Within Chasing Reflections, Eli Reinholdtsen shows us a unique and skilled approach to reflections. The clever juxtapositions between the real and the reflected force you to look deeper at the image that you might normally and create unforgettable photographs. In this latest Print and Process book Reinholdtsen shares a selection of her recent shots and ways to scout, setup, and shoot complex reflections yourself. As with the other two Print and Process books, the first half is pure portfolio. The second part of the book includes descriptions on the techniques required to capture movement, timing, and contrast while dealing with the challenging constraints necessary for reflections to occur in the first place.

If you like inspirational portfolios and fancy photographing reflections then this is well worth the $5 price tag. As usual, if you order Chasing Reflections before the end of this month you can use the promotional codes REFLECT4 to get it for just $4, or REFLECT20 to get 20% off when you order 5 or more Craft & Vision books (check out my previous article for suggestions!). These codes will expire at 11:59pm PST August 1, 2010 (check your timezone here).

Finally, the Craft & Vision site has recent had a facelift and if you have an iPad you can also now download the publications as iPhone/iPad apps.

As travel became easier and tourism to these same places took off Travel Photography changed from being a glimpse of the exotic and strange to providing enticing and aspirational images for brochures and travel guides. However until relatively recently it was still the work of a few professional photographers who would head out to locations at the request of tour companies and travel guide publishers.

However in this age of digital photography and cheap access to the technology to take potentially stunning pictures I think Travel Photography needs to redefined again. When many locals in destinations that you or I might visit have access to photography and don’t have to travel anywhere to take great shots of their local area (which they also have a better knowledge of) the core market for Travel Photography becomes saturated with a surfeit of shots. As David duChemin mentioned on his blog a while back:

…the market is saturated, and anyone who wants an image of Taj Mahal can go to Flickr and find 100 photographers who’ve shot the same shot from the same angle on the same camera, and they’ll fight for the chance to give the image away in hopes of garnering a publishing credit.

So what is a Travel Photographer to do? Personally I think there are two options: quality specific shots and photo-essays.

Whilst sites like Flickr might abound with images of key landmarks and locations, a serious photographer is going to look for a different angle on a familiar subject to present it in a new and captivating light. And speaking of light, they are far more likely to work with it. Waiting for the right quality and direction of light. Overall this is hopefully going to result in a far more studied composition; a higher quality image. There will also probably be a fairly specific requirement from a client requesting images of the location in question.

The second option is photo-essays and this is where I now think the more modern definition of Travel Photography sits most comfortably.

By photo-essays I mean a collection of images that have a cohesiveness and tell a story, whether that is about the trip itself, or a culture or its history. A gallery that takes the reader along for the ride. Although you have to be careful that they are creative quality images and not just a collection of your holiday snaps. As a result this means having an idea of what you want the final output to be and conducting your research before going. (However its always advisable to remain flexible to adapt to conditions/experiences on your travels).

Personally, I don’t think the Travel Photography genre is going to disappear any time soon. But it’s clear that from its origins in the mid-1800s its definition has changed and adapted as both the available equipment and ability to travel have improved.

There was an exhibition of medieval arts and crafts at Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire this weekend.

It was interesting to see the artisans keeping these techniques alive and talking to them it was obvious they were passionate, and knowledgeable, about what they were doing.

This mother and son were preparing the lunch (which was cooked traditionally). The wooden boxes are a couple of mice/rat traps. The young boy explained how they worked, but despite setting them last night, he didn’t manage to catch anything (probably much to the relief of his mum!).

The European Court of Human Rights had ruled that police powers to stop and search had ‘not been curbed by adequate legal safeguards so as to offer the individual adequate protection against arbitrary interference’. Or in other words, it allowed the police to pick on whoever they fancied without having to explain their reasons.

Following the ruling by the ECHR, the UK Government disagreed and asked for an appeal to the Grand Chamber of the Court but as of yesterday this has now been refused, making the January judgement final. So can photographers in the UK finally expect to be treated with respect? Unfortunately maybe not!

Amateur Photographer reports that a Home Office spokesman told them: ‘The Government has already committed to reviewing counter-terrorism legislation which will include the operation of the Section 44 stop-and-search provisions.’ In theory this means that police may continue to conduct Section 44 stops for the foreseeable future. Despite the ruling.

That said, the “I’m a photographer not a terrorist” team are holding a flashmob outside New Scotland Yard this coming Saturday. So if you’re in London and fancy joining them to celebrate this victory (and perhaps see if section 44 harassment is indeed a thing of the past) then check out the details here.

It was the Leeds charity Dragon Boat races today. Perfect weather for it and loads of teams having great fun. I managed to blag my way onto part of the marina (thanks Richard!) so managed to get some nice low shots of the teams as they rowed frantically for the finish line.

David duChemin is a well known photographer, best-selling author and teacher. You can find his personal blog over at pixelatedimage.com. About a year ago he self-published an eBook “TEN” which covered (unsurprisingly) ten ways to improve your craft without buying gear. This was a big success and followed by “TEN More”. We’re not talking about a few pages in PDF here. Both books were about 35 pages and nicely laid out with David’s own work illustrating the principles he was talking about (in his usual amusing, but applicable tone). Both were offered for just $5. Outstanding value in my opinion.

Following the success of these two eBooks the concept expanded with the creation of a dedicated site for these publications and Craft & Vision was born. There are now a dozen or so eBooks available on the site (I own about half of these), written by both David duChemin and a selection of other hand-picked authors, all available for just $5. Below is further information on some of the ones I own.

TEN & TEN More

These are the first two eBooks I bought and give you in total 20 tips on how to approach your subject and composing the shot. Each section also includes a creative exercise for you to try for yourself, putting into practice the concepts discussed.

Whilst many of the tips (changing perspective, paying attention to the light, try to shoot in manual, learn digital darkroom techniques) may be familiar to those who have been photographers for a while, new-comers to the field will find the information extremely useful. Even if you are a long-time photographer its always useful to be reminded of these things and I’m sure you’ll find a worthwhile nugget or two you can put into practice.

Below the Horizon

The second eBook I bought was written by Dave Delnea and focused on shooting during sunrise and sunset – or as Dave Delnea puts it “understanding light at the edges of the day”.

This is a superb 42 page book for those wanting to grasp the difference between sunset, civil twilight and nautical twilight and to decide the best moment to take your shots. Again the book is beautifully illustrated with images showing the differences in light and how waiting 30 minutes can drastically change your final image.  We all know that getting up early to catch that sunset, or staying out late to shoot at sunset is not always the most social of experiences but after reading this eBook I’m sure you’ll be inspired to begin experimenting with shots at these times of the day. Learning how to use the light (or lack of) and how it impacts your final shots is both addictive and worthwhile.

The Magic of Black and White 1 & 2

I’ve always been a fan of black and white photography and I’m guessing, like many, started shooting B&W on film and developing my own shots. In fact, go back a few posts in my blog and you can find an article I wrote on just this subject! So the next couple of purchases from Craft & Vision were the Magic of Black & White books by Andrew Gibson.

These two books approach B&W photography from slightly different angles. The first eBook is all about differences you need to bear in mind when taking the photograph. Things that might work in colour may not work in monochrome and if you’ve not shot much black and white you almost have to learn compositional techniques again, understanding how different colours will translate and look more at lines and texture. All this and more is covered in volume one.

The second is more about post processing techniques for B&W shots. Once you’ve got your photos (and rather strangely its best if you still shoot in colour) how best to use the digital darkroom tools at your disposal to convert the images to monochrome in order to get the most out of them.

Venice – Print & Process

My most recent purchase is a slight departure from the “how to” books above but being a huge fan of Venice I couldn’t resist! Instead its almost the eBook equivalent of a small gallery exhibition – a collection of images around a central theme. As David duChemin mentions in the introduction:

The Print & The Process Series was created as a means to show my work and the work of others, accompanied by a discussion of why and how the images were created.

The publication contains some great full-page images and finishes with a section talking about the approach to the project as a whole along with descriptions for each image explaining why they were taken/included.

Today, there’s a new book released – Vision in Motion, by Trevor Meier – which will be especially interesting to all you budding cinematographers. As more DSLRs include the ability to shoot high definition video content, this latest publication provides information and techniques on moving from capturing a moment in time (a photograph) to capturing change through video. Trevor, originally a photographer but who has now made the move into video, provides information on the sort of equipment to use, definitions of new language you may come across and techniques to help build your story and achieve your vision.

Visit the Craft and Vision site today and review the full collection of eBooks available.

1. Brand new import screen makes it much easier to get your photos from your camera/memory card onto your hard disk in the format you want and with the initial settings you need
2. Tethered shooting is now a lot easier for those of you that need this
3. Drastically improved noise reduction (this is the biggie!) with amazing results allowing you to do more in one product without having to break your workflow and move to another tool
4. Lens correction automatically reduces lens defects like geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting
5. Image watermarking with improved options for placement, style and opacity
6. More flexible print layouts to allow you greater creativity when outputting your work
7. Integration with online sites such as Flickr (including two way updates for comments/favourites)
8. Its just faster!

You can see some of the above features in action over at the LightroomLab blog where they’ve posted a video of their top five new features. Additionally, Thomas Hawk has posted an article on his blog showing his take on some of the new features. He’s especially blown away by the noise reduction features. I’m ordering my copy today, so hopefully will have some more articles once I’ve had a chance to play around with it more.

LightroomLab: Five New Features of Lightroom 3 for Professional Photographers

Thomas Hawk: The Most Significant Advancement In Photo Noise Reduction I Have Ever Seen

Although Flickr does have a robust API its not easy for someone non-technical to download and backup all the images they have uploaded to the service. However there are a few solutions out there that aim to help you download and save your images locally.

One of the newer and better ones I’ve seen is Bulkr. This is an Adobe AIR tool (so you’ll need AIR installed). It has a simple interface and provides a very easy method for you to download and backup your entire photostream, individual photos or chosen sets (to local folders) via a few clicks of the mouse. You can select what size you want to download (although it would make most sense to grab the originals) and even embed the tags from Flickr into the image EXIF data.

If you’re guilty of not backing up your images, give Bulkr a go, and of course once you’ve got the images stored locally don’t forget to back those up too!

Back when I first started in photography I shot on black and white film. It was cheaper, and easier for me to develop and print myself (which allowed me to correct a large number of the mistakes I made when I took the shot!).

To this day I still like black and white photography, however with the move away from film and the advent of cheap digital cameras it seems few people take black and white shots nowadays. In this post I’m hoping to talk a bit about the difference between colour and black and white photography and encourage some of you to try seeing the world in monochrome.

When shooting in colour your primary focus is the colours in the scene. Are they complimentary or do they clash? Saturated or muted? Is there something in the image who’s colour will attract (or distract) the viewer?

When you switch to black and white the composition simplifies to contrast, light and texture.

However, although it might seem strange, if you camera has a black and white mode I would not recommend using it. Shoot in colour and switch to black and white during post-processing. The reason for this is although you might have a good idea in your mind how the scene you are about to shoot will look in black and white, taking the shot in colour gives you greater flexibility to tweak the contrast (via manipulation of individual colours in the conversion process) in your final image.

Light in black and white photography is perhaps more important than in colour. An evenly lit subject will often look flat in black and white and contrast is usually needed to bring out key details and shapes and to separate your subject from the background. Black and white can also be more forgiving. Skies on a bright overcast day can often be a disappointment in colour shots, but are more easily ignored/overlooked in black and white, where the focus is more on form and texture.

If you’re shooting portraits, think about what your subjects will wear. Patterned clothing does not always suit black and white photography and solid block colours can produce a far stronger final image.

Landscapes lend themselves especially well to black and white. You only have to think of the greats – Ansel Adams, Bill Bandt, Ralph Gibson – to see this.

So next time you’re out shooting, why not deliberately try to take some shots for final black and white output. If you can ignore the colour of a scene in front of you it helps train the mind to the composition and various textures in the scene which  ultimately (in my opinion) creates better all round photography.  As inspiration, here’s a collection of some great black and white images.