© Bonnie Britt

I remember the first photographs I took. My father taught me how to use my grandmother’s old Mamiya 35mm camera when I was 10 years old, which I used for a long time. I took black & white portraits of him that day, and from then on I was constantly photographing. I was lucky enough to have a darkroom in my high school, and I used to skip my lunch hour to develop and print my photographs. I loved the way the chemicals smelled on my hands. Then going into college and learning the Zone System really sealed the deal for my love of black & white photography. I attended college for two years before finances got in the way. But being out of school pushed me into personal study, where my passion for photography has grown wilder and deeper than any swelling sea.

© Bonnie Britt

If I had it my way, I would shoot with film all of the time. But seeing as I don’t have a darkroom to work in and my budget for photographic materials is low, digital is the best choice for me right now. I shoot many concerts, capturing the high energy and using the colorful lights to my advantage. These kinds of photographs are fun for me, but my real passion lies in black and white documentary photography. My personal teachers are influential photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Steiglitz, Paul Strand, Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, and Annie Leibovitz to name a few. I have become a better photographer by studying their photographs, biographies, and artist statements, as well as watching documentaries and reading essays about such photographers. This intensive study paired with shooting hundreds, even thousands of photographs at a time have led me to my best images. I often worry that I won’t be able to make a better photo than the last, therein lies the photographer’s inner struggle. Then I remember: I’m twenty years old. I still have a lifetime of images to create.

I would definitely say that my love for photography has grown into an obsession. Lately I have been studying theory of photography. As someone who has a deep fear of death, I take comfort in knowing I am immortalized through my photographs. I can only hope that my photos will live on forever in the public eye, thus my soul

living on forever in my images. In the coming years I hope to attend the International Center of Photography’s one-year certificate program for documentary photography and photojournalism in New York City. I plan on publishing many books, as well as having photographs published in famous editorials and displayed in galleries all over the world. I hope to one day be a professor of photography and to always grow in my own work. My ultimate goal is to be on that list of photography masters. I understand that this is a huge ambition, but what can I say? I’m an ambitious photographer.

Links:

Website: http://bonniebritt.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bonnie-Britt-Photographer/192319760851257
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/BonnieBritt

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If you want to comment on an individual photograph click on an image to be taken to it directly on Flickr. We all appreciate the feedback. You can find out more about our flickr group here.

In no particular order…

1. Becky “Holding on…”

2. Magneticart “2012 is born !! I hope we’ll treat him well !!”

3. dropslash “First sunrise of 2012.”

4. Jackson=Photo

5. jonny.andrews65

6. hofmannpx

7. Luke-rative “A new beginning is exactly what he needs…”

8. Dar Moorhouse “The weather was warmer than usual in the Yukon. I thought a walk was a great way to celebrate the beginning of the New Year.”

9. pratiphotography “Prati Photography born in 2012!”

10. CJ5ive

11. Alexander H.M. Cascone

12. livvips

13. Tim Dobbs “I will shoot more film this year…”

14. Livietta

15. jennamonro “I want to become more active, not only in physical life style but in my hometown of Austin, TX and my community.”

16. hayleysphotos

17. Adriana Glackin “For some people, this is a new beginning that they’d prefer to avoid:”

18. chalkie

19. Roger Hur “My first bath…”

20. papasof “This year i will travel more. Discovering new places and meeting new people.”

21. AlanaGentilePhotography “Taken New Years Day morning. The remnants of New Years eve celebrations, and a symbol of moving on towards new beginnings. “

Anyone can take part in our monthly Flickr themes! Check out our previous themes and find out more: 7×5 Flickr theme page.

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My philosophy regarding art is that an artist is a communicator, and that his message should be an authentic and original one. The artist, in order to create good or great work, should strive to ensure purity of message through various means, be it mastery of his medium or reiterations.

In this spirit, my take on my photographic art is that it starts with my idea or concept which is preconceived in my mind, goes through the process of set up, photographic capture and image optimization, and finally ending up with a fine art print. The print my art, not my online gallery, not images you see in magazines and certainly not those you get on Facebook

© Qi Wei Fong

My website is titled “Thoughtful Photography”- and essentially I strive to make art that lets people think, and engage. So far a theme of sorts that has emerged from my art is that I try to engage my audience by providing a new perspective on familiar subjects.

This is so in the series “Exploded Flowers” (http://fqwimages.com/2011/08/exploded-flowers-3/), in which I take the one of the most familiar subjects we see in art – flowers – and present them in a fresh new perspective by laying the individual parts of the flowers in their relative positions. I find that this new perspective makes me realize that each part of the flower has its own beauty, and constitutes literally a single brush stroke of nature. Also, flowers are amongst the most perishable things in the world, and the photographic medium is one suitable to capture the moment in time of a flower’s bloom. This particular series has been featured and used worldwide in various websites like The Telegraph, Featureshoot, and Esquire Russia.

A related series “Floral Paintings” (http://fqwimages.com/2011/10/remix/) takes off from the idea of using nature’s own brush strokes to create original art and remixes of pre-existing art. Combining floral and plant components with photography and post processing, I am able to create an entirely new technique where I can use the colors, textures and size of petals, leaves, pistils and stamens as brush strokes. And by controlling the photographic processes of focusing, I can also generate depth of field. And finally digital post-processing allows me to finalize the image and prepare it for printing. The entire process yields a fascinating result where I can see the artwork, and at the same time realize that the components of the art itself are captivating in their own right. I find that this further blurs the line between photography and the traditional mediums of visual arts like paints, sculpture etc.

© Qi Wei Fong

Personally I have a website at fqwimages.com where you can see online galleries of my art. I have received honorable mentions in the International Photography Awards, latest of which was in 2011, for my series “Old Singapore Playgrounds”.

Links:

Website: http://fqwimages.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fqwimages
Twitter: http://twitter.com/fqwimages
Tumblr: http://fqwimages.tumblr.com

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- Buckethead, Jelonek, Insomnium, Pink Floyd
-  Jazz: Miles Davis
- Metal/Rock
- Muse
- Bob Burnham
- Comedy Songs
- Jimi Hendrix
- Imogen Heap
- You and I
- Velvet Underground
- The Pixies
- Coil
- Burzum
- Ulver
- Sunn
- Pan Sonic
- Paco De Lucia
- Ottmar Liebert
- Turbio Santos

Comment

Add to the list below in a comment. Tell us what your favorite tunes are to listen to while you work…

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© Travis Clancy

When I was 21, I decided to get into graphic and web design. I thought the first website I built was the greatest thing on the web. It was pretty bad. The first few years of my design career I didn’t make much money, but I learned so much. I probably put in a good year’s worth of 16-18 hour days working, reading and learning. With little real work experience, being self-taught is hard when it comes to getting jobs.

Toward the end of 2005 I decided to buy my first DSLR, a Canon 30D. I wanted it to take good photos for my design projects. I shot mostly landscape, cityscape and macro stuff. I did this for a few years and then started to get burned out on the design and web thing, so I looked at options to get more into photography. I decided to learn more about lighting. So I bought some books, a few speed lights and read everything I could on the internet. This was kind of like a repeat of learning about web design. Only not on the same level.

Six months after doing the strobist thing and 5000+ photos of my wife and daughter, I took the plunge and invested a lot of money in some nice Profoto gear. Probably a little too much. I was in heaven. Several nice soft boxes, reflectors and grids. Now, with all this gear, I needed to learn how to use it. I took some things I learned when I did some 3D modeling and lighting years back. I started with a 3 point setup and then experimented from there. I am always trying new things when it comes to light.

Now I shoot mostly people, but I do a lot of personal work. I think personal work keeps me going. I still get excited about a strange shadow or reflection. This is probably the artist in me. For my future, I would like to continue shooting portraits and music stuff, but I would like to get into some fashion and do more editorial work. I will probably always do a little bit of design, but photography is where it’s at for me. I recently added a few film and Polaroid cameras back in to my bag. Even an out of focus Polaroid puts a smile on my face.

© Travis Clancy

I am inspired by a lot of things. Mainly life and people, but it’s really hard to narrow it down because every day brings a new inspiration. I am blown away at work I see every day. There are some photographers out there that do it for fun, but are some of the most talented photographers I have ever seen.

Links:

Website: http://travisclancy.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/travisclancy
Google Plus: http://gplus.to/travisclancy

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© Vadym Graifer

Finding time for such an involved hobby became tougher in university and career-building years. Life took over, rendering photography merely a hobby for a long while and cutting it down to the touristy snapshots – traveled here and there, shot this and that, here is a document, you know. Immigration to Canada bit off a few years more… Then the digital era inspired a new wave in a life-long hobby, making it easier to return to photography with merely a computer which is there anyway. Trying a few digital cameras of various degree of sophistication and finally moving to a DSLR, learning the post processing almost reproduced that childhood fascination with image-making.

My specialty is nature abstracts and landscapes, with strong emphasis on unusual lighting effects and deep rich colors. Every walk in a park, on a beach or around the lake offers endless photo opportunities, be it a bright summer sunny day or a foggy autumn evening. Try to take a walk in Victoria without stumbling onto a photo opportunity!

My photos won multiple contests by Victoria and Seattle-based tourism agencies and companies. I sell some stock photos and prints. My photobook sells in many gift shops throughout the city.

One of the endless debates in the photography field leaves me cold – role of manipulation, how “pure” the photo has to be. To me, it’s a matter of what photography is for you. Is it documenting events and places? By all means try to keep it as close to the original as possible – but even in this case realize that by merely changing your angle, point of view or switching between various camera modes you already introduce your personality and your way of viewing things, thus putting “objectivity” of the shot into question. And what if you take a shot in cloudy weather while thirty minutes later sun comes out – can someone seeing a scene in 30 minutes after you left complain that your photo is not truthful enough? Or, if you clone out that unseemly patch of the dirty fur on your polar bear shot – have you distorted the truth?

© Vadym Graifer

Now, if photography is an art for you – then your very task is different. Instead of documenting, you want to create certain visual impression, invoke certain emotions in your viewer. As an author of the art piece, it’s yours to decide how you achieve your goal – changing your position and frame, camera settings or manipulating an image.

Links:

Photoblog: http://photography.realitytrader.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vadym.graifer
Gallery: http://www.realitytrader.com/gallery
Photobook: http://www.realitytrader.com/victoria.html

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© Rikki Snyder

I am incredibly lucky because one of my instructors at the Hallmark Institute of Photography was the one and only Gregory Heisler. I remember him talking to us about style and how he brought to my attention that a lot of times style is confused with technique. Some examples of this are HDR, toning your images with photoshop actions, always shooting with a wide angle lens or always shooting with a longer lens. These are only a few of the most common techniques that are often confused with style. How you interpret a technique and incorporate it into your own photography, molding it and making it your own is when you begin to create your style. Just jamming a few photos through an HDR filter all the time or running your images through the same photoshop actions to tone them won’t quite get you there. If your photos aren’t unique before you do one of these techniques to them and you feel you have to use these to make your images better or stand out more then you aren’t exactly creating your own style. Of course there are always exceptions to this but don’t let yourself cover up a dull image with a technique like that.

Create Your Style Through Personal Projects

So how do you create your own style? Well honestly, it develops differently for everybody but there are a few things to think about that can help you. I personally feel that one of the most important ways is through personal projects. One of my photography instructors once told me that there are many art directors that will choose a photographer for an assignment based on their personal projects. When you’re shooting for a client you have to make the client happy and that might not always mean shooting something that makes you happy. That’s ok, that’s just something that every photographer has to deal with. However, it can really take a toll on your creative process which is why personal projects can lift up your spirits! Come up with an idea of something you’ve always wanted to shoot or create a story with your images. Think of your favorite color and only shoot interesting objects of that color in unique compositions or do a series of portraits where the subject is only wearing that color and it’s the main focus of your images. Basically shoot something that makes you happy and let’s you be creative, it’s incredibly refreshing and gives you practice at the same time. This will help you realize what you enjoy shooting and will lead to someone hiring you to take pictures with that same style of yours (which is the jackpot!).

© Rikki Snyder

Shoot What You Love

My second piece of advice for developing your own style is to shoot what you love. Sounds obvious right? Not always the case. Before I went to photography school I thought I had everything all figured out…graduate and open my own portrait studio. I had only ever shot portraits until I went to school and had no clue that I would graduate with a portfolio full of food and still life photography. I had the opportunity to shoot everything from portraits to products to pets, sports, aerial photography and everything in between. I discovered something that I had never even thought of photographing but once I did, I realized I could incorporate all the things I love into it. For me those things are color, texture, shape, design nature and unique objects. When you shoot something you love it’s easier to make it yours and develop your own style from it. If you shoot a wide range of different subjects mediocrely but specialize in one type of photography and really excel at it, this is when you want to specialize. That’s the perfect example of how specializing in one type of photography can be to your advantage when trying to appeal to clients. They’ll hire you to shoot that one thing that you’re really good at. Take that one area of photography that you love to shoot, keep doing it over and over again and make it yours, that will surely make you stand out.

Pick 5 of your favorite pictures and write down 3 words that you feel best describe the images as a whole. Then ask 3 other people to look at the same images and do the same thing, but don’t show them what you wrote. When they’re done look at what they’ve written. Does it match your view of your work or is it different? Is what you’re trying to convey in your work consistent with what others see in it?

Study Work That Inspires You

The last tip I have for you in creating your own style is studying other photographer’s work that inspires you. You can always learn from those around you and as soon as you see an image you know right away if you love it or not. If you look at someones work and you fall in love with their portfolio, ask yourself what you like about it. Is there something that’s consistent in each image that catches your eye? Their use of props, the way they light an image in order to fit in well with its surroundings, the composition, their use of color or lack of? Create an idea book either in your own Lightroom catalogue or by collecting pages from magazines in a binder. Keep adding to it and go back and look through it. Constantly study others work you admire, let it inspire you to create your own unique body of work that has your print and style attached to it.

© Rikki Snyder

It Takes Patience

Developing your own style can be a little frustrating and take years to start showing through in your work. But it will all be worth it when you’re able to effortlessly stand out from your competition because you put your creativeness to work. It’s definitely something that’s important and I witnessed this firsthand. There were 140 students at my school and therefore 140 portfolios to be reviewed. We were all allowed to sit in on each other’s reviews and we quickly realized that the portfolios that stood out the most and really caught the judge’s eyes were those who had clearly developed their own style and creative touch. It’s almost as if your own photographic style is a power that lets your images speak for themselves without you having to say a word and they immediately captivate the viewer’s attention. Trust me, you want this power.

Links:

Website: http://rikkisnyder.com
Blog: http://rikkisnyder.com/blog
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rikkims
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/RikkiSnyder

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© Charlotte Bibby

My dad has always been a hobbyist photographer and taught me the basics of using a camera. After a year I started pursuing the photography that really interested me; fashion. My first ‘fashion’ shoots involved making my friends sit in bathtubs and fields of flowers with over-the-top makeup and badly-styled outfits and continued this way until I moved to London a year ago and had the chance to work with other creatives to realise my visions.

Fashion photography always seemed like a natural way for me to go. I am the sort of person that has to have complete control and fashion allows me to control every single aspect of an image. Organising shoots is actually one of my favourite parts of what I do.

Once I started working with teams and models my work really began to improve. It opened windows of opportunity I had never even considered before, and after a couple of months of testing with agency models I produced my first editorial for a printed American magazine and two more editorials thereafter before I came home to Somerset and went to China in the summer.

Fashion photography is something I absolutely adore doing, but for a lot of people there is a very falsey-glamourised idea of what it is like. People assume it’s very easy work, but it’s not like that at all, not until you get to the point where you’re shooting designer campaigns regularly and have other people do all the mundane work. I have only just scratched the surface of what it is truly like – but even after doing it for so little time there have been times where the industry has really gotten to me. As a testing photographer, models will be given away last minute to a photographer shooting an editorial, people will let you down, and magazines will destroy your stories with horrendous editing or bad layouts. And fashion photography is such collaboration that if anyone in the team isn’t on par, the whole image will suffer. You have to take everything on the chin; otherwise you will find yourself having a break down.

For my shoots I draw my influences from anywhere and everywhere — which is why I’m really keen on traveling. I listen to music, look at art and am constantly keeping my eye out for amazing locations, but I try to limit inspiration from other fashion shoots as my work won’t be as fresh that way. As any sort of photographer, whether it’s conscious or not, your work is shaped by the things you spend your time around so I also try to keep myself around inspiring people.

© Charlotte Bibby

I’m hoping that 2012 will be a year where I shoot more portraiture and ‘real’ people along with male editorials – as I really want to prove I can be flexible whilst still keeping with my style of work.

Links:

Website: http://www.charlottebibby.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bibbyphotography
Twitter: http://twitter.com/charbibby
Tumblr: http://rentapanda.tumblr.com

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1. You don’t need fancy macro equipment.

A lot of people believe that in order to begin with macro photography, you need expensive macro lenses and big cameras – this is wrong. These days there are all sorts of equipment available that can help you zoom right into your subject without the need to splash out.

Without a doubt, the cheapest method of beginning macro photography is the ‘reverse lens technique’. This technique is exactly what it says in the title – you take your lens away from the camera, reverse it, and then use the camera mounted end to shoot. It is a tricky technique that takes practice but the results can be wonderful. The drawbacks to this can be that your camera elements will be exposed to dust or water, and this can be expensive to repair.

A second technique would be to purchase extension tubes which fit onto your camera and then your lens would sit on the tubes. These are very cheap and reduce the need to leave your camera exposed to the elements. Thirdly, compact cameras or camera phones now have the ability to take macro shots. All you have to do is select the correct setting and shoot away.

A purple daisy – taken using the ‘reverse lens technique’. © Sarah Lewis

2. Plenty of light is a must.

This is a given for any sort of photography, but especially for macro. As you are working at very close quarters with your subject, you might want to be able to keep your shutter speeds above 1/500th of a second to avoid camera shake. Ideally you need plenty of sunshine, but if the weather fails, you can use a simple household torch (just tinker with your camera’s settings for correct white balance settings or you can wait until post-processing) or if you’re really serious about macro photography you can invest in a macro ring flash. This device fits around your lens and can be tinkered with to create lighting to aid with your photography.

3. A tripod is not essential.

This is probably controversial thing to say but I do believe that an amateur macro photographer can go without a tripod a few times in the beginning stages. It all depends on the conditions that you are in but most of the time you can improvise. I have been known to use my shoe as a prop for low down photography (see photo below). At this early stage you are concentrating on composition and exposure – the rest will come to you naturally.

Raindrops upon grass – an example of a macro photograph taken without a tripod. © Sarah Lewis

4. A unique perspective helps.

Clichés are inevitable. You’ll see something that someone else has done, (see: the love heart shadow made from positioning a ring in a book) and you’ll want to try it yourself. Before you resort to the cliché, remember that you want to become is a fantastic photographer. You’re going to need to bring to the table a unique way of looking at things and a good way to do that is to photograph things on your own terms right from the beginning. Don’t copy someone else’s idea however easy it may be. Be yourself.

5. You won’t get a perfect shot on your first go.

Macro photography is a carefully honed skill that takes months – even years – to fully perfect. You’re going to find that as you go along, you’re going to take photos that are blurred, underexposed and badly composed. But before you go and delete these ‘mistakes’, learn from them. What did you do wrong? Can you think of anything you can do to better these shots? If you can, upload the shots to your laptop, look through them, take notes and then go back to the object and re-photograph it until you get something you are happy with. Only you know what you like and only you know how to achieve this.

6. Your house and/or garden are places for practice.

You can take close-up shots anywhere you like but a good idea would be to start where you know best, your house or garden. You know everything here and you can pick objects out that you think would look great close-up. Windowsills (for those unfamiliar with the term, these are the ledges beneath your windows in your house) offer great places to set up your items and will also provide natural light (during the day time of course) that will aid your practice. That money in your pocket? Photograph it. Your toothbrush? Photograph it. Curiosity is a wonderful thing and you should use it to your advantage.

7. Post processing will correct some mistakes.

All you really need is a program capable of doing basic adjustments, cropping and sharpening and you’re away. You can find some programs online free of charge if you search enough. You may need to sharpen your images a little to help the details of the object shine through. Cropping may also be handy if you haven’t managed to get close enough to fill the whole frame. Adjustments will probably need to be made such as brightening but this is up to you and how you want your image to look.

Shield Bug – macro helps you to find beauty in things you wouldn’t normally associate it with. © Sarah Lewis

8. You don’t need to stick with shallow depth of field.

You may find that when you are photographing at such close-up quarters that the depth of field will become more shallow as you go along. For more advanced photographers, there is a way to ‘stack’ your images so that you can have the entire object in focus. There are various programs and tutorials scattered all over the internet which can guide you through this process. This technique involves taking multiple exposures with different parts of the item in focus and then when in post-processing, you can use said programs to help you ‘stack’ them together to create an image. It sounds complicated but the results are very rewarding.

9. Macro photography alone might not get you a career.

Unless you’re thinking of becoming a scientific or forensic photographer, macro will more than likely become a something you will use amongst other skills. For example at a wedding, you will be primarily shooting portraits, but you may possibly want to shoot the finer details like a pattern on the brides dress, or the flowers in her bouquet – this is where your macro skills will come into play. If you are a wildlife photographer, you may find that you can use macro to capture a close-up of a bird or an insect, but overall I find that macro is something that can’t be relied on as a single practice. Most macro photographers dabble in other forms of photography too.

10. Macro photography changes your view of the world.

As you go along, you will start to look at things differently. You’ll find that you will be thinking about a certain object and what it might be like up-close. You’ll definitely find that you will become more interested in the finer details in life. Macro photography is a beautiful area of photography that becomes a sort of adventure to those who pursue it. Your attitude to the things around you will change and this is not necessarily a bad thing.

Enjoy your journey!

Links:

Website: http://www.purplefacephotography.co.uk
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahpurpleface
Twitter: http://twitter.com/_purpleface
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/purplefacephotography

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April 13, 2010

Photo Profile : Rahul Bhagchandani

April 28, 2010

Photo Profile : Sandy Simpson

September 17, 2011

Photo Profile : Sarah Lewis

May 1, 2010

Poll : What is your favourite photo subject ?

March 23, 2010

How to : Splash Crowns