Needs more fill flash...

Right, after handing out a load of advice on what camera to get (Canon; you owe me at least two) I thought I would elaborate on the next step. How to use the blasted thing. Now, as ever, there is one key thing to remember and a few obstacles or urban myths to quell. Firstly:

Photography is about light, not composition

That’s right, sorry Jan Arthus-Bertrand, it’s all about the light; natural, flash, fill, studio whatever. Light is king. Now the biggest obstacle to avoid when learning is that instinctive reaction to acquire knowledge by the world most logical method: the written word. The problem we have here is that

Most magazines are out there to sell cameras

Yep, they have a million adverts and reviews on new equipment but are scantily-clad when it comes to genuine advice. This is not particularly true for books (after all their revenue is generated from a single sale, and you already have the book in your hand) but books tend to be more functional that I, personally, dislike.

So, what to do… hmmm…

The funniest thing is, if you sit down for a second and think about it, you already have everything you need to learn about photography and they are:

• Your camera
• Your eyes
• Your brain

and perhaps the understanding that, when it comes to photography (and as we have covered photography is about light, again sorry Jan) you control three things: the sensitivity (film or digital sensor), the aperture and the shutter. Now, just to make it really clear here:

your camera knows how to take great photos, learn from it.

Loe and behold, all you need to do is point the camera, shoot and check. There’s a four step process you can use to introduce those three elements.

Step 1: Auto

In A (auto mode) point and shoot. If it takes a picture you like then look back at the settings it chose (menu screen EXIF data). This will tell you everything about it. No fuss.

Step 2: Program

In program you can change a couple of features of the camera, concentrate on the ISO (sensitivity) and let the camera do the rest. In P (program mode) point and shoot. Again check the good shots. No mess.

Step 3: A/S

Now we introduce the other two elements. In S (shutter priority mode) you change the shutter and it’ll use the aperture to sort the exposure, visa versa for A (aperture priority mode). Use S to try some cool long exposure effects (dark rooms, lights etc) and A for some cooler depth of field effects. Point, set, shoot, check.

…and we’re done! Now you should be about 6 months into trying all of the above and getting a bit bored. Boredom is good, it means you’re validated in trying something more. Whack it into M (manual mode) and point, set, shoot, check.

Note: If you’re not getting the time you want to take photos, or you’ve not got the conditions that you will be shooting in or you would like to see what others have done then. Well. You know about Flickr right? Yeah? Bottom right corner there’s a little hyperlink that says ‘more details’. There’s your EXIF for you.

Enjoy.

Back to the Old school

So I’ve been asked for advice on what camera to get by two colleagues this week. I’m not saying that I’m any sort of authority on the matter, but I know some things. If you’re thinking of buying a camera then read on. If not well, you needn’t have read this far.

So cameras, hmmm, whether you think digital sensors and the increasing ability for the camera to automatically create magical images is ruining the medium of photography or not digital photography is here. And it’s here to stay. However there are a number of choices to be made, a number of decisions to ponder and a number of opinions to filter. I don’t intend to muddy the water here but offer some honest, agnostic advice.

Firstly one must consider the following two questions:

1. What do I want from a camera? This is a simple question with a world of answers. Do you want a cheap camera to take photos of nights out, family holidays and the occasional garden shot? Or do you harvest, deep in the subconscious of your subconscious, the need to explore photography and, one day, be rated amongst your friends as ‘a keen photographer’?
2. How much do I want to spend? Obviously this is part of the equation but, honestly, it’s pretty redundant. I’ll explain why later.

Secondly we must dispel a common, urban myth: More mega-pixels does not mean higher resolution. The resolution of a camera’s sensor is an absolute misnomer. Today it is possible to cram 10MP into the tiniest of spaces and in such a case the resolution comes down to

‘the ability of the lens to resolve the light accurately enough to utilise the resolution of the sensor’

This means that a poor lens on a small sensor packed with ‘pixels’ will result in poor photos. There are obviously two ways to solve this problem: Firstly better glass. This is going to cost $$$ for the producer so it’s generally not done. Secondly increase the size of the sensor. This is the route taken by SLR manufacturers (albeit with some increase in lens quality).

Now it gets interesting. If you answered ‘family pics etc’ to question one then stop reading and go buy a Canon IXUS, Olmpus Myu, Nikon CoolPix or Canon PowerShot if you want something a little more meaty. If you have a bit more money I recommend Leica and Ricoh. If you’re still undecided read on…

The thing to consider with photography is simple. You’re buying into a system. That system consists of a sensor (film or digital) and a lens. Now, should you buy into a compact or the increasingly popular ‘bridge’ market (compact camera, some SLR features), those two things are locked together. Thus you have the following problems:

1. If one bit breaks, it all breaks.
2. If you get tired of the lens, you are forced to replace the sensor (and visa versa). A caveat here is that some bridge cameras offer support for wide and/or tele screw ins. My advice: don’t bother, get an SLR.
3. See point 2.

That second point is the most important thing to consider and I cannot stress it enough because, in that simple equation lies the potential to waste vast sums of money. Now if you’re still reading you probably want to hear the bit about why you should buy a digital SLR. But I’m not going to do that. Because you’re here. Which means you’ve already decided to get one… Instead I’ll tell you what to look for, and remember, you don’t need a lot of megapixels (the fact is that I have an A2 canvas printed from a 6MP SP500UZ and loads of A3 prints from a 4MP Myu and they look great).

Firstly, seriously, consider second hand: My current Nikon D80 replaced the D70 (6MP SLR) 2 years ago and you can pick up a mint D70 for about £250 or a mint D80 for about £350. Grey’s of Westminster and the London Camera Exchange are great places to start. Secondly consider size, both in terms of sensor and ergonomics: the smaller ‘compact’ DSLRs are not for guys with big hands in my opinion, also they suffer from a loss of useful buttons. Equally most entry-level DSLRs will have a 1.5x or 1.6x factor on lenses as they have a smaller sensor. Full frame’s are better but more $$$. However Olympus offer a middle ground in their 4/3rds systems. Thirdly (and you’ll be glad to read finally) consider the choice of lens and the fact that, of the £1,000 worth of lenses I own, my favorite is the £80 50mm prime. The purest, simplest, most treasured thing I ever found in photography.

Happy hunting.

Tom (from Ripcurl) stalls a natural quarter pipe in Jasna.

This week I’ve been lucky enough to be part of the Propaganda Snowboards crew as a Photographer. I was paid with a free trip and some of the best conditions for off-piste riding I could imagine.

I’ve really enjoyed my week of pretending to be a professional photographer and, personally, I think some of my shots are half decent. I wouldn’t mind sacking off my career in IT security if it wasn’t for the fact that I know, for many photographers, their work is as relentless as it is underpaid and, as such, I think I’ll wait for that big break. However, if you’re interested, you can hire me by emailing me at benjamin [dot] nickolls [at] gmail dot com.

Meanwhile you can check out the Propganda Snowboards page here, the Flickr page here and my personal collection here.

Twitter, Flickr, Doppr, Delicious, Boxee ... it goes on....

Continuing on from a recent post I’d like to tell the world why it is that I’ve migrated from one service (Facebook) to nearly ten (MobileMe, Twitter, Dopplr, WordPress, Flickr, Upcoming, Last.fm, Vimeo, Delicious) which seems entirely rediculous and somewhat overwhelmingly inefficient:

1. Firstly Facebook is a corporate walled garden in a trendy tee-shirt, this makes me very angry.
2. Secondly all the services I use can be updated or used via the web, or even better, by text message via Twitter.
3. The services I use are hot-swappable, that is they are easily replaced, upgraded or removed (thus the TCP/IP reference).
4. The services I use let me and, more importantly, me friends choose how to ‘consume me’ (a’ la JP Rangaswami).
5. The services I use can be aggregated using devices such as FriendFeed or, for media, Boxee.

So I think five are enough reasons for now, oh wait, you can update Facebook for free too. Anyway the only quandary I’m left with is:

How can I present all this information in a way which is both pleasing to the casual observer and useful for those that are interested in the same things as I?

With this I give you the remit for my soon to be released website. The premise follows from a post about tags that I wrote a few weeks back. I was interested in what tags said about me as a person as nearly all the services I subscribe to have tag APIs (or at least a third party generator). These tags contain information about me, my events, my interests, my travel, my photos and most importantly my friends.

Taking these desparate sources and presenting a weighted tag-mash (weighted by the amount I use a service) I intend to produce a superset tag-mash which, when clicked, follows though to a list of referenced content carrying that tag for each of the services I use. This will obvsiouly be accompanied with a per service linkage on the left (a’ la Phil Hawksworth).

I think this could either be a complete mess or an interesting experiment in digital self-discovery.

You decide.

Golden Night, By BenJam

So, an exciting month. A great trip to Morocco resulting in some nice photos and a superb trip to Slovakia snowboarding… and in true ‘right place at the right time’ style I think I’ve managed to wangle an expenses paid return trip as a photographer for Propaganda Snowboards.

In light of this I’m now ramping up my efforts in photography in the hope that I can do something new in snowboard photography, or at least not make a total prat of myself. Part of this is establishing my own (small) photography presence. Since I’ve now had this personal blog for a year and I enjoy ranting upon it I shan’t spoil it with imagery, instead I have crafted another page; benjam photography.

Rub your eye-balls all over it here benjamphotography.wordpress.com

Lunch... free!

Firstly, credit where credit is due: Mike Arthur you the man.

It appears that anyone on BT Total Broadband can bag themselves a free Flickr Pro account, which would usually set you back $25 per annum. All you need is your ‘@btinternet.com’ address and password. Sign into Flickr using it and you’ll be prompted to either create a new account or merge with an existing one. Of course there is a small setback… If you cancel your BT Total Broadband you’ll have to start paying for it again. But who would ever want to change their ISP these days anyway?

Note: I had a bit of a problem merging but if you start a new account then change the address over from your old, non-pro account it’ll have the same effect.

Shoot to kill

Apologies for my recent absenteeism, I’ve been away, to India if you’d like to know. In short: nice place but a shame about the money grabbing guys in Delhi. Anyway enough about that, more of this.

My recent trip was the first time out for for me to utilise my new Digital SLR (a Nikon D80 if you must know) I was very excited about getting some travel piccies on a decent camera with a good resolution, for the walls of my new flat. However I discovered that traveling and travel Photography, are not the match made in heaven that one would imagine…

Firstly there is the issue of luggage. I pride myself on traveling relatively light, I pack a 35-40 ltr bag with some of my oldest clothes and laugh at the Americans with their 80+ ltr ‘Rucksacs’ as they worry about them sitting on the roof of the cranky old bus we’re on, in monsoon season. Now, although an SLR is reasonably small (in that you can fit it in a small case) it is a heavy piece of equipment, and when paired with the paraphernalia  that surrounds the use of such a camera (hard drive, tripod, filters etc) it all adds up. These trinkets collude to ruin your back over the course of weeks, comparative to a compact anyway.

Secondly there’s the obvious problem of theft. Although SLRs are designed to appease those with more traditional views of what a camera should be they still come with a ruddy great screen on the back screaming ‘digital’ at the small street urchins that you’d love to photograph. This results in a great internal dialog along the lines of ‘do I risk it or should I wait until there are less people about’ or ‘is it going to get dark before I can go home and hide my wares’. By the time this thought process has occurred the opportunity has gone and the street urchins have begun eying up the next guy. On top of all that you now have to look over your shoulder until you can offload, though you can play the ’secret spy’ game in your head, deciding who’s trying to follow you. Which is sad, but fun.

Note: Some of you, if you had the ability, would comment about getting decent insurance. I can assure you I’m insured to the hilt, in fact I’m almost willing someone to rob me as I’ve over-insured and could get a full frame DSLR with the return on a claim. My problem is that, from that point, you have no camera. Worse still if they nick your bag they get your backups and all your pictures!

Finally, and this one’s the killer, where the hell do you draw the line between travel and travel photography? I’m a fan of both of these things but they just can’t ever fit together.  When I see a lovely moment I either feel that I should be capturing it in a photo or I should be enjoying it. Inevitably I make the wrong decision and either waste my time getting my camera out (and missing the moment once the above internal discussion has settled) or I ‘enjoy’ it by imagining how cool it’d look on my wall or similar. Either way I end up feeling robbed of any satisfaction and thoroughly deflated. Worse still post-trip I look through my photos thinking ‘ahh yeah that was just before I, oh, no, I ‘enjoyed’ that bit’… It’s a double punkd! Worse STILL aside from deciding this is a holiday/photography trip I can’t see a resolution to my predicament! In particular I cannot see a point where a trip purely for photography is a viable option.

So I’m left with this great internal struggle… In the meanwhile check out my progress over on my Flickr. Comments are welcome, criticism is encouraged.