Photography update

On the photography front, I have a spread of photos in the 2013 World Fantasy Convention Souvenir Book, images taken at a previous WFC. And I shall be exhibiting some photographs in the art show, too.

Blue Horses

Lizzie Prendergast of the Blue Horses

Photo taken at The Robin 2 in Bilston, in the West Midlands

Altered Images - 3

Here's another of my Altered Images.

Altered Images - 2

The original photo was taken at one of the Tolkien weekends, a few years ago. Edited to remove the background kids eating ice cream cones.

Frank...

This guy was hanging around on Brighton Pier. I have serious doubts over his intentions.

Chaz Brenchley

I'm delighted that the fantastic Chaz Brenchley has chosen one of my portraits of him for his updated website.

Sarah & Joe and Adrian

Here's another of my Photoshopped photographs: Sarah Pinborough and Joe Abercrombie. They seem to be after the same cigarette-device-thingy. Or, more likely, acting up for yours truly as he wielded the camera. It was taken at FantasyCon 2011.

And this is Adrian Tchaikovsky -- taken at the same FantasyCon. Before I converted the image to B&W you could just see the lights of Brighton's pier in the background.

David's daughters

Sue and David asked if I would take photos at their recent wedding -- and I agreed, of course. The marriage took place last Saturday in a very hot and very sunny Dorset. I'm partway through tweaking the images in Photoshop before I send them to the Burns household. But you know how it is; once in Photoshop it is difficult not to play around. Here is one such image, of David's two daughters.

Karl Edward Wagner

Since I'm now the owner of Centipede Press' two volume The Best Horror Stories of Karl Edward Wagner, edited by Stephen Jones, I thought I might share this photo of the great, late, and very much missed Karl. Jones' essay is a moving account of their relationship and, although I didn't know Karl as well as Steve, it brought a tear to my eyes. This photo was taken in 1988 at FantasyCon.

I remember the years when Karl along with Charles L Grant and Dennis Etchison attended FantasyCon on a regular basis as halcyon days. Of these three fine writers only Dennis is still with us.

This photo, which was shot on b&w film (probably HP5), was directly scanned into my computer from the print. I seem to have lost the negative.

Mow Cop "Castle"

Jan and I almost bought a house in Mow Cop when we first moved to north Staffordshire. This is what we would have seen every morning when we looked out of the bedroom window. Oh, it's such a folly.

Ken Coleborn, RIP

Ken Coleborn, my father, died recently -- earlier this week, in fact. I was reminded of a very old photo he sent me a couple of years ago of his father Arthur (my grandfather). The photo was in a poor state and he (Dad) hoped I could PhotoShop it (or tweak it) to remove the creases and stains. Above right is the original, left the corrected image (meant to be sepia toned). Father was very pleased with the result.

I never knew my Grandfather -- he died before I was born. My Grandmother had remarried by the time I entered this world, to a man called Charlie Thoumine. It took me a long time before I figured out why my father's parents were not called Coleborn. Charlie Thoumine originally came from Guernsey or Jersey, one of the Channel Islands.

Scream Quietly...

My contributor’s copy of Scream Quietly: The Best of Charles L Grant (edited by Stephen Jones and published by PS) arrived today. It’s nice to see so many of my photos included – but sad to be reminded of Charlie’s passing. Here’s a picture I took of him at FantasyCon XI. More details here.

Photo © Peter Coleborn

Artwork...

Here's an illustration I did in 2009 for a story in New Horizons, edited by Andrew Hook. It's based on some of my photos ... but zapped through Photoshop. Illustration (c) Peter Coleborn

Wise guys...

Here's a photo taken at Peter Atkins' home in LA in 2008. Left to right: Stephen Jones, Tony Richards and Mr Atkins. Photo (c) Peter Coleborn

Taking pictures...

Back in the late 1970s I bought a camera – a single lens reflex (SLR) model manufactured in Russia or East Germany, some country east of the Iron Curtain. Two or three years later I bought a Canon FTb QL SLR – my first “real” camera. With these instruments I taught myself how to balance f-numbers and shutter speeds and ISO values in order to obtain the right exposure. It was of course a film camera, and everything was adjusted manually.

I also bought a second-hand enlarger and all the paraphernalia necessary to develop and print B&W photos. And I created a dark room – the box room of our house was ideal, just next door to the bathroom – and learned new photographic skills.

I’m not sure when I started taking photos at conventions. Judging by the illustrated article (by Stephen Jones and others) in the FantasyCon 2011 Souvenir Book, it was around 1982. I don’t have access to my collection of magazines from that era (that’s the trouble with a broken leg and two floors to negotiate to get to my study), so I can’t confirm if my pictures saw publication in the BFS Newsletter.

Anyhow, I must have done something right because I was asked by Ian Watson, one of the SFWA’s Regional Directors, to take photos at the 1988 World Fantasy Convention, held in London. I did, and my pictures appeared on the front and back cover of the SFWA’s Bulletin (winter 1988 issue).

The Guest of Honour at the 1988 WFC (which incorporated FantasyCon XIII) was James Herbert. Other main guests were Michael Foreman, Diana Wynne Jones and Clive Barker. I was one of the "Assistants".

The FTb served me well, until I upgraded to a T90 then an EOS1n. I also bought a digital camera that cost over £200, a lot of money in the late 1990s. It was a pathetic affair – less than one megapixel, if I recall, with only a small built-in memory. It had novelty value and was soon discarded, unloved, and I continued using my film SLRs. But inevitably, as decent DSLRs appeared, with the technology to match the quality of film cameras, I too “went digital”. And I took many more photos at fantasy conventions.


Photo of James Herbert (c) Peter Coleborn