Success in Stranger After Dark Competition

After my night and day street photography workshop I had a few decent portraits of complete strangers.  I decided to enter one of them 'Zombie Boy' into a photo competition that was organised by book publisher Thames and Hudson.  The challenge of the competition was to take a portrait of a complete stranger during the hours of darkness.  You weren't allowed to take 'sneak' shots and the subject had to give you permission to take the photo.  Each photographer was only allowed to enter one image.

The results were announced two days ago and I'm really please to say my picture came in second! :)  My prize is a copy of Cardiff After Dark and Street Photography Now, two excellent books that should be on any photographer's shelf.  

The top nine entries, of the 70+ that were entered, are shown in order below starting with the winner:

Oktoberfest by Michael May

Zombie Boy by Me!

Bride Having a Fag Break by Dimitra Kountiou

Portrait by Yorgos

Stranger after Dark by Danielle Houghton

Untitled by Andreas Paradise

Bananas by Adam

Pink in Red Light Amsterdam by Henning Welslau

Untitled by Lukasz Nowosadzki

Tricky Shooting: Animal Photography through Glass and Wire

Amongst some of the photography skills I've been practising recently is taking images through glass or wire fences.  For this post I'm going to share some of the pictures I took whilst at Exmoor Zoo last week and use them as an excuse to share some tips with you.  I used my Canon 5D Mk2 and two lenses - a Canon 24-70mm and a Tamron 70-300mm.

When shooting through glass I have only found one approach that gives a high success rate.  If the subject is away from the window then I can press my lens flat up against the glass.  This is an easy way to get rid of the distracting reflections that can ruin many pictures.  The camera should be able to focus automatically but in a few cases you may have to flick the focus to manual and sort things out yourself.  If the subject is close to the window then you will need a camera with a macro setting (or use extension tubes to reduce the minimum focussing distance).

In order not to clutter up this blogpost I've put a list of all the camera settings I used at the end of this article.

The following shot was the first one I took on entering the zoo.  This monkey could clearly see me through the glass and I think it could see its own reflection in my lens.  I also tried to treat my animal subjects as if they were human.  This meant that I had to concentrate on getting the eyes in sharp focus and, where possible, capture the animal with catch-lights in the eyes.

Can anyone resist those eyes?

If the subject is behind a wire cage and is sitting close to the edge then it can be impossible to blur out the cage.  Faced with this situation I decided to make the cage part of the shot.  This baby monkey was nervously moving through an overhead cage 'tunnel' that liked two large enclosures.  I feel that by including the cage in the following shot, ensuring that the majority of the face was visible, I managed to create an image that forces an emotion from the viewer.

Sometimes you can use the cages for more emotion

If the subject is away from the wire cage then it is possible to almost completely remove the bars by using a shallow depth of field.  This forces the camera to keep only a thin area of the scene in focus.  As long as the area concerned contains your subject then the closest bars will often almost completely disappear.  This can be seen in the image below:

Bad hair day

Where possible you should try and position the camera lens close to the fence in order to enhance the blurring out effect.  If this isn't possible you can use the bars for creative effect.  I thought that this monkey looked a little crazy and I loved the orange eyes and so with a bit of me shuffling around to get the bars in the right place I took this shot:

Here are two examples taken through glass.  This meerkat was enjoying the heat from a lamp and so was well lit in the dark enclosure.  The light meant that my camera had enough contrast to focus and so it was relatively easy to get the shot.  For the second image I used the telephoto lens and concentrated on getting the eyes in focus and with a glint in them.  I'm not sure why I chose such an usual angle for the second shot, it just felt right :)

Sunbathing Meerkat

Simples.  (Sorry)

It took a great deal of attempts to get the final shot of each animal.  For the following two images I took a total of thirty images.  The difficulties I had were shooting at a long distance, through glass, in poor light with two subjects that just didn't want to look at the camera.  Patience in these scenarios is a virtue.

Caracal

Maned Wolf

You may have noticed in the Maned Wolf image there is a vertical blurry streak to the right of the frame.  This was a tall piece of grass that was close to the window but i didn't notice at the time of shooting.  When shooting I rarely check my images on the viewfinder other than for a quick look to ensure the settings are correct.  It means I can spend more time looking for the 'decisive moment' but does run the risk of errors like this.

Sometimes it is just not possible to get the perfect image in camera and I may have to tweak the image later. I use the excellent Lightroom 4 software for the majority of my quick fixes.  Below I've shown two images I took of 'The Beast of Exmoor'.  I was shooting through thick glass that was partially frosted.  The leopard was pacing around it's enclosure and I took a few minutes to work out where the best light was and the pattern of the animals routine.  I only managed to get one usable image of the animal.

The first is the image as it came out of the camera.  The second image shows what can be done with a few simple clicks.  I increased the contrast, darkened the blacks and adjusted the vibrancy and white balance.  It meant I was able to take an image that looks like it was taken through a steamy bathroom window and turn it into something acceptable.

Some of the most complicated shots I took were of the zoo's two cheetahs.  There is a viewing platform available but I wasn't happy with the 'shoot down' angle that this created.  It was impossible to make eye contact with the animals and so I moved around the enclosure.  One of the keepers came out to feed them and give a talk about the animals.  This proved a good distraction for the cheetahs and meant they stayed still for a while.  The downside was that my new location was behind two widely spaced layers of mesh fencing.  The camera could not auto-focus and so I had to focus manually.  Using the eyes of the large cats as aiming points I was able to blur out the fences - but look closely and you can see the pattern of the fence causing a visual disturbance in the images.

Drooling watching the other cheetah eat

And pouncing on the remains of lunch seconds later

And a final flurry of images for you to look at - all taken in difficult circumstances:

Golden Headed Tamarin

Abyssinian Hornbill

Emperor Tamarin

Howler Monkey

Professional Help

If you are still struggling with taking pictures of animals in the zoo it may be worth checking to see if the zoo can help.  At Exmoor Zoo you can hire the help of a pro with prices that start at £75.  It doesn't necessarily give you any more access than as a normal visitor but you may find it helpful to have someone point out opportunities that are being missed or settings that are wrong.  I haven't used this service so can't vouch for it but you can find details HERE if interested.

Settings

Where possible I used the camera in Program mode  - this allows the camera to pick what it thinks is the best setting but gives me creative control over speed and aperture with a simple click of a thumb wheel.  I set the camera to ISO 400 for the whole day.  This allows the camera to shoot faster and so reduce camera shake, important when using a zoom range at maximum length.

1.  Monkey Eyes   70mm  f3.5  1/125sec
2.  Baby Monkey  300mm  f5.6  1/160sec
3.  Bad Hair  300mm f7.1  1/500sec
4.  Eye Target  271mm f8.0  1/640sec
5.  Meerkat    81mm  f4.0  1/80sec
6.  Meerkat Portrait  259mm  f5.6  1/80sec
7.  Caracal    300mm  f6.3  1/400sec
8.  Maned Wolf  300mm  f5.6  1/320sec
9/10.  Leopard  84mm  f5.6  1/160sec
11/12.  Cheetahs  300mm  f5.6  1/250sec
13.  Golden Tamarin  209mm  f5.0  1/80sec
14. Hornbill  300mm  f5.6  1/250sec
15. Emperor Tamarin  190mm  f5.0  1/30sec
16. Howler  60mm  f2.8  1/60sec

Gregory Crewdson - Amazing photographer!

There are a few photographers who were an inspiration to me when I was starting out and Gregory Crewdson is one of my favourites.

Much of Crewdons’s elaborated staged work is set to look like small town America.  His images often feature disturbing, surreal events and rely heavily on subtle lighting.  The characters appear sweaty and grimy and nearly always seem dazed and unhappy.

 

I would love to have the sort of budget that Crewdson has.  He works with a large crew to take each photo and after an initial planning phase it can take anything up to 5 weeks to construct a set for each of the images and take shots to get one final picture!  All of the images in his recent series, Twilight, and Beneath the Roses have a very strong cinematic feeling to them.  Crewdson sites various films as inspiration for his work and these include, Close Encounters of the ThirdKind, Blue Velvet and Vertigo.

Crewdson, talking on Ovation TV, says his images “portray a collision of the familiar and the strange.  There is an unexpected sense of mystery or strangeness”.
 

Some critics have expressed a dislike for his style.  David Frankel writing for ArtForum.com believes, ‘a photograph that looks like a film still has a built-in issue, namely, that it is a photograph that looks like a film still… he succeeds only in reminding you that a film director must invent and oversee literally thousands of such images to fill the allotted ninety minutes and still can end up with a mediocre movie’.  In a way I can agree with Frankel but Crewdson has much more time available to create just one image and this comes across in the quality of the detailing of each element within the frame. 

In the Twilight series Crewdson has deliberately shot his images during the morning or evening twilight period to add a further sense of mystery to the images.  I was a little disappointed to learn that much of Crewdson’s work goes through some expensive and complicated post-processing.  I intend to try and replicate his style but do as much of it ‘in-camera’ as possible.  The video below is a bit of an advert for Epson printers but there is some great stuff from Crewdson talking about his images. 

This final video clip is Crewdson talking about his work creating the series Sanctuary, black and white images created in an abandoned film lot.

It was Crewdson’s image with William H Macy that served as the inspiration for the title image that I use on this blog and regularly on my facebook page.

You can find more information about two of Crewdson's images on the Aperture website.

The Gagosina Gallery has some great images from Crewdson and a full biography HERE.

Taylor Wessing National Portrait Photography Prize Winner announced

Congratulations to Jordi Ruiz Cirera who has been announced as the winner of the Taylor Wessing Portrait Photograph prize.  Information came hot off the press via the British Journal of Photography's great iPhone App.

My prediction was correct :)

Read about the short list and see some of my favourite shots in my previous post HERE

Margarita Teichroeb, from the series Menonos - © Jordi Ruiz Cirera

In second place, shown below, was Lynne, Brighton by Jennifer Pattison

Lynne, Brighton - © Jennifer Pattison

Pro photographers with really cheap cameras

Tonight I thought I'd share some light entertainment that has a serious message.  Most photographers are guilty of camera envy.  I have a lovely full frame DSLR and yet still want a medium format camera.  Photographers starting out are often quick to blame the camera for rubbish pictures.

This series of YouTube video clips gives different professional photographers really, really bad cameras and challenges them to get the most out of the kit.  The results may not win Photographer of the Year but I was very impressed by the images that could be produced from cameras as simple as an iPhone 2 or a Lego Camera!

Each video is around 10 minutes long except for the one with Chase Jarvis as his runs to twenty minutes or so.  Watching a professional in action is well worth the time and effort.  The videos all start with the same set up so you can probably skip the first few minutes once you've watched one or two.  If you want to try it yourself you may have to search on eBay or your local charity shops for an obsolete cheap model.

The final video is a switch, they give one of the models a fantastic Nikon D3S camera to see how she gets on.



Carsten Schael uses a Yashica EZ-F

Hermann Lee uses an iPhone 2G

Eric Wong uses a lovely pink Rollei compact point and shoot

Mark Chung uses a Vivitar 8027 and a non-professional model.

Chase Jarvis uses a Lego Camera, hell yeah!

Hong Kong Model Garcia shoots with a Nikon D3S.  She's a little annoying but does pretty well for a complete novice.

National Portrait Photography Short List

The short list for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012 have been announced.  I made an effort to enter the competition this year but, understandably, failed to make the final cut.  I completely misjudged the criteria for this competition but will try again next year using articles like this blog for research.

After yesterday's somewhat text heavy blogpost I've kept today's much more viewer friendly.  Enjoy the images, all taken from the short-list, and see if you can pick the winner - it will be announced on 5th November.  My personal favourite is the last image shown below:

Lynne, Brighton - © Jennifer Pattison

Mark Rylance - © Spencer Murphy

The Ventriloquist - © Alma Haser

Mo, from the series Young Hollywood - © Hana Knizova

Displaced Migrant Worker from Libya #1, from the series Trapped in Transit - © Antoine de Ras

Dhalia, 7 weeks, from the series Family Portraits - © Mark McEvoy

Kitty, Christine and Kiraa - © Lydia Panas

Margarita Teichroeb, from the series Menonos - © Jordi Ruiz Cirera

Street Photography Workshop

Last weekend I went on a two day street photography workshop that was run by Maciej Dakowicz and David Solomons.  The first day started with some theory work in the classroom.  We learnt about different street photographers and some of the techniques they used.  Next came three important lessons about what makes a great street photograph and the session was finished off with lessons on lightning and shooting at night.  All the images in this post were taken by me during the workshop, they may not be great images but will serve me as good reminders for the different techniques that were being taught.

More of my images from the workshop can be found HERE

Street photography is a type of photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches and shops.  Street photography uses many techniques that are similar to documentary photography and there is a great deal of overlap between the two.  Documentary photography is more of a social investigation and often has motives to improve society - there is often a higher level of emotional intensity in documentary photography.  There are some great photographers, such as Dario Mitidieri, who can flit between both worlds.

On photo sites like Flickr it is very easy to find street photography groups with whom you can share your images.  One of the better groups is HSCP (Hardcore Street Photography) and many of the images we were shown during the workshop came from members of this group.  Once you start getting very good then there are more professional groups such as iN-PUBLiC who can provide access to publishers etc.

If you want to start out in street photography the basic guidelines are really very simple:

• You should shoot with one camera and one lens - preferably a fixed/prime lens between 28 and 50mm.  I brought along four different lenses to the workshop and had to lug them around all evening as they were left unused in my camera bag.  
• Use digital, especially if you are starting out, as you need fast feedback to see if you are getting the basics like exposure and shutter speed right.
• Don't use a telephoto lens, they are for nature, sport and perving and are therefore not suitable for street work!  When using my Canon 5D Mk2 all of my shots were taken using either the Canon 35mm f2 or Canon 50mm f1.8 lens.  I had a Lumix GX1 with a 20mm f1.7 lens as a small back up but I rarely needed this camera.
• Always carry spare batteries and memory cards (if it's cold keep the spare batteries in an inside pocket to keep them warm and stop them draining too quickly).
• Wear comfortable shots and anticipate changes in weather.

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when shooting in public is fear.  Unfortunately to be a good street photographer you need to overcome this fear and not be afraid to point cameras at people.  One way to practise is take your camera somewhere where they are expected ie tourist attractions and use this to be able to blend in with the tourists.

One important tip we learnt was not to look sneaky.  You may be able to get a secret snap of your subject if you shoot from behind an obstacle but someone else is bound to notice you and may challenge you.  Confidence is massively important - I found that looking like I knew what I was doing really helped, especially when asking people if I could take their portraits.

A few points to note about street photography and the law:

• It is legal to photograph people in a public space in the UK.
• If a building is on private property they may be photographed from public land i.e. the street.
• You can be asked to leave private property ie a pub by the owner if you haven't asked for permission to shoot pictures there.
• A police officer or security guard cannot make you delete a photograph, even if taken on private land.
• You do not need permission to exhibit your pictures, publish them in magazines or on the internet but a model release may be required if the image is being used for commercial purposes.

David Solomons, one of the workshop tutors, breaking the rule about looking sneaky :)

First stop for our practical street workshop was to the pub.  It seems that a mild case of alcoholism is great for building the confidence.  Whilst this was useful at getting rid of some inhibitions about taking photos I found that it made me forget all the important details like checking the full frame and making sure all of the settings were spot on.  Definitely a case of finding the ideal balance of alcohol in the blood stream :).  Whilst we were trying to capture candid shots we also had the task of trying to get posed portraits of complete strangers.  This was a good task for confidence building and, as it was Halloween, there were plenty of people out in fancy dress and thus were easy targets for getting pictures.

All the shots below were taken near Piccadilly Circus with a bit of a drift into Chinatown, Soho and along the theatre district.  I asked for permission and posed the subjects in almost every shot - the zombies and woman in front of the advertising board were taken as candid images.  Everyone I spoke to was more than happy to have their picture taken and I was never threatened or turned down.  Almost all of the pictures were taken using the 35mm lens and so I was only two or three feet away from the subjects.

The second day of the workshop started with a review of the previous day's images and tips for picking images for final selection.  I had taken about 300 shots during the previous day/night and in all there was only 2 or 3 that the tutors thought were any good - although several more that I was happy with!  The final session of the afternoon was a trip to Brick Lane for more portraits and candid shots.  Anyone wanting to practice this sort of photography should head on down there - it is full of characters and photographers and so you won't even raise an eyebrow as you work.  The following four portraits were all asked for; the difficult bit was waiting for the subject to stop hamming up for the camera and then relax for a more informal shot.  I even managed to find someone relatively famous to take a picture of :)

I was still looking for interesting street scenes and the following four are my favourite from the afternoon.  The first three are candid images, they aren't perfect but I'm really pleased with the way they came out.  The final image was posed for me by the subject, a lovely lady who put up with me leaning directly over her shoulder for a good few minutes until I got the shot I was after.

I had an amazing time during the workshop and I feel that my whole view of photography has improved as a result of the lessons and practical elements that it covered.  I have become far more critical of my own images and have been forced not just to blindly accept mediocre images any more.

The ten things I learnt from the workshop:

1. Don't be afraid of rejection if asking for a portrait or of an aggressive encounter when taking candids.  Not everyone is an ex-cage fighter psycho killer and most people are friendly if you explain honestly what you are doing.
2. When shooting at night make sure you find a good source of light (as you wont be using a flash)
3. Don't silhouette your subject unless it's a deliberate choice, if they've agreed to a portrait then move then to face the light.
4. Shoot in manual mode during the day, a setting of f11, 1/500 and ISO 400 is a good starting point.  If you need to change for a specific shot then do it using shutter/aperture priority mode and then go back to full manual.
5. If shooting at night with a modern camera then don't fear ISO 1600 or 3200  - there may be some noise when you zoom in on the image on screen later but you can still print with amazing quality.  The important aspect is shutter speed as you need to be able to work at 1/200 or faster to capture candids.
6. Busy streets are great for action but really hard to get a clean shot of the subject.  Use a shallow depth of field or better still change your position to isolate your subjects.
7. Walking through a street may get results but it is easier to find a good spot and wait for the action to come to you.  Especially true if you find somewhere with good lighting or an interesting background.
8. Don't rely on taking one picture of the 'moment'.  If you spot a scene developing then take several different pictures to work the scene - it was the thing we got told off for the most as even the great photographers may take 10+ shots to get the perfect one.
9. Before you hit the shutter release you must try to look at the whole of the frame, there's nothing worse than capturing a great moment only to realise you've clipped out a hand or foot or that something really distracting is in the corner of the shot.
10. Don't take pictures of people on their phones (we all did!), it's been done to death and you should only consider it if your subject has an interesting face, is doing something unusual or is in fabulous light.