Natural Photos of Children

People often say they like my pictures because they are so "natural" and "candid". However, there is actually a lot more to them that that! Natural and candid pictures can often result in an image which the client doesn't actually like of themselves - there is an art to making your pictures "look" natural and candid, but still keeping them professional and flattering.

Obviously it depends on your subject. It is much easier to get successful candid shots of little children, as they tend to do their own thing and not look to you for direction, which means they can be playing and totally unaware of you as you shoot gorgeous pictures of them. The pictures should usually look gorgeous because most under 5's just have to stand there to look cute - it's difficult to take a bad candid picture of a cute child who is playing happily!

However, once you start to introduce adults to a picture, candid shots can look very unflattering. Most adults are very self conscious about themselves and will look to you for direction and reassurance. You need to create shots which look candid, but have actually been very well thought through.

In the beach shot, where the mum is running with her four children, this feels very natural and candid, but has been carefully set up to create this mood. If I just followed her around with her children shooting candidly, this shot would never have been achieved, because more than likely one of the children would have run in front of another, and obscured their face, and it is unlikely the mum would have been running around the beach without being asked to! So for this shot, I asked the mum to hold hands with all the children, deliberately placing the youngest between her and the oldest for support. I then asked them all to stand in a row on the other side of the pool of water, and then told them to run towards me when I shouted "1,2, 3 Go!"

By starting them off in a line, holding hands I am ensuring that don't run in front of each other, and spoil the shot. I have also made sure they are all wearing complementary clothes which don't detract from the soft, neutral background. I have chosen the background deliberately because it has nothing distracting in it, and I am shooting into the sun so the children aren't squinting. So, although this shot looks candid, a great deal of thought has gone into making it like this. Having decided on the background, lighting, clothes and positioning, I can then then shoot "candidly" as they run towards me, several times!

In the shot of the boy on the beach, he is playing happily with the sand, while I shoot. But I have asked him to play so that the sun is behind him, resulting in flattering images without the sun making him squint.

I have also spent a lot of time prior to shooting, developing a relationship with the people so that we are all having a great time together. They feel relaxed and are having fun, because we've got to know each other over coffee, and I've been playing with the children on the beach. Otherwise they may feel silly and not want to do what I am asking them.

In the shot of the little girl in the white dress, I have been able to take lots of natural shots while she plays, but I have asked her to play in the "right" light and in an environment where I can contain her for 5 minutes before she gets bored! We are in a shed, making a "cake" from bits of wood and leaves. I have asked her to stir up the "cake" with a piece of wood while her mum keeps finding bits and pieces to add to her cake. This keeps the child in one place, and totally absorbed in doing something, so she does not think she is being photographed, while I can wander around shooting her from different angles as she plays. Again I have chosen clothes which she would look cute in whatever she was doing, and the background is out of focus and therefore unobtrusive.

So the more you can organise your shot beforehand, the more flattering your "candid" shots can be!

If you want to take truly natural shots, then you will need to be well out of sight of your subject, and in this case you cannot offer any direction, so will need to set the scene where the background and light will suit every shot, and then just see what happens. I took these photos many years ago of my daughter playing on a beach, whilst I was hiding behind a rock! Simply because being my own child, she just refused to be photographed!

Biography

http://www.annabelwilliams.com

Annabel Williams' reputation as both a world class photographer and an outstanding tutor is recognised across the globe. Her warm enthusiasm, coupled with an incredibly intuitive approach, is and always has been the driving force behind her very personal and unique style of innovative yet contemporary award winning portraiture.

She brings to her work an imagination and insight which is rare among even the finest professionals, all of which has contributed to her outstanding performance in her genre and it is these qualities which command Annabel so much respect from her peers.

No stranger to both TV and the press, Annabel is also the author of several books on her subject. Her passionate viewpoint engages everyone in a highly enthusiastic exchange of ideas and creativity.

Alongside her business partner Catherine Connor, Annabel also runs Contemporary Photographic Training (CPT) – a dedicated training centre in the Lake District, which runs a comprehensive range of workshops and seminars from ‘getting started’ right through to the prestigious ‘Bespoke Programme’ for aspiring professionals.

All images in this article © Annabel Williams

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Photographyblog, David Warn, Creative Process

I wonder if any of you share this common scenario from my experiences as a landscape photographer? I find myself returning to full awareness, one knee sodden from immersion in a cold and muddy puddle, having crouched atop a hill in the wind and rain for an hour and a half making a single image. The hunger to make photographs has often taken over my mind for extended periods of time, inducing an almost trance-like state. The physical discomforts are irrelevant to me as I make an image; my mind is lost in a place where the physical no longer matters. In this dream space I’m unaware of the passage of clock-time, that mechanical manifestation of universal time, because I’ve become totally immersed in subjective-time. This is a plastic realm where seconds can stretch into hours and, conversely, hours can be compressed into an invisibly small interval. The question arises, just where does my mind go to when I’m making a photograph?

Simply put, when I enter a reverie whilst making an image my mind goes to a place where I can access my creativity. Sometimes I enter an almost meditative state, but this altered state of consciousness is not a mystical condition. It is a state that we are all capable of through application and concentration. By concentration I do not mean the kind of furrowed brow, pained expression that might have the caption ‘Thinking!’ appended to it but rather a calm exclusion of irrelevances, a state oddly more akin to peaceful daydreaming. It’s time to answer the related and crucial question of where does creativity come from?

The capacity for creative thought and to subsequently act upon on it is inherent in all of us, though often neglected or suppressed. The mystique that surrounds the notion of an “Artist” in Western society is undoubtedly partly to blame. Creativity has traditionally been seen as the domain of gifted, intuitive, often eccentric individuals with turbulent lives – Vincent Van Gogh is perhaps the archetypal artist. These individuals are mythologised and set apart from ordinary folk, after all, it does the sale price of their work no harm for them to be considered demigods. Whilst it is true that some artists fit this other worldly stereotype the majority do not. Psychologists have long characterised these kinds of behaviour as originating in the right hemisphere of our brains. The two hemispheres are thought to be responsible for opposing forms of perception and behaviour:

Left Brain	Right Brain
Analytical	Synthesizing
Logical	Random
Rational	Holistic
Sequential	Intuitive
Objective	Subjective
Concerned with detail	Concerned with wholes

It will be obvious from a quick glance down this list that the traits we associate with creativity are all right-brain and that the traits thought necessary for operating a camera are left-brain. It doesn’t however help us very much to say where they might originate since we seem to lack a convenient switch to turn on the appropriate behaviours. But there are ways for all of us to harness our creative forces; psychology has ridden to the rescue with an analysis of the creative process into four stages; preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. Let’s take them in turn.

The preparation stage is when we identify a problem (something to photograph) and collect ideas about how we might solve that problem. These problems require a divergent rather than convergent approach. Convergent thought processes are used to solve problems that have single solutions, like mathematical formulae, where we home in on the solution. In contrast, divergent thought is needed to find a solution to a problem that has many possible solutions - whenever we make a photograph there are a host of alternative ways of photographing the same subject. We need to come up with as many different ways of solving the problem as we possibly can in order to guarantee an original solution. Typically for landscape photographers this stage would be spent in the field, though not necessarily so as we may already have thought of a subject but be struggling with how to tackle it. At the preparation stage we need to be fluent and flexible in our generation of ideas and resist the temptation for closure – to keep our fingers off the shutter release as long as possible. Artists from different media have described this frame of mind as a strange mixture of insight and naiveté – a need always to look at our surroundings, no matter how familiar they may be, as if for the first time. The British photographer Bill Brandt said that, "Most of us look at a thing and believe we have seen it, yet what we see is often only what our prejudices tell us to expect to see, or what our past experience tells us should be seen, or what our desire wants to see. Very rarely are we able to free our minds of thoughts and emotions, and just see for the simple pleasure of seeing. And so long as we fail to do this, so long will the essence of things be hidden from us”. And Vincent Van Gogh wrote that, 'A feeling for things in themselves is much more important than a sense of the pictorial.'

How might we achieve this state of mind? Firstly we need to be receptive and open to possibilities but this alone is not enough. We need to shut out the everyday babble of thoughts unrelated to the task at hand; we need, in short, to concentrate - almost to meditate. When I’m lost in picture making I’m often unaware of physical discomforts, my mind is focused only on making the image; irrelevances like wet clothing or cuts or utility bills or when I’m next going to eat are banished from my mind. As I wrote n my last blog, it is vital not to deny ourselves opportunities by blindly following a plan to make a predetermined image and remember that whilst experience teaches us what does not work it doesn’t teach us what will work until we’ve tried it. This requires us to have confidence in our own abilities, something we gain through practice and experimentation. Every time we press the shutter we need to make a leap of faith as well as a leap of the imagination.

The next stage in the creative process is incubation. When problems arise in our everyday lives we often follow the age-old advice of ‘putting it on the backburner’ for a while or even ‘sleeping on it’ until the solution occurs to us. This is a way of letting our subconscious work at a synthesis of the different elements of the problem and so arrive at a conclusion. We’ve probably all had the experience of going out to make images but being unable to find any satisfactory compositions, yet we might return to the same location in similar light and see pictures all around us. In the intervening time we will have incubated ideas about how to approach the subject from our original visit. This is why we often find it difficult to make images in a new environment; we have to spend time assimilating many different complex factors and ideas before we are ready to progress to making images. If you are stuck for a solution leave the problem to stew rather than worrying at it like a terrier with a bone. When you return to it ideas will flow more freely.

The third stage is illumination. This is the sudden realisation of a solution to the problem, how to make the photograph in our case. History is littered with anecdotes about such moments from other arenas of creative thought; from Archimedes jumping out of his bath and crying ‘Eureka!’; to the moment when Isaac Newton watched an apple fall and understood the notion of gravity; to Darwin extrapolating the theory of evolution from his study of finches in the Galapagos Islands. It is this seemingly unexpected insight that bolsters the myth of a kind of divine genius granted to only a few individuals. But this is just part of a process; neither Archimedes nor Newton nor Darwin arrived at their particular moment of insight out of the blue. They all worked on the problems for a considerable length of time, from months to decades. In fact in the case of the last two revelations there is strong evidence to suggest that these particular moments are retrospectively applied myths which never actually happened. We all have little eureka moments every day; we use this process when doing mundane tasks like trying to remember somebody’s name or solve a crossword. “Aha!” we say to ourselves, often not realising that we have emulated such august individuals in deed, if not in scale. It is critical that we delay closure in the first stage if we are to reach a new or deep insight. The smaller formats in photography sometimes seem to encourage premature closure. It is easy with 35mm to ‘snap away’ rather than stand back and analyse how to tackle a particular subject, though this matters little if the photographer persists with a subject rather than making an image or two and then walking away. Persistence can equate to the preparation and incubation stages, like a painters working sketches it becomes part of the problem solving process. Working, as Adams’ and Weston did, on large format forces the photographer to slow down. The physical processes for setting up the camera are a little cumbersome but the ensuing ritual allows time to analyze the problem, to look at many different solutions and provides an opportunity for incubation before illumination. Indeed the slowness and cost of film positively discourage premature closure.

The final stage is verification – reality testing our solution by implementing it and making an image. Obviously the solutions won’t all be masterpieces but the longer we can delay closure the better the chance. If a particular photograph, a verification, fails to meet our criteria then we must simply start again from square one. One great advantage of digital photography is that the verification is instantly available for the photographer to assess without the traditionalists agonized waiting for hours or days. The images that accompany this article were all made on a single afternoon in Death Valley, California. They were all made on a compact camera apart from the final image of the rear window of a wrecked car which was taken on Velvia on a 5X4 camera. The series represents the development process that I have described here leading to my particular answer to the divergent problem that these subjects posed. As can be seen, I made many images that offer solutions to this particular compositional conundrum. But the final 5x4 image is the one I feel best answers the question posed by the subject. On a different day, in different conditions I may well have reached a different solution.

The hardest part of the process is the delaying of closure because evolution has programmed us to quickly seek the simplest solution to perceptual problems. The overriding visual assumption we make when we look around us is that our environment is not inherently deceptive. To get past this we have to trick ourselves in to seeing things in a literally ‘new light’. One way of doing this is simply to study your subject for a long time until it no longer seems familiar, so that new relationships and patterns arise in the subject (try staring at any word for long enough and you will see that it suddenly becomes disconnected from its meaning, the ordering of the letters becomes strange and unfamiliar). The photographer Duane Michaels declared that, "I do not believe in the visible. I do not believe in the ultimate reality of automobiles or elevators or the other transient phenomena that constitute the things of our lives... Most photographers believe and accept what their eyes tell them, and the eyes know nothing. The problem is to stop believing what we all believe." Our perception is programmed to look for patterns and to switch off when a plausible solution has been found. For photographers to see something afresh and for this to excite the viewer, the trick is to go beyond the obvious and to embrace the ambiguous. Look hard, think long and only then press the shutter release.

The obvious conclusion to be reached from analyzing the creative process is that there is no single correct approach to making an outstanding photograph. In fact by definition an outstanding image will have arrived at a unique and personal solution to the divergent problem that the subject had posed the photographer. For this reason Edward Weston wrote that “…to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. Such rules and laws are deduced from the accomplished fact; they are the products of reflection”.

Biography

http://www.lightandland.co.uk
http://www.into-the-light.com

David Ward is one of Britain's most accomplished large format photographers. He has a very varied knowledge of photography, acquired while working for previous advertising, design and publishing clients. Over the years David has photographed everything from dogs to food to racing cars but landscape photography has always remained his passion.

In recent years he has concentrated his efforts on leading photography workshops for photo tour company Light & Land, taking groups to places as diverse as Utah and Norway. His emphasis in teaching is on the photographer's vision, rather than on what equipment is being used, and he passes on his knowledge in a uniquely humorous and accessible manner. Light & Land runs a broad range of photographic workshops for all levels of photographers – both in the UK and worldwide – full details can be found at http://www.lightandland.co.uk

David has recently hosted Landscape Beyond - a hugely successful exhibition of his work at Londons OXO Tower gallery which was also the launch pad for Davids most recent book of the same title.

All images in this article © David Ward

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Photographyblog, Top 10 DSLR Mistakes

We've all been there - the light is perfect, the subject is willing, the moment is just right - when you suddenly realise that you're not going to able to capture that award-winning shot after all. Here's a handy list of the most common mistakes that DSLR shooters make, and how best to avoid them.

1. Left your kit at home

As your photography equipment expands, it can be easy to leave something at home that you thought would be insignificant but actually turns out to be vitally important. We're not suggesting that you carry everything with you every time you venture out the door, so it's important to take a few moments, "visualise" your next photographic trip, then pack a bag accordingly. Or you could work out at the gym and take everything bar the kitchen sink...

2. Not recharged the batteries

This is perhaps the most frequent mistake of all time, and almost always results in a despondent trip home. To avoid this, buy a spare battery, no, make that two, or better yet, choose a camera that uses easily-accessible AA batteries. Always recharge the batteries the night before a shoot, even if they were charged the last time you used your camera. And whatever you do, don't combine mistakes 1 and 2!

What I carried around this weekend. by tracer.ca

3. Set the wrong ISO speed

Being able to change the ISO speed at will is now an accepted part of photography, as natural as changing shutter speed or aperture (the days of having to wait until the end of the film are long gone). With this new-found freedom comes the danger of leaving your camera on the wrong ISO setting for the current situation, which tend to happen especially in-between shoots. So make sure to always triple-check the ISO before you get started, and you'll never have an unwanted noisy image again.

4. Left the lens cap on

Wondering why the frame is dark and the camera is suggesting a 30 second exposure? Quick, check the front of your lens! This is the one mistake that makes you look most foolish, especially in front of another photographer...

5. Forgot to reset Exposure Compensation

Picture too dark or light, and you have no idea why? You've almost certainly forgot to reset the exposure compensation after that last difficult exposure, or you've accidentally changed it to an off-the-scale value. If you're shooting in RAW and the photo is too dark, you may be able to recover it - massive overexposure is a different story...

貓的抱N by ColdCatCola

6. Shot in JPEG instead of RAW

Not the worst mistake in the world if you and the camera get the exposure right, but very annoying if the photo is underexposed, the white balance is wrong, or you just usually shoot in RAW and enjoy its many benefits. You can convert an image from RAW to JPEG, but not the other way round, so if you want to get the best out of your photos, double-check the image settings.

7. Chimped a prize-winning picture

The recent advent of bigger, brighter and clearer LCD screens has made it easier than ever before to review, sort and delete, known as "chimping", your photos in-camera. STOP! Don't do it! Fight that compulsive urge and wait until you can look at them on that nice 24 inch monitor in the comfort of your own home. Memory is incredibly cheap nowadays, so invest in some rather than inadvertently delete that prize-winning picture (probably without even knowing it).

8. Blurry pictures

You could have sworn that the picture looked sharp on the LCD screen, but at 100% magnification on a decent monitor, there's no getting away from the fact that it's just plain burned. Delete. Another one for the Recycle bin. If you're hand-holding the camera, always use a shutter speed that is faster than the focal length - so use 1/400th second or faster for 300mm, or 1/80th or faster for 70mm. Better still, use a tripod, the mirror-lockup function and a remote release, and never have to worry about blurry pictures again.

Camera Shake by Keith1999

9. Spent more on a camera body than the lens

Photography is one of those rare combinations of art and science, but it can be easy to forget the former and spend all your money on the latter. Photographers' just can't resist lusting after the latest DSLR cameras, which promise more features, faster performance and better images than the previous model. But it's actually a wiser idea to start by upgrading your lenses, rather than the body, especially if you're still using the cheap kit lens that came with the camera, as the lens has the most influence on image quality.

10. Didn't check the memory card before formatting

Check, check and check again that you've transferred all the photos from your memory card to your computer BEFORE you format it. There's no worse feeling than realising that you've deleted all the photos from your last shoot. On the other hand, make sure you do format the card in-camera after you've copied your photos. If you format it on your computer instead, there's a greater risk that it will eventually become corrupted, and you might lose some photos from an error.

Have you got your own top tips for avoiding common DSLR mistakes? Share them with everyone by leaving a comment below...

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Photographyblog, Annabel Williams, Potrait Selling

Every photographer should spend a dedicated amount of time monitoring and evaluating the efficiency of each area of his or her business. Running a photography business is about more than just taking pictures. Each department needs to have as much TLC as the photographic product. The sales department is often one of the more neglected areas, coming at the end of the process and sometimes being the bit that photographers feel the most uncomfortable about!

When monitoring the effectiveness of this you need to go back through the journey that each client takes through your business. This journey allows you several opportunities to prepare the clients for the sale experience and thus also prepare them for a realistic spend.

Your marketing activity should ensure that you have the right target market clients coming through the business, but from the very first point of contact they need to know an estimation of what they are likely to spend. In fairness most clients won't have a definite idea of what they want as a final finished product so it is up to you to educate them, start to get them thinking about the physical product that they want from the shoot whether it is a collection of pictures in an album, or framed pictures and canvasses for the wall. Introduce the price points for these options –'Most of my clients spend anywhere between £xxx and £yyy' Framed pictures start from £xxx upwards, collections of images in albums start from £xxx.

At this stage this is enough information for them to start to feel comfortable with, anyone unwilling or unable to spend this much will be filtered out here. Following the initial call, send out your printed material with a covering letter, this letter should support and reinforce the message you were giving out over the phone, confirming all details and again have a simple reference to prices and the sales process you will be taking the clients through so they have a thorough understanding of both the method you will be adopting for the sale and the price points of the various products available.

The next stage which offers you an opportunity to pre-sell is the photographic experience itself, throughout the shoot you can mention products and prices if the opportunity arises, if not there is always the valuable time at the end of the shoot. Don't rush away, an extra 15 minutes over coffee at this time will give you the best opportunity to prepare the client, they have had a great time with you so far and are now quite relaxed. Take some products with you, keep them in the car and as you are chatting start to prepare them for the next stage.

Explaining that they will see their images as an AV presentation, that you will take them through a process that really helps them to decide which they want and how they want them, introduce the option of an album and if they are unsure about what today's albums are like, say you just happen to have one in the car and get it to show them! Openly discuss the options available as you really want to encourage them to think about where they might want to hang a finished frame, this will help make further decisions easier such as size and type of frame or finish.

By the time you are in the actual sales scenario almost 90% of the work should be done and you're job is then to help them select the best possible images in the most ideal form of presentation for their needs.

It is crucial that you have great sales samples, as it is a well-known fact that people buy what they see. If you want to sell a multi acrylic block with 9 images on then you need to have a multi acrylic block with 9 images on to show. With collections of pictures in albums, always show a storybook layout, for an on-location lifestyle shoot you should aim for between 60-90 images, to really show the potential of the album as a sales tool.

Another idea worth considering is to have the sales samples priced up, create some beautiful 'price tags' which are neatly suspended from the back of the frame or in the back of the album on ribbon so that clients who may be seeing these samples at the consultation stage or at the photo shoot itself, become comfortable and familiar with prices.

Biography

http://www.annabelwilliams.com

Annabel Williams' reputation as both a world class photographer and an outstanding tutor is recognised across the globe. Her warm enthusiasm, coupled with an incredibly intuitive approach, is and always has been the driving force behind her very personal and unique style of innovative yet contemporary award winning portraiture.

She brings to her work an imagination and insight which is rare among even the finest professionals, all of which has contributed to her outstanding performance in her genre and it is these qualities which command Annabel so much respect from her peers.

No stranger to both TV and the press, Annabel is also the author of several books on her subject. Her passionate viewpoint engages everyone in a highly enthusiastic exchange of ideas and creativity.

Alongside her business partner Catherine Connor, Annabel also runs Contemporary Photographic Training (CPT) – a dedicated training centre in the Lake District, which runs a comprehensive range of workshops and seminars from ‘getting started’ right through to the prestigious ‘Bespoke Programme’ for aspiring professionals.

All images in this article © Annabel Williams

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Photographyblog, Tom Mackie , Back to Basic Photography

I love technology. The Internet has changed the way we do business and communicate with each other. As a photographer, getting feedback about my work before the Internet was rare. This was usually limited to talks at tradeshows or camera clubs. But talking face-to-face, people are less likely to give you honest, constructive comments.

It’s interesting to read some of the comments from other photographers regarding work published in my books and on the Internet. One person said referring to one of my books,“ I could not find any secrets from this book. Since digital is now the new photography this book is totally film.” Unfortunately he was missing the point. It doesn’t matter if you are using film or digital, the same principles apply.

Just look at any books branded as ‘digital’ and for the most part the content is exactly the same as pre-digital how-to photography books with the possible inclusion of a few technical descriptions on how to use features such as auto white balance. The digital camera as with any camera, is only a tool. It is not responsible to producing great images, the photographer is. As though there is a secret formula to follow a step-by-step procedure to create powerful images.

Ok, in a way there is, but I’m sorry to tell you, there are no secrets. Man did not land on the moon, there was a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy and there were no weapons of mass destruction. It’s been there in front of us all along in countless books and magazines on photography. They are the basic principles of creating powerful images beginning with lighting, more specifically the correct lighting for the subject whether it’s a landscape, close-up detail of nature, or a building.

Secondly, a strong composition in combination with the right kind of light and you’re heading in the right direction. And finally, timing. Capturing the ‘decisive moment’ as Henri Cartier Bresson coined the phrase can make or break an image. Whether it is tripping the shutter at the precise moment when capturing a moving element or waiting until the light falls onto the scene in the correct place, timing plays a vital part of creating powerful images. This is especially true when all three elements lighting, composition, and timing coincide to create a truly memorable image.

If you study any image that captivates you, ask yourself what makes it a powerful image? Chances are it will be a combination of lighting and an effective composition. Using the Rule of Thirds, leading lines, and of course, I like breaking the rules when necessary to create an image with impact.

When is it a good time to break the rules? For example, putting the subject in the centre of the frame instead of on the third. I generally look for a conceptual theme such as in the image of the heart-shaped sunflower. As it’s the only flower in the field that is open making it special, setting it apart from the rest, so centre position calls more attention to it. Some conceptual words could be individual, unique, special, love, and exclusive. It would not have been as effective if it were placed on the third. By the way, other than only 2 strategically placed petals, it is a straight image.

Another person commented, “I can’t even hope to create pictures like Tom’s because I am only using 35mm…he’s using medium and large format cameras.” The size of the format doesn’t matter; it’s what you do with it that makes the difference. It’s even possible to make great pictures with a camera phone. I was using the larger formats at the time because of client requirements and I still use large format, though more selectively, mainly because I enjoy using a view camera.

Now with the advancement of technology we have a level playing field. The quality and capability that DSLR’s now provide is astonishing. It has opened up creative possibilities in my photography. I can now achieve images that before I wouldn’t have even bothered to get the camera out of the bag.

Recently, I was photographing a well-known coastal landscape, that in the years prior to digital, there would be several photographers using medium or large format cameras mounted on tripods. Yes, of course, there would be lots of tourist’s handholding their compacts or 35mm cameras, but now the tables have turned. A majority of the photographers had tripod mounted DSLR’s and these tended to be medium or high end DSLR’s. There was only one person shooting medium format film.

For the most part, we are all using the same cameras now so we should all be creating great images, right? Remember, it’s not the camera that makes the pictures; it’s the person behind it. Starting with a good understanding of the basics of photography is much more important than buying the latest gear on the market. Putting these principles into practice on a regular basis will then hopefully become second nature.

Oh, there is one secret that I learned when I was starting out. Knowing when not to make a picture.

Biography

http://www.tommackie.com/

Tom Mackie has been a photographer all his working life. His degree in commercial photography took him first of all to Los Angeles, where he spent five years as an industrial and architectural photographer. It was during this period that he travelled widely in the Western States, discovering in himself a previously unknown fervour for the beauty of those vast ‘cinemascope’ panoramas. After that, the confines of a Los Angeles commercial studio were never going to hold him. Tom married his art to this new-found passion and embarked on a ‘til death-do-us-part’ relationship with landscape photography.

Moving to the UK in 1985, he pursued a full-time career as a landscape photographer. Working with digital, panoramic and large format equipment, Tom’s understanding of light and bold use of colour became a hallmark that established his reputation.

"My aim from the first was to develop a clearly defined style of my own: by simplifying images down to their basic elements, I consciously attempt to give my compositions more power."

Calendar, book and magazine work followed from a wide network of clients. Architectural and travel commissions added to his repertoire and his role as one of the country’s leading landscape photographers was sealed by his inclusion in ‘The World’s Top Photographers: Landscape’, published by Rotovision.

His talents have also won accolades from The British Institute of Professional Photographers, the Ilford Awards and Business Calendar Awards.

Tom Mackie has had two books published by David & Charles: a best-selling ‘Photos With Impact’, ‘Tom Mackie’s Landscape Photography Secrets’ and his latest book ‘Digital SLR Experts: Landscape’ is a collaboration with four other top photographers.

He has written numerous articles for photography magazines and lectures to other professionals on the art of landscape photography. Tom regularly holds photographic workshops in the UK and abroad.

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Photographyblog, Charlie Waite, Black and White Photograph

Mother Photography's first born were black and white, or perhaps brown is a better way to describe the colour of those pioneering early images made two thirds of the way through the 19th century.

From then on, and especially from the 1960's, black and white has earned a certain reverence and has come to be seen as more 'arty'. Quite what more 'arty' means I am not so sure. However since the advent of colour photography, many of the black and white aficionados still claim (unjustifiably in my view) that monochrome is indeed more of a creative artistic endeavour.

I am often heard to say that 'the absence of colour distils the image to its essential qualities' which indeed it does. I can claim to have spent very many years in the darkroom and the zone system and the whole notion of tonal values have become second nature to me. In latter years however, I have concentrated on my colour photography, yet would never claim that one is superior over the other, nor would I throw away those precious years in the darkroom where I learned the great fundamentals of photography.

I am often asked what potential image lends itself to black and white more than colour and what criteria do I use when making a decision as to which medium I should use.

I can't deny that I do favour a strong contrast scene when I work with black and white, yet one with some values in the highlight and shadows, so I would always encourage photographers to look at the depth of a shadow and the value of a highlight before making a decision. Good graphic shapes of course can make excellent subjects and a fine building white cumulous sky is hard to resist treating in black and white.

This comment will be unpopular but I do suggest that the decision to make a black and white image should be a firm and intended one from the beginning of the photographic process and ideally not some post rationalising that 'if it did not work in colour then maybe it will in black and white'; I call this 'image salvaging' but this will engender some controversy I am sure. If the image is to be made in monochrome then that is to be established and comprehended from the start and then one can engage with the appropriate monochrome approach.

I was brought up on the work of Ansel Adams, Bill Bandt and Ralph Gibson and although the latter photographer is known for very high contrast images, these are styles I like. Currently there is some stunning low key black and white gently powerful landscape photography from the hand of a fine landscape photographer called Paul Gallagher (http://www.paulgallagher.co.uk/) which I have become very fond of.

I would urge those who intend making black and white images be it with digital capture or with film to think carefully about filtration. It is worth remembering the trio of filters that are often used for black and white photography are yellow, orange and red. They all to a greater or lesser extent absorb blue light.

I have seen many a monochrome print where the sky made up of blue and white clouds has been overwhelmingly powerful and yet, there had been no filter in place to pronounce the clouds. Two of these filters bring with them associated problems. The orange and most especially the red wreak havoc with the green values, compressing them into a narrower band of values and in the case of the red plunging almost all greens into a dark featureless expanse.

Often when we see a landscape with a fine sky where the blues have been absorbed by the extreme red filter, have a look at the green landscape beneath (if it was green) as here the red filter will have absorbed the reflected green light in the same way as it absorbed the blue. Great sky indeed but a potentially muddy land!

The orange filter is a good compromise as it will not have such extreme effect on the green foliage. The yellow, even more green friendly.

If you were to have a graduated filter with one third orange. and the other two thirds clear or better still green (I have a rather gaudy looking one) then your landscapes made with film would enjoy an exceptional tonal range if of course there was a range there to start with.

I suggest that with film getting filtration right in camera is the ideal and with digital colour use 'black and white' in the image adjustment menu which will work well enough when dealing with a raw image. There are numerous ways of converting colour into monochrome but if it was the intention to make a monochrome image in the first place then hopefully, the conversion will result in parity between your previsualisation and the finished print.

If you have an old film camera knocking about (which I hope you may) then how about buying a roll or two of slow-ish black and white film and making some negatives using some of the filters we have discussed here.

In 1972, I recall an exhibition entitled 'From today painting is dead' (http://www.answers.com/topic/from-today-painting-is-dead) a remarkable and memorable exhibition of photography at the V&A museum in London. Whilst being a great advocator of digital capture, I would argue that the use of film (both in colour and black and white) is far from dead and anyone wishing to set off on a voyage down the black and white route, might consider those rolls of monochrome film.

Perhaps then a good scan of the negative and a subsequent print will provide a reminder of how enjoyable it is to interpret the world around us in black and white………..but it is just as lovely in colour too!

Biography

Charlie Waite was born in 1949 and worked in British Theatre and Television for the first ten years of his professional life. Throughout this period he became fascinated by theatrical lighting and design. Gradually the landscape and the way it can be revealed to us through light and shade stole him away from the acting profession.

Over the last twenty five years, he has lectured throughout the UK Europe and the US. He has held numerous one man exhibitions in London, including two shows in London’s National Theatre and three at the OXO gallery and held further solo shows in Tokyo, New York, Carmel and in Australia, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. He has published 27 books on the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany; all exclusively of his photography.

Charlie Waite is now firmly established as one of the most celebrated international landscape photographers. Aside from his own photography, he also enjoys introducing photography to others. Through his company, Light and Land the leading photographic tour company in Europe, Charlie Waite and his specialist photographic leaders, all at the very top in their field, run worldwide workshops and tours dedicated to bettering photography.

http://www.charliewaite.com

http://www.lightandland.co.uk

All images in this article © Charlie Waite

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Photographyblog, David Noton, Great Travel Potrait

This month we’re going to Peru, via Laos, and back again, to talk about travel portraiture. It’s logical, trust me.

Well I started out down a dirty road at dawn, with the raw throbbing power of the Honda 50 beneath me as I trundled over the bridge in the half-light. It’s not quite Easy Rider, but I’m loving it. At the toll I fumble for the right note; 10,000 kip, about $1. I’m a millionaire here. A couple of bungees have secured my tripod behind and the Lowepro is on my back. It’s cool and fresh for now as rural Laos awakes and comes to life. Cattle are being driven along the lanes, children are cycling to school, the ubiquitous Lao tractors chug across fields and whole families of five or more cling to one moped en route to another day of scratching out a living in this sleepy south east Asian backwater. All around me the Karst mountains rise from the landscape; great lumps of forest clad hills dominating the horizon. It’s beautiful. But it’s also very hazy. Arrggh haze; it’s a landscape photographer’s greatest curse.

I’m in the countryside around Vang Vien, in northern Laos. It has to be said mankind has not been kind to this country. Laos holds the dubious distinction of being the most bombed country in the world, courtesy of the US Air Force in the Vietnam War. Mines still litter the countryside. I’m trying not to think about that too much when I trudge through fields in search of locations. And just to add to this patch of earth’s woes, the locals are burning the land. Whole tracts of countryside are being put to the flame routinely; slash and burn, to stimulate new growth presumably. The net effect is a scarred landscape and terrible air quality. Smoke hangs in the atmosphere like smog, and ash drops from the sky. It’s a bloody disaster of which the only upside is I feel considerably less guilty about my own carbon footprint. From the river at Vang Vien the incomparable view of the mountains beyond is lost in the murk. Much as I love south east Asia I have to admit I’m pining for the crystal clear light of the Coromandel Peninsula or the mood of the Isle of Skye.

So, what are my options? For landscape photography these conditions are hopeless. But the name of this game is being flexible and extracting the maximum photographically from any given situation, so I’ve just got to re-frame my objectives. If I can’t shoot landscapes I’ll shoot people, and thankfully Laos is a great place to do just that. The people are warm, friendly, relaxed and generally open to being photographed, it’s areal treat. And the hazy light is actually good for portraiture, particularly when it’s warm and soft at the beginning and end of day.

This trip I’ve an ace up my sleeve, which I’m itching to try out; a new Canon 24mm prime lens. Now I already own a 24-70mm f2.8, a 16-35mm f2.8 and a 24mm shift & tilt lens, so why on earth do I need another 24mm lens? Well, it’s a nifty f1.4 super fast optic. So what? I must admit up to now I’ve never really seen the point of such lenses. I mean the case for super fast telephotos is obvious; restricted depth of field for creative effect and big apertures to freeze action and allow hand held exposures. But wide angles generally go hand in hand with front to back depth of field, don’t they? Or do they?

Let’s talk out of focus backgrounds. With travel portraiture the background can make or break a shot; too much confusing detail will distract attention from the main subject. Generally speaking a medium telephoto is the lens of choice for portraiture, enabling a pleasing perspective from a convenient distance for a full frame head shot with the background dropped out of focus. I’ll often reach for my 70-200mm f2.8 when presented with a face that just cries out to be photographed. Let’s now just fly First Class from Laos to Peru. In the square in Pisac in the Sacred Valley of the Incas sat this wizened, distinguished lady. Fill the frame, shoot wide open, be bold with the composition and sweep your eye from corner to corner of the frame. Is there anything in shot that doesn’t deserve to be there? It’s a tried and tested approach that works everytime, and the elements that make the shot are the subjects face, the interaction between photographer and of course the lighting. The background is out of focus and devoid of irritations. Pity life’s not so simple. But sometimes a sense of place, a feel for the environment of the subject is desirable. That bustling market behind is all part of the scene; so how to use that in the shot without distracting from the foreground is the challenge.

In this case, going a bit wider will help. Still in Peru this shot of a lady in the market at Chincherro was shot with my 24-70mm at 70mm, still wide open at f2.8. The splash of colour of the out of focus lady in the background gives some sense of the setting, but my chirpy subject full of the joys of life is still dominant in the frame. Peru is such a great place for shooting travel portraiture. The people out in the countryside still wear the colourful native dress so synomonous with the Andes and like Laos there are few hassles about exposing them to pixels. In fact people often thanked me for taking their picture.

That certainly was the case with Marina, this shepherd girl who I came across on the misty Pampasmojo at dawn. For this travel portrait her location was integral to the shot. So still with the 24-70mm but at 50mm this time I shot again wide open, but the lonely mountain side setting is a much more significant element in the frame, as is the cool sombre sky. Now when skies start intruding on portraits things start to get complicated. It’s difficult to expose for the face while holding the drama of the sky. Normally I’d use a grad to hold detail in the clouds, but in this case with the figure of Marina breaking the horizon it’s not an option. Neither are multiple exposures, as I’m working hand held here with a rapidly evolving opportunity. Luckily two factors come to my aid; the low contrast nature of the light and the exposure latitude of the RAW image. I managed to expose ensuring the highlights in the sky were retained and the balance between her face and the heavens was balanced with multiple RAW conversions of the same frame and a bit of buggering about in Photoshop with layers and the eraser tool.

So as I go wider with my focal lengths the background becomes more and more of a feature. The key consideration is how much detail I want in the background. There is a time and a place for isolating the subject from their surroundings, equally injecting a sense of place can be very effective. Back in Laos the sun is coming up and I’ve parked my Big Bike with an embarrassing basket over the front wheel by a ford near a village. It was a location I shot as a landscape the previous dawn, but the light was so hazy it didn’t really work. I did however note just what a thoroughfare it was for passing peasants, so here I am, hanging around shiftily, waiting for Something to Happen. The backdrop of mountains and river is quintessentially Lao, a perfect setting for some environmental portraits.

Preparation is everything in photography. Have some idea of how you’re going to tackle a subject before it happens. Don’t wait until the moment is upon you. Think, use your eyes, imagine. So I’m planning this shot before I know who or what my subject is going to be. I want to use the river setting as a backdrop, but out of focus. How out of focus? Well with my 16-35mm wide open at f2.8 there’s still quite a lot of detail evident in backgrounds, which is why I’m keen to test this new 24mm f1.4. I’ll shoot wide open, using single shot auto focus. I’ll need a 0.9 ND grad on to hold the sky, but I’ll have to be careful with the composition to avoid a “grad head” situation where the effect of the gradation intrudes on the crown of the subject. ISO? At this aperture 100 is plenty fast enough. I do a test exposure, and dial in +2/3 exposure compensation. I’m ready.

All I need is a subject, but in the rural backwaters of Asia I’ve rarely long to wait. Take one obvious westerner with a big camera, plonk said homo sapien down by a ford in Laos and very quickly I become an object of curiosity to the locals. It works every time. So before I know it I’m shooting kids as they pass by on their way to school. A few frames are exposed and they all jostle around to see the glowing image on the monitor; shrieks of recognition and laughter, how did we do this in the film era? There’s much gesturing and fingers behind heads, it’s all part of the game but not really the shot I want. But the image will come to me, I can feel that. The light is great; soft, directional and tropical. One girl stands apart from the group, watching me intently, seriously. She is the face of Laos. As I kneel down to position her in the frame her expression changes not a bit, her eyes boring into my lens. At this focal length I need to be uncomfortably close but it bothers her not a bit. I half depress the shutter, lock focus and recompose. Done. Five frames, all virtually identical, with that slightly haunting look.

I ride back to Vang Vien, thoughtful. In the market rats and Ritz crackers will be on offer. The backpackers will be watching endless repeats of Friends in the bars. For me the future’s bright and orange as we’re moving on to Luang Prabang, the Monk Capital of Laos. I like this 24mm lens. It’s super sharp and fast. Wide open the coverage isn’t uniform, unsurprisingly. A touch of vignetting is apparent, but it’s a relatively easy factor to dial out at the RAW conversion stage. Actually, with this shot I chose not to, the slight “tunnel” effect of the darkening of the corners helps to concentrate the attention on the subject. I’m realising I’m developing an expensive taste in super fast lenses, but you just can’t beat that fuzzy background feel in life and photography.

Biography

http://www.davidnoton.com

Born in England in 1957, David spent much of his youth travelling with his family between the UK, California and Canada. After leaving school David joined the Navy in search of further travels and adventures – and it was while sailing the seven seas that his interest in photography grew. After several years at sea he decided to pursue his passion for photography and returned to study in Gloucester, England. After leaving college in 1985 he began work as a freelance photographer specialising in landscape and other travel subjects, which over the last 25 years, have taken him to almost every corner of the globe.

David is now established and recognised as one of the UK’s leading landscape and travel photographers. His images sell all over the world – both as fine art photography and commercially in advertising and publishing. He has won international awards for: British Gas/ BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards in 1985,1989 & 1990 and also writes regularly about landscape and travel photography for a number of national and international magazines. David has worked for numerous clients including British Airways, Sainsbury’s, Geo, Toyota, Qantas, Sunday Times and the Telegraph. During the last twenty years he has also worked extensively for the National Trust covering much of the UK’s landscape and coastline, which has featured in many high profile publications and several highly acclaimed photographic exhibitions. Most notably:

‘New Vision’ Contemporary Art Photography – AOP Gallery
‘The Coast Exposed’ – Maritime Museum Greenwich and the Lowry
‘Climate Change – in Britain’s Back Yard!’ – London, Nottingham, Wales, Belfast, Bristol

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Photographyblog, Garden Shoot

Millions of people throughout the world love gardens and gardening. At International Garden Photographer of the Year we get over 20,000 entries from people who want to celebrate their - or someone else's - garden.

It's easy isn't it? Gardens are, by definition, places full of visual interest, lovely colours, wonderful textures, easy to get to (walk out of the back door), great! - so what's the problem?

At International Garden Photographer of the Year we offer feedback to anyone who has entered a photograph and has not won. This way we can begin to understand some of the common issues that come up to prevent photographers from being really happy with their images.

Our category 'Garden Views' is one that throws up a lot of questioning and doubt.

"This garden was absolutely fantastic to walk around - I don't think I've captured that atmosphere."

"This was a great vista but my photo makes it look cluttered up with other things."

"This border was full of colour and texture. How can I bring this out in a photograph when I can't fit it all in?"

Spring at King Johns Lodge
Claire Takacs
Third Place: Garden Views category - International Garden Photographer of the Year 2009

Getting your Eye In

Many professional garden photographers have one thing in common.

When they go to a garden for the first time, they take no photographs. Often, they will do a 'recce' first - to see what kind of garden it is, to see what's there, and to understand how the sun travels across it during the day. The camera stays in the car. They will look in detail at the planting, assessing various viewpoints. They will talk to the gardener to understand what he or she thinks is important about the garden. And the most important question the photographer will ask is:

What is it about this garden that makes it special?

And the answer to that question will provide the starting point for the shoot. Everything else will flow from here.

Water Garden
Jason Liske
Commended: International Garden Photographer of the Year 2009

In this photograph, it is clear that Jason Liske is very familiar with this garden. This garden is not big on colour or texture - it is a wildflower 'meadow' garden with a pool. So there is no focus on these elements. What this garden is about is the open air and the relationship of water and sky - in short - Jason has photographed the atmosphere of this garden. He has done this by choosing his viewpoint very carefully and by picking the time of day.

Right time, right place

A garden looks so different at different times of day. The various parts of the garden are lit up by the sun, the shade offered by trees changes shape and size all the time. Flowers open and close and spin around to face the sun!

That is why professional photographers will often revisit a particular garden time and time again at different times - it is hardly ever the same twice. And of course it changes throughout the seasons.

In summer in the Northern Hemisphere it is often easier to create atmosphere in a garden photograph with morning or evening light. In the morning you have the added bonus of dew to create sparkle and mood. But evening light can be warmer in tone - and the flowers do not look so sleepy! For me, the ultimate light is in the evening after an afternoon rain shower.

But gardens offer a lot for the photographer at any season.

The Circle
Nicholas Hastings Winch
Commended: International Garden Photographer of the Year 2009-07-08

Here, Nicholas has used the subdued colours of a winter evening to great effect.

Viewpoints

Photographing a garden is a bit like photographing a small landscape. The same considerations are in place when attempting to capture a vista or wide view. Choose the viewpoint very carefully and compose the view in the viewfinder. Create interest in the foreground of a wide shot. Use natural shapes like trees and shrubs to balance the composition. Create a sense of depth by leading the eye 'into' the frame.

Cruden Farm
Simon Griffiths
Commended International Garden Photographer of the Year 2009-07-08

Simon's composition is beautifully balanced, with a strong sense of perspective and direction into the frame.

Make sure you keep the viewer's eye inside the frame. At International Garden Photographer of the Year we see a lot of shots where an area of white sky leads the eye out of the frame. It's usually possible to change your viewpoint to eliminate a white sky. You can use a graduated filter to darken the sky, or do this in post-production with Photoshop.

Choosing your viewpoint is not just about moving a metre or two either way. What about getting up high? Is there a balcony or even roof you can shoot from?

Andrea Jones
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Garden
Finalist: International Garden Photographer of the Year 2009

Andrea has chosen a specific viewpoint in order to create a balanced composition, with all the elements in visual harmony.

But unlike landscapes, gardens are man made. Often gardeners or garden designers have created visual focal points in the garden already. The photographer needs to be aware of this and use the opportunity if it is appropriate.

Dennis Frates
Portland Japanese Garden. Finalist International Garden Photographer of the Year 2009-07-08

Look at the way that Dennis has used the carefully-positioned Japanese sculpture to anchor the composition. Try putting a finger over the sculpture and see how less satisfying the composition becomes without it.

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