“Photography is savouring life at 1/100th of a second”
-Marc Riboud

i am surrounded by people who often say to me: “how can you enjoy yourself at |insert place/event here| when you’re lugging that giant camera around?” or: “you’re not even really here, you’re watching everything through that tiny window”

so, finding a quote like the one above resonates with me. there are others out there who feel most like themselves while recording their world through a viewfinder, & to deprive us of it assuming that you are somehow relieving a burden is at best a misguided kindness… at worst an arrogance (oh dear, that’s a harsh word isn’t it).

photographer Chris Orwig says, in a recent guest blog post for Photoshop Insider:

“Photographers are an interesting bunch. …we discover that life’s small mysteries and moments can be magnified. Somehow we get more out of life with a camera in hand. When we take pictures, we see more clearly, we remember more deeply, and we live more fully… We are driven to create something that is one of a kind. We want to expresses our unique voice and vision. It is something we have to do. Taking pictures satisfies an internal thirst. It is an essential part of who we are.”

some people scorn this worldview, and feel pity for those so dependant on a little clicking box for enjoyment. but you can no more turn off the art in an artist than you can prevent water from wetting things. without a camera to hand, we are often even more distracted; mentally frustrated by the lost opportunities to capture & create.

so be tolerant of your “mad” photographer friends, and consider that the behaviour which you find so vexing today may well delight you in years to come, when your own memories of the day have grown hazy & faint!

(ps: i highly recommend visiting the link above for Chris’s guest post: it’s a fantastic read!)

shooting with others is always more fun than shooting alone, and also a good opportunity to talk shop! the following photos were taken at a group practice photo session today. the idea for the group came about from the reality that often as professional photographers we are required to shoot in quite ordinary surroundings – and make them look extraordinary! so a few of us decided it would be educational & fun to meet up and shoot together, sharing ideas & experience, for the benefit of all.

we are looking forward to seeing our group grow, & getting to know more local mums who work as professional photographers

(all images in this post were captured on film)

my own photo history began with film; given that i first held a camera in the early 1970s! but i could never afford as much film as i needed to practice my art. also, i was never big on patience, and the wait between shooting a roll of film and actually being able to see the pictures was just killer. so for me, the advent of accessible digital imagemaking this century has literally been a childhood dream come true. however… that is just me, my story. and it won’t be everyone’s.

for a little while there it looked like digital might eventually totally eclipse film, due to constant improvements in digital technology & the lack of film interest among younger shooters; and once popular films such as Kodachrome have now gone out of production altogether, causing widespread dismay.

however film is currently enjoying an upsurge in mainstream popularity – thanks in no small part to committed film shooters such as the iconic Jonathan Canlas, whose work is very much admired (and for excellent reason). the Film Is Not Dead movement has attracted a significant following worldwide, and many digital shooters (and former film shooters), are either adding film to their regular bag or making the switch completely and (re)turning to a more traditional workflow.

i think this is wonderful! the creative world can only benefit from passionate people expressing & sharing their art in such a variety of ways. except… when some individuals get SO passionate, that they start to expect everyone to be like them. i have lost count of the number of articles i have read in recent weeks from born-again film shooters* who insist that the only true way to achieve photography nirvana is through 100% dedication to shooting film. (possibly this is karmic revenge for all the years of digital shooters calling film photographers ‘obsolete’ or ‘stuck in the past’… which is also highly disrespectful & unproductive.)

i hope this exclusive attitude is just a phase brought on by their delight in (re)discovering a new creative outlet, and that deep down they still believe that the work is more important than the tools. a photographer with vision can create beauty using a cameraphone or a Hasselblad, pixels or emulsion, Lightroom or a darkroom… (even with Canon or Nikon! but that’s a different rant LOL)

so let’s keep perspective, photographers! love and share what you do – but please do it respectfully, with the awareness that not everyone wants to make your story their own

*disclaimer: just to be clear, i am not including Mr Canlas in this group; he actually expresses that film is what HE does, and if you do it too, great, and if not, great. which is the perfect attitude IMO.

since tonight has seen another total lunar eclipse for our corner of the world to watch (between cloud banks) i thought i’d share a couple of similar sequences i took a few years back.

first, the total lunar eclipse of 28 aug 2007. this sequence begins (bottom right) at 8:30pm NZ standard time and ends at 10:30pm. equipment used: DSLR camera, remote shutter release, tripod, 500mm lens. of course a lot less light was coming from the moon near totality, so i had to adjust my exposure to capture the red disc – hence the white rim in later shots.

second, the partial solar eclipse of 7 february 2008. this sequence begins (top right) at 4:48pm NZ daylight saving time and ends at 5:52pm. equipment used: DSLR camera, 24-105mm lens at 105mm, homemade ND filter (crossed polars) with almost total blackout ability. no tripod needed. i really like in this sequence how you can see (except in the first overexposed image) the edge of the sun disc has a cooler red tinge, and the middle (including where the moon chops in) is yellow. the blue sky was added in post, but the colour of the sun has not been enhanced. (of course you must be very conscious of observing all eye-safety precautions when photographing the sun especially during an eclipse!)

“why do you charge this much for prints when i can go to my local self-service lab and get the same sizes for just a few dollars?” this question will be asked of most career-photographers at some stage. or, if it is not asked – you can see that they are thinking it! and at face value, this is a fair question.

today’s post was inspired by an article written on this very topic, by professional photographer Andrea Joki. Here is an excerpt:

“…One phrase I hear a lot is, “it only costs 10c to make a print – so why do you charge so much?” And if the value of the image was only the print paper cost itself, that would be a valid question. But then again, a lawyer makes several thousands and all they produce is paper worth less then a penny. So why do we pay lawyers upwards of 100 euros an hour?

The easy answer is that an experienced photographer – one who has spent years studying the craft, honing skills, and perfecting style, is going to give you a much better image than the beginner who is simply clicking a shutter button.

…One thing I really find interesting is that people will buy… all manner of luxury goods that have maybe a 1-2 year lifespan. But when it comes to professional portraits, which will last a lifetime, they base the decision purely on price. I’m not sure at what point children and family become less important than a fancy purse. But I can tell you that those who purchased high quality portraits have a beautiful reminder of a time that has past – and those portraits are still hanging or displayed while the (designer) purse has long since been thrown away.

…Choosing the best you can afford will always be the best advice given to anyone looking for quality professional portraits. As with anything hand-made and requiring an artistic eye, those who produce quality work will charge more – it compensates for the amount of time they have spent learning and perfecting their art.”

read the whole article here

and along those lines, here is an entertaining skit which highlights this issue from a different point of view

well yesterday was worldwide pinhole camera day… and i missed it! (again!) although elsewhere in the world people are still taking part, it was over where i live almost 24 hours ago. oh well – maybe next year i’ll get it together in time. (in my defense i did spend a large portion of yesterday taking photos.)

here’s an experimental pinhole photo i took a couple of years ago, using my homemade pinhole ‘lens’ (a pierced DSLR body cap). if you want to know how to make your own, leave a comment

just a very quick late-night post to share this awesome What The Duck strip

when you’re photographing someone on location, turn around occasionally and shoot a frame or two without them in it. catch a glimpse of the light, the view they have been looking at over your shoulder, the pebbles on the path you walked down…

become a storyteller, not just an image-maker.

Quit trying to find beautiful objects to photograph. Find the ordinary objects so you can transform it by photographing it. (Morley Baer)

Photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. (Elliot Erwitt)

Don’t fight Mother Nature – When out photographing, I have always found working with the prevailing conditions to be a far better idea than stubbornly resisting what is going on around me. (Howard Grill)

i often get asked by new photographers & friends “how are your photos always so bright and crisp-looking? i try all kinds of things but no matter what i do, they don’t look like yours”

at the risk of looking like i’m jumping on the ‘before and after’ blog bandwagon: here’s a short ‘before and after’ post which i hope will go some way to dispelling the mystery.

first of all, i don’t think you should be trying to make your photos look just like mine. they need to look like YOURS – your own style and unique eye is what you bring to photography that no one else has, so make the most of it. as international wedding photographer jasmine star says: “don’t be the best, be different.”

regarding photographic gear: there are two schools of thought as to how much influence your camera equipment has over the end result. on the one hand, better tools are always easier to work with, have fewer limitations, and usually output a finer quality product. but on the other hand, a talented and experienced photographer can get stunning results with the most basic or old-fashioned gear – so the jury is out. generally, better quality optics, finer sensors/better film and more reliable focus systems/techniques will help most people improve their work – but that’s not all there is to it. your best tool is still your eye – so don’t turn your camera into your excuse!

i would love to claim that i’m so ‘rockstar’ that every photo i show here on this blog just fell out of my camera looking that way – sadly that is not the case, haha; each finished picture is the product of a good base photograph, and knowing how to use my processing tools to bring out my vision. everyone sees a different picture in their mind when shooting – and this is why it is important for you to be clear about what you want to achieve before you start, because that will guide you as you shoot and prepare the photo.

my processing tools:

adobe lightroom, which is my RAW file processor. i never shoot JPEG anymore, RAW allows for so much more creativity without damaging the photo. it is also very forgiving: should anything be not quite right when the shutter opens, it is good to know you have a better chance of recovering that shot!

adobe photoshop, my ‘finisher’. lightroom plays more of a lead role these days in my photo processing but i still rely on photoshop to work with the processed file, tweaking or adding special touches not yet available in lightroom. i also use it to prepare files for web viewing in order that they look their best.

i also have a collection of professional presets & filters for both lightroom and photoshop, which i use to save time while processing, or to give me a starting point for the result i want to reach. some i have created myself based on my own style; some have been shared by photographer friends of mine; and others are commercially available, such as Totally Rad Actions, Kubota Image Tools and Nik Software.

here is a photo i took yesterday on a photowalk, original is on the left; finished photo on the right:

the process:
* in-camera settings were: ISO 160, aperture f/2.8, shutter 1/1000 sec, focal length 135mm
i deliberately underexposed the shot to retain all the colour and detail in the sky
* using lightroom 2, i chose a feathered adjustment brush and set the exposure to +0.5, then painted over the seat and surrounding grass to lift it from the shadows
* then, i chose the vignette tool and gave the edge of the photo a slight burn, which draws the eye toward the middle
* then i chose the brush again and set it to +0.3, and repainted the lighter areas of the seat to give more contrast
* then i exported the file and opened it in photoshop
* i chose a filter by nik called viveza which allows you to select a colour in the photo and alter it without changing the rest of the image
* i selected the seat colour, and cooled it down slightly by removing warmth and tinting it blue, to ‘place’ it visually back into the shadow area
* then i resized the photo, and added a slight sharpening effect and frame/watermark before exporting it for web viewing at 80% quality

and that’s it – not a lot was involved, but that’s because my original photo already was close to what i saw in my head. and that’s probably the most important tip of all.

any questions, feel free to ask