WrightPhotos - The Blog

Off The Beaten Track

2008-07-08T21:57:00.002+01:00

Today, I got away from my usual haunts. Not too far and certainly not to anywhere I haven't been before, but far enough away from my well worn track to notice new things. I took the shot above today because I was drawn to it the unusual roof line and the interesting sky.

Maybe your own shooting could benefit from a change of routine. Perhaps you could take a different route to work. Leaving the car behind and cycling or walking can really give a different view of the world. Just change something and it may well shake up the way you look at the world and it could well result in some interesting pictures.

Close Enough?

2008-07-04T20:14:00.002+01:00

Back to what this blog is all about - pictures.

Shape and form is very important in my photography, especially texture. When you get in really close to an object you can often reveal features that are not apparent from a longer shot. The great war photographer Robert Capa said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough." I am sure that this is true in most areas of photography. Photography has the power to make you look at the world anew.

The shot in this post shows the petals of a rose flowering in my garden. It is Rosa "English Garden" if you are interested, and I would recommend it.

New UK Photo Restrictions

2008-07-01T19:38:00.005+01:00

Another post without a picture. I really am sorry. And another political post too. When I first started this blog I did not think that I would be making any posts about photography and politics. This will be the third post in recent months about exactly that. This is not what I want to talk about but it is too important to ignore.

According to an article in the British Journal of Photography, the Home Secretary has given the green light to the police to ban photography in public places wherever they like and whenever they like - but only if it is reasonable. You can read the original article here.

Orphan Works

2008-06-17T19:47:00.002+01:00

I'm sorry to say that this is my second post in a row without a photo - I will make it up I promise.

You may or may not have come across the Ophan Works Bill that could become law in the USA, This Bill threatens to take away copyright protection from any work that is not registered with a commercial registry in the States. This beggars belief.

I urge all readers of this blog to sign this petition to oppose the Bill.

If you want to find out more about this unbelievable rights grab, have a look at this video on YouTube.

Alamy and Novel Use

2008-06-13T20:41:00.003+01:00

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I contribute images to Alamy, the stock agency. The first phase of their Novel Use scheme has just been released. They are going to sell images for educational use and for bloggers from 60p. As they say, they currently do not get sales from this market. They are opening up a new market catering for them.

On the face of it, this scheme does have some merit. It would lead to new income but it also opens up a new threat of image misuse. The target audience have little or no knowledge of image licencing and intellectual property rights. Selling images to this audience is an invitation to image abuse, not necessarily through design, more likely due to ignorance of the law. Also, other users could easily pose as students, for example, and get their images on the cheap for uses that are not covered by the terms of the licence.

As I have already said, the target audience are not up to speed with image licencing. This is especially important with the unbelievable Orphan Works legislation that is being put in place in the USA. The target audience are very likely to create orphan works. If the proposed legislation makes it, I certainly do not want my orphan images to be out in the wild.

I have no doubt that I could earn a few extra pounds by signing up for this but the potential risks are not worth it.

Spider Nursery

2008-06-02T20:34:00.003+01:00

Earlier today I saw something unusual on the box bush in my garden. To start with I though it could be a flower, but I have never seen the box flower. Then I thought it was an infection, but it wasn't. When I looked closely it turned out to be a colony of newly hatched spiders. A fresh bunch of bug hunters for the garden. Great!

Water in Photoworld - Update

2008-05-03T19:10:00.002+01:00

Back in January I posted that I had an illustrated article about photographing water published in Photoworld. Well, that issue of Photoworld is now available online. So you can read my article here!

Happy reading.

Opportunities

2008-04-23T19:45:00.001+01:00

Some of you may remember that last summer, one of my images was misused on a teenager's social networking page. The matter was resolved in the end and the image was removed from his site. As I have mentioned before in my blog, not only am I a photographer, but a writer too. This incident gave me the idea to write a couple of articles for publication. I used different angles for different markets. I am pleased to say that I have now made far more by writing about the incident than I ever would have done in fees for licencing the image. The trick was to turn a mishap into an opportunity. It also inspired me to make the image above which I hope will be successful as stock.

Here's Looking at you Kid

2008-04-08T21:51:00.003+01:00

Another photo for my series on waste.

Setting the Right Tone

2008-04-04T20:35:00.006+01:00

I am lucky enough to live in a town with a lot of listed buildings. It does have a great deal of character and the centre of the town still follows the medieval street pattern of narrow streets winding their way up the hills away from the market place that is next to the river. Not surprisingly, like every other town in the country, there are areas that are not quite so picturesque. This post is about a set of images that I have made of one of these areas. It shows a footpath that leads up a fairly steep slope. Unfortunately the path is surfaced in an ugly patchwork of concrete. There is also an unsightly hand-rail that runs up the centre of the path. If this was closer to the heart of the town this street nightmare would not exist. It would be paved or cobbled with a wrought iron rail or two.

The first picture, at the top of this post, shows a colour image of the scene. It is in fact a blend of two images, one exposed for the sky and one for the foreground.

The next version is a black and white rendering of the same picture. I created this version using the Channel Mixer in Photoshop which allows you a lot of control of how the scene is rendered.

The final version - the finished photograph - is how I previsualised the scene. I have toned the black and white version to give a sepia look to add to the feeling of desolation and decay.

Making Music

2008-03-26T21:27:00.008Z

Those of you who have been reading this blog for while will know about my 'Making Music' series of images. Well, finally I have a selection of images form this series on the site. The 'Making Music' gallery is here!

Making music is dynamic. Music does not exist in a moment in time, it exists through time. This series of photographs captures the dynamic process of making music. The photograph above shows a bodhran which is an Irish hand drum.

Which Camera?

2008-03-24T20:55:00.001Z

Once friends and colleagues get to know that you can take half decent photographs, they start asking you about what you use. An old favourite used to be, 'What film do you use?' as if changing the film that they used would make all the difference to their pictures. It was a bit like asking a painter which brushes he used. The question misses the point by a mile.

One of the most frustrating things about photography forums is the constant, 'My camera is better than yours,' nonsense. To be honest, if you buy a camera from a decent maker, you are going to have a decent camera.

Anyway, cameras are not good in all situations. Like many things in life, camera choice is a compromise. In some situations a 10x8 view camera is probably still the best choice, in others, a camera phone is perfectly fine. And of course for most photo opportunities neither of these is appropriate.

Most enthusiasts and professional shooters choose a DSLR. The image quality they produce is very good and they are also very versatile. With the correct lens you can take shots of the head of a wasp or the craters on the Moon - or anything in between. Having said that, a DSLR with a collection of lenses and other accessories can be a pain to carry around. If you haven't got the right lens with you then shot is lost.

Another choice is a digital compact. These cover a very wide range from high quality products that will shoot RAW and produce images suitable for stock agencies to cameras only suitable for happy snaps - which is just what many people want.

The choice that you make has to be a personal one. The best thing to do is first decide what sort of images you want to take with the camera and then go from there. Also, will you be going out to make photos or will the photos be incidental to other pursuits. When you have answered these questions you can start to make a choice. It is only then that brand decisions should be even considered.

Food for Thought

2008-03-19T20:00:00.003Z

Some of you may know that I enjoy taking photos of food. Setting up the lighting for the shot above was a little tricky. The main light is from the right with a white reflector to fill in the shadows. I also used a piece of card to stop the base from being illuminated. I recently bought a handheld lightmeter from ebay - at a very good price - and this was useful in establishing the exposure. I'm sure it will get a lot of use in the future.

Calling all UK Photographers

2008-03-13T20:34:00.004Z

No doubt you will have heard about photographers recently being challenged by 'officials'. Sometimes they have been asked why they are taking pictures in a public place, sometimes they have been detained and sometimes they have been asked to delete images from their memory cards. These stories of photographers being harassed have become quite common.

Austin Mitchell MP, who is himself a keen photographer has proposed an Early Day Motion to help to stop all this nonsense. It would be great if you would contact you own MP and urge him to support Mr Mitchell's motion. You can do this through Write to Them.

Edit: Thanks to all those who have responded to this one. The list of MPs who have signed the motion continues to grow. If you have not contacted your MP yet, please do so soon.

Another Reflection

2008-03-08T20:59:00.003Z

I have always had a soft spot for photos of things reflected in water. The movement of the water's surface breaks up the usual outline of the subject into something new. The trick is to get just the right amount of movement in the water. If there is too much the reflection is too broken up and becomes unrecognisable. Too little movement and the reflection is too much like the original subject.

If there is water around, I am always on the look out for reflections to photograph.

I Love Coffee...

2008-03-07T19:50:00.001Z

The shape of the cup and saucer is the only subject in the photo above. I used a white background for the white subject using fairly flat light to emphasis this shape.

In fact I'm just off to pull a shot of espresso right now.

Early Morning

2008-03-01T19:53:00.003Z

I got early the other day and got this picture of a tree that is leaning over a field gate. The daylight white balance helped to keep some of the warmth of the light at that that time of day. If I had taken a custom white balance all that warmth would have been lost.

Even so, the warmth of the shot does not really reflect the feel of the time of day. In Photoshop I added an 81 series filter to really bring out the warmth of the shot. Here is the result.

Early in the morning at this time of year, especially under clear skies, it is cold. So I thought I would have one final go at the picture. This time I used an 80 series filter in Photoshop to put the chill back into the picture. Here it is.

It is interesting to see how the mood of the picture has been changed by altering the white balance. And each of the images evokes a different emotional response in the viewer.

Shape, Texture and Light

2008-02-19T15:20:00.001Z

I have a little place in my heart for this type of image pictures even though a well respected photographic friend of mine dismisses them as 'rusty lock' pictures. I can see his point because non-photographers may not see the point of them as their subjects have little intrinsic appeal. But this is exactly what turns me on to them. It is the photographic process that gives them their appeal.

The photograph gives the subject a new life and forces the viewer to look at it afresh. They are really about shape, texture and light - exactly what photography is so good at capturing. With these pictures it is not the subject that makes them but good light and a pleasing composition that shows off the interaction between light and the subject.

Finally, here's a genuine rusty lock of my own:

Depth of Field

2008-02-15T20:00:00.004Z

I snapped the photo above a couple of days ago. It shows the branches of a tree that is submerged in a deep pool of water but grows well despite this. I used a small aperture to give fro a large depth of field with everything in the frame acceptably sharp.

But I was not convinced that I had made the best image that I could. So I repeated the shot with a large aperture to give a shallow depth of field in the shot below.

This really emphasises the texture of the moss on the upright branch.

I'll let you decide which picture works best, but they certainly show different aspects of the same scene.

Water in Photoworld

2008-01-25T21:10:00.000Z

The latest copy of Photoworld landed on my doormat today. When I opened it I was really pleased to see an illustrated article about photographing water that I had written spread over four pages.

If you have not come across Photoworld, it is dedicated to the Sony/Minolta series of cameras and is published by Icon Publications. You can find out more information about the magazine from the Photoclub Alpha website.

Finding Images

2008-01-19T20:03:00.000Z

"I like this one very much. It spurred me on to thinking that you can find pictures anywhere at all. Wonderful." Lynne.

I was very pleased to read the his comment when I posted this image on one of the dpreview forums. It is true to say that often I do find my images in unusual places. Often my pictures are of fairly mundane objects. I like to think that I capture them in a thought provoking, pictorial way. Key to this is to have the correct lighting - the bin-bags above would not have worked with an overcast sky. I often extract the object from its usual surroundings, often by deliberate in-camera cropping and choice of viewpoint- you cannot see the truck that was carrying the rubbish or the many people around at the time. Other techniques I use are to show only part of the object in a close-up. Sometimes I deliberately use a shallow depth of field so that the viewer has to concentrate on the part of the object that I want them to see.

But the truth is that I cannot find pictures anywhere. As I have said, I do find images in unusual places but there are many potential images that I miss on a daily basis.These are images that I do not even recognise as being potential subjects. I am sure this is the same for all of us. This is only good. If we all made the same images then photography would be very boring indeed.

"It is the mystery and splendour of photography that the essence of the art has little to do with photography itself. The making of the picture is simple and quick. The hard part is everything else: the whole of the photographer's relationship to the world." Peter Galassi, Chief Curator of the Department of Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York from Henri Cartier-Bresson man, Image, World - a Retrospective.

Directions for 2008

2007-12-31T19:35:00.000Z

Just as the end of the old year is a time for reflection, the beginning of the new year is a time for planning. I achieved a lot in 2007. I wrote articles for several publications - some even included my photos! These included a couple that were fresh for me - great. I had my first solo exhibition which had been a personal goal of mine for a little while.

So, what for 2008. First is to complete my 'Making Music' series and then to get it out there. The pictures have been going onto Alamy as they have been make, but they really belong together as a series. I hope to see them as an exhibition and I have a couple of possible venues in mind. I also have a few magazine articles in mind, some technical, some not. Again, I want to break into some new publications.

Besides that, keep making pictures. I have a couple of ongoing slow burn projects to keep working on. But I would really like to find another fast burner like the Musicians because that has been great fun.

Anyway, happy New Year to all of you. May it bring you success!

Reflections...

2007-12-26T19:45:00.000Z

I hope you enjoyed a Happy Christmas as I did. Time with my friends and family is very important to me at this time of year.

The end of the year is a good time to reflect on the last year and think about plans for the next. At this time of year I like to go through the photographs that I have made during the year and reflect on my successes. This is a very personal journey for me. Sometimes these will include pictures that are not technically perfect but maybe they will serve as memory triggers for years to come. Other pictures could be chosen because I had to overcome particular technical challenges to create them. Having a period of conscious reflection is essential to inform plans for the coming year.

The picture above is part of my 'Music Makers' series and it is one of my 'Pictures of 2007'. This series has taken on a life of its own. I started it in autumn 2007 and it should be finished early in 2008. It has become a real passion for me. This is one of my 'fast burn' projects as it will be completed soon after starting it. Many of my projects are of the 'slow burn' variety. They are fairly open ended and I tend to dip in and out of them over a long period. Both are great as they provide a theme for my work.

Winter Shooting

2007-12-12T20:30:00.000Z

On the face of it, outdoor photography in winter is an unattractive prospect. It is cold! But there are many things that make outdoor winter photography very rewarding, especially when the temperature goes down.

Most landscape shooters know that the best time to be working is in the couple of hours at either end of the day. In winter there is no need to get up ridiculously early to catch sunrise. Also, during the winter, the sun is low enough in the sky to give reasonable light virtually all day - if it is good enough to put in an appearance at all.

The weather conditions at this time of year really transform the landscape. A hard frost or a fall of snow can add a touch of magic to a fairly ordinary scene. Details of frosty leaves or spiders webs can make wonderful shots.

All in all, winter is a great time to be out and about with a camera - providing you keep yourself and your batteries warm.

Microstock or Not?

2007-12-05T20:29:00.000Z

Many photography enthusiasts have a substantial collection of good quality photographs and in the digital age, a substantial collection of image files on disk. Of course, some of these images are printed out and displayed in the homes of family and friends. But most of them are just taking up space on a hard-drive and that will probably be all that happens to them. These people often have a fairly comfortable life-style that is paid for by a conventional job that does not involve photography.

To people in this situation the prospect of earning some money - any money - from their photographic collection must be quite attractive. Why not? At the moment their images are doing nothing. Why not get the pictures to earn some extra income that could be spent on their photographic hobby? Even $1 per image sold is far more than they are getting at the moment. Microstock agencies can have an attraction.

I can certainly see the logic of this argument. However, a microstock site will typically earn $4 for every $1 the photographer makes, which is not a very good commission ratio. Also, full time stock professionals will be very quick to point out that these cheap sales may well be cutting into their business.

There is little doubt that the microstock agencies have created a new market for stock images. This market includes people with small scale websites, publishers of limited circulation newsletters, etc, who could never have afforded to use photos from traditional stock houses. But microstock images are also being used by traditional stock buyers such as newspapers. Mircostocks are taking business away from traditional agencies and from full-time stock shooters. These photographers rely on this business to keep a roof over their heads and put food on their table. Should the enthusiasts be worried about this? That is down to their conscience.

Whatever happens, microstocks are not going away. They have changed the stock photography business for ever. There is no going back. Photographers need to take microstocks seriously and modify their behaviour accordingly.