Painting With Shadows: 2020

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

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/

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

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.

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

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.

Wednesday, December 09, 2020

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.

---

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.

Wednesday, December 02, 2020

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.

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Storytelling, Shortcuts and Stereotypes - and Episode 34 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

About 10 minutes into this episode of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres, I go off on a slight, but relevant, tangent about how going on a storytelling workshop had a profound influence on my understanding of the way people interact with each other. And I wanted to expand on that thought a bit.

In essence, we make sense of the world through creating, and overlaying, a whole series of stories and narratives onto the people and events around us.

As such, we rarely see other people as the rich, complex, multi-layered beings they are, but tend to assign shortcut character descriptions to them, often based on little more than 2 or 3 obvious characteristics.

And not infrequently judgements are made based on only a single characteristic – colour of skin, disability, accent, political leaning etc. We only have to look at the divisiveness of the current political landscape to see how whole swathes of people are written off, ignored, or seen as ignorant and evil.

It's perhaps not surprising we are quick to create stereotypes and act on them in an instant. Our primal ancestors needed this ability to survive.

Those with a tendency to say, “Who is this person heading towards me in a strange outfit with a club raised above their head as though ready to strike? Perhaps they are just expressing a greeting in a culturally different way. I should just head over and say hello...” didn't tend to survive long enough to pass on their genes.

As has been said before, we are the descendants of the paranoid and the obsessive compulsives.

As a portrait and narrative photographer I exploit these mental shortcuts we make to create images where people can assume they know more about the person or scene before them, because of the outfit, props or expressions the subject is displaying.

If I want someone to come across as intellectual, then I can have them peering over the top of their glasses. Look like a leader? Have a stern expression and shoot the camera from a lower angle looking up so they appear, literally, above us. Pirate? Stick on a tri-corner hat, and probably an eye patch too.

The more experienced writers know how to enrich stories, or even throw their readers off-guard, by introducing unexpected character traits to people we thought we'd already summed up.

The thing is, the more levels of complexity we know about a person, the easier it is to start empathising. Even if we dislike an action they take, we might still understand why, and that makes it harder to hate them.

This is why those who would exploit our emotions for political or profitable ends will so often reduce “the other” to a single, undesirable characteristic, which supposedly says everything we need to know and all other aspects are irrelevant by comparison.

And just as surely they will reduce us to a single favourable characteristic so we feel we are on the right side.

Until, that is, it is more profitable to define us as the other instead...

If you're interested in reading more about seeing the world in narratives, here are a few blog posts I wrote several years ago on the subject

We Are The Authors of Our Own Story
Chalk Lines
Who's The Baddy?

In the meantime, here's last night's podcast...

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0.00 - What's coming up
8.40 - The Storyteller - photographing Tony Bonning in the woods at sunset
21:57 - My "workhorse" lens
23:30 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres" 1:53:44 - Coming up next week
1:55:12 - 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.

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

If you build it... - and Episode 33 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

I've been wondering about this blog.

Since I began the Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres podcast at the beginning of the first Covid-19 Lockdown, without fail I have written a post on Wednesday mornings and embedded the video of the previous night's episode.

Sometimes the posts have been about a specific aspect of the podcast, or about something that went wrong, or sometimes they have gone off on a complete tangent only loosely related to an idea triggered by it.

But coming up with fresh content week in week out is getting more and more difficult.

The podcasts themselves are relatively future proof, so long as people send me their images to critique. Even if many of the solutions are repeated – shutter speed, use of diagonals or backlight etc – each case is unique. So the content is infinite and yet always fresh.

These blog posts, however, are mostly a reflection of my state of mind – and that can be somewhat repetitive.

Especially in these Covid times, which so often have such a Groundhog Day feel to them.

How do you write something new when the world keeps repeating itself?

You might get one post out of pointing it out, but after that you're just repeating yourself, yourself...

It might help if I knew there was anybody reading it.

I do get the occasional comment, but it's pretty rare. Blogger statistics tell me each post gets anything from 50 to 150 views, but a view is not necessarily a read. A click and a click back after glancing at the headline counts as a view, even though it wasn't consumed.

So I start wondering - is it worth the time and energy (and these things are in such short supply when you live with ME/CFS) to keep going with it?

There is so much marketing advice out there that tells you to write a blog to help build a following. But I've had this blog for over 15 years and just because I built it doesn't mean anyone's looking at it.

Bleargh.

Feeling tired and low this morning, and therein also lies part of the problem – when you feel crap, it's difficult to think with enthusiasm and positivity.

So to the one, possibly two, possibly no people who actually read this – ignore me, I'm just having a bad day.

Take a look at the podcast below – I was much more on form last night...

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0.00 - What's coming up
6.35 - Amber on a white pony in a bluebell wood.
16:35 - How to get the most out of the Critique section of the podcasts
22:00 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres" 1:24:09 - Coming up next week
1:25:30 - 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.

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Optimism - and Episode 32 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

You know, I don't think that went too badly after all.

Despite the fears that introducing a new element to the podcasts might have resulted in most of my regulars deciding to give it miss, engagement actually went up.

The "Rain Challenge Special" last night had 17 different people send me around 25 photos, and in the chat area there were over 100 comments – not just for me, but many among each other.

Almost feels like I might be on to something...

What started out 7 months ago as primarily me just talking into the webcam about photography, has moved from a one-sided conversation to the start of building a community based around a love of photography and a desire to improve.

I love the fact there are people from different parts of the world, different religions, different cultures, different genders, different age groups, different skill levels, and different struggles.

Diversity is what helps us grow.

To see the world as others see it, and not just be restricted to our own viewpoint, expands our minds and our possibilities.

This is true of photography, and of course it's true of life.

It's still a very early stage and on a very small scale, but I can feel an optimism that if we carefully nurture it, this could grow and evolve into something quite beautiful.

Meanwhile, feeling a sense of success from last night, I've decided I will turn the themed challenge into a regular monthly event for people to participate in and share with everyone else who wishes to take part.

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0.00 - What's coming up
4.25 - The difficulty of photographing rain, and the best way to go about it.
22:05 - Effects of rain droplets on glass
34:25 - Effects of raindrops on plants
56:20 - Using reflections
1:26:00 - Coming up next week
1:27:40 - 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.

Wednesday, November 04, 2020

Rain Photo Challenge - and Episode 31 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

The podcast has now been going for 7 months, with a pretty steady format. I start with the story behind a particular photo shoot I was involved in – the who, how and why particular decisions were made – and then move on to the Critique section where people can submit their images for professional feedback.

The only exception to this was Episode 14, back in July, when I did a Camera Club special and judged 20+ photos for 3 local camera clubs that had joined forces online.

Last month, I also did a workshop spread over 4 days for Spring Fling, where each day I set a themed challenge. I was quite blown away by the response – the submission numbers were considerably higher than in my regular podcasts, and there was quite a bit of wonderfully original thought gone in to many of them.

Since then I've been wondering whether to introduce something similar into Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres, and last night I decided to put it into action.

Next week – Episode 32 – will be a Challenge Special on the theme of RAIN.

Anyone who would like to take part can submit their 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/640699716595191

Ideas include shots of the rain itself (rainy scenes, splashes), the effects of the rain (puddles, reflections, patterns and textures on surfaces) or the reactions to rain (people with umbrellas, or dancing in it).

As with any new idea I am simultaneously excited and terrified.

Excited by the notion that the podcast is evolving, that it will create more participation and interaction, and to see what different kinds of interpretations anyone will come up with.

Terrified by the idea that no one will take part, I will look like an idiot, and another possible future is closed off.

I'm hoping for the former, but taking the risk of the latter.

If it does work, however, I'll probably make it regular part of the podcasts, perhaps having a monthly themed challenge.

Meanwhile, here is last night's episode – and if you just want to hear about the Rain Challenge, then skip to 34 minutes and 20 seconds in.

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0.00 - What's coming up
3.42 - Mad Hatter's Tea Party photo shoot for Castle Douglas High School Young Enterprise Group.
26:00 - How to get notifications of posts and videos in the Facebook group
29:35 - Submitted Halloween Photos
34:20 - Photo Challenge for next week - examples and suggestions: RAIN
50:15 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:18:10 - 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.

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Cross Fertilisation - and Episode 30 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

"Mwahahahahaaaa..." (evil laugh, possible wolf howling off in the distance)

It was supposed to be deep and resonate.

I forgot my throat is nearly always dry for the first couple of minutes of my podcast, so instead it came out a bit higher pitched than intended, and certainly no deep resonance.

And as for the wolf, well, I think you might just hear a car driving past...

That's the problem with a live show. You've had to commit to whatever comes out of your mouth, even as you realise it's not working. You can't do another take.

So much for my Halloween special introduction...

However, I think the rest of the podcast went well enough. Numbers were up, although I think that was largely to do with the fact potters, Fitch & McAndrew – who were the clients of photo shoot I was talking about - had shared the event page, the Instagram post, and the actual podcast as it went live.

And the reason I decided to talk about their photo shoot this week is because they are having their 5th Annual Online Exhibition this Friday, 30th October.

Here are the links to their website and their Facebook page – do go and take a look, and follow, subscribe etc

https://fitchandmcandrew.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/fitchandmcandrew/

It's always lovely when you can get a bit of cross-fertilisation with other creatives: I introduce my followers to them and they introduce theirs to me.

It doesn't always happen. An awful lot of creatives I know are neither social media, nor marketing savvy. By and large they, quite understandably, want to get on with creating and not be distracted by having to promote themselves or their work, which requires a totally different skill set and brain wiring.

This is not to say that either Fitch & McAndrew, or I, are experts in any way. It's more a case of the "in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king..."

We're all struggling along in our own ways. But to help each other out, however slight, is still a heart warming thing.

And it helps that they really are a wonderful couple with lovely kids, and I count them very much as friends more than clients.

---

0.00 - Halloween-style intro...
0.17 - What's coming up
6:32 - Photo shoot for potters, Fitch and McAndrew
30:00 - Cool birthday presents!
38:26 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:17:18 - 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/

Sunday, October 25, 2020

54 Today

Most years I've blogged on my birthday. But with the exception of the large party I had for my 50th, for the most part it's a quiet family affair that follows a relatively predictable, although very enjoyable, sequence.

This year I realised was going to be different though. With Covid-19 and social distancing in place, I would not be going to In House Chocolates for a hot chocolate or mocha. Nor would we be going to Cream o' Galloway for an ice cream after a walk on the beach. And apart from Meg, none of the children or grandchildren would be joining us for dinner.

And while there might officially be some leeway for certain, limited, households to mingle, we cannot include ourselves in it.

We've always suspected that Meg might be in a higher risk category because of all sorts of associated conditions she has with her Down's Syndrome, even though she was never included in the official lists.

However, the other day I read a scientifically backed report which had discovered that the death rate for people with DS who contract Covid-19 is 10 times higher than the normal population.

We cannot take any risks.

Like many, part of our way of dealing with the situation on a mental health level is to pretty much pretend it isn't happening most of the time. While we're in the house, life isn't much different from before.

But as soon as you start planning any kind of birthday celebrations, it's inevitable a reality-attack will happen. So of course, there's a tinge of sadness about it.

However, within the constraints, we've had a lovely day.

Our morning trip to the Shed Café was enhanced by a home made mocha and a successful Megalicious choc-chip cookie experiment.

After lunch we went for a walk on a beach. It felt incredibly crowded, although in reality there were probably no more than 20 people there.

Still trying to get the hang of selfies...

We enjoyed it, although felt the need to cut it short as a couple of people had dogs off the lead that looked like they would charge over to, and leap up on, anyone they thought looked interesting.

We had to take the long way back to the car to avoid them.

Maggie didn't disappoint (she never does) when it came to my birthday cake though.

We've managed to keep a really good healthy eating regime going this year. Experience over the decades has taught us that it's fine to have the occasional blow-out, but it has to be contained to one day.

The problem with cake, especially when there are only 3 of us, is there will be leftovers for another day or two - and that can make it difficult to get back on track.

So this time, as part of another Megalicious experiment, she and Meg created chocolate brownies made with ground hazelnuts, meaning not only are they gluten-free, but had a praline-type flavour. It also meant any leftovers could be easily frozen for another occasion and not be left out for temptation.

Of course I ate too much - but then what would you expect?

Some years, around this time, I do a self portrait. I find I have a curiosity about how my face is changing with age.

I recently stumbled across a photo I took 7½ years back, and decided to recreate it:

Early 2013 - back when I used to think I looked old

Late 2020 - the eyebrows are definitely getting more unruly

Since Lockdown began 7 months back, I've lost around 16lbs. And I'm probably about 30lbs lighter than I was in that younger version of me.

I've been quite surprised to discover I have cheekbones (look at that angular bit just in front of my ear!).

Never seen them before. Even when I was a teenager I had a rounder, fleshier face.

The world at the moment is both incredibly familiar, as at times it feels more like some kind of Groundhog Day scenario where nearly every day is identical to the last - and also incredibly strange, as there are aspects to it where I have no framework or prior experience to make sense of it all.

At this point it feels difficult to have any idea what I, or the world, will look like by the time my 55th birthday rolls around...

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Temporal Debt - and Episode 29 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Financial debt is a part of many people's lives. Indeed, most of the Global Economy is built on it.

Money is borrowed from the future to deal with the problems of the now, in the hope that by the time the future comes, the finances will be in a better shape to pay it off.

For some, financial debt is taken to such a point that they have maxed out on every possible source of borrowing. They now live in a permanent state where not only do they not have enough to properly live on, but the interest on the debt is continuing to build up, such that they will never escape it.

Having grown up with a close relative whose attitude was more or less, "better to have something for 6 months and have it reclaimed, than never to have had it at all...", my own attitude to money has always been more cautious.

However, I've come to realise I live in a permanent state of temporal debt.

I never have enough time or energy, so am continually borrowing from the future, while at the same time constantly paying a vastly inflated price for it.

This is the problem of living with ME/CFS, while at the same time trying to earn a living so that financial debt does not become an issue.

As well as being something I enjoy doing, and want to do more of, the podcasts are also the foundation of the way I am pivoting my photography business in this Covid world of ours.

As I look towards doing more in the way of teaching online, starting and growing a membership, and finding other streams of income than taking photos for people, I have effectively been in business-startup mode for the past 7 months or so.

Starting a business takes up considerably more time and energy than maintaining a business, and Chronic Fatigue means everything takes way, way longer than it would otherwise.

The rate of progression feels painfully slow, and I am constantly pushing myself to, and beyond, my limits.

There are days I can achieve a bit more, but the cost is that the following day or two I will be wiped out and achieve little to nothing.

But I find that almost every day I'm trying to borrow a bit more of that time from the future, while still paying for the debt of yesterday.

There's a point in last night's podcast where my mind just switches off for a moment and I cannot find any coherent thoughts.

Fortunately it doesn't last long. But while I try and maintain an upbeat energy in my presentation, when editing the podcast I can see quite a few points where I'm borrowing from today.

And today, in order to write this blog post, upload the edited video to YouTube, and link and promote it on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, I'm very aware of borrowing even more from tomorrow.

It's not always quite as bad as this on a Tuesday/Wednesday. After 29 weeks of doing the live video podcast I've become pretty good at taking things easy on a Monday and not involving myself in stress-related thoughts and activities on a Tuesday morning.

However, yesterday I had to go to the health centre to have a pint of blood removed (part of an ongoing treatment for haemochromatosis).

I could probably have coped with just being a pint of blood short, but the stress levels associated with having to go a health centre these days are disproportionally huge. No matter the levels of hand-sanitising and face mask wearing, the fear of picking something up, in a place where ill people congregate, is pretty anxiety inducing.

So before they day was properly underway, I was already ready to keel over.

There is plenty of financial crisis and debt management advice about, but where do you go for help for temporal debt?

On a lighter note, the momentary switch off aside, last night's podcast was enjoyable. It was fun to revisit the photo shoot I did with local indie-band, Kasama, and I gave some really shit hot advice on using window light with your selfies...

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0.00 - What's coming up
3:20 - Photo shoot for local Indie band, Kasaman
16:40 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:17:30 - End

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Recovering from the Workshops - and Episode 28 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

When I began my podcast last night, it felt like it had been weeks since my last one – not just a mere 7 days.

In between I had done my live, online photography workshop over 4 consecutive evenings for Spring Fling Rescheduled (see last post).

In some ways it was just more of me sitting in front of the webcam, talking, putting up images on the screen, and saying "hi" to people who were leaving comments. But the workshops were not the same as the regular podcasts.

Rather than me talking about photo shoots I've done in the past, and then critiquing images people had sent to me, this was a hands-on experience where people were assigned tasks and then shared their photos.

Before the workshops began, one of the conversations I'd had with the organisers was, what if no one joined in? We were fairly sure some people would watch them, but there was no guarantee anyone would take up any of the assignments and submit their images.

However, in the end my fears were unfounded – there was plenty of engagement, with people taking part from around the world – from the USA to India, and even one "hi" from Australia!

It was intense, and required a lot of energy though.

Needless to say there was a lot of preparation beforehand, and after each session I had to edit, render and upload the video so it could be ready for the Spring Fling website the following day – allowing people who couldn't be there for the live version to still follow along.

On the Saturday I also did a photo shoot for a friend, and by the evening I was already exhausted before I began.

But I had to be high-energy for the workshops. You cannot expect people to give up their time for someone who is not giving their all. Effective teaching is as much a performance as it is imparting information.

Looking back when I was editing it, I can see there are places when I begin to flag, and then there's a brief pause as I realise what's happening, dig deep, and raise the levels again.

But the ME/CFS doesn't like me doing that very often and I paid for it most of the following day – until I had to do the same thing on Sunday.

The enthusiasm and response of the people who took part, though, did help to energise me. Otherwise I'm not entirely sure how I would have got through it.

Last night's podcast, by comparison, felt like a much gentler affair.

Partly this was because I was back on more familiar territory, having now done 28 weekly episodes, and partly because only 2 people submitted images for critique, so I was finished in less than an hour, which is pretty rare for me.

However, with all the intensity of the workshop sessions, last week's podcast felt like it had happened months ago, and it was a little like returning to a place that at once is both familiar and distant in the memories.

I did enjoy the chance to revisit the photo shoot I did with singer, Robyn Stapleton, at Comlongon Castle a few years ago, though. I learned a huge amount from that experience, which fed into a lot of subsequent commissions.

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0.00 - What's coming up
2:50 - Photo shoot at Comlongon Castle with singer, Robyn Stapleton
23:49 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
57:30 - End

Wednesday, October 07, 2020

Spring Fling, Photography Workshop - and Episode 27 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

With Spring Fling being an open studios event, where it's very purpose is for visitors to go into studios and workshops, and meet and talk directly to artists and makers, Covid-19 could not have been more detrimental to its existence.

Since 2003, the last weekend in May has been one of the busiest times of the year for many local artists, making preparations for large numbers of people coming into their workspaces. But this year was different.

However, rather than completely writing it off and cancelling it, the organisers decided to postpone it, and redesign it as an online event.

All this week, then (5th to 12th October) is Spring Fling Rescheduled.
https://www.spring-fling.co.uk/

Each participating studio has a page on the Spring Fling website, and many have been expanded to include images of their spaces and videos of their practices.

On my one, for example, I have created a video giving an introduction to how changing the direction of your light source can have a huge impact on the mood of your photo.
https://www.spring-fling.co.uk/portfolio-posts/kim-ayres/

On Maggie's page you can follow her talking through one of her primary sketch books for the series of paintings on “breath”, which is the focus of her current body of work.
https://www.spring-fling.co.uk/portfolio-posts/maggie-ayres/

Additionally there are 2 photography workshops you can follow and join in.

One is about cyanotype printing. Izzy Leach, whom I have been mentoring through the Upland “Emerge” programme, has put together a video and list of ingredients and tools to make it work. She's highly creative as well as warm and friendly, and I would certainly recommend you check it out
https://www.spring-fling.co.uk/kind-of-blue/

The other is by me and is going to be spread over 4 evenings this week.
https://www.spring-fling.co.uk/photography-workshop/

Each evening at 8pm (UK time) from Thursday to Sunday, I will be on Facebook Live, taking you through an introduction to different kinds of photography, and then setting you wee tasks to have a go yourself.

Here's the event page on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/events/756127085231822/

And if you like and follow Spring Fling's page, you should get notified when I go live
https://www.facebook.com/springflingopenstudios/

If anyone wants to post their images on Facebook before the following evening, I'll give some feedback on them.

On Thursday I'll be talking about different ways to photograph a household item and make it more interesting.

On Friday I'll be talking about doors and windows – photographing them, and photographing through them.

On Saturday I'll be talking about portraits and selfies.

And on Sunday, as well as reviewing the images, I'll pick my favourite, and the winner will get a one-to-one online photography mentoring session with me.

You don't need a fancy DSLR – anything from a phone to a tablet to a point-and-shoot (or a fancy DSLR if you have one) can be used – nor any clever lighting set up either.

The whole thing has been designed for people to be able to take part with minimal equipment, from their own homes, in case they are in a Lockdown situation.

And another advantage about this all being online is you don't have to be in SW Scotland to take part either. It doesn't matter what part of the world you live in, so long as you take into consideration the time differences, and that when I say 8pm, I am referring to UK time.

If for any reason you can't make the live sessions on Facebook, they will be recorded and uploaded to the workshop page on the Spring Fling website by the following morning
https://www.spring-fling.co.uk/photography-workshop/

Do let your friends and families know too – for anyone who's ever wanted to improve their photography, even if it is only on their phones for their social media posts, then this is a great way to improve your understanding of the medium.

I do hope you'll be able to join me.

Meanwhile, in this week's podcast, I talked about my involvement in various Spring Fling events over the years, including the time I photographed 127 Humphrey Bogarts...

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0.00 - What's coming up
4:35 - Introduction to Spring Fling Open Studios
5:55 - My Spring Fling experience over several years
15:55 - I'm Humphrey Bogart, and so's my wife...
46:25 - Introduction to a Photography Workshop in conjunction with Spring Fling
53:58 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:18:00 - Ethics of removing an object in landscape photography
1:36:00 - End

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Finding Gems - and Episode 26 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Wigtown Book Festival – one of Scotland's largest literary events – is taking place online this year.

Dozens of interviews with authors, as well as music, workshops, and all sorts of extras are available, free of charge, to anyone in the world who visits the site until Sunday 4th October.

In last night's podcast I talked about my first involvement with the Festival back in 2011, when I was “Artist in Residence”.

Across the 10 days I took 173 moody black and white photos of authors, visitors and locals, which I printed up and covered the walls of a studio space I was given.

There is the world of difference between taking a stand-alone portrait, and creating a large, themed collection of scores of faces.

Most of the time, when I am asked to do a portrait for someone, it is for business or promotional purposes – their website or an avatar on a social media site or a press release. And usually there is the need for them to look warm, friendly and approachable, so a smile of some kind is required.

But when you can escape the need for a smile, the human face is capable of projecting so many more emotions – from the big to the subtle to the complex. Now there is space to explore so much more. As such, the “no smiles allowed” aspect of the project was a key part of the whole process.

As I looked back over the photos, taken when I was considerably less knowledgeable about photography, there are of course many that I just wouldn't do that way now.

However, what is rather lovely is to rediscover some which I feel still stand up – indeed I would be delighted if I took today.

Here are a handful of my favourites

I think my younger, less skilled, less experienced self was definitely on to something, even if he wasn't always entirely sure what it was...

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0.00 - What's coming up
0:06 - Introduction to Wigtown Book Festival Online
06:05 - Being an Artist in Residence at Wigtown Book Festival 39:15 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:11:00 - Adjusting shutter speed and aperture to capture bright light
1:28:00 - Coming up next week

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Where Did The Comments Go? - and Episode 25 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Things going wrong is just a part of life.

We learn what we can so that hopefully we can avoid them happening again, and then move on.

But after 2 dozen episodes of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres, I keep thinking I've surely learned enough for the podcasts to run more smoothly.

Yet last night, completely inexplicably, I couldn't seem to find the comments people were leaving.

I don't know if it's something to do with Facebook's new layout, although it's been like that for a few weeks now.

Or perhaps it's because I launched the video from the Event page rather than my Kim Ayres Photography Facebook page – but then I'm sure I did that last week and didn't have the same problem.

It's one thing to work it out when you have time, but the sudden pressure when you're live broadcasting is immense. Each extra few seconds runs the chance of losing more viewers.

After a while I started to wonder if I should just make my apologies and forget about the comments and move on with the show. But the comments are now an integral part of it, and contribute a great deal to my enjoyment of doing the podcasts.

It's not like I'm being paid to do them.

Oh of course there are loose ideas about it them helping me to build an audience, reputation and brand, but first and foremost I have to enjoy them – otherwise what's the point?

And for me, the biggest satisfactions come from the sense of a) I'm helping people, and b) the opportunity it gives me to connect with others in these socially distanced times.

So no, I couldn't really contemplate the idea of not being able to see what people were saying, and be unable to respond to them.

Eventually I grabbed my tablet to access the video through that in order to see the comments.

For the YouTube version below, I think I've had to edit out about 6 or 7 minutes or me scrambling about trying to find solutions, mumbling into my beard, and apologising to anyone watching.

Technology is such an amazing thing when it works, and such a curse when it doesn't...

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0.00 - What's coming up
2:28 - Introduction to the photo shoots I did with artist, Maggie Ayres, who also happens to be my wife
10:50 - Creating a new shoot under Lockdown
20:25 - Photograph at the Shed Café
30:03 - The struggle to find the comments
34:12 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
50:40 - How important are titles for photographic images?
1:11:00 - Adjusting shutter speed and aperture to capture bright light
1:22:50 - Coming up next week

Friday, September 18, 2020

Pip and Ell Jewellery

There have been few (translate that as zero) clients asking for the kind of staged narrative photos I love to do, since the onset of Covid-19, Lockdown and Social Distancing.

And while much of my time has been spent looking into ways to increase my online presence and opportunities, I've been having periodic bouts of what are basically withdrawal symptoms. I love what I do and have been more than a little frustrated at not being able to do it.

A couple of months ago, I noticed Piper and Ella Booth had set up a small handmade jewellery business, using polymer clay to create bold, colourful designs, called “Pip and Ell”
You can find the Facebook page here - https://www.facebook.com/pipandell/
and their Etsy shop here - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/PipandEll

Piper was one of Meg's earliest friends when she started primary school shortly after we moved to this corner of Scotland. Even when she went to University, she would always meet up with Meg for coffee or lunch when she was back in the area.

Piper's younger sister, Ella, I first met when I did a photo shoot for the Castle Douglas High School Young Enterprise Group, “Set in Stone”, which ended up on the cover of Dumfries & Galloway Life magazine (see - https://kimayres.blogspot.com/2018/02/set-in-stone.html), and is now studying Medicine.

Feeling at a bit of a loose end, I got in touch to see if they fancied a photo shoot to help promote their business. Fortunately they leapt at the chance.

We had a video meeting and I asked them to set up a Pinterest Board to develop visual ideas for the shoot.

It wasn't surprising to find most of the images they posted reflected the strong, bold colours of their jewellery designs.

At the next video chat we explored the ideas in-depth, and came up with the notion of them creating giant props shaped like their earring designs. These could then be used as part of a set they could build in the garden, so the shoot could be done under strict social distancing conditions.

I took all my equipment, along with a camp chair, packed lunch and a flask. There's no doubt it will take some time before I get completely used to the idea of not being able to accept an offer and tea and biscuits when on a photo shoot.

They also invited along their friend, Holly, to do some behind the scenes videoing for us. Holly is the daughter of Gillian, of the wonderful In House Chocolates and helped us film the behind the scenes video of the 7 Deadly Sins of Chocolate photo shoot we did last year (see - The 7 Deadly Sins of Chocolate)

It was a fun shoot, working with young, enthusiastic, intelligent, creatives, and was just the antidote I needed for the withdrawal symptoms I'd been suffering.

Back home at the computer, I worked on an editing treatment that ramped up the boldness of the style of their jewellery, making sure the colours really popped.

It then occurred to me this was the perfect combination of images and story for Dumfries and Galloway Life, so I contacted commissioning editor, Andrea, to see if she'd be interested.

She was. And the latest edition (Issue 155 – October) features a 3-page spread of my images and an interview Andrea did with Piper and Ella, as well as the main image at the beginning of the business section of the magazine.

Here are my favourite images from the shoot, and scroll down for the behind the scenes video.

Behind the scenes video of the photo shoot

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Who's judging? - and Episode 24 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

If last week's blog post was about how can we judge whether a photograph we've taken is any good or not, this week I want to look at how others judge our work.

Perhaps I'm just rehashing the same argument, but it's an area I'm rather obsessed with at the moment. I guess the fact I'm offering help to people on how to improve their photography has something to with it – to “improve” something is to automatically judge it wasn't as good as it could have been.

But when in the comments on last night's podcast, Stacy wrote, “I sometimes feel that some aren't qualified to judge” I shot off on a 4 minute tangent/exploration/rant on what more or less amounted to how we can judge who's judging us.

It's very tempting to think that we create is objectively good or bad, but this throws us into confusion every time we get more than one verdict on our work.

This person said it was amazing, but that person was indifferent to it! Who was right? Whose opinion should I value more?

So when we know how much time, effort and skill we put into creating our work, but it doesn't seem to be recognised or valued by our intended audience, it's very easy to feel they have got it wrong.

Especially when other people seem to be favourably judging what we can see is clearly an inferior image.

Perhaps they didn't spend enough time studying our photograph; perhaps they are corrupt and are going to award the prize to their wife's cousin; or perhaps they are an imbecile who wouldn't know a good photo if it slapped them in the face!

Or maybe my judgement skills are completely off, and my work is just so crap, and I'm so crap, that I should just give up now and leave it to people who are better than me.

How can we make sense of it?

Well the first thing we have to do is get rid of any idea of some kind of objective truth to it all.

Quite simply there are multiple agendas, and any verdict on our work is going to be based on a particular set of criteria that will vary from place to place and person to person.

I've talked before about how I can put up what I consider to be one of my best pieces of work on Facebook only for it to receive less than 20 likes. And yet a quick selfie of me and my daughter can gather over 200.

Is the selfie a better photo?

Well, it's a better photo for Facebook, where images are judged on social content rather than technical expertise.

Recently I was in conversation with other photographers about online competition sites like GuruShots and ViewBug, where after a while you start to realise subtlety is utterly lost. The loudest, more obvious, and most cliched images tend to do best.

So should I make my photography more contrasty, more saturated, and more mainstream?

Frankly, if I want to do well in those competitions, then yes.

But that same criteria would work against me if I was entering my photos onto sites like 1x or One Eyeland.

Exactly the same photo can win one competition yet languish in the bottom 10% of votes in another.

In his comment on my blog post last week, Keith talked of the success of an image being based on whether it achieved it purpose.

So understanding the audience is the key to gaining recognition from that audience.

If I want to impress that set of photographers, then I need to develop my technical skills.

If I want to win more prizes on competition sites where there is crowd voting, then I need to abandon subtlety.

And if I want to impress on Facebook, then I need to do more selfies with my daughter.

Most of us want some form of recognition and praise for what we do, but for that we either need to adjust our style to suit particular audiences, or we have to seek it from those who already share our tastes and values.

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0.00 - What's coming up
3:00 - Introduction to the Pip and Ell photo shoot
14:30 - Using Pinterest Boards for working with clients
16:00 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
30:20 - Who is qualified to judge your photo?
1:35:00 - Coming up next week

Wednesday, September 09, 2020

The Proof is in The Pudding - and Episode 23 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

What makes it a good photo?
Or a good piece of art?
Or a good meal?

As someone who now has a weekly podcast where the lion's share is dedicated to helping people improve their photography, this is something I come back to again and again.

Is what makes a good photo the fact that the photographer was skilled and knowledgeable about all the technical aspects of the camera?

Or that they enjoyed creating it?

Or that they put a lot of effort into creating it?

Or that this particular critic or knowledgeable person says it's good?

Or that the image contains at minimum of a 126 of the 437 rules of colour and composition as laid down in the Ancient Chronicles of Sinullia and carefully controlled by the Custodians of Gaethred?

Is it all of these things?

Is it none of them?

A few weeks ago I wrote about how many artists see art as the process, and how the final piece is almost a by-product. But the moment it is complete, then everyone else gets their say and places a monetary value on it.

So in that case, the first question is, who is asking the question?

That photo will mean different things to different people, and thereby induce different judgements.

But there is a widespread idea that, at the very least, the creator should be highly knowledgeable of the technicals.

I have seen multiple variations of this over the past few years, and to begin with it used to make me chuckle.

But now, I find it annoys the hell out of me.

Because for me, the proof is in the pudding.

What makes an image a good photo for me is whether it connects to me on some level.

Perhaps it reminds me of a person, a place, an event, or an emotional state.

Or maybe it inspires, or fascinates, or evokes a new train of thought.

Now perhaps knowing the skill of the photographer, or the story of what went into the creation of the image, or even knowledge of their personality, will have an impact on how I view it.

But that doesn't override the simple fact of whether it does it for me.

Do I, as a viewer, get something from this?

And if I do and you don't, or the other way round, then who is right, and does it matter?

However, if you want help with how to convey your story, then I can give you assistance with my knowledge, skills and experience.

And as someone who offers critique to anyone wanting to improve their photography, I would encourage you to understand how the camera works, become familiar with different kinds of composition, and to learn how light can be manipulated to create different moods and effects.

It's not that you have to know all these things before you can create, rather they are tools that will help you to capture the story or mood you want to convey.

Whether the photo is only ever going to be for you to look at, or if you want other people to feel the same emotion you did when you took it, then understanding how the camera works, and notions of light, line and form, is extraordinarily useful.

But rule number one is - does it tell the story you want it to. And if it does, then job done, and no one has the right to tell you it's wrong.

Not even me.

Although I do retain my right not to have to buy it from you...

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0.00 - What's coming up
2:35 - Introduction to the Earth's Crust Bakery photo shoots
20:05 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
25:00 - Dealing with shadow patterns
55:09 - Using the Orton effect
1:14:20 - Coming up next week

Wednesday, September 02, 2020

Resistant to Change - and Episode 22 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

For a species that owes it's survival, evolution, and ability to conquer and occupy every corner of the world to our ability to adapt, we humans can be remarkably resistant to change.

Forget global pandemics, the rise of fascism, and the wholesale destruction of the planet – the new layout of Facebook seems to trump them all.

Change: we really don't seem to like it very much.

I guess sometimes, though, it's the little things can act as the trigger for all the emotions we've been desperately trying to ignore, because the big picture is, well, just too big.

In the past few weeks, it's not only Facebook that have made changes in the apps I use.

Camera Raw – a part of Photoshop I've been using for many years – recently decided to alter it's layout and each time I go to make a particular alteration to an image I have to hunt to find the button or slider that is no longer where I expected it to be.

And for those who use Google's Blogger as their primary platform for blogging, they too have changed their interface and until I've adapted to it, everything will take longer and therefore be more irritating.

There comes a point where we just want to scream.

It's the sense of a lack of control.

We just want to get on with our lives, but other forces, bigger forces, forces that could squash us like an insect – political, environmental, biological - get in the way.

We are so helpless in the face of these huge things that, mostly, we can only get by by pretty much ignoring it all.

Keep calm and carry on.

But the small things, the ones that really shouldn't make any difference – like a new layout Facebook, someone jumping the queue, or getting a spam phone call from a marketing company – these are the things that tip us over the edge.

These are the things where we feel we ought to have control, but still don't.

They might be trivial, “first world problems”, but they remind us just how vulnerable we are.

I remember when my mother went for an operation to remove a small cyst in her ear. As they started to cut it out they discovered she had cancer and had to cut much deeper. When she came to, she was missing the entire ear and half her face was paralysed.

But it was when she went to read a book and suddenly discovered her glasses wouldn't stay on her head because there wasn't an ear for them to hook over, that she had a bit of a meltdown.

What this has to do with last night's podcast, I'm not entirely sure.

Mind you, few of my weekly blogs seem that closely related to the podcasts.

I think I mentioned the changes to Camera Raw during the episode at one point, and it seemed to tie in with the new changes to Facebook. It felt like something I could blog about.

But sometimes it seems like I don't even have complete control over what I'm going to write...

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0:00 - What's coming up
2:10 - Introduction to the "Dr Megaphone" photo shoot
12:50 - Creating an old glass-plate photo effect
24:10 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
48:50 - how the angle of the camera affects a portrait
1:15:45 - Coming up next week