Beyond the obvious

Camera poised for tomorrow. I'll be out there with my Nikon D70 hunting the shot. Looking forward to this. If you don't know about World Photo Day then scroll down to my previous post. Really busy time at the moment but there is loads of new stuff in the pipeline. I'm writing a piece on bokeh. What is good bokeh? Find out next week. Paul Indigo

I've received quite a few emails about how useful the websites I have mentioned on my blog have been to people. So without repeating the all of the ones already mentioned here's a few more you may like to peruse. If you want to upload and share your pictures try: www.ephotozine.com www.trekearth.com www.treklens.com www.photo.net - this one is a bit hard to navigate but does feature some excellent photography and has loads of useful information There are lots of other sites to share your pictures but these are my favourites. Are you interested in portraiture? Then a visit to the National Portrait Gallery is a must www.npg.org.uk This site contains some interesting intervews with leading portrait photographers and of course you could enter the 2005 Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize. And if you've got some deep technical questions you could do a lot worse than visiting http://photonotes.org - This outstanding site has tons of well organised information to a...

Drew Rossman the man who put the World Photo Day project together describes it as, "An exploration into the everyday lives of people on a global scale." People from all over the world are invited to send photographs taken 1 June 2005. Any type of camera can be used. But Drew says, "Keep in mind that if you are not using digital, you need to make time for development, scanning, and submitting of images within the 24-hour period allotted after the project's time frame of: June 1, 2005 00:01 - 23:59 GMT." To take part in this wonderful initiative visit www.worldphotoday.com . To my knowledge nothing quite like this has been attempted before. We look forward to seeing life in every corner of the globe. I've already signed up! But you'll need to be quick. Paul Indigo

Well as promised here's another installment about street photography. When you're out wandering the streets with your camera there are basically two ways you can relate to your subjects. Either you try to capture them unaware or you make them aware you want to take a their picture. Both approaches have their own challenges of course. In my previous article I dealt with trying to seize the moment, usually with the subject being unaware of you. Now I'll talk about making the subject aware that you want to take their picture. Working in foreign countries and relating to people when you don't speak their language can be a challenge. On the other hand people will often cut a visitor more slack than they would someone from their own country, so you can 'get away' with more. The key to approaching people is those first few seconds. You have to appear non threatening, friendly, willing to explain why you want to photograph them, have a sense of humour and above all find...

Saltwick Bay on the Yorkshire Coast. An ethereal place at dawn with Black Nab rising from the waves. Location: Saltwick Bay, near Whitby Photographer: Keith Henson (This picture is copyright of Keith Henson. Any form of reproduction is illegal without the prior written permission of the author) Celebrating the beauty of the Northern England landscape I can highly recommend a visit to this brand new website featuring the work of talented photographers Keith Henson and Andy Dippie. Both photographers have produced phenomenal imagery capturing the unique beauty of the landscape of the Northern British Isles. Keith and Andy have their individual styles. As with all great photographers they show us the landscape filtered through their own unique artistic vision. I can highly recommend a visit to their userfriendly web site. You can buy images online at very affordable prices. Now's the time to buy before these guys get too famous and galleries push their prices through the roof...

I think that helping aspiring photographers is important. If you have a picture that you would like a detailed critique on then please email it to me. Depending on the number of requests I get I may not be able to critique everyone' s image in detail but I will certainly reply with at least a paragraph. This offer is open for the next two weeks. After that I'll evaluate it again. Looking forward to hearing from you. I may want to publish some of the critiques and your picture of course but will naturally ask your permission first. Please don't email high res images (500 pixels at 60k is fine) Paul Indigo

Firstly I'd like to welcome visitors from other sites, who may have just discovered my blog. I've been highlighting the joys of street photography and in my previous post you'll find some links to other sites that I've found valuable. Street photography is about being alert to the potential for making an interesting image and then seizing the moment. A fraction of a second hesitation and the composition won't work. I love that challenge and hope that the virtue of timing and anticipation is illustrated below. I saw this scene then waited until the worker was in exactly the right place.

Street photography is one of my favourite forms. I dare say that many of my best images, the most satisfying, were grabbed in a split second while out and about with my camera. If this is a form of photography that interests you, then you should take a look at www.in-public.com . This site also has a host of links to other interesting resources and websites to do with street photography. Check out www.ak47.tv , an online magazine for documentary and art photographers, which has some excellent street stuff. Many of the greatest photographers of our times were street photographers; notably Henri Cartier-Bresson and Brassai. Sometime in the future I'll do a small article with handy hints and tips for getting that special image when you're out there hunting with your camera. As always I'd love to hear your feedback. So please email me. May exhibition On another matter my wife Magda and I have just launched our May exhibition on our website . Please take a look. Magda has an ex...