I spent around 18 months on and off, living in Masham (pronounced ‘Mazz-mm’) in order to fish the river Ure. I had come to an arrangement with Sue Thomas at The White Bear in Masham, I would be a live-in chef at the hotel, on the condition of gaining membership of the local fishing club. In this way she would have a member of staff and I would have a beautiful stretch of river to fish, just down the path. I also had the provision to be able to leave for periods of time to complete other work. “Living the Dream,” is the motto, in high end kitchens however, doing what you have to do, in order to do it, is not a dream. It is more of a self-imposed nightmare juggling act of paying the bills and having enough free time, to enjoy the free time, you want to have. You are like a duck, all great floating along living the life of O`Riley, but underneath is a whirlpool of paddling the currents and seems of the river you are floating on. It is a precarious lifestyle of riches and rags and back again, and not for the faint hearted or those wanting a settled lifestyle. However I had gained access to the club and now as I walked the banks, the fish I had dreamed of catching previously, were now readily available to catch as soon as I can get to where my things where being stored and retrieve some fishing gear. Then a­­ few Brucie-Bonuses, will be reaped at the Bruce Arms Pub afterwards, with the obligatory Havana cigar and a pint of Cuba Libra. 

       Experience through various projects has helped to develop my skills as a practicing photographer, or photographic practitioner. During this time some conclusions have occurred to me. The main one being, “the name says it all, really.” Which means: I have a photographic practice, luckily I can practice photography for professional reasons. However, even more luckily at the same time, I can take images for personal reasons as well (living the dream), So as a practicing photographer I never stop practicing no matter what image I am taking.  Also, as a practicing photographer, I have to practice taking images of a decisive moment, and this is one of the most misunderstood phrases in photography since Cartier-Bresson first spoke it. It comes from the very art of composition and in natural light the placement of the sun. You can camp out and wait for the elements to come together or you can wander round and capture them as they appear. It can be the placement of any subject matter juxtaposing in a pleasing manner, although authorship sometimes spoils its simplicity of just being a pleasing image and so, as a photographer when capturing images with a camera, rather than with my mind, which then lead to the technical practice of how to capture light with form and shape in a decisive moment of time and space. Similar to fishing without a fishing rod as you walk the banks, every likely spot has a fish, until you have a rod in your hand and then they become ghosts but, the imagination is a great catcher of fish and finder of images, amongst other things. One of the other reasons for a prolonged stay was the scenery and the chance for some pictures. I was going to be back in some months to work for the next fishing season. 

       Trying to come up with projects is extremely easy and extremely hard. Concepts just need solutions and then themes become apparent through practice. Images become albums through similarity of subject, object, or themes. Wading in the middle of the river thinking about this, and how and why most imagery of fishing and rivers was similar. Mostly due to the constraints of the standard fishing book. Some have better imagery than others, and specialist destinations are more holiday brochure photography, than pictures of fishing waters and tackle, sometimes with or without an angler,  even stock images of rivers is of a similar fashion. I wanted to try and capture a different view of fishing, but how? I came to the final conclusion of wind, water and trees, as I was standing on a rock in the river, examining the micro currents and foam lines of the flow (this is where the fish feed), after a few hours it hypnotizes the eyes and whilst having my line blowing into the trees by the wind every other cast, I knew then, river fly fishing was all about tree`s, wind and micro currents in the texture of water being fished. The texture of water was quite inspirational in my head as it would encompass the various pictures of water and theme them, thus giving context to the images and not just be why is there loads of similar pictures of water.

       As I sit here doing the research to enable me to put forth, an informative cohesive narrative to my journey through this part of the project because, things have a habit of evolving and morphing before the project comes together but then, it is never finished.  This is because, you evolve as a person through the project. At the moment I keep getting side-tracked by web-links and threads in books that can make hours of your life disappear in the coagulation of the meanderings and ideas of other people, who are basically doing the same thing you are attempting. Some are successful and some are not. Luck, timing and placement are a big factor, as well as business acumen and marketing. These factors will make your work come to my Google search list or bibliographical entry. I am sat here with my images and memories. I don’t keep journals or shooting diaries meaning the narrative will be memory driven. I can remember; the what, the where and why I wanted the capture, through the contact sheet that is my Lightroom library. The images will tell me whether I succeeded or not and your objectivity will give my google rating.

       With more knowledge comes more power. My future practice will be changed by my research. Showing how I can use others practices to suit and develop my own output and context of photographic work incorporating my interpretations of their working practices into my own workflow or ideas bank on how to develop my photography catalogue. here is a prime example of such a thing, I came by chance upon this as I was building this page and came across Alison Price. Alison ” Shape of Water is very similar to my Textures of Water.

       I did not want to become a picturesque tourist photographer, but wanted something more than a topological survey. Joe Cornish has a similar style to me, in that he loves nature and photography, and takes pictures for himself, with a subject that provokes an emotional feeling within himself. He also, doesn’t carry a camera constantly and when walking doesn’t specifically look for images. Joe says this comes from the feeling of carrying a camera changes your observation. The emotional state you are in also changes the viewpoint and aesthetics of the images you capture. Should I go out thrice daily, scurrying around trying to find images, or should I just keep finding images and then try to capture them. Allying the hunter, farmer philosophy to photography. I am always finding images, sometimes I find them and other times I have to hunt for them. When I see a potential capture, it is logged and although I have missed thousands of chances to take a photographic image of the found scenes I encounter because, of not going back to the site again with a camera. Most of the time how I live my life prevents this. As a freelance and agency worker, I am always moving around the country after a couple of weeks or months to another location.

       But, how do you capture the wind in a photograph, I thought tree`s and water would be simple. Air is invisible and the only thing seen is the effects of wind. You could photograph a sand storm but then you are just photographing the dust particles in the storm. Waves crashing and trees blowing around under turbulent clouds entails the same thing. “Travellers Caught in a Sudden Breeze at Ejiri” (from 36 views of mount Fuji, Katsushika, 1832) shows one of the most acclaimed attempts at this, along with “A sudden gust of Wind” by Jeff Wall (1993), but it doesn’t show the wind just its effects. The wind in all the examples is in the spaces around the objects being photographed. Wind is invisible, tactile and malleable, like running water encountering the river bed on its descent into the sea. These thoughts ran through my head as I stood in the river wondering how to document and capture my attempt at fishing the Ure at Masham. I already had an experimental photographic project in mind. As I was walking the river I saw an image form as I walked along a bank about tree top height. Making these elements register as both a three-dimensional space and as a series of two-dimensional picture planes that hinge on its vantage point, e.g. a decisive moment. However, the river running through the background of the tree branches ruined the scene. This got me thinking about, the various ways of capturing the image, using the triangle of settings to utilise the same vantage point for the photograph but, exposed differently to remove the spoiler. Within, a short time frame, the roughness of the water in the final image would be jostling for positional texture against the branches and muddy the viewing. I would need to use a long exposure to flatten the waters texture in order to get texture, shape and form of the tree branches, as the focal aesthetics main patternation and then juxtapose this against the smooth flattered water in the photograph, through micro manipulation of the vantage point. If, I could get the natural lighting correct or a different state of river flow (the Ure is a spate river). I also wanted to try and see if I could find other similar potential experimental captures and what photographic images would come out of my experiments, would it even work. This, would lead to far more water experiments than I imagined, however it would be six months before I would have a camera with me, in order to find out, fishing first. I have already had a few attempts at capturing the wind in a photograph. When looking at most landscape images there is usually a perfect scene, with a shutter speed to capture a perfect ideal. Not many people try to photograph in adverse weather conditions at night. Sometimes I am holding onto the tripod to stop it blowing away, or shielding it from the wind with some kind of wind break (usually my open jacket held open shielding the equipment as I get blown around, rather than the camera and having to take multiple captures to get no unintentional movement in the final image). Handheld is even worse getting blown around in gusty conditions, trying to get movement or patterns from the conditions into the frame. I have also experimented with Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) under the same conditions. This has resulted in some interesting compositions. With this experience I was sure I would be able to capture some worthwhile photographic images, to make the project come together. However the words and how to consolidate the project seemed convoluted and messy, I was trying to cram too much into something. I would need a foundation rule that would keep on track and enable me to keep out the rabbit holes of diversion. I decided to keep the shots to the title and this would then contain me to the projects aim of documenting Tree`s, Wind, and Textures of Water, during my time fishing the Ure at Masham.

        Tree`s should be the easiest, I had already completed numerous studies of various tree`s and would have the project to get me started on a new portfolio. I was gaining insights through other locations in whether my pre-visualisations would confirm my thought processes. Although, I was concerned with my talents and skills would just turn out toilet paper. Which as I first start editing this the England is going into the first lockdown.