Practical Photography

This weekend I saw another load of snow, not enough for a snow day, but enough to mean I’m cold and miserable and feeling the need for a holiday, as money is tight it I’m trying to justify this with a photography holiday where I can build up my portfolio and brush up on my skills.

There are many different photography holidays you can go on but I prefer one in the sun at the moment, I prefer the sun to the snow any day!

You can go to Itally, Turkey all sorts of places but I think I’ll try and book Marakesh this time. Photography holidays are a good way to get away from things without switching off completely, they can be a chance to let loose your creative side. Sometimes working in a creative industry you only get to aspire to other peoples creative visions and keep within a brief so getting to do what you want can be liberating.

It is also a good chance to beef up your portfolio with new fresh images it is always good to keep your portfolio up to date.

Drew Barrymore is the latest in a long line of celebrities that are announcing their passion for photography and planning to take it more serious. Drew Barrymore is hoping to release a book of all of her best photography, she claims that she has been photographing friends and family for over ten years and producing a book will be a good way to archive these…. (and make some money).

She tells People.com, “I’d like to work on my book of photography. I’ve been taking photos for like 10 years so that’s a goal for this year. Even if I just start it. … Everything is just a mess and I need to archive it all. So I’d like to focus on my photography.”

This seems to be her main goal for 2009 and with all these models, singers and actors turning photographer it makes me wonder why?

Obviposly a famous photographer could probably charge more than us regular togs but it will be no where near the amount they could get fora film or even a moldelling shoot. Is Hollywood being hit by the credit crunch? Do these celebrities need to look at a secondary source of income or is as they would wantus to believe, that it is all for the love of taking photos.

Photography giants, Kodak have reportedly lost even more than anticipated due to the economic downturn.

Eastman Kodak Co based in New York are forecasting a drop in revenue of as much as 18% in 2009. Not to be beaten the photography soecialists are looking for business partners to help turn their fortunes around and aid them to develop technologies like camera sensors that will be more profitable.

Last week Kodakstated they expect revenue to drop 12 % from 2008 to 18 % in 2009, this is a loss fof $200 million to $400 million from continuing operations.

This comes as quite a shock as Analysts had only expected a loss of $35 million in 2009, according to Reuters Estimates.

In the statement, Chief Executive Antonio Perez said the company’s balance sheet is “solid”, but that it sees “no immediate signs of economic recovery.”

Kodak, along with other photography names have been affected more by the recession as photography usage has diminished as consumers hold back on activities like vacations, parties and other events that often encourage the use of photography . Meanwhile, many businesses in effort to save money and reduce their carbon footprint have reduced the amount of priniting they do.

“It has been a very difficult year to plan for,” Perez said at the meeting of its 2009 outlook.

One year ago, before the worst of the economic downturn, Kodak’s outlook was much rosier. It had anticipated revenue by a compound annual growth rate 5 percent from 2008 to 2011. At that time, Kodak said it had completed an expensive four-year restructuring that transformed it into a maker of digital photography products and printers.

A level photography student, Josh Kellet 17,helped police catch multiple offender Shaun Rimmer 25 by taking a photograph of the burgular as he tried to break into Josh’s neighbours’ house.

Josh heard a disturbance from his neighbours garden, he knew they were away on holiday so looked out of his bedroom window to see what was going on. He saw two ‘chavvy’ looking men in tracksuits scoping the house one of the men saw Josh and alerted his friend. The two scarpered and jumped the fence but not before the quick thinking photography student had grabbed his camera and taken photographs of the suspects.

Josh did not manage to get a photo of the mens faces but caught their distinctive tracksuits. Josh immediately called the police who were able to use the images to identify the burgulars and capture them within 20 minutes.

Josh was awarded £150 by Leeds Crown court for his quick thinking.

Josh, of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said: ‘I knew my neighbours were on holiday, and I saw these two people acting shifty in their back garden.

‘They looked like right chavs. One of them saw me in the window and they jumped over the fence. I picked up my camera and started taking pictures. Then I called 999 and the police showed up.

‘I thought I should catch them in case they had done something bad. I was just trying to do the right thing.’

PC Daniel Stoppard was the first officer on the scene and he headed off to look for the suspects after looking at the digital image on the teenager’s camera.

‘They were wearing very distinctive clothes, so we found them and arrested them in 20 minutes, and that was down to Josh. They had all their tools on them and it turns out they were prolific offenders.

‘Josh should be very proud of his actions, knowing that a prolific burglar is now behind bars. Teenagers often get bad press but Josh is a prime example of how they shouldn’t all be tarred with the same brush.’

Rimmer, of Normanton, West Yorkshire, admitted nine counts of burglary and one attempted burglary at last week’s hearing. His partner-in-crime Anthony Booth, 31, is to be sentenced later this month.

Judge John Spencer said the teenager’s actions had ‘contributed significantly’ to the serial burglary being caught.

Josh, who is studying Photography, Psychology and History at Pontefract New College, plans to spend his reward cash on a new camera lens.

It’s not the first time he had made an impact with his photography. A picture of a bus fire in his neighbourhood was used on the local TV news. But despite his obvious talent, he is keen to join the RAF rather than the ranks of the paparazzi.

His grandmother Iris Botten, 68, said: ‘We’re so proud of him. Not only did he help get that man jailed, but he stopped his neighbours’ house from being ransacked.’

Linda McCartneys photography will be used on comic relief T-shirts designed by her daughter Stella McCartney.

One of the T-shirts features an photograph of her husband, Sir Paul McCartney and the rest of his famous bandmates taken by Linda at the height of their Beatles’ fame. To keep in with the comic relief theme all of them on the  original photo have been given red noses.

Stella McCatrneys T Shirts don’t just feature her Mothers photography but also images taken by famous veteran fashion photographer David Bailey. His photographs of comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, are also printed wearing red noses on the comic relief T-Shirts.

Keeping it in the family her sister Mary McCartney has been taking the photographs of Stella’s celebrity friends like; Making it even more of a family affair, a host of celebrities and friends of the fashion designer,  Keira Knightley, Claudia Schiffer, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sam Taylor-Wood, have all posed for the worthy cause.

The T-shirts, priced from £5.99 for babies and children, and from £9.99 for adults, will go on sale on Monday at 214 TK Maxx stores nationwide, with all net profits from sales going to Comic Relief ahead of Red Nose Day on March 13.

Its charitable activities range from supporting orphans in Africa who have lost their parents to Aids or helping older people in the UK who are abused by someone they should be able to trust.

Miss McCartney said: “It’s a real honour to be involved in such a tremendous cause and be a part of the Red Nose Day campaign 2009. The designs of the T-shirts were inspired by iconic images of iconic people by iconic photographers and adding an element of humour to them.”

In line with her beliefs, the T-shirts are manufactured in Africa, using Fairtrade-certified organic cotton co-operatives in Senegal, ensuring a pesticide and GM-free product at a fair price to farmers in developing countries.

Republican Peter King has called for a new bill that would force camera phone manufacturers to put a ringtone on all camera phones which is unerversal so you always know when someone is taking a photograph.

This call for action has come after many unsolicited photographs were being taken without permission, things like taking photographs in public changing rooms or in museums where photography is not allowed.

Alot of people have been taking these photos and now the New York Congresman is hoping to get a tone that will be standard for all camera phones. This will be distinctive so you will always be aware of someone taking a photograph of you or in the area.

This however has not been welcomed by camera phone manufacturers and it is unclear if the bill will go ahead. I personally would like it as I do not like the thought of someone taking photographs of me without my knowledge.

In these times if you want to succeed as a small business owner in the Photography industry you need to find ways of bringing down your overheads. When buying camera equipment look for special offers and Discount Vouchers to get money off the price of the equipment.

When ever I make an expensive purchase over the Internet I usually search online for Discount Vouchers to get a code which will knock money off the price. You can usually find offers that are limited to certain products, ie camera lenses get 10% off. These are usually clearance but will still be good if it fits with what your looking for.

A lot of online shops are offering discount codes and vouchers to encourage you to spend more money, if you get a discount you are more likely to buy an additional product in your basket. You should definitely take advantage of this as when buying in software, camera equipment, lighting equipment etc you can get some really good deals.

I have found a lot of 10% codes and vouchers as well as the odd one that it £50 or £100 off! These combined with a lot of people bringing down their pices for the credit crunch as well means you can get a really good deal.

Helena Christensen is the latest model to turn her focus towards photography rather than modelling.

This comes into the spotlight as she takes up her new photography role in this week’s menswear shows.

The supermodel’s camera skills are excellent as she has probably picked up a few tips from the greatest. She is one of the most saught after photographers at the moment and is taking part in the photography pit at Saturday’s Façonnable show in Paris. Helena is going to be shooting the debut show of her friend and designer Eric Wright.

Helena said of her career change: “When you are modelling, you are creating a picture, a still life, perhaps something like a silent film. You convey emotion but you are only using your body and nothing else.”

She added: “I often take Polaroids of things that I see around me and strike me as visually interesting, just to remember them and perhaps use later.”

Helena will also be shooting Façonnable’s upcoming campaign, this will be her second designer shoot with the label.

A lot of photographers are trying to save money by printing their photos out at home, this can prove to be a false economy unless you invest in a quality printer and good print cartridges.

Paper and printing costs are going up and with the fsc and government becoming more strict about recycling and carbon footprints a lot of good printing companies have had to put their prices up a bit. This is due to the additional cost of resources and responsible disposal of waste. Ink Cartridges are particularly difficult, they can be re filled but they have the highest carbon footprint to produce, especially good quality Printer Cartridges.

Because of this increase in prices if you are printing out a lot of photos some photographers have decided to invest in a home printer. This means a lot of money upfront but then all you need to buy is paper and printer cartridges. This seems like a good deal but home printers are no where near the quality of professional printers. Printer cartridges for a home printer will just have your typical 4 ( cmyk) ink pots whereas a professional printer will have anything from 10 to 20 different printer cartridges with different colours, tones and shades to give you a much better quality of photo.

Home printers with good quality paper and printer cartridges will print a good photo but when your customers are paying for a print it is probably best to get them a professional image even if youhave to pass the increase in price from the professionals onto your customers to prevent losing out on profit. At the end of the day if they get a good quality photo they will still come back.

When taking photos of fireworks displays it is important to set your camera to the correct exposure. Alot of the display can be lost by putting your camera on automatic.

A lot of people go to firework displays and just keep there camera setting on automatic this will not give you good results often in the dark your flash will go off and you will not be able to see anything in the image. Somne cameras even have a night mode that changes the exposure to allow for dark scenes or a party mode that will capture some movement but neither of these are particularly suitable for a fireworks display.

The problem lies with how photography works the aperture lets a certain amount of light in which imprints a shadow of the image. Obviously there is more to it than that but that covers the basics for now. You need quite a lot of light from a lot of diffections to get enough detail and contrast for the image, so for this you need a wide aperture.

You balance out the aperture size with the amount of time you let the light through, this is the time from when the shutter opens to when it closes again, the shutter speed. The longer it is open the more light their is but this will capture any movement from you or the subject causing the image to go blurry. This does make a nice effect but you would not be able to identify a fireworks display in detail.

You can set your camera on a long exposure but this will often turn out blurry this can make a nice image in some cases but will not show off the choreography and creativeness that has gone into the firework display. It is a common temptation to set your shutter speed to a very low setting and keep your shutter open too long because its dark and you need more light but ideally you need a nice clean  shot. You can often capture too much of the smoke in the photograph with a long exposure.

Common sense would tell you to open the aperture quite wide for a fireworks display but the lights that fireworks give off are quite bright. Ifind it is better to set your aperture between a mid to a smaller f stop but you will have to play around to getting the right combination between aperture and shutter speed. I would recommend using a tripod!