Inspiration from failed photos - and Episode 47 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Podcast at the end of the post - this image is so the right one shows up when linked from other pages or sites

It's not uncommon to take a photo where something didn't work in the way you wanted it to, but you end up with something better than you planned.

In fact I dedicated a chunk of Episode 12 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres, and it's accompanying blog post, to the idea of the "Happy Accident".

Sometimes, however, you take a photo that doesn't work in the way you wanted it to and you end up with something quite different, but while it remains unusable there is some quality to it that inspires you to want to create a better version.

This week I was inspired by someone else's photo that didn't work out the way they planned.

Mandy had submitted a photo of her niece to the Facebook group for critique where the flash had failed to go off, but when editing the photo what she was able to recover from the shadows felt like it had a bit of potential.

Although the quality wasn't there to really develop that particular image in the editing, quite a few people left comments saying how painterly it seemed.

I discuss why it had that effect in the podcast below – you can skip to 1 hour, 13 minutes and 25 seconds in if you want to just see that part.

Much like the Still Life photo I did a few weeks back to demonstrate to the viewers the lighting and composition styles of the Old Masters, I decided I would respond to the point by creating my own image.

And in this case I decided to do my daughter, Meg, in a similarly painterly style – in fact using pretty much the same set up as I did for the Still Life.

Of course I'm not the first person to photograph their daughter in the style of painters from a few centuries ago. For those with long memories, you might recall the interview I did with the amazing Bill Gekas and the incredible photos he does with his daughter, Athena.

And for those that never read it, pour yourself a coffee, click on the following link, and be prepared to be absorbed for the next 20 minutes or so.
Chasing Shadows: The Photographer Interviews – Bill Gekas

While perhaps not at his level, I am still pleased with the way it came out.

Something that struck me with this painting-style photo, though, was there are very few paintings in history of people with Down's Syndrome.

Perhaps it was to do with survival rates, or maybe how people with DS were viewed or treated – I really don't know, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure I want to, just in case I discover something that will leave me heartbroken...

But does it lend a slightly different quality to the image?

It's way too difficult for me to know – I am of course too close to Meg.

I suspect that anyone who knows Meg well will just see a picture of Meg, and it will only be those who don't know her who will see a young woman with Down's Syndrome.

Last night in the podcast I didn't even mention the DS – it didn't occur to me until afterwards when I realised that, unlike regular followers of this blog, many of the viewers wouldn't have known I have a daughter who has DS.

No one said anything, but then chances are they wouldn't have known quite what to say, or how to say it, even if something had occurred to them.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on the matter.

Meanwhile, here's the full podcast from last night.

Enjoy!

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0:00 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
4:10 - The story behind the photo shoot I did for keycutter and cobbler, JD Keys in Castle Douglas, Scotland.
14:50 - Introduction to the Critique Section
16:40 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:13:25 - Using a photo that's gone wrong as inspiration
1:29:55 - Coming up next week
1:32:50 - 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/

As I Age...

In the 11 months or so of Lockdown, my beard has become greyer, I have lost something in the region of 20lbs, and I feel I've aged somewhere between 5 and 10 years.

Ageing has never felt gradual – it's always felt like I would be steady for a bit, then suddenly leap a few years forward.

Unfortunately it feels like a while since I was last steady for a bit.

Last night I had a dream where trimming my beard went drastically wrong, and I realised I was going to have to shave the whole thing off.

But in that dream I looked more like I did 20 years ago.

I took this photo this morning, and it seems to encapsulate something of how I perceive myself today – considerably older than my dream projection.

However, one thing I can be certain of – in 5 years time I'll look back at this and think how young I look...

Repeating Diagonals - and Episode 46 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Am I just repeating myself, or am I necessarily reinforcing good compositional practice?

Way back in the distance of time, somewhere between the Paleozoic and Jurassic eras – or a few weeks into Lockdown as we now refer to it – I talked about the use of diagonals in composition as part of Episode 3 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres.

Having explained it (quite well, I thought) already, I now often make reference to the concept without going into too much detail. I talk more like it's just a given that everyone now knows and understands.

However, recently Sandra left a comment in the Facebook group saying, "I've noticed over the last couple of weeks that using angles in composition has been mentioned in relation to a number of photos and I was wondering could this be covered in greater detail in the podcast? Thanks"

Sandra wasn't watching my podcasts back at Week 3.

And as I thought more about it, I realised 95% or more of the regulars who tune in, submit images, and leave comments, weren't around at the beginning either.

When the podcasts began it was almost exclusively my friends – people I had known for years – who watched them, along with a few local camera club members who knew me from talks I had given.

I remember being very disappointed when numbers started dropping off.

The novelty value was disappearing, and there's only so many evenings friends are going to give up for you if they're not overly interested in your topic of passion. I mean, I have a good friend who's a poet. He's a great mate but I'm not interested in poetry, so if he was doing a 90 minute podcast on it every week I doubt I'd be able to watch more than a couple.

A few months in and I was down to single figures in the number of people watching live, but I had gained 2 or 3 who had discovered the podcasts and were absolutely hooked. These are the people it's really aimed at.

Slowly but steadily more people have found the podcasts. And while some stay for a few weeks then their curiosity is sated and they don't return, others have begun to tell their friends and I'm noticing new names of people joining the Facebook group, tuning into the podcasts and saying hi or submitting an image for Critique.

This means nearly all of those who have joined me in the past 8 months or so, haven't seen all the podcasts where I went in-depth into the various compositional and lighting techniques that are a foundation for good photography.

And even those who did see them may well appreciate a reminder and a bit of reinforcement.

Just because we watched something once, nearly a year ago, doesn't mean we're necessarily going to remember it, and all the implications that follow from it.

So last night I talked in-depth again about why understanding diagonals in composition is such a powerful tool for photographers.

And I think I can now let go of the fear that I'm just repeating myself.

Mind you, I also had a repeat of Episode 21 last night too – when I began the podcast and it turned out my voice was all high and squeaky, as though I'd been sucking helium.

Once again, a Microsoft Update and mucked about with some of my settings and I had to go in and change them, live on air.

I edited most of that out for the YouTube version, which is embedded below.

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0:00 - Dealing with a high squeeky voice after a Microsoft update...
1:22 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
5:55 - Introduction to the "Rule of Thirds"
11:54 - Introduction to the use of Diagonals in composition
35:35 - Introduction to the Critique Section
37:50 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:24:17 - How gaps end up exaggerated in photography
1:28:16 - Understanding how images are viewed in online photo competitions
1:43:08 - Coming up next week
1:44:38 - 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/

Meg is 23

There are a few followers of this blog who I suspect only really come and visit for news of my daughter, Meg.

As it's her 23rd birthday today, perhaps it's time for a wee update on her life.

I think quite early on in the pandemic, watching Meg I came to realise the truth of the notion that we might all be in the same storm, but we're all having a different experience.

This time last year, she was trying to come to terms with finishing her time at The Usual Place, where she'd been training for the previous 3½ years, and was gearing up to starting her gluten-free baking business, Megalicious.

The whole country went into Lockdown 5 days before the official launch.

Even though it took until October before Meg was officially put into a high-risk category (a report was released at that time showing people Down's Syndrome are 10 times more likely to die if they contract Covid-19), we had strong suspicions she would be particularly vulnerable if she got it, so went into shielding mode from the start, and have been in it ever since.

While some people have talked about the 2nd or 3rd Lockdown, we have just had a continual one since March last year.

In some ways, Meg has a stronger immunity than most against the mental health impact of the situation, because she very much lives in the present – something Zen Masters train for decades to be able to achieve.

So she does not spend her time obsessing about the past and what she might have done differently, nor does she often get anxious about the future. For the most part, if the now is OK, then she's OK.

However, she is an extraordinarily social person. She loves people; she loves being with people; she loves making other people feel special.

The eventual plan of Meg having her own cafe – whether pop-up, mobile, or bricks & mortar – is one which would suit her personality down to the ground.

But not being able to even meet with friends for a coffee, or hug her siblings, nephews and niece, has had its impact.

A couple of days ago she had her first vaccine. She was fine while she had it, then broke down in tears on the walk home, experiencing one of those "reality attacks" that have become all too common for most of us.

Maggie has an appointment for her first vaccine, and while I haven't heard yet, I have been told that because of my haemochromatosis, I have been nudged up the priority list.

It will then be about 12 weeks before the 2nd vaccine, and a further 21 days to be sure it will have maximum effect.

So it could easily still be the end of June before we are able to take our first tentative steps back into the world of socialising and meeting up for coffees and hot chocolates with friends and family.

And once we have a good sense of the lay of the land, then we can start looking to launch Megalicious, and hopefully start moving towards a brighter future.

Meanwhile, she was desperate to get her hair dyed by her birthday.

For those who remember the shoot we did last year where she appeared on the front of Dumfries & Galloway Life magazine, she had not long dyed her hair a beautiful, vivid red in preparation for the launch of her business.

Most of it had grown out, although the ends still had some faded red to them, so yesterday Maggie helped her re-dye her hair.

Today our little Valentine's baby turns 23.

Hair Dye: before and after

Accumulation - and Episode 45 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Even talk radio presenters get a break when the news or ads come on, so I think it should be OK to admit that I don't have to talk non-stop, uninterupted for 2½ hours for the podcast.

I need to make sure they are a bit shorter.

Even accounting for the fact there was problem near the beginning where the connection froze, and I've edited out close to 10 minutes worth of me trying to work out whether I'm still connected or not, last night was still the longest podcast to date.

And it was too long.

Not just for the couple of people who said they had to head off once we got past the 2 hour mark, and not just for those in different time zones meaning they were up until 3.30am.

It was too long for me.

The adrenaline can keep me going, but when I stop I suddenly realise I've overdone it, and the overwhelming exhaustion is no good for a man who is already living with Chronic Fatigue.

But I can't call it a night at that point – the recording still needs to be edited (another couple of hours) and rendered (which takes several hours, so I leave it to chug away doing that overnight).

Although I will have a wee break – go out into the garden and do a bit of Tai Chi, then come back into the warmth of the house for a cup of tea – I then have to crack on if there's any chance of me getting to bed before 2am.

So the problem is one of accumulation.

Each extra minute of air-time, means finishing later, being more tired, having more to edit, being slower at editing because I'm more tired, and needing a bigger buffer before I go to bed to unwind enough to be able to sleep.

Why not deal with it in the morning then?

Because I tried that back in the early podcasts, and the knock-on effect of accumulated time was even worse.

On Wednesdays, I also write the blog post, upload the video to YouTube (which takes more time, the longer the recording), sort out all the things like tags, descriptions, custom thumbnail (that has my logo on it rather than a random screenshot), and then create all the links to this blog and the video on the different social media platforms.

So if I don't start editing until Wednesday, I won't finish the rest of it until Thursday – which is currently reserved for me being flaked out all day, dribbling into my chest.

There is apparently a fairly straight forward solution: keep the podcasts shorter

Somewhere around an hour, possibly up to and hour and a half, but to avoid getting anywhere close to two hours, let alone beyond.

But the problem with that is, who's going to convince the (hyped up, slightly manic, show-off, performer) version of me, who is actually doing the podcasts live, and is so caught up in the moment loses all track of time until it's too late?

Meanwhile, here's last night's podcast, full of juicy ideas of ways you can photograph at home.

And you can hit the pause button every time you need a break...

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0:00 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments, and problems with the feed freezing up
5:56 - Introduction to the Still Life Photo Challenge
8:18 - Reviewing images on the theme "Still Life" submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
51:59 - Understanding Still Life is about "creation" rather than "capture"
2:19:00 - Coming up next week
2:20:45 - 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/

Still Life Challenge - and Episode 44 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Coming out of requests for something people can do at home with their camera, I've been investigating Still Life over the past few weeks.

At a basic level, it's just an arrangement of inanimate objects.

However, deciding which objects, how to place them, and what lighting setup to use gives you pretty much infinite possibilities.

If you type "still life" into the search engines, then one of the first things you'll be presented with are images from the 17th Century Dutch "Old Masters".

While still life has been around since at least Roman times, and a lot of it overlaps with modern product photography, that point in time is generally seen as the golden age, or certainly the point where it became massively popular and recognised as a legitimate topic in it's own right (rather than just being a part of a larger scene).

So for the Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres podcast, I set myself the challenge to come up with a photo that looked like a 17th Century Dutch "Old Masters" style painting. My decision making processes in creating the image, along with the editing and the final outcome, I discussed in last night's episode (see below).

This was also a precursor to next week's show which is a Still Life Challenge.

Here's your chance to create your own still life photo and show it off to the podcast viewers.

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/695662381099461

It doesn't have to be in the style of centuries old painters though.

Ideas could include:
Flowers
Food
Kitchen implements
Garden tools
Game pieces
Toys
Equipment of any kind
Pretty much anything you have lying around the house.
And in any mix or combination you feel could be interesting

The things to think about when creating something are:
How you will arrange them
Lighting
Leading lines
Shadows and/or reflections
Colour combinations

You can be as minimalist or as complex as you wish.

What I would also like from you is to know is why have you chosen these objects, and what idea/mood/feeling do you want the viewer to take away with them?

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 podcast and if you want to skip to the bit where I talk about the challenge then it's at 2 hours, 5 minutes and 54 seconds.

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0:00 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
5:30 - Introduction to the Still Life
7:20 - Introduction to the Still Life paintings of the Dutch "Old Masters".
18:52 - Creating a Still Life photo in the style of the Dutch "Old Masters".
27:23 - Editing the Still Life photo
40:28 - A more contemporary approach to Still Life
57:00 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres
2:05:54 - Coming up next week - thoughts for the Still Life Challenge
2:13:38 - 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/