Well, on the day that I was able to get to Felixstowe, I was blessed with a stunning sky. I really couldn't have been any luckier! Dark clouds and bright light is my favourite landscape combo! I set my camera to default to half a stop under to make the most of the sky and also to avoid highlights from the bright flashes of light (in between rain). I got there around midday and spent the afternoon walking around trying to retrace my childhood steps. During the drive up, I felt a little anxious - It's around 28 years since my grandfather passed away and my grandmother moved away from the area about a year later. So I wondered if the whole thing would be emotionally overwhelming, or would I find that the town was not as I remembered and feel disappointed or even let down?
What actually happened was the complete opposite. Felixstowe has suffered a degree of modernisation, i.e. Tesco, Costa etc, but it still has the same look and feel as before. Quaint, old, English seaside town and it is not run down or under invested like other coastal locations. In fact, there was evidence of restoration and investment. I was able to find the places I looked for, was surprised how small the town and the places I visited seemed (which is also obvious as I was small before!) and it was an experience of happy memories. Visiting my grandparents homes in particular, was a bit strange, particularly the second one 43 Brook Lane (as I was older then); I was expecting to feel a sense of loss, but in fact they were empty shells, the character of my grandparents had gone, new characters in place. But in a good way, not an upsetting way; just that time had moved on. This raises questions then about whether experience and attachment are attributed to people rather than place (which in a way contradicts my commentary on Hayden).
I took every lens, filter, tripod and piece of equipment that I have with me. I did not want to get caught out by not having the right piece with me if I wanted to use it. And I carried it around all day, so by the end of the day I had backache, neck ache and foot ache (new shoes). And, in the end, I only used my wide-angle lens, as is often the case when I am prepared! I don't know why this happened, but I just wanted to shoot in wide-angle; perhaps because the sky was so amazing that day. I also didn't want to try any long-exposure shots on the day, although the sky was perfect for that. The whole day became about the moment of rediscovery - it wasn't about art in the end. I wanted to record that moment as it was, without interfering with it. So although my original intention had been to represent child-like halycon high key type shots with tons of atmosphere, in the moment I actually wanted it to be factual in the end.
My only regret was that I crammed it all in to one afternoon. I should have taken the weekend off and stayed there a bit longer. But, overall, I consider the experiment a success; it hasn't altered my previous memories, more that new ones have been laid down, as I remember this trip as an isolated event. And I came away feeling that it would be a really nice place to live!
The execution itself was great - I got enough to meet the assignment requirements (5-10); my only problem now was how to narrow it down. Here is my shortlist (unprocessed apart from straightening) - 15 in total:
The stars indicate my initial selection for a shorter list. I decided to omit 4772, as this was not taken of a specific place that I had wanted to find. The cinema and junction of the road was something I had forgotten but then remembered when I found it. 4857 is of the ice cream shop that I had remembered, but I don't think that this is a great photo - the lighting was not very good at the time of shooting. And actually I missed the shot; I should have photographed the old people's day centre next door - I used to think that I would end up there one day! And lastly 4891, which is taken in the place that Justin Minns took his winning shot for LPOTY and from where the original idea for this assignment came. Although this was not a memory that I had, the groynes were in fact new, replacing wooden structures, that I think I now recollect, I would like to have included this in the sequence, but I don't think the execution was very strong and certainly not up to the same standard as Minns! This left two more to eliminate.
The next image I chose to leave out was 4774 taken inside the former Mayflower Chinese restaurant. This was a tough decision, particularly as the original paintings and fish tank were still there (probably different fish) and it was quite a vivid part of my memory bank, but the image doesn't work in black and white and also being empty has a sense of sadness about it that is inconsistent with my previous visits.
The final choice was between 4799 and 4893. 4799 works well in colour, but in black and white the geometric shapes also stand out. 4893 shows a storm in the distance, but this is not unique to Felixstowe - I see storms everywhere so to include this one would have been a subjective decision based on the drama of the storm and not of my memories of Felixstowe. In the end I stuck with the beach huts as this is such a strong component of my overall previous visits there.
Initial Processing
So, with my short short list of ten photographs:
The next stage was to look at the exposure, contrast, sharpening and to see if straightforward monochrome conversion was sufficient or if I needed to adjust the the colours prior to conversion. As always, this process began in View NX2 being the easiest system for editing.
- 4738: exposure excellent, mono conversion works fine, no colour adjustment required, slight increase in contrast added
- 4775: shot 1/2 stop under - restored to average in processing, converted to mono, but seems that blue needs darkening and red needs lightening; image reserved for treatment in Capture NX2
- 4799: shot 1/2 stop under - exposure then adjusted to another half under (darkened the sky), increased contrast, converted to mono
- 4812: considered cropping out foreground to letter box shape, but like leading lines of floor towards dodgems (need to ensure preserved in mono); exposure - background sky is blown out, but I like this - adds a sense of dream/weirdness to the scene - exposure shot 1/2 stop under, but in fact scene afforded another 1/2 stop under without losing leading lines - really like the dynamic contrast
- 4816: shot 1/2 stop under - resulting image is under exposed - but nice strong colours! Exposure adjusted to a net 1/2 stop over exposed, and contrast added. This worked well in colour, but not in b&w - the whites were too blown, so I restored the exposure to average and removed the contrast.
- 4828: shot 1/2 stop under - restored to average in processing, converted to mono, and added lots of contrast. I really wanted the barrier to stand out.
- 4842: I really liked this image in colour. Again 1/2 stop under, I considered bringing back the lost detail, but I think the dark adds a sense of mystery. Question is would it work in b&w? In mono it was just a bit too dark, so I restored the exposure to average. I did check if 1/2 stop over would work, but that brought out too much detail in the carpets etc, so I left the exposure at average.
- 4853: I found that in mono, this was overexposed in parts - there was not enough dynamic range, so I converted to a net 1 stop under and added back some brightness. The seagull in the top left-hand corner is distracting (the other one is ok), so this will need treatment in elements to remove that.
- 4871: very badly exposed! The light had changed and I hadn't checked to move my default setting. I changed this to a net half a stop over, which brought back some of the lost detail, but couldn't go any further due to the white. This image needs some treatment to darken the blue, and lighten the green; image reserved for treatment in Capture NX2.
- 4901: exposure shot at average (had now changed my default setting) works great in mono - no other adjustments were required except a tiny amount of contrast.
Elements:
I removed the left hand seagull in 4853 using the spot healing brush:
Nikon Capture:
4755: using the colour control points, I saturated the sky and desaturated the brick and hedges:
This made such a difference (my use of Capture is really hit and miss, so was pleasantly surprised!), that I decided I needed to check all the images again using this process, including the other one ear-marked for this treatment: 4871. (4799, 4812 4828, 4842 and 4901 didn't need this). I did notice though that you have to be careful with this process - it can add noise.
Elements:
The final stage was to convert all the images into JPEGs and double check them all in Elements for blemishes using the spot healing brush. I also sharpened each image sightly.
Finally, I had a JPEG for each shot ready for final presentation.
The only other decision remaining was how to present this work. This work will have three audiences at least: my OCA tutor and the assessors, members of my family, and also the Crossing Lines group I belong to that gave me so many helpful tips. I decided to create a slideshow so that I could add text and also make it easy to display.
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