I’m a wannabe photographer who loves experimenting, wandering around with a camera and occasionally having no idea what the finished picture will look like.
That last bit is probably my favourite.
I love shooting on film with my 1950s Kodak Retinette. You load the film, take the photograph, wind it on and hope. There is no screen to check and no delete button when you get it completely wrong.
Eventually, the film comes back from the developers and you hold the negatives towards the light for the first time.
Some photographs worked. Some definitely didn’t. Every so often, there is one you absolutely love.
Digital photography has given me another way to experiment. I recently discovered the double-exposure setting on my camera, so my social media feeds are now in danger of being flooded with buildings, faces, reflections and all sorts of other things merged together with varying degrees of success.
Then there is sunlight.
I know exactly where the sun is. I can see what it is doing to the lens. I point the camera towards it anyway.
Sun photography is wonderfully unpredictable. The flare changes as you move, colours appear from nowhere and parts of the picture become silhouettes. Sometimes the light completely overwhelms the image. Sometimes it creates something I could never have planned.
That unpredictability inspired Sun Flare Gold, one of the six shades in The Photographer’s Colour Palette.
Photography gives us such a rich history of colour. The brilliant blue of a cyanotype, the warm tones of an old sepia print, the red light of the darkroom and the translucent bronze of a developed negative all belong instantly to the world of making photographs.
I wanted the final swatch to celebrate monochrome street photography and one of its greatest practitioners.
Bresson Black is a tribute to Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose beautifully observed photographs captured people, movement and everyday life at precisely the right moment. His work helped shape modern street photography and continues to influence generations of photographers.
The finished Photographer’s Colour Palette is:
Inspired by the vivid blue of the cyanotype process, where sunlight and chemistry create one of the most recognisable colours in photographic history.
For pointing the camera towards the sun and letting light, flare and chance take an active role in the final photograph. I do this frequently and make no apologies for the results.
The warm brown tones of old photographs, family albums and prints that immediately transport us to another time.
The glow of the traditional darkroom and the wonderful process of watching a photographic image emerge by hand.
That warm bronze colour of a developed negative held towards a window. It represents the moment of truth for anyone who shoots on film.
A tribute to Henri Cartier-Bresson and the enduring power of black-and-white street photography, instinctive composition and perfect timing.
The Photographer’s Colour Palette is available across a collection of gifts for photographers, including an 11oz mug, coaster, magnet and contemporary 11x14 inch wall art, available framed or unframed.
The collection makes a thoughtful photography gift for a professional photographer, keen amateur, street photographer, film photographer, camera collector or anyone who is happiest heading out with a camera.
These photographer gifts are ideal for birthdays, Christmas, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, graduation, retirement or as a thank-you gift for someone who has captured an important occasion.
Each design brings together six colours inspired by photographic history, processes and the simple pleasure of taking pictures.
Now I need to load another film into the Retinette, point the other camera towards the sun and see what develops.
