Newport Agricultural Show

A little bit of Silver Efex magic allows for some time travel

Newport Agricultural Show

This weekend I went to the Newport Agricultural Show to see if I could get any interesting pictures.  In my mind I was picturing the National Portrait Photography Prize winning picture of a girl holding a guinea pig.  What I wasn't expecting was such a large and busy event.  It was very difficult to get images with clean backgrounds.  I was also hampered by not realising what was going on for the competitors and didn't take their needs into account.  For anyone who intends to shoot at this sort of event I would only approach people after they have their animal judged.  Competitors take the event very seriously and do not want to be harassed by a well meaning photographer prior to the judging.  

I used the event to try out the GX1 to force me to get closer to my subject.  I took 381 shots during the five hours I was at the show, but only 47 with the GX1 preferring instead to use my 70-300mm.  The next time I go out I'm going to risk leaving the DSLR at home.

The Albrighton Hunt rides into the arena

This is one of my favourite shots using the GX1.  The colours seem too bright, especially the reds, but the small camera size allowed me to get through the bars keeping the visitors at bay.  I used Lightroom to recover some of the details lost in the highlights and then smoothed the whole picture to make it look more like a painting.  Not to everyone's taste I'm sure but I like the effect (in moderation).

For me the stars of the show were the farmers from small farms out to show their prides and joys.  There were a lot of real characters present and they were very bemused at the attention they were getting.  All of them seemed approachable (if not a little shy).

All in all it was a great day out and I had some brilliant weather for the majority of the day.  There was a lot to learn about shooting at these sort of events.  The main point for me was try not to 'snipe' my subjects but get in close and talk to them before I took any pictures - get in close and personal and the images will dramatically improve.  This only seemed to fall into place towards the end of the day.

Clash of Wills

Some more of my photos from the day on Flickr HERE

Newport University Graduates

Copyright Jocelyn Allen

Newport University Graduates

for this week's blog I thought I'd show you some of the work of recent graduates from Newport University's photography degree courses.  All of the images shown have been taken from the photographer's websites and full copyright belongs to them.  If you like their work you should contact them and let them know,  Everyone likes to hear praise!

Jocelyn Allen

The first image is by Jocelyn Allen who graduated in 2010 having studied photographic art.  I was drawn to the ethereal nature of the image, a self portrait, and loved the muted hues.  I didn't understand why she had chosen to keep only one of the eyes in focus and thought it may just be to provide  a solid focal point.  Having looked at her website the true is far more interesting.  This image is a composite of self portraits shot over a period of seven weeks.  The eyes was kept in focus and this used to align the other layers on top, creating a fantastic ghostly image that is a little unsettling.  Since graduating Jocelyn has had exhibitions in Oregon, Dublin, London and Swansea.  Her work has been seen in ID magazine and the Sunday Times Magazine.

Check out Jocelyn's Website HERE

and see her talk about her work at university HERE

Copyright Juliana Kammerlander

Juliana Kammerlander

This image is one from 2012 Documentary Photography Graduate Juliana Kammerlander.  I was lucky enough to see some of Juliana's work at the University Open Day this year.  The series 'Trans-filmations' uses subject who are experiencing gender dysphoria and photographing them as famous film or historical icons.  Juliana has exhibited several times through projects organised through the university and, more excitingly, has shown at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

Juliana's website can be found HERE

Kirsty Mackay

Copyright Kirst Mackay

Kirsty is different from the previous two photographers in that she did an MA rather than BA at Newport.  She had already had experience as a photographer but wanted to get a more structured approach to her work.  She completed her MA in 2005 and moved to Bristol where she carries out project that document everyday life and 'normal' people.  Since going to Newport she picked up the blogging habit as a way of recording her ideas and motivations and her excellent blog can be found HERE.  This is the sort of work I hope to be doing and so will be following Kirsty's blog closely over the next few months for inspiration.

Kirsty talks about Newport University HERE

and her website is HERE

Book Review: Baghdad Calling

Book Review: Baghdad Calling

Geert Van Kesteren

ISBN 9789059730830

Much of the talk during the presentations at The Eye festival this year was centered around the future of photo-journalism.  This book is a great example of many of the professionals fears - that the 'citizen reporter' will soon overtake the paid veteran.  

This book has been printed on two different types of paper.  The bulk of the book has been printed on what looks and feels like newspaper.  The colours are subdued and the image quality is low.  This is obviously a deliberate choice by the publishers to make the book feel like a collection of cut-outs from contemporary newspapers at the time of the trouble sin Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Turkey.  The images were all collected by Kesteren and his team to give an exclusive insight into the lives of everyday citizens.  By using these images, many taken on mobile phones, he is able to present pictures from locations and situations that a professional journalism would never have access to.  Many of the images seem mundane, a wedding, men in a public park, a market place but dispersed amongst these shots are scenes of dead bodies in the street, bullet riddled buildings and the aftermath of suicide bombings.  These images are not exceptionally graphic but there placement amongst the 'banal' serves to shock the viewer as they skim the pages.

In addition to the collected images is a photo essay by Kesteren.  His images are presented on a higher quality a paper on pages that are slightly smaller than the rest of the book.  The difference in quality is huge, both  of the print and the actual photographic skill.  Kesteren is clearly fighting the case for the professional journalist.  The level of access he has is less than that of the amateurs but his use of light, framing and composition add a level of beauty to his images.  

Each chapter is a compilation of images from one 'hotspot'.  At the start of every chapter is a few pages of text, extracts from diaries or eye witness accounts from people who lived through the troubles.  Much like the book 'It's All Good' these stories really add to the book.  This is a device I will need to consider for any future work I may be attempting. 

For me both sets of images are equally important and are strengthened by being shown together in one book.  Photo journalism is close to a tipping point and the future is unclear.  Books like Baghdad Calling show how the amateur and professional could work together.  The amateur images give a greater level of access but the sheer volume of images produced during any event requires strict filtering to capture the essence of the moment.  This can then supported by the images from a professional who is able to pick specific topics to represent and, in a way, act as a figurehead for the massed images.  Without Kesteren many of these images may have been lost forever and that would be a terrible shame.

Baghdad Calling can be bought on Amazon HERE

Lumix GX1 Test Shoot

Shrewsbury flooded

First Shots with Lumix GX1

If you saw my last post you will know that I have recently bought a Panasonic Lumix GX1 with the 14-42mm power zoom lens.  I decided that I would take it out for a test run and see how it coped with some street photography.  I have a Canon 5D Mk2 but trying to shoot subtlely with this beast is impossible and so I needed a smaller camera (but couldn't afford an X-pro1!).

I decided to see how good that camera would be in its iAuto mode - it looks at each scene and chooses an appropriate shooting mode based on what it thinks it is taking.   All of the images shown have been tweaked in Lightroom 4.1 to try and get the best from them.  If you click on each image you should be able to see a larger version.

Speeding Cyclist

The shot of the cyclist was taken with me standing stationary and panning as the cyclist shot past.  The image seems dark overall but this is because the clouds were gathering and it was about to rain.  

Flick the Vees

For this image I was walking towards the group of lads and gave the camera about a second to focus before pressing the shutter all the way down.  There is a little bit of blur at the feet but the shot is definitely usable and prints well at 8x10 size.  The conversion to black and white was done by simply desaturating the image in Lightroom so more work would be needed if I was using this image properly.

Grocery Store

The camera handled all the colours of these bright shelves really well and only some very minor tweaking was required to get this to an acceptable level.

Newspaper Sellers

Another B&W conversion but for this image I used Silver Efex Pro 2 to give me much more control over what was happening.  Once I was happy with the conversion I added some film grain to give a slightly more retro feel to the image.  I took this shot by shooting between passing groups of pedestrians but despite the tricky conditions the camera did really well.  For future shoots I am going to look at setting one of the custom functions to work in iAuto mode but with a black and white LCD display (still capturing in RAW).

Smoker BW

Silver Efex again to adjust this image.  I've included the original shot as it appeared when imported into Lightroom as a comparison.  I had to remove a few distracting light spots but you can see just how much detail this little camera is able to capture.  I was walking past the doorway at a normal walking speed and gave the camera barely any time to focus and shoot.  There is some blur visible in the image but I think it is perfectly acceptable.  If I needed a sharper image then all I would need to do is halt briefly mid step and the shot will be sharper.

Smoker original shot

Passengers 

I have taken quite a few shots of passengers as they travel and I know how tricky this can be.  My Canon G9 would never be able to handle it and even some of my 5D shots were pretty poor.  This shot was taken as I waited in my car at traffic lights.  The bus pulled up alongside and so I wound down my window and fired off two shots.  I had to increase the vibrancy and contrast in Lightroom to pull out all the details but the camera coped well.  The sensor has a dynamic range of 18EV and so it is easy to shoot dark and recover highlights later - the clouds in the top left of the frame appeared 'blown' but reducing highlights in LR easily recovered the hidden detail.

Summary

I love this little gem of a camera.  I took 102 photos during the two hours I was walking through the streets and after importing them into Lightroom was delighted to discover that 80 were usable.  A similar test with my G9 last year gave me about 10 usable shots out of 100!  Although it was initially hard for me to trust the camera in iAuto mode it actually works very well.  Since taking these shots I've discovered an iAuto+ mode that does all the hard work but allows some additional control over depth of field, focus point, exposure and white balance.  

The power zoom kit lens worked well and was fast and responsive.  It is possible to set the zoom into a faster mode but the level of fine control is lost so I stuck with 'standard' speed.  A lot of the images appeared to have problems when bright reds were captured.  This problem was less obvious when looking at the same shots on an iPhone and MacBook Air, so it may be time to buy a calibrator for my monitor (although none of my G9/5D shots have this issue).  

I had the camera in my pocket without a strap attached and it definitely cost me a second or two to get the camera out.  I would recommend a neck or wrist strap if you were trying to capture street candids but the benefit of keeping the camera in my pocket is that it wasn't on display and so didn't alert my subjects.

The camera is not weather sealed and there are warnings all through the documentation about this.  I was shooting in drizzle for some of the time and this caused me some concern.  When the camera is powered down the telephoto lens retracts and this drags any rain droplets on the lens into the lens housing so use with caution!

The battery is still showing a full three bars after the shoot and I'm using a genuine Lumix battery pack.  I have ordered a third party battery as an emergency back up and I'll report on that later.

More of the images from the shoot are on my Flickr stream and can be seen HERE

New addition to my kit bag

Panasonic Lumix GX1

New Addition to my kit bag

Well I've been stalling about getting a smaller camera for some time now and yesterday I bit the bullet and ordered a Lumix GX1.  I primarily shoot with a Canon 5D Mk2 but it is a hefty beast and really awkward for taking on holidays.  I have a Canon G9 as a secondary camera but it is really starting to struggle when I go street shooting.

There were several cameras that I looked at before I made my decision: Olympus Pen Ep-3, Nikon V1, Fuji X100 and a Sony NEX-7.  After wading through dozens of reviews I opted for the Lumix.  It has a fast focusing system, wide selection of lenses and a touch screen that lets me pick a focal point and shoot.  All the other cameras I looked at had their pros and cons but hopefully I have made the correct decision.

I'm going to try a few days with this camera under different shooting conditions and I'll post my experiences shortly.  Now to load up the manual and see how to set things up the way I'm used to!

The Eye Photography Festival 2012

The photographers gather to be photographed (and some editors and curators got in on the action too!)

The Eye International Photography Festival 2012

This weekend I was lucky enough to be able to spend it surrounded by some amazing photographers and picture editors.  This was the inaugural Eye Festival at the Aberystwyth University.  The chief speaker was the legend David Hurn (pictured centre).  He opened the festival with an hour long discussion on his style of photography and triggered the two main debates of the weekend: what is the future of photography? and black & white or colour?  Thankfully he didn't provide the answers and this sparked a great deal of discussion in the bar afterwards.

Whilst the festival opened on Friday night the majority of visitors did not arrive until Saturday morning.  This was definitely their loss as all the pro photographers were in the bar on Friday.  It was incredible to have such access to some of the most brilliant photographers currently working.  I was surprised at how humble and approachable they all were - they seemed genuinely surprised at their celebrity status.  

Meeting with these stars made me realise just how far I still have to go on my photographic journey and that getting into university is going to be very difficult.  Everyone seemed to be working on projects and it was great to learn that some of the best ideas had come from discovering stories only a few miles from home.  I managed to use the discussions to trigger my own brainstorming and went to bed with a notebook half full of ideas.  It was also good to meet like-minded amateurs and even some mature students currently studying photography.  It allayed some of my fears about the actual course (if I get past the interview phase).

Eammon McCabe dances under Martin Parr

Saturday morning was a little fuzzy, perhaps there had been something wrong with the final pint of cider :)  Thankfully the speakers were in a better state.  There was a unique opportunity to have portfolios reviewed by David Hurn and Sophie Battersbury (picture editor).  I was too nervous to take this option, but I still managed to listen to some of the advice being given: less is more so don't show more than 20 images, think about what a reader would want to see, shoot close to home and find a project that means something to you.

The first speaker was Eammon McCabe and he gave a good insight into photojournalism from the 'golden' era with large numbers of staff photographers on the newspapers' payrolls.  It seems that these days most papers will use stock images from providers like Getty Images and will only pay around £25 per image used.  The rise of the iPhone generation and social media networking means that the future of the photojournalist in its current form is uncertain.  Much like David Hurn's talk he was unable to predict what the future will reveal, but change is inevitable.

P Diddy watches over Cambridge Jones and Colin Jacobson

The next talk was from the celebrity portrait photographer Cambridge Jones.  His talk was in the style of an interview and was a fascinating insight into another world.   I'm always interested to hear what the educational background of a photographer is and what was the break that got them above the level of 'ordinary'.  Cambridge admitted that his first attempts as a portrait photographer went poorly but it was shooting some stills on a friend's small budget movie set that got him his lucky break.  His portraits were stunning and I've added several of his books to my Amazon wishlist :)

After lunch there were two more talks from photographers Roger Tiley and Andy Rouse.  Both were very enthusiastic about their subjects (documentary and nature respectively).  Roger shoots mainly in Wales and was trained at Newport University so I was really interested to learn about his projects.  As with the majority of the weekend's other photographers, it was projects with an emotional commitment that really stood out in his work.  

Andy was a brilliant speaker and his dry sense of humour really lifted the audience.  His images were remarkable (I think he has won 10 awards in the last 8 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions).  His stories about shooting images of polar bears were great, and I think is was a revelation to the majority of the audience just how many dozens of hours can go into capturing just one image.  He finished his talk by discussing revenue streams  - he makes the majority of his money from selling prints and by taking amateurs on photography cruises.  If I had £3500 I be straight off to Svalbard to photograph polar bears...

Any Rouse talking through some of his main income strteams

After another quick break we had a lecture from Will Troughton from the National Library of Wales.  I think he may have misjudged his audience a little and tended to go into the history of people in the photographs he displayed from the archive rather than what the archive can do for a photographer.  Like many of the speakers he had to cut his talk short because he over ran the time schedule - a sudden realisation as to why they're so harsh at work about time-keeping in presentations!

After Will we had a talk from documentary photographer James Morris.  His style of photography is very different from anything I had previously encountered.  Most of the images I like are immediate and obvious and require no explanation.  James' shots on the other hand are the opposite - they look like 'nothing' but have a massive back story.  His current project is finding towns and villages that have vanished as part of the ongoing conflict in Israel.  What looks like a picture of an a picnic site with some grass covered stones is actual a site where massacres occurred in the past. His talk inspired me to think of a few projects that would require research.

A quick painting I did of Colin Jacobson during a talk - click for enlargment.

The final talk of the day was a conversation between David Hurn and Sophie Batterbury.  They discussed the future of paid photojournalism.  The future is going to be different but David's enthusiasm for photography in general kept a flicker of hope in my heart.  It was a reality check to hear how ruthless the news industry is regarding photography and how deadlines drive the business and photos/photographers chosen.

After this discussion it was back to the bar for a well earned drink and another chance to get some face time with the pros, even if we were a little subdued after a long, but productive day.

   

The Eye Photography Festival Part 2

Chloe Dewe Mathews listens intently to a question from the audience.

The Eye International Photography Festival Pt 2

Sunday marked the third and final day of the festival.  I was most excited about the speakers today as there were some current young documentary photographers amongst them.

Chloe Dewe Mathews opened the session with a discussion format Q&A presentation.  Although I knew a lot about her work I didn't know much about her background.  She originally studied sculpture at the prestigious Royal Academy of Art and then spent three years working in the film industry.  She picked up a camera to explore other artistic avenues and produced three series that really marked her passage as a photographer: Caspian, Banger Boys and Hasidic Holiday.  As a result of this work she was accepted into the Panos Pictures Agency.  This was a inspiring session and highlighted that an solid interest in a project is required to produce successful images.  If you like the work you are producing and have invested in, then others will hopefully like it too!

Chloe's Website HERE

Marco Longari chief photographer for AFP (G9 camera struggling in low light)

After the gentle serenity of Chloe's work came a dramatic bump back to earth with some very powerful images from Marco Longari.  He works for the the Agence France-Presse and has shot images in trouble zones across the world but specialises in Jerusalem and the Middle East.  His images were incredible and the stories of multiple near misses were made more dramatic by his quiet confidence.  It was interesting to hear the audience questions towards the end of his session.  Marco is clearly a champion for the use of colour in documentary images and his use of available light is terrific.  I'd love to spend a few months working alongside him or his colleagues but I think my wife might have something to say about that!

Marco's AFP images are HERE

Call the World Brother Exhibition

We broke for lunch and a final chance to look around the university arts centre.  As part of the festival Panos Pictures had provided an exhibition in the main gallery at the university.  Works on display were by GMB Akash, Robin Hammond, Chris Keulen, Andrew McConnell, Espen Rasmussen, Stefan Vanfleteren, Martin Roemers and Chloe Dewe Mathews.  

I didn't want to get into trouble by taking individual pictures but here is a wide view of the gallery space.  My favourite images in the show were those by  Andrew McConnell (from The Last Colony) and Chloe Dewe Mathews (Hasidic Holiday).  Hopefully Andrew will be able to appear at next year's festival as I'd love to talk to him about his images.

Abbie Trayler-Smith (sorry for the poor quality photo!)

The first talk of the afternoon session was from documentary photographer and Panos member Abbie Trayler-Smith.  She is a self-taught photographer who starting taking pictures for the student paper whilst studying for a law degree.  This led to a full time job in the Daily Telegraph where she worked for nine years.  She gave up her job in 2006 so she could work on personal photography projects - brave!.

She showed images from her series on the last days of fox hunting in Britain and from her days as a photo-journalist.  She ended the first half of her presentation with a video presentation she had put together from her work with the organisation 'Still Here, Still Human' that highlights the plight of asylum seekers in Britain. 

For the second part of her slot she conducted a Q&A session and talked more about her personal work.  She also showed some shots from her work showing the lives of obese women.  She really wore her heart on her sleeve and talked emotionally about this project as she admitted she had been overweight as a youngster.  She showed two pictures that were particularly personal to her; a work book from her school days with the word 'fat' emblazoned across the front in tippex, and a sketch drawn by her father of a grotesquely fat woman with something like 'abbie when she is older' written on the top.  I'm really looking forward to see where these images go as she intends to take a few years allowing the series to develop.  Hopefully it won't be all doom and gloom (Jen Davis did a very damning series of self portraits along a similar theme and they turned out very dark).

You can see some of Abbie's work HERE

John Downing MBE FRPS

The final solo speaker of the festival was John Downing.  He is photo journalist from the 'golden age' of press photography and took the audience on a whirlwind tour through some of his work.  He was incredibly enthusiastic and a great speaker.  It was amazing to learn how many famous and iconic press images were his.  It became a running joke of his talk that he would show an incredible image he had taken and finish with 'and of the course the paper never published it' to much laughter from the audience.

John was one of the first photographers I met at the festival.  I arrived at the same time as a bunch of the pros and John may have thought I was 'one of them' but despite clearly having no idea who I was, was the first to offer his hand, say hello and invite me down to the arts centre.  I managed to escape before the mistake was realised.  Later in the bar I introduced myself properly and got some amazing guidance from this fine gentleman. 

Looking on the internet reveals sparse pickings for this gifted photojournalist but some of his background can be found HERE.  John, if you or your agent ever read this then you need to publish a book of all your work and biography - I'll be amongst the first in the queue!

Old and New meet for the final session.

The final session of the festival was a discussion between Chloe, David, Abbie, Marco and Sean O'Hagan (influential arts editor).  They talked more about the main theme of the festival, the so called death of photojournalism.  David was as great as ever and continued to be an inspiration to a rapt audience.  All of the speakers at this session were optimistic that photography as an art would always survive as long as people were taking photographs!

Overall I had a brilliant time at the festival.  The speakers were all so enthusiastic and I have no doubt that anyone left the weekend wanting to take more pictures.  The venue was spot on, big enough to feel like a conference but still compact enough to keep the personal touch.  The access to the professionals was unbelievable and they seemed to have boundless energy throughout.  The organisation was great and the fact that it cost me less than £100 for the festival and two nights accommodation is incredible.  Admittedly the bookshop was a financial trap that I accidentally blundered into and had to spend my way out of it :)

Look out for announcements for next year's event and sign up early.  Once the word gets out this is bound to become a major festival in the photography calendar.  There website is HERE.