Project: The Monks of Bolton Abbey...

kelly1

Hello folks,

just wanted to share some portraits from a project I've been doing for the past year. I approached the Abbot and asked if he would allow me do some portraits of the monks and he happily agreed.

The approach I took was to photograph one monk at each visit and spend some time chatting about his background and what led him to the religious life etc. Heard some great stories. The idea was to use the chat as a means of breaking the ice to establish a relationship of sorts, which I think helps a lot to give a more engaged and relaxed portrait. And let me tell you, these men were very relaxed! They're all over 60 and unfortunately there are only 7 members remaining in the community and no sign of any new recruits.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the project and learned quite a bit along the way.

C&C is welcome. Hope ye enjoy these.

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Whammy!

Great photos and nice project.
I only wish all the photo were B&W.

kelly1

Whammy! wrote: »

Great photos and nice project.
I only wish all the photo were B&W.

Thanks Whammy :-)

You'll notice the indoor shots are b/w and outdoor are colour.

eoglyn

Brilliant idea for a project.

I like them all, colour and B and W i love the story behind it - would be lovely to present it with some quotes from the men - not necessarily identifying who said what but just giving a feel for what you experienced and the stories. Hope you kept notes.

Well done.

kelly1

eoglyn wrote: »

Brilliant idea for a project.

I like them all, colour and B and W i love the story behind it - would be lovely to present it with some quotes from the men - not necessarily identifying who said what but just giving a feel for what you experienced and the stories. Hope you kept notes.

Well done.

Hiya, thanks. Unfortunately I didn't keep notes. I was trying to concentrate on the getting the best portraits and didn't record anything. I was thinking it would be good to get a photobook done with a little bio for each of the monks.

Deadlie

Absolutely love this series. Get a feeling it'll only get better with years behind it, too.

Whatever about the portraits being brilliant (and they really are), it tells a story and documents an order that realistically speaking probably doesn't have many years left in it. It'll be amazing for kids to look back at something like this and see how these people who are no longer around, lived day to day.

kelly1

Thanks Sean!

OldGoat

Lovely project and shots.

I flagged #3 for comment as I took an instant dislike to the landscape format for the portrait but then I when I looked at #6 I liked the photo because it was in landscape.
Now I can't figure why one appeals to me and the other grates on my nerves.
I think it's because of the stronger contrast in #6.
That or because it's been cropped tighter might be why it's more pleasing to me.

Prenderb

Great series. Its like something you might see in a Nat. Geo. (if expanded a little, as suggested above).

kelly1

Cheers Prenderb!

jaansu

Great idea for series, fab shots too. Well done

space2ground1

They're really interesting! Well done. Can you tell us about the processing that went into them after the shots were taken? I'm trying to improve on my white balancing and sharpening with lightroom and you've really hit the spot on those black and white shots.

Saruman

As a complete noob, I don't like 1 and 5. Only because the backgrounds of the house don't do anything other than distract me. If there was something more interesting like flora from a different angle instead of the house, I would have picked that.

I especially like 9.

13 is fun, it sort of reminds me of an old mobster hitman. As if he's praying before he whacks someone.

kelly1

space2ground1 wrote: »

They're really interesting! Well done. Can you tell us about the processing that went into them after the shots were taken? I'm trying to improve on my white balancing and sharpening with lightroom and you've really hit the spot on those black and white shots.

Thanks S2G1

In most cases, I brought the highlights down in the Basics panel and added some clarity, increased "Lights" in the tone curve, maybe a bit of contrast too. A small hint of sepia with the colour at 44 and intensity at around 5%. Not much else that I can think of.

magicbastarder

i think the portraits where they're not smiling work better. maybe because a smling portrait comes across as more candid, or possibly someone felt like they should smile? i think the ones where they're not smiling look less guarded.

MrWalsh

Theyre brilliant, although I would prefer the tops of the heads not chopped off in some of the b/w portrait shots.

kelly1

magicbastarder wrote: »

i think the portraits where they're not smiling work better. maybe because a smling portrait comes across as more candid, or possibly someone felt like they should smile? i think the ones where they're not smiling look less guarded.

I tend to agree. At least none of them are grimacing!