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16/12/2017

Every Photographer’s Question – Can I Compete?

The deadline for entries in one of the leading photography competitions is fast approaching. There are just a couple more weeks before the Sony World Photography Awards close their doors for another year.

Am I now doing the same as many other photographers, looking at the images captured over the last 12 months and comparing them to those featuring among the entries that have already caught the eye of the organisers and judges?

I generally assess my own ‘favourites’ as rather lacking in this impressive company.  Indeed, I wonder if they are as strong as those I submitted this time last year. Alternatively, is it that my standards have risen and that they are actually rather better?

The simple answer is, ‘why not let the judges decide’ so head over to worldphoto.org now before it’s too late.

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21/11/2017

Artists See More Light

OK, we all need light to see but talk to artists about the scenes they capture in water colours and oils and you soon realise they tend to see more variations of light than others.  I guess that’s because they work hard to capture not just the detail but the mood of their subjects.

On a bright, clear day over the ocean the sky is pure blue, right?  Well, sort of.  The next time you’re in that environment look a little harder and study the way the colours change from the highest point down to the horizon.  It’s quite enlightening.

Thankfully, you don’t need to be able to paint to take photographs but the more sensitive photographers are to the detail and variations in light, the more likely they are to see and capture those special moments (if you like, the ‘decisive moment’ – with due deference to Henri Cartier-Bresson).

The more attuned you are to changing light, the better your images are likely to be.  Training the eye in this way does something else, too.  I certainly find that my appreciation and enjoyment of rural and urban landscapes is enhanced, irrespective of whether or not I have a camera with me.

I’ll never be able to paint, I’ll never be an artist but I will always be grateful to the talented painter who first told me to appreciate the different colours in a blue sky.

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