Shooting light on a loupe
I like light that shows the marks of how it was made. I shot most of this series on a single roll, half of it in fading light. None of this is new, and that is partly why it works. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about light.
What I would do differently
Most problems with grain turn out to be problems with time. A light meter is a good teacher if you let it disagree with you. Overcast days are underrated; the light wraps around everything. Every autumn I revisit the same questions about light.
- Ask someone at the hills
- Do less editing a series, more walking with a camera
- Compare against last winter
- Start with grain and nothing else
- Compare against last autumn
What I kept
A friend once described film stock as hushed work, and the phrase stuck. Film forces a pause between seeing and pressing the shutter. Somewhere between the harbour and home, the idea finally made sense.
Between editing a series and shooting film, the second one taught me more. The muted part is seldom the hard part; consistency is. A friend once described contact sheets as hushed work, and the phrase stuck. If something here is unclear, that is on me, not you. Nothing here requires a tripod, though it does make things easier.
If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about coastlines. Below are a few observations, roughly in the order I found out them. I print small first, then decide what deserves to be larger.