Velvet Water

Got the book  The Landscape Photography Workshop (Ross Hoddinott & Mark Bauer, Photographers Institute Press 2011) in my stocking at Christmas. Lots of useful information about landscape photography and tips for getting it right. As you would expect from a book based on workshop teaching it is overly prescriptive that offers the methodology and approach of the authors with only passing reference to other methods by other photographers that are as equally effective. However it does have the advantage of being well constructed and I was left feeling that I had gained a great deal from it.

My pet hate is 'velvet water' the effect created by a long exposure when photographing moving water. The authors go as far as to add Neutral Density filters to lengthen the exposure. I realise it is all a matter of taste but personally I think it is gimmicky and gives the image a wholly unrealistic look. Granted it works in some situations where the structure and texture of the water is not a key element but in other shots it simply looks ridiculous (for me the best example of the latter is the image on page 102).

My hope is that, in common with all so called 'creative gimmicks', there will be the natural reaction, when something has been flogged to death, of returning to photographing nature as we perceive it. Fortunately or unfortunately photography is fashion dominated (think about landscape photography and its demise) and it requires a great deal of courage to fly in the face of fashion particularly if you wish to be recognised and exhibited so fashions last longer than what one would see as their natural life. It is interesting to go back and follow these fashions through a period trying to identify the trigger that created them (e.g. colour film, digital cameras and the availability of increasingly sophisticated software) and what brought about their demise.

I sometimes think that it would be a useful exercise to give a box brownie to the 'greart' photographers of our present era and ask them to produce a portfolio of say 10 images (no post processing allowed)and see what they come up with. Too often one gets the impression that success lies in the competence and skill of the post processing staff (frequently not the photographer) rather than the image captured in camera. (I personally will continue to use the best camera I can afford and the latest software available!!)