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The inside story on this shot


Mowing down everything

If you look back over the last month or two I've been sharing the stories behind some of my portfolio images. I will continue this series of articles, dipping into my work every now and again. I hope you find them interesting and if you want to know more just leave a comment or send an email.

This guy was mowing the grass with tremendous determination. The shot was taken on a Cambo 4x5" technical camera with a super wide lens. A large technical camera on a tripod is not exactly made for capturing fast action, and believe me this guy was moving at quite a speed across the lawn. Although it looks like he is in full action, I had to pose this shot. The film was Ilford's beautiful FP4 100 ISO.

I printed and developed the negative in the darkroom. The image won praise at exhibitions and I have sold a number of prints. I've kept a print in my general portfolio ever since and it has always had a good response.

A few years ago I scanned the full large format negative and worked on the image in Photoshop. The detail is incredible.

I took this image when I was studying photography under the wing of the legendary Obie Oberholzer at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. If you're curious about Obie you can see a video of him talking about his work here and a great interview here. You can also see his work through his agency Bilderberg (look for his name under Fotgrafen).

Cheers,
Paul
www.indigo2photography.co.uk

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Anonymous said…
Paul the superwide lens creates a distortion that adds to the intense action of the shot and gives it a surreal quality that draws me in. Nice photo.

Bill Gatesman
www.wmgphoto.com
www.wmgphotoblog.com
18:36
Macro photography said…
This is a great photo. I love that you choose black and white because I believe that color would have taken something away from what the picture is saying.
03:42
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