Co-posting: an experiment in styles
This is the first in a series of joint posts with Ehpem that are the result of a visit that I made to Victoria in April. The idea is to show things that we both photographed in our own ways, and we will each show the other’s photograph along with our own in our blogs at the same time. We intend to take turns writing the posts; Ehpem took the first turn:
We have become friends through blogging; internet friends are not something I could comprehend until it started happening to me through this blog. Fortunately for me Melinda has, twice now, had work to do in Seattle and made the trip over water to Victoria for a visit. This collaboration arises from a visit she made in April when we spent a few days touring around the south end of Vancouver Island looking for things to photograph, and just looking.
Our first co-post is a garbage can at the Point No Point Resort where we stayed one night. It serves as a warning to, or at least as a convenience for, our co-viewers. Some of you might want to scuttle off-stage right now and stay there for a week or two. The more tolerant might be relieved to know there is a bin handy for those of our posts worthy only of the trash.
It is a lot of fun, and very interesting to take pictures with another photographer – to start to feel how they see. One or the other of us might exclaim about something the other had not yet seen, or sometimes go all quiet with concentration. Either usually drew the other of us to have a look and perhaps take a shot too.
This is not the first time we have done this since Melinda visited last year as well. We did not get a collaboration off the ground last year though we did do one co-post – for all of our collaborations click on this link. The idea is to present each other’s photos of the same place taken together, but with our different ways of seeing, and making the most of camera equipment to hand.
On the equipment front I had the advantage of variety, being at home. I shot mostly digital using the Canon 5Dii and assorted lenses. I shot film on a Canon Elan 7N with the same set of lenses, a Olympus mjuII point and shoot that was always in my pocket, and finished a roll of film in a Mamiya M645 Super medium format camera. Melinda used a Nikon D7000 and a single wide-angle prime lens she was trying out.
(You can see Ehpem’s post here.)
Ehpem’s photo:
My photo:
Point No Point Resort
photographed 4.22.2015
Posted on May 16, 2015, in Photography and tagged 365 photo project, black and white photography, Burnt Embers, co-posting, E&M Collaboration, Ehpem, melinda green harvey, monochrome, NIK Silver Efex Pro 2, one day one image, photo a day, photography, Point No Point, postaday, victoria. Bookmark the permalink. 18 Comments.
One Day | One Image 
I commented on ehpem post and I hope you get a chance to read it and respond. I like the idea of one scene and two viewpoints like this. I wonder if there is any conscious effort to try to interpret a scene differently from your shooting partner of do you shoot as if no one else is around. I wonder, too, if you each shot with the other’s equipment, gave the equipment back at the end of the shoot, and process the images from your partner. I always felt the processing is an important part of the process.
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Hi Ken. We did not try each other’s equipment, but maybe we should have. It would have been unfamiliar to both of us since I don’t know my way around modern Nikons.
It has occurred, though I have not raised it till now, that perhaps Melinda and I should share some raw files and each process one image and co-post the results. That would be very interesting and I agree it is a highly important part of the process. She has offered to have a go at one of mine that I could not get the highlights under control with the software I use.
Melinda, what do you think? Want to swap some raw files?
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I think that would probably have to be digital images – I have been scanning film to jpegs lately to save hard drive space and because I don’t usually intend to process my film shots more than a jpeg can withstand. But, if there are film shots that appeal, I will happily rescan as a tiff.
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Yes! Let’s do swap files – that’ll be fun.
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Ken – as Ehpem mentioned we did not swap cameras, but that gives a project for my next visit to Victoria!
We shot (or at least I did!) the way we would have shot if no one else was around. We’d talked about this co-posting idea in advance, but didn’t consciously work on images that would be good together in the same blog. Part of that is because we weren’t that organized. And the other part is that our photographic interests are similar enough that we felt sure we’d get images that would go well with each other.
And look: your comment gave Ehpem the idea to trade files and do post-production on each other’s images. That’ll be fun!
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Fun for me, too!
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I hope you still think so after you’ve seen the results!
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Very interesting. I like both photographs a lot. In yours I see the lines most prominently; in Ephem’s the light, though obviously both are present in each photo. I’m looking forward to seeing more in your series.
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Hi Linda – interesting observation. My whole attraction to this scene was the light – the shiny can and the nice reflections and refractions on the fence behind. I rather wish I had seen the lines that Melinda did and found a way to incorporate them into my photo.
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Linda, thanks! You are very observant: it WAS the lines that I saw first. Right now we’ve got about 9 or 10 images that we’re working on to co-post, and we hope your interest in the series is at last that long!
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I love the idea of this series! I always hesitate to go out on a shoot with other people because I worry that we’d end up taking images that are too similar, but you two were definitely drawn to different elements and both got successful shots–albeit very different ones.
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Sabina, I almost never shoot with anyone else. But Ehpem and I have known each other several years and had met in person before, so we felt (reasonably) confident that we could get some good pairs out of everything we shot. And if that didn’t work out, we would still have plenty of images to use on our blogs! One of those win-win situations that you heard about…
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Definitely a win-win!
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This is a fascinating idea and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series. I like both images and I see a third – a vertical shot of the trash can and the ?chest of drawers alongside to include that wonderful shadow on the fence. Ephem came close to that shot, but the detail I see in Melinda’s shot looks sharper – maybe the tree stood still for a second!
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Hi Andy. I did attempt that third shot too. I posted a square crop of it on instagram which cuts out most of the shadow.
As to sharpness there was a bit of wind so that was a factor. Other factors might include 10 years expired black and white film in an automatic point and shoot vs a DSLR and possibly also post processing of which I usually do very little when shooting film. The film is a c41 processed b&w which shifted to a dark green in place of the blacks. It scanned remarkably well.
In fact now that I am thinking about it this image might have been good “toned” by that colour shift if I scanned it in colour. Except I would need to leave it as a negative to keep the colour. Hmmm.
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I must check it out on Instagram.
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Thanks, Andy. Ehpem and I have worked (a lot more than we anticipated!) to get this series ready to post. I hope you like our results. And we’re not done yet – a comment from the weekend has given us another project to work on a some point.
And as for the wind: it was as windy as where I am from in West Texas. That’s saying a lot!
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