Mike Davis on what makes a photograph good

I just stumbled upon a post by US picture editor Mike Davis about what makes a photograph 'good'. And its a clear, well written and useful summing up. It's particularly relevant to me as I continue to click away at things with the best camera I have with me in a mad and web-clogging fashion.

Here's the original post: http://www.michaelddavis.com/blog/2010/9/15/what-is-good.html And here are a couple of quotes that I think are particularly good:

"It's critical to understand that the subject does not make the picture, it is the photographer's insight and skill that elevate the subject to a compelling image. That's why most of the thousands of best photographs are not of inherently interesting subject matter. What makes them interesting is what the photographer did."

And:

"A photographer asked me yesterday how he goes from producing one-dimensional newspapery photographs to making ones that are good. That’s a big question. A small answer is: Before you can make a good picture you have to set out with clarity and depth to say something about what you photograph and you have to make the image reflect the clarity and depth by using the medium’s tools to their fullest. Piece of cake."

So if you want to take better photographs, stop and think about what you're trying to say and how you're trying to say it.

and here's a picture:

-j

I am going DAS

So,

in an effort to learn to stop looking at the keyboard when I type, I've applied black duct tape to the keys of my work keyboard in the spirit of DAS keyboard... It's already hurting but I'm sure in about 2 weeks time I'll be typing faster and smoother than I am now... I think... [clunk... poke... clunk]...

-j

Chortle in my pants

Recently Gizmodo ran a photo contest where entrants were asked to rip-off a famous photo. This was one of the entries, it makes me chortle in my pants.

A lot.

Photo credit to Steve McCurry of course for the original Afghan girl, and to Becca Alves for the fantastic imitation.

-j

Well we did it!

The Hobbit will be filmed in New Zealand!

John Key announced last night that there would be a small adjustment to NZ employment law that would clarify the position of independent contractors in the film industry here - separating them clearly from 'employees' and preventing them from challenging that title if they'd been hired as contractors etc. This has effectively calmed whatever 'industrial uncertainties' Warners' felt could potentially affect film production here in the future and an agreement was signed, letting the project go ahead.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/entertainment/4279251/The-Hobbit-gets-NZ-film-shoot

I felt pretty optimistic that it would for a number of reasons including this one:

-j

Keep The Hobbit filming in NZ

Well,

things have certainly been quiet here. Except for all that noise and ruckus around the filming of The Hobbit here. I won't try to sum-up what's going on as it is rather multi-layered and messy but... this article outlines what so far seems to be 'first blood' on the whole matter:

http://www.onfilm.co.nz/

I did go rioting marching in the streets though, that was important and useful it seems in that we managed to block the Wellington attendance of the NZ Actor's Equity meeting where Simon Whipp from the MEAA was supposed to be attending. This also had the fortunate knock-on effect of canning the Auckland meeting due to potential protests being organised. Weeeeeeeee!!!

And I think that it's a positive sign that Warners haven't totally ruled out shooting the production here yet... I think in fact they stand to profit more from shooting here in NZ than the amount that might have been trimmed of the government tax incentives etc... 

-j

LED madness

Here's an image I shot recently to enter into a photo competition where the subject was entitled 'After Dark':

This is really homage to Jeff Newsom's 'I make gold records' series of images, although I'm certain that the spinning ball is not of his imagining only.

I shot multiple takes of this 30 second exposure counting and choreographing the run in, spin and then run out till I got the result I wanted. I held two 6v lantern batteries wired in serial to two automotive LED headlamp lights on the same circuit. This allowed me to create an inner circle of white surrounded by an outer sphere of red in one take.

Many people have asked why they cannot see me running around in the shot and the answer is simply that in an exposure of this length I'm not still long enough to be visible really. Against a lighter background I'd be more visible in the middle of the sphere perhaps. But not at twilight.

I didn't get anywhere in the competition but then I was happy enough with the image!

-j

Printing large

I recently completed a commission for a client who is returning to the UK and wished to take back with them two images printed out in a larger format. The first was the view from their apartment window in downtown near the Wellington waterfront, and the second was an image that for them sums up the phrase 'The Land of the Long White Cloud'. I had Karim Sahai print the images for me and as usual he's done a stellar job. They're rich, correctly coloured, detailed and on quality paper with quality inks. They're 24" high and the cloud image is quite long!

Take a look:

To see the originals, click here: Water Like Denim and here: Post Office Square.

-j