A sense of Place (Ghost Estates)

Some of the photos I have been posting here as part of my Ghost Estate (temporary title) series have perhaps been a little too descriptive. What I am trying to achieve with the photos is to convey a sense of place, an atmosphere, and to use the phrase again, something just beneath the surface.

There is a very fine line between descriptive and suggestive (if that is the right word). During a recent tutorial where I was showing a very loose edit of around 80 photos,  a fellow student suggested that there are opportunities for two projects in the collection: It all comes down to editing. I could choose a set of photos that are great, and descriptive, and have immediate visual impact. Or, I could choose a set using my intuition, my feelings, and perhaps take a few chances.

Ghost Estates, Success Rates, and Taking Chances.

I am being reasonably conservative with my shooting – finances are tight – and if I were shooting digital I would probably shoot off at least a hundred frames per location. As it is I’m going through on average a roll (36 exposures) per location, depending on interesting features, lighting, time constraints, etc.

So far I have shot around ten rolls of film for the Ghost Estate photo project; thats around 360 photos. If I get three or four good shots per roll I’m reasonably happy.

That seems like a pretty low success rate, and maybe it is, perhaps I should be aiming higher. The problem with film is that each frame is a risk. Sometimes what you thought would be a great photo (at time of shooting) turns out to be mediocre. And sometimes you take a chance and hope for the best, and you might get lucky. What you see in front of you is not always what the camera sees.

Taking a good photo is relatively easy – with practice. Taking consistently good photos that reflect your true intentions is a totally different ball game. You win some, you lose some.

One, possibly two of the photos below might make the final edit.

The search continues (for ghost estates)

Here are a few shots from a recent photo-shoot on a ghost estate in the South East of Ireland. Last week in Athlone, a toddler drowned in a small pool of water on an estate similar to this one. My heart goes out to the grieving family.

Access to sites like this is generally easy, and as you can see in the first photo, some kids have turned the abandoned building supplies into a temporary playground. I have years of experience on building sites, but I was still treading very carefully to avoid getting a rusty nail in my foot.

I have paired these two images together as there are some visual similarities, despite the difference in scale of the subjects. This is where sequencing of images plays a key role in the presentation of a series of photos.

I don’t know if either of these images will make it into the final edit, but its always good to plan ahead as the deadline approaches.