I have my second tutorial with Peter Fraser this afternoon and have once again been charged with shooting with my feelings following a 30-minute meditation. I’ve been very conscious this week that I didn’t want to do this exercise at home, but have been working full-time at the Big Issue and tend not to take lunchbreaks. Thankfully we finished the magazine early and I got this morning off. It’s damp and very windy so I wrapped up warm and went to Highfield Park, an area of common very close to my house. I found the most comfortable log I could find and settled down. It was fairly tough this week not to engage too much with my thoughts – worries about MA work are plaguing me at the moment – but I tried to focus instead on what I was hearing. This is inner city Manchester and certainly no unspoilt paradise, but the more I listened the more I was struck by the sense I was listening to a battle. Birds were singing and the wind was very gusty. But closing my eyes meant I ‘tuned in’ in a way I probably wouldn’t normally. These natural sounds were beautiful and calming but were competing with not one but two distant but busy railway lines and an airport flight path. The man-made sounds weren’t unpleasant – there was somehow something reassuring about them as well – but they meant I couldn’t forget where I was. When my alarm went off that was the feeling I was left with – one of gentle invasion. When I got up I found my first photo about two metres from where I had been sitting – although I hadn’t noticed the boot before. From there I honed in mostly on the litter and detritus I found as I strolled towards home, and on other signs of human encroachment.

Today I had a go at shooting from what I feel, as opposed to what I see, following a lecture last week from renowned photographer Peter Fraser. He asked us to sit somewhere where we feel safe for 30 minutes with our eyes closed and to tune into what we feel. When the alarm went off we had to shoot a few photos instinctively. I’m not sure whether I did this exercise quite right but I did my best. Working at home limited my options somewhat, as did the fact it’s really quite cold and damp outside, so I ended up sitting on the floor in my bedroom. I knew what would probably happen if I sat or lay on the bed. I didn’t have too much trouble with the silence part, having learned to ‘still the chattering monkey’ when I attended meditation classes for a few years.  Unfortnately my cat seemed quite confused by the whole thing and kept pawing me, playing with a pair of shoes and pouncing on a plastic bag on the floor and generally looking for attention. Since I was extremely conscious of her, I ended up photographing her afterwards. The photo is not very exciting but  in some sense I do think it captures the stillness of the room at that point. An interesting exercise which I’d be keen to repeat at a more challenging time, to see what happens and how it affects my images. I look forward to seeing what my classmates come up with. Needless to say the cat went to sleep as soon as this was over.

I’m borrowing a medium format camera and light meter from a friend for a few weeks and last week shot two rolls of film through it. I developed the black and white at home and just got back the colour. I’m not experienced at using film and this camera is completely manual. I think I need lots of practice both focusing it and getting the exposure right. I have a real thing for colour medium format portraits though and hope to get using it at the Booth Centre before I have to give it back. I fear I’m going to be hankering after a piece of kit like this once it goes home.