What About a Group Project for 2007

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Paul Sanders
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What About a Group Project for 2007

Post by Paul Sanders » Sun Dec 31, 2006 6:40 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Hi,

While largely stuffed by Christmas turkey and looking wistfully at the leaden skies thinking I really should go out and play with that new orange filter santa bought me I wondered if we (that is all of us) do a projecvt and try and get it published in OP?

My original thought came in the form of One Day in Britain - where we pick a date and because we are all over the place take an image at soem point during the 24 hours anyone interested. I am sure we could talk nicely to Kieth at OP or even the BJp or AP magazines to see if any of them would like the idea - if no one else does it could make a graet gallery/slideshow for our site?

Happy new year

gari
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Post by gari » Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:18 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Count me in, sounds like a great idea.
Gari
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Tom Green
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Project 07

Post by Tom Green » Sun Dec 31, 2006 8:23 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Excellent idea, It could give our Forum some clout in the photographic community ,Good stuff, Keep them coming. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR READERS, :D :lol:
:Inspiration and Vision make Great Photographs

Charles Twist
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Post by Charles Twist » Sun Dec 31, 2006 9:23 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Well volunteered Paul! I'll go along with that. I am keen to get ourselves in the press. We got the article in the Large Format Journal which is hardly general public. The problem with OP is that they don't seem very LF-friendly. They like the quality of the pics but not the technology: too many complications for your average digi-snapper wannabe - their target audience, I surmise, given the number of them. If you can talk to Keith or whoever and bring him round, it can only be good.
The other thought in a similar vein is that our workshops lead to a lot of LF gear being directed at one specific location. Why not convince OP to publicise our outing in the Viewpoints section? The Viewpoints section is seasonal, so we would publicise our outing 12 months after our visit. The article would however have to be written by a brave volunteer 5 months in advance given the delays at their end (ie within 7 months of our visit).
If someone lives near Lewes, they might be able to pop in to the GMC offices for a chat (and buy me a flagon of ale at Harvey's while they're at it :wink: ).
I look forward to hearing more.
Charles

DJ
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Post by DJ » Mon Jan 01, 2007 1:01 am Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Sounds like a great idea for a project, and I'd certainly be interested in participating, work permitting of course.

I'm a little surprised by Charles' comments RE: Outdoor Photography. Almost every issue of OP seems to have some photos published that came from a large format camera, and as a result I'd assumed them to be probably the most LF friendly publication going. I've never submitted anything myself so I have no personal experience to draw upon, but I didn't expect any resistance, least of all from OP. Anyone else had any personal experience of submitting? Are magazines in general reluctant to accept LF? Would you submit scanned or trannie?

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Post by DJ » Mon Jan 01, 2007 4:37 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Just skimmed through the OP Christmas Special, found no less than 3 separate articles featuring exclusively large format ( 5x4 ) images, one of which was by a member here, Richard Childs from Oban. Perhaps Richard could let us know the score RE: submitting.

Paul Sanders
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Post by Paul Sanders » Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:51 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

I am happy to approach a few magazine but firstly we need a date, a theme and a reason why for this I will need some help on the ideas front, how amny people could we get interested from our group?

Tom Green
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A Day in the ???

Post by Tom Green » Tue Jan 02, 2007 5:58 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Hi Paul .Like the idea, here,s something to kick off , The Four Seasons,taken on the same day, from those taken part , but from their favourite (spot,location, county and or type of pic,s they like taking)
We can also show I think, Shots from novice to experienced members. come on everyone, put your ideas in. :?: Tom :idea:
:Inspiration and Vision make Great Photographs

Dave Parkin
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Post by Dave Parkin » Tue Jan 02, 2007 8:29 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

I am aware that Black and White Photography (from the same stable as OP) have had at least one portfolio from a group of enthusiasts, not large format but those of a similar interest.

Happy to participate if a suitable subject or topic can be found

Dave

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Post by Joanna Carter » Tue Jan 02, 2007 8:47 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

We would have to be careful that we don't do too much in the way of pictures; after all, there is only so much space in a mag and it would be pointless to make our LF pictures too small to allow readers to appreciate the quality that we can produce. The quality of printing in OP is poor enough at the best of times :cry:

Unless OP or similar would be interested in publishing a supplement dedicated to LF :?: The biggest problem for mags like that is always balancing the amount of content, that they might have to pay for, against the amount of advertising, to pay for the content.

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Post by alangolding » Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:18 am Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Hi Paul
Just picked up on your project idea, which sounds great. You can count on me for any help requied. The idea of working on a prodject appeals to me as at present I seem to have hit one of those low points. Every time I want to go out the weather is impossible and motivation to do anything starts to slip. A new project is just what is needed.

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Post by Charles Twist » Sat Jan 06, 2007 1:05 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

1) I don't deny that OP like to publish LF pictures, but I just think they are not prepared to run an article on the merits of LF per se. Which is where we stand out.
2) Writing an article with several people takes a wilful coordinator who does not mind ruffling feathers. The article that I organised for the LF journal last summer required a good bit of chasing of the stragglers... No names given, but they know who they are :wink: . I can also tell you that getting pictures from the workshops to put on the website is like getting blood out of a stone. Glencoe happened 4 months ago and there are three pictures there all from one person. Is that the best you can do? It's free, it takes no time, it helps the group to look good. Whoever takes on the coordinator role, you are warned. End of rant. (Where's the introduction that I asked Paul to write for me?)
3) As Jo said, havng several contributors will lead to a good many pictures being produced. Is a printed magazine the best option? Should we be looking at web journals such as LF journal, MagnaChrom or View Camera? Should we be looking at booking a gallery space? Why don't we make use of our very own lf-photo.org.uk website? There's plenty of room there. We have done a couple ruinous buildings. Can we offer them pictures in exchange for exhibition space? Might National Trust or English Heritage be interested?
4) Is this exercise about publicising the group, publicising the individual contributors or providing a focus for LFP'ers short of inspiration? What the project ends up being depends on the aim.
I am still interested and still want to do "something".
Charles

DJ
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Post by DJ » Sat Jan 06, 2007 4:00 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Charles Twist wrote:1) I don't deny that OP like to publish LF pictures, but I just think they are not prepared to run an article on the merits of LF per se. Which is where we stand out.
Would the article be about LF per se though? Admittedly we're a group dedicated to using it, and in any such article it would be very hard for us not to extol the virtues of LF, but it wouldn't be the primary focus IMHO, the "project" would be the focus, it just happens to be by a group who enjoy LF.
Charles Twist wrote:2) Writing an article with several people takes a wilful coordinator who does not mind ruffling feathers. The article that I organised for the LF journal last summer required a good bit of chasing of the stragglers... No names given, but they know who they are :wink: . I can also tell you that getting pictures from the workshops to put on the website is like getting blood out of a stone. Glencoe happened 4 months ago and there are three pictures there all from one person. Is that the best you can do? It's free, it takes no time, it helps the group to look good. Whoever takes on the coordinator role, you are warned. End of rant. (Where's the introduction that I asked Paul to write for me?)
I expect some part of that is people having access to a scanner, wanting a decent scan etc and present their image at it's best, since it will be seen "publicly". :? It's never easy organising these things unfortunately. I built a web-forum page like this for my local Photographic Society, it's all setup and working, but getting them to join and actually use it ( after months of complaining they didn't have a website ) has been mostly unsuccessful. :(
Charles Twist wrote:3) As Jo said, havng several contributors will lead to a good many pictures being produced. Is a printed magazine the best option? Should we be looking at web journals such as LF journal, MagnaChrom or View Camera? Should we be looking at booking a gallery space? Why don't we make use of our very own lf-photo.org.uk website? There's plenty of room there. We have done a couple ruinous buildings. Can we offer them pictures in exchange for exhibition space? Might National Trust or English Heritage be interested?
I think it would be nice to see an article in a printed magazine, as a leader to the other options you mention. Seeing one's work in print can be quite a motivator, so might galvanise folk to submit for the project. It's fair to expect we'd receive more images than could be published in a print article anyway, so having the article as a leader to a dedicated section of this website, containing the images for the project that couldn't be shown in the printed article. Maybe a notice for a gallery exhibition of the images? It's a nice project, sounds like a lot of work when you write it out like this, but is it really? with a few people working together it's quite achievable IMHO.
Charles Twist wrote:4) Is this exercise about publicising the group, publicising the individual contributors or providing a focus for LFP'ers short of inspiration? What the project ends up being depends on the aim.
I would imagine it to be to publicise the group and what we do, and generate interest and membership in the group, and therefore subsequently promoting LF photography.
Charles Twist wrote:I am still interested and still want to do something
Likewise, I think it's a good project and I'd like to contribute and help where I can. My favourite idea so far is the initial one offered by Paul, the "One Day in Britain" idea, which although has been done before, does have some advantages. We're not required to all travel all over the country to one place, we each shoot in our own area, we get a variety of subjects, and mitigate against bad weather in one place from ruining everyone's images.

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Post by Rob Lycett » Sat Jan 06, 2007 9:36 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

Hi all

Maybe there is a way that members can work in their own geographic location over a slightly longer period of time than one day? The 'one day' idea is fine but everybody needs to hit that date. Too many people may just miss it and participation in a group 'thing' has got to be one of the reasons for doing this.

I've just got hold of a second hand copy of Bill Brandt's 'Literary Britain' - could a theme like that work for the group? At least there would be a really well defined theme and the challenge for participants would be to express their own personal response to it. People could also work in their own way too (landscape, architectural, portraits etc).

Brandt's imagery was originally published in 1951 so an update would be a worthy task. Good fodder for both publication and/or exhibition too.

I've got a funny feeling this idea had become a project to run for more than one year. eeeek!

Rob

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Post by gari » Sat Jan 06, 2007 10:55 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00

I would agree with Rob that a day would be difficult for some people what with work etc. I do feel that a timeframe needs to be decided on however or the project could run on ad infenitum due to the "faff factor" that Charles has already mentioned.

Self publishing is becoming very affordable now, a book maybe? A quick look at LULU gives an idea of how relatively painless this option can be,
with a reasonable number of members participating, a few copies each can make a print run a possibility I reckon.

Gari
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