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Social Media versus Photography
Social media! It’s one of those things that has now become a part of day-to-day life for everyone and for a photographer it is no exception. Back when I started learning photography things where very different; For example, we respected our lecturers talents because of the time they put into each shoot from loading film through to the dark room processes. Nowadays it seems that everyone on social media sites has a friend who can do it cheaper with more
Yes, But is it Art?
When I was at art college, I considered ‘artists’ to be a pretty odd bunch – I can say that because I didn’t consider myself to be one of them; I was a ‘designer’ which was a whole different kettle of fish. It appeared to me that art, back then in the late 80’s, consisted of collecting small quantities of bodily juices of varying degrees of unpleasantness, putting them in small containers and displaying them to a backdrop of more
That Sinking Feeling…
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… well, not quite; back in the early nineties I was a big fan of the Acorn Archimedes computer. By many experts reckoning at the time, the plucky Brits had produced a machine that was more powerful and more user friendly than anything from across the pond. I fell in love with its beguiling operating system and its beautiful graphics more
The Trouble with Conservation Photography
The truth is that “conservation photography” is green only in the very shallowest of senses. It smacks, unfortunately, of “do as I say, not as I do”. more
Going with the Flow
From a photographer’s viewpoint, at times it’s been hard even to plan local trips when you can’t see the fields, let alone the hills, for low cloud and rain more
On Golden Rules…
The great American landscape photographer Ansel Adams wrote, "A good photograph is knowing where to stand." Well, not the most specific tip on composition that I’ve ever come across! For artists of all kinds, mastering the problems of composition seems at once fundamental and tantalisingly out of reach. Little surprise, then, that there is a strong urge to codify composition, to provide not only practical instruction but also, in some cases, a theoretical basis to underpin this. The basic more
Joe Blogs – Manipulated?
I was asked the question, “Do you manipulate your images?” There remains a deeply-held suspicion about photography’s relationship with ‘the Truth’ more
Giving Beauty a Bad Name
On the 14 October 2010 this image by German photographer Thomas Struth sold for £169,250 at an auction in London (the pre sale estimate was £90,000). Thomas Struth - El Capitan (Yosemite National Park) Now many of the readers of this magazine might think this a vastly over-inflated price for a rather dull snapshot! I want to look at why a loose affiliation of people that more
Travelling Light?
On a long walk or if I'm engaged in a non photographic activity (like dog walking) then schlepping a DSLR outfit becomes impractical and a tripod a non starter more
What is Landscape Photography?
Joe Cornish "The landscape, the whole landscape and nothing but the landscape." But what is landscape? We know that everyone in the On Landscape community (the authors, the subscribers and general readership) is passionate about landscape photography. But when four of us got together to discuss the subject recently, (comprising Onlandscape founder Tim Parkin, photographic guru David Ward, photographer and designer Andrew Nadolski and me, Joe Cornish), we struggled to find agreement about what landscape photography actually was! It is only human more
Am I a Landscape Photographer?
“On Landscape”, is a veritable, virtual on-line temple of landscape photography. So the question posed by the title of this piece might seem almost sacrilegious to some of its readership. Whilst I obviously feel an affinity for the ethos of the magazine and the work presented I seriously wonder if a photographer should be (or even can be) predominantly defined by their subject matter. Schools or genres are of course commonplace in art but photography is amongst the most more
Ingredients for Photography
When it comes to improving their photography many photographers fall into the trap of placing the equipment at the top of the list. They presume that the latest upgrade or the next model up the range will be just what they need to take better photographs. Now don't get me wrong, if you have great photographic craft then better equipment can capture better images but if you're starting out more
Challenge Yourself!
Twisted Birches If, like me, you spend time on photo-sharing websites, both sharing your own work and viewing what others are getting up to, you will doubtless be aware of the dangers of getting too comfortable - complacent, even. Once you get to a level of ability where you can reliably produce images which receive lots of positive comments from your peer group, there is more
Picture Play
The recent sale of Instagram for $1 billion to Facebook has got me thinking about how many people use cameras today and how we - as “photographers” - might learn something from the playful approach of ‘casual users’. First, a little history: the rise of Instagram has been truly meteoric; the service was launched in March 2010 and by March this year had over 30 million subscribers and more
Why I love the Abergavenny hills
But if place isn’t important to landscape photography then I don’t really see the point; surely there is a reason we go out to capture what we do? more