Going back, going over, doing the same, finding new ways forward

The creative journey is one of many starts and stops, pauses and diversions. I find sometimes that I seem to be going back to the same places, using familiar techniques. And such repetition can be very helpful. it helps us to plan our lives, gives us a predictability which can be reassuring as we age. I feel safe, comfortable, at ease and the photography is a relaxation. Doing the same things again and again is the basis of practising and can lead to improvements in my image-taking as the technical aspects, such as controlling the exposure triangle, become less of a challenge and new learning is ingrained.

Pep Ventosa Tree

Repetition though can also become boring. I lose my motivation to go and create new images. So that is why my latest adventure, a photography retreat in Scotland, has been so helpful in challenging me to try new approaches and find new ways to photograph trees and woodlands.

Repetition is the fundamental basis for pattern. so when photographing in the woods i looked for subtle examples of pattern, whether in texture, colour or composition:

Thinking about different perspectives, from the whole tree to the small details, there are many patterns to be found:

Ferns are an ideal subject for illustrating repetition in the natural world. The details in the patterns can be emphasised by removing the colour:

Playing with multiple exposures in a fern can also lead to some very interesting effects, just slightly moving the camera between each shot, with the added element of a change in the white balance to accentuate the blue-green tones. It reminds me of a peacock displaying!

And here using ICM, applying a mix of movements during the time the shutter was open, led to an impressionistic image of this tree: One of the joys of these creative techniques is that I can go to the same place again and again and make distinctly different images. It helps to avoid the potential monotony, and also makes my images unique. Even I couldn't recreate the same image again!

It can be hard though to be constantly innovative, breaking the usual patterns of image-making, challenging the norms of ‘traditional’ photography. And I can still lose confidence, especially if someone makes comments like 'I prefer my images to be in focus'!

And this confidence can also dip when I am post-processing, as my skills are still emergent rather than engrained. I know there are so many ways to enhance my images that I have yet to explore, but I tend to fall back on the familiar, repeating my previous approaches. So this time, I have tried to be more experimental - while keeping that concept of 'repetition' in my mind. Here, I created several layers of the original photo of this lovely tree and put them together in Photoshop, not quite lining them up so as to get the fragmented effect. I then used the lighten and divide blend modes to create these different images. I suddenly realised the possibilities are endless!

Another example is of taking three images of the same scene and layering them together. In this example, I like the way that that the pattern of the trunks is echoed in the shadows, and the layering has emphasised the contrasting textures of the leaves:

In the creation below, I combined two images taken in different places, one an ICM of some colourful blossoms and the other of a conifer woodland. The trees in the middle part of the image seem to act as a barrier deflecting one's gaze to the two sides, so I cropped it to make two smaller ones to emphasise the yellow and the red:

The photos that I had captured of woodland flowers were often very 'busy', with the foliage background a distraction. By adding a contrasting image of a tree  or some grasses as a layer, and playing with the blend modes, I am able to create much more pleasing images:

I then wondered what would happen if I used some of my cyanotypes as layers to add variety of texture. Another rabbit hole to go down.......

So although I am repeating elements and emphasing patterns, the outcomes have been a joy of unpredictability - some more pleasing than others, of course!

The image that I am most pleased with is the one at the start of this blog, where I tried out the Pep Ventosa technique. I used in-camera ME , taking 9 images of the same tree from different angles, but each time lining up the trunk very carefully. Pep Ventosa used to take up to 100 images to create his works of art, as explained here by Lori Lankford.

David DuChemin talks in his latest blog about being lucky. He argues that you have to practise and repeat to become familiar with the gear and its settings, to plan carefully and be intentional, but also to be open to the unexpected, the randomness: "You must be there long enough for things to happen, for the light to change, for you yourself to become more aware of these changes, and to develop interesting ideas about what you see. The more time you give it, the luckier you will be, but that time will also give you more chances to do something unexpected and to think differently about how you turn that luck into a photograph." Read more of David's insights in his blog and in his latest book 'Light, Space and Time'.

A final in-camera ME to enjoy:

Some of my favourite photographers are renowned for their use of repeated approaches, e.g. Paul Sanders’ monochrome squares, https://www.discoverstill.com

and Rachel Talibart’s focus on waves https://rachaeltalibart.com/. I wonder if they want sometimes to break free from these self-imposed restrictions? Can what makes our work distinctive also constrain our creativity?

So much more to explore. The power of repetition in photography illustrated with amazing images in this article:  https://1x.com/magazine/permalink/9323

The intriguing abstracts by Annie McMonigal https://angiemcmonigal.com/fine-art/

Patterns in an urban environment, e.g. Olga Kolehmainen's work https://www.artnet.com/artists/ola-kolehmainen/

and of course, the repetition and patterns of natural materials used by Land Art artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and James Brunt. But this is whole other fascinating area.

#repetion; #pattern; #woodlandphotography; #routineorrebellion