Tag Archives: November 2013

November

Jan
19
2014
by Brendan Ó Sé | 2 Comments

It might be 2015 by the time I get this end-of-year review finished. Work always seems to get in the way of the important things in life.

November was a fine month for mobile photography. What? It was a fine month for photography, full stop! I am not a fan of that term – mobile photography. Since when were cameras not mobile?

Anyway, back to November and back to a month that saw the first of these type of images. I posted a blog before on the technique of creating these. In fact, it is quite easy. The corridors in my workplace are a little treasure trove for photography for me. I have taken so many images there of the students passing along the long corridors. The light can be so good there. The two tone floor of grey and white and the grey of the walls allow for a minimalist look that I love. To get the inky brushstroke images of people walking along these corridors is easy. The trick is to get them in motion on the white-coloured portion of the floor; have the iPhone pointed down and then turn it up quickly as the shutter is released. This gives the blurred-out form to the figures. I then import it to Snapseed; turn up the brightness and contrast and convert it to black and white. This gives a black figure on a white background. Then import it to Instagram; use the willow filter and hit the brightness button and it all turns grey. And you’re done. It is simple and fun.

The photo I am choosing for November is the first of these. In the corridor, I noticed this tall and skinnyish guy standing outside one of the classrooms. I knew instantly that he would make for an interesting form in a blurred-out image. I snapped and apped and was going to go with the background as white until I hit the brightness button on Instagram and the creamy grey background appeared. I was smitten. In the weeks ahead I managed to get more shots like this. The second image below has proven to be my most popular photograph ever. It got to Flickr’s Explore, hit number one for a short while and gained thousands of views and hundreds of faves. While it is a nice image and one that I have received a lot of positive feedback on, it is not my favourite. The one of guy is a better image, I feel. There is more left to the imagination about it. The woman is elegant and graceful, but there are so many images that look like that.

As I said, November was a fine month for photography. Looking at the archive I can see many images I am proud of. And this is invigorates me to get back out and shoot more. And that is just what I will do this morning.

Have a great Sunday. Thanks for passing by.

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November

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Always leaving

Posted in A Flickr Year, My own favourite photographs, photograph posts Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , |

November

Dec
29
2013
by Brendan Ó Sé | 4 Comments

And on to November, my least favourite month of the year. It is when darkness settles in. Dark mornings when it seems as if the sun has forgotten us. And the images I posted in November reflect this absence of light.

Doing this end-of-year review makes me a little anxious. I am thinking what I can I photograph in the future. What style will I develop? What will get my interest? This happens each year when I do these reviews. Conversely, it excites me to think that I will find new things to explore and that I will probably be here in December 2014 writing about the twelve favourite images of that year. It is all about the next photograph, I believe.

November has a few images that I like and unusually, all but one are taken in Cork. The exception being this one from Hanoi. I realise I post too much to Flickr. Posting two photographs a day is a difficult task. If I do not post, I tend to feel guilty. The thing is I am not a very disciplined person. Very often I will start something and abandon it when something else gets my attention. Flickr has been the exception. Since 2009, I have posted regularly on my main Flickr account and for the past eighteen months I’ve been posting an iPhone photo on my other account. I am toying with the idea in reducing this. Addition is dilution as they say.

As I was saying, all but one of November’s photos were taken in Cork and unlike October there are a number of images I like and narrowing this down to one favourite is not so easy. I like this one of the reflection in the window of a coffee shop of the Grand Parade in Cork. I went back and got more shots of this later on. Another I like is the one of my little girl running among the fallen leaves on a sunny Sunday morning. She is six now and loves being with me when I go out shooting. It is very good for me as sometimes I will find her staring at things that I have not noticed, things that are worth noticing. As time goes by, I know I will enjoy photography more and more with her. The mirror is the only thing that should me is another photograph that resonates with me. And of course I love this one I took of my own reflection in a shop window. But the one that I keep coming back to is not a shot taken in November, but in late August – Germans. I like this because it took a while to get. I needed to be patient and focused (that word does not seem appropriate to my style of photography) for the moment to arrive. I wrote about the background to the image here. 

Only one more month to choose. What will be the image for December?

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November

Posted in A Flickr Year, My own favourite photographs, photograph posts Also tagged , , , , , , , |