Forest of Iron Lines

Hi Everyone,  I feel the need to start with something more imaginative than 'I hope everyone is staying safe and well' but that short sentence really says it all so...

Time continues to spin by, we have passed the longest day here in the UK now and the evenings will start to draw in fairly soon at which point I won't feel quite as guilty for spending the vast majority of my evenings indoors working on my various photography projects or other crafting enterprises.

Another busy few weeks… The focus for me has been to consolidate and to put into practice all the new ideas and concepts I have been lucky enough to learn through courses or by just having time to further my own studies over the last couple of months. The temptation was to keep signing up for more and more on-line activities but I felt it was better for me to just slow down and to properly consolidate learnings so far so that I have a more solid foundation from which to move forward. I may have missed opportunities but I am fine with that.

In that spirit, I am continuing with the challenge of producing multiple images from a single file. I  seem to have latched on to a personal target of producing 12 images as the output from each of these exercises as I feel it makes a nice 3x4 panel and also forces me to spend time arranging them so that they all work together. This does however mean that I need to produce more than 12 along the way as some just won't fit in to the final 3x4 layout for one reason or other. No small challenge!. I had hoped to undertake this exercise with a new file every month but I think I am putting too much pressure onto myself as it does take a lot of time to produce these images. Maybe every 2 months is a sensible goal.

Anyway, The file I had selected for this iteration of the project is this one.

Original

This is a Multiple Exposure image taken of some windows in Morocco early last year. I had played with the image a little already so I knew that it had mileage but I initially had little success for whatever reason. I am very pleased that I selected this image as a starting point as it has enough texture, shape and contrast to work with and I have generated lots of variations which are each very different in terms of tones but they work very well together as a panel, well I think they do anyway.

Series title and some accompanying words: "Forest of Iron Lines: I present a different interpretation of a forest and its' apparent disorder. I choose to use Iron to contrast the chaos of the urban landscape with the harmony of the natural world".

I am also starting to think more and more about where I take my images once they reach this stage. Some of you will know that I am extremely dedicated to creative journaling. This is something that has always been part of my photographic workflow. I make a small prints of every image that I create and stick them into my scrapbook coupled with notes etc.

IMG_4948
IMG_3909

Until recently this act of making small prints was an important but fairly quick process. After adding a new printer into the mix this part of the process turned into a bit of a nightmare as I found it impossible to reproduce anything resembling my image onto any sort of paper. A period of intense frustration followed as I am sure you can imagine, particularly those that know me! After some very much appreciated help from an extremely patient and kind photo-friend plus the discovery that one of the print drivers was missing the problems was solved. I now know a lot more about the dark-arts of printing! This has been invaluable to me as I now feel I have the basic tools to reliably produce a pretty decent print on my chosen paper (currently favouring the Awagami papers) which is intensely satisfying. I am starting to use these lovely papers as part of my journaling too as I now realise that printing on any old paper doesn't help me if I want to see what a finished 'print' will look like as paper choice is such an important part of the decision-making process.

I am also starting to experiment with printing on other mediums. I have sent a couple of the images from this series away to a company which specialises in printing on metal and other compounds. I have selected a metallic compound specifically developed to support high definition printing which is exciting, I think this will work well with the some of the images in this panel and continues the 'iron' theme through to the finished piece. I have also sent an image from a different series to be printed onto wooden panels similar to scaffold planks to see how that looks, I don't think printing on wood would work with any of the above images but who knows! The order was placed today and I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Anyway, as I said, a busy month…

Take care as ever and thank you for getting this far down the page!!

xx

9 Comments

  • Indeed you are busy. Isn’t it wonderful to have the time to play and experiment. I love the colour in your work such a contrast to the project for creative connections. Making many from one was a revelation to me I must admit. While I had always processed a few different ways the power of ending up with a series is fantastic. I look forward to viewing your progress from my Australian base.

    Reply
    • Hi Ann, Thanks for taking the time to comment – it’s lovely to hear from you from so far away… And yes, I am thoroughly enjoying having some time to do what I now realise I have very much wanted to do for such a long time, I don’t really do much else now. And yes, playing with an image in this way is something I would never have thought of – it’s such a good exercise though. It’s good to have such a lovely network of people to share with now too – I can still see your final presentation in my minds eye, it was so gentle. Anyway, we will definitely keep in touch and take care… xx

      Reply
  • Thanks for sharing all of that Linda. You have really become focused and dedicated to your art. It is a joy to see someone so immersed and it is reflected in the results.

    Reply
    • Hi Hugh, Thanks so much for getting in touch again. I am really enjoying finally having the time to devote to my photography almost to the exclusion of everything else. Didn’t;t think I could but I can’t imagine doing anything else now. I am so pleased that you enjoy what I am doing and take the time to leave a comment. Take care… xx

      Reply
  • I like the idea of journaling your images. I guess I use Instagram to do much the same, but I think I’m going to start making more prints again….

    Reply
    • Hi Rob,
      For me it’s the creation of something physical which ticks the box. I find it really useful to be able to flick back through the pages and see what I’ve done in the past… I spend enough time looking at a screen so having something I can sit down and turn the pages makes quite a difference…
      L xx

      Reply
  • Love the latest project Linda and what an excellent idea to work with multiple exposures of the same image. I did multiple exposures in Photoshop for a while, but reached my limitations pretty quickly. Can you recommend any books or courses?
    Printing on other materials than paper is great too. I think your work would look amazing on metal.
    I share your frustration with home printing And for a while I thought I might do all my printing commercially, but you do need to see your work in progress. So still swearing at printers!
    I produced 3D photo images on wood for a while by printing on tissue paper and then pasting them on. If you ever want some pointers how to print on tissue, let me know – might be something to incorporate in your final prints or even as a starting image. All that texture!
    Love love love your work Linda.

    Reply
    • Hi Pirjo,
      Lovely to hear from you and so pleased that you like this latest project. I am certainly thrilled with how it turned out. And yes, I highly recommend the method of working a single image multiple ways, as I have said, the later ones I think are the best but you need to exhaust the obvious first. In terms to PS techniques, I don’t actually use that many, probably a tiny fraction of PS capabilities – if you are able to work in layers and use the blend modes you have probably about 80% of the techniques I use.
      In terms of commercial printing, I’ve had an image printed onto metal which arrived earlier today and I am thrilled with it. I plan to hang it outside in my garden so once it’s up I will take a picture of it and hopefully include it as part of my next blog. Printing on tissue definitely sounds interesting so I may pick your brains on that at some point… I am sure we can do a ‘technique swap’ 🙂
      Anyway, thanks for getting in touch and glad you like the work.

      Take care
      L xx

      Reply

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