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Thursday, October 30, 2008 -
Brighton Photo Fringe
On Saturday, I met up with one of the ladies I met on the Creative Digital Photography course and after a little bit of plotting we headed off to visit some of the galleries in the Brighton Photo Fringe.
Our first destination was the Brighton Media Centre and the Bystander exhibition. There was a good collection of photos displayed, and my personal favourites were those by Claire Pepper and Laura Pannack which I found really arresting. Next up was the Rimini-Beach exhibition, still in the Media Centre, by Beatrice Haverich. These had some amazing colours.
We left the Media Centre and headed down to the seafront to see the Petrusco exhibition in the Fortune of War. These photos, whilst not exactly to my tastes, have obviously had a large amount of planning to result in some eye-catching images.
Next up was the Human Endeavour exhibition at the Bellis Gallery. This was probably my favourite exhibition and covered a theme which covered the societal impact of consumerism and waste, geological scars on the landscape, globalisation etc. I left this exhibition clutching a map styled collection of photographs entitled Textures of Time: landscape architecture produced by Richard Chivers. This document is a really different way to display images, which is probably why I felt compelled to buy it. My favourite diptych photo is that of a quarry, mainly because if you just saw the left hand photo on its own you wouldn't really see anything remarkable about it, but when it is displayed next to its partner the full story becomes apparent.
All in all, a great wander and some wonderful inspirational images. I'd recommend a wander around if you get an opportunity.
Our first destination was the Brighton Media Centre and the Bystander exhibition. There was a good collection of photos displayed, and my personal favourites were those by Claire Pepper and Laura Pannack which I found really arresting. Next up was the Rimini-Beach exhibition, still in the Media Centre, by Beatrice Haverich. These had some amazing colours.
We left the Media Centre and headed down to the seafront to see the Petrusco exhibition in the Fortune of War. These photos, whilst not exactly to my tastes, have obviously had a large amount of planning to result in some eye-catching images.
Next up was the Human Endeavour exhibition at the Bellis Gallery. This was probably my favourite exhibition and covered a theme which covered the societal impact of consumerism and waste, geological scars on the landscape, globalisation etc. I left this exhibition clutching a map styled collection of photographs entitled Textures of Time: landscape architecture produced by Richard Chivers. This document is a really different way to display images, which is probably why I felt compelled to buy it. My favourite diptych photo is that of a quarry, mainly because if you just saw the left hand photo on its own you wouldn't really see anything remarkable about it, but when it is displayed next to its partner the full story becomes apparent.
All in all, a great wander and some wonderful inspirational images. I'd recommend a wander around if you get an opportunity.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 -
Braun Pixelmate may not work with HD cards
It has been about 10 months since I bought and reviewed my Braun Pixelmate and overall I still find it useful and handy.
A couple of months ago I had quite a backlog of photos to clear, and as my habit is not to clear down a card until after I've processed and backed up the images I had run out of media. I decided to buy a nice, shiny new 4GB SD HD card and headed off on my holiday armed with that, some other cards and my Pixelmate. After taking a days worth of photos I turned it on, plugged in my card and pressed the play button... and nothing happened... usually it starts copying the files and I get to watch the percentage increase (slowly!). But this time it didn't recognise the card at all. I haven't really got a way of double checking that it is a HD problem rather than that specific card, but that is my assumption as all the other non SD cards work ok, and the HD card works fine in the camera.
A couple of months ago I had quite a backlog of photos to clear, and as my habit is not to clear down a card until after I've processed and backed up the images I had run out of media. I decided to buy a nice, shiny new 4GB SD HD card and headed off on my holiday armed with that, some other cards and my Pixelmate. After taking a days worth of photos I turned it on, plugged in my card and pressed the play button... and nothing happened... usually it starts copying the files and I get to watch the percentage increase (slowly!). But this time it didn't recognise the card at all. I haven't really got a way of double checking that it is a HD problem rather than that specific card, but that is my assumption as all the other non SD cards work ok, and the HD card works fine in the camera.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 -
A Photographic History of Yosemite
After attending the Creative Digital Photography course I realised that one of the areas of photography I really needed to brush up on was the history - where did photography start, how did it develop, who were the key players at the various times etc. I did a quick search for history of photography and a video entitled A Photographic History of Yosemite was amongst the results found (also downloadable for the iPod via this link - the talk starts properly at around 4 minutes in).
I watched this video, about 30 minutes long, on a train journey from Brighton to London and found it really informational in how techniques have developed, and how different photographers will have worked to produce some highly memorable images. Obviously photographers like Ansel Adams, are mentioned, but also Charles Leander Weed who took the first photographer in 1859, through Carleton E Watkins who made a living by selling landscape photos and on to more recent photographic collaborations by Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe. One of the things I got a great appreciation from (at around 10 minutes in), with help from images like that of William Henry Jackson with his mule is the sheer quantity of equipment they must have lugged around, how fragile some of these glass sheets must have been and how awkward the process must have been. Something to consider next time I complain that by camera is too big, or heavy, or bulky. Not to mention that they'd have probably only have been able to produce one photograph per day - again, not a restriction that I've ever had to work with.
Photo © and reproduced with kind permission from Roger Minick
Amongst the photographs that I found inspiring and amusing was the photograph Woman with scarf at Inspiration Point by Roger Minick (displayed above) - I love the observation of the lady, of the capture of a great moment, the composition, everything and above all it makes me smile.
All in all, a good overview of photograpic history using a single, well photographed, place to explore the changes in processes and practice over a period of over 150 years.
I watched this video, about 30 minutes long, on a train journey from Brighton to London and found it really informational in how techniques have developed, and how different photographers will have worked to produce some highly memorable images. Obviously photographers like Ansel Adams, are mentioned, but also Charles Leander Weed who took the first photographer in 1859, through Carleton E Watkins who made a living by selling landscape photos and on to more recent photographic collaborations by Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe. One of the things I got a great appreciation from (at around 10 minutes in), with help from images like that of William Henry Jackson with his mule is the sheer quantity of equipment they must have lugged around, how fragile some of these glass sheets must have been and how awkward the process must have been. Something to consider next time I complain that by camera is too big, or heavy, or bulky. Not to mention that they'd have probably only have been able to produce one photograph per day - again, not a restriction that I've ever had to work with.
Photo © and reproduced with kind permission from Roger Minick
Amongst the photographs that I found inspiring and amusing was the photograph Woman with scarf at Inspiration Point by Roger Minick (displayed above) - I love the observation of the lady, of the capture of a great moment, the composition, everything and above all it makes me smile.
All in all, a good overview of photograpic history using a single, well photographed, place to explore the changes in processes and practice over a period of over 150 years.
Sunday, October 19, 2008 -
Hey! Get that camera out of here!
On Wednesday evening I attended a panel discussion organised by the Brighton and Hove Camera club entitled "Hey! Get that camera out of here! Photojournalism, propaganda, privacy and public interest: a panel discussion". The panel were: Kevin Meredith, Gail Ward, Jonathan Friend, John Pervolaris, Alison Locke and Graham Sergeant.
The discussion started with an introduction to the evening, and to Landmine Action, the charity which the proceeds from the evening went to. Then followed a 5 minute introduction by each of the panel members. There were some print-outs at the back of the room of various recent stories, firstly of a series of comments to the article Has our increasingly paranoid society declared war on the humble 'weekend snapper'? and also Man fined for taking photograph which proved a good starting point to get the discussion off and running. The discussion covered street photography, whether to get a model release form signed (some of the panel did, some didn't), how to handle people stopping you when you've got your camera - suggestions included not being confrontational, turning it around and asking why they're stopping you, showing them the UK photographers rights pdf and taking them through it etc
One of the members of the panel, Jonathan Friend, is a solicitor so he had some great facts about the law - about copyright, ownership and when it is/is not legal to take photographs etc. For instance, Trafalgar Square is private property and so photographic restrictions are legal. There are also some laws about the right to stop on a pavement - you can walk, but you can't stop. Kevin mentioned the image search engine tineye which when you upload an image, will search the web for that image and let you know where this image has been used - which sounds rather handy.
All in all a good and enjoyable evening and I left feeling a bit more informed than when I'd arrived.
The discussion started with an introduction to the evening, and to Landmine Action, the charity which the proceeds from the evening went to. Then followed a 5 minute introduction by each of the panel members. There were some print-outs at the back of the room of various recent stories, firstly of a series of comments to the article Has our increasingly paranoid society declared war on the humble 'weekend snapper'? and also Man fined for taking photograph which proved a good starting point to get the discussion off and running. The discussion covered street photography, whether to get a model release form signed (some of the panel did, some didn't), how to handle people stopping you when you've got your camera - suggestions included not being confrontational, turning it around and asking why they're stopping you, showing them the UK photographers rights pdf and taking them through it etc
One of the members of the panel, Jonathan Friend, is a solicitor so he had some great facts about the law - about copyright, ownership and when it is/is not legal to take photographs etc. For instance, Trafalgar Square is private property and so photographic restrictions are legal. There are also some laws about the right to stop on a pavement - you can walk, but you can't stop. Kevin mentioned the image search engine tineye which when you upload an image, will search the web for that image and let you know where this image has been used - which sounds rather handy.
All in all a good and enjoyable evening and I left feeling a bit more informed than when I'd arrived.
Labels: camera club, event, Rights and laws
// posted by Jane @ 3:28 PM
Comments:
Sunday, October 5, 2008 -
Photography means...
One of the other things I learnt at the course was that the word photography derives from Greek and means "writing with light"
Creative Digital Photography: Day 2
Following on from yesterday's experiences of Day 1:
Our first session today was about colour theory - and included lots of information about primary, secondary and tertiary colours, about colours which are opposite each other in the colour wheel and colours which harmonise. We headed out briefly for a quick colour based photo shoot but it was raining and pretty miserable so spent most of the time in Taj.
We then moved on to more advanced camera settings - covering aperture, shutter speed and exposure compensation in more detail - before heading out into the rain again for some more practice.
The final part of the course covered hints and tips for editing photos and Denise was careful to show techniques that could apply to all photo-editing software, and not just concentrating on Photoshop. I gained some helpful hints about exporting images for print and about recommended places locally to use for printing.
A good day, with lots of reaffirmations that I really do know how to handle my camera. I didn't pick up as much from the technical sessions but found the colour based session really informative. So, my next steps are:
Our first session today was about colour theory - and included lots of information about primary, secondary and tertiary colours, about colours which are opposite each other in the colour wheel and colours which harmonise. We headed out briefly for a quick colour based photo shoot but it was raining and pretty miserable so spent most of the time in Taj.
We then moved on to more advanced camera settings - covering aperture, shutter speed and exposure compensation in more detail - before heading out into the rain again for some more practice.
The final part of the course covered hints and tips for editing photos and Denise was careful to show techniques that could apply to all photo-editing software, and not just concentrating on Photoshop. I gained some helpful hints about exporting images for print and about recommended places locally to use for printing.
A good day, with lots of reaffirmations that I really do know how to handle my camera. I didn't pick up as much from the technical sessions but found the colour based session really informative. So, my next steps are:
- continue taking photos, making taking some based on projects - i.e. colour, photos that emulate masters of photography images etc
- look at more masters of photography and iconic photographs
- attend some of the Brighton Photo Fringe exhibitions, talks and workshops
- read more books
Labels: creative digital photography
Saturday, October 4, 2008 -
Creative Digital Photography: Day 1
Today I've attended the first day of the weekend course Creative Digital Photography with Denise Felkin. I've never had any photographic training before so I approached the course with a combination of nervousness and eager anticipation. There are 5 people on the course - 4 with different digital SLRs, 1 with a compact camera - covering different levels of previous experience. I am probably the most experienced with my camera having had my d80 for almost 18 months, others have had theirs for just a few weeks, but others have had previous film experience including dark room work whereas I have had zero so it all balances out pretty well.
The course started with some examples of masters of photography covering inspiring photographers like Diane Arbus, André Kertész, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jo Spence and Man Ray with examples of their work and elements of their biography.
The next subject was composition, with a brainstorm of what makes a good photograph. Everyone had different points to make during this, with some concentrating on the practical and others on the emotional. We also discussed the building blocks of photography with regards to composition concentrating on colour, tonality and contrast, line, form, shape, negative shapes, texture, perspective and depth, scale and pattern. We learnt about the rule of thirds, and how this can relate to depth in the image (foreground, midground and background) as well as right-to-left and top-to-bottom and the golden section.
We then moved on to getting to know our cameras, listing all the parts of a camera, before finding all the standard functions - ISO settings, white balance etc - on our models.
We finished the day learning about aperture and shutter speed and then were given homework to take a photograph of something which is not man made using the Programme mode of the camera (I would normally chose aperture priority mode). I chose the sea as it is a subject that I enjoy photographing and was delighted to discover that there were some great waves about. I decided to go for a close up on the sea and try and get a feeling of motion - in part because the sky wasn't very interesting and was a distraction. I ended up with 2 photos that I was reasonably pleased with:
and
both of which I plan to submit tomorrow.
The course started with some examples of masters of photography covering inspiring photographers like Diane Arbus, André Kertész, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jo Spence and Man Ray with examples of their work and elements of their biography.
The next subject was composition, with a brainstorm of what makes a good photograph. Everyone had different points to make during this, with some concentrating on the practical and others on the emotional. We also discussed the building blocks of photography with regards to composition concentrating on colour, tonality and contrast, line, form, shape, negative shapes, texture, perspective and depth, scale and pattern. We learnt about the rule of thirds, and how this can relate to depth in the image (foreground, midground and background) as well as right-to-left and top-to-bottom and the golden section.
We then moved on to getting to know our cameras, listing all the parts of a camera, before finding all the standard functions - ISO settings, white balance etc - on our models.
We finished the day learning about aperture and shutter speed and then were given homework to take a photograph of something which is not man made using the Programme mode of the camera (I would normally chose aperture priority mode). I chose the sea as it is a subject that I enjoy photographing and was delighted to discover that there were some great waves about. I decided to go for a close up on the sea and try and get a feeling of motion - in part because the sky wasn't very interesting and was a distraction. I ended up with 2 photos that I was reasonably pleased with:
and
both of which I plan to submit tomorrow.
Labels: creative digital photography, photo
Friday, October 3, 2008 -
FOTB: Chris Orwig
On Monday I had the opportunity to borrow a colleague's ticket for Flash on the Beach to attend Chris Orwig's talk The Art and Craft of Photographic Impact. It was a really good way to spend an hour and I came away feeling quite inspired.
A couple of things that he mentioned gave me a different viewpoint - instead of A picture is worth a thousand words and trying to tell an entire story, how about using a photo as a poem - so more open to interpretation, and based more on emotions and interpretation. Another thing was about the photographers use of prediction skills - when photographing a child with their birthday cake, you want to take a photo as they blow the first candle out, or whilst their cheeks are puffed up ready to blow, not when the candles are all blown out. Similarly when photographing someone jumping or diving into the sea, you want motion. All fairly obvious, but quite nicely put.
One of the interesting tactics he used was that half way through the talk he turned the lights up and made us talk to our neighbours about what we thought of the talk so far. Quite a good way to liven it up.
He also made the point about photographing what really happens, not what should happen - he used weddings as an example, its all very well having the posed group shots, but what about the fun ones - this reminded me of my own wedding photos and the fact that we have photos from the 2 minutes that Richard's Dad wore his Mum's hat, and of me comforting my little pageboy who thought he was going to marry Aunty Jane and how much I still love these photos for keeping the memories alive. This is what I tried to do when I did some photos for my friend's wedding in April.
Finally he described some projects that he'd assigned for us all. They are available, along with some book recommendations and kit recommendations here.
A couple of things that he mentioned gave me a different viewpoint - instead of A picture is worth a thousand words and trying to tell an entire story, how about using a photo as a poem - so more open to interpretation, and based more on emotions and interpretation. Another thing was about the photographers use of prediction skills - when photographing a child with their birthday cake, you want to take a photo as they blow the first candle out, or whilst their cheeks are puffed up ready to blow, not when the candles are all blown out. Similarly when photographing someone jumping or diving into the sea, you want motion. All fairly obvious, but quite nicely put.
One of the interesting tactics he used was that half way through the talk he turned the lights up and made us talk to our neighbours about what we thought of the talk so far. Quite a good way to liven it up.
He also made the point about photographing what really happens, not what should happen - he used weddings as an example, its all very well having the posed group shots, but what about the fun ones - this reminded me of my own wedding photos and the fact that we have photos from the 2 minutes that Richard's Dad wore his Mum's hat, and of me comforting my little pageboy who thought he was going to marry Aunty Jane and how much I still love these photos for keeping the memories alive. This is what I tried to do when I did some photos for my friend's wedding in April.
Finally he described some projects that he'd assigned for us all. They are available, along with some book recommendations and kit recommendations here.
Labels: event
