FTP for photo blog

Well, we've tried hard to get my blog hosted on my Photoactive website, but, for now, we have had to admit defeat and revert to the way things were. The problem we are convinced from reading the posts on blogger forums lies squarely with Blogger's poor FTP facility.
If anyone with knowledge of hosting a blog on their own website is reading this, I'd appreciate your comments.
We will keep trying and I'll keep you posted.
Thanks for your patience,
Philip Dun

Guiding the eye

Here are a couple of photographs taken by one of my students, Phil Hallam. Phil came to me for just a one day a couple of weeks ago. I saw this lovely shot as I was looking through some of his photographs – something I always like to do before I start working with a new client so that I know where to start the tuition and coaching. Phil obviously has a good eye for a picture, but he was fairly new to photography and needed guidance. I think this lovely shot shows that he can see a good picture when it presents itself.

I have posted Phil’s original picture as he sent it to me above. But I have just tweaked and cropped a little for the picture below. I just felt that the blank whiteness of all that sky was leading my eye into nothing at the top of the picture, so I have cut it down and darkened some areas a little using the ‘burn’ tool in Photoshop.

The human eye acts very much like a moth – it tends to seek out the light and go to the lighter areas of a composition. This can be very useful once you know how to use it because you can at least try to train your viewer’s eye to explore the areas of the composition you feel are most valuable and relevant to the message you want to convey.

Photograph by Phil Hallam

Street photography - singing dog

While sorting and cataloguing hundreds of old photographs - that's my absorbing task right now - I came across this picture taken in Donegal, Ireland some time ago and just thought I'd like to share it with you.

This wonderful character was sat on the pavement outside a pub in the late afternoon. He had obviously enjoyed a good lunch and was a happy man. In fact he was singing. I think his dog might also have enjoyed a good lunch because it, too, was singing. Well, howling. The louder the man sang, the louder the dog howled.

What a great chap. What a face - what a row. What a wonderful opportunity for a photograph.

Photographing still life - part 2

If you really want to progress with you still life photography, set yourself tasks and projects – start off simply with one object and a plain background and work up from there. Try adding more objects and think carefully about the positioning of each, but remember that simple compositions are usually most effective. Photographing a vase of flowers or bowl of fruit presents lots of interesting challenges in light and composition… artists have been painting these things for centuries.

Vary the lighting, bearing in mind the different attributes of each object you are photographing – its texture, colour or shape. Move on to more challenging subjects – try photographing a glass decanter or wine glass; you might try doing this without any glaring reflections – you could fill the glass with a rich red Rioja to add colour - and then celebrate a successful image by drinking the prop. Cheers!

It is always best to start the composition very simply and add one thing at a time until you are happy with the result. For the top pictures, I just leaned a plank of old wood at the back of the bench placed the horse on the bench in front of it. I liked the combinations of subtle blue colours. Following the blue colour theme I then hung a coil of blue rope on the background to add another shape and colour – see lower picture. I prefer the simplicity of the first shot.

It’s a really useful idea to gather together a collection of still life props. Almost anything that attracts your eye might come in useful – a small piece of driftwood, a colourful pebble or two, dried flowers, a few different fabrics for background and foregrounds. Every one might be used at some time when you really get into still life photography.

Below is a photograph using one of the many props I have collected in my shed for still life photography. It is just a an old tea chest half-full of unglazed pot jugs. I have cut away two sides of the box to reveal the jugs inside and make it easier to

photograph them. The jugs can be arranged any way I prefer and all I have to do is turn the box around for the best light.

Photographing still life

Still life is definitely one of the best ways to make a start with creative photography. Even if you intend to spend all your time out photographing people or landscape, you can learn a very great deal right there at home even before you step outside your front door.

You will be able to work by yourself at your own pace, so you will be under no pressure. It can teach you so much – about light, composition, exposure, lens focal length and depth of field. And that’s just for starters. You can practise using simple backgrounds and combining different colours and textures; you will be able to hone your basic camera technique and get used to handling your camera and tripod to the point when it all becomes second nature. To top all this – it can produce some really beautiful photographs.

You do not need a studio with expensive lighting set-ups to produce interesting still life photographs. A kitchen table; spare room; a garage or even an old shed? Provided you’ve got enough room in there to put up a tripod, it will do just fine. Ideally the space will have a window that does not get direct sunlight, but even this can be softened to some degree by taping a couple of layers of net curtain or sheet of tissue paper over the window. Even an ordinary tungsten lamp can be used as your light source, but you will have to set your white balance to ‘Tungsten’ to correct any nasty orange colour casts from this low temperature light source.

In your makeshift ‘studio’ you will have total control of your subject, your composition and lighting. You will be able to choose your own backgrounds and decide on your own props. You will be able to mix and match colours and spend as much time as you feel you need to create the picture you want. The best way is to experiment and move your chosen objects around until you feel you have completely exhausted every last possibility.

The great joy of using digital is that you can review your results constantly and make adjustments as you go along. This means that your camera becomes a real learning tool and you can delete anything that is obviously not working.

Top photograph:

I’ve used a piece of wood and coil of blue rope to contrast with the elegant shape of a tall, unglazed vase. Positioning of the main object is crucial to the overall effect. It is off-centre and overlaps the rope. This helps the ‘layering’ effect of the objects and creates a sense of depth. This is also helped by the soft sidelight coming in through my shed window

Lower photograph:

This picture was spotted in a potter’s workshop. I did move a plastic bag that was in the background. I also pulled the bird on the right to hand side over the edge of the bench. This broke the otherwise straight line and created an illusion of depth. I was very careful not to disturb the layer of clay dust that covered the bench and the pot pheasants

Next – in part 2 - I’ll show you how I modified a few props to make my still life photography more effective

A career in photography - 3

Well, you asked for it... here is the 3rd part of the story of how I got into photojournalism:

Despite having a clear idea of what I wanted to do, it was still compulsory for all school leavers to attend an interview with the careers officer, who had an office in a grim brick building at the back of the hospital morgue. I presented myself there for an appointment with Mr. Turton, the Chief Careers Officer, on the stroke of nine one wet Monday morning. I have changed this man’s name because he was an incompetent idiot.

It was all a waste of time, I thought, but at least it got me out of school for the morning. Then, as I climbed a well-worn wooden staircase to this man’s office, it dawned on me that maybe I might be able to enlist his help. Surely he would have some contacts within the local weekly newspapers. Perhaps he would know someone I could write to, or talk to for advice. My hopes of breaking into a career in photography came flooding back as I mounted those stairs.

Now I stood in a gloomy office whose grime-streaked sash window overlooked the hospital morgue. Behind a battered, ink stained pine desk sat the great man, Mr. Turton, himself.

I tried to take in what he was telling me.

“No, no, no, lad. That’s not for the likes of you.”

He was a large, florid man. He pushed his chair back from the desk, put his thumbs behind his braces and let out a great boom of laughter. He leaned the chair so far back on its two back legs that they creaked under the strain of his great fat body. I hoped that they might snap and he would topple over backwards onto the floor. I had just confessed to this man my ambitions to become a professional photographer, my desire to travel, and my plans to work my way up the professional ladder to work in what was then the world’s pinnacle of journalism - Fleet Street.

“Now, let’s be more sensible,” he said, still shaking his great fat head and heaving his shoulders as he tried to contain his amusement. He lowered his chair back onto all fours with a bump and became businesslike, shuffling though papers.

“I really don’t know who puts some of these daft ideas into boys’ heads. Now, these are more like it,” He said picking out two cards. “There are some ‘prenticeships going at the engineering works, and they are looking for likely lads at the bakery. That’s more your line, you know. I’ll put you down for the bakery, shall I? What do you say? Nice steady job. You won’t regret it. Then you can tell your mam you’ve got a proper job and can bring a bit of a wage home every week to help her with the housekeeping.”

Anger, rage, humiliation, all welled up inside me. I was fourteen years old and felt foolish and small in front of this big, ignorant man who wanted to consign me to a life of wholemeal baps and bread trays. The tears welled in my eyes, I tried to speak, but couldn’t get the words out. I looked at Mr Turton through an increasingly red haze of hatred and despair. Then, all the frustration rushed to the surface and I blurted out:

“You can put me down for what you like, Sir, but I shan’t be going to no bakery. And I’ll tell you what, I’ll come back and laugh at you when I’m a press photographer in Fleet Street.”

The expression on Mr Turton’s face showed his shock and utter disbelief. His flabby jaw dropped. He started to squeeze out of his chair. His florid face flushed even more and his cheeks went purple.

“Well you cheeky little bugger, I’ll…”

But I didn’t wait for him to finish, I turned and fled out of his office, down the stairs and out into the rain.

The headmaster sent for me when I got to school that afternoon. Mr Turton had been on the phone with a vivid report on my behaviour.

I was publicly caned on stage in front of the entire school for, among other things, insubordination, bringing the school into disrepute, lack of respect… the list was a long one, and so was the cane. Every stroke of that rod across my backside fired my determination to succeed. I’d show the stupid buggers.

Wildlife photography

Photograph by Kirsty Kimberley



Before I start a day of tuition with my 'students' I like to take a look at some of their previous photographs. This helps me see exactly what level people are at with their photography and also gives me a chance to get to know them and discuss the way we can best arrange the day.

I've had a couple here from London today - Kirstie and Paul. Both are relatively new to photography, but they are lucky to share a real interest in the subject, especially where landscape and wildlife photography is concerned. In fact I arranged for them to spend their second day (tomorrow) with Keith Kirk, the local wildlife ranger here in Galloway. Anyway, when going though Kirstie and Paul's photographs I spotted the picture I have posted here. I thought it was so good that I asked Kirsty if I could share it with you on the blog.

It was taken on their recent safari holiday in the Masai Mara, Kenya. Several aspects of this shot make it special...

The soft sidelight is just beautiful and helps create a lovely sense of texture, form and depth within the picture. In an ideal world, the light would have been better from the right to the left in order to light the lion's face, but come on, it's still pretty damned good as it is.

I also like the perfect simplicity of the composition. That tree is almost iconic and because it leans one way and the lion is looking in the opposite direction, I feeling of balance is achieved. The dark, threatening clouds and the rich colous of the grass just add to the 'feel' of Africa. I think it is a great picture.

The other picture shows Kirsty and Paul at work earlier today.

Photographing aerial perspective

I came across these photographs of mine this morning as I was sorting and cataloguing some of my old travel images. The top photograph shows two people strolling along the Roman wall at Antalya on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. The bottom photograph is of a fishing boat with the mountains in the distance behind. They seemed such good examples of ‘Aerial Perspective’ I though it might be worth explaining something about it.

There are two very different types of perspective, and an understanding of both can be of fundamental importance to the photographer when creating a sense of depth - the third dimension - in our two-dimensional photographs.

Firstly, of course, there is linear perspective – that’s when objects nearer the camera appear larger than those further away. Photographers can exaggerate the effects of linear perspective by using different focal length lenses, painters and artists simple move their ‘disappearing point’ to create similar effects or distortions. More about all that some other time.

Aerial perspective has nothing to do with flying and looking down on your subject, in fact it would be more accurately described as ‘atmospheric’ perspective. It is the phenomenon that creates a sense of depth in a photograph by capturing the way the atmosphere makes distant objects appear less distinct and more bluish than those nearer the camera.

Aerial perspective is particularly noticeable with backlight (what nice photographers often refer to as contre-jour or ‘against the light’) in a slightly hazy atmosphere, and you can see its effect very clearly in the photograph above. The figures on the wall are in strong, black silhouette. The mountains behind get gradually lighter the further away they are. This gives a very powerful sense of distance and depth.

Painters and artists have been using this effect for many centuries. In particular, Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated by it and I believe he was the first to use the term. I can bring to mind at least one of his paintings – Virgin of the Rocks, in which he has used it to great effect to give the illusion of tremendous depth within his picture.

I found this interesting techy page about aerial perspective and I suggest you give it a click and learn more…

http://psych.hanover.edu/krantz/art/aerial.html