Photography

It's great that this post has stayed active.

What about your photographic influences? I like Charlie Waite for his landscapes. Another photographer who has been particularly influential has been William Klein for telling great stories in his photographs.

Which photographers have inspired you and why? Come on, inspire me!

I like George Hurrel a bit. Being a portrait guy, his standard b&w work of people is probably a really obvious influence for me. I like Ralph Gibson, and even alot of Police guitarist Andy Summers does great work.
 
Love these photos. Nicely composed/ "made."

I am going to do a project on musical instruments around my house for a course i'm on, so this is good inspiration. In terms of lighting I have a Canon speedlight which I hope I can utilize - other than that its just natural light. Do you use flash or studio lights for your pics at all?

Thanks for the nice comments. Nothing fancy in the "tools": early morning natural light, Canon G9 and a Gitzo tripod.

GJS

"F8 and be there!"
 
Here's a pic of my snare with the stick i've been currently using. Feedback welcomed and any tips on lighting techniques too. Have a speedlite. Would like studio lights but can't fund at the minute.!
 

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The rule of thirds has to do with dividing the scene into squares like a tic tac doe board or crosses and not putting the main subject right in the middle of the photo. Put the to one side and down or up so that there is some other back ground. I think if you Google it you will see. It just make for more interesting photos.
 

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The rule of thirds has to do with dividing the scene into squares like a tic tac doe board or crosses and not putting the main subject right in the middle of the photo. Put the to one side and down or up so that there is some other back ground. I think if you Google it you will see. It just make for more interesting photos.

Personally I like the Rule of Sevenths myself ;)
 
I'm a photography Luddite. I own three film cameras and no digital camera. Am I a hipster? Probably - but I like film in a way that I don't like digital. Doesn't mean my photos are any good though!

Bo, you may laugh, but:

Pentax SFXn, Praktica MTL 3, Praktica MTL 5. I really like the MTL 5. Sadly the shutter has jammed on my MTL 3.
 
Do a series of a dozen portraits of only elderly people. Keep the composition the same for all portraits and no smiling subjects. Try to also keep your lighting the same for all shots.

Insisting that your subjects not smile will give an interesting tone to the series of portraits and having to convince twelve elderly people to do it will improve your photog to subject skills.

You'll be surprised what you learn and it may inspire a different project.

You can check out some of my work here. Just a small selection of old work but you might find something there that interests you.

http://www.ttnw.com/philippejenney.html

HA! That's pretty funny, but I do see artsy photos of elderly unsmiling people a lot now that you mention it. Then there's ARAT photos - Another Rock, Another Tree.
 
I'm a photography Luddite. I own three film cameras and no digital camera. Am I a hipster? Probably - but I like film in a way that I don't like digital. Doesn't mean my photos are any good though!

Bo, you may laugh, but:

Pentax SFXn, Praktica MTL 3, Praktica MTL 5. I really like the MTL 5. Sadly the shutter has jammed on my MTL 3.

Hey now - I cut my teeth on film! I dearly miss using film as much as I used to but if you don't develop your own b&w (I don't) there are hardly any local labs left around my town anymore. It's now a mail-in affair at $18 per roll. I know of a few hold-outs that insist on it and are set-up with certain labs to do their work, but I think even they know the writing on the wall. I always wanted to be James Nachtwey in War Photographer.....but he's been shooting digital for the last ten years now too. If you can afford to keep doing it, more power to ya'!
 
Quite a few places still process film over here and it's still easy enough to buy. I just enjoy it more.

I remember borrowing my Uncle's old Pentax K-2 and having an absolute ball as a teenager. Something about shutter speed of 60 and really working on a shot with no guarantee of success that I really enjoy.

I think digital is superior in practically every way but I just enjoy film more.
 
Personally I like the Rule of Sevenths myself ;)

Hi Bo

My daughter's hobby is photography, but she had a poor little Panasonic digital camera, so we decided this Christmas to offer her a new camera, and her Godfather, who's too into photography recomended this:

Nikon D5100 + 2 Obj. Nikon AF-S DX VR : 18 - 55 mm f/3.5 - 5.6 G + 55 - 200 mm f/4.0 - 5.6 IF ED.

Do you think it is a good choice? (having said that we already bought it, if it's no good we'll exchande it for another one) ...my knowledge on camera is somewhat limited. :))
 
Hi Bo

My daughter's hobby is photography, but she had a poor little Panasonic digital camera, so we decided this Christmas to offer her a new camera, and her Godfather, who's too into photography recomended this:

Nikon D5100 + 2 Obj. Nikon AF-S DX VR : 18 - 55 mm f/3.5 - 5.6 G + 55 - 200 mm f/4.0 - 5.6 IF ED.

Do you think it is a good choice? (having said that we already bought it, if it's no good we'll exchande it for another one) ...my knowledge on camera is somewhat limited. :))

That's a great kit. There s nothing she won't be able to shoot with that! I tried the d40 when that came out and had a ball with it. Of course I really like my Canon EOS-1D's nowadays but those nikons a great for Alot of photo things.
 
That's a great kit. There s nothing she won't be able to shoot with that! I tried the d40 when that came out and had a ball with it. Of course I really like my Canon EOS-1D's nowadays but those nikons a great for Alot of photo things.

Thanks Bo, I guess she'll be very happy with it then, I'll ask her to do some photoshoot of my kit, I'll be able to upload some nice picture then, haha :))
 
Quite a few places still process film over here and it's still easy enough to buy. I just enjoy it more.

I remember borrowing my Uncle's old Pentax K-2 and having an absolute ball as a teenager. Something about shutter speed of 60 and really working on a shot with no guarantee of success that I really enjoy.

I think digital is superior in practically every way but I just enjoy film more.
You would. :) You are a crazy guy, and I am starting to appreciate that about you. Why be the same as everybody else. That is easy. Good on you, as some on here would say.

I have no use for film. I don't miss anything about it. My brother wasted more money on bad shots, just trying things. Just think about the poor environment with all the chemicals, and all. Give me my Canon Rebel XT anyday. I traded in my AE 1 years ago and don't miss it at all.
 
You would. :) You are a crazy guy, and I am starting to appreciate that about you. Why be the same as everybody else. That is easy. Good on you, as some on here would say.

I have no use for film. I don't miss anything about it. My brother wasted more money on bad shots, just trying things. Just think about the poor environment with all the chemicals, and all. Give me my Canon Rebel XT anyday. I traded in my AE 1 years ago and don't miss it at all.

It's not that I intentionally aim to be different, that's the thing. I just have a genuine affinity with certain physicalities and modus operandi that others don't always have. It's the same when I'm learning a new skill or piece of information - I don't build from principles but take the whole concept and then break it down into smaller pieces whenever I'm interested in what I'm doing. It's the equivalent of learning to play rudiments to build up drum set skills and listening to Tony Williams for five hours a day instead to work out what he's doing.

I only realised I was like that after it was realised that I have severe dyslexia. I didn't exactly have an easy time at school because nobody catered for my way of learning.

Objectively, digital photography is better in every way now. I can't deny that digital cameras are better in almost every way to the best film cameras. What people can do now with a cheap point and shoot is incredible and I have all the time in the World for that. My Dad loves his DSLR and he's always been an avid photographer - as has my Uncle who has been on World trips with his old film SLRs (including that Pentax K2 that I was talking about earlier). Digital produces better images (provided the user is any good) with instant feedback, more shot capacity and greater ease of editing.

On the other hand, I like to be limited to 36 frames (usually black and white) and really have to work to get shots that there are of no guaranteed quality. I wouldn't even know if there was a problem with my film speed setting until I get the film back. I like that. I like that only one of my cameras has any automation so I have to manually adjust everything. I like being given limitations. My musical composition is the same - I did most of my work on cassette tape and then used computers as the control systems. Last year a couple of us were seriously thinking about getting work pressed to vinyl. I still collect and listen to vinyl on a daily basis!

It's the physicality of the old analogue formats that I love - even if the digital modern equivalent is actually better by almost every objective measure.
 
Well you make some good points. My dad taught me to be very careful when taking a shot. How to compose the shot, making sure you like the way it looks while you are taking it, not finding out later that it was wrong. I find with digital, many people just shoot away, and hope for the best. It is a very disposable society. You limiting yourself to 36 shots and making the best of them, is making you be more careful and sensible with your pictures. I was very stingy with film. Probably because of the cost, but I used to hate when I would get my pictures back and there was a bad one in the lot. I use to pride myself with having a hole roll with no bad pictures.
 
That's just it. It's the 'challenge' of it. I'm not a great photographer (far from it, in fact) but I miss the days of getting a roll back from the developers and going through the stack. The only thing that I find digital lacks is in the printing process. Not many people print their pictures and even if they do, it's often on a mediocre printer with mediocre results. I like holding the pictures.
 
That's just it. It's the 'challenge' of it. I'm not a great photographer (far from it, in fact) but I miss the days of getting a roll back from the developers and going through the stack. The only thing that I find digital lacks is in the printing process. Not many people print their pictures and even if they do, it's often on a mediocre printer with mediocre results. I like holding the pictures.
I totally agree. I have thousands of pictures on my hard drive, and backed up on disk, but I never print any. I loved looking at something I could hold in my hand. I bought a nice Epson Artisan 837 printer with the new iMac. Just picked up some good photo paper the other day. Going to start trying out some prints with it. Not too many, because it is probably cheaper to have them done somewhere.
 
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