The Book Photo Challenge - and Episode 83 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

Books are incredible things.

They can contain knowledge, expertise, thoughts, dreams, facts, fictions, photos, paintings, sketches, graphs, numbers, text – all bound up and created to pass ideas and information to another mind.

They are also physical objects made to be a particular size, have a particular colour palette, weight and texture.

Every book was designed with an aesthetic in mind.

The Challenge I'm setting for next week's podcast, then is Books!

It could be a book on it's own, or combined with other objects in a still life.

It could be several books together creating a pattern, or a library.

It could be held by someone, be read to someone else, or worn as a hat

Close up and macro, highlighting a piece of text, a note in the margin, or a finger running over it.

Wide angle and distorted, creating leading lines to significant other aspects of the image.

At a distance, but where context becomes an extension of the narrative.

How will you respond to the Books Photo Challenge?

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) 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 (15th November) 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 - https://youtu.be/oK3Vi0QQ3Z0 - on Tuesday 16th November 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 83, where I go into more detail and give examples of using books as the inspiration for photographs.

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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2:02 - Welcome, what's coming up, greetings and comments
06:17 - Introduction to communication via books and photography
13:14 - Ideas for photographing books
30:19 - Introduction to the Critique Section
31:28 - Ben - a leaf and backlighting
40:55 - Viji - folded pages and different crops
49:30 - Matt - 2 subjects and a large gap
58:28 - Inga - shadows in a portrait
1:10:20 - Coming up next week - The Book Photo Challenge
1:13:50 - 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 either email me or join my Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres Facebook group and I will put it into the following podcast:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/