Title • The groyne #1

I'm now back in Bulgaria after spending four great days providing some one-to-one training for Jason Kotecha in Blackpool. During the training we spend quite a lot of time concentrating on post-production, but there were also a range of photogaphic techniques and topics that Jason wanted to cover: seeing creatively, street photography and portraiture, and shooting sunsets.

Street photography and shooting sunsets are self-explanatory (and I'll be posting a variety of images from these sessions over the next few weeks), but 'seeing creatively' probably requires a bit more explanation. In one sense it's a relatively straightforward idea – you just need to find the angle and composition that will provide the most interesting interpretation of a scene. In practice though, this isn't always easy, so we spent quite a bit of time discussing a variety of ways to simplify the process. One method, that we used for our shots of this groyne, is to decide what role a particular element within a scene will play within the final image.

For example, this shot is one of four that I'll be posting. In each shot though, the groyne plays a different part. In this one it was used as a frame, in another we used it to create a more dynamic composition based on its structure, in another we concentrated on the small scale detail, while in a fourth we used it as a background to a different foreground element. I won't post all four in a row, but will add the other three over the next few weeks.

Jason's hasn't posted any of his shots of this structure yet but has blogged a rather nice shot of the waves against the seawall on Blackpool seafront, which I think is a great example of 'seeing creatively':

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=245

Update: Jason's version of this shot is here:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=250