Wednesday 29 August 2007

I'd rather be here...

Vernazza, Cinqueterre.
I'm feeling a little low today as I heard that my entry to the Schweppes Portrait prize didn't get in. I shouldn't be surprised, there were over 6,900 entries, but a tiny part of me thought that I had a chance.

So, I'm wishing my day away, sorting out travel photography to send to various travel mags and agencies. Makes me want to go on holiday again.

Thursday 23 August 2007

Going Live


Hoorah! To coincide with the article in Black and White Photography magazine, I have launched my website:
www.janetpenny.com
I'm hoping to be able to direct potential clients to it and keep it up to date with my new work. It has been designed by my good friend Mark Warner, to be simple and elegant. I'm so excited, I could lay an egg...

Wednesday 22 August 2007

Tuesday 21 August 2007

In Print

I can hardly believe it, but my image of Kate and an article about a darkroom workshop I did with an amazing printer has finally made it into Black and White Photography magazine. It is so wonderful to see the image in print, along with 2 others that I'll post later. Back in June I spent a day up at Lighthouse Darkrooms with Mike Crawford, which was really useful and opened my eyes to the art of printing. Before, I had always felt guilty if I needed to spend very much time making my print look 'right', feeling that if you need to work too hard at it then the negative isn't good enough. However, watching Mike tease out the finer details of my image and give it a look and feel that, I'm ashamed to say, I had never imagined could be achieved, was a revelation.
For me, the joy is in the process of taking the photo: visualising, setting up, making all those choices about camera and film, pressing the button. I love the anticipation too, waiting to see if you got that perfect shot. By the time it comes to printing I've moved on, I'm thinking about the next image. So now I guess I can see just how important it is to follow through so I'm going to try and do it from now on. Or, at least, get Mike to do it for me...

Thursday 16 August 2007


Ahhhh! That's better. Apart from the 14 hour delay on the way home, Spain was good. I spent the holiday getting to grips with my new digital camera, a Pentax K10D, and I'm starting to enjoy using it. It's not a patch on my Rollei though, so I'm hoping not to get overtaken by the digital 'ease of use' phenomenon and keep wasting that film.

Wednesday 1 August 2007

Taking a break


Holidays! I love 'em. I'm just about to go to Spain for 10 days and I am so excited. I can't wait to unwind, stop thinking too much and having to organise things. But, at the same time I'm already worrying. What cameras should I take? How much film? What if I get there and I haven't got the camera that would get me that perfect shot? I always go away hoping to bag some amazing holiday photos and then I spend the whole time concerned that I haven't. So, this time I am determined to go and not stress about 'the shot', I WILL have fun. Now, 3 cameras and 10 tonne of film should just about cover it...