Opposite the house I live in is a piece of common land known as The Delph…every spring/summer season there, it is a little different, with some things appearing that maybe did not before…or in a different way…for shorter or for longer…early or late……today the Tulips were singing in the sunshine.
Shot with the K20D and a lovely 50mm SMC-M Ashai Pentax Lens from way back in the day, fully opened up to it’s f1.4 limit.
So when I logged in just I was greeted with a note saying Congratulations you have 100 followers for your Blog Paul Dear Photography and then today May 6th another milestone achieved, 1000 likes.
100 Followers
Thank You each and every one of you for clicking Follow and like too. 
The recent Photographic contest over at The Digital Lightroom had piqued my interest. The topic was movement and motion and I thought I could deliver a reasonably good standard of entry for it.
When my shots were done I set about making my entry to the contest. Here were the rules.
All submissions must be by e-mail to thedigitallightroom@gmail.com and comply with the following requirements:-
Receipt of a submission will be acknowledged by e-mail.
Updates, stage results and any other information about the competition applicable to all entrants will be communicated via blog posts on thedigitallightroom.wordpress.com.
I selected my three shots from the relevant folder on my PC and copied them into the email, added the address making sure there were only two L’s ( I was sure there were 3…put your glasses on Paul…there are only two…good), added file names to each shot and typed the words ‘Photo Submissions’ into the subject field.
Click SEND.
WAIT.
Actually I wasn’t waiting. I forgot about them until I saw the first set of the 10 shots chosen for voting. I was pretty sure I had heard nothing so checked over the rules and yep, there it was…that word…acknowledgement of entry…I had not received any…were there three L’s in the email address after all? Nope. There was no acknowledgement however and so I emailed the contest just to find out what had happened. My entry had been received but not been forwarded to the judges.
Now I could tell you why or I could ask you…Can you see why?
The answer is in this post.
So, I learned a valuable lesson and I will hopefully make a successful entry into the next contest.
Had my shots made it through who knows whether or not they would have made the final 10. The standard was very very good indeed.
For what it’s worth now these were my 3 intended submissions.
These are the 10 shortlisted pictures in the DLR Movement and Motion Photography Competition once again. The response has been fantastic and it was a very tough job to choose just 10 images from all those entered. You now have an even tougher job to choose just one image from the 10 excellent photographs listed below.
A quick note, this competition was started because we wanted to celebrate the excellent photography we all see here on a daily basis here at Wordpress.
As we near the end of the month and the window closes on the Photography Challenge I have pulled together my Final Cut.
One image for each Topic, proving more difficult where there were multiple shots and for some topics only one entry so a no brainer there.
I have enjoyed the challenge very much and am thankful to all of you who took part for bringing interesting and challenging topics. For me the Fog shot is one I am still looking to better and I’d like to maybe pick up some Macro lenses to develop close up work but overall I am happy to have developed my skill set, learned more about HDR and got to know some lovely folk in the process.
There will be another challenge thrown down for sure to any photographers interested but I thought I’d let this one settle for a month and maybe look at something for June, which also allows a bit more time for those of you who want to complete any outstanding topics.
Thanks once again for jumping aboard.
Stay in touch and keep shooting.
In my ongoing photography challenge, one of the categories was ‘Street Photography’
It is a challenging subject, particularly in these times of child protection issues, big brother and terrorism. Some photographers have in recent times had their cameras taken off them by the Police, films and/or memory cards removed in the name of National Security.
It is a little ironic that in a media driven world some people now don’t want their photograph taken or we need permission from the subject. Point a movie camera at them and say you are from X factor or Big Brother or Saturday Night Takeaway though and the response might be different.
What do you think?
Is there or should there be an issue with street photography?
Shotslot has this to say,
I’ve recently had occassion to start looking into the legal position with regard to shooting candid photographs of people in public places, both in terms of taking photographs and publishing them. It’s a bit of a minefield here in the UK, where the past ten years have seen in marked increase in the already somewhat sturdy police powers. There almost appears to be an assumption in general that anyone pointing a camera must be a deviant, a criminal or worse (unless the pointer is female, under 25 and the camera is small and pink!) and a tendency by some police officers to mis-use the laws. This is an issue which has increasingly come to the fore in photography magazines and blogs of late.
Anyway, here’s some useful links that I’ve been using to try and determine my legal situation when challenged – the issue is that I have been shooting quite a few more candid pics taken in public places and have wanted to use some of them on a non-commercial basis. I haven’t always had the opportunity to get permission from the subjects. If you find yourself in a similar position you might want to check this lot out:
- Simon Moran has a useful piece with a printable fact-sheet compiled by a legal consultant here
- Urban75 has an excellent set of articles and links to relevant area, including legal guidance for people who have an innocent interest in derelect buildings – sosij this means YOU!
- Daniel Cuthbert has a printable legal card, which also has good advice like ‘be polite’ and ‘don’t be aggressive’ – a good suggestion in any circumstance!
It’s also important to remember though that a lot of ‘law’ is a matter of opinion in Court, you shouldn’t take any of this material as the absolute ‘truth’ but rather be guided by it. Also, be aware that taking photos in dangerous places (like street protests) is likely to get both you and your camera damaged. I’d also be very careful about pointing your camera at other people’s kids, there’s a lot of fear in the world and some folks don’t just like it.
If I wanted to sell the images I’d taken and the subjects, whoever they were, were identifiable in them then I would need to get permission from the subjects in order for stock companies to take the images on. Have you ever noticed how few good non-copyright images of people, especially couples, are available on-line? Presumably that’s because these types of images are aspirational and therefore pretty marketable. Anyway, I’m really enjoying the chance to take street photos with a bit more confidence in where I stand.
Here are a few of my favourite street shots (Click through images to see more of the same)
by Donato Buccella
by Alexander Magedler
by Dimitris Makrygiannakis
by Nick Turpin
The last shot is from Nick Turpin’s website. This fella has lots of street photography under his belt and also was responsible for setting up In Public ( See Below)
Here are a few of his thoughts of photography on the street.
Street Photography is an Attitude
More than anything Street Photography is an attitude, it is an openness to being amazed by what comes your way, it is unlearning the habit of categorising and dismissing the everyday as being ‘just the everyday’ and beginning to recognise that extraordinary, beautiful and subtle stories are occurring in front of you everyday of your life if you can see them. I actually think you can be a Street Photographer without a camera and without making photographs, it is really just the more insecure Street Photographers like myself that actually have to record and show off their ability to ‘see’.
How many other forms of photography essentially have ‘wonder’ at their heart? That’s what makes Street Photography almost a spiritual process for many because it is so personal and so akin to a kind of photographic enlightenment. Street Photography helps me understand the nature of my society and my place in it, I do it more for myself than I do for an external audience and like Buddhist enlightenment I do achieve a happiness through gaining that understanding. I have certainly experienced ‘Matrix’ like moments of revelation when in a public place when I see things, moments just reveal themselves because I have put myself in the right situation for it to happen.
Replacing your own Head
If you must actually take a camera onto the streets then a high degree of dexterity will be required to ‘see’ things and at the same time coordinate the device to make a visual record. Simplicity is the key, keep your equipment small, quiet and uncomplicated. You need one body and one lens, you won’t have time for zooming so prime lenses are best and you are more invisible closer with a short lens than you are further away with a long lens. I advise sleeping with your camera, carry it everywhere, know it’s weight and it’s feel in your hand, know how to hold it easily and steadily with one hand, learn how far back your lens places you from a subject on the pavement, learn how much depth of field you get at each f stop, decide how much noise is acceptable to you and shoot close to its iso threshold, get a feel for its slight shutter delay, know how far the lens barrel turns from the near to the far side of the pavement. Make this camera so much part of you that even thinking of buying a new one would be akin to replacing your own head.
In the early days, don’t set out to make a certain kind of picture, just make lots of pictures for weeks or months and pull out the ones that strike you as special even if you can’t initially identify why. As time passes and you are patient, passionate and dedicated you will be able to lay these striking images out together and if you are lucky you will see your own natural vision emerge and you can call yourself a Street Photographer and perhaps an artist. The last thing you should do is to try to make pictures like Bruce Gilden (just don’t) or try to make pictures like Alex Webb or Cartier Bresson or Matt Stuart. As soon as you adopt others strategies in the street you start to blinker your own natural vision ever so slightly and that would be a shame.
Street Photography is primarily a spiritual and intellectual activity, it takes great awareness, mental presence, self confidence and faith, it’s like courting a beautiful girl or a large bull….the exposing of a photograph at the end is just the last blunt physical act that completes the process, it is a mistake to apply too much weight to that last part.
As a Street Photographer you are different, you are not like the others, you are an oddity both in society and in photography. In society you are odd because you are just standing their looking whilst everyone rushes past to their next shopping experience or intake of salty, sugary, fatty food. In photography you are odd because your motivation is not financial and you don’t go to photo trade shows unless it’s to people watch. You are really not part of either world, it can be lonely not talking about equipment and bags and not oiling the wheels of retail….if it weren’t for online street photography forums you could feel isolated like some lonely eccentric.
Stop dismissing the everyday and realise that it is your very subject.
OK, Street Photographers are not the Jedi Knights of photography but as you spend more and more time on the streets watching and shooting you do develop an instinct for what is about to happen or where you should probably be standing which can definitely lead to a higher hit rate. If the pictures aren’t coming, try just photographing non pictures, any corner that’s busy or just snapping every passer by to get you looking and tuned in a little. Look around for anything at all that doesn’t happen on that spot all day everyday, this could be a shop refurbishment, a road sweeper working his way along with a brush, scaffolding going up, a UPS delivery, anything small that could provide a background element or develop into something unexpected. Work one place for a long period so that you can see what happens there, the same bus with a travel advert that passes at 20 past the hour every hour, lights that stop the traffic with a nice reflection in the window from Advertising hoardings….you must stop dismissing the everyday and realise that it is your very subject.
Interesting words I think and his work is well worth a look to. As mentioned up top he also set up In Public a worthwhile site to visit and browse.
Personally, I still find shooting in the street a bit odd and I get very self conscious but I can see that it is an area of photography that is a metaphorical Gold mine.One for the future perhaps.
Paul’s Photography Challenge: Close Up
I don’t have any Macro lenses in my collection and have never really done any close up work. I managed to pick up a 50mm 2x converter which gave me a little more to play with. This is a Pewter flask that I have owned for a number of years and I have focused in on the detail of the Celtic design.
The theme for the next Digital Lightroom photo competition has been announced - Movement and Motion.
So how do you capture movement and motion in still photography?
1. Find a subject that moves, is moving, or that strongly suggests movement
2. Compose the image to highlight that movement - It's important that your moving subject has space in the photograph to move into.
I wanted to try something a little different with the Water theme. I shot a series of pictures from a fixed spot with the camera on a Tripod, attempting to freeze the water in motion with a very fast shutter speed.
Once I had uploaded the shots I had an idea that linking them together as an animation might work.
Below are the original 12 shots, followed by the Gif I created.
Click on the gif to view on darker background.
For a more detailed exploration into the world of gif making why not visit my good friend and blogger supreme Rarasaur
One of my favourite portraits is this one, catching my lifelong partner in a moment that is just quite simply, HER.
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