Cups, Photography and Storytelling - and Episode 73 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Most people tend to think of photography as a representational medium:

• here's a cup.
• we photograph the cup.
• the photo represents the cup.

And yet, depending on how we position and light the cup, on whether it is full or empty or has a residue, on whether it is sitting next to a crossword or a pair of glasses, or whether a hand is holding it (young hand, old hand, male, female) – all these things can fundamentally change how we view that cup.

It's not really just about the shape and look of the cup – it's about the story of the cup in that moment.

And once we understand that photography is storytelling medium rather than a representational one, then a whole new world of observing and creating opens up to us with a camera.

I have talked about this on countless occasions, and a cup or mug is nearly always the example I use. And this is because I'm nearly always explaining this with a friend, client, or interested person while sitting in a café or kitchen over a cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate.

In rare moments with no cup to hand, I will use my glasses as an example instead, but a cup almost always works better as a gateway into the concept.

A couple of weeks ago I set the Hands Challenge for the podcast viewers but was surprised by the fact fewer people than usual took part.

Hands are a wonderful storytelling subject for photography and I spoke with energy and enthusiasm and gave out lots of ideas, and yet it received the least number of entries of any Challenge I've set so far.

Ultimately I think it wasn't about a lack of interest in the subject, but more about the difficulties involved. Either the participants would have to photograph their own hands (which requires a certain problem solving as you can't hold the camera at the same time), or they would have to ask someone else to be photographed  - and there's a whole set of emotional baggage to deal with there for most photographers.

However, I'm determined to try and drill into the viewers minds the importance of storytelling in photography, so I thought for this next Challenge I would choose cups or mugs as the theme as that's something pretty much everyone has access to.

It can be anything from fine china to a favourite coffee mug to a child's beaker.

It can be full or empty, with other items in shot, and/or being interacted with by hands, lips or even a biscuit (that's a cookie for those on the other side of the ocean).

Once you know what you want to photograph, then start thinking about how to enhance the story  with light and composition, and camera settings.

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/272715407995199

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

or email it to me if you don't do Facebook

Try and get it in before the end of the weekend, or by Monday (30th August) 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 to YouTube on Tuesday 31st August 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 73, where I try to get to grips with live streaming on YouTube instead of Facebook, and explore these ideas of storytelling with cups and mugs.

And if you decide to click through and watch it directly on YouTube (rather than here on the blog), then you can watch the Live Chat Replay and see the comments people are writing in real time as the podcast progresses.

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2:15 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
09:29 - Exploring the idea of using cups as a way to improve your storytelling in photography
27:12 - Introduction to the Critique section of the podcast
29:30 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
29:45 - explaining the advantages and disadvantages of a bridge camera over a DSLR
32:30 - Viji - photographing the moon
46:06 - Nurije - photographing a water lily
56:55 - Looking for feedback on which parts of the podcasts work better or not so well
1:01:30 - Vandana - portrait - colour vs black and white
1:10:45 - Robert - cinematic portrait
1:26:17 - Coming up next week - the Photographing Cups Challenge
1:28:45 - 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/

Goodbye Facebook, Hello YouTube - and Episode 72 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Last night was my final video podcast of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres on Facebook Live.

Not that I'm quitting the podcast, rather I'm jumping ship - from next Tuesday I will be live streaming it on YouTube instead.

When I decided I would start sharing my knowledge and helping other photographers with a weekly live broadcast – oh so many moons ago, back at the start of Lockdown in early 2020 - one of the many decisions I had to make was where to present it.

I looked at the number of subscribers I had on YouTube – a little over 300.

I looked at the number of followers I had on Facebook – well over 2,000.

It seemed like a no-brainer. As the saying goes, if you want to catch fish, go where the fish are.

I set up a Facebook group, invited as many people as I thought might be interested, and asked them to spread the word.

And then with a combination of excitement, fear, nervousness, and an overwhelming sense of imposter-syndrome, I started the first podcast.

Initially I thought I would try it for 3 months, but here I am still doing them over 16 months later, enjoying every one.

However, building a substantial following has eluded me from the beginning.

I have a handful of wonderful, interested, committed participants who come back every week, submit their images for critique, enter the challenges, and leave comments throughout the broadcast. And then I have another couple of handfuls who poke their head around the door every now and then.

But while I periodically pick up new followers, others drift away and overall, the numbers have remained fairly constant – never growing beyond a certain point.

It's not for lack of trying. I have boosted posts. I have taken out Facebook Ads. I have watched the tumbleweeds roll past, having zero response from these things (apart from an increase in spam from companies telling me they can optimise my marketing for me for a large fee).

Of course initially I hoped that everyone would be so impressed with my amazingness that they would spread the word and within a few weeks I would be a global phenomenon.

I do have a global reach, by the way. My regulars include people from Norway to South Africa, the USA to India, and several other places in between.

But phenomenon is not really a word I can attach to it.

On a technical side, several times since I began, Facebook has changed its interface and I've suddenly found myself unable to find comments, or see whether I'm actually broadcasting, or it's flashed up information at me that I am powerless to do anything about.

All this while I'm live in front of people. It's not a pre-recorded show that I can stop, rewind and redo. A certain level of mild embarrassment and humiliation has become normalised...

Additionally, I keep coming across people who say they are interested, but don't do Facebook.

So I'd already started wondering whether I should consider YouTube, and a couple of weeks back did a test podcast to see how difficult it might be technically.

Apart from a few minor differences, it was pretty straightforward.

But the real moment of enlightenment came when I was in conversation with someone else and explaining the difference between Facebook and YouTube as a live streaming platform.

Suddenly I heard the words tumbling out my mouth that it was fundamentally about the different business models.

Facebook doesn't want to show your followers your content, unless you pay them to.

Ask any creator who has a following on Facebook and they will tell you (quite often wild-eyed and frothing at the mouth) at their extreme frustration that every time they put something up, it is shown to less than 1% of their followers. IF and ONLY IF that post gets comments and likes, Facebook MIGHT show it to a few more. But really, they want you to Boost your post and pay to reach the people who have already said they love your work and would like to see more of it, but Facebook is not showing it to them.

YouTube, on the other hand, makes its money off advertising.

They want as many people as possible (who are likely to be interested) to watch your live streams and videos, so they can sell advertising space around it.

So where Facebook will only show your content to a tiny handful of people who already know you, YouTube will recommend you to people who have watched and liked similar content, and so potentially bring new viewers your way.

And as I listened to myself explaining all this to someone else, I desperately wished I'd realised this over a year ago.

Of course it remains to be seen whether this will be the start of a very small snowball that will grow and grow, or whether I'll just get swallowed up and lost in the millions of hours of video uploaded every hour to YouTube.

But at this moment in time, it feels I have nothing to lose and potentially something to gain.

If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to my YouTube Channel, and click the little bell icon to get notifications when I put up something new.

youtube.com/kimayres

Meanwhile enjoy Episode 72 below, where I review all the images submitted to the Hands Photo Challenge, and dish out smug points for my favourites...

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0:00 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
03:33 - Reviewing images on the theme "Hands" submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:22:55 - Summing up
1:26:00 - Coming up next week - why I'm moving the live stream to YouTube
1:33:58 - 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/

Photographing Hands Challenge - and Episode 71 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

We know hands are incredible things.

We become particularly aware of it if for some reason we might not be able to work them properly - and suddenly everything from using our phones to picking our noses becomes extraordinarily difficult.

Hands are such a part of our lives that we also realise the story they tell in other people's.

Looking at the hands of another person, we can instantly tell something about them – whether the hands are short and pudgy like a baby's, or long and elegant, full of rough callouses or expensively manicured, young or old, masculine or feminine, clean or dirty, smooth or textured, and so on.

And that's before we even get to seeing them in action.

Pulling, holding, pressing, stretching, clasping, picking, poking, hitting, gripping, cupping, stroking, pinching, gesturing.

With so many stories available to photograph, you'll never run out of ideas. However, in order to enhance any narrative you need to consider both the composition, and the lighting.

Leading lines, diagonals, curves - how are you drawing the eye through the image?

Aperture - do you want the whole hand in focus, or just a small part of it?

Shutter speed - are the hands moving, and how would you want to capture that sense of movement?

Lighting – front, back, side, edge, more than one light source?

So this week's photo challenge for the live video podcast is to create an interesting, engaging image featuring hands in action – in the process of doing something.

Make sure the hands are taking up at least a quarter of the whole image (but can be much closer), although don't forget to take the background into consideration as to whether it is enhancing or diminishing the story you are wanting to tell.

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/192976179529425/

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

Try and get it in before the end of the weekend, or by Monday (16th August) 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 to Facebook Live on Tuesday 17th August 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 71 below, where I give plenty of examples of images of hands in action.

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0:00 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
04:05 - Introduction to the idea of photographing hands at work
25:15- Looking for feedback from the podcast that was live streamed directly onto YouTube
33:53 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:16:10 - Coming up next week - the Photographing Hands Challenge
1:18:32 - 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/

Experimenting with YouTube - and Episode 70½ of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

A couple of posts ago I briefly mentioned my horror when I began episode 69 of my live video podcast, Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres, and discovered Facebook had changed it's layout in such a way that not only could I not see the video (and so know whether I was streaming properly), but I couldn't see the comments either.

This made it pretty much impossible to do what I've been doing every week for the past 16 months. I had to close it down, find the button to allow me to “revert to old style” settings, and start over.

It felt like another in a long line of kicks in the sensitive parts from Facebook, especially when new introductions like this tend to have a limited “revert” time before it then becomes the standard way of doing things.

So I've now started thinking maybe I should be jumping ship and just stream the podcasts live on YouTube instead.

I already record each of the podcasts and put them up on YouTube, as it's easier to share them and embed them in this blog, but it does require me editing it first and then uploading, so it's possible I might save a bit of post-processing time too.

When I began the podcasts I looked at my followers. My YouTube channel had a shade over 300 while my Kim Ayres Photography Facebook page had well over 2,000. It seemed like a no-brainer: if you want to catch fish, go where the fish are.

However, Facebook don't like to show your posts to any more than the tiniest fraction of your followers unless you are prepared to pay them chunks of money every single time.

If you'd like to see what it's like for creators who merrily invited all their supporters to follow them to Facebook, only for Facebook to shove a paywall between them, then do read this post by The Oatmeal:

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/reaching_people_2021

So I thought it's time to try it out. 

Much of this past week has been spent watching videos on how to do it, combined with short trials a few minutes long, which I've then instantly deleted.

So on Sunday afternoon I did Episode 70½ – which I treated like a proper podcast. Continuing on from the last episode, I talked a bit about some of the other Geoff Forrest Sculptures (specifically and otter and a dragonfly) I'd recently photographed, and then gave feedback and critique on a few images.

Several of my regulars did turn up, watch, and comment, which was extraordinarily useful. And so did my daughter, Meg. Although she dedicatedly watches every recording, she's never seen one of my podcasts live as she doesn't have a Facebook account. She was really quite excited about it, which was an added bonus.

One immediate drawback is YouTube has to process the video before I can edit it, and that can take up to 24 hours. Another is that once I end the stream I can't see any of the comments that were made either, until it has finished processing.

However an extra advantage is once it has processed, you can actually read the comments made during the podcast as you watch it (if you watch it on YouTube, that is).

So it has potential. And at least I'm now beginning to feel I have an alternative in place, just in case.

So enjoy episode 70½ below, and do let me know if there are any aspects to it you prefer, or have difficulty with.

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0:00 - Starting Soon
1:57 - Welcome, greetings and comments
10:30 - Photographing Steel Otter and Dragonfly Sculptures by Geoff Forrest at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, Caerlaverock
22:45 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:00:02 - Coming up on the next podcast!
1:01:40 - 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/

How to lose 10 years in 10 minutes...

I guess I was about 8 months behind the trend of the "Lockdown beard" - it being December 2020 before I just gave up any attempt at keeping it short and trim.

Likewise I seem to be several months behind most for getting rid of it.

I've had some kind of hairy chin covering since I was about 20 years old, and have only shaved it off completely twice since then – both times before I met Maggie. Consequently neither my wife nor my children have ever actually seen my chin.

But Maggie's always liked a beard, so that's never been a problem.

And the simple fact is I have always hated shaving. Not only does it irritate my skin, it's a faff – I just really can't be bothered with it. But over the past decade and a half, I have at least kept the bristles fairly short in a goatee style, while periodically trimming my jowls even shorter.

I have to say, I was quite enjoying the look of the bigger, longer beard. Aware that I have quite a large forehead and unruly eyebrows, I felt it kind of balanced out my face.

However, the longer it's become, the more maintenance it's required, which in turn has begun to undermine the reason I pursued hirsuteness in the first place.

I knew the time was coming when I would take the clippers to it, but when Maggie let slip she preferred it shorter, there didn't seem any point in keeping it there.

The response on social media has been overwhelmingly supportive of it's removal.

I guess for the most part it's just people offering up polite validation, in the same way every one will tell you your hair looks great after you've been to the hairdresser (well, you, not me – I do my own and haven't been to a hairdresser or barber for decades), regardless of whether they like it or not.

However, given that I was quite OK with the look, it's felt not unlike when you split up with a girlfriend you were very fond of and then everyone tells you they never liked her anyway...

Several people have mentioned I look quite a bit younger too. There's no doubt beards age a man, and grey beards even more so.

My guess is approximately 2 years per inch.

Out of curiosity, I put the before and after image up in Instagram Stories with a poll - "Looks much better" or "OMG what have you done?"

The vast majority of those who answered decided it was a definite improvement.

However, interestingly I noticed that all but one of those who approved were female, and all but one of those who thought I'd made a mistake were male.

If you have any psychological or sociological insights then do drop them into the comments – I'd be interested to know what your thoughts are.

Meanwhile, I think it's going to be a few days before I stop getting a surprise each time I pass a mirror.

I won something... and Episode 70 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

I won something.

It seems I am the UK winner of the pan-European EISA (Expert Imaging and Sound Association) Maestro Photo Contest

I have been given a double-page spread in Amateur Photographer (August 2021 issue) and a 1 year subscription to the magazine (you didn't have to be an amateur to enter the competition – they are wanting images to inspire their readers)

As the UK winner I am now automatically entered into the International round against the winners in 15 other countries, where 1,500 Euros is up for grabs for whoever comes first.

"That's nice," I thought, then decided I should probably get a copy of the issue with my photos in.

When I showed Maggie the article she said she was really proud of me, and for a moment I genuinely couldn't figure out why.

She saw the look of bewilderment on my face and said, "Kim! You are the UK winner! This is not a local photo competition – it's national. You won. Your photos will be representing the UK in the final round."

A pause.

Still looking straight at me.

"I'm proud of you."

It's not that I'm blasé about winning national competitions, it's just a difficulty in making the connection between something I've created and recognition for it on a bigger scale.

So often it feels like all my achievements are small, or barely achievements at all.

In my past life as a businessman I learned how to big-up the slightest of  achievements in order to appear successful from the outside.

But from the inside, so much of it feels like I'm bluffing.

I do get praise for my portrait and narrative photos, and I do think some of them are pretty good. But the lack of any big following has always felt like some kind of proof that they're not actually good enough.

There are some pockets locally where my name and images are well known, but I'm not exactly a household name.

Take my podcasts, for example. Each week I give away the kind of information most photographers would have chewed their right arm off to have known when they were learning their craft.

But after 70 episodes, I have a hardcore following of around a dozen people, and probably another couple of dozen or so who will pop in every now and then.

This is hardly global recognition.

It's not for lack of trying, but it eventually reaches a point where sometimes things move forward, and sometimes they don't, and it often feels like it has no correlation with how much effort I'm putting in.

Unlike some competitions, where I've specifically created images for them, going to a great deal of time, energy and effort, and then got absolutely nowhere, the portraits I put into the EISA contest were a selection of some of my favourites from the past 10 years, so it didn't feel like much of a commitment.

And yet suddenly I'm being told these are worthy.

Hence the problem of trying to really feel a sense of achievement.

However, as Maggie pointed out, these images didn't appear out of thin air. I did put a lot of time, energy and effort into creating each and every one of them. And if it's taken a few years before it's been recognised, it still doesn't undermine the fact they have been judged the best of however many submissions there were.

Someone out there thinks these images are good enough to be a national winner.

Which is nice...

Meanwhile, enjoy episode 70 below, where I talk about photographing steel geese, and give lots of amazing advice and feedback to people who didn't have to chew their right arm off to get it...

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0:00 - Welcome, recovering from a major screw-up and needing to restart the podcast, greetings and comments
06:01 - Photographing Steel Geese Sculptures by Geoff Forrest at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, Caerlaverock
25:15 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:32:14 - Coming up on Sunday - a live YouTube test!
1:35:15 - 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/