Newton Abbot Camera Club

I was made very welcome at the Newton Abbot Camera Club. A good crowd of 45 members turned up on a stormy night for my presentation of my 'constructive' working practice. Fairly quiet at first they listened quite patiently, perhaps not too sure of what to make of these 'landscapes' which were far removed from their usual experience. However I'm always happy with questions and once one had been asked the audience became far more vocal. They were very pleased to see so many images from the wild North Devon coast, less than 1.5 hours drive from Newton Abbot but so often off their radar. So pleased in fact that they're already planning a photo-trip up here!

The venue in Newton Abbot has a wonderfully big, ceiling mounted, projection screen which made my images look their best. I was kitted out with a neck mic as the hall was so large, but I must have been speaking for so long that it's battery died so you see me here with a huge wireless mic.

Greetings Cards

A new, small, shop front has opened in Green Gallery. You can buy a limited number of Fine-art Giclee Prints, sets of high quality Greetings Cards made by 'Moo' and Workshop Vouchers which make great Christmas presents. The last batch of greetings cards were available in August 2014 and all sold out within 10 days so please don't delay if you hope to buy!

There are also a series of new workshops for December and January:

Introduction to digital photography & Christmas Lights* - £50
A practical days workshop learning to gain control over your camera, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash etc, setting it up for optimum quality under any given lighting, and making better pictures through composition. Numbers limited to a hand-full. I also offer it on a 1:1 basis for ½ a day for £75
*Thursday 11th December in Bideford, (11am-6pm) Click to Book
*Wednesday 17th December in Barnstaple, (11am-6pm) Click to Book
Tuesday 6th January in Bideford, (10am-5pm) Click to Book
Thursday 8th January in Ilfracombe, (10am-5pm) Click to Book

Half Day Intro to digital photography - £25
A 'sit around the table' workshop to get to know your camera better. You'll learn about shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash and setting your camera up for optimum quality.
Wednesday 14th January in Barnstaple, (1.30-4.30pm) Click to Book

SmartPhone Photography - £25
A practical workshop to learn how to use your Smartphone's camera to take professional looking photographs and enhance those images on the go. Suitable for anyone with a SmartPhone. You will need to install a few cheap photo apps in advance which I'll advise on when booking!
Thursday 15th January in Bideford, (1.30-4.30pm) Click to Book

Sea Caves, Shipwrecks and the Rocky Shore (10am - 5pm) - £50
An introduction to Dave Green's own photography. Spend a day with Dave experiencing the secret coast, hidden at the far ends of a sandy beach, full of caves and shipwrecks. Learn how to make the best of your own camera under demanding landscape and lighting.
Thursday 22th January in Bude, (10am-5pm) Click to Book

Family Photo Workshop - get to know your camera - £30 per adult (maximum 2 accompanied children free)
A practical workshop to get to know your camera better. You'll learn about shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash and setting your camera up for optimum quality. This workshop is 3x hours taught time and 2x hours photographing/lunch/free time
Saturday 3rd January in Bideford (10am-3pm) Click to reserve a place

Painting with Light -(Light Graffiti) - £25 per photographer*
Celebrate the start of the dark winter nights. You'll will be provided with coloured light torches, flash lights and a tripod if you don't have one. The workshop will start with a round the table chat and introduction to night photographers and techniques in a quiet local pub. If you have particular images or techniques you’d like to duplicate please bring them along. Most digital cameras are able to make a long exposure nowadays, please email below if you're not sure if your camera is suitable.
*please bring a torch swinging friend at no extra cost!
Tuesday 30th December at Westward Ho! (5pm-8pm) Click to reserve a place
Photographing your own Artwork - £75
I have a wealth of knowledge and experience of photographing 2D artwork, jewellery and ceramics and I'm willing to pass this on to artists eager to improve their own image making camera skills. Although this workshop is for a small group (max 5) I also offer it on a 1:1 basis for ½ a day for £75, or I can deliver the workshop in your own home or studio anywhere in Devon for £125
Course Description pdf
TBA Click to express your interest

Introduction to Photoshop (11am–6pm) - £75 with lunch, tea and coffee provided!
Opening an image file and adjusting levels, contrast, brightness and colour balance. Rotating, resizing and cropping an image. Placing an image or images into a new file. Using layers and history. Participants will need to be computer literate i.e. use a computer on regular basis and understand the basic controls. Small group (max 4). I also offer it on a 1:1 basis in your own home or studio anywhere in Devon for £175
TBA Click to express your interest

Workshop gift vouchers are always available for that special present for those people with new cameras so that they'll get to know them better!
Buy a £25 gift certificate
Buy a £50 gift certificate

The Impossible Picture

The problem with demonstrating an interest in historic buildings and good PhotoShop skills, as I did in a recent exhibition at St Annes Chapel in Barnstaple, is that interest in the work is stirred up and low and behold a commission comes along. A residents and friends group of concerned Barumites have got together to raise money in order to save the facade of the Penrose Almshouses in Litchdon Street, Barnstaple which dates back to 1627. The timber supports which sit on the granite columns are rotting and the ornate cast iron guttering has already been removed as it was in danger of falling. This grade 1 listed building needs preserving and the group needed a picture; specifically of the front elevation straight on. In almost 400 years this image has never existed as the extremely narrow street has never enabled anyone to stand far enough away to see the whole building all at one except from one end or the other.

Unknown artist photo credit:
Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon

I came into the project with full support to help them raise their funds but with mixed feelings about making something look as it can never be seen. My gut feeling was to combine a series of photographs together from a fixed point to give the impression of what you would see as you turned your head through 120degrees. This is a far more truthful account of reality but only if you know the building; to anyone else the building appears very high in the middle and low at the two ends. 

Old Postcard

Combining the layers of single frames into three sections, held within vertical and horizontal guidelines in PhotoShop, I went about raising and lowering, stretching and shrinking, until the image looked somewhat like it might viewed from a distance. Puppet Warp was then used to straighten up many of the lines that had naturally curved through the original stitching process. The final image, the impossible picture, becomes believable but only until you look carefully and realise there are too many lines of perspective.

Original sketch once single frames were stitched together

77 photographs were taken and approximately 50 were stitched together in the construction of the final image. Approximately 1.5 days work.

Photographic Workshops in Devon, Autumn 2014

Introduction to digital photography - £50
A practical days workshop learning to gain control over your camera, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash etc, setting it up for optimum quality under any given lighting, and making better pictures through composition. Numbers limited to a hand-full. I also offer it on a 1:1 basis for ½ a day for £75
Saturday 4th October in Barnstaple (10am - 5pm) Click to reserve a place

Half Day Intro to digital photography - £25
A 'sit around the table' workshop to get to know your camera better. You'll learn about shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash and setting your camera up for optimum quality.
Wednesday 8th October in Bideford (1pm-4pm) Click to reserve a place

SmartPhone Photography - £25
A practical workshop to learn how to use your Smartphone's camera to take professional looking photographs and enhance those images on the go. Suitable for anyone with a SmartPhone. You will need to install a few cheap photo apps in advance which I'll advise on when booking!
Wednesday 29th October, Barnstaple (1pm-4pm) Click to reserve a place

Sea Caves, Shipwrecks and the Rocky Shore (10am - 5pm) - £50
An introduction to Dave Green's own photography. Spend a day with Dave experiencing the secret coast, hidden at the far ends of a sandy beach, full of caves and shipwrecks. Learn how to make the best of your own camera under demanding landscape and lighting.
Friday 10th October starting at Bude (9.30am-4pm) Click to reserve a place
Family Photo Workshop - get to know your camera - £30 per adult (maximum 2 accompanied children free)
A practical workshop to get to know your camera better. You'll learn about shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash and setting your camera up for optimum quality. This workshop is 3x hours taught time and 2x hours photographing/lunch/free time
Tuesday 28th October in Bideford (10am-3pm) Click to reserve a place
Thursday 30th October in Barnstaple (10am-3pm) Click to reserve a place

Painting with Light -(Light Graffiti) - £25 per photographer*
Celebrate the start of the dark winter nights. You'll will be provided with coloured light torches, flash lights and a tripod if you don't have one. The workshop will start with a round the table chat and introduction to night photographers and techniques in a quiet local pub. If you have particular images or techniques you’d like to duplicate please bring them along. Most digital cameras are able to make a long exposure nowadays, please email below if you're not sure if your camera is suitable.
*please bring a torch swinging friend at no extra cost!
Thursday 30th October at Westward Ho! (6pm-9pm) Click to reserve a place
Photographing your own Artwork - £50
I have a wealth of knowledge and experience of photographing 2D artwork, jewellery and ceramics and I'm willing to pass this on to artists eager to improve their own image making camera skills. Although this workshop is for a small group (max 5) I also offer it on a 1:1 basis for ½ a day for £75, or I can deliver the workshop in your own home or studio anywhere in Devon for £100
Course Description pdf
Monday 27th October in Bideford (11am - 6pm) Click to reserve a place

Introduction to Photoshop (11am–6pm) - £75 with lunch, tea and coffee provided!
Opening an image file and adjusting levels, contrast, brightness and colour balance. Rotating, resizing and cropping an image. Placing an image or images into a new file. Using layers and history. Participants will need to be computer literate i.e. use a computer on regular basis and understand the basic controls. Small group (max 4). I also offer it on a 1:1 basis in your own home or studio anywhere in Devon for £175
Friday 31st October in Bideford (11am-6pm) Click to reserve a place

Comments from the St Anne's Chapel exhibition

"Stunning work."
"Atmospheric and inspiring work."
"Imagery like no other. Excellent viewpoints and technical expertise."
"Great tour of your work days. Stunning photographs."
"I saw my great grandfather's signature and I love the pictures!"
"Very atmospheric."
"Superb! Thanks very interesting."
"Always good to see your remarkable photographs – happy memories of exploring the Exmoor coast."
"Great pictures and craft! Beautiful man, thanks."
"Just what Barnstaple needs – oasis of tranquillity and beauty."
"Been looking forward to this exhibition – expectations well met! Wonderful coastal revelations Dave, thanks for the effort."
"Looks absolutely fab Dave – your work looks amazing and suits the space very well.It also lifts the venue/gallery space. Good luck with the show!"
"Brilliant. Very skilful and imaginative. Very good eye for composition. Great texture, variety, use of light and shadow. So much to look at."
"So pleased to have the opportunity to see your fantastic body of work. Great to see lots of people also enjoying it. Well done Dave. Cards are great I do love them"

 And thanks to the support of the North Devon Journal there should be more comments to add!

Exhibition and Open Studio - Real, Live and Virtual Opening 8/8/2014

Live REAL and Virtual opening of Dave Green's exhibition and open studio at St Anne's Arts & Community Centre today 4.45pm until 9pm
Please Join us!

Live on You Tube NOW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ymv7TOtuU0

Please take a look.


Interact through Google+ here:
https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/ytl/vjVQa1PpcFOOxIXAOgavhB06nH79crcCdMUPbuzK7xU=

or call me on Skype: greengallery

or text me through Facebook

Tucson

I lived in Tucson whilst doing a teaching exchange in 2003/04. This was a trip to get to spend some time with old friends, enjoy the city and the desert wilderness that surrounds it. Near the end of my trip I spent an evening addressing the Tucson Camera Club at the Jewish Community Center. This lively club were a great audience, challenged and inspired by my presentation and having many questions afterwards.

Being away from the norm was a great place to experiment with my new camera, a Pentax K-3. Having a 24.4 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, twice the size and yet the camera is smaller and lighter than my Olympus DSLR, I was drawn to the street photography I used to do last century, on film.

Photographic Workshops in Devon, Summer 2014

Introduction to digital photography - £50
A practical days workshop learning to gain control over your camera, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash etc, setting it up for optimum quality under any given lighting, and making better pictures through composition. Numbers limited to a hand-full. I also offer it on a 1:1 basis for ½ a day for £75
Wednesday 18th June in Bideford (11am - 6pm) Click to reserve a place

Half Day Intro to digital photography - £25
A 'sit around the table' workshop to get to know your camera better. You'll learn about shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash and setting your camera up for optimum quality.
July date TBC Click to make an enquiry

SmartPhone Photography - £25
A practical workshop to learn how to use your Smartphone's camera to take professional looking photographs and enhance those images on the go. Suitable for anyone with a SmartPhone. You will need to install a few cheap photo apps in advance which I'll advise on when booking!
Wednesday 25th June, Bideford (1.30 - 4pm) Click to reserve a place

Sea Caves, Shipwrecks and the Rocky Shore (10am - 5pm) - £50
An introduction to Dave Green's own photography. Spend a day with Dave experiencing the secret coast, hidden at the far ends of a sandy beach, full of caves and shipwrecks. Learn how to make the best of your own camera under demanding landscape and lighting.
Monday 16th June starting at Bude (11am - 5pm) Click to reserve a place
Family Photo Workshop - get to know your camera - £30 per adult (maximum 2 accompanied children free)
A practical workshop to get to know your camera better. You'll learn about shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, flash and setting your camera up for optimum quality.
July date TBC Click to make an enquiry

Photographing your own Artwork - £50
I have a wealth of knowledge and experience of photographing 2D artwork, jewellery and ceramics and I'm willing to pass this on to artists eager to improve their own image making camera skills. Although this workshop is for a small group (max 5) I also offer it on a 1:1 basis for ½ a day for £75, or I can deliver the workshop in your own home or studio anywhere in Devon for £100
Course Description pdf
Tuesday 17th June in Bideford (11am - 6pm) Click to reserve a place

Introduction to Photoshop (11am–6pm) - £75 with lunch, tea and coffee provided!
Opening an image file and adjusting levels, contrast, brightness and colour balance. Rotating, resizing and cropping an image. Placing an image or images into a new file. Using layers and history. Participants will need to be computer literate i.e. use a computer on regular basis and understand the basic controls. Small group (max 4). I also offer it on a 1:1 basis in your own home or studio anywhere in Devon for £175
July date TBC Click to make an enquiry

The Grand Canyon, Arizona

I've visited the Grand Canyon in the past, but this trip was after reading 'Grand Obsession: Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of Grand Canyon' twice! Butchart is the greatest hiker/canyoneer to have explored the Canyon and I saw it through different eyes this time and got all the way from the rim to the Colorado River.

The first two images here were from around 1000ft below the South Rim on the Hermit's Trail. This was an afternoon hike, 2000ft down the trail and back again, just to get acclimated to the terrain and altitude before the big hike planned for the following day. The Hermit's Trail is a lesser trod, unkept trail but feels similar to the kind of path you might find in winding through an olive grove on a Greek Island. The following day we (my wife Sadie and I) woke at 5am to catch the 6am 'hiker's bus' from Bright Angel Lodge to the trail head, a couple of miles away. Fortunately there was hot coffee and tea available from the hotel before the ride. The hike down the South Kaibab Trail is the shortest route to the Canyon floor, but it is also the steepest and this image will hopefully give you a sense of it's steepness. 

You get you first views of the mighty Colorado as you descend the trail and notice it's rich green colour. It used to run muddy brown before the dam at Glen Canyon. At the Canyon floor it's colour is even more saturated. The river here, at the part where the Bright Angel Trail leaves it looked very deep and flowed fast, it has the name Bright Angel Rapids but is not rapid enough to be listed in the Grand Canyon River Guide!

The trail back up the the rim takes you through the oasis of Indian Garden. This cottonwood tree is testament to year round ground water here.Near the top of Bright Angel Trail you need any break you can get from the relentless steep uphill climb. This view at Mile-and-a-Half Resthouse, 1000ft below the rim, was a welcome sight to enjoy. The trail was already in deep shadow when I got to photograph this view and fill-in flash was used with my camera held up-side-down to get the image held in my mind's eye.

Back at the South Rim for 6.15pm this is a challenging but very rewarding day hike. The Park doesn't recommend you do the whole of this in a day, but if you're reasonably fit and set off early enough, with water and snacks you can make it!

The Mouse Hole, Mousehole, Cornwall

Finished constructed photograph of Mouse Hole 2014

I first got to know about the Mouse Hole Cave when researching the Beaford Old Archive in 2009 Looking for an image to use in an early Ghost Card for an exhibition I had been commissioned to make work for. I had known Mousehole, the village, pronounced ‘mowsull’ since childhood holidays in Cornwall; it had the quaint harbour and lots of cats. I had never questioned it’s name or come across the footpath which left the village on the giveaway Cave Lane. I discovered it for myself for the first time in June 2010. It had struck me as a man-made cave, some kind of mine, which hadn’t seen the sea for a number of years.

Francis Frith 1908

The old footpath sign carried a fitting scratched statement ‘Not To Beach’; and that had been all I needed to find this place. Its interior was very dry with evidence of youthful parties and a lush green fern covered entrance. I made some photographs with the intention of stitching them together in the winter, but those images stayed unstitched until now! Maybe I had felt at the time that the resulting image in my minds-eye wasn’t going to fit in with the sea cave images I was working on As well as the image in the Beaford Archive, collected by James Ravilious, I found that other photographers had documented it in the past. Francis Frith had been here in 1908 and 1927. I’m sure there were also Victorian and Edwardian photographers also making their way to this place when there was a metal ladder set in the cliff and the path was accessible without almost crawling through the undergrowth. 

Francis Frith 1908

Francis Frith 1927

This would have been a major attraction to the tourists back then and the trail from village to cave would have even been accessible to ladies and gentlemen in their flowing dresses and suits. My visit to the Mouse Hole in April 2014 was after a winter of record high rainfall and gale after gale coming in from the south west. This cave would have taken the full force of the weather fronts and huge waves. The storms had cleansed Mouse Hole from years of growth from land based plants and of the litter and detritus left from years of neglect from its visitors and from the high tides which had also left their mark. This was a profoundly different cave than the one seen four years earlier, but I expect this is a continual cycle, probably also witnessed by Frith and other returning pilgrims back then.

April is also a time for seabirds to nest and this time the entrance way was alive with kittiwakes leaving and returning to their precipitous homes. This with the blue sky was a major part of my memory of the cave in 2014, whereas the white overcast sky of 2010 had helped me concentrate on its tropical entrance. Time was against me as I was constricted to public transport to get me back from Penzance to St Ives, and this after the hike back into town; but sometimes this can focus the mind. The resulting image is a combination of iPhone and Olympus Pen. The image was quickly made with my iPhone including 17 frames of the entrance focusing of the kittiwakes in flight. The interior of the cave was then quickly made with the micro 4/3rds camera mounted on a tripod. Speed was also important here because the ceiling was continually dripping and it was only luck that all of the frames were made without a splat of water on the UV filter. Fortunately this cave is so large, tall and wide mouthed, that interior lighting was almost even, there being 1 stop exposure difference between the entrance and the ring of images deeper into the cavern. And only 2 stops difference from the outside exposure of sea, sky and birds.

Finished constructed photograph of Mouse Hole 2010

Post processing was started almost immediately with an iPhone image created in the AutoStich app; but it was clear from the start that it would be a difficult image to stitch. The iPhone frames were stitched together in Photoshop later in the day and a selection of the ‘bird’ frames were combined to reinforce my memory of the place. The camera frames were stitched a couple of days later and then the two formats were combined together to make a finished image that can be printed up to 1 metre squared.
With this new image I went in search of the folder containing all of the photographs from the Cornwall trip in 2010. These images made on my Olympus dslr were combined in a similar way and make an image of a similar size. But comparable in so many other ways which makes both images more interesting and a great record of this wonderful place.

Stitched iPhone images of Mouse Hole 2014

Best of the Year 2013

One of the things I like best about a New Year is catching up on all of the things I missed in the previous year. I check in with NPR's 'All Songs Considered' and my head is usually filled with all of the critically acclaimed albums that passed me by. I keep an eye on the broadsheets for their pictures of the year and also keep up with technological advances. 

The greatest change in my own photography last year was the use of my iPhone to initially 'sketch' a photo out before making the real thing; and later to use it in the making of new images in a way I cannot work with my DSLR.

The photographic app I've used the most to progress my own work is AutoStitch (£1.50 Apple and Android). I started off using it to take, stitch and crop pictures to aid my 'seeing' of a space photographically; to give me an idea of how that place might look photographed. I then started using the ProCamera app (£2.99 Apple and Android) to take the photos, AutoStitch to Stitch in HQ and Photoshop Touch (£6.99 Apple and Android) to enhance and crop. 

So nothing that I couldn't do with my DSLR so far! But then I had a revelation - I found I was able to continually add and take away frames from my stitched image until I had achieved what I had in my 'mind's eye'. I was working on a set of images for an exhibition in Manteo, North Carolina, titled 'Café Culture'. These were to be photographs of the interiors of local cafés made entirely on my iPhone. Making the image above, of the Café Du Parc at the Burton Art Gallery, I was able to sit at a table shooting and stitching the scene, shooting more frames, deleting ones that didn't work so well, and doing this over and over until I was satisfied with the result. This was closer to the way an artist using paint would work and it was very satisfying to be able to complete the whole image from life.

So 2014, I've upgraded my phone and I've added a SmartPhone Camera Workshop to my list:

SmartPhone Photography - £25
A practical workshop to learn how to use your Smartphone's camera to take professional looking photographs and enhance those images on the go. Suitable for anyone with a SmartPhone. You will need to install a few cheap photo apps in advance which I'll advise on when booking!
Thursday 20th February in Barnstaple (10am - 12.30pm) Click to reserve a place

There's a new season of other workshops available too: http://www.greengallery.co.uk/workshops.htm