Dave Morris Photography (blog)

2012-05-28

Composition - bottom edge

I like looking at composition. Shooting a couple of houses recently for a newspaper, I learned that they only accept shots which are framed ‘straight on’, which I would probably refer to more as ‘elevational’. There’s a lot of scope for different photographs within that rather loose definition, of course, but putting everything together in a related compositional style does give a collection of photographs a commonality that I find interesting.

It could be said that it all becomes a bit cliche, of course, but I prefer to think of it more along the lines of genre cinema - works that all obey conventions but which gain something from sticking to them.

Georges Polti famously hoped to describe every possible dramatic situation and narrowed it down to an impressive thirty six, but I would hope to do no such thing. However, I think I will start cataloguing some of my favourite compositional typologies or photographic cliches. Not because I’m looking down at them - far from it - but because I enjoy them. Let’s start with…

01: Bottom Edge

By me, aka Daveybot
By Daveybot

By Andy Lines, aka Linesmachine
By Linesmachine

By me, aka Daveybot
By Daveybot

By Al Kitching, aka Amner
By Amner

By me, aka Daveybot
By Daveybot

Let me know of any other shots of this type you you have to share. And do come back for more compositional typologies in the future, or let me know of your own favourites.

2012-05-02

Still MORE coverage of Tim Bayman’s house

2012-04-04

Forth Valley College, Alloa - Booklet

I haven’t put these photographs on my site yet, but towards the end of last year I shot the new Alloa campus of Forth Valley Colleges by Reiach and Hall Architects. Visiting them this week to talk about another project, I saw they’ve created a rather nice series of booklets for a few of their recent projects.

2012-03-11

More coverage of Tim Bayman’s house

This time, from the Guardian. They featured the house - and the photos I took of it - on their website and in the Mar 10th edition of their Weekend magazine.

2012-02-24

AJ Small Projects

Some pictures from the AJ Small Projects Award event in London a couple of weeks back - a day of crits for all the 24 shortlisted projects, followed by prize giving and the opening of their exhibition. I was there supporting Tim Bayman Architecture’s brilliant house and office project which I’d photographed last year, but ended up taking a few snaps for the Architects’ Journal, too. It was great to see all the projects presented and meet so many interesting people - architects, publishers, fellow photographers, students - all of them lovely.

Congratulations must go to the winner Jack Woolley for his wonderful project, and all the other projects that got special mentions too. And thanks to the Architects’ Journal for a great day!

You can see all the projects nominated for the award at the AJ Buildings Library site.

Jack Woolley - AJ Small Project Award winner, 2011
Christine Murray from the AJ, and Jack Woolley, the winner!

2012-02-23

Twin Sails Bridge, Poole

I travelled down to Poole earlier this week, to shoot some photographs with Speirs + Major of the lighting scheme they designed for this fantastic bridge project. I haven’t visited Poole for about 25 years, but I must say, it has a rather impressive new landmark to be proud of!

The bridge was designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects, with engineering by Giffords.

Twin Sails Bridge, Poole.

2012-02-10

Views from the train

I went down to London this week for the AJ Small Projects Awards 2012 event, supporting the brilliant shortlisted project by Tim Bayman Architecture (viewable here). More photos will appear of the event later - I’m letting the AJ post them first - but for now, here are some quick snaps taken from the train journeys to get there and back. Mostly power stations and skies caught my eye, it seems.

2012-02-05

AHSS Magazine cover

The lovely people of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland put one of my pictures on the cover of their magazine for Autumn 2011.

I also helped them judge the photo competition they’d been holding for their members, and wrote a little on some of the themes they’d chosen for the competition.

2012-01-27

Bayman House & Office shortlisted for AJ Small Projects Award

In the second of a rare brace of blog posts today, I’m delighted to report that Tim Bayman Architecture’s house & office, which I photographed last year, has been shortlisted for the AJ Small Projects Award (you might need to be a registered user to see that article, I’m afraid) As they started doing with the RIBA awards last year, each project gets its own cover.

AJ Cover

…Which means one of my shots is on the cover of (one in twelve) Architects’ Journal(s) again! Nice to have, so early in the year.

→

On symmetry and serendipity - a photograph in Marrakech

Here’s a photograph from my last trip to Marrakech:

Sit, my friends, and I shall tell you the long, rambling, obsessive tale of how I took it…