He Looks Like He Knows What He's Talking About... and Episode 69 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

I was going to write about how the latest changes to the Facebook Live interface, led to me having a major panic when I started the podcast last night, as I could see neither the video nor the comments while I was broadcasting.

I ended up having to cancel it and start again a few minutes later, despite the fact people had already started interacting.

However, despite the worst start to a podcast in 69 episodes, within a few minutes I seemed to be confidently chatting away, deconstructing people's photos and giving them feedback on how they could improve, or re-take the photos they'd submitted to the Road Photo Challenge.

And it was this that got me thinking about what to write today instead.

When I'm editing my podcasts, before uploading them to YouTube and this blog, I'm essentially watching the whole thing, but from the outside – so I see myself in an entirely different light.

I think it's easy to assume that because I place myself in the public eye, live and unscripted, each week, and deliver advice and critique to people wanting to improve their photography, that I must be bubbling over with self confidence and certainty.

But it's not like that from behind my eyes.

In my head it's almost constant chaos, and hundreds of thoughts are leaping in about what I should say next, how someone might react to it, whether I'm repeating myself, whether the podcast is actually going out or has frozen, worrying about the number of people watching, and whether I'm getting any comments, and how I should react to them, and of course all this leads to a constant background hum of Imposter Syndrome.

Who the hell am I to think I should be advising anyone on anything when my mind and emotions are continually all over the place?

And yet, when I watch myself back, it's like experiencing some strange doppelgänger who looks and sounds just like me, but appears calm, friendly, and like he actually knows what he's talking about.

How does that happen?

Sometimes I can watch this strange Kim-from-a-parallel-universe give really well thought out responses and advice, and find myself thinking, “Wish I'd thought of that...”

Maggie asked me recently why I keep going with the podcasts – what is it I love about doing them?

Primarily it's about the good feeling I get knowing I'm helping other people, and getting lovely feedback from those who say they have really benefitted from them.

But truth be told, there's also a part of me which quite likes seeing this confident, knowledgeable version of me up on the screen.

It gives me something to aim for.

Perhaps one day I can be a bit more like him.

Meanwhile, enjoy episode 69 below, where I give lots of amazing advice and feedback to people who sent in their images to the Road Photo Challenge.

---

0:00 - Welcome, recovering from a major screw-up and needing to restart the podcast, greetings and comments
2:26 - Introduction to the Roads Challenge set last week
05:20 - Reviewing images on the theme "Roads" submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:42:44 - Coming up next week
1:46:00 - End

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

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to be notified of new podcasts and behind-the-scenes videos.

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/

On The Road Again... and Episode 68 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Implicit in the notion of a road, is the idea that it will take you somewhere (ignoring the fact I've had Talking Heads' "Road to Nowhere" in my head for the past 3 days).

Travel, destinations, journeys, adventure, and returning home, all take place in and around roads.

The end of the road, or even part way along the road, we find ourselves in a different place to where we started. Time and distance has passed, even if it is only to buy a pint of milk from the corner store.

From songs to books to movies, the road has always featured in our stories and tales. It's not just where we will end up, it is what happens along the way – from the people we meet, to the barriers we encounter, to the changes that occur within us because of the experience.

How can we capture some of these ideas then, with our photography?

This week's challenge for the Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres live video podcast is to photograph a road.

Straight, curved or zig-zagging; dry, wet or icy; with or without vehicles, buildings and/or people; quiet or busy; urban or rural; close up or at a distance; open or closed.

What is the road like immediately outside where you live? Or just around the corner? Or are there favourite stretches of road you love to travel along?

This isn't just about the technical challenge of creating an image containing a road, this is more about storytelling. What do you want the viewer to feel when they look at your photo?

See how you get on – I'm really looking forward to seeing what people are going to produce! But if you find you're struggling, then you can still submit a photo you're having difficulty with - just explain the problem and I can include suggestions and ideas in the podcast too.

Place your photo (just the one please) either into this event page in the Discussion section:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1032375187501360/

or into the Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/

or if you don't have a Facebook account and are an avid watcher via this blog or YouTube, then email me the image.

Try and get it in before the end of the weekend, or by Monday (26th July) at the latest. Anything that arrives on Tuesday runs the risk of not being included in the podcast.

You can use a phone, tablet, point-and-shoot or DSLR (or mirrorless).

And then, make sure you tune in on Tuesday 27th July at 7.30pm (UK time) where I'll go through the photos, and give comments and feedback, and hopefully we will all become inspired by some of the submissions to go and try out new things with our photography.

Meanwhile, enjoy episode 68 below, where I talk more in-depth about roads in photography and give lots of visual examples...

---

0:00 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
06:40 - Understanding Roads in photography - journeys, destinations, stories along the way
29:24 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:47:20 - Coming up next week - the ROAD Photo Challenge
1:50:35 - End

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

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to be notified of new podcasts and behind-the-scenes videos.

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/

To Critique, or not to Critique... and Episode 67 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Way back in the far mists of time, when Lockdown was a new concept and I was toying with the idea of doing some kind of video podcast on photography, I put up a post on Social Media asking what people would like to see.

One suggestion was I do Critique on submitted images.

I instantly dismissed the idea. "In my experience, people don't want Critique," I replied. "When someone asks your opinion about their photo they are invariably wanting praise and get a bit miffed if you actually tell them how to improve it."

However, like so many of my knee-jerk reactions, once I'd got past my initial prejudices and allowed the idea to sink in, I changed my mind. This was something I could offer – a way to genuinely help people advance their skills and understanding of photography.

And thus, Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres was born, with an emphasis on viewers submitting questions and images for Critique.

Several months later I introduced Challenges into the programme mix. Once a month or so I would pick a theme, talk about some of the tips, tricks and techniques of approaching it, and give over an entire episode to people's submissions.

It's proved to be more popular than the regular podcasts, and way more viewers put in images for the Challenges than Critique. In fact I've noticed there are even some people who seem to submit images for the Challenges who I suspect don't even watch the podcasts.

All of which reinforces an idea that most of us would far rather show off our work for praise than for genuine feedback.

Of course, while praise feels lovely, it doesn't help us advance our photography. For the most part, we learn from what we get wrong, not what we get right.

Because I get way more submissions for Challenges, there isn't time to Critique them all, and apart from one or two people, no one asks for it.

And herein lies the dilemma – knowing people can get upset if their images are criticised (however constructively) if they were only putting them up for praise, I've tried to make a point of only offering Critique to submissions that have specifically asked for it.

So what am I to do when I can clearly see ways to improve an image that's been submitted for a Challenge, but Critique hasn't been asked for?

I could just point out a positive aspect of the photo (that horizon is really straight – well done!) and move on, but I then feel the person is going to end up with a false sense of how good the image actually is.

There's an additional problem in that Critique takes longer than praise, so what might have been a one hour podcast can quickly become 2½, with all the resultant drain on my energy, and the extra time taken to edit, render, and upload the video to YouTube the following day.

Convenience, and avoiding having to deal with people's insecurities, make it extremely tempting to just set Challenges, dish out praise and Smug Points, and ensure that a jolly time is had by all.

But who's going to learn anything?

There's a reason I called the podcast "Understanding Photography" - it's a place to learn. So if I just skip past an opportunity to help someone improve, then I am actually betraying the principles behind why I set up the podcast in the first place.

I think I just have to come at it with a mindset that anything anyone submits to any of my podcasts has to be fair game for constructive criticism - and I have to try not to feel like I'm kicking a puppy if I critique an image someone was clearly quite proud of when they put it in for a Challenge.

However, given I really can't commit to 2½+ hour podcasts, if I get more submissions to Challenges than I can reasonably fit it to a session, I'm going to have to start some kind of selection procedure.

And that would be a whole new can of worms to deal with...

Meanwhile, watch episode 67 below, to enjoy 20 or so different interpretations and approaches to the challenge of "texture"...

---

0:00 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
05:30 - Reviewing images on the theme "Texture" submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:55:57 - Making the most of having a professional photographer at your disposal to learn from
1:58:50 - End

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

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to be notified of new podcasts and behind-the-scenes videos.

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/

The Texture Challenge - and Episode 66 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

In order to create a bigger story in the mind of the viewer than can actually be seen, a photograph needs to evoke memories, sensations and imaginative projections in the viewer.

A photograph is just dots on a piece of paper, or pixels on a screen – what gives it meaning is the person who is looking at it, and the way they interpret what they see.

The job of the photographer, then, is to use the camera settings, composition, light, and a certain amount of creative empathy to communicate their message in a way that will hopefully be received in the way it was intended.

The way we experience texture is through touch. And from then on, our expectations on what something is going to feel like are based on our sense memories.

So to try and make a viewer begin to imagine what the object in the photograph would feel like requires different things.

Primarily it's about familiarity. If you show us something we have never seen before, and the texture looks unfamiliar, we are unlikely to know what it feels like. We will try and overlay it with existing sense memories, but it might not be accurate.

I remember the first time I held a snake, and was completely surprised that it wasn't slippery like a fish, but instead felt quite leathery.

One of the things the brain is judging is the reflective quality of the light falling on the surface. This will tell us whether it is wet or dry, glossy, matt or silky.

And then the depth of shadow will give us an indication of how rough or smooth it is.

What this means is depending on the settings on our cameras, how close or far we are from the texture, and particularly how it is lit, we can enhance or reduce these qualities, and so manipulate the way it is going to be perceived.

So this week's challenge for the live video podcast, is to create a photo where the viewer can't help but think about the sensation of touching the texture of the subject in the photo.

It can be pleasant or unpleasant, but do keep it family-friendly, as my daughter watches these podcasts.

See how you get on – I'm really looking forward to seeing what people are going to produce! But if you find you're struggling, then you can still submit a photo you're having difficulty with - just explain the problem and I can include suggestions and ideas in the podcast too.

Place your photo (just the one please) either into this event page in the Discussion section:
https://www.facebook.com/events/139129541639176/

or into the Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/

or if you don't have a Facebook account and are an avid watcher via this blog or YouTube, then email me the image.

Try and get it in before the end of the weekend, or by Monday (12th July) at the latest. Anything that arrives on Tuesday runs the risk of not being included in the podcast.

You can use a phone, tablet, point-and-shoot or DSLR (or mirrorless).

And then, make sure you tune in on Tuesday 13th July at 7.30pm (UK time) where I'll go through the photos, and give comments and feedback, and hopefully we will all become inspired by some of the submissions to go and try out new things with our photography.

Meanwhile, enjoy episode 66 below, where I talk more in-depth about texture in photography and give lots of visual examples...

---

0:00 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
05:05 - Understanding Texture in photography
52:27 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:33:28 - Coming up next week - the TEXTURE Photo Challenge
1:40:05 - End

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

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/kimayres – to be notified of new podcasts and behind-the-scenes videos.

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/