Beyond the obvious

This image shows a porter helping his colleague as they carry their heavy burdens up from the harbour into Istanbul. It always symbolised something of the human condition to me and for a many years it resided in my photojournalism portfolio. I'm fond of it. This was a real grab shot taken literally on the run as I saw the action unfolding in front of me. It was an icy day with low light and I was shooting with Ilford HP5 up rated to squeeze an extra stop out of it. Taken with my 70-210mm zoom at full extension. But should it be in my portfolio? The feet of the one guy are are cut-off. Sometimes I like this because it looks as if he is anchored to the side of the frame making the task of moving even harder. Other times I wish I had it all in. What do you think? Should it be in my portfolio or finally out? These are the questions I posed on a photographic site. The response was unanimous. The image is just too special to leave out. So it shows that sometimes the subject matter and ot...

Wishing everyone a season filled with joy, peace, replinishment and that next year brings you a step closer to realising your dreams. Happy photographing! Paul Indigo

I've often heard photographers complaining that they just cannot find a subject to photograph, sometimes after going to extraordinary lengths to get to a location. In all honesty I've said it myself. But I've been thinking... It's not what you photograph but how you photograph it that reveals the difference between a good photographer and an ordinary one. The key to being a good photographer is being able to make anything look interesting as an image. As a photographer you have to evoke emotion, communicate ideas and produce a visually exciting image no matter what the subject is. Unlike 'art' photographers or amateurs, professional photographers have to produce saleable pictures that communicate, whether they're in the mood, able to 'see' it', inspired in front of a subject they like or once again photographing a cardboard box or a bottle (most advertising photographers tend to do an awful lot of shots of these subjects). The point I...

If you are interested in photojournalism and documentary photography then here are some sites well worth a visit. Check out how Pulitzer prise winning photojournalist John Kaplan 's students tackled the art of telling important stories with images. There's lots of terrific stuff to read and impactful images on the www.internationaljournalism.com site. Here are some more photographers highly worthwhile checking out . They are all quite recent alumni from the University of Florida photojournalism department. UF churns out award winning photographers, proof that top quality teachers like Kaplan and Freeman make a huge difference. Meggan Booker: www.megganbooker.com Dave Cone: www.davecone.com Bob Croslin: www.bobcroslin.com Melissa Lyttle: www.melissalyttle.com May May: www.mattmayphotography.com Stephanie Sincliar: www.stephaniesinclair.com Brian Tietz: www.briantietz.com Eric Larson : www.ericlarson.com Enjoy! Paul Indigo

I've been incredibly busy over the last few weeks. Thank you to everyone that emailed and contacted me. As you know I will always do my best to answer your questions. Sometimes it's a bit of a challenge, especially when a comment is left without the slightest clue as to who made it or how to get in touch. So please do leave your email address (you can encode it as follows if you're afraidit may be picked up by an automated system trawling the web for email addresses to send spam to; here's how I do mine paul dot indigo at gmail dot com). Chris if you're out there reading this, thanks for you comment and please do send me an email so I can answer you. Usually I sign-off with my name as a clickable email link. Paul Indigo Model having fun during a shoot in our studio.