PhotoMoti - Moti's Blog

Who Made This Photograph?

2012-09-10T15:28:33+10:00

Enter our new Photo Quiz and guess who made this photograph for your chance to win one of three KOLA Lens & Flash Colour Filters.

For the loyal readers of this blog we can reveal a small clue: the image was made in 1936.

The Photo Quiz takes place on our Facebook page although you do not have to like our page to participate.

If you wish to help us spread the word about this little quiz simply tweet or share this link in your Facebook time line:

Guess who made this photograph for your chance to win a KOLA Colour Filter Set from PhotoMoti: http://bit.ly/TH1RXl

Just click in the box to grab copy.

The Photo Quiz ends 24 September 2012 at 09:00pm AEST.

Good luck!

What Is Street Photography?

2012-09-04T11:32:59+10:00

Street photography often means somewhat different things to different photographers, but in essence street photography involves wandering the streets and making photographs of daily life as it unfolds before your eyes and camera.

Street photographers typically react to situations and usually have no specific subject matter in mind as they set out to make photographs. Street photography is very much about life in general and usually don’t involve the concept of visualising photographs in advance of taking them. I use words like ‘typically’ and ‘usually’ as some street photographers may happen upon a scene with a certain play of light and shadow for example, and then stake out that scene until something happens. That something is often some sort of human element in the scene. In fact some people will argue that human presence is a prerequisite in street photography.

Street photography uses the techniques of straight photography in that it shows a pure vision of a scene. It’s therefore up to the photographer to place emphasis on the selection of what elements to include and exclude from the composition – and of course this has to happen in a split second. It is not generally accepted to edit the contents of a street photograph – such as editing out a discarded coke can in Photoshop in post-processing.

Most people will agree that for a street photograph to be successful the scene has to move the photographer in some way. If it moves the photographer – and if the photographer is skilled at capturing the decisive moment – there is a good chance it will also move the viewer.

Effective street photography is about telling a story in a single frame, not simply recording what was there at a particular time and in a specific place.

Photo by Chris JL

The term “the decisive moment” was of course coined by French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson who helped develop street photography as a style or genre.

Cartier-Bresson was an early adopter of the 35mm format and a master of candid photography. You can learn more about Cartier-Bresson in the excellent documentary The Impassioned Eye which is available on DVD. I personally own the DVD and enjoy watching it as a source of inspiration and as a wonderful biography on one of the most influential photographers of the last century.

Street photography generally involves getting close to people – and often within their comfort zones. This means the photographer often becomes part of the scene rather than a distant observer. It also means shooting with wide lenses; usually nothing longer than 50mm. Consequently some street photographers prefer shooting in places like crowded streets in big cities, fairs, carnivals, parades or even on a busy ferry or bus.

Photo by sketchy record

Street Photography Shooting Techniques

How you shoot on the street is of course a matter of personal choice, but some shooting techniques might work better than others.

Here are some tips and tricks on how to shoot successful street photographs:

1. Don’t be sneaky and don’t try to hide your cameras.

2. If someone objects to having their picture taken, don’t take it.

3. If someone turns away as you’re about to photograph, respect their privacy and refrain from shooting.

4. Don’t lurk around in the background with a long lens as this will often be interpreted with scepticism and suspicion.

5. Participate in the scene rather than be a voyeur.

6. For more candid pictures try to blend in with the crowds and be subtle in your camera movements. Don’t constantly put your camera to your eye. Instead relax and put your camera down and just be one of the many people on the street. Then raise your camera when you are one or two seconds away from the shot you want. Click the shutter a couple of times, and then put your camera down again. If you get noticed, smile.

Photo by Thomas Andersen

7. Embrace the fear and shoot through it. Even more experienced street photographers have fears about being yelled at, chased down the street or worse. While this fear may subside over the years, it will probably never disappear completely. Acknowledge it and make a conscious decision to embrace the fear and shoot through it.

8. Travel light. All you need is a camera body and a few lenses and film or memory cards.

9. Don’t carry your shiny new high-tech camera bag out on the street. Instead carry your gear in a more casual shoulder bag or messenger-style bag.

10. Leave the khaki-50-pockets-photographers-vest at home and wear simple and relaxed clothing. Dress like the people you’re photographing.

11. Switch to manual focus, estimate the distance to your subject and pre-set your focus. This way you’re ready to shoot and frame when an interesting moment happens.

12. Pre-set your focus and ‘shoot from the hip’. You don’t necessarily have to bring your camera to your eyes to capture a moment.

13. Keep shooting ‘through the moment’. You want to capture that decisive split second of a moment, so keep shooting as events unfold.

14. Smile, smile, and smile some more. A smile can defuse most negative situations you might find yourself in.

Photo by Joe Holmes

Street photography might not be for everyone, but it is a style of photography that can teach you a lot about composition in photography along with the significance of freezing a moment in time.

For more resources on street photography you can also check out books like Street Photography Now and Street Photography: From Atget to Cartier-Bresson or you could simply immerse yourself and study the photographs in Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographer.

Next Step?

Photo by Thomas Andersen

Head out on the street and start taking pictures!

Need a great compact street photography camera with pro DSLR specs?

Consider the Sigma DP2x or the Ricoh GR Digital IV.

Caption Contest Winner

2012-09-03T08:30:43+10:00

Congratulations to Josh Thomas for winning our Caption Contest with his caption:

"What do bad days and meerkats have in common? They will always look up."

attracting 39 votes. Josh wins a PICK and Play camera valued at $60.00 and we have decided to also throw in a 2GB SanDisk Micro SD card valued at $15.00, so Josh can be out and shooting straight away!

While we did not have any second place prizes Abjihit did a great job too, attracting 16 votes, so we have decided to award Abjihit a KOLA Lens and Flash Colour Filters as a second place prize!

The KOLA Lens and Flash Colour Filters is like a rainbow in your pocket, a fun little accessory kit for use with compact cameras, smartphone cameras and in flash photography.

Congratulations to Josh and Abjihit and thank you to everyone for participating!

Josh & Abjihit, please contact us with your full names and mailing addresses to claim your prizes.

The Top Five Best Books on Composition in Photography

2012-08-26T15:18:48+10:00

Rarely is a great photograph based on one single key ingredient.

A great picture is often a mixture of several ingredients such as beautiful light, the right moment, a particular expression, subject matter, timing, luck, being in the right place at the right time, mood, a specific combination of colour (or a wide range of tones in between black and white), personal vision AND composition.

Composition is like the foundation for a building. You need a good solid foundation to build your house on.

Good image design and a well-crafted composition, however, will not make for a great photograph in and of itself (just a like a foundation is not much of a house in and of itself) – so you will always need one or several of the other ingredients to make a great photograph.

Learning the skill of how to make an image, how to design your image by teaching yourself composition will lay the foundation for creating great and beautiful images.

Teaching yourself composition to the extent that it becomes second nature will leave you free to concentrate on the other ingredients that need to go into your image to make it great.

I therefore decided to compile a list of the top five books on photography composition on the market today.

#01: The Photographer’s Eye by Michael Freeman

The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman

Praise for The Photographer’s Eye:

“The best book I have read on composition. This should be on every photographer’s desk, well-studied, underlined, and highlighted. I can’t recommend this one highly enough.” – David duChemin

Let me start by saying that even though I write photo books for a living (including The Joy of Digital Photography), I don’t know Michael Freeman and have never communicated with him. That said, this is easily the best composition and design book that you’ll find — and that goes for professionals as well as hobbyists. This is the first book, in fact, that I can recall that covers these topics with such depth and clarity of thought. – Jeff Wignall

#02: Learning To See Creatively by Bryan Peterson

Learning To See Creatively by Bryan Peterson

Praise for Learnng To See Creatively:

This book is very easy to understand. There are many colorful photos with examples. As an amateur photographer who is looking to create photos this is THE book to have in your library! – Terri Bell

I bought this book to help me take better pictures. Wow… was I surprised. It has given me a whole new way to look at making pictures! – Shawn M. Herne

#03: The Photograph by Harald Mante

The Photograph by Harald Mante

Praise for The Photograph:

This may seem to be a mutual back-scratching club, as I’m following a review by Tom Campbell, who also reviewed my own book, The Photographer’s Eye. Nevertheless, I’m compelled to say that this is the welcome return of one of the classics of composition in photography. And excellently updated and revised, too. Mante methodically and sympathetically presents an exhaustive account of the formal elements, from points and lines, through colour, to purely photographic forms such as time sequences. His painter’s training allows a refreshing and rare cross-discipline analysis. An essential read for anyone with an interest in design in photography (and any photographer SHOULD have just such an interest). – Michael Freeman (author of The Photographer’s Eye)

One of the best books I’ve read related to composition… Explained in a clear language, theory is supported by very good photos… – Manuel Vazquez Muñoz

#04: Take Your Photography to the Next Level by George Barr

Take Your Photography To The Next Level by George Barr

Praise for Take Your Photography to the Next Level:

Wonderful book! The images and layout are excellent and the text is very readable. But most important, I feel as if the author is talking directly to me – simple, clear, friendly, and using the many images to illustrate the useful tips he is trying to convey. – Laurie

This is the perfect book for those who have technical competence but could use some help with their “eye. George does an excellent job of communicating his thought processes. It is not about camera control. It’s about capturing ones vision. It is a great read and I highly recommend it. – Mark Green

#05: Creative Composition by Harold Davis

Creative Composition by Harold Davis

Praise for Creative Composition:

I have read dozens of books that attempt to deal with the very difficult subject of photograph composition. Many of them rely too heavily on the author telling the reader how to “look” at things differently. What this book does throughout is very different – it actually helped me “see” things with a much clearer eye. – Jeff R. Clow

I’m not a professional photographer, and don’t have that natural “eye” for photos, so I am always looking for books to at least help me technicaly get better photos. I really like this book because it is written in plain english and is very clear for those of us who aren’t seasoned professionals. – Barbara K. St John

I own each of the above five books and have found lots of inspiration in all of them.

In fact these five books are all books that you’re likely to come back to again and again as your photography develops or when you’re just looking for a litte bit of inspiration.

Needless to say the photography in each of these books is also breathtakingly beautiful.

Caption This Photo Contest

2012-08-18T18:02:03+10:00

UPDATE: CONTEST HAS NOW CLOSED!

We are very pleased to announce our Caption This Photo Contest for your chance to win one of our awesome PICK and Play camerasvalued at $60.00.

Simply click the link above and caption the photo of the two meerkats. Be creative and you're in the running.

Entries close 25 August 2012 at 11:00pm AEST.

Voting starts 26 August 2012 at 06:00am AEST and ends on 31 August 2012 at 11:00pm AEST.

If you want to help us spread the word you can post this link in your Facebook timeline: http://bit.ly/OHE5dF

Good luck!

Stunning Polaroid and 4x6 Photo Albums

2012-08-11T13:33:53+10:00

We are very pleased to introduce a brand new range of striking Polaroid photo albums and 4x6 photo albums.

These are not your ordinary photo albums though.

These luxurious photo albums are designed to keep your memories safe and stylish in stunning handbound bookcloth albums. Each album accomodates 24 of your favourite photos, displaying one photo per page in individual pockets and providing an archival level of storage for your photos.

The photo albums are beautifully handcrafted and lies flat when open.

Each album features uniquely contrasting endsheets and are beautifully bound with a contrasting or complementary linen thred.

This particular range of Polaroid photo albums and 4x6 photo albums is made to order and ships within 14-21 days. The albums are carefully handcrafted in the USA, made with lots of love and passion.

The 4x6 Photo Albums fits your standard 4x6 prints, the Polaroid Spectra Album fits images made with the Polaroid Spectra film or The Impossible Project's PZ type film, and the Polaroid Photo Albums fits images made with standard Polaroid type 600 film, Polaroid SX-70 film and The Impossible Project's PX type films.

Each album retails for $39.00.

View the entire photo album range.

Shopping at PhotoMoti Now Even Easier

2012-08-07T18:00:58+10:00

For a while now we have been looking at ways to optimize our checkout procedure to make it as easy, quick, smooth and secure as possible - with checkout in as few steps as possible.

Thanks to our pals over at PayPal (sorry we couldn't help ourselves on that one) we have now been able to implement several awesome improvements to the checkout procedure at PhotoMoti.

Here are some of our new easy peasy shopping features:

Option to create an account making it quick and time-saving for our valued repeat customers to place orders with customer information pre-filled (this information is of course kept safe and secure within our servers).
Customer accounts can be created after you complete an order. All you then have to do, is set your password. Easy peasy! If you have shopped with us before you can contact us to request an account invite, otherwise simply create your account after your next purchase at PhotoMoti.
Simply checkout as a guest if you don't want to create a customer account.
Checkout procedure can now be completed in just two, yep that's right, 1-2 easy steps, and takes place securely on the PhotoMoti website. Awesomeness galore!
We accept the following payment methods: American Express, Discover, MasterCard, PayPal and Visa.

Happy shopping!

New Comedy Web TV Series about Photography Begins 27 September

2011-09-14T10:57:38+10:00

Calling on all Shutterbugs!

We have some exciting news to share with you today.

Over the past many months a creative film crew headed by Kate McIntyre and Dave Collins have been planning and filming a new comedy web TV series about photography.

This new web TV series is set to invade the world of photography when Shutterbugs debuts on the 27th September.

The show is set in Melbourne's creative heart, Fitzroy. Shutterbugs centres on analogue photographer Chloe and her socialite best friend Samantha. Together they get into trouble as they trespass, steal and bend the truth during their various photography exploits. Trying to keep them under control is Isaac, an OCD portrait photographer who secretly harbours a crush on Chloe. Rounding out the crew are unhinged video blogger Bo and malicious time-lapse specialist Trent, who takes joy in tormenting the others.

The show follows the gang as they undertake crazy and dangerous adventures, all in the name of taking a good photo.

From the analogue to the high-tech, DSLRs to phones, if it takes a photo then it's part of the world of Shutterbugs.

The internet has become a breeding ground where photography communities can thrive and writer / director Dave Collins is keen to provide something unique to this audience and says:

"The internet is great for letting us upload photos to the world as well as discussing and critiquing the photos we take through blogs and photo sharing sites, but until now there hasn't been a fictional series catering just for photographers."

Whilst the cast and crew of Shutterbugs are photography fanatics, they're also wrangling the talent of some photography professionals and obsessives. Each week on the website, a guest photographer will pay homage to the current episode by providing a unique set of photos inspired by that week's action, and also discuss their photography practice, tips, and insights into their creations for Shutterbugs in a video interview.

"We set out to make a series that understands photographers and mimics the passion that people have for capturing the perfect photo, but the series is also a really good comedy that non-photographers can enjoy as well." Collins says.

The Shutterbugs web series launches on the 27th September and new episodes will be airing every Tuesday.

The series can be seen at www.shutterbugs.tv and is entirely web-based, so you can tune in from anywhere in the world. So be sure to mark your calendar with a big fat X on the 27th September.

Here is a little promo video:

Enjoy and have fun!

P.S. Did you notice the Juice Box Camera and the Soft Funky Camera Strap in the photos above? PhotoMoti is pleased to be associated with Shutterbugs as sponsors along with a number of other great photo companies and we wish the best of luck to this new and exciting web comedy TV series.

Featured Photographer: Mel Dixon

2011-06-23T20:59:22+10:00

I remember wanting to be involved with film photography for about a year before I purchased my first analogue camera, the Diana Mini, then after that it all seemed to happen quick and fast. I was hooked from the first film I shot...

Announcing Our PICK and Play Winner

2011-06-01T10:16:45+10:00

We are pleased to announce that Michael Randall from Arlington Heights, Illinois in USA was the lucky winner of our PICK and Play May Giveaway.

Michael, please contact us with your address details and also please let us know which colour you would like your PICK to be in (choose between black, green, yellow or red) so that we can get your prize on its way to you.

To sweeten the deal even more we will also throw in a SanDisk microSD 2GB Memory Card with SD Adapter, so Michael can be out shooting straight away!

Congratulations on your win Michael, and thanks to everyone for participating and leaving positive and encouraging comments about the PICK and Play which sure is a cute and nifty little camera! If you didn't you could splash out and buy one *he he*.

The winner was drawn using the services of random.org.

Stay tuned for more giveaways in the future!

PICK and Play May Giveaway

2011-05-04T10:15:53+10:00

Not so long ago we gave away a Bokeh Masters Kit to one lucky winner who happened to live in Sydney!

We actually wanted to do another giveaway in April when we came out of beta mode, but April came and went in a blink of an eye - or at least so it seemed to us!

So instead we are pleased to announce the PICK and Play May Giveaway!

At the end of May 2011 we will give away one PICK and Play digital toy camera with integrated USB plug. A completely fuss-free camera requiring absolutely no wires for charging or downloading images and no bigger than your average USB flash drive.

It's easy to enter and anyone can enter. We will ship this camera to wherever you are in the world.

We have tried to keep the conditions of entry as simple simple:

You must be on our Facebook page - you can do this simply by clicking the “Like” button at the top of our Facebook Page (if you already "Like Us" that's cool and you're only one step away from being included).
You must also “Like” this Facebook Image Post – this is easily done by just clicking on the highlighted link and then simplky click “Like” just above the comment section
You must be a person (companies, pages, groups etc. will not be counted as valid entries)

Entries close 31 May 2011 at midnight AEST.

One lucky winner will drawn from all valid entries using the services of www.random.org and the winner will be announced on our website and Facebook page in early June 2011.

Good Luck!

We Have A Winner!

2011-04-01T19:36:16+11:00

Congratulations to our Bokeh Masters Kit winner Holly Quin (@hollyelizabethq) from Sydney, Australia.

Thanks to everyone for participating in our first giveaway.

We had 59 entries (from all over the world) into the draw which was independently drawn by TweetsWin.

We plan more free giveaways in the future, so keep an eye on this space.

There are several ways to stay up-to-date with PhotoMoti. Take a look at our Join the Fun page or follow us on facebook, twitter or tumblr.

Have a great week-end!

The Bokeh Masters Kit Giveaway

2011-03-10T10:49:42+11:00

To celebrate the soft-launch of PhotoMoti we are giving away one fabulous Bokeh Masters Kit valued at AUD$30 to one lucky winner.

The Bokeh Masters Kit lets you turn out-of-focus areas into fun, creative shapes and will fit any DSLR or SLR camera.

The contest is hosted by Tweets Win and they will automatically track all entries and select a randow winner.

The contest ends on the 31 March 2011 at 11:00pm PST. The winner will be announced here as well as on our Facebook page and of course through our Twitter page at the beginning of April 2011.

All you have to do to to be in the running to win this amazing kit is to follow us on Twitter (@photomoti) and then retweet this message:

Follow @photomoti and R/T this to win a The Bokeh Masters Kit http://tweetsw.in/751/ #contest #giveaway

It's a simple as that. We will ship the kit to the lucky winner anywhere in the world.

Subscribe to Moti's Blog to stay in the loop.

Good luck!

Allright, So Tell Me, Who Exactly is Moti?

2010-12-21T23:40:37+11:00

Mo-Ti (also known as Mo Tzu) was a Chinese carpenter and philosopher who lived some 2500 years ago. Mo-Ti laid claim to the first mention of the principles behind the pinhole camera. He referred to this camera as a "collecting plate" or "locked treasure room".

He observed that we often learn about the world through adversity. By reflecting on one's own successes and failures, one attains true self-knowledge. This is true about life in general just as it is about photography.

Mo-Ti was also the founder of Mohism which is known for the concept of "impartial care" or "universal love". We like those ideas. No, we LOVE those ideas! And so it is, Mo-Ti was a wise man and the inspiration for our little business.

We hope you'll show us some universal love by making a purchase from our online shop.

But if you're not really in the buying mood today, that's OK too, you could just like us on facebook or follow us on twitter and we'd still love you.