The blog is moving

You may have noticed that this blog has gotten very quiet recently.  This is because I have made the transition to a wordpress account and will post all future items there.  I split the blog into two specialised blogs.  One is an inspiration blog that has details of other photographers and their work.

The CLiCK of Photographers

The other is more in line with this blog and is going to be my research and photo-journal resource.

Paul Fox Photography

What's On! Photographic events for MAY 2013 in Wales

Diffusion Festival 2013

Various Locations around Cardiff 1 - 31 May

Diffusion 2013 is staged in Cardiff, Wales’ capital, a city that in recent years has undergone major economic and social transformation. The festival uses both traditional and new media to create a strong visual presence across existing venues and found spaces and through various interventions in the public realm. We encourage visitors and residents alike to navigate Cardiff and its environs in new ways and to discover facets of the city they would not normally expect to find.

Above all, Diffusion 2013 is a celebration of photography and the photographic image, in all its forms. Whether created, published, exhibited, collected or distributed in a physical or virtual way, the photograph has the power to inspire and provoke reaction, to reflect our own experience and that of society evolving around us.

Events are being updated but the following have been confirmed:

Wednesday 1 May

11am f&d cartier Wait and See unveiling at Oriel Canfas

5 – 7pm Festival Opening Reception and From common differences exhibition opening at St David's Hall

7 – 9pm Alicia Bruce Encore exhibition opening at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

Friday 3 May

6 – 9pm Exhibition openings at Chapter:

Maurizio Anzeri But it’s not too late, it’s only dark (Gallery)

Gideon Koppel B O R T H (Studio)

Emma Bennett Thief of Time (Art in the Bar)

Saturday 4 May

12 – 2pm European Chronicles exhibition opening at The Cardiff Story (1^st Floor exhibition gallery)

2 – 4pm Exhibition openings at Tramshed:

The Valleys Re-Presented 

Peter Bobby High-rise

Structures of Feeling: The Photographs of Geoff Charles

4.30 – 6.30pm Edgar Martins The Time Machine exhibition opening at Ffotogallery (see below)

5 – 8 pm Wild Oats exhibition opening at Milkwood Gallery

7 – 10pm Barnraising and Bunkers exhibition opening at g39

---

Edgar Martins: The Time Machine

Cardiff 1 May - 7 June 2013

In 2010 and 2011, Martins gained exclusive access to 20 power plants located across Portugal. Many were built between the 1950s and 1970s, a time of hopeful prospects for rapid economic growth and social change. The Time Machine records objects and spaces whose grand and progressive designs testify to the scope and ambition of the vision they were built to serve.    Ffotogallery, Plymouth Road, Penarth, CF64 3DH

---

Sebastian Liste: Urban Quilombo

Cardiff 4 May - 23 June 2013

Eight years ago sixty families occupied the “Galpao da Araujo Barreto”, an abandoned chocolate factory in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. Before that, these families lived in the dangerous streets of the city until they decided to come together and occupy this factory in ruins and turn it in a home. Liste has been working in this project since 2009, living with the families and their daily dramas. Documenting the daily life inside of this community, where the life moves between the universal bipolarity of harmony and chaos, hope and despair.    Third Floor Gallery, 102 Bute Street, Penarth, CF10 5AD

---

Helen Sear: Lure

Cardiff 25 May - 21 June 2013

One of Wales’ most important artists, Helen Sear’s practice is characterized by her exploration of the crossover between photography and fine art, her focus on the natural world and the startling beauty of her work. The exhibition sees Sear continuing to explore the act of looking and relationships between nature, space and scale to present still and moving images of remarkable power.    Bay Art Gallery, 54B/C Bute Street, Cardiff Bay, CF10 5AF

---

European Chronicles

Cardiff 1 May - 31 May 2013

European Chronicles puts forward a vision of contemporary Europe as experienced through photographic work reflecting various personal, family and community stories. The exhibition showcases the work of Mindaugas Ažušilis, David Barnes, Tina Carr & Annemarie Schöne, John Duncan, Anna Kurpaska, Catrine Val, Arturas Valiaga and others.

The exhibition is presented by Ffotogallery as part of Diffusion: Cardiff International Festival of Photography. A month long festival of exhibitions, discussions, screenings, performances, events and celebrations in both physical and virtual spaces and places.  The Cardiff Story, The Old Library, Cardiff, CF10 1BH

---

Maurizio Anzeri: But it's not too late

1 May - 30 June 2013

Anzeri uses found photographs and embroidery to create subtly sculptural pieces in which strangers are given new identities; complex and mysterious. Anzeri sees photographic portraits as landscapes, exploring them in order to layer them with his own maps or orientation to invent what he describes as "other possible evolutionary dimensions for the people pictured". Labyrinths of forms and colours create intriguing geographies of faces, histories and souls with eyes that stare enigmatically from the centre of their 'masks'. Alongside this established practice, Anzeri will show new works that utilise embroidery and personal photography to create imagined or psychological space; private reality that becomes public fantasy.  Chapter, Market Road, Cardiff, CF5 1QE


Also at Chapter:

Diffusion Free Family Workshop 25 May 2013 Zine-a-thon: Join Mark Thomas and learn how to make your own photocopied zine. Diffusion Publishing Fair 25 May -26 May 2013 Diffusion Photobook Symposium 26 May Early bird booking before 1 May £15, after 1 May £20 Book HERE

WW2 Photos released on Flickr

I hadn't meant to write two military themed blog posts back to back but I thought that this was too interesting to leave for later.  A project to scan over 3,000 images taken during the D-Day Landings and the months following has been completed and the images can now be seen on Flickr.  The entire collection can be accessed HERE.

Like the recent Korean fake photos - but actually a real massed amphibious landing force.

Unfortunately the majority of captions are in French but hopefully as awareness of the site increases more of the text will be translated into English.

The images have been collected into smaller sets to make navigation easier.  My favourite images are from the sets containing pictures taken in colour.  These are scarce and although they often lack the drama of BW images there is much more information to be gleaned:

Barrage balloons in Weymouth prior to Overlord

The worst darts player in uniform?

US Military Policeman

News of this collection is gradually starting to spread and you may find that Flickr is a little slow as you move through the images - bear with it though as there are a lot of documentary pictures to work through.

Public online collections like these are starting to creep up everywhere.  New York City Department of Records has finally completed cataloguing its massive collection of over 870,000 images and made them available online.  They have gone a little over the top with their water marking and the images suffer as a result.  In the United Kingdom the National Media Museum continues to increase its online collection as does the National Library of Wales.

US Military Photographer of the Year 2012

The winners of the 2012 US Military Photographer of the year award has been announced.  With all of the freelance photographers currently risking their lives in war zones across the world I am always interested to see how military personnel are allowed to publically portray themselves in competitions like this.  Having served in the military myself I am acutely aware of how easy it is for these events to be hijacked as a public relations or political exercise.

Category: Combat camera operational, honorable mention

Army soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment deployed to Combat Outpost Sabari in Afghanistan scan the area as they begin a multi-day air assault mission May 2 in the eastern Khost province, near the Pakistani border.

Staff Sgt. Joshua L. DeMotts / U.S. Air Force

Category: Portrait-personality, second place

An Afghan National Army soldier poses with a poppy near the village of Karizonah, in Khost province. In Afghanistan, the poppy crop is a major source of funding for extremist groups involved in the Taliban-led insurgency.

Staff Sgt. Joshua L. DeMotts / U.S. Marine Corps

Category: Combat camera operational, first place

Afghan National Army special operations and coalition forces search a compound March 23, 2012, in Southern Afghanistan during a raid targeting a Taliban sub-commander.

Staff Sgt. Sean K. Harp / U.S. Army

Category: Hardware, first place

U.S. Air Force equipment from the 820th RED HORSE Squadron, descends for support during Mobility Air Force Exercise over the Nevada Test and Training Range. 

Airman 1st Class. Daniel Hughes / U.S. Air Force

Category: Features, first place

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Lock and his wife, Chris, comfort his mother, Mary, as she takes her last breaths before passing away Oct. 22 at a nursing facility in Gloversville, N.Y. She was 87.

Master Sgt. Jeremy Lock / U.S. Air Force

The image above is my favourite from the whole competition, I guess it appeals to the documentary photographer in me.  I investigated further into this shot.  The photographer is Jeremy Lock, grandson of the subject.  He is currently a U.S. Air Force combat photojournalist stationed at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C. with the 1st Combat Camera Squadron.  Over the years he has had seven winning entries in the Military Photographer of the Year competition.  Whilst serving as a photographer in Iraq in 2006 he was taking pictures of a group of marines that came under fire.  Several marines were hit and Lock put down his cameras, picked up an assault rifle, and helped provide covering fire as the injured were dragged to safety.  For his actions he was awarded the Bronze Star.

Lock, shown above, has worked around the world with the military.  His work has been published in Time and National Geographic magazines as well as major newspapers across the United States including The New York Times, The LA Times and The Washington Times. His work has also been published in books including "The War in Iraq" and "A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces."  

An interview with Lock from 2006 can be found HERE.  I found the following points from the interview interesting to read - especially as I've just recently watched the brilliant documentary McCullin:

What special precautions and/or equipment do you take when you're going to a combat area?
Well, lucky for me, I have a lot of military training that is required before we step foot in the war zone. And on this trip it has definitely worked. The training just kicks in which in turn helps you complete the mission. When I go out for a shoot here, I wear a Kevlar helmet, body armor, shooters vest with one lens (17-55mm) extra batteries and film cards, note pad and pen and some essential first aid supplies. I have a 9mm pistol strapped to my leg and carry 2 cameras (D1X with a 80-400mm lens and a D2X with a 12-24mm lens) At times I do interchange the lenses with different bodies depending on the effect or situation. With my photography I do not use flash unless I am in a studio. And for night missions I carry a night vision lens adapter, but don’t use it. I use all natural light. And I always pray for my safe return! 

What ethical considerations do you keep in mind while shooting in combat zones (civilians and military)?To capture the truth! When editing my photos I do not do anything that can not be done in a darkroom - unless I'm creating an illustration.
 What are some of the ethics issues in conflict areas?Knowing when to shoot and knowing when to put the camera down and help out with civilians or military.  I have not really had any problems in this area yet. I did have to put my camera down and help give first aid to a civilian who was shot because there was only one guy helping and he needed help.  In my experiences the people I am photographing know I am there, so act accordingly. If something did go amiss I would like to think I would stop it or shoot what’s going on and let the higher ups deal with it. Until you are put into that situation, you don't know.
 How did these instances affect you, and did your emotions impact the way you approached a photo?
I have not encountered any ethical issues over here. I did, however, have one when I was working on a story in a neo natal intensive care unit very early in my career.  I was shooting a family that gave me permission to shoot them and their baby died. Although I had permission I couldn’t bring the camera to my face. Later I talked about the situation with my fellow photographers and we all agreed, as long as I wasn’t obtrusive to the family, shooting from a distance, the family probably would of loved to have the last few moments with their baby captured on film to remember. Again you just never know until you are put in to these situations. I believe if you are a good person you will do the right thing.

A very short clip with Lock in action is HERE

Lock learnt his skills at the Defense Information School.  Some details of the courses run there can be found by looking through some of the links from the page ie for the Intermediate Photojournalism Course - the references page is useful, it seems that actually taking pictures is a very small part of the course.

Lock is currently the chief photographer for the Airman Magazine, the official magazine of the USAF, and some of his images for that publication can be found HERE.

More images from this year's competition can be found at:

The Telegraph

CBS News

The Daily Mail

Extreme photography!

Through one of my contacts on Twitter I came across a tweet about a small group of Russian photographers who had spent five hours dodging security guards to illegally scale the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt and take some photographs.  Whilst I cannot support their actions I have to admit that the photographs they published on their blogs are pretty impressive.

All of the images are copyright Marat Dupri, Vadim Mahora and Raskalov and you can find their blogs by clicking on their names.  These guys are properly mental, often combining a love of photography and BASE jumping.  A link to a video of them in action is further down the blog!

Dupri: Close to the top of the Pyramid

Raskalov: The lights of Cairo look like an encroaching sea of fire

The photographers were taking quite a large risk whilst getting these images.  I can't imagine that many photographers would relish spending time in an Egyptian police cell or jail.

Dupri: At the top of the Pyramid (perhaps camouflage would have made the climb easier?

Away from Egypt the group have visited many cities in order to scale the highest structures to take photos and videos.  In the image below they were in Berlin, the gathering crowd thought they were about to commit suicide and started shouting at them.  When the realised they were photographers they wandered off!

Mahora: Taken from one of the tallest buildings in Berlin.

A lot of the images taken by the group were done so at great personal risk.  Much of their climbs involve working without safety equipment and in some horrible weather conditions.  I'm not saying that they deserve pity, they chose this ultimate form of Urbex, rather that the images should be respected for the effort that has gone into their creation.

Raskalov: Extreme Dangling!

Not content with just climbing up to the top of incredibly tall structures, snapping a few frames and then coming back down these guys love to BASE jump.  Videos of the group in action can be found on Youtube.  Although it's all narrated in Russian the pictures speak for themselves.  Watch it in 1080p and see if your heart lurches too when they make their jump or reach the top of the crane :)

Some of Mahora's other work is truly amazing.  Being able to shoot from angles rarely captured adds a lot to his different series.  Google translate is not perfect but is good enough to be able to navigate through Mahora's blog and learn more about what makes this photographer tick. It is clear that he has a real love of the industrial landscape and spends a great deal of his time touring the world looking for places to visit and photograph.


I'll finish this post with a few of my favourite images from his collection:

Mahora: Kemerova

Mahora: Khemerova

Mahora: Bureya Hydro Power Plant - looking like something out of a sci-fi movie

Life After Zog - Chiara Tocci at the Third Floor Gallery

On Saturday 22 March I was lucky enough to attend the opening night of Life after Zog at the Third Floor Gallery in Cardiff.  The exhibition, by Chiara Tocci, is her response to seeing streams of disillusioned Albanians docking on the coasts of her home town in southern Italy in the early Nineties.

I was really impressed by this collection of images.  A lot of documentary photographers create images that 'shout' their story, I found that Tocci's series was very quiet and reserved - and made better for it.  The images are split into two smaller stories are are a mix of portraits, landscapes and still lifes.  The images are presented in square format and the colours of many of the images are muted.  For me it is the portraits that really make this series work.  

As I will be starting a Documentary Photography degree in September, I found it inspiring to learnt that Tocci is a formed student of the same course at the University of Wales Newport.  She graduated in 2010 and has quickly found success having already had several solo exhibitions internationally.  Her internet footprint is currently pretty small, but I predict that this is a photographer to watch in the future.

A book of Tocci's work in Albania has been published by Schilt Publishing under the title Life After Zog and Other Stories. You may be able to save a little money by looking at Amazon and picking up a well looked after second hand copy.  The book opens with an interesting narrative from Tocci in which she summarises the situation in Albania and explains where she took her images.

Chiara Tocci was the recipient of the 2010 Marco Pesaresi award and the winner of the Portrait Commission at the National Museum Wales and National Portrait Gallery, London. Her first solo show “Life after Zog and other stories” took place in September 2011 at Sifest (Savignano sul Rubicone, Italy) and then toured the Fnac galleries in Italy throughout 2012.

If you are lucky enough to be reading this post before 24 April 2013 and are close to Cardiff then you should get yourself down to the Third Floor Gallery to see these images on display.  The book is a good representation of the work but they look much better displayed on the gallery walls.

Other photographic series taken in Albania:

From Verve Photo site:

The Albanians by Joachim Ladefoged

Albania by David Clifford

Missing and Bertelec by Bevis Fusha

Rineke Dijkstra

Self Portrait, Marnixbad, 1991

During one of my first visits to a photo gallery I came across an exhibition of work by the photographer Rineke Dijkstra.  The portraits, all taken of teenagers and youngsters on the beach, were blown up to be larger than life and the detail in them was incredible.  I felt a little uncomfortable looking at the images, the subjects seemed ungainly and captured looking awkward and unsettled.  As a result of the visit I've been following her work for some time now.  

Rineke was born in Sittard, the Netherlands, in 1959. She studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam from 1981 to 1986. Since her first solo exhibitions at de Moor in Amsterdam in the early 1980s, Dijkstra has shown at museums and galleries across the world.  She has received wide recognition and numerous awards for her work, including the Kodak Award Nederland, the Art Encouragement Award Amstelvee, the Werner Mantz Award, and the Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize. Guggenheim

Rineke works in series, creating groups of photographs and videos around a specific typology or theme. In 1992, she started making portraits of adolescents posed on beaches from Hilton Head, South Carolina, to Poland and Ukraine. Shot from a low perspective, the subjects of the Beach Portraits (1992–2002), poised on the brink of adulthood, take on a monumental presence. In contemporaneous works, including portraits of new mothers after giving birth, and photographs of bullfighters immediately after leaving the ring, she sought subjects whose physical exhaustion diminished the likelihood of a forced pose. Guggenheim


Beach Portraits

Kolobrzeg, Poland, 1992

This is a large-format colour photograph of a girl standing on a beach. She holds her body in a curved pose that recalls the depiction of Venus emerging from the sea in the famous renaissance painting, The Birth of Venus (1485-6, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence) by Sandro Botticelli (1446-1510). The girl in her photograph tilts her head to one side, appearing to look directly at the viewer. She wears an old-fashioned lime green swimsuit which is damp up to her lower stomach. Dijkstra used a flash in combination with natural light and a narrow depth of field, placing only the foreground and subject in focus, with the result that she appears artificially illuminated. This is accentuated by the darkness of the background relative to the girl’s pale body. Unlike the traditional portrait which is normally titled with the subject’s name, this work’s title states the location and date of the meeting between artist and girl. It is one of a series of twenty Beach Portraits (formerly known as Bathers) which Dijkstra created between 1992 and 1998.  TATE

Hilton Head Island, USA, 1992

The images from this series were inspired by a self portrait taken after a lengthy swimming session but it is also possible to find inspiration from the painting The Bather by Cezanne. Shown below the visual styling of The Bather is very similar to the work of Rineke. Cezanne has portrayed his subject pushed up to the front of the canvas in a slightly awkward pose. Foreground and deep space have been defined but the middle plane has been omitted - the result is an odd flattening of the image.  NY Mag

Cezanne, The Bather, 1886

In an interview with the New York Times in November 2012 the street/documentary photographer Joel Meyerowitz talked about his photography and on whom it had influenced:

"Rineke Dijkstra said that Mr. Meyerowitz’s work was a “real eye-opener” for her as a student in Amsterdam in the 1980s. Like many other young European photographers, she was still working in black-and-white, but Mr. Meyerowitz’s complex way with light in seemingly straightforward pictures of swimming pools and beaches helped her understand the power of colour" NY Times

Meyerowitz had exhibited these photos in Amsterdam in 1983, the same time Dijkstra was a student.  Looking at two of Meyerowitz's images makes the links between both series much easier to see:

Caroline, Provincetown, 1983

Eliza, Provincetown, 1982

New Mothers

This is a series of three portraits of women made shortly after they had given birth. All the women were known to the artist – one was a personal friend and the other two were friends of friends. Dijkstra photographed the women in their homes because in Holland it is more common for women to give birth at home than in a hospital. While bearing signs of their recent ordeal – the medical pants and sanitary towel which Julie wears, a trickle of blood down the inside of Tecla’s left leg, the caesarean scar on Saskia’s belly – the women appear proud and happy. They hold their new babies turned away from the camera, protectively pressed against their bodies. Dijkstra has developed a way of combining natural light with flash which results in particular quality of soft, clear light. Julie’s left hand covers her baby’s eyes to protect them from the flash.  TATE

Julie, Den Haag

Dijkstra was inspired to make these portraits after watching the birth of a friend’s baby. She is interested in photographing people at a time when they do not have everything under control. She uses the device of the formally posed, full-length portrait to try to reveal something of what people carry inside them – the emotional intensity concealed behind the mask of the face and the body’s pose. 

Tecla, Amsterdam

The photographic portrait, titled with the date and place, records a specific moment in time in which the subject was undergoing a particular experience. Dijkstra has commented:

"As a photographer you enlarge or emphasize a certain moment, making it another reality. For instance the portraits I made of women after giving birth: the reality of this experience is about the whole atmosphere, which is very emotional. In the photograph, you can scrutinize all the details, which makes it a bit harsh: you can see things you normally would not pay so much attention to." (Dijkstra, 2003)

Saskia, Harderwijk

Israel Portrait

Shany: Induction Centre March 2002                                               Palmahim Israeli Air Force Base Oct 2002 

Tel Hashomer May 2003                                                                          Herzliya August 2003 

This is one of my favourite series of Rineke's work.  Shany, a young Israeli women, is recorded at stages over the course of 18 months, from her first day in uniform in the Israeli Defence Force until after she quit the army.

As usual with Ms. Dijkstra, the photographs are simple, head-on figures against plain backdrops, the subjects staring passively at the camera, presenting themselves as they wish, or trying to. They look alert but just on the edge of fatigue or distraction, which means their guard is almost down.  They grow up over the course of each series. Shany changes from a gawky, shy, frightened girl, lost in her uniform, into a young adult, looking confidently at us, an independent, even defiant woman who has shed her uniform.  NY Times

I think it is interesting the way that the subject seems to make a yo-yo progression in confidence as the series evolves. The initial gawkiness is replaced with a seemingly calm confidence in only a few months. In the third image Rineke has again placed her subject outside against a wall and the previous confident air has dissolved.  It may be something as simple as the pose of the mouth as,for me, the gap in the teeth takes away the 'harshness' of the backdrop and military uniform.  This series has received mixed reviews with GALO Magazine's critic being typical of those who found the series uninspiring.

More information, books and contact details:

A great video discussion of Rineke's work, with some segments by the artist, can be found on the Guggenheim website HERE.  The video moves on to discuss some of Rineke's video work, an interesting take on the portrait genre.  There is also a LINK to a second video in which Rineke and one of her subjects, Almersia, talk about her work and the shooting process.

Books:

Retrospective £29 approx

"This volume is the first comprehensive monograph on Rineke Dijkstra to be published in the United States, accompanying the first U.S. mid-career survey of this important Dutch artists work in photography and video. The catalogue features the Beach Portraits and other early works such as the photographs of new mothers and bullfighters, together with selections from Dijkstras later work, including her most recent video installations. Also featured are series that the artist has been working on continuously for years, such as Almerisa (1994), which documents a young immigrant girl as she grows up and adapts to her new environment. Exhibition curators Jennifer Blessing, Senior Curator, Photography, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Sandra S. Phillips, Senior Curator of Photography, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, contribute essays accompanied by an interview with the artist by Jan van Adrichem, selected interviews with several of the artists subjects, and entries on the artists series by Chelsea Spengemann, as well as the most comprehensive exhibition history and bibliography to date."

Portraits if you have more money as it's currently £110!

Rineke Dijkstra is renowned for her uncanny and thoughtful portraits series of teenagers and young adults: girls and boys of various nationalities at the beach, children of Bosnian refugees, Spanish bullfighters straight out of the arena, Israeli youngsters before and after military service, and here, documented for the first time, her series of photographs taken of aspiring, young ballet dancers. Her subjects are shown standing, facing the camera, against a minimal background. Formally, the images resemble classical portraiture with their frontally posed figures isolated against minimal backgrounds. Yet, in spite of the uniformity in the photographer's works, there is a marked individuality in each of her subjects. Dijkstra often deals with the development of personality as one moves from adolescence to adulthood, or through a life-changing or potentially threatening experience such as childbirth, or a bullfight.Portraits includes the photographer's new Ballet School series. In the end, it's the individual that I'm after.
--Rineke Dijkstra Essays by Urs Stahel and Hripsimé Visser. Hardcover, 9.75 x 13 in./160 pgs / 69 color.

There is a video of the Portraits book on Youtube (not sure about the music though!):

Like Rineke on FACEBOOK

Rineke talks to The Guardian newspaper about her best shot

Talking prior to the opening of her retrospective show to Art in America

If you are really interested in how Rineke works and her inspirations and techniques there is an hour long video of her being interviewed by Jennifer Blessing, the Curator of the Guggenheim New York.  You can find the video on Vimeo HERE.

Lyra: Welcome to the World!

Lyra

Hannah and I are now the proud parents of a little girl, Lyra, born early in the morning on 7 March.  Mother and baby doing well.

Normal blog service will be resumed shortly :)

Affordable Photography

I am often asked for advice on photography purchases by friends who want a good 'point and shoot camera' that can handle most situations reasonably well, but costs less than £300.  I must admit that my first instinct is to say that it isn't the camera, it's the photographer, but this is unfair.  Yes it is true that a pro photographer can work miracles with a cheap camera but the truth of the matter is that most people aren't professionals.

Technological advances mean that most cameras released in the last few years should be easily capable of dealing with the demands of the enthusiastic amateur.  Unfortunately the price of most cameras has gradually crept up.  A high quality entry level compact or bridge camera can easily cost upwards of £500 - that's in the same region as a decent second-hand DSLR!  Not everyone wants to invest in a camera that has separate lenses, nor be lumbered with bags of kit just to take a photo of their children as they play in the park.  This blogpost is for those guys and gals!

Entry level cameras are all about a compromise.  When stripped down to its basic components a digital camera is a combination of lens, processor and sensor.  The next level of camera is a 'bridge' camera, one that spans the gap between the amateur and the professional.  These cameras are more expensive as the quality of the components is often much better.  I'll briefly talk about lenses and sensors before I give my recommendations.

Lenses

Professional cameras split the lens away from the camera body so that the user can pick versions that best work for their style of photography i.e. landscape, portrait, sport.  For entry level cameras this is not an option as the lens is usually fixed in place and so it is important to pick a model that can cover the 'range' you will need it for.  Don't be tricked into thinking that a camera with a 150x zoom is the best for you (unless you need to take pictures of things that are in very bright light and are very far away).  Another hurdle to overcome is that the numbers that manufacturers quote for their lenses do not take into account the size of the sensor.  A smaller sensor will actually give a lens a 'free' zoom effect but the amount you can fit into the picture will be less.  For example the small sensor on my Lumix GX1 has a crop factor of 2x.  If I put a 'wide angle' 20mm lens on the camera then I'm actually putting the equivalent of a traditional 40mm lens on the camera.  Instead of being able to take really wide picture of landscapes I've actually got a great portrait lens.  If it seems complicated then don't let it stress you out.

Sensor

In my opinion the sensor is the most important part of the camera.  The bigger the sensor the more sensitive to light the camera will be.  Light sensitivity is a good thing.  If your camera can work in low light then you can select a fast shutter speed or increase the depth of field (how much of the image is in focus).  This makes it much easier to get pictures of your kids running around an still have them be in focus.  The picture below shows why a smaller, cheaper camera will often produce rubbish results - look at the different in sensor size!

Typical sensor sizes.  Image copyright Simply Better Photos

When picking a camera don't be blinded by the 'megapixel' number of the camera.  A higher number does not mean a better camera.  If your camera can take pictures at 8 megapixels or more you should be able to take images that will print very well at 20x30 inches (50x75cm).  The reason that pro's use higher megapixel counts is to allow space in the image to cut off edges etc. and still have a picture that can be printed.  If you are interested in editing your photos then a higher pixel count can be useful as it gives more 'dots' to play with.

Shooting in RAW mode

One final feature to be aware of is RAW mode.  This is a feature that is found in all pro and many 'bridge' cameras.  If you like to edit your photos then RAW is a very powerful feature.  In RAW the camera will be able to store a lot more information about the scene you are shooting and this can be used for more creative control later.  If you are a novice photographer then this feature may not be that important to you and so I've chosen cameras that all produce good JPEG images i.e. the camera makes the decision how to produce the image.  If you want to see a more in depth article about RAW vs. JPEG look HERE.

Finally, the Cameras!

I've gone for slightly older cameras, the prices have dropped on these models and you are getting a camera that cost around £500-1000 only 2-3 years ago for under £300.  Don't let any dials/buttons in the pictures put you off, you will hopefully use these advanced features as your knowledge of the camera grows.  All of the cameras selected have a full auto mode and many have settings for different scenes such as indoor portrait, fireworks, snow, sports.

Canon G12 Bridge Camera

The Canon G12 is an all in one 'bridge' camera that is really good in point and shoot mode.  As you get better you can change to more advanced settings.  A second hand model is at the top end of the £300 budget and this much loved camera has held its value well.  The lens is built in and has an equivalent range of a 28-140mm zoom.  This range is great for everything except distant shooting.  The camera can shoot in RAW mode, has a near HD quality video and take take a separate flash unit if you find the built in one too weedy.  This camera was launched in 2010 but the latest version of this model is the G15 so if you see that at a bargain price then snap it up!

Really geeky review and technical stats and details HERE.
Buy it on Amazon, or have a look at the latest eBay listings to see if you can spot a bargain.

Copyright Lisa Ng

Copyright Rafael Gandi

Fujifilm X10 Bridge Camera

It's possible to pick up one of these cameras second-hand for under £240.  It looks very similar to the G12 and also has a built in lens.  The focal range is slightly less at 28-122mm.  The key selling point for this camera is that it has a 2/3 sized sensor, much larger than most cameras of this size, and so its performance in tricky low light settings is much better than would be expected.  The camera was launched in 2011.  Sample images below:

Geeky review HERE
Check out prices on Amazon (or scour eBay for a great deal)

Copyright Fujifilm

Copyright Fujifilm

Canon Powershot S95 Point and Shoot

As you can see from the images above this is a relatively simple camera but don't let that put you off.  The camera is really small and light and yet it contains the highly capable Canon DIGIC 4 processor and has a lens that has a range of 28-105mm.  In such a small camera something has to give and in this case its an optical view finder i.e. you cant put the camera up to your eye to frame your image and so have to rely on the video display in the back of the camera.  The video mode isn't brilliant but is passable.  Launched in 2010 this camera had a retail price of £399 but you can pick up a 'used like new' model on Amazon for under £170!  I found this shot on Flickr that was taken by someone using the S95 - despite the low light he has been able to get the shutter speed fast enough to freeze the confetti!  I couldn't find any baby portraits taken with the S95 but the bottom shot of a dog gives a pretty good idea of the image quality that can be achieved.

Copyright Diego Bribiesca

Copyright J Montcrieff

Canon 500D or Nikon D5000 DSLR

So far I've only looked at entry and bridge cameras but even with a tight budget of £300 it is possible to get a very good quality entry level DSLR.  I mentioned at the beginning of the post that casual users often shy away from these types of camera.  I believe that the common misconception is that these are too complicated or expensive.  The Canon 500D and Nikon D5000 cameras were both released in June 2009 and were amongst the first cameras to make owning a DSLR affordable.  With the kit lenses supplied the original prices were £969 and £799 respectively.  I found both of these cameras available 'as new' on Amazon for under £300 - amazing bargains for technology that is only a few years old. Both cameras were well received by the critics and have only recently been surpassed by better versions.  

Both cameras negate the problem of small sensor sizes as they use the equivalents of the large APS-C sensor.  They work well in low light, have a multitude of automatic and assisted settings.  Best of all these cameras can grow with the user.  Because the lenses are not fixed to the camera it is possible to buy additional ones to suit your specific needs.  The very high end professional lenses can cost thousands of pounds, more so than the best camera bodies, but entry level ones make great birthday or Christmas presents :)  Even today these are hugely popular cameras.  A quick look on Flickr revealed 525,000 images for the 500d and 623,000 images for the D5000.

A review of the Canon 500D is HERE.
Review for the Nikon D5000 is HERE.

Three 'Must Have' Accessories

I know that a lot of new photographers get into photography after they have children.  Recording their babies as they develop starts as a pastime but can see the amateur turn into a semi or full blown professional as their children grow.  Regardless of the camera chosen most novices can get frustrated at the poor results they are getting and will often blame the camera and look for a 'better' one.  

To get more professional results you need to have better control over the light hitting your subject and for this you need to stop using the built in flash on the camera and buy a separate flash unit.  Better still you need to make the light you use very soft to get rid of harsh shadows and so should mount the flash in a softbox.  The final touch is to be able to move the flash unit where you want to and not have it stuck on the top of your camera.  For this you need a remote trigger that communicates between the camera and flash.  

These three items are fundamental bits of kit an any pro's arsenal and top of the range versions exist (for example the 580EX II flash unit I use cost over £300 when I bought it).  Searches on Amazon have come up trumps though and perfectly good entry level components do exist for the casual user:

The Yongnuo YN-560 II flash unit looks and acts so much like the Canon 580EX that I'm surprised that a law suit hasn't been issued.  It can be picked up for around £50.

The Pixel Pro Digital trigger allows you to fire the camera remotely or fire the flash whilst it is separate to the camera - and it's under £30

A Cowboy Studio Softbox that has been designed to work with off-camera flash units can be found for under £30.

As you can see below the addition of these simple, and relatively inexpensive, items means you get a soft light and great catch lights in the subjects eyes.  A snotty nose is obviously an optional extra :)  Thanks to Susie for posing and Fiona for letting me publish this image.

Copyright Me!  Paul Fox