13: 25-Jan-2016

Right – on to the part of my missives that you all wait for each time (well maybe not) – the weeks reading!

• First – what makes a photographer? That is a bit philosophical, but this short clip  gives one perspective. I think he has a point – there are a lot of pictures taken, but many are mediocre. What is a great photograph? As I’ve said before I think the best photographs makes you think, they make you feel, they create an emotion within you, they don’t have to be technically perfect. Look through your own photographs and see how many boxes you can tick
• Another thing that may be changing due to the surfeit of pictures is the definition of street photography. Here is an essay on just that topic – well worth a few minutes of your time to look as well read given that we have a competition on that this year. The upshot – it’s about people doing things – not the street architecture
• So now you know about great photographs and what street photography is about, how about using some basic psychology to make those photos better. This article gives 10 aspects of our psychology that may seem obvious when you read them – but I think are largely innate once we learn to see visually. A combination of eye, vision and mind (to paraphrase Michael Freeman)
• The thing is, we experiment a lot but seeing visually also requires a reference point. This very short article summarises why we need to look at others peoples photographs to gain that. Look at other photographers work on Flickr Explore , Instagram, 500px in books (remember them?), the great photographers, galleries etc and get inspired

And finally, a little bit of fun with no deep meaningful ideas 

• If you want to take advantage of the night sky at the moment, here is a short article on how to photograph the Milky Way (and I don’t mean white chocolate bars!). You probably have all the gear you need. And you can download a simple application for your phone to help you get the exposure correct (there is a link in the article). It’s just a matter of getting rid of the light pollution!
• Speaking of light – are you into DIY? Here are some DIY lighting projects. Some are a little superficial (it’s the techy in me that thinks meh!) – but you can Google the method suggested and find even more. I was interested in a beauty dish, and found a heap of better methods than the one given (here is one using a plant bowl and some other hardware shop goodies). Give it a go – you might just come up with a great image from one of these projects we can all admire at the next competition!