Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 7:08 pm Post subject: brilliant
I really like these esp the 3rd one. great how the colours of the pig perfectly match the surroundings. I like how you positioned your camera to get the brick pig matching the red tiled house behind great stuff. _________________ forget all the photography rules! experiment
looks like is having fun finding these, hope the weather picks up over the weekend _________________ -----------------------------------------------------
Thanks for your comments. Yes it is great fun, and it's an interesting exercise in framing and composing shots and because I am doing them regularly it keeps it fresh in my head and I find myself walking round each pig, where possible, and checking the setting.
Most of the shots on the web are just snap shots and I have tried to approach them with a view to grabbing decent shots and taking care with them.
It's given me a new lease of life and I am really enjoying my camera especially on top of recently changing my custom settings, which I am also pleased with. _________________
I went into Bath last night to see if I couldn't get some night shots of the pigs, particularly as there was a full moon. I abandoned the attempt after an hour, there were loud and extremely drunk people every where and I just felt intimidated and pi**ed off. All the shots were rubbish and I didn't feel able to take my time with the tripod to work the shots. Of all the many forms of self medication available, drink and how people behave under its influence is my least favourite. _________________
The pig is in a shop and I was trying to get a decent shot and it slowly dawned on me that I was imposing my preconceived notions of a shot on the situation and not using what was there.
This was No 99 and I didn't play fair to get it. It's located in an infants school (good work). Even though the kids are on holiday there was no way I was going to turn up at the school during the day. I went this evening and leant on the gates and looked around for the little blighter... not a peep. Had a little think and vaulted the gate and started peering through windows and looking around. As I'd hoped, the caretaker appeared. Now caretakers are a special breed and this one was no exception, he was a great guy and I apologised for intruding and disturbing him and explained my mission. He told me that they'd had no idea that the pigs were going to become a tourist attraction and it had been a real problem (the police having been called once), but he accepted my profuse apologies and showed me where the pig was. He also told me that the woman who painted the pig had done it in water based paints, so far so good, but the people who varnished it had used a water soluble varnish and we bonded even more discussing stupidity. The pig is restored and is now varnished with yacht varnish.
I'm taking him a couple of braces of beer tomorrow, only right and proper.
Thanks Dave, it feels like an accomplishment, it's a good feeling.
I am not normally that bold, as I was at the school, I think taking more care to get the picture I want which might mean climbing on something, lying flat or adopting strange poses to get an angle has affected me. I also received some unexpected advice recently from a good friend, we were talking about self consciousness, which is really just an over sensitivity to what others might think of me, and is something that has dogged me throughout my life. He suggested, for my consideration, that what others might think of me is none of my business. That was, and is, profound food for thought. _________________
YAY you did it!!! Well done you... and you've done a grand job of the photography.
Thank you so much. I discovered today that I missed one, so I'll be grabbing that either tomorrow or Thursday. But that hasn't diminished my sense of achievement one iota. It's rather nice to have just a bit more to do, I am thinking of calling in to the workshops where they mount the pigs and seeing if I can't get some shots there. _________________
Keith,
This is such a great series. I often read about photo essays, and you have the makings of a great one here. Not to mention fodder for more than a few diptychs, triptychs and montages.
Thanks so much John, I only realised today that I'd never done anything like this before, which played off against my inner critic, saying, 'yeah, well, loads of people are doing this'. Not so, it's been my little personal epic (if I may be that expressive). It has been a bloody marvellous process and one I am delighted to have undertaken. A very real step forward.
Bearing in mind I have only been doing photography for, er I can't think what it is now, seven or eight years, before which I was as ignorant as the day is long about all things photographic.
I didn't even know when I started what it would mean to me. It is a documentation or a photo essay of one mans journey with his camera and that feels like a damn fine thing to have done. It feels really, really good.
Again.. well done you! I think we say that too often, don't you? Everyone is doing it so why should I bother? Well, bother because you might just do it BETTER than everyone else!
Wish I still lived near Bath cos I'd be doing exactly the same... and we could compare notes! _________________ My Flickr Pics
Again.. well done you! I think we say that too often, don't you? Everyone is doing it so why should I bother? Well, bother because you might just do it BETTER than everyone else!
Wish I still lived near Bath cos I'd be doing exactly the same... and we could compare notes!
Thank you Shirley, it's appreciated. I absolutely agree with you, just because someone's already done something, does not mean we cannot do the same or something similar, because it's the experience that counts as much as the shot. If I want to get better at my craft then I should do as much as I can to gain experience.
As I was doing the pig quest I thought it would be a lot of fun to share the experience with another photographer, as against the zillion snappers who've been doing it. So if you are ever back this way, look me up, I am sure we could find something to photograph in this marvellous neck of the woods. _________________
I'll do that! We've got friends in Bristol that we owe a visit... and if nothing else my son will likely be back to Frenchay for an op - probably won't be for a couple of years yet but that will fly!
Likewise... if you are in Aberdeenshire..... _________________ My Flickr Pics
That could happen because I have always felt I ought to visit Keith one day, it's always good to find out what one might have looked like geographically. _________________
I'm just going to stop saying I've got them all, because just when I think, 'that's it', I am delighted to discover it ain't.
This is one of the stand ins for when they have to trot off for repairs and the set just wouldn't be complete without one (not that I'm saying it is complete, mind).
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great stuff.
