Speeding Trucks

I really enjoy the process of working through a brief to try and actualise a client’s ideas or vision. The odd part is that a lot of clients get excited about the ideas, but then falter once you put the logistics behind a photograph on the table. Images don’t just create themselves; you have to work hard to create something new. That’s why I love it when I meet a client that gets excited about the process and is prepared to put the effort into creating great images. Thankfully, I met one such client towards the end of last year.

Digital Permanence - Reminiscing the Fading

Paging through an old family album, someone who has grown up in the digital era will notice something that to many of us born pre-digital (if there is such a thing) is commonplace. The fading image. Yellowed images and hue shifts are usual amongst the dozens of kodak printed postcard sized images that adorn the large photo albums that mark the passage of time for a family. Now the passage of time seems to be marked by a 'timeline' that pops up on our social networks; viewed on a computer screen dispassionately rather than sitting together on a couch and reminiscing.

Looks That Matter

Recently I wrote how I felt that the way a camera feels in the hand influences how we shoot with it; in fact whether we enjoy shooting with it at all. A friend wrote back to me that he also felt that the way a camera looked played a role in his enjoyment of using that camera. This got me thinking; not only about how the looks of a camera influence whether a photographer will enjoy, let alone buy a new camera, but also how the looks of the camera influence the person being photographed. The latter is probably the more important since it has a direct bearing on the final image. Will the person being photographed respond in a positive manner to being photographed, or will they act defensively or be intimated by the camera?

Composing The Dunes - The 2015 Trip Report

The Namibian landscape has an almost hypnotic effect on me. I keep finding myself drawn back to it time and again. The Composing The Dunes workshop that I run with Nature’s Light (a new venture between myself and Nick van de Wiel) is one of our mainstays for the very reason that Nick and I feel that this incredible country needs to be shared with visual artists. Simply standing and taking in the emptiness, the moisture sapping dryness and eerie silence, can be a humbling experience. the act of crafting images in this otherworldly space is a true privilege. So I was extraordinarily fortunate to once again travel back to the desert in the company of two talented photographers during November for the second Composing the Dunes Workshop. 

Read more at Composing The Dunes - The 2015 Trip Report