Landscape Photographer of the Year 2013

Yesterday I was prividged to see the final pictures for Landscape Photographer 2013.  The exhibition of approximately 30/40 images were on show at the Moors Valley Country Park in their reception area.  Copyright doesn't allow me to show the images but you can click here to see the stunning results.

it's always inspiring to see the best of others successful work and lifts the spirit at the diversity of the subjects.  There were one or two pictures that were not of my favourite genre but all the others were absolutely stunning.  It was well worth the 3/4 hour journey to view them.

CONTEXT & NARRATIVE – MARIA SHORT

Published by AVA Publishing, 2011

I've been reading this book 'Context and Narrative' of and on for a few months and feel it's a great resource for any photographer seeking a more in-depth

study of visual style in their own work.

In my opinion, the targeted audience for this book is more of an academic photography student rather than a photographer seeking to enhance or improve their images. After years of photography myself, I learned a ton of new information from this book and honestly, felt a little overwhelmed at times by some of the ideas presented.

The book is well laid out and organized in a very visual appealing way. It boasts artful images by a number of different photographers to give readers an opportunity to study the information in word form and in practical use. The summaries provided at the end of each chapter help reiterate the points within and give suggestions for photographic exercise to the reader.

The idea of capturing photographic images in regards to context and narrative took me far outside my normal photography 'box' thinking. Though once I recognized what was being discussed, I discovered that examples can be found in many places; most commonly in advertising and magazines. I read and re-read some sections of the book in an attempt to gain more knowledge of the process and to better understanding of the intentions of the author.

I think Maria Short does a great job explaining her concepts throughout the text and the case studies shown; proving that when it comes to communicating stories or relationships, it is not always in a visual sense but can be implied through various elements or symbolism in the building of the image.

Book Review: Pictures on a Page; Harold Evans; Heinemann Ltd, 1978

 Whilst reading other students’ blogs for this Level 2 module, I read a review on an out of date book called ‘Pictures on a Page’ which had been published in 1978.  I managed to obtain a copy which looks a little old but is still a very interesting read.  The book is well set out and each chapter clearly described.

There are dynamic introductions to each chapter giving compelling explanations of famous images, some of which I had seem before.  The author stresses the importance of honest, reality captioning which I have found interesting.  Harold Evans emphasised that a caption could make, break or distort the truth.

Harold felt it was important to spot the differences which moved an average picture into one that was unforgettable.  He described a session with Henri Cartier-Bresson about picture composition and was advised by Bresson to turn a picture upside down to highlight the good and bad points of it.

He quoted that W. Eugene Smith (page 123, Beauty out of Minimata) who felt that cropping should be carried out selectively as ‘the world did not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera’.

It's a very old book considering how the fast today's digital world moves but all the chapters are still very relevant today.  So many times a photographer today pushes his shutter button knowing he could

manipulate the subsequent image to improve itextensively.  Looking at the images in the book shows that manipulation was rife in the darkroom for skilled darkroom technicians and you are given a glimpse of what could be achieved 30-50 years ago.

If you are keen to produce excellent images within a publication, then find a copy of this book and scour it from end to end.  You will be amazed how relevant it still is.

RPS Digital Imaging Group (DiG)

My local camera club invited the RPS South West Region Organiser to give a talk about 'Widening Your Horizons' where the representative, Janet Haines of Bridport, explained how it was good to expand your experiences and aim for a qualification. Her talk included the work of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) and the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB) and the qualifications it was possible to earn and how to go about achieving them.

Janet is also the organiser for the RPS Digital Imaging Group (DiG) and as such puts on four sessions a year locally which features aspects of digital imaging pertinent to both photographers and designers.

The one-day session on Sunday, September 24th, included demonstrations on colour management, Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud and Lightroom 5. The first part of the original programme should have been on Photoshop Elements but was replaced by highlights of Ccloud as the original presenter was unable to attend. 

The demonstrator, a professional photographer called Andy Mallows was well versed in Photoshop Creative Cloud and Lightroom 5 and it was extremely interesting to see how he managed his workload when, as wedding photographer, he uploaded a completed web book for his clients within 2/3 hours of photographing a wedding. 

He also talked about the concept of Adobe Creative Cloud where, instead of buying a single programme such as Photoshop CS6 and replacing it every time there was a new version or update, you paid a monthly subscription of approximately £16 and were able to access the whole gamut of Adobe software as and when you needed it.  You were able to store your work 'in the Clouds' to give access whenever and wherever you were without having to carry it around on external devices.  This seems to follow the concept of Love Film and Netflix where you pay a monthly subscription and have access to the whole range of films, etc, rather than buying a DVD, watching it once or twice and just have it clutter up your storage area.

It seems a strange idea to hire a film or piece of software rather than owning a copy for eternity but this seems to be the way the world is moving.  Perhaps it's time to change my way of thinking and join the revolution. It would certainly seem to be cheaper to pay a monthly subscription (using the website Software4Students it came out at £16 for a recognised student for one year then rising to £22 per annum) than spend a whopping £224 to obtain a copy of just one programme, ie, CS6, which would be replaced by CS7 or 8 or 9 within 12/24 months.  Food for thought most definitely.

RPS Architectural and Street Photography workshop, Exeter, Saturday 11th October

I was in Exeter last Saturday with RPS tutor Nigel Hicks and four other photographers walking around the streets of Exeter learning about architectural photography.

Nigel showed us the best way to photograph large buildings such as Exeter Cathedral and what to do when you couldn't get the whole building into your shot.  His main idea was to feature small areas of the building or give your image a dramatic angle to enhance the verticals rather than worry about the converging verticals.

We also walked around Cathedral Close and into Princesshay shopping mall to grab shots of passers-by.  It was interesting to watch the general public when they saw a group of photographers pointing their cameras upwards and to note how many actually looked at what we were photographing.

Princesshay car park and flats

Princesshay flats

I've not had a real chance to pick out some of the better street photography images yet, but will upload some as soon as I have processed them.

Exhibitions, reviews and reading

This blog is to separate out the different types of exhibitions, reviews and reading that I do with regard to Gesture & Meaning.  I'll use the posts to discuss where I have been recently and what I have read.