Earlier in the year I turned 60 and received two copies of the ‘Atomic Habits’ book. This past week I finally decided which book I was going to replace one copy with.
I have been doing research on and off for a fair while reviewing books on the subject of Urban Sketching and finally decided to purchase the book below, ‘Urban Sketching: the complete guide to techniques’ by Thomas Thorspecken.
The book only arrived yesterday morning and I have already been inspired by it to start sketching people. I haven’t really done a lot in terms of sketching people, and always seemed to ‘shy away’ from doing it as I had this belief that it was either too hard, or some had some other limiting belief around it.
Apart from that, I have only had a chance to have a quick flip through (as it has been quite a busy Long Weekend). Looking forward to sitting down with a cuppa tonight to explore the book more.
One of the types of Photography I really enjoy, and do miss is Monochrome, aka Black & White. For many years, pre-digital, right back to 1983 when I started learning Darkroom skills.
I had an LPL 35mm Enlarger and later, I purchased a Durst 606 Medium Format Enlarger off one of my Uncles. The latter was for developing the negatives from my battery-less Yashica 635 Twin-Lens Reflex with which I used a hand-held meter.
Whilst I wasn’t as adept in the Darkroom as some of the other Camera Club/Photographic Society members over the years, I did enjoy going into the Darkroom, developing, printing and experimenting.
Fast forward to the Digital era and certainly it is easier and quicker to get the image and there are many more options for manipulation these days compared to the Darkroom.
In recent years my focus has been squarely on learning Sketching, Watercolour, Line & Wash and Oil Painting as I remember ‘always wanting to learn them’ when I was younger. Myself, like everyone else, is not getting any younger, having recently turned 60 and I have enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy these mediums. There is still so much more for me to learn and explore!
It shouldn’t be a surprise to people that I canned my Photoshop and Lightroom subscriptions a few years back. I still have a DSLR, however, I am looking to go in a different direction Photography-wise… A smaller, mid to high range compact and an iPad, which is a far cry from what I used to carry around. Much lighter too.
These days, I can see myself with a small backpack containing a compact camera, sketchbook, pencils, pigment liners, Watercolour field kit and sundry items.
I can see myself returning to Photography via Monochrome as (apart from when I used to take Slides), Monochrome was my favourite way of shooting images.
When I’m out and about this little kit complete with a small camera will allow me to elevate Photography once again in my life.
I’ve included a some images below of some of the things I used to like to shoot in Monochrome.
Communicating Creatively 