The Emotional Connection - and Episode 39 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

When I asked everyone last week to send me their favourite photo of 2020, I had no real idea what to expect.

I guess I was thinking it would be a bit more like the entries you might expect in a camera club – where people were digging out their greatest sunset image, or that moment a bird caught a fish, or a shot of a celebrity in a slightly compromising situation...

And yet it was far more glorious than that – they were nearly all about the emotional attachment the photographer had with the subject or the situation. It wasn't their best, it was their favourite.

While there were a handful where there was a certain pride that they had nailed the photo they set out to take, far more came with a comment that while they knew the shot could have been technically better, what they really loved about the photo was...

From grandchildren to pets to memories spent of an evening in good company – each of these photos were meaningful to the takers in ways that far outweighed any technical considerations.

And this delighted me.

The vast majority of people who tune in to the podcast each week are, of course, looking to improve their photographic skills. They want to know how to adjust the camera settings for particular situations, or which compositional techniques will make a photo more compelling, or what style of editing will improve the reaction to their image from other people.

And every week, these things do get discussed.

But it's more than that.

The group that is forming around the podcasts are not ego-driven photographers looking solely how to get an edge over the competition. Instead it's real people looking for ways to express their stories, emotions and experiences in a supportive environment – one where no one is going to humiliate them for asking the wrong question, or showing a photo that isn't perfect.

There were a record-breaking 260 comments during last night's podcast – nearly all of them were involved, supportive and warm towards everyone else who had put in their favourite photo of the year.

In what's been a more difficult year emotionally for most - with so much fear, anxiety and division - to have a wee corner of the Internet which seems to be encouraging the better sides of our natures, is proving to be very satisfying.

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0:00 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
7:45 - My favourite photo of 2020, and why
13:45 - 20 people submitted their favourite photos of 2020 to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
2:07:33 - Coming up over the next couple of weeks 2:11:30 - End

If you found this interesting/useful/entertaining, then please consider supporting these podcasts and blog posts via buymeacoffee.com/kimayres

Also consider subscribing to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to help me build the numbers.

And, or course, if you would like to submit a photo for feedback, or just ask a photography related question, then do join my Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres  Facebook group and I will put it into the following podcast:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/

It's Good to Talk - and Episode 38 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

There was a point of lucid awareness during the live video podcast last night – one of those moments when I was suddenly and immediately present – acutely aware of where I was and what I was doing.

It's a psychological equivalent of having your face unexpectedly splashed with ice cold water.

I realised I was sitting in a room on my own and had been talking solidly for well over an hour without interruption.

Of course I do this every week with the podcast. In fact I seem to be talking more than ever!

I rewatched the first "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres" a couple of weeks ago and at the end of it, my younger, more nervous, more innocent self declares his surprise that it had gone on for more than an hour when he'd thought it would probably have been all over in less than 30 minutes.

For most of the past 8 months the podcasts have usually averaged around an hour to an hour and a half. But for some reason, over the last few weeks I've been going for consistently closer to 2 hours.

It's a strange thing that my ability to talk endlessly – something I inherited from my mother – is something I don't have to feel guilty about while doing these podcasts.

Since childhood I've been known as a blether, and it's nearly always been something I've had to be a bit apologetic about.

There's a wee voice in my head (as well as the big voice coming out my mouth) that tells me people have lives; people have important things they need to get on with; people don't need to be held back from better things to do than hear me talking.

It's not been something I've ever managed to "cure" - talking a lot is just something I do, and then feel guilty about.

But in this age of Covid-19 – this age of Lockdown and Social Distancing – the lack of outlets for my need to talk has been excruciating.

Fewer clients, fewer opportunities to meet up with friends, and even fewer random encounters with people in shops or on the streets where brief conversations can strike up.

So the podcasts – over and above satisfying my desire to share my skills and to help others – have also become an outlet for my need to talk.

But in that instant, that moment of lucid awareness, it briefly crossed my mind that perhaps no one was there – perhaps I was just being delusional and that what I thought was a safety valve for my sanity was in fact a fully immersed expression of insanity.

Fortunately, however, there do seem to be people on the other side of the webcam who are listening, leaving comments and submitting photos for me to talk about.

And they keep coming back each week.

Which is tremendously validating.

Unless I am actually imagining it all...

Below:

T'was the podcast before Christmas, when all through the house, the beardy bloke was blethering on about photographing mince pies....

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0:00 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
6:48 - Tips and tricks for taking photos on Christmas Day (or other celebration events)
21:40 - Introducing the idea of Mince Pie Photography
24:09 - Mince Pies - style 1
40:18 - Mince Pies - style 2
53:04 - Mince Pies - style 3
1:03:14 - Introduction to the Critique section where images have been submitted to the Facebook Group, Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres
1:04:52 - Prioritising the reflection
1:24:05 - High Key Photography
1:41:00 - Coming up next week
1:43:45 - A final mince pie
1:44:15 - End

If you found this interesting/useful/entertaining, then please consider supporting these podcasts and blog posts via buymeacoffee.com/kimayres

Also consider subscribing to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to help me build the numbers.

And, or course, if you would like to submit a photo for feedback, or just ask a photography related question, then do join my Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres  Facebook group and I will put it into the following podcast:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/

Memories of Chocolate - and Episode 37 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

The 7 Deadly Sins of Chocolate photo shoot I did for In House Chocolates last year has been the most requested set of images for me to talk about on the Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres live video podcast.

So with Christmas looming, it seemed like an appropriate time to give the back story to a shoot that was full of complex planning, unexpected problems, and vast amounts of chocolate.

Maggie thought my presentation was a bit more hyper than usual – as though actually I'd had one of their legendary hot chocolates or mochas just before the podcast started. Perhaps it was all the talking about them that fired off the neurons in my brain associated with caffeine and chocolate.

At one point, while I was busy waxing lyrical about how they make their drinks with melted chocolate, Maggie felt the need to leave a comment reassuring other viewers the podcast was in fact about photography...

But I think part of getting a bit carried away is it reminded me of just how much I miss going out, meeting up with friends and clients over a mocha, and exploring and developing ideas, or just putting the world to rights.

With all that's been going on in the world with the pandemic, going out for a hot chocolate is such a minor, insignificant thing, but like so many of the things that occasionally threaten to overwhelm our thoughts and emotions, it's what it represents.

I'm a social person.

And a hugger.

Meeting up with someone, hugging them, and then ordering a coffee (or hot chocolate) was a highlight of any week.

And I miss it.

I really miss it.

However, here's last night's podcast and it's quite lively – nothing like as maudlin as this post.

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0:00 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
6:58 - The 7 Deadly Sins Photo Shoot for In House Chocolates
20:26 - The lighting setup for the shoot
30:15 - Envy
33:00 - Gluttony
33:45 - Greed
34:20 - Lust
34:58 - Pride
35:44 - Sloth
38:10 - Wrath
40:36 - All 7 together
52:45 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:57:17 - Coming up next week
1:58:00 - End

If you found this interesting/useful/entertaining, then please consider supporting these podcasts and blog posts via buymeacoffee.com/kimayres

Also consider subscribing to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to help me build the numbers.

And, or course, if you would like to submit a photo for feedback, or just ask a photography related question, then do join my Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres  Facebook group and I will put it into the following podcast:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/

Changes - and Episode 36 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Last week I discovered on YouTube that Anne & Robert from Texas had left a comment on the very first episode of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres video podcast:

"Brilliant first video! Glad I finally got around to watching your series from the beginning."

After a brief moment of warm fuzziness (I'm a sucker for compliments), I thought I'd take a look at it to see if much had changed over the past 8 months.

I was completely caught by surprise at just how different it was. Perhaps not so much to other people, but to me it was massive.

There were more obvious physical things like the fact I was using a low resolution webcam so the picture isn't as clear; I was using the overhead lights, which created a couple of stripes across my cheeks as the light refracted through my glasses; I hadn't got a surrounding screen with the logo and links to other social media; and these days I'm about 15 pounds lighter.

Then there was the fact I wasn't asking for, or interacting with comments, which is such a major part of the podcasts now.

But I think the biggest difference, aside from the obvious nervousness, was how much less animated I was.

Most of my energy was going into attempting to make sure the technical stuff worked the way I wanted it to, and in trying desperately not to make a fool of myself.

To wander off on a tangent for a moment, it reminded me of the difference between playing music live and playing in a recording studio.

When you play live, if you fluff a note, no one else is that likely to notice, and if they do, by the time they've registered it, the song has moved on and it's quickly forgotten. As such, putting the right emotion into the playing is far more important than absolute accuracy.

However, when you are being recorded, absolute accuracy is now the highest priority. You can't have that bum note being played every single time someone listens to it.

The downside to this is you can focus so much on getting the right notes, you can lose the feeling and emotion of them.

And this is what I think I could see looking back at the early episodes – a fear of getting it wrong leading me to hold back on being more expressive.

I found myself flipping in and out of a few more videos and by about episode 15, it started to look a bit more familiar. By this time I'd cocked up so many times but the world hadn't ended, that I was much more relaxed about the whole thing.

Screwing up live on air, but just laughing at myself for doing so, is pretty much an integral part of every podcast now, but nobody seems to mind. If anything they can laugh along with me and I just become more relatable.

Far more important than technical accuracy is connection and authenticity. But it took me several months to finally realise it.

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0:00 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
4:30 - Introduction to the "Celebration" photo challenge
9:28 - Getting in close - wide aperture - zoom in - bokeh
13:23 - Notions of Still Life
32:46 - Blurring the background
40:30 - Glass as transparent, but also reflective
46:58 - Is capturing the emotion more important than getting it technically right?
1:18:30 - Introducing complementary colours to make the main one stand out
1:28:35 - Movement in Still Life
1:35:50 - Selecting your images to shape your authentic voice
1:45:38 - Revisiting the idea of emotion vs technical this time with latka...
1:58:00 - End

If you found this interesting/useful/entertaining, then please consider supporting these podcasts and blog posts via buymeacoffee.com/kimayres

Also consider subscribing to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to help me build the numbers.

And, or course, if you would like to submit a photo for feedback, or just ask a photography related question, then do join my Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres  Facebook group and I will put it into the following podcast:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/

Celebration Photo Challenge - and Episode 35 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

A few weeks ago I set a " Rain Photo Challenge" for the viewers of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres. Despite my fears the response would just be tumble-weeds rolling past, it turned out to be one of the most engaged podcasts I've done so far.

On the back of that I announced I would make it a monthly event, which of course now means I have to think up Challenge ideas forevermore.

Mind you, in about 10 years time I'm sure I could repeat some of them and no one would notice...

However, Challenge Number 2 I decided would be Celebration.

Now we're in December, the knowledge that Christmas is later this month is suffusing pretty much every decision we're making.

Of course, one thing I have to be aware of when hosting a podcast with viewers from other parts of the world is not everyone does Christmas, so "Celebration" makes for a wider, more inclusive option.

The winter solstice, and Hanukkah (have fun watching me trying to figure out how to pronounce it on the podcast) are around the same time, as is New Year. But it can also include birthdays, winning something, or achievements of any kind.

The reactions in the comments was varied with Becca stating she was bursting with ideas, while Greg felt it would be a tough challenge for a landscape photographer. And Viji could be forgiven for feeling a bit blank until she could have her coffee the following morning, given it was about 2am in India while she was watching...

If you would like to take part you can submit your image either to the Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/

or to the Event Page I've set up:
https://www.facebook.com/events/859203354925984/

Ideas could include:

Objects
Symbols
Preparations
Individuals
Groups or crowds
Reactions
Close-up macro shots
or wide open shots taking in the larger scene

But if you find you're struggling, then submit a photo you're having difficulty with and explain the problem and I can include suggestions and ideas in the podcast too.

If you think you'd like to give it a go, then do submit your image to the FB group or event page, or if you're not on FB, then email me your image and you can watch my response the following day on the YouTube recording, which will also be posted here on this blog.

Meanwhile, here is last night's episode – and if you just want to hear about the Celebration Challenge, then skip to 29 minutes and 28 seconds in.

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0.00 - What's coming up
8:05 - Steel hares and swarms of midges - photographing sculptures for Geoff Forrest
29:28 - Ideas and pointers for next week's "Celebration" photo challenge
42:58 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres" 1:40:13 - Portraits - looking into the camera, or not?
1:49:40 - Coming up next week
1:50:25 - End

If you found this interesting/useful/entertaining, then please consider supporting these podcasts and blog posts via buymeacoffee.com/kimayres

Also consider subscribing to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to help me build the numbers.

And, or course, if you would like to submit a photo for feedback, or just ask a photography related question, then do join my Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres  Facebook group and I will put it into the following podcast:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/