The Real Road to Greatness in Photography

Rob, over on Lightstalking usually has good articles that I like to recommend and this is one. He talks about what it takes to become a photographer, good, bad or whatever, but the aim to make pictures that matter, to you and hopefully others. I agree with all the points he makes, these are the ideas I try to instil into the students who come to our courses, that owning a camera doesn’t make you a photographer, that buying better kit will not improve your pictures, that if you don’t like your pictures it isn’t your cameras fault. The simple basics of becoming a photographer are learn your craft, learn how to use your camera and software, then practise as often as you can. I suggest that you can take say 50 pictures in half an hour, they will not be earth shattering pictures but in that time you will have practised. If you do this is a sensible manner you will practise one thing at a time, just like learning how to hill starts when you are learning to drive. Stand in your back garden and take 50 pictures using the focus selection point, each picture select a different point, just spin on your axis, don’t go anywhere just get into the habit of using the equipment. The last thing I say is vital is look at the work of great photographers, learn from the masters. Research the areas of photography you enjoy, see what has been done by others. Any idea you have will not be unique, but the way you approach it might be.

Learn, Practise, Look

here is that article by Rob

There is a pervasive idea among artists and the public in general that great photographers have an innate ability to produce brilliant photography. That you can be naturally endowed with an inherent ability in this medium. That the truly great photographers simply possessed something that the rest of us didn’t and could never achieve.

The only problem with that hypothesis is that it is complete bunkum.

Great artists (or people of any talent) are made, not born. And increasingly, the science and the studies of great people, are proving it.

If you want to be a technically great photographer, then there is one thing and one thing only that will get you to that point.

Practice.

photographer by Harrissa Sunshine, on Flickr

Stories of Friendship – photography exhibition

There are no winners in war, but memories of misery as those that marked World War II, a period in which Apulia became centre stage to the events that led to the birth of the Italian Republic. Stories of Friendshipis Accademia Apulias latest photography exhibition. It aims to highlightthe important contribution Apulia made in securing the end of World War II – a fact largely unknown by the international community. However, the focus of this exhibition is not so much on weapons, uniforms, combat techniques, as on ordinary peoples stories who, revealing their humanity, show a perspective of a bygone era.

One hundred photographs, films and diaries from the archives of the Imperial War Museum, London, provide a new insight into some of the most significant encounters between British soldiers and the civilian population, peasants, artisans and intellectuals. The soldiers portrayed in the photographs established cordial relations with the local people in spite of their uniforms and rank. As a direct result of this interaction many British soldiers married local women, setting up households both in Italy and the UK.

Stories of Friendship testify that even in war there is room for positive values. Brotherhood and solidarity are at the heart of the human soul regardless of nationality and status. The exhibition, financed by the local government of Apulia, GAL Apulia and Accademia Apulia, curated byTatiana Chierici, will bea touring exhibition running between July 2014 and March 2015.

Further details here

Museum of the Order of St John from 21/07/2014 to 30/08/2014

Bexley Hall Place  from14/09/2014 to 11/03/2015