raise money for SOBS (survivors of bereavement by suicide) and CALM (campaign against living miserably).  These charities do amazing work supporting people in distress. Katy and Lorna have hit over £2000 so far, which is fantastic.  I’ve put a link here. If you would like to contribute, I’m sure that they’d appreciate it. 

I thought it would be fun to take the photographs outdoors and to use a portable flash. I’m not an expert at this, but I really like the pictures. Here are the first three photos.  Frank’s Ukulele, Katy’s running kit and Carol’s craft gear. I’ve underexposed the ambient light and used the flash to light the subject. I think it makes the sitters pop.  I plan to do 12 portraits in total, so I’ll post more as the project develops. 

Film failure

This was also planned to be the month of returning to film photography. I used an old Bronica, kindly lent to me by the Photographers of Shambellie House. Inspired by John McKenna at the recent Shambellie House Photo Convention, I wanted to chart the changing months of the year on film. The images out of the camera are fine, but I can’t seem to get them sharp enough with my scanner. The cost of film and processing is pretty expensive. Add to that the cost of commercial scanning and the price becomes eye-watering. From a distance the images don’t look too bad. Here is a shot taken with the Bronica near Dumfries. This is my second attempt at using film. I think in future I’ll stay in my lane!