Smoko in the Shearing Shed
Sometime ago I did some work for a company that employed me to take still photographs. However they also wanted to video content. That didn’t work out too well. When I decided to swap to video, I kept seeing the good still photographs that I should have been taking, so both suffered.
Since then I’ve been advised to make videos about the workshops that I do. It appears that without video content your message won’t get noticed.
It came down to making a choice. So apologies, no video!
The Horse Trainer
In the current world the need to be constantly feeding Instagram, Facebook and Youtube accounts creates a daily avalanche of photographs and video. That means using a huge bag of techniques offered in a growing number of software products for making pictures more dazzling, more graphics art and more unreal pictures just to stand out from the crowd.
The Morning Conference
There’s also many new trends evolving and when they start, its another way of making content, so again everything looks the same. And of course the camera manufacturers recognise this too. New model comes out every six months or so with new gimmicks that helps create more content, more quickly, together with cinema quality video which gets onto the internet even faster than before.
But in the end the craft of photography is lost in the internet maelstrom. For this reason I tend to stick with a camera for a long time, knowing it and the lenses I use intimately. I get a lot of enjoyment from making pictures and if other people enjoy them too, that’s even better.
Sharpening the Shears. Woolshed, Commonwealth Hill Station, far west South Australia
I used to run a blog on this website that ran for about five years and I posted a picture and words every three or fours days. I knew that initially I could do this because I already had a good library of images to work with.
In the end though, trying to find something to say at that pace just got too hard and I gave it away.
I publish sporadically on Instagram and even hired a social media consultant for a time in an attempt to make my Instagram page look more appealing so I do have experience of what I am writing about.
A website, Instagram and Youtube have their places and there’s some fine work there too. They are a way people can access your photos and the sort of work you do. I am tending to move back to this website as the main place to see my work and the workshops I offer on line.
Herding the mob on Anna Creek Station, the world’s largest cattle station.
I’ve always been into printing and displaying my work. I think photographs should be printed. So much is lost on the internet. People’s devices and computers render colours inaccurately. I have lived and worked in a big country and I tend to print big to emphasis that. Particularly with landscapes I want to give the viewer a sense of actually being in the scene. To that end I have a dedicated gallery for my work on Hindmarsh Island, south of Adelaide.
I do workshops there which are about making a good photo out of almost any subject you want to set your mind to. That’s not relying on saturated colours, current trends, presets or even the latest camera. Just a good solid knowledge of photography, composition, post production and the need to print images.
The course is three days long and can be taken at any time that’s convenient. You can contact me through the website or email [email protected]
There have been plenty of experienced and beginners who have taken the course so you won’t feel out of place whatever your level.
The madame takes a stroll. Rue St. Germaine, Paris, France
That doesn’t exclude videographers either. If you look at any quality movie, at the beginning of many scenes is a perfectly composed and lit still image from which the actors are cued to begin and the story unfolds.