Research Joe Cornish

  "First, light.  Everything else follows, for light is the language of photography as well as its raw material. As a poet uses words, so a photographer uses light."
                                                                                                          Joe Cornish

Joe Cornish has this written on the back cover of his book entitled First Light, a signed copy I am pleased to have bought at his talk at the college recently. When I found out he was going to be speaking I was very interested to be there as I had already started to research his work from a book I was enjoying, entitled Working The Light. This book was co-written with Charlie Waite, David Ward and Eddie Ephraums,  produced by Charlie Waite's travel photography company, Light & Land ( set up in 1994).

Joe Cornish is one of Britain's most distinguished landscape photographers, with 20 years experience, he is favoured by the National Trust.
I related to how he considers light to be everything in a photograph,  I have recently joined the National Trust and what he said at his talk both inspired and made sense to me.

    "While landscape provides the subject matter, it is light we record and interpret.  Light defines space, reveals texture, sculpts form, controls colour, and above all ignites an emotional response.  The sky is our studio, our theatre, and we must learn to act upon its gifts of light."
                                                                                                           Joe Cornish

His work ranges from images taken from North Yorkshire, where he lives, Scotland, the cornish coast, Colorado, New Zealand and Alaska.  He places much importance on the composition of an image, together with the light and his aim is to get it right in the camera primarily. He likes to use filters where necessary; his ethos being 'looking natural'. He photographs from an upside down view (with the type of camera he uses), saying " that if it looks good upside down it will look great the right way up."

While Joe Cornish likes to have images all in focus, front to back, as most photographers do, he does not believe this is necessary all of the time and quite enjoys some elements being out of focus. He also says he doesn't really follow the rules like the rule of thirds, but tends to go more for what feels and looks right.

 His lens choice range from wide, long, standard and super wide angled, plus a macro; should always be part of a landscape photographers kit, else they miss out on all the finer close details. He believes we should learn to use lenses properly to compress and juxtapose, but to also respond to our internal ideas and what we love.

 When the weather is too difficult for photos, he will use a macro to home in on those detailed images, but he does believe most weather can be photographed, rain, snow and winter is his favourite light time, when he finds the low soft light easier to work with than that of summertime.....he finds green ("the colour of life") hard to photograph.  He loves the snow and states how it still inspires him and the light it brings with it. He takes shots in rain using a filter to darken the sky.  He also uses a hand held spot meter for exposure.

Alot of his work was shot in his own garden, saying " just get out there and practise, practise wherever  and whenever you can and learn the colour of light."  By that he means the way he uses colour casts from the reflection of sunlight  say from cliffs and water pools for instance. He points out how he takes images at all different times of day, not just at sunrise and sunset. Mid afternoon shots are some if his favourites.

The natural world is his main source of inspiration (in keeping with my natural wonders theme), saying how he keeps it simple making the subject do the talking. His work expresses mood, emotion and atmosphere.  He believes human beings and nature are part of the same thing.  He likes to show energy where he can in his images, and likes the vertical (offering more sky and more foreground); for creating a journey through the picture, and states how sky and colour sets the tone and mood of an image.

  John Blakemore was of great inspiration to him and he also mentioned the work of Ansel Adams, his first photographic hero.

Joe Cornish was born in 1958 in Exeter. The Joe Cornish galleries are based in Northallerton, a market town in North Yorkshire, and include Joegraphic, which publishes and distributes his cards and calenders to the retail market.

He studied art at Reading University and that was where he first discovered photography. He is now an experienced workshop leader and has led tours for the past 10 years for Charlie Waite's company. Other photographic companies he works with include Lee Filters, Fujifilm UK, Gatzo and Lowepro.

More Joe Cornish quotes, tips, that I noted at the talk evening:

"Soul: quite simply is a matter of who we are"
"Take time to be with the subject"
"If the foreground isn't a good picture in itself (not interesting), it shouldn't be there"
"See the colour of light, like the borrowed colours from elsewhere"( reflections)
"Good scenes can be found not far from a road" ( we don't always have to carry our kits far)
"Be curious to different viewpoints and new angles. Its part of the photographers job"
"Bad weather is good for photos. The mood of my pictures makes up for the weather loss"
"It is not about finding new landscapes, but seeing the landscape with new eyes" (re-visits)
"Locations: anywhere that inspires you"
"Freeze/thaw icicles are always a unique photo - a once event"

Joe Cornish  has taken risks in pursuit of his passion; he hiked for 2 hours for a high mountain shot in glasgow, got caught in a blizzard and said it was scary.  Another 2 climbers later fell to their deaths at the same place.
 He is fully aware of the dangers of his passion and then at the other end of the scale  I like his lightheartedness (which shows in his titles, or chapters of his work) and the way he still considers landscape photography a recreation or play.

At the end of the evening I got chance to shake his hand and say how I thought him inspirational... which I do,  and his work!

by Joe Cornish

Waterholes Canyon is from his  'Plateauscapes'  section of his website and he describes it as probably his favourite image. Taken with his Ebony 5 x 4in field camera with 72mm lens.   It is vertical too which I now know he likes best. 

 "The cloudy sky reflected in the dark foreground pool help to suggest a hidden world".

This was the first image that struck me in his book.   I like the scene as a whole but the foreground pool looks almost surreal like it has been cut out and placed in afterwards. The depth of field is really good and I love the way it reflects such a broody sky.

 Joe has taken it at a favourite place of his, Zion national park.

by Joe Cornish

     This image is from his ' Local Icons'  section and I love the colour contrasts of the greens and again the sky is just great; lovely cloud formation and colour from the deep blue to the golden sun reflective parts, in keeping with the foreground field. His choice of half and half composition is what he tends to favour over the rule of thirds.  When taking this summer evening shot Joe Cornish was thinking of William Blake's phrase from the hyme Jerusalem... "Englands green and pleasant land" and I couldn't agree with him more.   He took it on his Ebony 5 x 4in field camera with 90mm lens.                                                       

                                                                  by Joe Cornish

His 'Dark Rising Sun' image is taken from his 'Dark Days' section and as he shoots into the sun he is reminded of the allegedly dying words of painter JMW Turner..."The sun is God". As a landscape photographer he thought he had a point. Taken with his Ebony 5 x 4in field camera with 210mm lens.

Though this image is dark I like it for the light reflective parts. To me it looks mysterious and I like  the way the sun is glowing as it breaks through the dark cloud. It is not too obvious where the land ends and the sky starts because it is so dark and again this adds to the interest I think, it makes you want to look closer.

In comparison I have tried to take images of a new moon breaking through dark skies at night as follows:

                                                                        V-moon
                                                    Shutter 0.6 Aperture f4.00 iso 3200

I can see that the clarity is not there in my image and there is not much composition. I was experimenting and because I just happen to be walking outside when I saw the bright moon I grabbed my camera quickly and fired away without any tripod or much thought, just to see if and how the moon would actually show on my camera within the darkness.  As I ran off shots, cloud was covering and uncovering the moon and on alot of images there was the appearance of a double moon, so they were the more blurred ones.  On this you can see it just, within a 'V' lettered expanse of lit cloud. When I cropped in,  I didn't like it,  as it then showed its unclearness more clearly.
 I would like to try more of these in future, hoping for better results.
Equipment used:
*Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera with battery
*L series Lens 24-105mm
*SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash 8GB

                                                                   by Joe Cornish
                                                                                                                          
This is a lovely image too.  It entices me.  'Adventure Bay' taken from his 'Beach Ball' section.  Joe Cornish liked the way a broken tree was there on the beach scene "Its dynamic shape and surface textures made it a compelling subject for me as I explored here at dawn."  He took this image again with his Ebony 5 x 4in field camera and 90mm lens. I like the way some other trees are incorporated in the background, with mountains in the distance, I find it very warm and inviting.
I would like to compare it to my 'Alive' tree image purely from a dynamic shape of tree point of view, though I don't think I dare and the composition of mine is nothing to the grandness of this beautiful scene.