Photo Gallery, Still Life on the Run

Photography © John Baker Photographer LLC/Travel Images.com/JayBeeStock.com

AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER
SEPTEMBER, 1982

While living in Wales I joined the Deudraeth Camera Club at roughly the same time as one Roland Watkins a former Daily Mirror night editor. This was in 1978. Then one day Roland threw three Mackerel onto an ornate plate, pointed a camera at them, and Still Life on the Run was born.

At the time I was a school photographer working in Wales, and classrooms provided much of my early Still Life on the Run subject matter. This was especially so in junior and infants schools, i.e. the equivalent of kindergarten in the United States. Later on I had kids just so I'd have more colorful subjects around me on a daily basis. ;o)

I frequently put on multi-mage slide programs with music, words, and dreamy dissolves at various camera clubs, and Still Life on the Run was added to the list of subjects. The movie rights are still open for negotiation by the way.

On September 25th, 1982, my Still Life on the Run photo essay was published in London's mighty photo weekly, Amateur Photographer, at left, and life would never be the same after that.

There aren't any rules for producing Still Life on the Run images, but if there were I'd say that color, shape, form, and symmetry etcetera would be my guidelines. Generally, man-made inanimate objects are able to meet most of these criteria, but the main ingredient is yourself and how you see an image. Please note that a table-top arrangement of a stuffed Gibbon, a bowl of fruit, and fake Geraniums are still life subjects, not Still Life on the Run!

I'm immensely grateful to Roland for his influence on my photography career and 'seeing eye', and very pleased that Roland's creative legacy lives on via Still Life on the Run. I can do no better than suggest it as a theme for one of your camera club or society's annual competitions.

As you will see with the selection below - many of which were taken on my photography tours - the subject matter is far ranging.

Colored paper clips.

Mail boxes in Madrid, New Mexico.

Raindrops on a freshly painted red bench, Switzerland.

Leaf in captivity, Zoo Boise, Boise, Idaho.

Adirondack chairs in the Canadian Rockies.

Chains at St. Just harbour, Cornwall, England.

Boat, Newcastle, Northern Ireland.

A 'Do it yourself' post box in County Donegal, Ireland.

Red door, Glencolumbcille, County Donegal, Ireland.

Boots in a row, Wengen, Switzerland.

Umbrellas, Cinque Terre, Italy.

Doorbell, Cinque Terre, Italy

Produce for sale in an Ecuadorian market.

An Irish farmer's sheep marking apparatus, i.e. two brushes and paint. How else do you get red or blue sweaters then?

Kid's colored blocks . . . at home.

Brushes with winter frost, Wyoming.

Mooring ring under water, Isle of Iona, Scotland.

Padlock and chain, County Kerry, Ireland.

Clothes pegs, Cinque Terre, Italy.

Colorful Ecuadorian fabrics.

Step symmetry, Murren, Switzerland.

Fire buckets on Pickering Station, North Yorkshire, England.

Symmetry in the American cemetery, Normandy, France.

Flower stall, Paris, France.

Colored straws in a box at home . . . again.

The straw section: Above right is a shot I set up at home with straws purchased specifically for the shot. Below are the original 'granddaddies' shot in a Welsh school in the early 1980's. One of the set made it into the 'School Days' gallery in Amateur Photographer.