|
09 January 2012
10 things they never teach you about being a Professional Photographer
Part 2 if you are considering photography as a profession, these tips may prove invaluable as you establish yourself...
6. You don’t have to be perfect
There’s a difference to perfection and getting an image that your client is happy with. New photographers will often strive to create the best, most perfect image they can, but don’t be afraid of making mistakes or not producing work that is mind-blowing everytime. Things aren’t always perfect and learning to accept ‘good enough,’ can be sufficient to earn the fee or make it to the next step.
However, don’t think that passing any old rubbish off is going to work. Knowing what other people see as perfection, as opposed to your own interpretation and differentiating between the two is a good skill to learn. Times will come when that perfect image is presented to you and you should grab it with all your worth, but day in and day out work needs to be to a certain high standard, without being a prize winner each time.
7. Re-invent yourself and evolve
Moving with the times is an important lesson in your photography career. Trends come and go in all aspects of photography and keeping ahead of these or at least up with them, will help you greatly. Keeping one eye on the photo libraries and how photography is being used in magazines is crucial to keep you in the game and not be left behind whilst others evolve. Magazine styles constantly change and new editors like different styles of pictures to their predecessors. Agencies want work that will sell tomorrow, not yesterday. Pictures that sell today, will not necessarily work tomorrow, so keep your work fresh, your ideas creative and evolve your photography so that it doesn’t become stale.
8. Find stories and ideas.
You can’t always rely on clients to offer you work with commissions and a lot of the time they are ready to snap up those who come to them with a bright and creative idea. The challenge then is coming up with new assignments and fresh ideas and luckily, you don’t always need to travel far to find them. The best stories they say are always under your nose. So, working close to home is another point worth remembering and for the photographer, using what is available on your own doorstep can save you time and money. Local knowledge is a vital tool.
9. Its not what you know, its who
This has lots of relevance in the modern world of social networking, but has played a part in all photographers’ careers over the years. Having inside knowledge or a friend who does, can often be the key to successful commissions and long-term jobs. So, keep contact with those you do meet, build up friendships and let people know who you are and what you do and those unexpected encounters will be sure to appear.
10. The fine balance of career and family life
It can be all too easy to devote 100% of your time developing your career at the expense of others around you. This is especially so in the early years as you work hard to build contacts and increase your flow of work. Even when established, there are times when you may have to say no to work if there are too many compromises to ignore. Keeping a happy medium is the key to a happier life, but the pressure to succeed can be so great that you can easily get caught in the trap. Waking up one day and realising that you have missed your child’s early years, can never be replaced, but even just making time for friends and family is as important as your career, as no job is worth sacrificing your loved ones for.
Remember these ten key points and you’re sure to go far in your career. You’ll find they apply in some way or another whichever area of photography you specialise in and they should be in the back of your mind as you go through the highs and lows of building your career. Unlike the Ten Commandments, they are not etched in stone and you may find that you are able to rewrite the rules they lay down. But at the same time, some will become very familiar to the situations you encounter and for that they are some of the most valuable tips you will ever need.
07 January 2012
10 things they never teach you about being a Professional Photographer
Part 1
Learning the craft of photography is one thing, knowing the finer points of the business is another and these skills away from the camera itself are often the key to success. To make a career in this volatile business, takes time, skill and dedication. However, no school or college ever teaches you the life lessons you need to survive as a professional photographer. There are certain facts that every budding photographer needs to know when embarking on a career, yet sadly no one ever tells you. Until now...
1. 95% is office work, 5% is actually taking pictures
The glamorous perception of being a professional photographer can seem appealing to any newcomer. Travelling the world on assignments, taking pictures of beautiful models, stunning landscapes or products for blue chip clients and generally making a living out of what was maybe once a hobby. The reality though can be quite different. Before you even think of loading the camera bag for that next assignment or pre-planned shoot, there is the small matter of the paperwork, the phone calls, emails, letters, editing, processing, manipulation and filing. And that’s just the start of it. Next you need to think about balancing the books, tax returns, chasing invoices, assuring the Bank Manager the money’s on the way, re-chasing the invoices and uploading images. It’s all part of the business of being a photographer and yet all these inconveniences stop you from actually being out there taking pictures. Don’t undervalue them though, as you wouldn’t have a photography business if you didn’t keep on top of these tasks.
2. How to market your work
Just being a capable photographer doesn’t make the images sell. Before you even press the shutter, you have to know where and how that picture is going to sell. Trying to sell a picture that you have already taken, you’ll soon find is very much the wrong approach and less likely to gain you a sale. Having a definite or at least potential market to sell your work is obviously the key to success. However, marketing is a mystery to most photographers but has to be learnt from day one if you are going to be a success, as it’s just as important as taking the pictures. Promoting your work is all about promoting yourself and if you get this wrong, you and your business will suffer. Don’t try and make up potential markets for the images either. If they are to sell, there has to be viable markets and trying to sell a pretty landscape to a magazine with no story behind it for instance, is often going to reward you with a cold rejection.
3. How to price your work
Knowing how much to charge is one of the most frequently asked questions by photographers new to the business. The answer to this surprisingly, is that there is no answer! You have to figure out yourself how much you think you are worth. Of course, not wanting to price yourself out of the market is your goal, but at the same time, charging too little is not going help you survive for very long. Clients will often want to pay less than you think you are worth, that’s inevitable, but undercutting your rivals is going to set your bar to low, which you’ll find raising is more difficult than the first approach.
You need to consider several factors, such as what is the value of the image and what is the value of your time? Also, consider just how much are you worth and how exactly you are going to convince a client of this? If a client doesn’t want to pay your rate, then it’s probably best to walk away, rather than lower your prices. Principles are going to hold you in good stead in the long run. Well, that’s the idea anyway! There are some jobs were you may have to accept what the client is paying, working for certain magazines for instance, however, knowing the pro rata rates should help you decide whether that magazine is worth dealing with in the first place. Again, some are worth walking away from, as there’s often better around the next corner.
4. Handling rejection
Rejection can be the hardest thing to deal with in any business and having your work rejected can be like a knife in a fragile ego. Remaining positive and using rejection as an incentive to improve yourself, is the only way to deal with it. All photographers have to face rejection, experience failure and handle criticism some time in their career, but you need to have enough confidence in yourself to absorb it, build on it and move on. It often isn’t a personal attack, but more often a matter of bad timing or targeting the wrong market (go back to point 2 and miss a turn). If you can rise above it and actually improve your photography on the back of a rejection, it will make you a better person and hopefully avoid the same mistakes again. Being able to accept twenty rejections to get that one yes, is what makes a strong-minded and successful photographer.
5. It’s the photographer, not the camera
This is a great lesson to learn for any newcomer to the profession, when you are trying to get a lucky break with the limited equipment you have acquired so far. The wrong perception can often seem, that to make it big, you need all the latest kit and equipment that the fully established pro’s use to match the success they have, but it’s important to note, the equipment doesn’t make the photographer. So, fortunately, you can still get that foot in the door by making the most of what you have got and allow your photography skills to create the picture, not the camera.
Having hi-tech gear worth thousands is more about making things easier for yourself, rather than a necessity and often the most memorable and saleable images you see, will not be taken on the most expensive camera in the world, but instead with a simple manual camera and with very little else in the set up. Preparation, dedication, determination and importantly, knowing your subject are key to getting prize-winning pictures more than anything else. People should comment on your image, not what you used to take it.
Part two to follow...
05 January 2012
New Technique Guides
Happy New Year to you all.
I have added five new Technique Guides to the website available to purchase and download. Some are published articles, whilst others are brand new unpublished guides, so you get to see them first! Check them out here and start the new year by learning a new technique.
I have also updated the Latest Work gallery, with some of my images from the last few months.
Also, as a reminder, if you received a new camera for Christmas and are struggling to get the best from it, the Online Photography Course could be just the solution you are looking for to learn all about landscape photography. It has been fully updated for 2012 and features even more techniques, information and tuition. If you want to learn landscape photography the easy way, this unique course could be the one for you.
You can even try a sample lesson of the course for a reduced price of £4.99, which will be refunded if you enrol on the full course. So, join an ever growing number of students from all around the world who have enroled on the course and take your photography to a new level in 2012.
08 July 2011
The Naked Sale
From today, you can view and purchase some of my prints from Cupola Contemporary Art in Sheffield, which are on sale as part of their Naked Sale Exhibition, which runs from 8 July- 31 July. On display will be some of my Lomography prints, all taken with the much loved Holga camera, as well as several digital images from my Time and Motion collection.
The prints are being sold unframed, in white mounts and therefore the prints, as well as all the other work for sale, have a maximum price of £100. Do go along and take a look in you are in the area. See link for details of the gallery and how to get there.
22 June 2011
New Technique Guides
Two new Technique Guides are now available to download from the website. The first is a new unpublished guide that looks at 10 of my favourite images. Covering many techniques, it provides an insight into the thought process and approach I take when shooting landscape subjects. The second guide is an in-depth look at the Bulb mode. This often overlooked feature has so many possibilities, yet rarely gets as much use as the other modes available. See what it can do for your photography by checking out this new guide. Both guides are available to download from here.
20 May 2011
Gallery updates
After several days of work, I have now updated, refreshed, jigged around, enlarged and generally improved the Gallery pages on the site. The main images are now categorised by location and panoramics are now divided into two, with a separate garden panoramics gallery. This should make it easier to navigate around, as well as make it more efficient for myself to update.
In other news, the Online Photography Course continues to go from strength to strength, with new students enroling from many European countries, the USA, as well as here in the UK too. As well as new students, several are about to leave the course having completed their 12 month term and it’s rewarding to see the vast improvement these photographers have made throughout the course.
If you too are looking for an alternative to the regular location-based workshop, which may not suit your lifestyle or way of learning, then take a look at the online course available on the website and see if it is the course to help you get the most out of your photography. It really is the ideal way to learn digital landscape photography, but don’t just take my word for it, read the testimonials from past students who found it the perfect way to improve their photography.
26 February 2011
New Waterfall Technique Guide
I have put a new Technique Guide up on the website ready for downloading, all about shooting waterfalls. These popular subjects are often not the easiest things to photograph successfully, so this guide gives you lots of hints and tips on how to get stunning and creative shots everytime. Available for just £2.99, check out this new guide here.
20 December 2010
Print Shop Open
I am pleased to announce that the Print Shop on the website is now officially open. You can now buy a selection of my images as fine art prints in a choice of two editions. The Open Editions are an affordable way to purchase, with prices starting at just £20 for a high quality A4 print. The Limited Editions are available for the same images, however they are larger in size, giving you the chance to appreciate the image at its best, and also printed on exhibition quality fine art paper to make full use of the colour and tones in the image. These are limited to 50 editions of each image, making them more select and collectable. Both types of prints are supplied as the print only, ready for mounting and framing.
The Print Shop is divided into four categories: Colour, Black and White, Panoramic and Lomography. There are also some Special Offer Prints available with 40% of the full price and these are supplied ready to frame in conservation quality white mounts.
All the prints are available to purchase via PayPal’s secure shopping cart and most credit cards are accepted. So for full information about the prints and to see the full selection of images available, visit the Print Shop today
13 October 2010
Technique Guides to download
You can now purchase and download a selection of technique guides on a range of photographic techniques from the website. The magazine style articles are either previously published features or newly written articles and are therefore packed with techniques, information and tips on various photography subjects, all illustrated with my own images. They come as PDF files, which therefore makes them ideal for reading on your computer or reading on the go on your i-Phone, i-Pad or any other PDF compatible device. You can of course print them off too.
There are currently four guides available, but more will be added all the time and are available for immediate download after checkout, so keep checking back to see what’s new. Choose the subjects that suit you or try a new technique you haven’t tried before. Each guide is available to buy separately, starting at just £2.99 each, so pick just one or download them all and give your photography a boost today. Click here to see the guides available.
19 September 2010
The Loneliness of the freelance photographer
I was inspired to write this blog post from a new feature that one of the photography magazines is doing at the moment, about photographers getting together to help one another out with questions and advice on freelance photography. The United States of Photography has been set up by Professional Photographer magazine, which they say is a new country that any photographer can be a part of and features no border and no rules. If you are a photographer and have a website, you are free to join and become a member.
This made me realise just how lonely the life of a freelance photographer is and through my own experience know of the stresses and strains of working for myself can produce. I realised however, that I am probably not alone in these thoughts and every other photographer who works for themselves must be going through the same thing too.
I then got to thinking about social networking and I, like many other photographers are on Facebook and have their own Facebook page, as well as a list of friends within the business. But, there’s another issue, are these people my ‘friends’ or foes? Like many of the friends that you have on Facebook, I have never personally met a lot of the people on my list, but I know of them through working in the photography business over the years and know of their work. I interact with them though various posts on both my own and their walls on the site and we flick ideas about, as well as reviewing each others new images. But, as many of these photographers work in the same market as I do, surely they are not just friends or colleagues, but enemies and potential rivals to my own work. Should I trust these friends? Should I really be interacting with them? Am I damaging my sales potential by doing so, or am I gaining something by networking them? I have had several messages from colleagues asking advice from me over the years and I too have sought advice from them. The message usually starts ‘I hope you don’t mind me asking you...’, as they are seeking knowledge from me and presumably hoping to benefit from the answer. Should I be revealing any trade secrets that I have picked up over the years and should they trust the answer I give them? If I see that they are asking questions about one of my potential or existing markets or clients, should I steer them down the wrong path to avoid losing a sale myself?!
It can be hard for any new photographer wanting to start a business, to know the ins and outs of getting work published and who to turn to for advice. The common route for gaining experience always used to be assisting a fellow pro photographer and leaning the business this way, but, surely that assistant could one day be stealing your clients. Now that we all do our own darkroom processing ourselves and no longer go to the lab several times a week, where we might bump into fellow photographers and swop ideas, we are interacting less and less with people in the industry and fellow photographers. We also all have websites to show our work, which means less trips to clients with a portfolio and all correspondence is done by e-mail, so it seems we are spending more and more time working alone and not networking in the traditional way and so the life of a freelancer feels even more lonely and isolated.
So, maybe social networks like Facebook and Twitter are the way forward for photographers to meet up, swop ideas and seek advice, as where else do you go for this kind of interaction. I offer from my website, a Shoot to Sell module that comes from my main Online Photography Course and offers to help new photographers and give them useful tips and advice on how to sell their work. I also, like many landscape photographers offer photography workshops to teach people how to take pictures in the first place. Am I doing the right thing with these two advice portals? Am I selling my secrets to potential rivals or am I helping photographers to get that rung on the ladder, just like I needed when I fist started out?
Having someone to turn to when you work for yourself is therefore a welcome resource. It helps to know someone who has already been there and done it. If you get offered a fee from a new client for a job, is it enough, or would you be selling yourself short? You have to make these decisions for yourself and it’s your next meal on the table or mortgage payment that’s at stake. If you have a fellow colleague who has been in the same situation themselves, then having them to ask advice from can be a godsend. It’s a cut-throat business with people wanting to pay less and less for photography more than ever these days and so us photographers should stick together and help one another where they can. Without each others help, it’s a lonely profession and you can soon feel like a small fish in a big sea. Together though, we could become bigger fish in a friendly pond, and without any sharks to worry about!
15 September 2010
New Images in Project Gallery
I have been recently practicing my street photography skills on the streets of London and Sheffield, mainly with my newly acquired Olympus Trip film camera. The camera’s auto exposure, zone focusing and compact form make it ideal for the job and I was even surprised by its ability to correctly expose images on transparency film, rather than having to rely on print film with its wider tolerance exposure error.
Street photography makes a refreshing change to my usual landscape work, but you have to be in the ‘zone’ as it were to be able to spot funny/amusing/odd/quirky images that you would normally just pass by without noticing. It takes a lot of concentrating and a keen eye, but it’s lots of fun nonetheless. You can see my first results in the new Street Views gallery, which aren’t bad for first attempts and it really is a case of being in the right place at the right time, which you can’t really predict, but I the more I am out there with the camera, the more likely I am able to catch that split second, moment in time situation, that looks great on film. Watch this space.
05 August 2010
My film camera family
Having added a new film camera to my collection this week, I thought I would give you a low down on the cameras that I now own. The latest edition is the Olympus Trip 35, made famous by the David Bailey adverts in the 70’s, I have just run a test film through it, but have yet to see the results and am hoping it will make an ideal camera for street photography. A poor man’s Leica if you like. It looks very much like the new Olympus Pen E-P1 and of course this camera would make an ideal digital equivalent. However, for me, film is still cool, so for £10 this is a great alternative.
Holga GFN
My first toy camera and what started my obsession with old film cameras. This camera has given me the best results to date, so it really is the original and the best. I shoot with 400 ISO negative film to guarantee exposures and love the blurry, sweet centre spot, vignetting, square images it produces. The back is sealed with gaffer tape, purely to stop the back falling off. Others fully gaffer tape theirs to seal it from light leaks, but mine doesn’t really suffer from this and if it did, I would take this as a bonus that adds to the results.
I have an adapter to allow me to use grad filters, for any landscape images I do with the camera, but mostly prefer to shoot around town with it.
Diana F+
A very similar camera to the Holga. I bought this new version of the original, as you can buy different lenses for it, so I added a 38mm ultra wide angle lens (the standard Diana and Holga have a 60mm), so that I can include more into the composition where necessary. The top viewfinder is needed for the new wide angle lens.
Fisheye 2
From the same family as the Holga and Diana, but producing a 170 fisheye picture. Not quite the quality as a expensive fisheye lens for your digital SLR, but then no where near the price either. A very fun camera to use and this MK2 version actually has a viewfinder, whereas the original MK1 came without one and relied on guesswork for the composition! I have found it needs a sunny day for best results, just because it includes so much sky in the shot, that an image with a cloudy sky just looks dull.
Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim.
This is one of several cameras that can fit in with the toy camera family, even if it was not the manufacturers intention when it was produced. Basically a 35mm film compact with a very wider 22mm lens, but it suffers to a certain extent the same vignetting corner characteristics as the Holga.
Zero Image 2000.
I call this my long exposure Holga, as it is a camera to use on a tripod and use at exposures longer than one second. The classic camera in terms of photography history still produces wonderful images and this beauty in brass and wood from Zero Image is a joy to use.
Looking to the future, I would like to add a classic Lomo LC-A+. This is basically a well-made Holga and looking much moe like a conventional compact camera, but prices have soared for this camera due to popularity and a great alternative may be a another Olympus, the XA, if anyone remembers these?
My other addition I am currently searching for, is the Polaroid SX70 Land Camera, although again, finding a cheap one is proving to be a challenge. Even if I do mange to find one, obtaining the film is another problem, since Polaroid gave up making film a while ago. There is a company making their own version however, but as with all Polaroid cameras produced over the years, it won’t be cheap to run.
02 August 2010
How to prompt an editor
I read somewhere recently of a photographer who had an identical idea to me about contacting editors, so thought I would be worth blogging due to the similar trains of thought. Editors are busy people, granted, but often the most annoying aspect for freelance contributors is receiving no reply at all to your submission, unless perhaps you work is accepted. Which begs the question, how do you know if you are free to send you work out to another magazine title, if you don’t know if it has been rejected by the first one?
If I send my query by e-mail and haven’t had a reply within a reasonable amount of time (about two weeks), I then send a second one. So that I am not seen as pestering them for a reply however, I put in the mail: “My apologies for this e-mail if you have seen it before, but I have been having trouble with my e-mails lately and am resending this submission again, just in case you didn’t receive it first time round.”
This often prompts the editor into giving a reply and in one case, one came back to say he had never even received the first e-mail (which I will have to take his word on). This I may never have known if I hadn’t tried this second approach. Another editor actually went on to use my work, which is obviously what I wanted. This just goes to show that this simple way to send a reminder or perhaps tap their conscience, pays when dealing with some editors.
31 July 2010
Shoot to Sell Bonus Module
Hot on the heals of the new Photoshop for Beginners module, comes another bonus module, Shoot to Sell, now available to buy and download. This lesson (also available as part of the full Advanced Project Tuition Course) aims to teach you all you need to know about how to sell your images. From submitting pictures to photography magazines, supplying online photo libraries or shooting images for calendar use, this lesson has all the inside tips, to help you earn money from your images.
As with the Photoshop for Beginners module, this second module gives you practical assignments to complete and then return for review. The feedback I offer will give you great tips and useful information and help you to make your images saleable.
Make your photography pay and take the first steps to a photography career as a full time pro.
For full details of the module and to download your copy, click here
29 July 2010
Photoshop for Beginners Bonus Module
To compliment the Project Tuition Course, a new Photoshop for Beginners Bonus Module is now available to buy and download. This new lesson covers the basic skills that are required to improve you images after capture, whether shooting with Jpeg or Raw files. The main course doesn’t go into the computer side of digital photography, as it is all about teaching the skills in camera craft. This bonus module is the perfect addition then and gives you a simple and easy to understand guide to basic editing techniques, so that you can get the full benefits of digital photography.
This new module is going to be the first of several bonus modules available and comes after much interest and requests from course students, as well as emails from many new photographers, who were looking for this type of tuition. As with all the lessons in the course, this new module, gives you practical assignments to complete, based on the lesson, which you can send to me for review and critique. Unlike a text book then, this guide gives you feedback on what you have learnt, guaranteeing that you fully understand the techniques described, so that you can start to fully enjoy your digital photography from edit to finished picture.
For full details of the module and to download your copy, see the new web page here.
21 July 2010
Happy Birthday!
The original Project Tuition Course (now known as the Beginner's Course) has been running for one year now and what a year it has been. The original concept came about to offer something very different to the on-location workshops that other photographer’s were running. It was a gamble at the time whether or not there was a market out there for such a course, especially as the traditional workshops seemed to selling like hotcakes by all those photographer’s that were offering them. It seemed my instinct was right though and there were plenty of people new to photography that wanted another way of learning. Keeping the course tailored towards travel and landscape photography as well, was a wise move. After all it’s the photography I do day in, day out and have done for over twenty years, so it seemed only natural to offer a course dedicated to the subject. The fact that no one else out there was offering such a course, made it even more unique.
One year on and the course has progressed to offer its services to both beginners and advanced users. So, a big thank you to everyone who enroled in the first year (and those who are currently on the course as it goes into the second) and I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have. Good luck to you all with your future photography.
19 July 2010
New Advanced level course now available
I am pleased to announce that a new Advanced Level is available on the Project Tuition Course. This is perfect for anyone who already has good knowledge of the basic photography skills, but now wants to take their photography to the next level. Perhaps you have already completed a photography course in basic photography or you just already have a good understanding of apertures, shutter speeds, exposure and composition. Well now this new course will put your knowledge to the test and help you to progress into a highly skilled landscape photographer.
The Advanced course still comes with all the course notes from the Beginners course, however the aim of the course is not to teach you the basics again, as you will already have a grasp of the key skills. Instead, the course is designed to test your skills and help you develop them with more in-depth and challenging assignments based on the basic skills. By completing them and sending them for review, you will push your knowledge of each key element to the max and really get to understand them in depth. Each of the ten modules you will do, have five assignments to complete, which will really explore each skill or subject in full. You may think you know about composition or the use of colour in photography, but these assignments will put that to the test and help you fully understand them.
However, don’t worry if you feel that you might get out of your depth at any stage. The course notes are there to refresh your memory and of course, as your tutor, I’m there to push you to develop your skills on the stuff you know about, but guide you on any that you are less confident on. Head over to the Online Photography Course page for more details and see if this is the course you have been waiting for.
In addition to this, there is also a new Beginners Course with extra tuition added on. The new Combination Course offers you the same 12 month Beginners Course, with the added bonus of a One2One Workshop day. This way you get the best of both worlds, with both online and on location tuition, so that you can test your new skills in either a countryside, coastal or urban environment. Check out this exciting new course on the Online Photography Course page.
10 July 2010
New articles online
July has been a quiet month for me so far, regarding picture taking. I have been writing new articles, reviewing students work from the Project Tuition Course and generally doing everything except taking pictures. You can see some of my latest articles featured in photography magazines over the last few months, in the Published Work gallery. There’s lots more to come too, including a travel feature for one of the caravan magazines, a feature on taking pictures of your kids at an adventure park and guide to shooting at the Notting Hill Carnival. All will be uploaded in due course.
Apart from a couple of one to one tuition days, I did also get a chance the other week to head into the Yorkshire Dales to photograph the buttercups and barns in the summer meadows, which looked wonderful in the warm sunshine. I took some on digital of course, but also took the Holga along for some unique takes on this popular location.
There are some more examples in the UK Gallery, which I have also updated with some other new images from the past few months.
29 June 2010
Try the Online Course now for free!
If you were considering enrolling on my online digital photography course, but were not 100% sure it was the right course for you, you can now try an introduction lesson for free! Just register your e-mail details and I will send you this special introductory lesson for you to read through and complete. You can then send me your completed assignment and photos and I will review it in the same was as I do with the regular course lessons. Based on this lesson, you can then decide whether the course is right for you and if you want to sign up for the full course. If not, then fine, you do not need to do anything else and you owe nothing.
The introductory lesson is a completely free taster to the rest of the course and you can try it with no obligation to buy the full course, such is my confidence that this course is the one that is unique to all others. But don’t take my word for it, read the testimonials of my students from the passed year who have completed the course and are now enjoying their photography. It’s been a delight for me to see so many people, who were quite literally scared of using their cameras, having the confidence to go out and take great pictures, just as they have longed to do.
If the full course is a little out of your price range, then you may be interested in the new Value Edition now available. This new, shorter version of the course runs for 12 weeks and costs just £150, making it exceptional value for money. For this, you will learn all the essential techniques to take fantastic landscape photographs time and time again and gain the confidence to venture out on your own without any guidance, knowing that you can produce successful images with your newfound knowledge!
19 June 2010
Poppies
I have added a new set of pictures to the Projects Gallery. These are of one of my favourite flowers, poppies, that are currently in full bloom. Their bright colour is unique and they fill the fields with a blaze of red, which is wonderful to photograph. I waited for a window of good weather and captured the latest crop in the field behind my house (which was convenient). Their deep, red colour is fantastic to capture with a rich, blue sky acting as a backdrop and works well as complete opposites on the colour wheel. One a very cool colour and the other a fiery warm one, giving contrasting colours, which creates pictures with lots of impact.
The gallery consists of my best shots from this year, as well as previous years efforts. I think my creativity in capturing them is getting better each time!
20 May 2010
Power to the People
I have added a new set of images in the the Projects Gallery of some old and new work taken at nearby power stations. The project originated a few years ago, when I wanted to show that certain ‘blots on the landscape’ could be photogenic if you turn their ugliness upside down and use it to your benefit. Subjects in this category included power stations, electricity pylons and the modern energy resource, wind turbines. All these man made structures have been slated for their effect on the environment, as well as on the eye. Therefore my aim in the project, was to embrace them, rather than curse their existence on the landscape and show them as things of beauty by photographing them in a creative way. Check out the new gallery here and see if your perception changes at all on how you view these industrial giants from now on.
14 May 2010
Best of spring project gallery
Although the cold weather and general lack of sunshine could deceive you, we are now well and truly into spring and everything that is due to sprout into life..has, if a little late for some things. As usual, I try to keep abreast as each element makes an appearance and photograph it before it disappears again, which can be very quick with some flowers. I started back in February with the snowdrops and have just finished with the oil seed rape that has turned every other field in sight into a mass of yellow. Most images have been taken within a few miles of home, which makes catching each species at its peak all the more easier, though I do travel to locations that excel in their displays of a certain flower, as well as try new locations around the country for new and exciting angles and compositions to keep images fresh and original each year.
Anyway, the best of this years examples can be found in a gallery of their own on the Projects Gallery page. Enjoy and don’t forget to get you own versions before everything disappears for another year.
15 April 2010
New Workshop Dates and new price on the Project Tuition Course
I am pleased to announce some new dates for the One Day Photography Workshops. I am staying with the same locations as chosen for earlier in the year and hope that these prove as popular once again. They are still limited to just three places, so that you are guaranteed full personal tuition in a small, friendly group. Go to the Workshops page for dates, more details and to sign up for one of the superb locations on offer.
In other news, to celebrate the arrival of spring, I am now able to reduce the price of the online Project Tuition Course by a massive 20%, due to its overwhelming success, making it even more value for money. So, now is the time to make the most of your new digital camera and start shooting landscapes with confidence, by enroling on the course that is unique to all others. Rest assured, the course has not been compromised in any way and still offers a fantastic, alternative way to learn digital landscape photography. You can still opt to pay by monthly instalments instead of one lump sum, so that you can pay-as-you-learn, thus making it even easier on your pocket. To enrol, head over to the Project Tuition Course page now.
27 March 2010
One2One workshop and tuition now available
If you are struggling to get to grips with your new digital camera and you are a little nervous about attending a photography workshop with a group of other photographers, then the new one-to-one tuition workshop may be just what you have been looking for. This can take place on location in the Yorkshire Dales, Moors or Peak District or in a location of your choice where you can have personal and more involved tuition to guide you through the basics of photography in a stunning location. Alternatively, the tuition take place in the comfort of your own home, where we can through the controls and functions of your camera, learn about the basic techniques and review your portfolio.
If your camera is confusing you and stopping you from enjoying your new hobby then head over to the Workshops page and see full details of the One2One tuition service.
15 March 2010
Rain doesn’t stop play!
I’ve been trying to work out for a while now, how to devise a way of attaching an umbrella to my tripod, so that I can continue to work when there is a light shower of rain, when otherwise I would need to pack up my gear and head back to the car. I now seem to have come up with a solution and the pics here show you how it works.
I needed to use an umbrella, as the purpose made rain covers or even a plastic bag are only ideal when using long lenses, where a lens hood would shield the lens front element from getting wet. However, I mainly use wide angle lenses and the supplied lens hoods are not usually deep enough to stop rain from gathering on the front element. Hence the umbrella attachment was the obvious choice.
It was made using a simple clamp bought from a DIY store, which was attached with a nut and bolt to a tilting mount, usually used in a studio situation for holding a lighting brolly close to a flashgun on a stand. I cut the handle off the umbrella I bought, to allow it to slide into the hole in the bracket which is then tightened into position with a lock screw. I modified the umbrella slightly by adding an extension to the main metal shaft to give it more height and raise it enough above the camera.
It won’t work in all situations of course, as most landscapes will not benefit from being photographed in the rain, but for long exposure images at the coast, night shots, waterfalls etc, it’s going to be ideal. The other situation where it may not work, is if there is a strong breeze, as this will be caught by the umbrella and thus create camera shake by moving the tripod. When this happens, I will probably use the umbrella attachment whilst setting up and then remove the umbrella from the clamp, which is a simple maneuver involving a quick undo of a lock screw and hold the umbrella in my hand whilst taking the exposure. And of course by removing the clamp and folding the tilting mount, it can still be used as a normal umbrella between locations. I think it’s time I got in touch with Dragon’s Den and perhaps I should Patent the idea in case its a potential money spinner!
09 March 2010
New pics
A small selection of images have been added to the UK Gallery taken in wintery conditions in the Peak District. Lets hope this is the last images of the year that feature snow!
22 February 2010
Ever the optimist
With the weather not playing game for a planned trip to shoot landscapes in the Peak District last week, I decided to embrace the unfortunate conditions and make the most of them instead of curse them. Thick fog wrapped itself round my village and the nearby town, so I headed into the woods and local park to capture this ‘bad’ weather to shoot some eerie, claustrophobic images that are a change from the usual landscape views I take. If anything, they made a change to the snow landscapes that I and most other photographers seemed to have been shooting since Christmas! The local park was down to 50 yards in visibility and the surrounding trees were ideal to shoot as they were the only things looming out of the fog. They gave an ideal sense of depth as they slowly disappeared into the fog in the background and the poor visibility hid any distracting objects that are normally seen on a clear, bright day.
I was after a sense of isolation and fear in the shots of the wood and my son became the model for the day to provide the obligatory mysterious figure in the last image. This is just the type of image one of my photo libraries loves, so I’m glad I decided venture out and just by changing tactics, I was rewarded with an alternative set of interesting pictures.
29 January 2010
Fishy fun
I’ve added another page of images in the Toy Camera gallery, taken with the Lomography Fisheye 2 camera. One of the last remaining film cameras that I now use and something that digital has yet to replace with as good as an effect, especially at this price! Just like the Holga, its lo-fi results are more than made up with the creative images it produces and its great fun to use to boot. The unusual positions I have put myself in to get up close and personal to the subject are to comical to mention, but the results speak for themselves and I urge you to try one of these cameras yourself if you want to try some cheap photography entertainment that will test your creativity.
And speaking of creativity, you might also like to check out the March issue of Practical Photography magazine for my guide to shooting fantastic silhouettes. A copy of the article will appear in the Published Work gallery in due course.
20 January 2010
Gallery Update
I have made some cosmetic changes to the Gallery pages and reorganised some images. I have also added a new Projects gallery, where I can showcase a selection of pictures on a theme that I have been working on, which I feel look better in their own gallery. I have also added new pictures to all the galleries (hurrah, at last!), some old and some new, so feel free to take a look. The Gallery still remains a showcase of my work, rather than a complete catalogue, as you can search the various photo libraries I am with to find all my other work if you so wish.
I have also added a new front cover and two new articles to the Published Work pages, the first of many that I hope to get published throughout 2010.
Below is a panoramic view of Curbar Edge in the Peak District, where the snow was covering a deep hole that my left foot found! Nearly broke a rib, but caused enough bruising to make me wince everytime I look at this picture now!
New Year new start
First off, a belated Happy New Year to you all. I hope the year ahead is a good one for your photography. Have you set yourselves any New Year resolutions for your photography? For me, it is a big step and the most major one since going digital a couple of years ago. By the time you read this I will hopefully have sold my Fuji panoramic camera and pretty much done away with film (except for my Holga and pinhole photography images that is). I have decided to go digital with my panoramics now that I have faith in the technique and software needed to create them. I’m sure many of you have been creating them this way for a while now, but for me, it was a uniquely film based format and the 6x17 transparencies taken with the Fuji 617 was the ultimate medium for panoramics. I loved using the camera and it was a real heartbreak to sell it, but realistically it was sensible to move on and embrace digital as the new medium for the format. It’s more cost effective for one, but also generally more convenient and better for my back (weight wise) and although there are some downsides (like less convenient composing of an image) the pluses outweighed the minuses. I will still continue to shoot panoramics and it will still play a major part of my work and hopefully my photography will benefit. If anything, the panoramics will get more diverse and experimental.
I know I don’t shoot as many panoramics as some photographers, even though it is a format I am known for. For me, it has always been the subject that has to suit the format and not the format that has to shoot the subject. By this, I mean that I’m selective with the subjects I photograph with it, as not all subjects suit the format and I think my panoramic images remain strong because of this. Making the switch to digital should not change this philosophy, in much the same way that the camera that creates them, be it film or digital, should not matter either. It’s the final image that counts after all and if it was shot digitally, so be it, as long as the composition, light and exposure are spot on, it’s a good panoramic image. Below, is one of my photographs in the format taken last autumn. Was it taken with the Fuji before it was sold or was it shot digitally and stitched together in CS4? It doesn’t matter two hoots really. The quality of the image is superb and its a nicely composed panoramic photograph. Job done!
 |
|
