iJourneys

John Gough Photography

Roxanne Bouche Overton : Liminal Time

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Roxanne Bouche Overton

This year has to be about abstract photography and photo expressionism. The world is becoming too damaged to just capture images with clean lines and clear perspectives. I want to become engulfed in a liminal universe and draw inspiration from other visual artists working in the same space. One such photographer I admire is Roxanne Bouche Overton.

Photographing Liminal Space

Roxanne Bouche Overton is intrigued by the photography of liminal space and time.

A liminal space is a place between two other places or two states of being. Liminal spaces are often empty and can create unease or uncertainty.

Liminal photography can be used to capture the feeling of being in a dream or the feeling of being lost. It can also be used to capture the feeling of being in a place that is both familiar and unfamiliar.

All of my life I’ve been chasing what I see out of the corner of my eye; those elusive visions, slightly blurred and a bit magical. But when I turn and focus on them, they disappear into ordinary. I wanted to learn how to capture that state of blur. It’s what caught my eye in the first place – I think it’s worth chasing.

When I am out shooting I am looking for those liminal spaces – the transitions between then and now – the transitions of between the blur of my peripheral vision as it moves to sharpness. We must be aware if we to engage our imaginations and collect these moments

Roxanne Bouche Overton

ICM

Roxanne is a master of Intentional Camera Movement (ICM). Just to recap intentional camera movement (ICM) photography is a technique where you move the camera as the image is taken. This can be done by panning, tilting, or shaking the camera. The goal is to create an image with a sense of movement and blur.

Rozanne,s work however takes ICM to a different level, forget blurry ICM shots of tree trunks. Roxanne works with landscape and urban spaces, often including lone figures in vibrant surroundings.

Roxanne’s Photography

Learning from great photographers is one of the joys of photography. Why, when you see some images are you inspired enough to find out how and why the photographer captured that moment?

Especially when that moment is not representational, but more abstract and more about the emotion than the seeing. This is what has drawn me to the work of Roxanne Bouche Overton. Her photography has an eerie quality. Her ICM images are not what you have seen before, but what you might have seen, what you cannot quite remember seeing, what you thought you saw, or what you felt you saw but didn’t.

It is extraordinary how Roxanne’s work demonstrates how a camera can capture the elusive.

Roxanne Bouche Overton

A Curation of Roxanne’s Work

I have curated some of her work here and there is so much more on her Instagram account.

Her website gives details of publications and workshops.

Her books are available on Amazon:

I have also found this clip which is interesting in giving an insight into her work and how she achieves her results

My Wildflower Images at an Exhibition

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Willow Tree, Walthamstow

A couple of my wildflower images are on display at an exhibition at the Willow Tree in Walthamstow, London.

Details of the exhibition are:

Kindred

We delve deep into Biophilic design and explore our innate connection (kinship) to the natural world. We celebrate the magic of this home on the edge of the Wetlands, with the River Lea and Epping Forest on our doorstep. 

The artists featured in the collection find an abundance of inspiration within their environment. They are artists who pay attention to the delicate patterns on leaves and the way sunlight dances upon water. These are artworks for adventurers, stargazers, escapists, foragers and birdwatchers. For the explorers who love the wind in their hair and the crunch of leaves underfoot. Artworks to bring the urban wilderness of Walthamstow into our homes and onto our walls.

Purchase

My wildflower artwork can be purchased at Artsnug

Velvet Lensbaby Lenses

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Velvet Lensbaby Lenses create glowing ethereal effects in camera, which are often difficult to reproduce in Photoshop. By changing the aperture the effect can be controlled from pin sharp to very soft.

Lensbaby was started in 2004 by Craig Strong & Sam Price in Portland, Oregon. The Lensbaby Velvet 56 arrived on the market in 2015, followed by the Velvet 85 and the Velvet 28. The series is available for multiple camera mounts: Nikon, Canon, Sony, Pentax, and Fuji cameras.

Lensbaby Velvet Soft Focus

Soft focus was once considered a technical flaw. However, it has now become a creative tool for photographers. In the past, it was only possible to achieve this by putting Vaseline on a UV filter! Lensbaby changed all that.

Many photographers also experiment with vintage lenses to attain a charming dreamy look. Velvet lenses do the same thing. The more you open the aperture the dreamier the effect becomes. Starting at the edges and working into the centre, the blur becomes more exaggerated with each aperture ring click. As the aperture is opened, the depth of focus also decreases and at ƒ/2.8, the whole image is a gentle mist.

At these wide apertures, it can look as though the image was painted. Lensbaby advocates insist this look cannot be created in Photoshop. However competent you are with layers and Gaussian blur. This unique effect may be down to the glow the lens will impart in some lighting conditions.

These are some examples collated on this Pinterest board.

Practicalities When Using a Lensbaby

When using a Lensbaby lens it is back to basics, because your camera will not recognize the lens. The lens has no electronic coupling. As a result, the aperture cannot be changed using the aperture control on the camera. To change the aperture it is back to using the aperture ring on the lens.

The lens works best in manual mode, although aperture priority can work on some cameras.

The focus is also manual. This is easiest with a mirrorless camera or using live view on a traditional DSLR. Note that the camera will not store camera settings with the metadata.

The Velvet also does not have an automatic diaphragm, which on modern cameras opens the aperture to its widest setting once the lens is mounted on the camera. As a result, the lens aperture closes as you stop down, and the view gets increasingly dark.

Which Velvet Lensbaby to Choose

Lensbaby Velvet 56

Although this is primarily a portraiture lens, the lens is a ‘nifty fifty’ with glowing ethereal characteristics. It has a 1:2 macro ratio, making it perfect for misty flower photography.

Lensbaby Velvet 85

A short telephoto portrait lens, capable of 1:2 macro photography with a minimum focusing distance of just 24cm. So ideal for nature close ups.

Lensbaby Velvet 28

A wide angle lens ideal for landscapes and travel, but with a 1:2 macro facility.

Why Buy a Lensbaby Velvet

There is a movement back to simpler photography. Creating effects that can be created in camera, and which do not need layers of Photoshop in post production. Techniques like ICM, multiple exposure and vintage lenses.

The Lensbaby range is right on trend. If occasionally we do not always want to see our world with hard, sharp, twenty twenty vision, then the Velvet Lensbaby takes us back to a more gentle era.

Building a Lockdown Lightbox

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I like to shoot flowers backlit. Like the buttercups in the image above. This was achieved using natural light through a window lightbox.

Now that we are all restricted from roaming around with our camera, the spring flowers in our gardens make fascinating subjects. With a little post-processing in Lightroom and Photoshop, simple blooms can blossom into fine art.

Over the next few blogs, I will be explaining just how I approach flower photography, starting with how to build a simple window lightbox.

Simplest Simple Window Lightbox

The simplest way to create a uniform lighting effect is to simply stick a piece of tracing paper or baking parchment on a window. Mount, the flower in front of it and take a photograph. Job done.

Simplest Lightbox

I use oasis to mount the flower, which can be purchased from Amazon.

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Simple Lightbox

As my flower photography has evolved I have created a more elaborate window lighting setup, but it still uses natural light.

As I will explain in a later episode. Cutting the flower from its background in Photoshop is best achieved with as white a background as possible. So I now use a white diffusion fabric which I clip to a window using studio clips.

Both items can be bought quite cheaply from a photography store or Amazon.

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I usually pick flowers from my garden, or purchase them from a florist. I certainly avoid picking flowers from the wild. Bringing flowers indoors and photographing in a ‘studio’ environment gives ultimate control over the image.

Over the next few weeks I will be working through the process I use to create fine art flower images. This is episode 1.

Camera Wrist Strap

I have avoided dropping my camera so many times using a simple inexpensive wrist strap like this one. Cameras and expensive lenses do not bounce!

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