As photographers there is often a project or ten that come to mind. For me this started in Bahrain when I visited a pottery. I took a couple of photos of the pottery mans hands and thought it would make for a good project.

Another I took with this project in mind. I guess I can keep this project in mind wherever I go. I don’t need to plan anything. Just take the photographs when the opportunity arrises. And recently I had my car wheels refurbished and so I thought it would be a good opportunity to get a few more of these photographs in my collection! Of course I asked for permission!

The wheels took nearly three days to complete an I was there all the way with a Nikon FM3a and two rolls of Kodak P3200 which I was shooting at 800. And I used 510 Pyro for developing at 13 minutes in a rotary processor. I also took three lenses. a 28mm, 55mm Micro and an 85mm. All Nikon.

But, here is the thing I noticed. I was short of options. I had either hands on an alloy wheel or hands on an alloy wheel! And sometimes with gloves on too! Sounds easy. but it really wasn’t. So I resorted to changing the plan slightly and shooting a bit wider. That way I could tell more of a story in the photograph. Such as the one below. Just by pulling back I could get more in the shot in way of machinery and character. It’s not what I was intentionally after but it’s better than a load of repetitive photographs.

Now it wasn’t the best lighting inside this workshop. I found that out on the first day! So I decided to take a small Olympus T20 Flash with me, just to fill some light on the subject. I knew it would create a hard shadow sometimes but that doesn’t other me at all. If anything it adds to the drama.

And above we can see Josh pulling tyre valves. You can see how the flash creates that shadow on the wall. It’s harmless. But also notice the gloves! I can’t ask these guys to take gloves off so really my hands working idea goes out the window! Nonetheless I still felt I was getting some good work photographs.

My film choice was a no brainer. I had two rolls of P3200 in the fridge, which was out of date by a couple of years. I didn’t want to shoot that at 3200. That would have been grainy! So 800 or at a push 1600 would be best. I could have chosen Ilford HP5 and pushed that to 800 but I have a feeling that would have been grainier than the P3200 at 800! But none of this mattered in the end as I was using flash.

Then it was time for a few creative photographs. I particularly liked the strip lights above so I took a few photographs with the 28mm lens to incorporate some strip lights.

Going forward I think it’s a good project to stick with and one that I don’t even need to plan for. Whenever I am out and about and see an opportunity then I can take it. Although I might come across as a bit of an odd ball asking some random person if I can take a photograph of their hands! This is how to ask..

“Hello! I hope you don’t mind me asking. I am a Photographer and I have a fetish for peoples hands! Would you mind If I take a photograph of your hands”. I may have to work on that.

Or you could turn it into a complete planned project and list occupations you think would work best and approach those places of work or leisure. I would say the harder the work the better for hands that look unusual. Like our local farmer! His hands are like leather!