Ben Jones on Photography

I've listened to the Lens Work podcast for well over a year and it constantly surprises me how often I find myself agreeing with every single word. Brooks Jensen talks so much sense and I have to say that his clear thinking in this short, perfectly sized, regularly and reliably released podcast has been a major infulence on my work and the thought process I follow. Have a look - there are over 400 episodes in the back catalouge.

http://www.lenswork.com/lensworkpodcast1-1.htm

It's amazing how much you can change a photograph simply be cropping it. Square, pamoramic, vertical panoramic, you name it, there are an infinate number of crops you can apply to an image and they each achieve a diferent result and can often completely transform a photograph.There isn't any restriction on what you can do, and don't feel constrained to a crop with right-angled corners; I've seen very effective circular and rounded edged crops that each add something different to the photograph in their own right. Have a go, you never know what you might come up with.

Just because something works in one respect or situation, it won't necessarily work in another. I am increasingly seeing this in photography. So many use the 'novelty factor' as I so dubb it to mask the fact that their work is no different to anyone else's. I have been guilty of this practice in the past; I have made quite shoddy looking panoramas and passed them off as good work, simply because of the way in which they were processed. I've learnt that unfortunately it doesn't work like that. What happens inside that box of tricks is of complete irrelevance to the final print or output. So don't get caught up in a fad, and for everyone's sake, don't comprimise your thinking to comform to the 'in' technique - do what you need to do, not what works for other people. Because the only person that knows what you need is you. Don't let anyone else change that, because they have absolutely no idea.

There are novelties popping up all the time in photography. I recently heard the nonsense comment on a radio show that shooting wide is fashionable at the moment. What a load of rubbish. How can a focal length be fashionable? Because of this so-called self-defined trend this guy went on to purchase a £1000 16-35 lens, merely so he could follow all the other sheep that had decided this trend had any kind of grounding and that because one person liked shooting wide, it meant that everyone else in the world had to. This got me thinking how fickle the world of photography has become since the overpowering rise of digital. HDR seems to be getting more and more popular, which is great, but only great until you look at any discussion group on Flickr on the topic. I constantly see "Please help will pay for tuition on how to produce amazing HDR". It is so sad that people feel that they have to produce exactly the same results as everyone else and that the HDR look that is constantly popping up at the moment is viewed as the holy grail of this new technique. I personally hate the stereotypical gaudy, illustration-like, oversaturated, haloed, noisy HDRs that people produce with no idea of how to control the HDR technique. I am convinced that we are only seeing this over the top usage of HDR at the moment because the technique is still in its infancy. I believe it will mature and people will start to see how it can be used in a more conventional manner to produce images that take advantage of HDR, but at the same time do not look over processed like the trend we are currently seeing. The only way this will come about is if people truly understand what is going on in the HDR process. It's my old rule of not using something unless you intimately understand the way it works and can control it the way you desire so as to use it to your advantage. That's why I read camera manuals cover to cover; so I know every possible problem or difficulty that could be thrown up and can get the most out of the equipment. That's what photographers are paid for.

The best things happen by mistake. It's true - all of the world's great discoveries happened as a result of a mistake - look at penicillin. Even photography itself was discovered by mistake when some bloke left chemicals in contact with photographic plates by accident. In photography things just happen. There is always a certain degree to which a photograph can be attributed to a certain percentile of good luck. As photographers it is our job to make that percentile as small as possible, but now and again we stumble across a shot that happened completely by accident. Be it timing of different elements coming together in the frame to create an interesting composition or some setting that was not where the photographer originally intended it to be and so creating an unexpected result, mistakes help us advance. They show us what else other than our vision is possible. I have occasionally made a slip when using adjustment sliders and found myself thinking "You know what, that looks really good. Sod the original idea, I'm going with this instead!" Mistakes throw up new ideas; new inspiration. They make us challenge ourselves to think outside the box and even if you come across a mistake that is really of no benefit to you, then at least you have opened up your mind to a wider knowledge and way of thinking.
So the next time you're in Photoshop, mabye just roll that slider to the other end, or turn that dial the other way on your camera, and see what happens. You never know, you might just stumble upon something amazing.

The most valuable thing is this day. Don't waste it.

When I'm in a shop I'm always looking at the items on sale and thinking how they could related to photography, or how they could be used to effect in the photographic process. For example, one of the most invaluable tools to a landscape photographer is a torch. There is nothing more miserable than finding your way back to the road in pitch blackness, stumbling and falling into invisible nasties like cow pats and peat bogs, and a simple low-powered torch solves all this. Another example is a towel. When out in the rain a towel laid across the top of your set up absorbs most water being thrown down in a light drizzle. Obviously this won't stop sheets of water cascading all over your gear, but might just buy you a few extra seconds that might be crucial to getting the shot.
So, look out for those small things that might make your photographic life that little bit easier.

Have a bloody blinding day

I have to remember that when I'm slinging a camera about I'm representing the photographic community at large. Whatever I do will contribute to the stereotype of photographers worldwide. What I do is by no means discreet or low-profile - a 6 foot tripod and SLR is very hard to miss. I'm highly visible. No matter how you look at it, a tripod makes you look like a professional, like it or not. Whatever your actions are, they will have either a positive or negative effect on people's impression of you. So,  I try to be responsible and not act the idiot when I'm in this situation. I try my utmost be respectful of my surroundings and the environment, and the land that the local people belong to and inhabit. A quick smile to a local who takes interest in what you are up to goes an awfully long way, and by simply being friendly and kind you can be confident that you are at one with the landscape and have the best possible chance of taking the best photographs you can.