Category: Creativity
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346 – Inspiring Creativity – a short film from Liberatum
Too good not to share! Inspiring Creativity – A Liberatum film presented by illy from Liberatum on Vimeo.
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#324 – Book Recommendation – Looking at Photographs
I saw this book recommended recently on Andy Beel’s blog, just after I’d judged my first photographic competition. While the timing was unfortunate, I ordered the book nonetheless, and I’m pleased I did, not only on the off-chance that I get asked to do some more judging, but also as a concise reminder as to…
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#314 – It’s not about the space. Or is it?
I’ve just listened to a great interview on the Candid Frame podcast with Will Jacks. Over the past few years, he has been photographing the goings on in a Mississipi ‘Juke Joint’ a type of bar peculiar to that area of America. he goes every week, has befriended the owner and clientele, and has gained their trust and…
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#213 – Style
I wrote about style a while back, and I was reading through my notebook last night when I saw this passage that I’d copied from an article by David Ward, the well known landscape photographer. Kind of echoes my own thoughts really. “Style is the single attribute that proclaims the author of the image, yet…
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#210 – Using black and white, using colour.
It struck me recently that I probably convert too many of my photos to rblack and white. I got to thinking why that was and I remembered back to when I was putting my RPS portfolio together, and I was advised not to mix colour and black and white. I noticed as well that many…
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#202 – High Dynamic Range Photography – A Substitute For Creativity?
Astley Green Colliery Several years ago, I experimented with using Photomatix to produce High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. I reasoned that as a lot of the urbex pictures I was taking were in low light, then this would be the ideal tool to capture the full range of visual information, or something like that. However,…
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#201 – before and after – articulating your vision photographically
“It is impossible for a photographic print to duplicate the range of brightnesses (luminances) of most subjects, and thus photographs are to some degree interpretations of the original subject values. Much of the creativity of photography lies in the infinite range of choices open to the photographer between attempting a nearly literal representation of the…
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#194 – The Myth Of Manual Mode
A recent discussion on Talk Photography got me thinking about camera technique, something I don’t tend to give much thought to. Someone had asked why they should use manual mode, and the consensus seemed to be, quite refreshingly, use it when you need to, but don’t use it slavishly. Great advice, although some people still…
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#193 – Moo Cards: a portfolio in your pocket!
Not being a professional photographer, I’ve had no real need for business cards – the only ones in my wallet are for my real job, and that’s got nowt to do with taking pictures. However, when I heard about Moo and their double-sided cards that you could put anything on, my attention was grabbed. They’re…
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#192 – Beauty in Decay?
“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it”. Confucius “Bleak factory buildings and billboard-cluttered avenues look as beautiful to the camera’s eye as churches and pastoral landscapes. More beautiful by modern taste” Susan Sontag Wabi-sabi is a somewhat nebulous Japanese term without any straightforward definition. In this context, Wabi has come to mean humble and simple, while means rusted…
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#176 – The Last Days Of Fernhurst Mill – DoF Tomfoolery
With the trespassing element of the visit complete, I thought I’d indulge in a bit of creative arty-fartyness. Nikon D700, 28-70mm, 1/1600 @F2.8
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#166 – pre-visualising an image
In the words of one of my personal heroes, don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? I’d been planning to go and have a look at the Duke Of Lancaster for ages as I had an image in my mind. And it was exactly like the one at the top of the post that you’ve…
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#165 – Square Format
While I’ve never shot a square format camera, I’ve found myself on a number of occasions recently, cropping to a square format. While of course this is retrospective re-composition, as opposed to deliberate in-camera composition, the square format is an interesting one that for some reason is difficult to use. Maybe it’s to do with…
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#151 – Creativity – ‘What If’ and ‘How Can I’
Questions – don’t you just love them? My day job involves asking a lot of questions, either requesting people to do things or requesting information. Sometimes when doing audits, I have to ask several questions to elicit the information or response I want, and I often find myself saying ‘I’ll ask it a different way’ or…
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#137 – how to create a Blurb photobook
Over the past couple of years, I’ve created a few photobooks using Blurb and have always been very happy with the service and the product. In addition, their Booksmart software has got better especially with the ability to customise the templates or even design your own. This has opened up a huge range of creative…
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#107 – Developing A Style
I responded to a thread on the Talk Photography discussion forum about developing your on style of photography. I realised some time ago that shooting something that you are interested in, regularly, helps you to develop a style. While it’s not something that you can consciously do (really, as it’s something that evolves over time), here’s a…
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#100 – Lead in lines
Railway lines are a great way to lead into a photo, although, you do normally need permission to be on them! This was taken at a charter on the Ribble Steam Railway in Preston, and I got down low, to take the shot. With an increasing number of DSLR’s having live view on them, using…
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#42 – The Life Formula For Visual Variety In The Photo Essay
I can’t remember where I got this from. For a typical assignment at the old Life magazine, the editors expected the photographer on location to shoot at least eight basic types of photos to ensure complete coverage of the situation and to guarantee enough good pictures for a layout. 1] Introductory or overall – usually…
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#41 – the beauty of twilight
In my eyes, the best low light photography isn’t done in darkness, it’s done just before, just after the sun has set, but before the sky goes it’s inky black. It’s for that brief period of time when the sky goes a lovely cobalt blue colour, and you can really make a feature of the…
Mechanical Landscapes 