Sussex Photographs

In 2009 I was asked to participate in a photographic project documenting England. Stuart Pilkington had the idea to create 'What is England?' , a project comprising of 48 photographers around England each individually photographing a particular county in their photographic style. The task was made up of 6 themes to photograph throughout the year: Person, Group, Work, Play, Urban & Rural.

Whilst thinking about the project, I decided I wanted to elaborate on the theme and started to plan a much larger personal project.

Having lived in Sussex all my life and now reaching an age where I am really starting to appreciate the countryside, much more than I had before. I thought it would be good to make it my mission to discover or re-discover this beautiful county that I live in.

I decided to focus most of my attentions on open spaces within Sussex, places such as parks, areas of recreation or rest, nature reserves, areas of outstanding natural beauty, national parks, sites of special scientific interest, open green spaces and beaches.

I will be looking at the landscapes, the people that enjoy these spaces and those that help maintain them, looking at some of the issues they face and the positive work they do on the land.

I started this project in the latter part of 2009 and aim to photograph right through 2010, leading to an exhibition in 2011.

The story so far...

Slideshow

Goodbye House

I have been wanting to create some better slideshows, so decided to put this collection of photographs in to a movie with some music. The whole idea behind these shoots was driven by music really, a lot of my photographs are influenced by music - in this case I've gone with Morrissey 'Last Night On Maudlin Street'.

Goodbye House from Andrew Newson on Vimeo.

Haiti Charity Print Auctions

All of the auctions at Charity Print Auctions finish tonight, at midnight GMT.

The auctions have been incredibly successful, raising in excess of £15,000. The final total will be worked out tomorrow.

I still have an auction open, which is for any shot (excluding portraits) from my new SUSSEX project.

Here is the auction: Sussex.

Thanks for all your support with the group.

Andy

Haiti Appeal - Photographic Auction

On Friday 15th January 2010 I decided to start a group on the photo sharing website, Flickr. The group is called 'Charity Print Auctions' and I will use it to help raise money for disasters. By creating such a group and encouraging photographers to join and donate a print for auction, we can help raise some money. Bidders are encouraged to leave their bid in the comments field of each auction, but if you don't have a Flickr account, don't worry as most photographers are accepting bids by email.

The auctions close at midnight on Sunday 17th January 2010 unless stated otherwise on the individual auction. Some people have decided to open the auction for longer.

The first charity auction to be held is for the Haiti Earthquake Appeal.
Charity Print Auctions
I have decided, along with others, that I will be happy to let people bid and the winning bidder can choose any image from within my Flickr stream (within reason). I've put together a small collection of images here...













Currently the highest bid stands at £30 and is for the image of the lady with the donkey. If you wish to up the bid for that image or any other, please head over and do that in the comments or comment here or email me.

Many thanks for your support.
Andy

The Year Ahead (2010)

I hope that 2010 will be an exciting year for me, it has lots of promise. Myla is growing up fast and I think the next year will really see her come in to her own, I'm really looking forward to that time with her.

Simon and I have big plans for Nova Gallery, which should hopefully start to come together in the new year.

I'm also working on a reasonably big personal photo project. It started when I was asked by the creator of The 50 States Project, Stuart Pilkington if I would participate in his new project entitled What is England? It's 48 photographers representing a county around England, photographing their environment in their style. I'm amongst some really great company, I'm thrilled to be listed with them.

This is something I'm very excited about and have decided to expand on. So I will be contributing to the project (6 themes throughout 2010) but also working on photographing East Sussex in more detail for a larger body of work, which I hope to show sometime in 2011.

Only the 6 What is England? images will appear online, the larger body of work will hopefully be shown in 2011. I just feel it's better for the images to have their first airing in an exhibition space. Which I hope you guys, or at least some of you, will come to.

The project will take more shape as it develops, but it will definitely have heavy focus on open spaces within East Sussex, especially Nature Reserves, National Parks (of which we now have one!), Areas of Outstanding Nature Beauty, Special Sites of Scientific Interest and other areas of recreation. The project will also delve in to what challenges these areas create for the people involved in their upkeep and the enjoyment they bring to others.

I'm not yet sure whether this particular image will make it in to the final edit, but we'll see. However, I have uploaded a big version which is suitable for printing at 12x8 size, if you want, just download it and get yourself a print. Photo Rag would be best, but if not then a matte finish c-type should look quite nice.

Happy New Year to you all. I hope the year ahead brings you a great deal of happiness and creativity.



Click the image for a large version suitable for a 12x8 inch print.

Colour Palettes

I've been experimenting with different colour palettes of late.

I'm curious to know which you prefer and why?

A)


B)


Both of these images were processed in Adobe Lightroom. Let me know which you prefer...

One-To-One Basic Photography Tuition in Kent & Sussex

I have recently been doing some photography tuition, which I really enjoy doing.

It started by just meeting people at exhibitions that I've had. A lot of people have fairly advanced digital cameras these days and a growing number of people are opting for a Digital SLR (DSLR). The people I meet that are new to photography or perhaps new to their camera, ask where can they get some training to learn about their camera and learn how to take the pictures that they have in their head.

So I decided to offer one-to-one tuition for people wanting to learn the basics of photography and master their camera settings. So far the people that have taken the course have said that they got a lot out of the session and are already taking better pictures.

The one-to-one basic photography course is a 2 hour session and costs just £100. It takes place in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. It's really simple, we meet for coffee and discuss your camera settings and get you comfortable with your camera. Once we are happy, we head out and put what you've learned to test by actually taking photographs (a novel idea!).

I specifically help you take the pictures that you want to take, so if it's landscapes you want to take, we'll discuss the best way to approach this in a practical way. If you like, I'll also offer advice on what equipment you could put on your shopping list to push your photography forward even further.

Basic Practical Photographic Skills (2 hour session)
One to one training for people wanting to learn the basics of DSLR or advanced compact camera photography.
£100.

Also...

Basic Photographic Processing Skills (2 hour session)
One to one training for people wanting to learn the basics of digital photography processing. I visit you at your home and spend two hours with showing how best to organise your files on your computer, show you the benefits of RAW processing, how to prepare your images for prints and how to get the best results from your files.
£100.

If you are interested in taking a course, please telephone:
Andy Newson
01892 662191