Archives › 2011 › March
I’ve just read an article in a popular outdoor photography magazine that was written in defense of shooting sunsets that I can’t help but write a reaction to. He does say in the article that he knows many photographers who think that “capturing a sunset as a creative end in itself is a waste [...]
A bit of a departure for Joe here as he takes his family off to New Mexico for a holiday. Like most photographers though, there was no option but to take one or two (or four) cameras and it’s a good job he did otherwise there would be nothing here this month. The pictures include [...]
Unlike many of the photographers we have discussed in our ongoing Masters section, John wasn’t a photographer from childhood, being more obsessed with drawing wildlife. His passion for photography was inspired when his mother sent him an issue of Picture Post when he was in Africa when serving in the RAF as a nurse. This [...]
Representations of landscapes throughout western art history have taken a back seat to works depicting the dramas of human existence. In many cases landscapes were reduced to a stage set in a historical painting or a stylised backdrop for a portrait. This is unsurprising as for much of our history the untamed landscape was considered [...]
John Blakemore has taught photography for over two decades and has worked as a fine art photographer for that period also. This book tries to distil his teaching into a single tome, covering technical and artistic bases along the way. The fact that this isn’t just a technical tome or an art philosophy tome works [...]
Balance in Photography The concept of balance in photography is not a new one, just this week I received another book on composition that says “The components of a great photograph should always be in balance” which is great as long as you know how to identify components and how much they weigh. The more [...]
Ok, I admit it. I’m a bagger, a list ticker, a trophy collector. I’ve accepted what I am and I’m not going to change. Over the years I’ve collected lots of different things from Matchbox cars, tin soldiers and beer mats as a youngster to sea-washed bricks, mountain tops and footpaths as an adult. I [...]
Robert Garrigus volunteered his photographs to be the subject of Joe Cornish and Tim Parkin’s photography critique and what a good couple of compositions they were too. Many thanks Robert.
A couple of weeks ago I went on a workshop, a workshop that continues a series that started in the early 1980s and that have along the way have had photographers such as Fay Godwin, Lewis Baltz, John Blakemore, Aaron Siskind, Paul Caponigro, Martin Parr, Thomas Joshua Coooper and Cole Weston as leaders. Despite a [...]
I have recently been hunting for a Golf trolley. Not that I have any intention of dragging a set of clubs around eighteen holes on a quiet afternoon but because I want to carry enough food, fuel, cooking utensils, bedding and clothing to stay in remote bothies for two or three nights at a time. [...]
We are introducing a new series of articles on Great British Landscapes, trying to cover one of the most difficult aspects of photography to talk about and to actually do well, and that is composition. I’ve spent the last four or five years of my photographic life obsessed with composition. My obsession has probably been [...]
I first saw Iain’s work on flickr about two years ago, just as he was posting some of his old Velvia slides and some of his current work and was very impressed at his sense to composition and use of texture/pattern in nature. We chatted on the phone last week and he told me a [...]
Shinzo was a prolific publisher and of the 46 books he published or contributed to, probably six or seven are easily availlable second hand. I own three of his books and have another couple on order and the following is a brief review to compare and contrast these books and give my opinion on the [...]
Shinzo Maeda may have been unkown to many western landscape photographers had he not been included the wonderful compilation book called “The World’s Top Photographers – Landscape”. Whatever you think of the book’s purpose or title, the content is mostly very good and the fact it advanced Shinzo awareness is a very good thing indeed. [...]
Joe Cornish is back with another First Light review of three photographs in that usual order, one well known, one not so well known and one that didn’t quite work. This time Joe is looking at photos taken on his summer sojourns from his house near Stokesley in North Yorkshire. Part One Here is the [...]
We’re starting a new section in this issue due to feedback from our subscribers and readers. We’ll be regularly featuring critiques of our readers pictures and the ‘critiquers’ (is that a word?) will either be Joe or myself or one of our featured photographers. For this first critique, Hamish Roots has volunteered to be our [...]
“Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year is one of the most prestigious competitions of its kind, attracting entries from professional and amateur photographers of all ages worldwide. The competition seeks to promote the discovery, understanding, responsibility and enjoyment of the natural world” This iconic photo competition, based at the Natural History Museum and now [...]
Whilst I was working on the content for this issue, I received a disturbing phone call from a colleague, Jason Theaker. He was calling from Whitby where he was about to lead a photographic workshop and, whilst scouting for said workshop, had found a website called ‘whitby art’ (whitby-art.co.uk – I won’t link to them [...]