Constructed Images at Holsworthy Camera Club

I started 2013 as the guest speaker at Holsworthy Camera Club. My chosen topic was the development of my photographic arts practice I call 'Constructed Photographs'. This 'talk' continually develops and this evening I based my technique in the making of an image of the nearest cave to Holsworthy at Northcott Mouth, just north of Bude. It didn't surprise me that only one person in the audience knew where the image was from as one can walk from Bude to Sandymouth at low tide without noticing the magnificent cave hidden in the base of the cliff, at Menachurch Point, behind a scree of massive menacing boulders. The other developmental addition was the inclusion of panorama and stitching technology available now even on phones. My new iPhone 4S (circa 2011) has an interesting panorama function on its camera much like an old ‘short rotation camera’ eg the 35mm Horizon camera. But my best Christmas present to myself was an iphone app called 'AutoStitch'. Obviously it doesn't compare favourably to a professional dslr, photo merge in Photoshop combined with the skill of an experience photographer but; it is an amazingly powerful app to have on a phone! The above image was created, in haste, as the Camera Club Chairman, Roger, introduced me at the beginning of the evening. 

The first half of my presentation was a chronological look at how/why my practice had developed from 35mm triptychs to digital montages made up of over 100 images. You’ll find references to much of this history in my website, here’s a link to my Triptych work, my pictures from the American West, and my current work on the North Devon Coast. After a break I concentrated on the technique and process of making my current, huge images, looking in detail at the cave in the headland of Menachurch Point, and at Kipling’s Playground at Westward Ho!. There’s some extra detail about my technique in a hidden webpage called ‘secrets’ found here. It’s also worth looking back in this blog, to older posts, as almost all of my images are constructed from more than one image, and many are detailed here.