david purdie photo blog and gallery news

  I often find on hot summer days the colour in photos can become very dull and unexciting. At the worst a picture can be cut in half coulour-wise, the bottom half green the top half blue. Especially if there are no clouds. On these occasions I often try converting them to black and white. These two were shot while doing a private workshop day for a couple from London. We had beatiful weather and got these shots near the cliffs at pett level. David Purdie July 2018   

Persistance is an under-rated phtographic skill. I was out on Sunday evening to try to get some shots of Rye from the western side. In the end the light wasn't very good, it was a bit hazy, and from a distance half the town seems to be draped with sheeted scaffolding. So nothing useful, but the more you go out the better your pictures will be and I'll have another go later this week.  I did however see the sun go down behind the Udimore Road ridge. This is pulled up from the centre of the frame, so lowish quality, but I...

  On last Friday's workshop day I noticed that the remains of Smeaton's Harbour were more exposed than usual at Winchelsea beach, so I went back last night to shoot it at dusk. If you don't know the extraordinary story of Smeaton's Harbour go here. I did some long exposure stuff as it got dark and some side on telephoto pictures to include the headland at fairlight in the background. Later on I got some shots of Jupiter rising over the sea.

On the way home from the gallery today I had to pull in to take a shot of this very dramatic sky. I had been plannng to do some test shots with my new 16-35mm f4 sony/zeiss zoom, but this was 2 frames on a 50mm lens, stitched together. So kind of a 35mm shot but with the top and bottom removed.     I did get to try out the new lens later, in this shot of a somewhat dilapidated farm building. This may from part of a new project I am thinking of doing, of old functional buildings, sheds,...

  My review of Andreas Gursky at the Hayward Gallery London (till 22 April 2018) In February I went to see the Andreas Gursky show at the newly refurbished Hayward. His work sits between large scale abstract painting and photography. There is a lot to like about the show, the scale and presence of the pictures is arresting. There is an admirable seriousness of intention and ambition in most of them. A recent iphone picture view of the US midwest from a car (below) is terrific. A 4m long print of clubbers, seemingly shot individually, with very carefully controlled colour, is...