Innholdsfortegnelse for 17-Sep-2016 i Amateur Photographer

We live increasingly hectic lives, so it’s not difficult to see the appeal of minimalist photography. Deceptively simple and serene images, often involving a single strong subject, are satisfying to shoot and a pleasure to view. This is a widely copied school of photography, but tricky to get right. To help you achieve the best possible results, this issue (page 12) features Michael Kenna – the unofficial monarch of minimalism. This issue also features some of the best images from recent national and international competitions, with the cream of this year’s British Wildlife Photography Awards on pages 22-27, and the winners of the international EISA Maestro competition on pages 30-35. Gear-wise, we test Sony’s new 50mm f/1.8 prime on page 49, along with the innovative Sigma sd Quattro. In other…

Yousuf Karsh The Beetles+Huxley Gallery is featuring the first major London exhibition in 30 years of portraits by Yousuf Karsh. The exhibition includes signed prints of 20th century sitters from the realms of politics, film and art, including Winston Churchill, Audrey Hepburn (pictured) and Pablo Picasso. 20 September-15 October, www.beetlesandhuxley.com/exhibitions/yousuf-karsh.html Detroit: Against the Wind This exhibition is Magnum photographer Bruce Gilden’s ode to the Midwestern city of Detroit and its inhabitants, with over 20 new photographs taken earlier this year. After his 2009 series, Gilden returned to the city, inspired by the beauty of its neighbourhoods in disarray and the vibrancy of its people. Until 30 October, www.leica-storemayfair.co.uk Lin Gregory Fine-art and landscape photographer Lin Gregory will be exhibiting her latest project, ‘Between Land and…

‘The algorithms embedded in the Pix app will improve with time’ There used to be a time when looking at the spec sheet would give you a good idea of a camera's image quality. Large sensors and apertures were good, small sensors and slow lenses were bad. With smartphone imaging these ‘old rules' are in the process of changing, and Microsoft's new Pix camera app for the iPhone is the harbinger of this change. Typically, third-party smartphone camera apps offer a selection of filter options or attempt to simulate a ‘real' camera with manual control and saving as raw files. The Pix app does none of these, but it enhances the limited image quality of the iPhone's small-sensor camera module by capturing image data in an unusual and clever manner.…

1 Enjoy the creative process and be prepared to go with the flow. Be open to serendipity. 2 However, never use tip 1 as an excuse for ‘switching off'. ‘Photography is about making creative decisions; whether you make them at the time you take the photograph or later is up to you,' says Michael. 3 Don't get bogged down in gear. ‘The make and format of your camera is low down on the priority scale when it comes to making pictures,' says Michael. ‘Connecting with the subject matter, and staying open and inquisitive are much bigger priorities.' 4 Challenge conventional notions of what makes a beautiful subject. ‘Over the past 25 years, I have also photographed industrial environments in north-west England where I grew up, the Rouge steelworks in Detroit,…

You answered… A Yes, I’m a professional; I earn my living from it 4% B Yes I supplement my main income/retirement 7% C No, but I aspire to earn my living from it one day 9% D I’ve occasionally earned money from photography, but not regularly 24% E No, but I’d like to make some money on the side 27% F No, I have no interest in selling my photography 29% What you said ‘Not any more… couldn’t find much to do during the week, or at least much I was into or was worth doing and I don’t like working weekends.’ ‘A few regular sales on Alamy, just enough to keep me interested, but I’m no Keith Morris.’ ‘It happens occasionally!’ ‘Apart from a three-year period in the Artillery,…

Prey’s Eye View Jamie Hall Highly Commended – Behaviour ‘I was lucky to spend the summer of 2015 working on photographing a pair of little owls,' says Jamie. ‘The owls would sit on fence posts along the edge of a field to look into the long grass for prey. This shot was taken as an owl flew from one post to another. It momentarily stalled above the camera and hovered briefly, which was just enough time for me.' Rain Shower Richard Peters Highly Commended – Portraits ‘This is a camera-trap set-up of a badger walking across my decking in the rain,' says Richard. ‘I used flashguns to light it and did some dodging and burning in Lightroom to enhance the rain, and reduce the shadows where minor light had reflected…

The overall winner will stay for three nights in the stunning Ngala Lodge and four nights in the Mandina Lodges in the Makasutu Forest where you’ll receive: • Guided forest walks • River trip by pirogue • Return flights from Gatwick • Half-board at the Mandina Lodges and b&b at the Ngala Lodge The overall winner will also be invited to photograph this dream trip and have their work featured in Lonely Planet Traveller and Amateur Photographer magazines. PLUS Each category winner will win a Fujifilm X-T10 camera worth £779. This compact mirrorless digital camera turns any trip, whether in everyday life or to the other side of the world, into the ultimate photo opportunity. Visit fuji.co.uk/x-t10.…

ONE POTENTIALLY useful new feature on the sd Quattro is its SFD mode. This takes seven bracketed exposures in 1-stop steps from a single press of the shutter, covering an overall range of ±3EV. These are then combined into a single X3I raw file – essentially seven concatenated X3Fs – and saved together. The idea is that by bracketing so widely, the camera should record a full range of detail from bright highlights to deep shadows, which can then be brought out in post-processing without excessive noise appearing. In essence, this makes up for the sensor's relatively limited dynamic range. As with other multi-shot modes, you have to lock the camera down on a tripod to ensure it doesn't move between exposures – anything moving in the scene could cause…

Emotion by Stuart Walker Canon EOS 80D, 100mm, 1/125sec at f/8, ISO5000 This image was uploaded to our Twitter stream. ‘I'm local to the English Heritage Audley End House in Essex,' says Stuart. ‘There's a small stable there, and this was one of only two horses in the stable. This horse just stood still, looking head-on. ‘As I'm a keen macro photographer I tend to have my 100mm macro lens on my camera and I managed to take the shot through the wooden bars of the stall at head height. ‘As I like to keep my shutter speed quicker than the focal length of the lens, I had already set up my Canon EOS 80D to achieve this. I also like to underexpose a fraction, so the downside is the…

It's not unusual to have preconceived ideas about Afghanistan. The contemporary media landscape is hell-bent on offering up a particular version of events in order to slot neatly into government mandate and foreign policy. The reality, however, is never quite so clear-cut, as Afghanistan is a country that, as the title of this volume suggests, lies in the grey area between hope and fear. East and West have pulled the land apart at the seams in order to seize control and deliver their own brands of democracy and freedom. Caught within this, of course, are the Afghan people, a community pulled by both arms while staring into an uncertain future. Paula Bronstein, an award-winning American freelance photojournalist, is a photographer notable for her dedication to place herself on the front…

How can Professor Newman state in his article The Art of Focus Pulling (AP 6 August) that ‘purpose-made cinema cameras have been abandoned for stills cameras'? This is just not true. DSLRs cannot approach the quality of current video cameras produced by Arri, Red and Sony, and indeed if you went to your local cinema to watch a film shot on a stills camera, you would instantly notice the difference. Video projection maintains the image quality right through the chain and you can now watch films the way the cinematographer intended it to be seen. Cooke lenses may seem incredibly expensive, but the lengthy waiting list to buy them shows they are still much in demand to bring out the best in the top cinema cameras. The craze for using…

Landscape is the photography genre that keeps on giving. For anyone who has visited the same location on more than one occasion, its appeal lies in the fact that it never looks the same way twice. Landscape was the theme of the international 2016 EISA Maestro competition, and we can reveal the top three finalists. Each of them had a unique take on landscape, but Miguel Cabezas, from Spain, impressed the judges most to claim the top prize. He received E 1,500 and the EISA Photo Maestro 2016 trophy. Following him in second place came Eberhard Ehmke from Germany, who won E 1,000 and a trophy. Meanwhile, in third place was Martin Rak from the Czech Republic. He received E 750 and the third-place trophy. All three finalists will be…

Jeremy Walker Jeremy is an award-winning professional photographer who works for advertising, editorial and design clients around the world. www.jeremywalker.co.uk SGWD yr Eira is located on the southern side of the Brecon Beacons National Park in South Wales, along the river Afon Hepste. It's the most spectacular waterfall in the area and the one you can walk behind, but is also one of the more remote. The closest parking is at Penderyn, on Chapel Road off the A4059. A footpath leads across fields and into the gorge. The other option is the car park at Pen-y-Porth. It's a longer walk but you'll pass other waterfalls along the way. Time of year From September onwards you are more likely to have the place to yourself. You'll still have the pleasant green…

Rainy evening Marco Gaia Canon EOS 600D, 18-55mm, 1/13sec at f/5, ISO 1600 THE MOST important elements of any pictorial image are mood, emotion and atmosphere, and Marco's shot of this man out on a rainy evening has all of these in abundance. I love the tall and towering composition, coupled with Marco's knowledge that the subject doesn't have to be in the middle of the frame for us to accept that it is the subject. His inclusion of the whole of the archway and the lights and building behind really sets the scene, and allows us to get a good grasp of the sort of place as well as sort of night we are looking at. I don't know what the hazy wisps are that cross the frame horizontally,…

Sharpness There’s not much to complain about in terms of sharpness, with the lens delivering pretty good results wide open. It improves progressively as it’s stopped down, with the very sharpest images obtained around f/5.6-f/11. The corners are measurably softer than the centre at all apertures up to f/8, but thanks to the aspheric element, they are better than what we would expect from a 50mm f/1.8 at large apertures. Shading As usual for this kind of lens, vignetting is quite obvious at large apertures, with a maximum of 1.5 stops fall-off at the corners of the frame at f/1.8. But it reduces quickly on stopping down, dropping to a barely noticeable 0.6 stops at f/2.8 and disappearing entirely by f/4. Distortion Typically for a 50mm prime, distortion is exceptionally…

Battery The chunky BP-61 battery gives 1860mAH output and is charged externally. Removable dust protector Placed right at the front of the lens mount, the dust protector is designed to prevent dust spots appearing on your photos. It’s also the infrared-blocking filter, so removing it allows IR photography. Dioptre correction A tiny dial on top of the viewfinder gives an adjustment range of -4 to +2. In a neat touch it needs to be lifted to adjust, and locks again when pressed down. Hotshoe The hotshoe is compatible with Sigma’s own flash units, including the EF-610 DG Super and the upcoming high-powered and fully featured EF-630. Connectors On the side of the camera are mini HDMI and USB 3.0 output connectors, along with a socket for Sigma’s CR-31 electronic cable…

‘From a technical viewpoint, this is the simplest camera’ The Italian manufacturer Bencini made numerous cheap cameras for the bottom end of the market. Perhaps best known are the rigid-bodied, metal, rollfilm cameras with their distinctive shiny finish. Many photographers who grew up in post-war Britain would have used a Bencini, although sometimes they were sold under an own-brand name such as Boots or Trifca. A particular speciality of the Bencini designers was to squeeze more frames onto a roll of film than they were intended for. Both 120 and127 film can be used in three different configurations, giving 8, 12 or 16 negatives on a roll, but by masking down the film plane, and of course sacrificing some of the available negative area, Bencini produced cameras that would take…

DxO One add-ons DxO has unveiled a camera-stand accessory (£19.99), a ‘waterproof’ case (£49.99) and an optical adapter (£19.99) for the DxO One. Out in seven colours, the Outdoor Shell has a choice of two ‘waterproof’ back doors: splashproof or one designed for depths of 45m. Filters and macro lenses can be attached using the optical adapter. Visit dxo.com. Hasselblad smartphone move Due out this month is the Hasselblad True Zoom (£199) – a 10x optical zoom module compatible with Moto Z smartphones. The Moto Mods accessory snaps onto the Moto Z smartphone and offers a physical shutter, raw shooting and a flash. Nikon contest marks 100 years The Nikon Photo Contest 2016-17 now includes a ‘Nikon 100th Anniversary’ category. This category’s theme is ‘Celebration’ and entries are limited to…

JESSOPS chairman Peter Jones (pictured) said he was delighted to bring Jessops back to its hometown of Leicester, where its 53rd store is now open for business. Commenting on the new outlet at Highcross Leicester shopping centre, Jones said: ‘The Jessops story has been an amazing one. ‘I knew before I acquired the business that it wouldn't be plain sailing, especially when trying to bring a business back from the brink, but I always felt that a new chapter in Jessops long history would be a positive one.' Jones, who rescued the chain in 2013, added: ‘In just three years since I acquired the business we have doubled our number of stores – proving there is still plenty of potential for growth and job creation on the high street.'…

Planet Golf: Modern Masterpieces By Darius Oliver, Abrams, £40, 352 pages, hardback, ISBN 978-1-41972-279-0 GOLF courses may not seem like the greatest subject for a landscape photographer to while away the hours, but flicking through this volume by Darius Oliver you do get the sense that these locations have a number of surprises to offer. If you're not a golf fan, and can put aside your feelings about the sport, you do have to marvel at the design of these locations. Oliver has a keen eye for capturing the landscape and has genuinely brought out the best of these locations. He is an expert in the field of golf, so he knows these locations intimately. As a result, he understands exactly how to capture the beauty of these areas. There…

Michael Kenna Michael was born in Widnes, Cheshire, in 1953 and discovered photography at art school. After further study in London, he worked as a commercial photographer and printer before relocating to the USA. His books include Forms of Japan and Rouge, which is a study of the US industrial heartland. Michael has also exhibited widely. See michaelkenna.net Minimalist photography has gone from being a minority sub-genre of landscape and travel to a highly popular pursuit in its own right. And it’s not hard to understand why. As camera technology and image-editing programs get more complex by the year, there’s something reassuringly simple and uncomplicated about minimalist photography; this is image-making stripped back to the essentials, often in black & white. What’s more, it can be practised all year round,…

What a difference an ‘s’ makes Michael Topham's article Primed for travel (AP 13 August) on the prime lenses he took on his trip to Japan was fascinating. The trailer in the previous week's issue (AP 6 August), though, said he'd be explaining why he picked a prime lens – which suggests he'd opted to take just one lens for his once-in-a-lifetime tour. Send him to Japan again! Nigel, via email Apologies for the production error in AP 6 August. Michael Topham did end up taking four prime lenses with him on his trip to Japan. They were the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM | Art, Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM | Art, Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM | Art and Sigma 85mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM (see image below)…

Can you tell me about this image and where you took it? I read that it was a shot you came upon quite by chance. Yes, I came upon it completely by chance, but then that’s often the way with underwater photography. I was diving just off an island in the St Kilda archipelago off the north-west coast of Scotland. I was working with the Heriot Watt Scientific Dive Team surveying sea caves and rocky reefs as part of a Scottish Natural Heritage project, and I had just come to the end of a dive. I was swimming slowly back to the boat, away from the island, while undergoing my safety stop at around 5m and came face to face with the largest lion’s mane jellyfish I had ever seen.…

AP AND Lonely Planet Traveller magazine have joined forces to offer one lucky reader the chance to win a seven-night holiday for two to The Gambia in our Inspired Travel Photographer 2016 competition. And that's not all – we also have a Fujifilm X-T10 for each of the three category winners. Whether you've got the latest DSLR or a lightweight smartphone, recording your everyday surroundings and travel adventures has never been easier. Sharing your photographs across the many platforms of social media can give others a glimpse into the world as you see it and, even better, inspire others to start their own photo journey. Your images, whether they're focusing on people, places or nature, can be appreciated by anyone with an interest in the world at large. With that…

To make the most of the location, spend time having a look around and exploring the paths that lead off from the river for views back to the waterfall. Walk along the river bank and look for a long-lens view of the falls as this can sometimes be better than a close-up wideangle shot, especially if you incorporate branches and leaves to frame the main subject. As you will have a long walk to the falls, take the minimum amount of kit – a body and 24-70mm and 70-200mm will cover 99% of the images and angles you see. Do take a tripod and cable release, as this is a great location for using Big Stopper-type filters for lengthening exposures and blurring the water. Apart from a Big Stopper long-exposure…

At a glance • Carbon-fibre monopod • Maximum height 165cm • Twist-lock legs Removable wrist strap The strap can be easily removed if desired, as can its metal securing ring, which rattles slightly. Comfortable foam cover The foam leg cover isn’t the thickest but makes holding the Explora easier. Support spike A removable rubber foot conceals a sturdy support spike at the end of the leg. ALSO CONSIDER Vanguard VEO CM-264 carbon-fibre monopod £69.95 www.vanguardworld.co.uk This is a touch pricier than the MP10 but comes with a rubber handle, carabiner and rubber base cover that stays flat when tilted. Manfrotto MM290C4 carbon-fibre monopod £69.95 www.manfrotto.co.uk Not quite as light or as long when extended as the MP10, this monopod has the advantage of a rubber leg cover. Benro Mach3 MMA28C…

Our cameras and lenses are tested using the industry-standard Image Engineering IQ-Analyser software. Visit www.image-engineering.de for more details Like the dp Quattro compacts we've already tested, the sd Quattro's Foveon X3 sensor offers a decidedly Jekyll and Hyde approach to image quality. At low-sensitivity settings of ISO100-400 it's excellent, with astonishing pixel-level detail. But at high ISOs it's awful, lagging far behind conventional Bayer sensors. In what appears to be a tacit admission of this, Sigma Photo Pro 6.4, by default, now drops the output resolution to 4.9MP at ISO 800 (2,712x1,808 pixels), 2.2MP at ISOs1,600 and 3,200 (1,808x1,205 pixels), and just1.2MP at ISO 6,400 (1,356x904 pixels). It's still possible to extract full-size images if you prefer, but they're not great. Dynamic range As we’ve seen previously, our Applied Imaging…

‘The expression of the man on the left is harder to read, because the pump handle is covering part of his face’ Humanist photography is easier to recognise than to describe. It is akin to social commentary, but somehow warmer and friendlier. Often we can identify with the people in the pictures, and even if we cannot, they are people we know, or at least, people we have seen. Humanist photography is regarded mostly as a French movement, with leading lights such as Ronis, Doisneau and Cartier-Bresson, but there are plenty from other countries. Willem Wernsen is one such, a Dutchman born in Amersfoort in 1954 (www.willemwernsen.com). He shot this in Paris, the spiritual home of humanism. At first sight, this looks like a print from the 1930s-1950s, arguably the…