My previous posts on the Fuji X-Pro1 have received a lot of attention – Fuji X-Pro1 First Impressions, Can The Fuji X-Pro1 Replace A dSLR, Fuji X-Pro1 InfraRed

I have been using the X-Pro1 extensively over the past few weeks and I’m starting to feel more at home with the camera. I still have my reservations. But, it’s fair to say that when everything “clicks” the camera produces some amazing images.

I’ve been working on two follow up posts, a full review of the X-Pro1 and a little tutorial on using the X-Pro1 to shoot infrared, including white balance issues and photoshop insights. However, because of some other commitments, I probably won’t get around to posting those until later this month.

I’m thankful for the comments and advice I received in response to the last few posts. I’ve included some of the points people raised about X-Pro1 below, in a sort of FAQ of the discussion so far. If you have any other questions, then now is a good time to ask them, while I’m writing the final two posts on this camera.

The X-Pro1 is not that slow – I guess it depends on your point of reference. My D90 is really fast, from a cold start to ready to shoot. By comparison, the X-Pro1 feels sluggish. Same when processing multiple exposures.

If you insert the memory card in Mac, then it will run slow when you put it back in the X-Pro1 – I’ve tested this and it’s true. However, I always reformat cards when I put them back in the camera. That’s a core part of my workflow. So, this is not the reason for the sluggishness (at least in this case).

What filter do you use for infrared? – The Hoya R72. It’s widely available.

What are your settings for infrared? – You have to bump the ISO right up, around 5000. Most of theIR shots you see on this site are with wide apertures (f1.4 – f.4) and slow shutter speeds.

Why do you feel this is not a good camera for landscape work? – Partly it has to do with framing your shot. I still feel, with the X-Pro1, that I’m guessing where the frame of the image will be. That doesn’t fit with the way I approach landscape. But, mostly it has to with the design and the location of the battery and card compartment. I use Arca-Swiss plates for my tripod (Really Right Stuff has an X-Pro1 plate coming soon). Because of the location of the tripod screw on the X-Pro1, it will be impossible to change the battery or memory card without removing the plate. This undoes some of the advantages (and reliability) of using an Arca-Swiss system.

What’s your impression of the autofocus on the X-Pro1? – The autofocus is better than I expected. But, it is hit and miss. I probably wouldn’t be complaining at all about it though, if the Fuji lenses were usable in manual focus mode.

I’ve always been keen to try Infrared photography. It’s a technique that can produce stunning landscape and urban images. But, many, in fact most, dSLR camera cannot shoot infrared without hardware modification.

I had been seeing some comments suggesting that it was possible to shoot Infrared with an unmodified Fuji X-Pro1. So, I headed out this afternoon to pick up a Hoya R72 Infrared filter. When I got home, I grabbed my X-Pro1 and went out for a short walk.

The image at the top of this post is exactly what came out of the camera in JPG; no adjustments, no processing. For the rest of the images below, I imported the RAW files, converted them to TIFF in SilkyPix, then processed them with a variety of approaches (Lightroom, Color Efex Pro, Photoshop). That said, the images still looked pretty good just straight out of the camera.

There’s a huge amount of potential in this approach. I’m sure, as the word gets out that the Fuji X-Pro1 can do Infrared, more and more photographers will give it a go.

Last week I wrote an extensive post on the state of play in online photo sites & services. I made the point that sharing is one of four key activities, when it comes to photos online.

But, while curating and commenting are important, sharing is the most important of all.

So, I was thankful to see the latest eBook from Craft & Vision, Shoot & Share by Stuart Sipahigil, is all about photo sharing. And, I was even more thankful when I dove into the book and realised it wasn’t simply about sharing photos online.

The Sharing Mindset

Digital cameras and online services have made it easy to share images. But, it’s a good thing to step back and ask, why are we sharing? A great photo on 500px can make people go “wow.” But, if wowing people is our goal, then a large format print will have even more wow built into it.

Or, if our goal is to make people feel special, then tagging them on some images in Facebook or Instagram might be nice. But, making a photo book for them might well be even nicer.

The Sharing Workflow

What Stuart Sipahigil does really well in Shoot & Share is help us think about how and why we share photos, devise some goals for sharing them more effectively and, in turn, become better photographers by listening to everything we hear from the sharing experience.

We are not given a one size-fits-all template, but rather, through a series of questions and examples, we are encouraged to think about approaches to sharing our photos that will help us reach our own goals as photographers.

The Value of Sharing

Online galleries, prints & even exhibitions are not the whole story when it comes to photography. There’s a lot we can do to share the experience of photography; from writing, teaching to participating in photo walks.

What I found most helpful about Shoot & Share was the book’s breadth of focus. It’s easy to get caught up in the latest widget or website, the journey of becoming a “better” photographer or the whole commercial thing. It’s good to take a step back a little and think about the relationships, passions and emotions connected to photography and why we bother to lift a camera to the world in the first place.

How To Order

I heartily recommend Shoot & Share to photographers of all sorts. After all, it is only $5, which is a lot less than most photography magazines. You can pick up Shoot & Share from Craft & Vision and for the next couple of days you can get a discount by using the code SHARE4 or a 20% discount on five or more eBooks with the code SHARE20.

Last July I posted a very popular article about the photo hosting site 500px. At the time 500px was still relatively unknown and starting to create a buzz. As I said,

“… there is a lot that 500px is doing right and I’m looking forward to seeing if this service can really grow in the coming months.”

Since then Flickr has continued to decline while 500px has gone from strength to strength. For example, 500px just matched Flickr, by releasing an Android app. But, 500px has an excellent iPad app, while Flickr has never even released an app for the best mobile device out there for showcasing photos.

Giving Flickr The Flick

As I mentioned before, I had a lot invested in Flickr; a lot of photos, a lot of conversations and, of course, a lot of money buying Pro accounts. But, while Flickr’s vast library of images has continued to grow, the service has been slow to improve. It’s still sluggish, somewhat ugly and caught in the past. Meanwhile, other services, like 500px, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+ have changed our expectations of what an online platform can offer photographers.

So, I am going through my Flickr followers, getting in contact with them & suggesting they might like to connect on other platforms (like this blog, Twitter, 500px or Instagram). Next Friday I will delete my Flickr account.

Sharing, Commenting, Exhibiting & Curating

There are four basic things people like to do, online, with photos; sharing, commenting, exhibiting & curating. Flickr was once a leader in each of these four activities. Now, for all those interests, there’s at least one other service that is the leader.

Sharing – OK, the web might well be drowning in photos of cats, flowers and breakfasts. But, people like to share their experiences, passions and life stories through photos. Facebook understood this; they made sharing everyday images central to their platform. It made sense when they bought Instagram, a fast growing and reliable service that was built for sharing mobile photography.

Commenting – One of Flickr’s big breakthroughs was making it easy to comment on photos and neatly formatting those comments. But, Flickr now looks terrible compared to the commenting process on Google+.

Exhibiting – While sharing, is all about letting people see your latest images, exhibiting is about showing off your best images. Flickr gave us the ability to group images into sets, but it was never really a great place for your portfolio. By contrast, 500px really is about amazing work. It’s faster and classier than Flickr ever was and, since I wrote that piece last year, it really has become a place for serious photography (take a look at Scott Kelby’s trawl through great 500px images on his The Grid video cast).

Curating – One activity that is sometimes missed is curating, or sharing your favourite selections of other people’s images. Some folks like to exhibit their good taste or their ability to find interesting new work. Flickr made this possible through groups, but Pinterest has elevated curation to new heights.

Flickr Outflanked

It’s hard to see Flickr regaining the lead in any one of these fields. And, of course, there are other services I haven’t even mentioned, like Tumblr, Path, Lightbox, and SmugMug who, in their own ways, beat Flickr.

500px Today

I really like the way 500px has implemented sets (you can see mine here) and their approach to mobile apps. But, the service is not without some problems. For one, I’m not a fan of exhibiting scores next to images. I had the experience where I shared an image on Twitter and in a few days, the number of views and likes went up, but the score went down. That’s a turn off.

And, I deeply dislike the flow feature. It mixes your photos up with the the photos you have liked and changes the crop and perspective of the images in the layout. If the purpose of a site is exhibiting, then the photographer should have more control over how their images are seen.

The Future

I believe the action, in the coming year, will be between Facebook (with Instagram) and Google+. Instagram will continue, for the time being at least, to grow and influence the mobile photo sharing space. While Google+, especially when you consider the talent they have assembled for their upcoming photography conference, will shape the game for serious and commercial photography.

Of course, 500px still has an edge for exhibiting, but that’s a very slim edge. I’d be very surprised if we don’t soon see Google+ adding better galleries soon. And, of course, Pinterest may well be swallowed up the way Instagram was.

There’s an irony in SoundCloud saying they want to be the Flickr of music, while Flickr is becoming the MySpace of photography. Flickr was, for a number of years, the benchmark for sharing photos online. But, I’m afraid that time is well and truly behind us now.

X-Pro1 Detail & Bokeh Test

It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted my initial impressions of the new Fuji X-Pro1 camera. I’ve been writing a comprehensive hands-on review. But, there are a few more things I need to understand and a couple of situations I want to photograph in, before I can finish that piece.

However, I want to address one question that many people have been asking; can the Fuji X-Pro1 replace a dSLR?

The best answer I can give is – maybe.

Why Do Photographers Buy dSLR cameras?

I’m not trying to be evasive, but, there is a problem in the question. Photographers buy dSLR cameras for many different reasons. Speed, image quality, flexibility, and ergonomics are some of things dSLR cameras have in their favour. But, not all of those matter to every photographer in the same way and to the same degree.

This Is a Camera With Strengths And Limitations

The image quality of the X-Pro1is as good as the best crop-sensor dSLR cameras out there and better than the best dSLR cameras from a few years ago. I’ve been shooting with Fuji’s own 35mm f.1.4 lens and my best images look great, straight out of the camera, with no processing.

But, great image quality is useless if you can’t shoot in focus. The Fuji lens is useless in manual focus mode and the camera’s autofocus system is temperamental at best.

And, there is no news yet on when we will be able to open the X-Pro1’s RAW files in Lightroom or Photoshop!

Moreover, image quality is irrelevant if you miss the moment. The X-Pro1 takes an age to start up and feels slow in general. For example, when you shoot exposure brackets the camera shoots the bracket quickly, but then takes an age to process the images before you can shoot again.

The X-Pro1 does a good job of putting its controls in (relatively) usable spots around the body. Features are less menu-trapped than on many low end dSLRs. It’s a fairly good layout for photographers who shoot in Manual and Aperture modes. There is also an assignable Function button, which I use for ISO. But, it does mean that I then have to dive into the menus to adjust White Balance.

The Joy Of The Hybrid Viewfinder

The X-Pro1 has one huge thing in its favour – the hybrid viewfinder. The X-Pro1 overlays, in a heads-up-display style, a lot of the information you need while shooting and lets you see the image you just shot and the menu all inside the viewfinder. That means you can do everything without having to lift the camera away from your face.

If you watch photographers, a lot of them waste time in between shots lowering the camera and navigating buttons and menus. The X-Pro1 is designed to encourage you not to do that. In effect, it is built to help you shoot like most pros, who rarely move the camera away from their face to make adjustments.

Why I Bought The X-Pro1

I bought the X-Pro1 to go alongside my Nikon dSLR gear, not as an out and out replacement. I will soon move to full frame dSLR for my landscape and studio portrait work. While I can imagine using the Fuji for portraits, in the full review I will explain the reasons why I wouldn’t use the X-Pro1 for landscape.

But, there are lots of situations, especially on day trips and city streets, where a dSLR feels bulky and indiscrete. There’s a lot to be said for carrying a smaller camera that packs the same kind of image quality and creative versatility.

And, since I can use my Nikon lenses (with adapters) on the X-Pro1, it makes a nice slim alternative as a second body on long trips, especially when I’m doing a mix of landscape and street work.

Conclusion

This is not a full review of the X-Pro1. There’s a lot more to be said about the camera’s strengths and weaknesses. But, I hope this goes at least part of the way towards answering whether this camera can replace a dSLR in certain situations.

Ultimately, the answer really depends on what you photograph and how you work. To be honest, I still haven’t made up my mind about the X-Pro1. Some days I like it, some days I don’t. But, if it does turn out to be a keeper, then I will be carrying it instead of a dSLR for some adventures and alongside my Nikon gear for others.

What This Means For The Industry

It’s a great day for Instagram’s founders and probably, a very good day for Facebook, who in one bold move have taken out one of their biggest competitors in the mobile social space. Instagram had a lot of loyalty with iPhone users and had just opened itself up (very successfully) to those on the Android platform.

Of course, there will be a backlash. Instagram had been a cool, hipster-ish platform and now that Facebook has entered the picture, Instagram will become mainstream and, by extension, un-cool.

We will undoubtably see a flood of new social services emerge. Some will vie for the title of “next cool photography app,” while others will try to be the new thing that quickly attracts enough followers to appear on the radar of Facebook, Twitter, Google & maybe even Apple. They will all be chasing the big sellout.

What This Means For Mobile Photographers

I really enjoyed Instagram’s season in the sun. It will be remembered (along with Best Camera & Camera+) as one of the apps that helped popularise smartphone photography. And, it was a lot of fun to play with; the square crop, the bleach-bypass effects, the light-hearted social aspect.

But, for me, Instagram was always the side-car and never the motorbike. I liked Instagram because it was a good way to share photos on Twitter and a fun place to experiment photographic ideas. But, Instagram was not without its problems and never destined to be a focus, in and of itself.

Even before the sudden burst of users when Instagram opened its doors to the Android platform, there were limitations. The popular page had long since stopped being a useful way to find new photographers to follow. It wasn’t easy to manage your followers and following. Without the ability to organise people into groups, lists or categories, those who posted less often were drowned out by the more aggressive sharers.

And, let’s be honest; there were just too many photos of cats!

But, it was clear that all those things that had not mattered when Instagram was small, cool and niche, were now going to need to be addressed as the service grew ever more popular.

What This Means For The Future

I’m not sure what Instagram will change overnight, but it will change. I’ll stick with it, at least until the summer, but I won’t be using Instagram in 2013. It’s time to move on and I have no doubt another great mobile photo sharing app is out there.

The more important issue will be how we manage the explosion of new apps and services in the coming months and years. Trying on new social media platforms is not like trying on a pair of jeans. It takes an investment of time, effort and intellect – all of which are in increasingly limited supply as we navigate a world increasingly full of electronic distractions.

I wanted to be a photographer, not just a camera owner.

In these three years, I’ve photographed nomads in Northern India, pole dancers in Hong Kong, pierced Hindu devotees in Malaysia and families celebrating Day of the Dead by candlelight in Mexico. I’ve also spent a lot of time shooting natural landscapes, urban vistas and even a bit of live music.

And, this hasn’t just been an “amateur” experience. I’ve mounted a public exhibition, had photos featured in magazines and high profile websites as well as being contracted to shoot portraits and editorial pieces.

The Pro Thing

Today I’m standing where a lot of photographers have found themselves before; wondering what this all means and where to go from here. Perhaps it is not surprising there is a whole cottage industry built around helping photographers “go pro.”

And, in this time, I’ve carefully watched the way photographers position and brand themselves – the way they manage perception – from the subtle through to the outrageous.

For example; in the way I tell my story, I make it clear that I haven’t been doing this long and I don’t really have vast reserves of experience. However, I could tell the story a different way. After all, I did, albeit briefly, shoot a Rolleiflex as a kid. I also took some decent SLR photos on safari in Africa in my mid twenties. And, in-between, I shot a fair few rolls of Black & White. It’s not entirely untrue to say I have more than twenty years of experience in photography.

Except, of course, t’s not entirely true either. Telling the story any other way gives the impression that I know more than is actually the case. But, as a branding and marketing ploy, it could well be very effective!

The Teaching Thing

One direction I could go, is to get into teaching photography. A lot of photographers do it as a way to supplement their income. It’s not hard to find photographers out there with very little experience (and fairly ordinary portfolios) who have ebooks, videos and workshops to sell.

Not that I have any aversion to teaching. I taught guitar, on and off, for a decade. And, many of my fondest academic memories were of giving lectures, seminars and teaching in other, more informal situations. Nor do I have an aversion to chasing commercial opportunities (as long as they are the right ones).

The Kind Words Thing

I’ve been on four photography workshops now. In the last three of those I’ve wound up doing some informal teaching. It’s not been something I set out to do. But, as a consequence of isolation, either because the workshop leaders were unavailable (or unwilling to help), I’ve found myself answering a fellow participant’s questions and offering something from my shallow pool of experience.

All those fellow participants have emailed me later to thank me for my time and in conversation with them, they all suggested I think about teaching photography.

The But Thing

I have no doubt that the little help I could offer was useful, not because I’m anything special as a photographer, but because the whole photography thing hasn’t come easily to me. I’ve had to work at it and piece together my approach, from a wide range of experiences.

That’s not unusual for me – it’s been the same with everything I’m good at.

But, I still feel there’s a big gap between making sense, when I talk about my approach in photography and helping people find theirs. I don’t really have a systematic approach, there are huge gaps in my understanding of the art and I don’t feel anywhere near having technical mastery of the camera (certainly compared to the way I feel about guitar).

I’ve never been motivated to do something, just because I can. And, I have an aversion to adding my voice to the din of a noisy room. Just because I could teach photography, does not, in any way, feel like a compelling argument to actually go out and market myself as a teacher.

What I Can Offer

But, I’m not tin-eared to what my friends have said. I’ve been blessed with some very solid learning experiences, met (and photographed alongside) some amazing photographers and had the chance to try some amazing gear. It would be selfish not to share some of that.

Although, I’ve not always done a good job of sharing practical insights on this blog, I hope that you’ve found more “nuts & bolts” ideas that might help you create better images, or at least be inspired to get out there and shoot.

Honestly, I have no idea where this photographic adventure will take me. It’s already far exceeded any expectations I had back in 2009. One day I might change my mind. But, I doubt that will happen any time soon. For now, it’s “business” as usual.

Ian Ruhter has not only made his own camera and dived head first into reviving an antiquated art form (wet plate photography) he is doing it in a large, very expense and unique format. And, most importantly of all, his work looks stunning.

I don’t really want to say much about this. Just check out the video and leave your thoughts in the comments section below. And, don’t miss the part where he says that each exposure costs $500 – not each project, or each print, each exposure!

This week I welcomed a new camera into the studio, the Fuji X-Pro1. I’ll write a deeper review once I’ve had the chance to use this camera a little more. For now, I want to offer up a few images and initial impressions.

The 35mm f1.4 lens is sharp. I shot this image while playing with the autofocus and I’ve added an enlargement of the compressed air can, on the right side, so you can see the detail.

This is an image my daughter took (not bad composition for a ten year old), which shows the character of the camera and also the difficultly of shooting wide open with the sometimes jumpy autofocus.

The camera has three internal crop modes, regular 35mm, cinematic 16:9, which is fun to play with and also a 1:1 square crop which I will talk about in more depth in a future post. Here, I was playing with the 16:9 mode.

The camera also has a macro mode, though it seems to me that you have to shoot with the digital viewfinder to make it work. Still, the potential here is really enticing (and I love the background blur).

I love that the world is wild and untameable; that as much as I create sense and order in my life, mystery, decay and so-called imperfections will always seep in…

…and, I believe there is a beauty in that.

In particular, I love to watch people create portraits. I remember the first time I saw David duChemin photographing someone, in 2010 in Leh, Northern India. We were tired and hungry, waiting for a meal, while seated outside small restaurant. The son of one of the people that worked in the restaurant was hanging around our table, obviously curious about this group of camera carrying weirdos.

David got out of his seat, crouched down to the kid’s eye level and struck up a simple conversation. It was such a relaxed, calm and graceful moment. For me it was a profound revelation; what stood between me and better portraits had little to do with my camera and a lot more to do with my way of relating to people and being in the world.

Forget Mugshots

That’s why I’m so glad to see that David has released a new eBook on portraiture, entitled Forget Mugshots (available through Craft & Vision). It’s a ten chapter, 35 page work that is ridiculously good value (you’ll pay 3-4 times as much for a photography magazine here in Asia and, for a limited time, you can get an extra discount with the promotional code MUGSHOTS4).

Forget Mugshots is very practical eBook. There’s lots of example images, with the process behind each photo well explained. There’s also some discussion of gear and creative exercises for you to explore.

But, the real lesson of Forget Mugshots isn’t simply about gear and technique; it’s about gear and technique in service of something far more important – the relationship between the photographer and the subject of the photo. As David says, great portraits arise out of a collaborative relationship between photographer and subject.

I saw that when David photographed that boy in Leh and in all the other portraits I saw him create in Ladakh and Oaxaca. It’s also something I’ve seen in the other talented photographers I’ve been privileged to meet and observe. Sure, they have a way with their camera, but more importantly, they have a way with people.

The Portraits

I have to admit that I also love Forget Mugshots because one of the mugs in there is my own. You’ll find me on page 18 of the eBook. I love that portrait because it says so many things. David suggests that my look “… implies a man who is observant, even distracted,” which is fair, given that when he noticed me I was deep in thought (taking in a scene that reminded me of Jarbas Agnelli’s Birds on the Wires).

Portraits And Liminality

David talks about great portraits involving an act of revelation. I agree with that. Portraits reveal their subjects, of course. But, they also reveal the way the photographer sees the world.

I’m starting to wonder if portraits involve some sense of liminality. I’ll admit that liminality is an uncommon word, but bear with me. It literately means being on the edge, or threshold of something. Liminality also implies the start, or first stages of a process.

Think of how it feels when you move to a new place or start a new job. At first it all feels strange and foreign. Then there comes a moment, before you are fully settled and at home, when you start move away from being an alien and start to understand this new place. That’s liminality.

Or consider that moment when you first start to realise that someone you’ve met is becoming a friend, that point when awkwardness is first staring to yield towards comfort. That’s liminality.

Liminality is all about feeling like you are on the edge of something big that you don’t quite understand yet.

An Example

Towards the end of my recent trip to Penang I had the chance to create a portrait of Sabina Mismas. Sabina is a newcomer to photography, but she has a remarkable feel for travel photography and I’m looking forward to seeing where her work goes.

I created this image fairly quickly. We were waiting for the rest of our group, off to the side of a carpark, near a temple (actually, near the trash dump behind the temple). The late afternoon light was wonderful and I pretty much imagined this image as you see it.

What I did is typical of my approach, a little bit of direction (with the camera out of view) and then I stepped back to take about 12 frames. I believe the element of trust and the spontaneity of the moment helped us create a casual image that works on a few different levels. I also love that the image is shot across the sun, the smoke blends with the background and I used the lens (a 105mm DC f2.0) to intentionally create a soft-focus effect (pin-sharp images are so over-rated).

It was less than 18 months from when I first saw David shoot a portrait in Leh, to when I created that image of Sabina in Penang. It’s been a hell of a ride. A lot of what I’ve learnt is available for you to explore in Forget Mugshots.. And, most of the rest is out there waiting for you, as you create your own portraits.

I love The New Yorker’s cover art. The print you see above is one of my favourites and lives in our home library. At first glance it seems like the phone has been accidentally dropped into the water, then you start to wonder, did she drop it on purpose?

Yesterday I unwittingly re-enacted the scene from that cartoon (without the bikini) when I dropped my own trusty iPhone 3GS into a pool. I quickly jumped in after it (yes, I was fully clothed), but to no avail, the phone was dead by the time I took it the repair shop.

The guys at iPhonefix in Bras Basah did their best; taking apart the phone, cleaning it, trying a new battery and a new screen. But, they couldn’t bring it back to life. I was impressed with their service; since they could’t fix it, they didn’t charge me anything!

By the evening I had a new iPhone 4s in my hands. I then started down the unsteady path to setting up a new device and seeing how much information had been lost.

Maybe it’s a sign of my age, but I’m always inclined to assume that any computer glitch will be disastrous. It’s not just the big failures (I did once lose about nine months of work, despite having backup strategies in place), it’s all those small losses of data and the hours and weeks spent reinstalling software and resetting preferences.

Thankfully, I had backed up my iPhone just one day before it went swimming. So, I plugged in the new iPhone 4s and chose to set it up from the existing backup. It was a slow, but smooth process. I had to re-input the odd password, but everything was there. Games opened back to where I had left them, documents were at same point I had read to and all my services worked fine.

In fact the only real glitch was something I had not taken into account. The iPhone 3Gs uses conventional SIM cards, but the 4s uses the smaller micro-SIM card. Time to go to my service provider to beg ask for a replacement SIM card.

What do I think of the new iPhone 4s? Well it is cool, I suppose. To be honest, it doesn’t feel, to me, all that big of a change from the 3Gs (for a more in depth review, check out Tech Radar). After all, it runs the same iOS.

I do like the dual cameras. Apparently the 4s has more megapixels, which of course, in a camera like this won’t make much of a difference at all. And, Siri is, well amusing at least in inquiry mode. The big breakthrough is really the ability to dictate text. I can see myself using this a lot, not just for messages and emails, but also for notes.

All that said, I am frustrated that this was a forced update. A broken screen meant I picked up an iPhone 3Gs not long before the iPhone 4 was released. And, now I have a new iPhone 4s with the inevitable update to the iPhone 5 probably due later this year.

It’s not that having the latest phone matters to me, because increasingly it doesn’t. What I’d like is to be updating my phone less often – or maybe, I’d rather break them less often.

Reason Fun Today

On MacProVideo’s blog, there’s an excellent, easy to follow post on creating your own background panels for use in Reason. I went ahead and created some “self-branded” backgrounds, with my own logo on them. It was a pleasant Saturday afternoon diversion – and, I learnt a thing or two about creating semi-realistic looking interface designs in Photoshop!

The Digital Learning Revolution

The rise of Social Media has tended to make most people think that being online is largely a revolution in self-expression and the sharing of personal information. Of course, that’s a big part of the story.

But, for me, being online was always first and foremost an educational experience. My first website, built back in 1995, was an archive of academic links (Philosophy, Theology, Film and Cultural Studies) along with details about an academic society I helped to run. To this day learning has remained one of my core reasons for going (and staying) online.

MacProVideo is not the only amazing learning site online. I also like Lynda.com and, of course, I’ve taken my fair share of course through BerkleeMusic, Berklee College of Boston’s excellent online school. Moreover, there are fantastic bloggers and podcasters committed to helping their followers learn and flourish in all kinds of human endeavours.

Blogging, My Part In Its Downfall

Many people see blogging as a pure self-expression game. I’ve never been comfortable with that. To me, the idea of being able to have your own space online, that other people can read – to self-publish as it were – is such a privilege, that it should carry some responsibilities.

Increasingly I’m seeing blogs do well by connecting with their readers desire to learn, develop new skills and try new things. In the early days we used to call websites like my first site portals. That language still makes sense. We go online to open a doorway into a bigger world, because we want to bring some excitement, fun and freshness into our lives.

Sites like MacProVideo help us work smarter. I love them for that. Sure, it’s a commercial site – but I’ve grown as a musician and creative soul while doing commerce with them. That’s what inspires me to write a post like this even though there’s no commercial incentive for me to do so!

I’m not much of an educator, but little by little I’ve been trying to add more what I’ve learnt over the years on this site. I might not be able to teach, but I can try to share and encourage. My hope is that reading this site does, at least from time to time, encourage you to take some chances and try some new things, in music, in photography, in writing and in life. I’m thankful that you give me some of your time when you read this blog and I’m thankful that this wonderful-wide-web is full of so much that can help us all learn and grow.

As a change of pace, today’s blogpost is actually an audio interview. Hong Kong entrepreneur, Casey Lau hosted an event tonight for Social Media Week, looking at the rise of mobile and social photography.

Since I can’t be there, I took the opportunity to interview tonight’s panelists, Rita S. (@mochachocolata), Tyson Wheatley (@Twheat), Lester Lim, (@framewerkz), Vilja Sormunen (@viljasormunen) and Jason Tse (@jasonbonvivant) on their approach to this growing trend, the apps they use and the experiences they have had.

The interview is brief (just over 16 minutes) but we cover a lot of good ground. I think it is fascinating to hear five talented and diverse photographers talking about their passion for smartphone photography. And, I’m sure you’ll be interested to the hear the responses to the final question – about the future of point and shoot cameras!

So I’ve decided to put together a quick guide to creating compelling images on the iPhone (based on my approach). Hopefully this 101 will give you some ideas for your iPhoneography.

1. Shoot With The iPhone’s Native App

My preference is to photograph with the iPhone’s native camera app, then open the photo in another app for processing. This is an extra (time-consuming) step. But, if you try to take a photo in, say Instagram and the app crashes before you’ve posted your shot, you will have lost the image forever. Also, if you apply some crazy processing or border, you can’t go back and undo that later. So, capture the photo, then process.

2. Turn On The Grid

Hit options and you’ll see a slider to turn on the grid. This lets you easily compose according to the rule of thirds and generally makes you more aware of your composition (more on that later).

3. Focus & Expose

Tap on the screen, over the image you are trying to photograph and your iPhone will adjust both focus and exposure. So if the object you want to photograph looks dark, you can tap on it and the iphone will adjust exposure accordingly. This also lets you get creative, with killing off darker backgrounds, or lightening bright backgrounds.

4. Compose: Is It In Or Out?

The lens on the iPhone is fairly wide, which lets you bring a lot of context into your images and also, if you are not careful, a lot of clutter and distraction as well. So, keep an eye out for things in the foreground and background of your image and, especially, stuff on the edges (frame) of your shot. Ask yourself – do I want it in, or out?

5. Remember The End

If you are going to post to Instagram, then remember that app posts square cropped images to the web. So, do not to put important details in the areas that will be cropped out. My approach is to open up images I want to post to Instagram in Snapseed and crop them to a 1:1 ratio before processing them.

6. Aim At The Sun

The iPhone is remarkably good in bright and even harsh light. The lens flare is useable and the highlights blow out less than you might expect. Also, you can capture some brilliant colours in the middle of the day.

7. Look For Details, Patterns And Strong Shapes

I love photographing details, especially metals, with the iPhone. Moreover, the wide lens can do interesting things to repeating patterns, if you play with the angle you hold the camera. And, you can do a lot with strong geometric shapes and sharp contrasts.

8. Don’t Be Afraid To Process – Hard

There are lots of great apps for processing images. I love the filters that come with Instagram, but I’m even more in love with the truly awesome Snapseed and my old favourite, TiltShift. Processing won’t save a bad image, but you can add some amazing pop with these apps. After all, if you followed step 1 in this guide, you have an unprocessed version of your photos, if you don’t like where the processing took you.

9. Go Close

If you photo isn’t quite working, try going closer. In fact a lot of the time, I hold my iPhone alarmingly close to doorways, pools, roads, machinery and naked flames. OK, it’s not safe and it may (or probably will) destroy my phone one day. But, the images look cool!

10. Shoot The City

The iPhone does really well with city-scapes. In fact I’m constantly amazed at how little processing you need when shooting the city in good light (or big city lights). That said, some grungy filters, or a little tilt-shift can also bring those city scenes to life.

11. Take Chances And Photograph Amazing Stuff

OK, this is not really an iPhone tip. Still, if you want to take better photos point you iPhone at amazing stuff – or at least, take some chances and point your iPhone at ordinary stuff in an amazing way.

12. Say Something

In a lot of ways iPhoneography is the same as conventional photography. You are just doing in this wonderful little pocket sized computer. People will look better if they have done their hair, put on some makeup, or at least had a good night sleep. That photo of today’s lunch will look better if you take a moment to arrange the food on the plate. The photo of that cool thing that arrived in the mail will look sharper if you turn on a few lights first. And, that cool whatever it is that you want to share with your friends will look more compelling if you just take a few extra moments to focus, expose, compose and develop your image with care.

But, most of important of all, people will connect with your iPhoneography if your images say something. It might be funny, odd, surprising, beautiful or whatever. Not every photo has to be deep, but the photos we remember speak to us on some level.

That’s why I think this image is one the best I’ve taken with the iPhone. It captures a feeling many of us have felt when it comes time to pack up and say goodbye to a place. I could have taken this with a “better” camera, but that wouldn’t have made it a better photo. And, the fact that I was able to share this photo with friends and family around the world while I was still in that moment made it all the more powerful.

So enjoy, experiment, have fun and remember to share your work with the rest of us!

Last week I was in Penang, photographing the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. I was also joining a workshop run by Matt Brandon and Gavin Gough. One of my goals in attending the workshop was to become better at telling visual stories, or to put it another way, creating visual essays.

The Assignment

We were given the opportunity to join devotees (and their friends and family) as they prepared for and underwent the rituals associated with Thaipusam. This festival is perhaps best known for the dramatic piercings (spears, hooks & pins) that many (but not all) devotees undergo.

But, of course, there’s a lot more to Thaipusam than that. I researched and photographed two stories that you’ll get to see on this blog next week, along with creating a slideshow documenting the final night of the festival. Hopefully they will give you some sense of the roles that faith, friendship, family and community play in this celebration.

While I was immersed in photographing those stories, a lot of tough questions came up about how we tell visual stories. I’ve never photographed an event that could be described in such radically different ways, simply by the kind of images we choose to create and share.

The Carnival

For example, the image at the top of this post was taken in one of the most crowded parts of the procession near the Waterfall temple. The scene, with pierced and colourfully decorated devotees weaving and dancing through the crowds, flanked by loudspeakers blasting out driving rhythms and marquees offering food & drink all reminded me of Latin American spirit of Carnival.

In fact, it was the uncle of one of the devotees I was photographing, who made me think about that connection. He was already curious about the possible similarities between the Kevadi (burden) of Thaipusam and the self-sactrifice of Lent.

But, of course, religious festivals might have some similarities, but they also have distinctive differences as well. Posing the devotees as carnival performers might make for fascinating images on an aesthetic level, but that approach will fail to shed light on important facts.

The Spectacle

For some, the sheer physical spectacle (and horror) of the body piercings capture all the attention. In fact, I saw several photographers who seemed to be totally focused on shooting this aspect alone, sometimes being invasive and, well, rude in the placement of themselves and their cameras.

While this dramatic and eye-catching image works on some levels, I believe it would be misleading to use this as a stand-alone photo to describe Thaipusam. The photo, in many ways, exaggerates the piercings. Or, to put it another way, the scene when you were there, didn’t look as horrific as it does in the photo.

The Story

Partly, that’s because the atmosphere of Thaipusam is not a circus or a freak-show. As I moved around the people preparing to be pierced (or “poked” as most referred to it), the feeling was, quite simply, one of love. Friends and family, parents and children and, of course, devotees and their Gods.

For me, there is a lot more value in using my camera to try and understand people, their beliefs and how they live within their community. After all I’m on their turf, taking up space in their lives.

None of the photos I took during Thaipusam would have been possible if I had just stood on a street corner with a long lens and shot “sniper-style.” I’m not that great a photographer, but I was able to go close to the best I can do by being in amongst the people, talking to them and building some sort of rapport and relationship with them over a number of days.

And, ultimately, that’s the big lesson I’ve learnt about photographing people. Cameras, lenses and post-processing do matter. But, the thing about photographing people is that, well, you are photographing people. The images you create will depend on the relationship you have with them. And, the stories you tell will depend on the way you approach that relationship and choose to document it.

This morning I’m packing up and getting ready to fly back to Singapore. It’s been a long and tiring week and I feel like I’ve grown a lot as a photographer this week.

Photographing Thaipusam was hard work. On Monday I was up before 5.30am and didn’t get to bed till after 2am the next day. On Tuesday I was out before 10am and got back to the hotel just before 10pm. I was then up on Thursday morning between 1.30am and 6am to photograph the final celebrations. There’s also been plenty of other side trips, to explore Penang, eat out & even a brief model shoot.

That’s a lot of time photographing, but, interestingly, I took far fewer images than on the recent Within The Frame workshop in Oaxaca.

Next week I’ll have more to share; two stories related to Thaipusam and a little photo-essay on the final night’s procession. But, before that, I need to get home, have my back seen to, rest and get some good sleep.

It’s been a long day.

Yesterday I was up at 5.30am and didn’t finish the day until 2am. Today I was out shooting just after 10am and didn’t get back to the hotel until nearly 10pm. Almost all of that time has been spent with the same group of people, from a small Hindu temple, as they prepare for and then go through the celebrations.

I’ve seen some amazing things and once I have the chance to sit down, go through the images, compose myself and do some writing I’ll share a few stories. What I will say is that, Thaipusam is an extraordinary festival – not just because of the extremes that devotees go through, but also because of the way that faith, family and friendship intertwine for those who participate in this holiday.

I’m in Penang, photographing the Thaipusam festival with some fellow photographers. This morning I was up before 5.30am watching the procession of a Hindu idol and observing devotees in various acts of devotion and thanksgiving. The image above shows men cracking coconuts on the road before the bullock-drawn silver chariot that carried the statue of the Hindu deity Murugan.

People were also bringing trays of offerings, which were passed up to a priest on the chariot, to be blessed before the statue. This ritual, with symbolic purity of the flames, was poignant against the first rays of morning light.

It’s a trip I’ve been looking forward to for some time. The last 48 hours haven’t been great as I contemplated whether to cancel the trip. Recovery from Tuesday’s procedure is going well. But, because of where the cyst was located, it makes carrying things, even a light camera on a strap, rather uncomfortable.

But, sometimes we have to take the longer view. It will be awkward and occasionally painful. But, learning from these guys is an amazing opportunity and photographing during the Thaipusam festival, not to mention savouring Penang’s famous street food, is something I will regret not experiencing.

I had been planning to take my flash photography gear, but because of my condition, I’ll be travelling light. When I find the time, I’ll post some updates from the road and share a few images.

January came to a sudden and unexpected end, so I’m a little behind on updating this site.

Anyway, this is your free computer desktop wallpaper for February. I took this image in Adelaide, well over an hour after sunset. There is something magical about watching the sun set into the ocean. You can download the February Wallpaper Here (33)

I’m in the middle of a short break in Adelaide. Being Chinese New Year, I decided to head away from the oppressive heat of Singapore to enjoy the oppressive heat of Adelaide.

And, boy oh boy has it been warm. Yesterday it was over 35 degrees celsius, which felt even hotter sitting in the glorious sunshine, at the Adelaide Oval. It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to watch a Test Match at what has to be one of the world’s most picturesque sporting grounds.

I took the photo at the top of this post about an hour after sunset. The light here is wonderful and I count it a privilege to be able to come back here again and again to photograph or, simply, to ride my bike or walk by seaside.

This weekend I fly back to Singapore then, at the end of next week I’ll be travelling again, to Penang, to photograph the festival of Thaipusam with Matt Brandon and Gavin Gough.

The frustrating news is that I have a slight medical condition, a cyst on my back, that has been causing me some discomfort. It flared up just before Christmas and was quite painful and was restricting movement of my left side. Thankfully it has responded to medication. But, next week I will have to speak to a surgeon and will probably need to have it cut out as soon as I come back from Penang.

In this scene one of his regular customers, Paul, a grief-filled writer played by William Hurt, comes into the store one evening and they start talking about Auggie’s photographic project.

There’s a lot that can be said about this scene – it speaks evocatively to the power of photography, to capture not just a moment (that’s such a cliche), but to capture life. The lesson we could all learn from Auggie is to slow down enough to see what we are photographing, what is living in our images.

Tonight I’ll be boarding a flight for Adelaide and taking a few days rest over Chinese New Year. It’s been a tough few months and I’m looking forward to slowing down. As Auggie says, “You know how it is, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow…”

Santa* brought me a really cool present this year – a Polaroid Z340 instant camera.

First Impressions

The camera is very black and reassuringly heavy. It is plastic, but it doesn’t feel unpleasant to touch. If anything, it is surprisingly bulky, which along with the classic wedge shape helps gives the Z340 a solidly retro feel.

The menus are fairly simple, but not very intuitive – you can’t always work out what a function is from its icon. I had to refer to the manual a fair bit, especially when it came to printing.

The Photos

This is an easy camera to use and there’s something very intriguing about the way people behave in front of it. I’ve noticed that when I use this camera, my subjects seem more relaxed and need less coaxing to smile than when I point a big dSLR at them.

However, the camera is slow – painfully slow. It takes an age to boot up and the shutter lag is epic, or maybe that should be, tragic. Even by comparison with budget point and shoot cameras, the Z340 is sluggish.

The JPG files (no RAW) from the Z340 are decent enough. I’m not a fan of in camera presets, but the ones here are usable, including a cool lomography-style filter.

There are also some fun features that allow you to set the camera to automatically take an image when the Z340 detects motion, a face, or a smile.

The Print

Perhaps the most disappointing thing about the Z340 is the print quality. It takes an age – over a minute – for the prints to come out. With the old polaroid system, it took a while for the photo to develop, but you could keep shooting in the meantime. With the Z340, if you try to shoot in the old “instant” style, you’ll be waiting a long time between shots.

And, sadly, the image quality is poor. Colours are not good, the images are unsharp (not in a cool way) and you can forget about trying to print with the classic Polaroid white border, as it never comes out looking clean.

However, they are prints and you have them right away. I think we’ve forgotten, to some extent, the joy and magic of holding a print in our hands. Sure the G340 prints are nothing special (I far prefer the cute little prints from the Fuji Instax Mini 7s, which I used to create the image at the top of this post). But, as gift, as something to laugh at and play with in the moment, they are a lot of fun.

It’s All About The Fun

The Z340 is not a serious camera. These days film and, to some extend instant film has become the domain of serious arty types (sometimes with serious arty pretensions). The Z340 doesn’t play in that space; it’s a not a digital substitute for the arty side of vintage instant or film photography.

When I was a kid these kinds of Polaroid cameras were not the preserve of the studio or serious photographer. Rather, they were the camera of everyday moments; parties, picnics and good times.

Which is why I don’t have this camera on my studio desk, or my travel gear bag. My Polaroid Z340 sits in the living room, right by the front door, where it makes photos after school, on weekends and during family cooking adventures. It’s a nice alternative to all those iPhone photos that get shared electronically, but never seem to find their way into print.

*The Santa in question was of course, my family.

“And for what it’s worth, I’ve been told my whole career that being a hyphen, that not having a simple title or a term that describes you or your art is horrible for one’s image, or marketing, or brand, or whatever. Which is total bullshit. I’m doing just fine without a specific label right now. Most people that buy my work or that I work with in a commercial capacity are just fine with not having a buzzword to describe the work. Fitting into a tidy little box isn’t my job— my job is to make stuff and get people to see and think differently.”

A few years ago I wrote a book review that dealt with “…what it means to be a “slash person,” namely, someone who has a slash between the different facets of their “career;” marketer/author, policeman/personal trainer, rabbi/comedian – that sort of thing.”

Back then I was wondering if the slash (or hyphen) trend was a generational issue. I’m not sure if that’s the reason, but it’s certainly something that is defining our age.

Going back a little further, into the late 90s, it seemed to me that a lot of best and more dynamic academic research was “inter-disciplinary,” which is an academic version of the slash; one field overlapping with another – economics that drew on sociology, educational research that used cultural anthropology, philosophy that borrowed from cultural theory and so on.

The musician-photographer-writer thing works for me. But, it is a portrait painted with the broadest brush strokes. Looked at another way, it’s just the category headings for things people have paid me to do in the last eight years.

You’ll have to find the hyphens that work for you. But, I really encourage you to break free from the one word description of what you do and who you are.

Of course, the real life Dalí was every bit as over the top and amusing to behold as Brody’s portrayal suggests. Yesterday I stumbled upon this US television appearance by the artist, on the long running show, What’s My Line.

It’s a wonderful performance by Dalí, quietly subverting the game he has been asked to join.

What stood out for me was the way he nonchalantly said yes to a large number of career definitions. Dalí was happy to be identified not just as an artist, but also a writer, cartoonist, performer, athlete and even leading man.

In so many ways this is contrary to the kind of advice we are often given today; to neatly define ourselves within one career path or niche.

Of course, Dalí did define and explain the art he made. But, watching him on What’s My Line, you can imagine his subconscious saying “yes, Dalí can do that too.” He is not letting a definition, in terms of career, limit what he feels he can do, as an artist or simply, as a person.

I see that as the essence of artistic freedom and something we could all learn from Dalí.

This month’s wallpaper is the last image I took in 2011. It was a seriously wet end to the year here in Singapore. Apparently, in three hours on the 23rd, we had more rain than the average monthly rainfall for a typical December. It was a very damp Christmas.

But, the days around the New Year were golden. Warm, breezy and relatively dry. The rains, when they did come were brief and refreshing. And, we saw plenty of dramatic clouds like these.

For this year I’ve decided to offer the wallpapers in a larger 2560?×?1600 size. You can download the January Wallpaper here (39). And, I’d like to take another opportunity to wish you and those around you a wonderful, adventurous and memorable New Year!

For the last few weeks I’ve been reading David duChemin’s new book Photographically Speaking. Like the other books David has released, it is a solid read, with lots to inspire and challenge photographers of all levels.

That said, I’m probably the last person you want to turn to for an “objective” review. Over the last few years David has become a teacher, mentor and friend. I’ve travelled twice on photographic workshops with him and, given the chance, would do so again.

In fact, I can remember conversations we had about “visual literacy” while travelling in Ladakh where he was articulating ideas that are fleshed out in this book. And, some of the photos in Photographically Speaking were taken from locations where we shot together.

David duChemin photographing in Lamayuru

David is a great photographer, but meeting him it becomes apparent that he is also a patient, kind and passionate teacher. Of course, if you are a regular reader of his blog, you may have sensed that already.

In Photographically Speaking, David is concerned with helping photographers develop a better conversation around their images, beyond just saying, “I like it,” or “I don’t like it.” The idea is that if we are able to articulate what works and does not work in an image we will understand more clearly how to make better images ourselves.

One of the best parts of David’s workshops is the image critique sessions. Photographers are asked to share an image, without explaining it. The image has to speak for itself. Then, the fellow participants take turns talking about the photo. We start with technical stuff like how it was shot, what kind of lens/exposure/aperture, the composition, then move onto talking about mood, emotion, gesture, moment, right down to our emotional and visceral feelings about the image.

It’s amazing to see how participants who, at first, were not confident talking about photos in this way acquire self-assurance and, in turn, become more constructively critical of their own work.

My favourite part of the book was the final section, where David applies this process to a series of photos he has taken over the years and talks about how and why the images work. It’s a crucial skill for photographers; being able to think critically about the photos you take.

I heartily recommend Photographically Speaking. It’s a good compliment to David’s previous books, especially Within The Frame and Vision & Voice. If you are looking to understand more about what makes a photograph compelling to look at, without getting bogged down in theory, then this is probably the book for you.

This image was created recently in Oaxaca. Earlier in the day, David duChemin had made the comment that there didn’t seem to be a lot of photographers shooting still life images these days. That got me thinking, what other classic styles of photography were perhaps being under-experlored today?

My mind quickly wandered to surrealism. Now, I don’t know enough about fine art to really comment on how much surrealist photography is out there. But, I’m certainly not seeing a lot of it.

Since surrealist photography relies on the clever use of technique, my mind quickly jumped – like a moth to flame – to thinking about HDR. Except, I didn’t want to use HDR to create dreamy, floating, unfocussed and over-saturated swashes of colour – to me that’s not surrealism.

By contrast, I was wondering if I could use HDR to disconnect objects in an image and make them sit at tension with each other in the frame. I haven’t moved anything in post-prodution, but (I hope) the technique makes things look they kind of don’t belong together.

So, in the spirit of Christmas, which must surely be the most surreal season of the year, I offer you this month’s free “surrealist” wallpaper (1900×1200). (39)

The Rule Of Thirds helps us bring balance and control to images

I often use the rule of thirds, especially when struggling to compose a photo, or balance elements in the frame. But, using the rule of thirds doesn’t always feel right. And, to be frank, some of the reasons that photographers give for its power don’t gel with my visual sensibility.

Perhaps the problem is that many photographers learn about composition from other photographers, or books and courses about photography written by, you guessed it, photographers. It’s a closed loop and in any field of activity, closed loops create distortions.

The rule of thirds works, at the most basic level, because it’s a grid. Visual design, from architecture to typography, from painting to magazine layout works by using grids, of various forms, to bring order into a visual composition. Grids allow us to balance elements, create order, identify patterns, manage symmetry, develop consistency and generally understand how the shapes in our composition are working together.

The rule of thirds is one type of grid system. But, there are many. Some combine different numbers of rows and coloumns. Some, even have asymetrical patterns. Garr Reynolds, in Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations, points out that even the humble Bento Box is a form of design grid – it allows a small number of colourful, differently shaped and textured food items to sit close together in relative harmony. That makes me wonder what photos shot with the Rule of Bento might look like.

The Bento Box Grid might be interesting for food photography!

Still, a lot of photographic conversations seem stuck at the rule of thirds, perhaps forgetting that although it’s a powerful grid system, it’s not the only option out there.

This point was hammered home while re-reading Scott McCloud’s excellent book, Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels. I should make a confession here that will assure I’m never regarded as a photography guru; most of what I know about photographic composition didn’t come from reading books on photography. Rather it came from walking around art galleries, four years of technical (industrial arts) drawing in high school and trying to draw comics.

Not that photography had no influence on me growing up; of course it did. Album covers got me interested in portraiture, car magazines made me attentive to details and surfaces and fashion magazines (along with National Geographic) made me curious about amazing looking people in breathtaking locations.

But, my sense of colour and story-telling in an image comes more from studying painters, my ideas about form and balance are indebted to technical drawing and the way I use lines, negative space and perspective comes from comics.

Sometimes putting an image dead centre and letting context and motion balance around it works.

So, when I read Scott McCloud talk about the power of putting a character in the dead centre of a frame, part of me, the part that has not totally been beaten down by the rule of thirds shouted – yes!

McCloud then goes on to talk about the power of leaving the centre of a frame vacant and how that empty space can, depending on the arrangement of the subjects in the image, create a sense of story or intrigue.

Although there are different grids working in this image, the halves show the absence in the story.

When photographers talk about the rule of thirds, they highlight the importance of placing objects on the intersections of the thirds, be it faces, eyes, lips or whatever. But, what often gets missed is the question of where to put nothing – empty space, negative space, leading space, call it what you will.

In the same way that context in an image can tell a story, perhaps books on a shelf that suggest someone is a student or librarian, so absence, or nothingness in an image can convey a story.

The centre-point is an axis in this image and also the introduction of mystery.

The absence of objects in an image can help tell a story. McCloud gives some classic comic examples; empty space suggesting a mysterious absence, a distance to be crossed or an unseen object of attention. Sometimes what we don’t put at the centre of the image is just as important as what we do put there.

Instead of just using a grid to suggest where might put something in our image, we can also use a grid to help us place nothingness within the image as well.

There is a lot of negative space in this image, but the singer's gesture gives us ideas about what is going on in that space.

Finally, some photographers get defensive about the language of the rule of thirds, as if it some kind of law or requirement of good composition. But, my sense is that the rule of thirds is a rule in the sense of being a custom or habit. It’s a bit like the way we might say, “as a rule, we drink water with our meals.” Certainly, in my home, we do drink water with our meals. But, if there’s pizza on the table, we’d be just a likely to serve up soft drinks, or beer instead.

One of my favourite rule of halves images. The emptiness in the centre of the image, with the empty chair, begs a story to be told.

Perhaps a better way to think of rules like these is to see then as accepted truths, or received wisdom. We have the benefit of generations of visual artists who have gone ahead and discovered that grids (like the rule of thirds) can help make images more powerful. Whatever grid we choose to use, thirds, halves, or even Bento Boxes doesn’t matter as much as the fact that as photographers we are open to the knowledge that other visual artists have made available to us.

“Do you think I can’t see you, crouched over there, with your giant camera and massive lens? Do you think I don’t know that you’ve been taking pictures of my daughter and I while we sit and talk about her school day? I came here for a few moments of quiet conversation and a cup of coffee. I never volunteered to be your subject, never agreed to pose for your photos. Sure, you probably spent a lot of time picking out your gear and your bags. Maybe to your photography buddies you look cool and stealthy. But, to me, you are just an obvious thief, here to steal what is most precious to those of us that live in big cities; the quiet moments we carefully carve out for ourselves in the midst of the human zoo.”

I wrote those words some time ago, before I seriously got into photography. I’ve lived in touristy and photogenic cities all my life and been photographed without my consent more times than I care to remember. In a way, it’s the price we pay for living somewhere that is visually amazing (and maybe for looking a little odd, or different).

Photographing in a city presents a lot of challenges and paradoxes. I don’t believe that everyone in the city is fodder for our cameras. We cope with city life because we find moments of privacy in the hustle and move through the streets with a degree of shared anonymity.

But, city street-scapes are fascinating places and the theatre of everyday life is rich with stories and moments that are photo-worthy. Part of what attracts me to city life is the same thing that attracts photographers to document the city with their images.

But, what are we doing when we point our cameras at people? What is it that makes the stealthy photographer with a big lens so obnoxious to most city dwellers?

Part of what bugs me about stealthy photography is the inclination to treat subjects, which means people, as prey. The stealthy photographer, by trying to hide themselves, is opting out of the social contract that most urban dwellers live by. It’s opportunisitc photography and, at least from my perspective, it often produces photos that, well, don’t appeal to me.

Take this video, which kind of represents everything I don’t like about the culture of photography. Not only is it drivel-laden gear worship of the most misguided kind. It’s also sniper-photography that seems content to produce pointlessly anonymous images of city-dweller’s backsides.

Have I taken photos without asking people? Sure. Typically I’ve done it with a wide angle lens in a very visible location. And, if you’ve ever met me you know I don’t really blend into the background that well. I’m not afraid to show people any photo I’ve taken where they are visible and if they really don’t want to be photographed, they wont be. I don’t believe the world needs more photos of people staring discontentedly down a lens that was just poked in their face.

Moreover, I believe there’s a valuable distinction between a photo of someone and a photo with someone in it. If the only reason for the photo is the presence of one particular person, then it’s a photo of them. But, if they are just a player in a larger drama, maybe not recognisable, or taking up only a small part of the frame, then it’s something else entirely. The “idea” of the photo is not the person in the image. The photo below is (hopefully) an example of the later.

I’ve always been attracted to the idea of the Flaneur. I wrote a lot about this form of participant observation back in my academic days. The Flaneur walks through the city as an observer, but also participates fully in the life of the city. The Flanuer as photographer is not going to hide – in fact, to be true to the spirit of the flaneur, you should dress up and dress well, maybe even consciously draw attention to yourself.

In the end it’s a value judgment. We are not all going to agree on what makes a decent photo. That said, my inclination is still to suggest that there’s a connection, between how we create art and the kind of world we want to live in. Aesthetics, our sense of taste, is an extension of ethics, our sense of what’s right and wrong.

I’m not normally this strident or ideological about photography (or art, for that matter). But, as a lifelong city dweller I believe that the photographic community (if there is such a thing) needs to take a step back and consider what we are doing when we point our cameras at people. Are we hunters, or fellow humans?

It wasn’t till I read David duChemin’s excellent book on Lightroom, Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Voices That Matter), that I realised that, by default, Lightroom adds a subtle preset to all your photos. If you look at the sliders on any newly imported image, you’ll see that Lightroom has punched the blacks a little, added some brightness and sharpening and a little colour noise correction. Small details, but details nonetheless. David’s suggestion is to apply Lightroom’s own General – Zeroed present (you’ll find that under the standard Lightroom presets) to each photo before you start processing it.

I’ve adopted David’s approach for myself, because I like to start with as neutral an image as possible before making the adjustments that feel right for each photo. I don’t like the added brightness that Lightroom introduces by default and although I pretty much always add blacks and sharpening to every image, I’d rather start with those settings “off” and adjust as needed, depending on what a photo (or set of photos) requires.

Then earlier this week I saw a great tutorial on Faded and Blurred, about creating an Auto-Tone present in Lightroom. Personally I don’t like using the Auto expsoure feature in Lightroom (it never gives me results I’d use). But, the tutorial did make me realise that there is a “typical” look I use for a lot of images in Lightroom and it might be fun to turn that into a preset.

So, what I’ve done is create a simple preset called The FG Look Lightroom Preset (115). Please download it and have fun. I guess it’s a snapshot into my most common settings. It’s basically the General Zeroed present with the following adjustments – a warming boost in white balance, a bump in clarity and vibrance, a cut in saturation, a mild contrast curve (more shadows than highlights), a little sharpening along with lumience and colour noise reduction and a modest vignette.

If you need help importing the preset (or want to know more about organising presets), then check out this video from the excellent Adobe Lightroom Killer Tips blog.

The preset doesn’t do everything, but it does most of what I do these days to an image to create my “house” look, apart from adjusting the Exposure settings (and manually tweaking the White Balance). You can see what I mean in the following three images,

Here is the photo, using the Lightroom General - Zeroed preset

Here is the same image, with the FG Look preset applied

Here is the final version, with manual adjustments made after using the FG Look preset

If you want to use the preset then adjust your exposure try this. Open a photo, apply the preset, then adjust the White Balance a little. Then grab the exposure slider while holding down the option key. This will turn your image black, except for white patches, where the image is overexposed. Aim to have a few white areas, but not many and not large patches. Next, grab the black slider with the option key pressed. This will turn the image white, except for any black areas, which are “true black” in the image. You want to have some true black in areas that, well, should be black. Next, grab the recovery slider, again with the option key pressed. This will look like the exposure slider did – slide it up till most or all of the image is black again (you’ve regained your brightest highlights). Finally, if the image is still dark, add a little fill light (which I prefer to moving the brightness slider).

The thing about presets is that they are a shortcut. A preset is like taking an average of a set of workflows. And, like any average, they are kind of accurate and totally inaccurate.

I don’t actually work with presets for that reason.

But, presets can be fun to play with and are a great way to learn. When I started using Logic Pro I, dove into all the presets, as a way to figure out how the various effects and soft synths worked.

In Lightroom I did the same thing – find a cool preset, then look through all the sliders in the Develop Module to see how the effect was created. I hope playing with this preset will help you with developing your images in your own way.

Here's my final version of the image, with all adjustments made by hand. It's similar to the preset look, but not the same.

My recent trip to Mexico was something of a long-haul ordeal – thirteen hours from Singapore to London, layover of six hours in Heathrow, twelve hours flying London to Mexico City, overnight stay, then a six and a half hour bus ride to Oaxaca. On the way back things were slightly worse, six hours by bus back to Mexico City, staying overnight before a three hour flight to Miami, overnight again, then nine and half hours to London, wait four and half hours in Heathrow, before boarding the thirteen hour flight home to Singapore.

Of course, there are seasoned travellers (photographers, journalists, musicians, business folk) who do this sort of thing week in and week out. For me, the road is not my life. However, I have been doing quite a bit of travel in recent years and decided to put together a few insights I’ve gleaned from the road. I’ve written these out below, in no particular order. If you have any other questions about travelling with photo gear, or long haul travel in general, just let me know.

Backpacks are really good and really bad – I really like my Clik Elite Pro Express backpack. On this trip I carried it comfortably through airports, put it in the overhead of various planes and even a Mexican bus. However, I was unpleasantly reminded that aiports outside Asia often don’t have luggage trolleys in the pre-flight areas. So, I didn’t enjoy having to lug the backpack through customs in the US and Mexico, or during long layovers in London. I’ll soon be investing in a rolling camera bag for future long haul expeditions.

You can take a tripod on an international flight, at least in Asia – Check with your airline and airport on this one. That said, my experience is that you can take a tripod on board, as long as it isn’t longer than your carry on bag. When I’ve done this I’ve taken the ballhead off and put it in the bag.

Having a ready to go bag pays off – In Mexico I did most of my shooting out of a Clik Elite Impulse Sling. Every morning I loaded the bag with my camera, three lenses, five filters, a Lee filter holder kit, spare battery and three spare memory cards. There was also room for some extra clothing, medical essentials and other bits and pieces. Having a bag and list of gear you can more or less pack in your sleep makes things easier if you need to get out quickly to shoot.

You can check if your bags are on the plane – Until recently I did not know that when you get to the boarding gate, you can ask the staff to check if you bags have made it onto the plane. There’s enormous peace of mind in knowing that your bags actually did make from one side of the terminal to the other (or from the other side of the Atlantic).

Frequent Flyer programmes are so totally worth it – I think most people already know this, but just in case you don’t let me say yes, joining a programme and racking up miles is a nice idea. Some programmes give you discounts on stuff, which might be nice for some people. But, for me, frequent flyer programmes are all about lounges and upgrades. If you are stuck on a layover, free wifi, coffee and bacon sandwiches can be nice, a quiet and comfortable place to work can be even nicer and a clean shower is even nicer still. But, the occasional cabin class upgrade is the nicest of all – and, flying back from London to Singapore in First Class is about as nice as it gets!

You can shoot all day with one lens – I shot a lot of images in Mexico with my 50mm f1.4 lens. Although I mostly worked with three prime lenses (24mm f3.5 Tilt Shift, 50mm and 105mm f2) it was liberating to just go out with one lens and make it happen. In the past I’ve been guilty of carrying too much gear and confusing myself in the field (or being lazy with zoom lens). Less isn’t always more but, sometimes, using less can breed more creativity.

Jet lag can (almost) be avoided – I’m not sure if Jet Lag can be completey avoided. But, you can go a long way towards it by adjusting your rythmns well before you land. Given the choice, I’d always prefer to arrive somewhere early in the morning, stay awake all day and then go to bed at normal local time. It can also help to start eating your meals (and planning your sleep) based on your future destination, rather than just what the airline is dishing up. If that means missing meals, or sleeping while your fellow passengers gorge on in flight entertainment and snacks in the daylight, so be it.

You may as well smile – Try to connect a swag of flights on a clutch of different continents and something will go wrong. I do my best to approach every counter and every person with a smile on my face. And, I assume that occasionally, my booking will be not quite right, I won’t get the seat I want, or I will have to walk around a Mexican bus terminal looking for a photocopy machine only to realise it was futile exercise because I had presented the wrong credit card. I don’t have the most handsome or convincing smile, but it opens more doors than the alternative.

Writing a packing list is not a waste of time – I used to laugh at people who wrote packing lists. Actually, I still do, even when I do it myself. However, having a list does make it a lot easier to pack and avoid lugging too much stuff. It also means that when your bag comes down the carousel half open, as mine recently did in Miami, you can tell fairly quickly if anything is missing (thankfully, in this case, nothing was).

You will sleep better if you empty your memory cards and backup your work – The latest night we had in Oaxaca saw us coming back to the hotel around 4.30am. It was tempting to just crawl into bed. But, instead, I found the time to upload all the evening’s images onto my computer and went through the usual routine of making selections, backing up files and formatting cards ready for the next day. Sure, I would have enjoyed that extra hour’s sleep, but the next day (and the one after that) I was glad for piece of mind that the images were where they should be and ready to be worked on.

As an aside, one great approach I learnt from my friend Yves Perreault was to back all my current work onto a USB stick and carry it with me at all times. That way, even my computer and back drives were lost, stolen or damanged, I would still have a copy of most of my recent images.

Buses Rock! I got a few raised eyebrows from people over my decision to travel from Mexico City to Oaxaca by bus. Travel newbies may want to take what looks (on paper) like the fastest route, often via small airports. But, those who know about travel in South America are familiar with the continent’s excellent bus networks, which often provide a more comfortable (as well as more scenic) connection between major destinations. Planes (along with the crowded, sometimes chaotic airports that service them) are not always the best mode of transport. Sometimes, a bus, or train, or ferry will be a better (and more romantic) alternative.

You should only eat tourist food if, well, never – In Mexico I ate all sorts of street food – with no harmful effects. Of course, it pays to be vigilant and careful when choosing places to eat. In fact, the only meal that didn’t sit well was in a relatively expensive restaurant that seemed to only cater to tourists. You find these kinds of places in every major city and tourist destination. Given the choice, I would always avoid those kinds of places – they serve food that locals won’t eat, to visitors who don’t know better. Quite frankly, I’d rather go to McDonalds (which in some countries, like India, will give you a more interesting and locally “authentic” experience).

Do it your own way – Take all travel advice (especially this post) with a grain of salt. I still like to do my research before a trip; checking the travel books and websites. However, I long ago gave up on trying to see every sight the guidebooks told me was “important.” There’s few things sadder than watching a group aimlessly shuffle through an old church or monument for a few minutes, staring blankly here and there and snapping the odd photo. Perhaps some people like to tick off as many sights as they can in a trip. For me, I’d rather see less and take in more.

While in the Oaxaca I toured with a small band of photographic brothers and sisters photographers on the (Within the Frame workshop organised by David duChemin and Jeffrey Chapman). Although we travelled together, in each location we were often off shooting by ourselves. It was a delightfully international group, with photographers from Canada, New Zealand, India, Turkey and the USA.

Within The Frame was not a highly technical workshop. The structure was minimal and the focus was more on the place, the experience and the artistic side of photography. Some of the locations we visited were a bit touristy for my liking, but we also had the chance to dive deep into the reality of Dia de los Muertos. And, there was plenty of time to wander alone or, as some of us did, hire a car and head off in search of small villages and obscure corners.

I had the privilege of going on a workshop last year with David duChemin (and Matt Brandon) to Ladakh, India. But, in the intervening period David had a very serious accident while leading a group in Italy. His injuries were grave and several people have died falling from the same location.

David has made an amazing recovery and the gracefulness with which he has approached his injury and rehabilitation are both humbling and inspiring to see. I would encourage you to read David’s own words on the workshop (and take a look at the amazing portrait he created of yours truly).

Drafting this post on the bus back to Mexico City, I was thinking just as much about how to be a better human as I was about how to be a better photographer. It was that kind of a week.

For me, group travel presents a challenge. This is only the third time, in my adult life, that I’ve journeyed as part of a group (Ladakh was the second time). For some people group travel comes naturally. Then there are people like me.

To be fair, the way I approach photography doesn’t make it easy to fit in. I’m shooting a lot these days with a tilt shift lens, which is slow going. And, I’m prone to want to stop in obscure and unpopulated spots to shoot landscapes, often with an array of filters and weird lens attachments. For anyone who just wants to photograph people, watching me shoot a hill and some clouds must be a painful experience.

However, that wasn’t the biggest source of frustration for me on this trip. The surprising thing that nagged me and, for a while, played havoc with my mind was the question – what am I doing here?

Not, what I am doing in Oaxaca – that was easy to answer since Oaxaca is an amazingly beautiful, culturally rich and vibrant place and, during Dia de los Muertos, a natural destination for photographers and travellers. You can get some sense of that from the video above, shot for a series of ads commemorating Mexico’s Bicentennial. I loved the food, the culture and the people of Oaxaca and at least once a day engaged in the fantasy of uprooting my life and moving there, maybe setting up a little studio or something.

Being in Oaxaca made sense, being on a workshop, a photographic workshop, often didn’t. I can’t call myself a beginner anymore, but I’m far from being any kind of expert or seasoned professional. I can take some decent images and find OK locations, but I still feel the need for lessons, guidance and mentorship. I often felt stranded in some kind of artistic no-man’s land.

I certainly had spells when I didn’t enjoy being part of the group, didn’t feel like I was growing, didn’t want to “join in.” Was it me, or was it the workshop? Looking back I’m inclined to think it was me.

The simple fact is there are no simple answers. Any creative endeavour is hard. We struggle at the beginning, because, as Ira Glass says, our aesthetic sense outreaches our technical ability.

Then we grow, often brilliantly, as we gain technique and experience. It can be dizzying as people start to appreciate our work. But, the reality is that we are only better because we are getting the basics right – shooting in focus, getting our exposure somewhere close to OK, developing our images in some kind of software.

After that, things can get tough. The gap between being capable in a craft and having command and mastery of it is huge. I’m miles better, as a photographer, than I was two or three years ago. But, I’m not really much closer to being as good as the best in the field. And, it’s dangerous and foolish to assume otherwise.

This image is of Juan, an artisan I met in the Friday market in Oaxaca. We spoke for close to thirty minutes, about Oaxaca, art, spirituality and what it means to be South American. It was only after chatting for a while that I asked to take his image. One thing I’ve learnt is that it simply isn’t possible to take these kinds of images without slowing down and engaging, person to person, with the people we photograph.

Some of the most important lessons in photography have little to do with technique; choosing the right aperture and that sort of thing. Rather, they are experiences in being human while creating images. How to speak with people we photograph, how to encourage fellow photographers on their journey, how to respect the place and culture we are trying to compress into our photos and so on.

As challenging as all that might sound, I’m thankful that I went through that experience in Oaxaca, one of the most enchanted, noble and picturesque places I have ever visited. Moreover, I’m thankful that I did so in the company of some truly amazing and inspiring photographers.

Pushed to the extremes HDR can create images that take on a surreal, or cartoonish look. It’s something of a controversial technique, with fans and foes who defend their positions with equal degrees of vigour and, at times, ideological irrationality.

The image above is an example of what I consider to be “bad” HDR. While the photo is kind of interesting, on a textual level, it is a fairly ordinary composition; a poorly shot door, processed beyond recognition. The only interesting thing about this image is the post-processing – which is kind of like saying that the only good thing about a song was the echo used on the lead vocals.

This next image demonstrates the way I normally use HDR. I took this on the steps of Monte Alban and wanted to capture both the texture of the stones and the surprisingly steep incline of the temple structure.

What I didn’t do here was use the product of the HDR process as the final image (as some do). Instead, I blended the HDR image with a normal image, a process I started playing with after reading this article, HDR Done Right.

One thing I do is use a layer mask and opacity brush to bring in subtle amounts of HDR into a fairly natural image. In fact, for this one I was a little tongue in cheek with the shapes in the mask layer, as you can see below.

My final image is the clock tower in Zaachila, a beautiful little town in Oaxaca. This contains the typical elements of a HDR photo, especially the texture of the sky, but revealed in a (hopefully) more subtle way.

Some people hate the brooding skies that HDR images create. But, having grown up in Sydney and lived for over five years in Hong Kong, I am accustomed to densely grey, moody skies, pregnant with rain and the promise of thunder and lightening.

Equally, some claim that HDR does violence to the way light is normally perceived in a photograph. But, part of what got me into HDR in the first place was trying to capture the emotion of living in places like Hong Kong, were harsh artificial lights clash in ways that are far from natural.

Biography shapes our perception of reality so heavily that I think we need to be careful when making pronouncements about what is “normal” in an image.

In the end, HDR is just another technical and aesthetic choice; something else a photographer can choose to use or ignore in the creation of their images.

That’s why I never normally mention it when I use HDR. It doesn’t really matter, except to technically minded photographers (who represent a very tiny minority of the people who enjoy seeing photos). The truth is I don’t use HDR often – and you may well be surprised by which images have HDR and which don’t.

And, hopefully, if I’ve done my job well, you are too busy experiencing the photograph to care how it was processed in the first place.