Black_White_Photography_-_Winter_2014

70

B+W

L

ast week we went to the seaside

for some late autumn sunshine, to

the Black Sea resort of Sozopol,

only a couple of hours from my

house in Bulgaria. Horizontal on a sun

lounger, reflecting on life, the universe

and everything else, my thoughts turned

to the thing that troubles me at the end

of every month. I was late with my copy

for this column. Again. Pondering what

I should write about, I idly took pictures

on my phone of the scene on the beach

immediately in front of me. People of all

shapes and sizes were wandering around

in varying states of undress and, I realised

as I shot away, that I wouldn’t dream of

doing this with a big SLR in my hands.

Discreet. That’s mobile photography for you.

I passed a very agreeable afternoon

taking pictures. And when I’d finished

shooting I lay there contentedly processing

my images, putting them through a variety

of different apps I’d been meaning to try out

and generally messing around with them.

I love some of the results and love the

fact that, yet again, they simply wouldn’t

exist had I not had my phone with me (the

Beloved Partner has some pretty firm rules

about carrying a big lumpy camera around

when I’m supposed to be off duty, which is

only fair enough).

Pictures one, two and three are some

of the results. All shot using Hipstamatic,

and all then processed again through other

apps. Pictures four, five and six all come

from one original image – see Top Tips.

Incidentally, apologies for all the square

pictures. It’s just that I’ve never really liked

them before now, probably something to

do with never having owned a Hasselblad.

Next month I promise I’ll stop it.

TECHNIQUE

timclinchphotography.com

Whiling away a hard working day on a sun lounger, Tim Clinch discovers

that he doesn’t have to move to get great shots – life simply unravels

itself before his eyes, and he’s there just waiting to take pictures.

THE SMART GUIDE

TO PHOTOGRAPHY

TOP TIP

1 2

Try doing what I did in Sozopol. Find

yourself a nice spot: beach, city,

market, café or wherever. Somewhere

where you can stay still and watch the

world go by. Watch all the little cameos

of life unfurl before your eyes and

shoot. You don’t have to worry

about moving, let the subjects do

that for you. See what happens.

And when you’re done, get

another cup of coffee and put your

pictures through some different

apps to see what happens. Take the

picture of the man jogging. In version

four, it’s as shot, using Hipstamatic

with the Diego lens and the Uchitel 20

film (OK, not B&W, but clearly

monochrome). Version five is the

same picture with the border cropped

and processed in Alien Skin’s AltPhoto

app (alienskin.com), using the Tri-X Pan

filter, and version six has been

processed using the Dramatic Black

& White app by JixiPix (jixipix.com).

‘People of all shapes and sizes

were wandering around in

varying states of undress and,

I realised, as I shot away, that

I wouldn’t dream of doing this

with a big SLR in my hands.’

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