The 2010 Photocritic Interview

written by Haje
30th of Nov

So. December is nearly here, and I figured it was time to turn things on its head for a little bit; I’m normally the one doing the interviews, so, I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to let my readers interview me for once?

So, Fill in this Google Forms form with anything you want to know about me, the blog, or Life in General, and I’ll do my best to come up with a (semi-)coherent answer, in a “The Readers interview the Photocritic” in the next few weeks.

Enjoy!

featured

50 must-read photography books

Cameras are digital. Developing is digital. The internet is digital. Surely, we've moved on beyond a world where we have to look at books for our photographic enjoyment, improvement, and development? Well, you'd be right in one way, of course: You can find nearly everything you might want to look at / learn about on-line. And yet, there's something unique about photography which makes books all that more enjoyable. For one thing, I believe the vastly higher resolution of a well-printed photography book is a more natural way of looking at photography. Best of all? Books don't have to be expensive. You can buy 'em for cheap via the internet (type in the ISBN number into a search engine), you can buy them second-hand via the Internet (Amazon has a huge second-hand market of used books, and eBay ain't bad neither), you can mooch them for free via sites like BookMooch, or you can head to your local library (you do have a library card, don't you?), and check 'em out for free. (more...)

featured

Photographing dancers

A couple of months ago, I had to eat my pride after my first foray into dance photography went terribly awry. Since, I've spoken to Laurie, who is a friend, Ruby on Rails coder, dancer, and fellow photographer, who offered to write me an article explaining how to get dance photography done The Right Way™. His top tip: Learning about dancing makes you a better dance photographer! (more...)

featured

The case for Pentax

When I recently posted my guide to choosing your first dSLR, I was ripped to shreds in the comments for overlooking Olympus and Pentax... Which is quite wrong of me: Pentax have long made some pretty awesome cameras, with features that Canon and Nikon haven't had (like being able to remote control external strobes - a feature Canon has never had until the introduction of the Canon 7D!) Someone who was particularly outraged is the most fabulous John Cavan, who wrote a passionate and well-articulated plea to stop ignoring Pentax - and he's got a pretty damn good case, actually... here's why: (more...)

This Movember thing really is a terrible idea…

So I’ve been doing this Movember thing. Basically, you spend a month (the month of Movember, clearly) to grow the dodgiest moustache you can. But it’s for charity; by wearing this bushy abomination on my face, I am reminding the world of the scourge of prostate cancer.

I think I can with great certainty say that I have succeeded in growing a fantastically dodgy ‘mo. (more…)

A lot of dSLR for not-a-lot of money

‘What camera would you recommend?’ It happens to Team Photocritic&Small Aperture quite a bit. Mostly we get it from people who are looking to buy their first dSLR or from very generous types who want to buy one as a gift. (Wouldn’t we all like someone like that in our lives?).

And then we do something really irritating; we answer a question… with a question. It’s not that we don’t want to recommend cameras; we both love talking about them and want people to enjoy taking photos as much as we do. Why do you think that we keep writing about that magical mash-up between technology and artistry that is the mysti-tastical world of Photography?

As with so many other questions in life, there isn’t a hard-and-fast answer. So here is a few different answers for you… (more…)

Commissioning a website

I’ve been creating websites since around 1996 or so. When I got started, Netscape Navigator Gold was the, er, gold standard for creating web pages – it even came with a HTML WYSIWYG editor built-in. Cutting edge stuff. Oh how things have changed.

Throughout my web-life, I’ve seen quite a few different sides of websites: I’ve designed some (badly). I’ve programmed a few. I’ve been the editor of some major sites; I’ve specced and project managed the build of a load of very high-end sites, including one for a national broadcaster. I’ve worked in SEO. I’ve contributed to open-source projects. I became a certified Scrum product owner, and embraced agile project management… etc. I guess, since I’ve done all these different roles at some time, what I’m trying to say is that I’ve started to figure out how it all hangs together.

So, what follows is a ridiculously comprehensive guide to how you can work with various agencies to get a great web-site built for you or your company. (more…)

Lightroom’s Graduated Filter – not just for skies!

When you’re accustomed to using something, it’s easy to forget that its capabilities might stretch beyond just that for which you usually use it. You get into some sort of rut don’t explore whatever it is that you’re using, whether it is your food processor, your mixing desk, or your copy of Lightroom.

Jamie Gladden got in touch with us to tell us about a rather nifty way of putting Lightroom’s Graduated Filter to better use than just applying it to skies. Jamie, it’s over to you… (more…)

Stopping down a Canon EF lens

If you’re used to manual lenses, you know how easy it is to stop them down. If you are a little bit more advanced than that, and have ‘graduated’ to more advanced lenses, stopping down a lens (i.e making the aperture smaller) while it is not attached to a camera body can get a little problematic. There is a way to do it, however… (more…)

Better ways than 365 days?

I think that the statement I’m about to make could unleash something of a furore. (Give me a moment: I’m going to batten down the hatches and take a deep breath.)

I have a loathing for 365 self-portrait projects.

I can’t bear them. They irritate me. Sometimes they even bore me. They don’t quite make me want to scratch out my eyeballs, although occasionally some of the pictures might. There, I’ve said it. Admission made. Given that the 365 Days group on Flickr has 19,175 members, I suppose I ought to qualify this statement, because there are a whole host of people prepared to disagree with me. (more…)

Nokia & Photocritic Photography School

So you guys may have been wondering what the hell I’ve been up to these last few months. Finally, the cat is out of the bag.

When Nokia was developing their new Nokia N8 phones, they decided to create the best camera phone the world has ever seen. For starters, they got Carl Zeiss to make a tasty f/2.8 lens for them, and paired it with a rather capable 12-megapixel imaging sensor. Of course, it’s a pretty solid phone all around, but Nokia asked me to take us back to photography basics: With a camera phone this good, it is back to the drawing board for people who use their phones just for occasional snaps. (more…)

100 Flickr streams made of pure awesome

My relationship with Flickr goes back a long way; all the way to late 2004, in fact. I kept going back out of curiosity, deciding it’s not for me, and then leaving again. In the meantime, I spent a lot of time on PhotoSIG (but I decided the community was a bit too hostile for my liking) and Deviant Art (awesome, but too childish on the whole), before turning back to Flickr. Again.

My cycle kept going on until 2008, when I realised the community feel of Flickr had grown strong enough to be un-ignorable. By January 2009, I had collected a lot of amazing Flickr streams; and I wanted to share my finds with you guys. 50 amazing flickr streams was born. (more…)

Everything you ever wanted to know about Lightroom 3

…and shouldn’t be afraid to ask.

When it comes to photo editing software, Haje is convinced that Lightroom 3 is the best programme out there. I’m probably not that far behind him when it comes to cheerleading for it, either. (Take a look at my review over on Small Aperture if you need convincing.) Still, we’ve a fair few questions about it that we’d like to put to the team that developed it. (more…)

Gallery exhibitions? I don’t get ‘em.

“Hey”, they’ll say, “You’re a photographer! We should go to this really great photography exhibition”. I stick on my best grin, nod with feigned enthusiasm, and go along. Over the years, I’ve grown to learn that (with a very few notable exceptions), I’ll regret that decision.

It’s not that I don’t like photography. Quite the exact opposite, in fact. I live, breathe, write and occasionally sing photography. I love looking at photographs, nothing makes me happier than seeing a friend (of which I have several thousand) achieving a new milestone in their development as a photographer, and I do a 1980s-style punch-the-air whenever I get a particularly good photo myself.

So why the disenfranchisificationated feeling about photo galleries and exhibitions? (more…)

All posts