19 Of The Greatest Driving Roads On Earth

This is a bit of a diversion, sorry for the pun, and the pictures are not especially photographic but the roads do look magnificent, and if you love driving and carry a camera you will find this interesting.

“Here’s a rundown of what we believe are 19 of the most beautiful and challenging roads in the world.  If you’re a fan of negotiating challenging bends, with great views, long fast straights and little to no traffic – then it might be time to dig out your passport and book some time off work!”...……..more

The Brotherhood of the Cross and Star by Ciril Jazbec

“One thing I love about photography is that you never really know what’s around the corner, what’s your next story going to be. Well, here’s an interesting one. This is a college project that took place between between 6th and 13th of June, where an international team of 28 documentary photographers documented life in the Elephant & Castle. Together with my classmate Myriam we found this interesting community just a few blocks away from our college – the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star.”…more

These images by Ciril Jazbec

Metaphors – photography by Jaber AlAzmeh

“They are not horses….nor clouds or chalky hills of white.  They are not freshly white washed walls of clay, negatives of horses drowned by the night stars, or lit by a black moon.
They are all this …  or just horses, black, as light will not reflect them, and white because they were standing here, a while ago, and now you can only see their shadows in black wraith filling the day.”..….more

If you like horses these images may be for you

PROJECT BY:

Jaber AlAzmeh

Carli Davidson – Photographer

Here is something to make you smile, trawling the web I came across the work of Carli Davidson. She is a US photographer with a wicked sense of humour and a great gallery of images. The ones that first caught my eye were from a series called Shake, see the pictures, you will understand. Refreshing to see a photographer with such an individual vision. Carli works a lot with animals as subjects and clearly gets the most out of her subjects, the old adage ‘never work with animals or children’ does not apply to Carli

“Carli Davidson is an internationally recognized photographer. She has a background in both commercial and documentary photography, as well as over 7 years experience as an animal trainer and caretaker. Her love of both art and animals led her to work as an animal care technician and photographer for the Oregon Zoo, as well as a volunteer photographer for local animal rescues. 

 Her photography has been featured in Photo District News, The Atlantic, The Times UK, STERN Germany’s VIEW Magazine, Portland Monthly, The Village Voice, The Oregonian, The Portland Tribune, and numerous Zoo publications. She is also a regular photo contributor to Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish.

 Carli has taught for the Newspace Center for Photography, and The Oregon Zoo, and has spoken at numerous institutions including The Art Institute, and The Evergreen State College.”  Do go and see more see more of Carli’s work on her site here you will smile a while

A telling story – a picture essay on being six by Tom Dinning

Tom Dinning is a bit special, his blog is always interesting, he is not big on equipment but is huge on ideas. His photography is a way of talking to you, sometimes his posts are specific and sometimes, as with this, telling a story.

Many people struggle to know what to photograph,  if you need a prod or poke to get you going then telling a story is a good start. Just going out with a camera and hoping a story will happen is a bit unrealistic. You have to think about your story before, maybe make notes of the areas you will need to photograph to convey your ideas and purpose. A story can be as simple as how to do something, I blogged about one photographer who made a picture essay on wine making, if you missed it have a look here.

Tom Dinning has taken a different approach he has remembered when he was 6 and how it felt to be taken to the city (Sydney) by his father and has photographed how it left a lasting impression. Always the success of Tom’s work is the way he makes it personal his pictures and essays are generally about his response and for that reason always enchanting and up close. Do have a look at this post on Tom’s blog site and make something personal of your own.

“Today I am six years old again. I am dressed in my best Sunday attire. Shoes polished, hair slicked back in the style of my father who guides me through the stations as we approach the city. ‘Three more stops,’ he assures me. I’m in no hurry. This journey will last all day and into the rest of my life.”  …….more here

“People stand on street corners like they always did.”…..

“Back then there was little of the shine and gloss of a modern city. It was brass and sandstone, tiled walls and awnings that sheltered us from the Sun in the summer or the winter rain.”….

Norman McBeath – Edinburgh Arts Festival – Body Bags / Simonides

I was talking to Norman today, he is a great friend and was an invaluable contributor to life at The Photographers Workshop when we had darkrooms and studios for rent. In recent years his star has risen in Edinburgh where he lives and works as a fine art photographer. He said, as you do, “my exhibition is next to Anish Kapoor’s” it is possible that he didn’t quite use those words because he is Scottish but any sentence that includes “my exhibition and Anish Kapoor” is bound to make me sit up. So I asked how his show had been going and he said really well and that The Scotsman Newspaper had given it a 5 star review so here is that review for those of you that enjoyed Norman’s laughter and good sense, nice to know him when he was a struggling nobody! This link is a downloadable pdf

090811 The Scotsman Review p10-11

and because I doubted the authenticity, not really, of the article Norman sent me this.  Here is a link to our previous post about this exhibition

 

 

Tube and train commuters caught on camera

Is this photography?  What is photography today, are there limits determined by camera, style, intent..

“There are a growing number of websites and photo galleries dedicated to critiquing the appearance, dress and behaviour of fellow travellers. ……Tubecrush.net invites commuters to send in pictures of strangers they find attractive or eye-catching. Subjects must be men travelling on the London underground.”  From the BBC, full story here

Here is a link to Tubecrush but as I couldn’t get it to work and the site crashed maybe it should be called Tubecra…

 

Seeing Pictures – a course in Composition In Photography

Many of our students take our Composition – Seeing Pictures course after completing either of our DSLR courses (the 4 session or 1 Day version). It seems a natural extension from learning about how your camera works to learning about how to see and take better pictures.

As Dorothea Lange said “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera”

The course is not just about the design rules that dictate some forms of photographic composition because rules and laws are there to be broken. We do look at the ways that photographs can be read to be better understood. In pursuit of this each class is arranged around the work of a prominent, some might say, masters of photography. People whose work is so lauded that not to use them as a basis for understanding photographic composition would be a failure. We can learn so much by looking at and understanding the photographs of the best practitioners of our art and craft, learning by looking helps us to see.

“Many thanks again for another fantastic course it has filled many a gap in my knowledge and helped me no end”

“I also did the seeing pictures course in October and will certainly be recommending both to anyone who’ll listen!”

The next course starts 6th October, 4 sessions, 2 hours each the cost £80

More information here

 

Festival of Lights, Myanmar – National Geographic

Lighting a sea of candles, Burmese pay homage to their ancestors during Thadingyut, the three-day festival of lights in October marking the end of the Buddhist equivalent of Lent.….more

Six Photographers Test Their Right to Shoot in London

Petapixel have a video showing the problems photographers have photographing in the street, it is an interesting view of how photographers are hassled by ‘security’  and how those involved in ‘security’ don’t understand the law and try to assume rights they do not have. Fortunately it seems the police, when called, had a better understanding of what is allowed. This was organised as part of the London Street Photography Festival 2011

“On June 21, 2011, non-profit organization Shoot Experience sent out six photographers to various parts of London to see the current state of photographers’ rights.” ….go here for the video