New Old Film Challenge #9 'Bridges' Discussion Thread.

wontolla

wontolla

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I'm in!
 
Nice challenge, time to go digging in the archive
 
I like. The search begins.
 
Yv said:
Was a bit spoilt for choice on this one compared to my normal new old challenge efforts - but opted for one with a familiar face in there ;)
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where? where?
 
Usual dilemma, is it the most interesting bridge or the best shot of the bridge that wins? I have plenty of the former, all pretty flawed, so none of the latter I suspect!
 
ChrisR said:
Usual dilemma, is it the most interesting bridge or the best shot of the bridge that wins? I have plenty of the former, all pretty flawed, so none of the latter I suspect!
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Well, if it was down to me, (but it's not) a combination of the two would be about right!
 
...or a lateral thinking surprise with a shot of your teeth :D
 
Is there a "really don't like that!" button? ;)
 
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"minimal bridge" shot entered... (anything else would have been classed as a tyrolean traverse...)
 
Excellent entries so far!
 
ChrisR said:
Usual dilemma, is it the most interesting bridge or the best shot of the bridge ...
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OK having settled for the SydArb, I thought I should explain this a bit. I was thinking of a shot I have of the Tasman Bridge taken in 1975, under repair after being partly demolished by a ship. I was going to point to a post I thought I'd made about it on here, but so far my searches have failed to find it! Anyway, the shot is interesting because of what it is, but the viewpoint is restricted as I had to stop on the highway, and worse, there is a giant lamp post apparently growing out of the side of the bridge! One step to the left might have fixed that; too bad I can't go back there and try to take the shot again!
 
wontolla said:
Went over it once, it was ok.
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been over it, under it, round it, next to it... only thing I haven't done is the one thing I actually want to do - get on it - as in the upper walkways that they opened recently. They also hold functions up there, wouldn't mind being booked to shoot them. ;)
 
Thought I might share one pic in here though, as its digital...and film...and includes another Thames bridge...

Having fun with an original Polaroid Button camera, Impossible film and something London iconic...

double camera test by Yvonne White LBIPP - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr
 
Yv said:
been over it, under it, round it, next to it... only thing I haven't done is the one thing I actually want to do - get on it - as in the upper walkways that they opened recently. They also hold functions up there, wouldn't mind being booked to shoot them. ;)
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Impressive now https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=t...aibBcbnaMn1gZgE&ved=0CDwQsAQ&biw=1920&bih=959

and some decent shots of Tower bridge which is the reason I don't bother taking shots of London anymore as there are so many better ones taken by others.
 
excalibur2 said:
Impressive now https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=t...aibBcbnaMn1gZgE&ved=0CDwQsAQ&biw=1920&bih=959

and some decent shots of Tower bridge which is the reason I don't bother taking shots of London anymore as there are so many better ones taken by others.
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Sometimes Brian I really don't understand your thinking. Surely your statement is true of everything you've ever photographed (apart from family memebers) so what's the point in having a camera, just buy shots taken by others.

Andy
 
Andysnap said:
Sometimes Brian I really don't understand your thinking. Surely your statement is true of everything you've ever photographed (apart from family memebers) so what's the point in having a camera, just buy shots taken by others.

Andy
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That's it, I'm quitting photography there is just no point :(
 
Andysnap said:
Sometimes Brian I really don't understand your thinking. Surely your statement is true of everything you've ever photographed (apart from family memebers) so what's the point in having a camera, just buy shots taken by others.

Andy
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Well Andy I'm now just a record shooter whether it be of the family or a wood full of bluebells, and get more satisfaction (like a shot shown here once) of the house near me that was once a stage coach inn.....a now and then picture. But just draw the line on famous buildings or places...others might enjoy showing the rivets of a structure rather than all of it, although if I took a shot of the Victoria and Albert museum in Kensington, it would just be the chips in the building caused by bomb splinters during the war, erm which is really a record shot and nothing artistic ;)
Anyway I've estimated I've spent about £350 at Tesco and Asda in 5 years for 35mm, so I must be enjoying something ;)
 
Well, I can see your point a bit more now Brian and if you are happy shooting what you shoot then its all good, it just doesn't matter to me if someone has done it before or done it better I just want to do it the best I can.
 
Andysnap said:
it just doesn't matter to me if someone has done it before or done it better I just want to do it the best I can.
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That's my approach... I'm well aware that I'm pretty poor as photographers go, but I also know from comparing stuff I've done 6 years ago when I joined up on TP to what I'm turning out now, that I've improved FAR more than I ever thought was possible over the prior 30 years of shooting. What's that down to... well, a fair bit of it is getting advice and help from far more knowlegable people on here (the whole "standing on the shoulders of giants" thing), a reasonable amount is (whisper it softly in here...) being able to practice and practice and practice for very little expenditure and with a short duration "feedback loop" because I'm shooting on digital a fair chunk of the time - at least for anything that I'm considering a "learning shoot" or trying out something as a new technique. But the single thing that's made me improve IS LOOKING, REALLY LOOKING at other peoples photographs, analysing WHY I think their version of something I've shot looks "better"...

Sometimes it's the light - especially with landscape stuff, sometimes there really is no substitute for "being there at the right time" - even if that means sleeping in a Bivi half way up a mountain for 4 nights because the weather forecast says that somewhere in that time-frame there'll be the correct sunrise. I know I'm not that dedicated, so I can accept that if I go somewhere and put my tripod in the same holes worn away into the rock by hundreds of other people, I'll most likely get a relatively "so-so" rendition of the same view... It'll still mean something to me, as a memory jogger of a (hopefully) pleasant day out, but it wouldn't be more than a technical exercise. So, I'd do it, then go find something more interesting to me to shoot.

Sometimes though, it's not just the light - sometimes another person has just got that clever angle, or that "just right" composition - and THAT's when I have a "lightbulb" moment - because I've learned something about composition, that hopefully I can go out and employ, often NOT in re-creating the "better" version myself, but by using that extra little compositional "trick" to improve a shot of my own...

As most of you are aware (and are probably thoroughly sick of) I tend to keep returning to a couple of themes in my still life work - every time I shoot something, I spend as much time as I can with as large a print as possible of the shot - not "enjoying it" or "showing off" but in slowly and carefully tearing it to bits - so that the next time, i'll get it better - it's like an engineering process... you prototype, you test, you break it, you find what was wrong, and you repeat - eventually I'm hoping to get something that I actually print out BIG and put on the wall purely because I enjoy it.
 
Andysnap said:
Well, I can see your point a bit more now Brian and if you are happy shooting what you shoot then its all good, it just doesn't matter to me if someone has done it before or done it better I just want to do it the best I can.
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A lovely shot of say a quaint cottage in your area surely is better than going to London and taking a shot of Tower bridge that has been done to death at every angle and day and night. Anyway I replaced my shot of Tower bridge as after seeing the link I posted realise it's crap..but does have some value as a record shot as you can't see the same view now.
 
excalibur2 said:
A lovely shot of say a quaint cottage in your area surely is better than going to London and taking a shot of Tower bridge that has been done to death at every angle and day and night. Anyway I replaced my shot of Tower bridge as after seeing the link I posted realise it's crap..but does have some value as a record shot as you can't see the same view now.
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Every time I see Tower Bridge it fills me with wonder and I'd like to be able to capture that wonder for myself. Never succeeded, will probably try again!
 
ChrisR said:
Every time I see Tower Bridge it fills me with wonder and I'd like to be able to capture that wonder for myself. Never succeeded, will probably try again!
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Keep trying.... A few years ago we organised a TP meet to shoot night time stuff around the river. At some silly hour of the morning, about 4am as I recall, the river was 'slack' [tide neither coming in or out] and it was the only time I have ever seen it so glass like. With no traffic on it it was pond like and if I am honest, a bit surreal and spooky, but I probably got my favourite ever Tower Bridge pictures that night, finally achieving what I wanted. My second fav is was taken from the top of City Hall, the glass ball thing, when the balcony was open to the public and a print of that still sits here on the wall in our London office, which are currently clearing.
 
excalibur2 said:
A lovely shot of say a quaint cottage in your area surely is better than going to London and taking a shot of Tower bridge that has been done to death at every angle and day and night. Anyway I replaced my shot of Tower bridge as after seeing the link I posted realise it's crap..but does have some value as a record shot as you can't see the same view now.
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I disagree Brian, when I take a shot of Tower Bridge every shot is unique. The light at the moment I press the shutter will never be the same again, the people in the shot will never stand in exactly the same place again or have exactly the same expression on their faces, the river will never look the same, the boats will never occupy that same space again, there will never be the same combination of traffic across the bridge or combination of tourists taking pictures from the bridge, I'm in their pictures whether they like it or not and they are in mine. It's not a done to death every angle covered night or day mundane tourist snapshot it's a unique never to be repeated frozen moment in time.
 
Yv said:
Keep trying.... A few years ago we organised a TP meet to shoot night time stuff around the river. At some silly hour of the morning, about 4am as I recall, the river was 'slack' [tide neither coming in or out] and it was the only time I have ever seen it so glass like. With no traffic on it it was pond like and if I am honest, a bit surreal and spooky, but I probably got my favourite ever Tower Bridge pictures that night, finally achieving what I wanted. My second fav is was taken from the top of City Hall, the glass ball thing, when the balcony was open to the public and a print of that still sits here on the wall in our London office, which are currently clearing.
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Do you mean something like this:-

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=t...dXmAoPsaPOegJAD&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1920&bih=959
 
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