Innholdsfortegnelse for 13/11/2021 i Amateur Photographer

It never ceases to amaze me that despite the fact that we live on quite a small island, the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition continues, after 14 years, to surprise and impress us with astonishingly good images that we don’t feel like we have seen many times before. When you factor in how much of the UK is developed and how much private land is out of bounds to the public this achievement is all the more remarkable. If I wore a hat I would raise it to the many talented landscape photographers of the British Isles. Instead I present our annual selection of favourites from among the winners. Do check out the LPOTY website to see the rest though. Also this week we talk to Joe McNally, who…

QUEEN guitarist and stereo photography obsessive Brian May is launching a book called Stereoscopy: The Dawn of 3-D, featuring a selection of photos depicting Victorian life. Some come from Brian’s archive (one of the largest collections in the world) and include a previously unpublished stereo image of Charles Dickens. The book is written by Denis Pellerin, with Brian editing and publishing it through his London Stereoscopic Company. ‘It’s actually the most important book we have ever produced because it chronicles the birth and first steps of what we now call 3-D,’ said Brian. It’s available from 10 November for £60 from shop.londonstereo.com.…

Now in its 14th year, Landscape Photographer of the Year once more showcases and celebrates the richly diverse landscape of the UK. From dramatic storms and raging seas to the quieter joys of misty woodlands and close-ups of nature’s fascinating details, the winning photographs in this year’s competition not only display the talent of their creators but also inspire visitors to explore and discover the wonders of Britain’s countryside. With a beautiful shot, ‘Morning at Countryside’, taken in West Sussex, Mara Leite scoops the prestigious title of Overall Winner and receives the £10,000 top prize in this year’s competition. Charlie Waite, the awards founder says, ‘With the glorious ring lighting and a splash of golden light at the top, there is a sense of security and protection as much as…

1 Make powerful proposals I think to survive as a photographer nowadays you have to read a lot and you also have to be able to write well because assignments don’t drop from trees any more. You have to convince people to give you money to go and shoot pictures. You have to make proposals that are coherent, powerful and intriguing. 2 Be informed You have to be able to mix with a client on an intelligent basis and be social and be informed. So, I think there’s a big background of just being an informed human being that is a really essential component of this. 3 Put emotion in images I’ve met photographers who come at this from an engineering perspective and they can knock out a picture, and…

Eco-friendly Lowepro says that 75% of all the fabric used to construct the bag is recycled. Rain cover The bright orange waterproof cover is quick to fit, large enough to cover a water bottle and stows away neatly in its own pocket. Front pocket The stretchy front pocket is perfect for carrying a lightweight jacket. Attachment points A pair of walking poles can be fastened to the outside of the bag. However, there’s no easy way of carrying a full-size tripod. ● £210 ● www.lowepro.com/uk-en WHILE most camera backpacks are primarily designed to hold lots of kit, Lowepro’s PhotoSport models are different, being true dual-purpose bags for those who’d like to carry a camera while out walking or hiking. Here, we’re looking at a 24-litre version that’s ideal for a…

Diana Spencer by Central Press Press interest in the late Diana, Princess of Wales started right from the beginning of her relationship with Prince Charles. Here she is, aged just 19, pictured leaving her flat in Coleherne Court in Earl’s Court. It was taken in November 1980, just a few months before the couple announced their engagement in February 1981. How the rest of the story played out is of course extremely well-known, with many attributing her death to the role the paparazzi played in their pursuit of her. The Getty Images Hulton Archive is one of the world’s great cultural resources. Tracing its origins to the founding of the London Stereoscopic Company in 1854, today it houses over 80 million images spanning the birth of photography to the digital…

Don’t crop in too tightly Leave space for the magazine ‘furniture’ – masthead, coverlines and any graphic devices that we use to describe what’s in the issue. Busy images that have lots of detail are generally unsuitable as they make superimposed text tricky to read. Shoot portrait-format pictures While it’s not unheard of for us to use a section of a landscape-format image, your chances are improved by shooting in the upright format. Make eye contact If you’re submitting a portrait, ensure good eye contact, with the subject looking directly into the lens. Make sure the eyes are pin-sharp. Provide plenty of options Try various angles and subject placements, with the main focal point to the left, the right and centre, to give the art editor lots of options for…

OM DIGITAL Solutions has announced that it will no longer be using the Olympus name on its cameras and lenses, and revealed the first product under its new OM System brand. The M.Zuiko Digital ED 20mm F1.4 Pro is a large-aperture standard prime that should be suitable for shooting a wide range of subjects, while promising premium optics and build quality. Of the 11 elements used in its optical design, no fewer than eight are either constructed from special glass or use aspherical profiles, in order to minimise optical aberrations. It’s dust-, splash- and freeze-proof to the IPX1 standard, thanks to an array of seals arranged around the barrel. A fluorine coating on the front element repels water and fingerprints. In terms of design, the 20mm F1.4 is simplified compared…

PHOTOGRAPHER Andy Aitchison has received an apology and damages from Kent Police after he was unlawfully arrested and detained for taking pictures of protesters demonstrating against conditions at Napier Barracks asylum camp on 28 January this year. Despite showing his press card, Andy was arrested at home in Folkestone some seven hours after he took the photos; it’s believed the police saw his picture credit on Kent Live, a local news site. ‘I apologise unreservedly to Mr Aitchison for his unlawful arrest, false imprisonment and breach of his human rights,’ said the Kent Police chief constable, Alan Pughsley. ‘I recognise the fundamental importance of free speech and the independence of journalists; I accept that they should not be at risk of arrest and of having their equipment seized when acting…

When you think about wildlife photographers, and the gear they use, you immediately think of huge telephoto lenses. As much as they’d want to, wildlife photographers usually can’t photograph their subjects with a wideangle lens because the wildlife would run away if they tried… or you could die trying. When you’re photographing an elephant seal, a rhino or a polar bear, you might get away with a short lens and still get the main subject at a recognisable size in the frame. But, especially with smaller subjects, you need a lot more focal length to get them to show up at a decent size in the image. This is one of the reasons why I prefer to photograph large mammals – they enable me to use shorter lenses and that…

If Kelly-Ann Bobb wasn’t so nice it would be easy for me to find her quite annoying. Not only is her photography exceptional, and not only does she have almost as many cameras as I do, but she has managed to achieve both of these feats in just two years. Some of us have taken a lifetime to get to where we find ourselves right now in our photographic careers, while others, like Kelly-Ann, speed along at 100mph and seem to arrive at the same place in a matter of minutes. Kelly-Ann has an incredible drive and masses of energy; as well as, it seems, an insatiable thirst for knowledge and experience. And she doesn’t hang around thinking about it – she actually gets on and does it. A surgeon…

At low ISO settings the GFX50S II gives superb images, with no visible noise and impressive rendition of even the finest detail. It’s only really at ISO 3200 that we see any degradation when examining images close-up onscreen. By ISO 12,800 quality is suffering from noise, although the camera’s own processing does a better job of maintaining colour than Adobe Lightroom or Camera Raw. Beyond this, however, things go downhill fast, with colours fading and serious problems with noise. ISO 25,600 might sometimes be usable at a pinch, but I’d steer well clear of the top two extended settings.…

One of the interesting features of the new Canon EOS R3 is that it restores a feature last seen in the film EOS 3 of 1998 – that of eye-controlled autofocus. Early reviews of the camera indicate that the revived technology works well, although it requires calibration in order to work for any individual user. However, given the complexity of navigating over 1,000 AF points, the operational speed of the system justifies its set-up time. Since its announcement I have seen a number of adverse comments about the system, possibly derived from Canon’s marketing images. These show beams of light being directed into the eye, causing some people to point out the danger of such an arrangement, and conspiracy theorists to suggest that Canon is building a database of retina…

Cameras Cameras come in three types: DSLRs with optical viewfinders, mirrorless models with electronic viewing, and compact cameras with non-interchangeable lenses Handgrip DSLRs traditionally have relatively large handgrips, while many mirrorless models have much smaller grips to keep size down. However, some can accept accessory grips to improve handling with larger lenses. Lens mount Each camera brand uses its own lens mount, and mirrorless cameras use different lenses to DSLRs even from the same brand. However, mirrorless models can often use DSLR lenses via a mount adapter. Controls Entry-level cameras tend to have simple, easy-to-understand controls, while more expensive models add lots of buttons and dials to give quick access to settings. Viewfinder The biggest difference between DSLRs and mirrorless cameras is that the latter use electronic, rather than optical…

AP picture of the week The Dark Web by Martin Donald Smith Canon EOS R5, Sigma 135mm Art f/1.8,1/2500sec at f/1.8, ISO 640 ‘I was out on a foggy morning in some local woodland and my eye was drawn to a young beech tree and the dew and light of this delicate web,’ says Martin, an amateur landscape and outdoor photographer based near Falkirk, Scotland. ‘I used a tripod to help with framing and deliberately opened up the lens and increased the ISO slightly so that I could use selective focus to direct the viewer’s eye towards the heart of the web and freeze the action, as there was a slight breeze.’ Find Martin on Instagram @martindonaldsmith or Twitter @martindonaldsm1. Golden Valley by Natalie Wright Panasonic Lumix S5, Panasonic 20-60mm…

AS WELL as updating Lightroom and Photoshop (see right), Adobe has announced the new Lightroom Academy. The new service is ‘dedicated to sharing photographic knowledge that informs, inspires and supports photographers with a wide level of experience, equipment, time and resources’, says Adobe, and it’s free to use, with no sign-up or Creative Cloud membership required. As well as sharing best practice and useful tips, each module sets some simple homework, aka ‘On Your Own Activity,’ with details of the gear needed and the time it should take. For the range of currently available modules, see lightroom.adobe.com/academy.…

I refer to Andy Westlake’s response to the letter on tilt and shift lenses for Micro Four Thirds (AP 4 September): ‘there’s no sensible way to use a shift lens ... on MFT cameras’. A friend of mine in the antiques business wants to photograph mirrors with his Panasonic MFT camera without getting his own reflection in the frame. I have just put together a solution for him: my Pentax 28mm f/3.5 shift lens mounted on a third-party Pentax-to-Four-Thirds adapter, itself mounted on an Olympus Four-Thirds-to-MFT adapter. Obviously there is no electronic linkage between lens and camera, but that’s typical for a shift lens anyway. Optically it works just fine. I’m sure manual focus lenses from other manufacturers could be used in a similar way. Whether you regard two adapters…

‘What connects mustard and photography?’ asked Roger Taylor, the UK’s premier photographic historian, at the beginning of his lecture at Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham, in 1978. I was in the audience and we were all fascinated by this intriguing question. I have heard Roger talk many times over the years, and he always injects this sort of stuff into his enthusiastic and entertaining presentations. Although he is an emeritus professor of photography and a world-renowned photographic scholar – he has just been to Windsor Castle to get the Royal Victorian Order from the Queen for services to the Royal Collection – he makes photographic history engaging, with humour and humanity. His journey to this world of historic collections and dusty artefacts started at the end of World War Two when he…