LF: Visions on the beach

[Dawid Loubser]

About 18 months ago when I just started out in large format, I did the inevitable - a double exposure. I never gave it a second thought, but going through my file today, I thought that this was perhaps a rather fortunate double-exposure - an unintended successful conveyance of that day on the beach:

Visions on the beach

(Nikkor-T*ED 360/8 + 500/11, Linhof Technika V, Ilford HP5)​

Any thoughts? The out-of-focus beach debris causes an unfortunate mottled effect in the sky - akin to uneven development - but there is nothing to be done about it now. Anyway, I just thought i'd risk sharing this picture instead of effectively destroying it (by never printing or scanning it...)

 

[Jerome Marot]

Any thoughts?

Yes. Now that you have the idea, redo it without the houses and beach debris.

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Dawid,

I really like it (as is).

We say, "better lucky than good". But of course there is no such thing - much of our luck is just our intellectual capability working in the background!

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Dawid Loubser]

Yes. Now that you have the idea, redo it without the houses and beach debris.

Hmm - to be honest, I am not sure that the concept is good enough to pursue a purposeful re-do, but... why not? It will be a while until I am less than 1,400km from the ocean though! And I will have to find a walking flock of Oystercatchers which does not have a distracting background.

Not an easy scenario to recreate. but you can be assured I'll keep it in mind when I am on a beach again... It might also be substantially easier to redo with medium format film (more agility).

Doug, I'm glad you kinda like it! I agree with your statement about luck

 

[Jerome Marot]

Hmm - to be honest, I am not sure that the concept is good enough to pursue a purposeful re-do

Of course it is. Something happened on your film just randomly. You like the result, but can't really realize why. This is a sure sign that there is an idea in that picture, just not finished enough for you to realize how the final product will look. I can see that too.

Now is the time to think, maybe do a few tests or sketches (depending on your way of working) and find out what the picture should be. Then go out with the camera and shoot it.

 

[Jerome Marot]

much of our luck is just our intellectual capability working in the background!

I don't agree. I prefer to think that luck is just that: random. The intellectual capability is to be able to see when something happens.

 

[Mark Hampton]

Now is the time to think, maybe do a few tests or sketches (depending on your way of working) and find out what the picture should be. Then go out with the camera and shoot it.

Jerome may be correct. if you can use your tonal certainty that you use in most of the works you post and control the image process in the manner your other works says that you do then you could make this concrete.

but then it wont be this.. does it need refinement... or is it more interesting as presented..

your call... me i like the loose nes (is that a word) .. lots of levels are available in the work...

back to whisky !

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi Dawid,

I am probably the only one who will admit that it doesn't work for him/her. I don't think that this is a serendipitous find worthy of a follow up. I am saying this for the sake of honesty, absolutely no disrespect is intended.

But hey; if it works for you that's all that matters, my ramblings are inconsequential.

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

...back to whisky !

Slainte. Here's tae ye....

 

[Mark Hampton]

Slainte. Here's tae ye....

lol... Slainte cem

 

[Dawid Loubser]

Hi Dawid,

I am probably the only one who will admit that it doesn't work for him/her. I don't think that this is a serendipitous find worthy of a follow up. I am saying this for the sake of honesty, absolutely no disrespect is intended.

But hey; if it works for you that's all that matters, my ramblings are inconsequential.

Hi Cem,

No apology required - you see, it doesn't quite "work" for me either, which is why I never did anything with this photograph before, and only later decided to risk sharing it in this forum (which - by name - is all about risking it

Your ramblings are certainly not inconsequential: I have always valued your writings on this forum. The response to my post is interesting though: About one and a half respondents like it as it, one says it could work if re-done deliberately, and one doesn't like it. Oh, how perceptions and taste differs!

I think this business of making double exposures in-camera can be quite tricky. I've never liked the idea (very gimmicky), but I can see a lot of thought going into the different exposures os each base image. I imagine one could play with graduated ND filters to more carefully control the blending of the two images...

 

[Asher Kelman]

Dawid,

I like to learn from serendipity and from others with a different background. All these offer suggestions to us that are generally outside our frame of reference. an example for me is how creative folk where in working on some of my snaps in a test shoot meeting with a performer for one of my photographic constructed metaphorical tableaux pictures.

Visions on the beach

(Nikkor-T*ED 360/8 + 500/11, Linhof Technika V, Ilford HP5)​

I like this idea of of superimposed libs on a beach. After all, the light is bright and we get glimpses of limbs but we don't want to stare. So there's a transient, latent ghost image in our mind as we walk along the beach. We hardly want to get caught in the midst of a direct study of someone lying around, as if in private, but in full view of the whole universe. Still, these images or primal! Naked bodies or almost so are not our usual view of people. So what we see must be consumed fast and without calling attention to ourselves or to those around us. Doing otherwise would be bad manners and socially awkward!

So, I feel this is a good project worth putting an effort into developing further. This is, as i understand it it, Jerome's opinion.

Asher Kelman: Extracted sketch, sepia toned, for discussion only

Cut from the original by Dawid Loubser LF: Visions From the Beach
​

For this picture, that black mess on the right is disturbing. I'd crop this to a vertical format and sepia tone it and print it huge, just to act as a stimulus for planning. I'd then do a series of experiments and build a library of cropped double exposures, ranking the samples and then going out to shoot more.

Asher

 

[Dawid Loubser]

I hope my Wife's legs hold up until I get a chance to attempt this again! Just kidding...

(you didn't think I' point a giant large format camera with a 500mm lens to just any ol' stranger on the beach, did you?

 

[Asher Kelman]

I hope my Wife's legs hold up until I get a chance to attempt this again! Just kidding...

(you didn't think I' point a giant large format camera with a 500mm lens to just any ol' stranger on the beach, did you?

Well, Dawid, for you to have filled the frame with a 500mm lens, you must boast a pretty large extension! My 8x10 only just handles that focal length at close distances.

Asher

 

[Dawid Loubser]

Well, Dawid, for you to have filled the frame with a 500mm lens, you must boast a pretty large extension! My 8x10 only just handles that focal length at close distances.

Asher

Linhof don't mess around when they design field cameras (or shall I say didn't in the 1950s, though it's still true). Admittedly, I was at the limit here of what I could do with a 500mm.

The optical performance of the Nikkor T*ED is exemplary - I can't believe there are people out there complaining about it. I am sure this must relate to poor focusing, or wobbly cameras.

 

[Jerome Marot]

I hope my Wife's legs hold up until I get a chance to attempt this again!

You don't need to go to the beach to make a few tests. You probably have images of the beach and of the legs taken separately. You could combine them digitally, just to visualize if something suits your taste. If you find something great, then you could re-shoot.

I think that the legs are reminiscent of sand dunes. Maybe that is why the combination talks to me.