Beyond the obvious

Self portrait taken in Scarborough harbour. I had to stand still for what seemed ages while listening for the shutter to close. Hence the static pose, which worked out quite well in the end. Friend, writer and fellow photographer, David Toyne , has posted a superb interview he did with renowned photo-journalist Jonathan Taylor. Jonathan shares many interesting insights into his work, ethics and experience. This is good stuff. Well worth a read. And I am delighted that I was able to help David a little with preparation for the interview. While on the subject of David's writing you should also take a look at his recent interview with top wildlife photographer, Andy Rouse . More soon. Cheers, Paul 

Johann van Tonder an award-winning news and conflict photographer, previously photo editor at Die Burger newspaper in South Africa and part-time lecturer in photojournalism at the University of Stellenbosch and Rhodes University shares his views in a highly entertaining article . Although it was published in 2004 the article is to me as valid today as the day it was written. My photography mentor and teacher, Obie Oberholzer shares a few colourful gems from his particular brand of wisdom in the article too. I could tell you some stories from back in the days when I studied at Rhodes. Maybe another time... Do have a read and let me know what you think. Cheers, Paul

Art print from my graphic kitchen series Why do people buy photographic art prints? I think there are several different reasons and different types of buyers. The premise is that people buy pictures because they like them and if they fall in love with the image they are prepared to pay a lot more for a print than some artists may imagine their work is worth. I realised that the concept of perceived value underpins the whole issue of what people are prepared to pay for a fine art print. In the first instance we have the photographer's perception of the value of his/her work. And then we have the buyer's perception. Lets deal with the buyers perception of value for money. Here we need to look at the different types of buyers. Serious collectors (a rare breed): usually collectors will specialise in images defined by a certain time period in history, the work of a photographer or group of photographers, a genre or perhaps related to a specific geographical area The emotive buyer: ...

Peter gives me the thumbs up during a recent portrait session. I regularly get asked to explain photographic terms and concepts. And I often see terminology being used incorrectly. Rather than rewriting stuff that has already been explained with great clarity it makes sense to point you in the direction of a few useful resources. There's tons of stuff on the internet. Two good resources for photographic terms are the wonderful Wikipedia section on photographic terms and this Canadian professional photography website with its comprehensive glossary . I don't mind being asked to explain things. However, these days camera manufacturers produce excellent manuals (often with a section to diagnose problems) and the help files with most software programmes like Photoshop are are very easy to understand. You could do worse than look at these sources as a first port of call. Cheers, Paul 

Suspense, fun and excitement mount in equal measure during a game of Tension Tower between father and son. New digital print technology has opened up tremendous opportunities for photographers to produce limited edition and even one-off books. Choosing the right supplier guarantees excellent quality. I am now doing half and full day portrait sessions and turning them into books for clients. Bespoke layouts and artistic design enhance the book making it a unique creation. More and more formats are becoming easily accesible to photographers ranging from the internet to CD ROM and DVD shows, through to traditional printed media - everything from a print on canvas to a t-shirt. There's a huge range of choice open to the photographer as to how he/she delivers pictures to the client. Framing methods have also come a long way. If clients have modern interiors then transparent acrylic frames may be more appropriate than gilded wood. I've never fancied the pseudo classical portrait st...

Magda Indigo in search of the perfect image, walking along the seawall in Scarborough. Today we were once again working in the studio. The weather was not too good. Anyway we were talking about images, as usual and about appreciating other photographers' work. For me images can be seperated into different categories. Here's my very personal and emotive response scale: Awful - I want to run out of the room screaming Boring Mildly interesting Good Something that I admire An image that I think is brilliant, emotive, technically wonderful and compelling And then there are the images that I dearly wish that I had made because they represent everything that I aspire to with my photography Like I said it's a very personal scale. I wonder if other photographers have a similar emotive response to the images they see. Cheers, Paul