Leica M10

Where do I need to be to take new images?

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Now the UK has started to ease on the latest lockdown, and we can start venturing out a little further, where do we go and what do we do?

I have had so many conversations with people, where they have said that they need to travel again, see new places and get some fresh air. For sure this is important, and something that I’m also very much looking forward to doing. Albeit within the UK for the foreseeable year but, it will be great to rediscover my own country. This got me thinking; what am I going to photograph when I get to these new locations?

The answer is, I really don’t know and that ok, it’s all part of the excitement for me. It’s the unknowing of what’s around the corner. I have a bag of tricks, and by that, I mean that I have been building my way of seeing locations. I have taken the time during lockdown to photograph one place constantly. That’s not without its challenges and like physical training, you become conditioned to the exercise. My exercise is to make new images from very little and try not to repeat myself. Indeed, this is hard and I’m far from perfect but that’s why we exercise. I keep working at it and finding new ways of approaching a problem. Sometimes when I’m lucky, I figure a new frame out.

My goal is to be able to take a photo anything and of anywhere but still in my own voice. What I must try and do, and this is the difficult part – finding the things that interest me. It sounds so simple but when we start traveling to new places everything becomes overwhelmingly interesting. The trick for me will be to start zeroing in on that thing that attracts me. That can be anything at all, but once I have found a little something, then I need to make a frame that speaks in my voice.  

I really don’t know what is going to happen but ill take my camera and capture what makes sense to me. Hopefully, this will lead to something creative.

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Have I got it all figured out?

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I have had a few conversations recently with different people that have mentioned that I seem to have got it all figured out with my photography and creative process.

Its interesting how people perceive my work from different perspectives, so let’s burst this bubble to get it out the way – I have very little figured out. I think Instagram has a lot to answer for on this misconception. Its easy to look at something online and draw conclusions based on your own thoughts, but this is often all they are.

Everyone’s process is different so there is no one size fits all when it comes to creativity. The only thing that seems to be a common thread when I’ve talking to other creatives, is taking your own path. This again is something different for everyone with a variety of starting points and different forks within it to navigate.

I have been taking photography somewhat serious for about 16 years now but its only in the last 4 years that I would say that I have got onto a path that I’m now enjoying. In these last few years, I have seen many people pick up a camera for the first time and get onto a path that has led to great places. But that is their journey and as tempting as it may be to try and replicate what they have done, it would not work. How do I know this, well trying to mimic would only get me so far faking it. The biggest realisation I had was that I had to produce the work that really excites me, it’s the images that I produce as a default setting. This doesn’t mean I don’t have to try, I have to put a lot of effort in, but I know I have to produce the images that satisfy my eye. This thought process was the start of the path that I’m now on – making the images that I care for and that aren’t reactions to what I think others might like.

Its seems that the genre of photography that I’m interested in has taken an exciting turn in the last few years and with that has come some approaches that I’m not a fan of. A competitive edge seems to have taken root and I see many feel the need to get onboard with that. For me, I’ve never really been that competitive, probably why I like photography. It’s a chance for me to walk out into the world and explore it with a camera. I very much enjoy the creative process and when I get into the flow of it, hours can pass by without me noticing. This is what drives and excites me, and probably the only thing that we can figure out. Once we know what we want to do, we have to put the work in to actually doing it. The more you work at it the more it pays off.

This is the lure of photography, it looks so simple, and yes, the mechanics of it are once you lean how to control your camera. The hard part is working out what to point the camera at and when to capture that moment. That has very little to do with the camera and all to do with what’s going on in your head.

So what do I know, what have I figured out?

Be honest with myself about the work I want to produce and produce it!

Take inspiration from others but don’t copy.

Be patient – 16 years and counting.

Turn my weaknesses into strengths – I don’t know what I want to photograph but I know what I don’t like, so I just please my own eye. (sometimes that leads to images that not many others like but that’s fine).

There are no short cuts so take the harder path and put the work in.

Take the rough with the smooth, there are many knock backs but learn to ride over them.

Most importantly, to enjoy what I do – otherwise why bother!

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Seaside street photo meet up

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Welcome to the great British seaside town of Cleethorpes.

I know it is late and I have been meaning to put this blog post together for months now but i’m going to blame this on COVID, it is probably not COVID but you know, its been a strange time. Last year (2020) I organised a street meet up from a small group of photographers, we all met here at the seaside town of Cleethorpes. I’d imagine most of you reading this will recognise this place from all of my own photos - it is pretty much the place I exclusively shoot, because this is my home.

It was great to meet other like minded individuals from different backgrounds and all with a passion for photography. It is always great to be around individuals like this, I rarely get chance to spend any time with other creatives, let alone a whole day with a bunch of them! This opportunity was as much for my benefit as it was for the others to make connections with one and other.

It was such a great day and I certainly had a fantastic time shooting and witnessing how others worked my stretch of the beach. Something that I don’t often get to do as Cleethorpes is somewhat nestled away on the north east coast of the uk (for those of you that don’t venture to the north of England). It is always very interesting for me to see how others interact with the environment and what catches their eyes. I have become somewhat of a solitary photographer and as such find my own ways to photograph and make the most of situations. shooting with others and bouncing ideas was great and gives me a sense of what is going in my photographic peers.

A big thanks for those that came along and join in durrig the day, we did have a few others join us at various points through the day to take a few shots and to just say Hi. Below are the images form the guys that spend the full day shooting and sent me their favourite photographs.

Matt Feeney

Lewis Andrews

Mark Sugden

Michael Murray

Nina Weatherburn

Just to end…

Heres a few portraits if the guys that I quickly took whilst we stopped from some lunch.



Dubrovnik - Croatia

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Street photography and travel complement each other, it gives me the chance to experience a whole new place and react to it in my own way. I’m not saying that to produce ‘street photography’ you need to travel, in fact producing images around your own environment I believe speaks more about your experience than traveling to a new place to speak from your own voice. On the other hand it’s always nice to get away and experience new things plus immerse yourself into a new situation and react to it with a creative process. And let’s not forget that if I travel to somewhere as beautiful as Croatia I’m defiantly going to react to it photographically.

I didn’t know what to expect from Dubrovnik other than a few people that had previously visited the region had expressed just how beautiful that they had found the city. I don’t tend to do too much research on a place like this before visiting as I don’t want to taint my view (photographically speaking) or take influence from what other photographers have produced, as then I start looking at a place from their perspective instead of my own. So having arrived on the shores of Dubrovnik I was first struck by the intensity of the light and then by the beauty of the historic walled old town that decorated the cliffs above the blue shimmering Mediterranean waters.

As we started exploring Dubrovnik I was drawn towards the historic charm of the place and much of the region had retained its roots without subsiding into today’s commercialism. I very much started to see the art of the city and allowed myself to become absorbed by the light has it ornamented the people and stone.

 

The Pink (Black and White) Pig

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It's rare that I share many personal images (outside of the confines of my personal street photography) but I'm obviously still shooting the everyday things that go on around me. It's a compulsion as many photographers reading this post will understand and you simply don't just shoot one subject matter, it seems to saturate your life and before you know it, the people around you become a rich part of that documentary tapestry. 

So heres a behind the scene look into the everyday family fun that goes on around me. 

 

All images shot on Leica M10 + 50mm f1.4 Summilux-M ASPH

 

I do like to be beside the sea

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I have been working on my new project looking at my surrounding area; the seaside (www.danbaker.me/by-the-sea ). I have always been drawn towards the coast as I’m sure many people are, it has a certain gravitation and as such proves to be a rich environment to photograph.

Not all the images that I shoot make it into my project but that doesn’t mean that I want to discard them, I simply have an idea of what I would like to include within my body of work. I still want to share some of the scenes that I find and obviously my blog is the perfect place to showcase them.

 

Taking a walk

I think that one of the most important things with street photography is just to get out and taking a walk. Things will happen around you or you will stumble upon scenes or situations that spark some sort of interest. I like to do this whenever I can, I don’t always find something that interests me, I think it depends how you are thinking about a situation or how receptive you are on a particular day.  I don’t always know what’s going to happen or what I’m going to find but that’s all part of the fun of street photography. There’s always that possibly that you’re going to find something that’s new and sets your thinking down a completely unexpected path. I normally like to shoot around places where there are a few people winding about, lately I have become more interest in places busier but when I last walked out and shot these images below I was without that audience to interact with. I still found these little scenes that interested me. I didn’t particularly think too much about these images while I was working other than I enjoyed shooting them and satisfied that creative process.

 

 

 
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