Hares at the Friends Meeting House

On Saturday I went on a workshop organised by Chrysalis Arts  – Photographing your Work by Steve Rayner, held at the Friends Meeting House in Malton.  This was such a good venue – it is a beautiful building, with huge windows letting in lots of light and masses of space for spreading out our pieces (we all took artwork to photograph during the day) and to practice our new learning.

I took my sandstone Hare ornaments to photograph – the panelling was so beautiful at the Meeting House, hares wanted to play on it

Steve was very good at explaining and helping me understand things about light and how my camera is working with the settings I give it.  I think for the first time I have a little grasp of how I might improve my images, and become more consistent.  The very first thing he demonstrated was taking an image (to fill the view finder) of a white, then grey and then black piece of paper.  I have to say I was surprised (it was a revelation!), to find all of them were grey when I looked at the images.  Then we started changing the settings to get the right colours.

I think as an artist I ask rather a lot of my photographs – obviously I want them to represent my sculpture and work well – but also in a way tell a story about the texture and weight of the stone,  give a sense of the character of the piece with deep, crisp shadows, or soft, diffused depths –  I would even like the image to bring to life the making, to let the viewer know about the stone source, the quarry, the  shaping, carving, filing, sanding – they are all in my mind’s eye as I press the shutter button.   First things first though, I’m working on getting my exposure right.

The entrance gate to the beautiful courtyard at the Friends Meeting House, Malton

PS:  Hares are now safely back – but if you wanted them to come and play in your garden, they’re available here.