Digital will always copy, film will always take.

 

I did a test print the other day for an upcoming show in October. It was 4 feet deep by 12 feet wide. It was the biggest print I have ever done and, quite frankly, spectacular.
The image was shot on my 6/17 Panoramic Film Camera using a 90mm large format lens (modified to fit the camera). I scanned the image at a high resolution to give me the grain of the film and a sharpness resembling a hand print and not some over-sharp, over-saturated load of fruity nonsense. 

I never really left film for digital and never really wanted to. But this event confirmed, despite its quirks and flaws, that film will, for me, always win out over digital. 

Digital's  aim is to make everything perfect, but hey, nothings perfect. that's what makes it interesting.
You can raise your prices, you can make it rare. But that will only make film more special. But lets not get too nostalgic..

Off Roading in the Midwest..

 

 

 "Surprizes round every corner,  but nothing dangerous."

Willy Wonka. 

 

 

There's not a days goes without me asking myself,  how did I get here?

It doesn't matter where I am on the planet, I always feel like a visitor, or an accidental tourist looking in at the world. 

There is a quietness here, not unlike the deserts of the Southwest were people tend not to venture outside in the middle of the day due to the intense heat. Here in the Midwest you won't see a single soul due to the intense cold, unless of course it's the crazy Brit with a camera..

Lazy Landscape..

 

I have been in the landscape photography game for a good while now, quietly working away on projects  most people will never see. The Irony here is that before the evils of the internet took a large felt tipped pen to photography, my work was seen by thousands of people through gallery shows and in particular events like Paris Photo, San Francisco Photo and a few other great art fairs. It was a time when people used to leave their house to visit galleries, a cinema, a restaurant, and a friend. As for  photography today, I get that people like being indoors, but there's a vast amount of lazy landscape out there. Before I go any further, the above image was made in -20c weather after walking a mile and jumping up and down a lot to keep warm.

I am often bemused by landscape vloggers adding Sunset Filters, or similar, to there landscapes. The fact that they actually film a scene and then shamelessly slap an array of filters and mountains of post processing in the same video no longer makes me laugh.

People spend more time now looking at computer screens of landscape than actually being out in the landscape. You only have to look at the recent Landscape Photographer of the Year (2021) to see every image looking like a cartoon (which I will not show here). That's a lot of post production, and a lot of effort. Taking out a distracting dog poo here, or a tree branch there is one thing, but when people start adding the time of day to a photograph, its lights out for Landscape Photography.

The Green Room.

 

There was a time, not long ago, when sneaking into old abandoned places and making photographs was all the rage. Maybe it still is, but I don't see so much of it these days. For me 'broken interiors' were a by- product of sheltering from the midday sun in places like the Salton Sea, or just plain curiosity as to what was on the inside of whatever I was photographing. 

An open door the other day presented me with the above scene. Despite the interesting, and by the looks of it very old furniture, all I wanted to do was tidy the place up a bit and move things around. But unlike all those Urban X'ers with their ultra wide angle and naff retouching skills, I did not..

The daily observations of a Doyle.

 

The Piffle of the Sniffle..

 

 

 I don't like talking about covid and I don't like looking at imagery of covid. Any images that include people wearing masks I immediately dismiss. This is not denial by any means, but more a case of 'too soon'. I am aware of whats going on and don't need to be constantly reminded. I should also add that if one more person tells me we are living in unprecedented times I may slap them with my sweaty mask..

In my opinion, most photographed events are more powerful, and interesting, much later, and I believe this will be the case with such things as covey. What has been most intriguing however, are the images and projects that would not exist had it not been for such world changing events. Some of the finest work  I have ever seen has been shot over the past two years.

I do believe that eventually people will look back on this period with great fondness. Not because of the virus (that would be stupid), but because of all the good things they done during an unprecedented time.... Slaps himself with sweaty mask!

One a day..

 

For the past fours months I have somehow managed to make at least one photograph a day, some good, some maybe not so good, at least that's what I think.

As much as I love old boy Ansel Adams, I never liked his quote: "Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop." OK, he was probably the greatest landscape photographer that ever lived, but the way so many take his quote literally just seems a little daft. And don't get me started on the, "If you don't agree this you are a liar and a fraud" etc, that's just ludicrous. I know photographers that produce  mountains of great images every year. I also know photographers that don't produce any (lots in fact).

Of all the work I have been producing, I am pretty happy with most of the images. Whether they are 'good' or not, well that's completely subjective. 

I do wonder what Adamsky would of said if he was alive and making photographs in a digital age. Personally I think he would of added a couple of zeros..

 

 

A moldy lens

Nostalgia in photography can be a dangerous thing, especially if you think you can recreate it... There you are dreaming about heading out into the abyss, but you can't because you want to shoot film, and you need to spend thousands on some old camera with a moldy lens and dodgy shutter, and then there's film and that old stuff is hard to come by and very expensive, and then you need to get an old car from the 70's so you pictures can look, well nostalgic, and then there's your outfit, etc, etc.

These days we can always slap a filter on an image and post it on Instagram and pretend. But thankfully I want none of that and will just keep my thoughts to myself. 

Only the other night,  I seen this car  (below) under a yellow light and was filled with a sense of nostalgia from the time I first headed out with my camera in America. The camera was old, it shot film, and it had a moldy lens...

 

Cold and bold..

 

Now the holidays are well and truly over and everyone is even more depressed, I am reminded of the therapy that photography can bring. It may be cold and it may be dark, but its better than being inside worrying about being outside.

Dark Light

Low Light photography is a funny old business, but one that I always come back to. Despite the 38 years since my first 'night image' and all the technological changes photography has seen, the actual method I use remains the same.  You just open the shutter and count! 

Many modern day photographers get so carried away and over complicate things technically (just look at a modern camera and all its unnecessary functions). Photographers were making images at night over a hundred years ago with just a box and a lens and they managed just fine.

So often the only thing new technology does is make people lazy, only its labelled as convenient or more efficient. This is especially true of photography and cameras that promise to make you a better photographer... If only that were true...

Where have you been..

 

                                                                                                         Marion, Indiana 2021. Marcus Doyle

 

 I'm often fascinated by the path certain photographers take in their lives and realize its often not what people would assume. Stephen Shore is one photographer that springs to mind, with most people only knowing him for the trips he made in the 70's and 80's across America. During one of Shores gallery talks some years ago I was intrigued to hear about the time Shore got married, moved to Montana and became a fly fisherman from 1980-1983. After his fishy stint, Shore then went on to produce his finest, and most important body of work American Prospects, published in 1987. I found this really fascinating in the same way I found Daniel Day Lewis' detour from acting to make shoes only come back a few years later and win an Oscar.

Not wanting to, but most willing to compare myself in such matters as Shore and Lewis, I have been; a survival instructor, a personal trainer, a knife maker (that's right), and very briefly a male model (very long ago, hair, slim, didn't know any better). But photography has always remained my number one passion, and with that a career I continued to pursue throughout my meanderings as; a knife wielding, iron pumping, forest dwelling, strike a pose northern Englishman.  

The changes in circumstance over the years, (most noticeably my move to another country),  have always brought a new and refreshing perspective not just to my work, but to life in general. I'm sure there's a song in all this somewhere, but sadly music is something I never got into...

Just Saying..

You do not take a photograph you make it, is no longer true.
A digital camera sensor takes an image and replicates it in the form of pixels, so there..

Eat your heart out Ansel!

 

Sourced from Professors Doyle's Diaries, December 27th 2021.

A year in pictures..

As the year draws to a close I thought I would share some juicy highlights right here on the Mode that is B. (As for the website, it is refined and fully stocked with no signs of getting any smaller...)

 

 This year was mostly spent out in the  Mojave with my 617 Pano, but there's also a little more besides. 

 Back to Night Vision and the old ways of working..

 Finishing off a decade of shooting fires in California. 

And a return to the everyday, wherever that may be..

Like most folk who blog, I now spend time trolling other peoples images on the fatal Instagram. 

Its a love hate thing with one percent good photography and the constant question; Why would I, or anyone else want to show images the size of a postage stamp. 

Of course you can check out my tiny images under the banner of Professor Doyle...

Just like the old days...

 Some favorites from the past month of shooting the Fridays Rainshadow project. 

As the desert heats up I find myself heading out later in the day and shooting after the sun goes down. Just like the old days..

 

 

Work a little quicker...

 

Its some time ago now when I stopped 'waiting' for the light here in the USA and here's why.

After driving around all day looking for things to photograph you are tired and loosing motivation- You set up and wait for the light by which time you have usually changed your mind about the shot- Then light arrives and is not what you thought so now you are in a right mood and you have wasted a whole day- Or, you turn around for a moment to check that stray dog is not going to bite you and when you turn back the magnificent light has vanished and you have wasted a whole day.

Chasing the light may be a little more stressful, but its often a lot more rewarding. All you need to do it work a little quicker...

Nowt there..

Sadly no poppies this year in the Antelope Valley sadly due to lack of rain and snow. But still a beautiful place to visit, peaceful and still (although often very windy).

The quest continues...

What remains.

 It had been five months since I photographed parts of the Bobcat fire aftermath and I was intrigued to see how the landscaped now looked.  

Sadly, despite the grey ash now replaced with small flowers and grasses due to the irony of now fertile ground, the trees and shrubs were very much still black and very dead. For some reason I thought the trees may somehow survive and blossom once again.  (Something I have seen happen with Joshua trees. )

It seems fitting, given the name, that the once lush green area around the Devils Punch Bowel in the Mojave now resembles a hellish looking landscape of burnt black trees. 

I felt pretty sad during my time there, but felt it important to record what was in front of me. 

April 2021

Hundreds of years a go a man made a box with a hole in it...