Slate

Can you imagine what it was like to work in a slate quarry in the 19th century?

This pictures shows the slate debris left behind, all that’s left of the sweat and toil of the quarry men who gave their all to earn a pittance from long back breaking hours of labour in the quarries.

Pictures like this do not accurately portray the subject matter in one sense, the scene before the camera lens.

But in another sense it perfectly describes to me the loneliness and desolation of their place of work – the subject of the picture. You can feel the cold and damp swirling around in the clouds and light shining off of the wet slate at the mist and low cloud hangs over the mountains of North Wales.

For me this is what photography is about – making connections and passing on the thoughts or emotions to a wider audience, not only describing how things look but how they feel to me and my interpretation of the connection I have made.

If you would like to find out how to make digital Lith images like the one above, I am preparing to run a workshop on Digital Lith in the spring of 2014. Details will be posted when they are finalised. Also see the post about the workshop https://andybeelfrps.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/digital-lith-workshop/

Please email me at andy@andybeelfrps.co.uk to have your name added to the list of those who have already expressed an interest in attending the Digital Lith Workshop.

There is sufficient interest already to make the Workshop worth running before the national advertising has been launched.

A big hello to all the new followers of my little blog this week.

(c) Andy Beel FRPS 2013

http://www.andybeelfrps.co.uk