The Chicken Shack

Ed Sutton said:
Time flies. I didn't realise it was over a year since I put some of my earlier poultry photos together using Blurb http://www.blurb.co.uk/books/5630980-the-bantam-society-shows-2013-2014 Not a finished work.

I like making books using Blurb because it helps me see how pictures in a project can work together - as opposing pages and as a sequence - and it can also help me decide where to go with a project and maybe show up gaps that need filling in.
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That's a really good idea Dave, I enjoyed looking at it.
It was interesting for me to see it in 'book' form, as it made it easier to decide which images I'd have left out ...
 
Thanks Lee.What I tend to do is put together one set then do another edit, then another. Even looking at a printed copy is a different experience to seeing the on-line version.

There are some sub-par images in that book, but I was using what I had available at the time and was keen to see how the layouts worked. I've a wider choice now, and hopefully by the time the project reaches a conclusion the choices will be tougher. But that should make for a tighter finished article.

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If you download the Blurb software you can do it all on your computer and play around to your heart's content.
 
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Thanks Walter. There are all sorts of sub-cultures inhabiting their own little worlds out there which the rest of us don't get to see. I'm almost tempted to get myself some chickens now!
 
Chickens are becoming something of an obsession!

This weekend I've been driving around looking for egg sales signs. I'm torn between shooting the signs front on and making a grid, and making environmental shots. I'm leaning towards the latter, but I'm not sure how to tie these in yet. An alternative is to make a grid of honesty boxes. Although there are fewer of those to be found. If nothing else, taking these sorts of pictures keeps me thinking chickens between events.

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On my travels I chanced upon one of the poultry keepers I've got to know renovating his chicken run which, along with his flock, got devastated by the Christmas floods when a brook that borders the 'community farm' (looks like allotments to me...) burst its banks. The conversation lead to an invitation to photograph him and his birds when they are re-established in the run. He also suggested a poultry breeder and chicken 'hotelier' who he thought might be worth a visit. There's more to this chicken keeping than meets the eye!

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On my way home I stopped to photograph some very free range chickens!

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My next task is to sit down and try to put together a short introduction to what the project is about. Doing that should also help me organise it a bit and work out for myself what I'm doing. Although I'm prone to changing direction at any time!
 
I'm liking this new direction too, although I could be biased as we've kept chickens for years(although the fox helped himself to a good few of them over the years, so we no longer have any).
I think following up on any 'contacts' in the poultry world may help you to work out which way this is heading. There is plenty of scope for you to branch out in any direction.
 
It's probably an idea to cast my net wide and draw it in as things progress.

One thing I would like to do is make a series of environmental portraits of poultry keepers, and maybe poultry related people such as auction and feed merchant staff, but I want to avoid what a friend of mine calls 'stamp collecting'. Making up lots of very similar pictures of essentially the same subject as the finished project. I save that for the grids - which can stand alone or as part of a bigger project - and by their nature are limited in number. One grid I want to make up is of chicken feet. Don't ask me why!
 
Ed Sutton said:
It's probably an idea to cast my net wide and draw it in as things progress.

One thing I would like to do is make a series of environmental portraits of poultry keepers, and maybe poultry related people such as auction and feed merchant staff, but I want to avoid what a friend of mine calls 'stamp collecting'. Making up lots of very similar pictures of essentially the same subject as the finished project. I save that for the grids - which can stand alone or as part of a bigger project - and by their nature are limited in number. One grid I want to make up is of chicken feet. Don't ask me why!
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Lol, I laughed at that! ... but, go for it... if you don't try you won't know.
 
I need a macro lens to get the feet looking the way I have in mind. And I'll probably need to use flash to get enough DOF. I do think that something like nine pictures of chicken feet in a grid could look good! :LOL:
 
Ed Sutton said:
I need a macro lens to get the feet looking the way I have in mind. And I'll probably need to use flash to get enough DOF. I do think that something like nine pictures of chicken feet in a grid could look good! :LOL:
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Well, sell your 85mm and get a macro...sorted. (y)
 
Another drive around looking for signs of eggs. Still undecided whether to close in on the signs or go wider. So I do both which will enable me to choose later which fits best when/if the project gets to a stage of completion. There are a couple more local roadside sales I've seen when sans-camera or time, but the hens mustn't be laying as the signs aren't out at the moment. A pity because one has a hand painted chicken on it!

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Thanks.

Managed to have a word with the owner of some hens down the lane round the corner from me today. They're very lucky rescue hens. Rescued from the M62 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27405467

He's agreed to let me photograph him and his chooks at some point. I'll be well out of my comfort zone with that. Signs are much easier!

In the meantime here's one of his lucky hens.

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I like the honesty boxes, I see loads of them when I'm out on the bike. Be a good set of grids I think.
 
I had plans to make some progress this weekend, but work and a customer who wasted my Sunday scuppered them. All was not lost, however, as the Llama Lady (actually they're alpacas...) down the lane has agreed to let me photograph her and her hens. I haven't a clue how to approach this aspect, but I'm sure I'll be able to blag my way through it and get something useful!

In the meantime I've got myself some cards printed. I've done this before for a project (which ended up fizzling out...) and it seemed to help break the ice if nothing else.

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The recent sunshine must have got some hens laying because one of the signs that had gone was back today. I like these handwritten signs. The way 'FREE RANGE' has been squeezed to fit is great. No honesty box though.

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Looking back through some shots from the auction/show day I found this one. Only of interest because I found the photo being taken here. :)

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An interesting turn of events today. I was out and about with my camera photographing egg sales signs I'd seen on my travels when I decided to call in at a local corn merchants that sells fishing tackle to pick up some bait. As I walked in a voice asked, "What are you doing here?" A former fishing tackle shop owner I hadn't seen for almost ten years was behind the counter! Long story short this made it easy to get permission to photograph some poultry supplies, and a small bonus was Mick stuck my cards on the notice board. Probably won't lead to anything, but it spreads the word.

Usually I have a speedlight in my bag, but today was the day I left it at home because I'd been messing about with it. I was stuck with either the horribly mixed and dim light in the shop or the pop-up flash. However, I did warn the manager I'd be back. :D Now I know what to expect I can return better prepared.

These are some of the better/more useful shots from today.

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An example of the lighting inside the shop - with flash.

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Cheers. It's become a bit of an obsession!
 
Like I said, an obsession... Unless I have work to do weekends often see me at a bit of a loose end. Now I drive round looking for chicken signs and making contacts for the project!

The more 'handmade' signs still have the most appeal for me.

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A genuine chicken shack!

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I don't know what it is but I love the first shot in particular.
 
There is quite a variety in the signs.
 
You've done this really well! I love that No1 shot of the bloke "directing" his hen in the mini studio! class shot!!!
 
Cheers. For some reason I find the subject fascinating, which serves as inspiration.
 
It's all about the subject, yes. You have to have a deep understanding of, and/or love/interest for your subject to make good work about it.
 
@Pookeyhead
It's still in the early stages by my slow methodology so plenty of time to pull it together, but I'd be interested to hear how you think this is going, David.
 
I think it's strong. It's a decent, critical study of a niche interest, it's enjoyable to view and engage in, and there's a definite style to the work. It needs careful editing though, and editing is always the hardest thing, as it means culling images you may think are great. It's often best done in collaboration, or by someone else. There's a reason authors have an editor and don't edit their own books :)
 
Thanks David. I agree about editing. It's really tough to cull a picture that is strong on its own but just doesn't fit in a project as a whole.

Avoiding the editing process can become an excuse for continuing to shoot. It certainly has been with another project I've been working on for almost six years. Well I might get some better or more useful pictures if I carry on! But with any project that isn't restricted by a deadline you sometimes have to just pull the plug and knuckle down. A way to go yet on this one though.
 
I'm really enjoying the thread about this project Dave. There's something about it that has drawn me in. It must be that I'm a sucker for the 'old-fashioned' country shows which still feature the poultry, goats etc but I'm usually there working rather than taking pictures.

The signs are really terrific and I'm not sure whether I like the close-ups or the wide shots better, though I like the way the wide shots show the surroundings.

I look forward to seeing how this progresses.
 
Despite the increasing urbanisation of society rural life still goes on, and country fairs, village fetes and poultry shows are still thriving. They might look different to how we imagine they did in the past, but they'll always have been changing.

Depending how the project pans out I envisage the signs being presented as a combination of close-ups in grid format and the wider environmental ones as singles. It'll all be in the edit!
 
If you've not done so already... write an artists statement. Don't worry if people tell you they're pointless arty b****x.. they're just people who don't understand the creative process. Writing a statement crystallises what the work is meant to do in your mind... and if you don't know as clearly as you think you do, it will quickly become obvious.

Once written... keep measuring the work against what you said you wanted in the statement. It helps you edit.
 
Thanks.

I'm used to people telling me things I do are arty b*****ks. Or just plain b*****ks!! :LOL:

I've already reached the stage where I'm drafting what I think of more as an introduction to the project - both as something I can show people who I'd like to be involved in it and to crystallise my thoughts about what I'm doing.

However, I am wondering if there will be a need for text to accompany the photographs - captions, essay, short intros to particular aspects, and if I ought to make a start on that even if just in note form.

I'm also thinking of ways to present the work - even if it's only Fantasy Island stuff and it ultimately remains a load of files on my hard drive and a few prints in a box, or maybe a Blurb book.
 
All good things to do. Writing about your work makes you understand it better, as you can't write about it if you don't know why you're doing it or what it's for,
 
Thanks Jenny. There's a whole lot more to chicken keeping than I ever imagined. Not to mention a whole new language to learn!
 
The more I look around for signs of poultry keeping, and the more people I speak to, the more widespread it appears to be. I've even discovered that someone down my road has been keeping hens in her back garden for years. Which I didn't know about.

Anyway, I've been on an Easter Egg hunt this afternoon.:D Too sunny for my liking, and always shining in the wrong direction. Diced with death by the side of one road and got some strange looks from passers by a couple of times!Not too much worth showing for my efforts though. I'll try to call in at the feed merchants again tomorrow, next weekend there's another auction, and the week after that I'm hoping to arrange a visit to a poultry supplier to take some photos. Things might start progressing beyond egg boxes and signs.

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