Photographic Journalling
Trying new ideas in a favourite location
Hello, I’m Gill and I write a photography blog inspired by the landscapes of Suffolk and beyond. Please subscribe to read more of my writing and visit my website to view my images.
It was still dark when I arrived at the beach to photograph the sunrise but the light was changing quickly. I got out of the car, grabbed my tripod, slung my camera bag over my shoulder and walked up the slope to the shingle beyond. As I followed the grassy path towards the apricot glow on the horizon I could see the velvety dusk retreating, lifting like a veil from the land. The dawn light was flooding the beach and illuminating a sea of yellow and blue flowers that swayed in the breeze before me.
I was standing on my favourite Suffolk beach and I had come to photograph the flowers that grow here annually. This year however there were more than usual - a sea of yellow mullein contrasting with blue viper’s-bugloss, red poppies combining with red valerian and a scattering of yellow horned poppies. I don’t think I had ever seen the beach looking so beautiful.
I have been photographing here for many years and have built up a visual diary of the beach which shows how it has changed over time. I have also been recording my experiences in words so that I have a fuller description of the area that is personal to me. As well as being interesting to look back on, this written record is also valuable photographically as it allows me to access notes that might be useful when I return in the future.
Photographic journalling is a useful exercise and one that I feel adds to my image making. As an observational tool it allows me to record what I saw or encountered during my shoot in a little more detail. I can name plants, record wildlife, describe the subtleties of the weather and make notes about the sunrise and what parts of the land the light affects at what time of day.
I also like to record my thoughts and feelings about particular locations which can be useful if I ever want to write anything afterwards for a publication.
I don’t always make notes in the field, instead I might reflect on a shoot when I get home. In this instance I will think about what I photographed and why, what subjects resonated with me and how I chose to portray them.
Journaling in this manner helps me reflect on how the session went and whether I took any images I was pleased with. It also forces me to think about how I could have done things better.
It helps that I love writing things down, especially in the old fashioned way, in a favourite notebook with a nice pen and it is always interesting to read these entries back before I revisit locations.
Some things I might include in a journal entry:
Location observations - weather, time of day, state of the tide, direction of the light, elements within the landscape that were interesting and why and any local wildlife that I saw.
What subjects I photographed and why?
How I approached the shoot.
How did the session make me feel - I sometimes find this useful when it comes to post processing my images and I want to convey the emotions I felt within my image.
What could I have done better?
What would I photograph if I returned and would I return at the same time of day?
What are my best and worst shots and why did or didn’t they work.
These ideas may look daunting and time consuming but I don’t spend hours working on them - 5 or 10 minutes is usually enough to get the main points down.
I also use my journal to make notes about work I admire, articles I have read, exhibitions or bodies of work that have inspired me and anything else that I feel might broaden my knowledge or spark my creativity.
Back on the beach I took some sunrise shots and then spent some time working with a lens I rarely use - a Lensbaby twist 60.
I bought this a few years ago to experiment with flower photography but I was never very enamoured with the twist effect in the background bokeh.
Over a couple of hours I played with different compositions and alternated between the Lensbaby and my 70-200mm telephoto and these were some of my favourite shots from the session. All the close up shots were taken with the Lensbaby, the buildings were shot with the 70-200mm.
I made lots of notes in the field which I added to my journal when I got home and I also looked back at notes and images I had made last year.
From these entries it is clear to see how the vegetation has changed and how this year’s wet summer has created a more diverse range of flora.
It is also evident that I am more willing to experiment with techniques and compositions and because of this I have a greater diversity of images which better represent the location.
Growing as a photographer is all about learning from the experiences we have. I think recording these so that we can reflect on them later is a great way to develop our skills.
If you don’t yet keep a photographic journal I would urge you to do so. Spending a little time after each shoot analysing what worked and what didn’t is a really valuable exercise and will definitely make you a more considered photographer in the future.
What do you feel about journalling? Do you use it to help your photography or is it just too time consuming. I always love hearing your thoughts. If you would like to join the conversation please leave a comment below.
Thank you very much for reading and until next week enjoy your photography.
Gill
I write a blog on every shoot. It’s useful to reflect on the experience, what worked well, what didn’t. It’s also useful as a timeline of what I’ve done. It’s time consuming, just like post production but satisfying.
What an incredible location! The depth of field in the second image is incredible. I mostly use my camera to journal and then tell the stories after the fact.