Hours: 0 to 0

1 November 2017 – Where am I Now

As I explain in my profile, I’m neither an expert photographer nor a complete novice.

I am have been a member of the Stoke Poges Photographic Club for 4 years and am currently the holder of the advanced Photographer of the Year cup.

To see what this means, click here to see a selection of what I consider to be my best images.  Note: this is my opinion; although all were entered into competitions and most did well, some spectacularly did not.

See my post on Competition Strategy.

The main purpose of this post is to provide a reference point from which improvement will hopefully be achieved.

Please help by giving you advice and guidance.

To keep involved, please connect with me through one or more of the social media channels shown in the sidebar to the right of this page.

Type of Photography

Justas Markus in Photography defines The 15 Most Important Types of Photography You Must Master. I have organised these into groups in the following table to represent what I consider to be my level of interest and my level of experience:

Genre	Little Experience	At Least Some Experience
Much Interest	Abstract Photography Still Life Photography Black and White Photography Street Photography Experimental Photography HDR Photography	Landscape Photography Travel Photography Portrait Photography
Little Interest	Fashion Photography Advertising Photography Aerial Photography Photojournalism	Sports Photography Wedding Photography

Where there are multiple entries in a box, they are ordered in decreasing level of interest, i.e., I have put the type of photography that I’m most interested in at the top of the list.

In the interests of humility and accuracy, I feel I need to qualify where I say I have some experience:

• Landscape Photography – I’ve done quite a bit of this both from home and when on holiday
• Travel Photography – I’ve been on a lot of holidays to quite a few interesting place (top of Kilimanjaro and the Galapagos Islands to name just two)
• Portrait Photography – friends and family, but no studio work or lighting beyond a pair of Speedlites
• Sports Photography – I’ve taken tens of thousands of photos of runners at the Black Park Parkrun (See my post: Phototography for Parkrun)
• Wedding Photography – I’ve done one, which was massively hard work, and have resolved never to do another other than for people I really love and even then I will bring an “assistant.”

Style

As of the start of this project, I would define my style as “a bit of everything, and nothing.”  Although having always had an affinity for the slightly pretentious, I like images that show movement, are highly minimalist, or have a restricted colour palette.

This image was shot whilst on holiday in Croatia and is an attempt to capture the optimistic mood of an early evening stroll through the main streets.  It was shot with a shutter speed of 1/3 second to show the activity and produce that soft blurry effect.  The colours were enhanced in Photoshop by changing the Image Mode to Lab Colour and then Applying a Softlight blend before converting back to the RGB colour space (sounds technical, but is actually very easy – I will write a blog post on this sometime).

I like this image as I feel it captures the atmosphere of the moment.  However, it has fared poorly in competition, criticised for “lacking a place where the eye can rest”, and the great-and-good of Stoke Poges Photographic Club consider it “not one of my best!”

Philosophy

It is a cliche to suggest that a photograph should show the viewer something new but, it is incumbent upon the photographer to add something beyond what can be achieved by an automatically triggered surveillance camera.  This could include:

• Changing the pace of movement, i.e., freezing fast moving objects or showing the movement in slow moving objects
• Alternative colour treatments, e.g., black and white to exaggerate form
• Different perspectives including macro or ultra-wideangle
• Creative framing and/or depth of field to direct the attention of the viewer.

Aspirations for the Project

I hope to be able to learn the basics of all forms of photography, then to apply the principles of one genre to another, e.g., the rules of composition in still-life apply to landscape photography.

I want to become a specialist who can advance one small area of the field.  As of now I have no ideas as to which area I am likely to specialise in.

If you have any ideas or thoughts, please post comments below.

To see more posts on other photographic topics, or to follow my learning progress, please like or follow me on the social media channel of your choice to the right.