#345 ASSIGNMENT: NICK TURPIN
Street and London-based commercial photographer Nick Turpin joins me today with thoughts about story-telling before setting an assignment that will have you observing the world in which you live for the next seven days. We'll both be fascinated to see what you come up with, so email what you make to the show via the contact page.
My thanks to MPB.com who sponsor this show; the number one company in the UK, the US and Europe when it comes to buying, selling, and trading quality used camera kit online – it’s a safe place to do business, with guarantees upon what you buy and a sustainable way to trade in the circular economy.
Also my sincere thanks to our wonderful patrons, our ‘Extra Milers’ who help to support this show.
One of Nick Turpin’s Exodus photographs, the project referenced within the show today.
BY JOHN GRINDLE
I was listening to Nick’s assignment while building two IKEA draw units. I have tried Nick's recommended way to capture these types of street photos, but after 5 minutes I imagine I must look like a very bad version of a stalker and I have to move on!
After completing the last draw and a quick tidy-up, I was free for a few hours. Luckily I live close to the busy seaside resort Weymouth, here in Dorset-Land and I knew there would be lots of likely people wandering the streets. I just needed to find a subject and sit there for however long it took. My subject is one of six new sculptures that have appeared across the town in the last year. This one is called The Levels, by Raphael Daden. It represents a porthole looking out to sea, with an inscription ‘the levels are changing so must we’.
I sat, focused, sorted the exposure and waited for a likely person to walk into frame. After less than a minute this guy wanders up, with his lovely blue anorak, so I made the shot. Really happy with the result, I had an idea, I could visit all the other sculptures and try to get a photo there too, Neale would be pleased with a series. Phone rings, my wife informs me we’re having the Grandkids today, time to go home.
I will visit the other sculptures another day and report back…..
BY ELLIOT THOMAS
The image I have decided to put forward for this week’s assignment is one I made of a queue forming at Broadway Tower in the Cotswolds AONB. I saw the image straight away when looking up at this huge imposing building with the people queuing it fascinated me and made me realise how small and vulnerable we are to the world around us. Taken on my iPhone, I was able to edit and frame the image using Snapseed.
BY MIKE MILLER
When I listened to the Assignment this morning, I knew exactly where I wanted to go to try to make an image. A building in the historic part of town is in the process of painting its exterior. There is a place for small posters to go that frames things up rather nicely. I went out later in the morning and parts of the board were in shade. Being Monday morning, there was not a lot of pedestrian traffic along the sidewalk. I had to photograph from the other side of the street, so there were a few times that I couldn't make an image because trucks blocked the view of the people walking into the frame. I did manage to get three images that I was happy with.
Over the years, I have taken numerous photos of this curved building in the North Laine area of Brighton. Walking by recently, I noticed the new mural of Freddie Mercury and thought it created a great frame leading to the curved building and red door. The only missing thing was a suitable “actor”.
Having decided on both camera settings and composition, I decided to stop and wait for a suitable subject. Fortunately, my patience was eventually rewarded when a number of “actors”, dressed in red to complement the door, walked by. I couldn’t decide which one worked best so have sent two images.
BY GERALD MURPHY
I was fascinated by this morning's photowalk podcast. It might have been made for my recent B&W photowalk in Liverpool. However, I did a photowalk with the dog this morning around Carr Mill Dam in St Helens - my hometown. Far from city tower blocks, but among the many shots that I took of the lake and autumn colour, there were two places that I felt fitted the assignment criteria, space composition and just one or two people - and a dog in one case. All the people agreed to be photographed. In one case the man's dog was swimming towards him from the dam bringing some cast-off polythene rather than the ball that had been thrown for him. That amused me. In the second case, I liked the relationship between the two men in the space they occupied. I preferred the colour version.
