Innholdsfortegnelse for 25/10/2022 i Amateur Photographer

In 1998 the shifting sands of Holme Beach in North Norfolk revealed a secret that had been hidden from view for millennia. As the sea retreated, a tight circle of 55 oak posts appeared in the intertidal zone. In the centre was an upturned tree trunk, stripped of its bark. Using dendrochronology (the scientific method of calculating dates and ages using tree rings), archaeologists traced the posts back to the Bronze Age (they were felled in 2049 BC). Like so many prehistoric monuments, the exact purpose of this circle is unclear, but its discovery excited archaeologists (and the public) enough to award it the name Seahenge. Tough decisions Photographer Andrew Rafferty read about Seahenge in the press and, as a keen historian, he immediately felt the need to visit the…

Simon White, Honiton About Simon Simon is a truck driver from Devon. Favourite subjects I’ve always been a massive film buff and classic American car fan, so I try to photograph subjects that have a mid-century cinematic feel. How did you get into photography? After seeing some of Patrick Joust’s images. His atmospheric night shots of Baltimore are stunning. I bought a Panasonic bridge camera to take on a road trip through the USA in 2017 and that’s where it started for me. What do you love about photography? Everything! From composing the shot to the final edit. First camera Panasonic bridge camera. Current kit Lumix G9. Favourite lens Sigma 30mm f/1.4. Favourite accessory My Peak Design camera clip. Much more secure than having expensive camera kit swinging around on…

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…

ROTOLIGHT is using the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo for the launch of two new LED lights, the NEO 3 and AEOS 2 PRO Editions. The new products follow on from last year’s successful launch of the NEO 3 and AEOS 2 on Kickstarter (the NEO 3 was named Lighting Product of the Year in AP’s most recent awards). The lights come with a range of additions for pros, and are said to give up to 25% greater continuous light output than their predecessors. They also have built-in Godox, Profoto, Elinchrom, Neewer and Pixapro flash receivers, which is an industry first. Another selling point is in the inclusion of preset packs, which include over 100 special effects designed by leading photographers and Emmy-award winning filmmakers. You can select the presets directly from…

Vehicles, including planes (Kingsley Singleton) MISTAKE Picking the wrong lens You don’t need fancy lenses to shoot a good pan, but longer focal lengths can definitely give a look that’s simpler and more effective. It all has to do with field of view. A wide view means you need to turn the camera more to pick up blur, which also risks blurring the subject. But cropped views, for instance at 200mm, need only a small movement to pick up motion and create a pleasing backdrop. MISTAKE Losing focus Following a moving subject can mean the AF point slips from it and the focus strays. To combat this, some photographers switch to manual focus, setting the point of sharpness on the part of the scene they know the subject will move…

The typical life-cycle of an amateur photographer generally involves discovering the egg of photography in our teens, devouring all the information we can find like caterpillars, cocooning the camera for all but family occasions once children come into our life, and then a re-emergence of our magnificent creativity once they’ve left home and time becomes our own again. Not wanting to put his photography into hibernation, Hungarian photographer Tibor Litauszki took an alternative route when his first child came along. Finding he had much less time during the day, he switched from shooting birds to shooting nocturnal wildlife once his son had gone to bed. ‘Birds were my favourite subject,’ he tells us, ‘as they are so varied and interesting – every moment is a joy when you are watching…

The best cameras for action photography need to be able to capture fast, fleeting moments in pin-sharp detail. This means that we’re looking for a number of key features – most obviously robust burst shooting, with plenty of frames per second and a deep buffer so you can keep going for a few seconds to ensure the moment isn’t missed. A good sports camera should also have a fast, accurate autofocus system that can keep up with tricky moving subjects, even as they flit in and out of frame. Here, the latest AI-based subject-recognition autofocus systems can pay dividends. Good high-ISO performance is a plus too, as this will allow you to use shorter shutter speeds, bettering your chances of freezing the action. It’s not just about features, though. The…

Event and social photographers, such as wedding shooters, have been hit hard by a perfect storm over the past few years – the pandemic was one thing, but now we’re in a period of great economic uncertainty, with potential clients tightening their belts. You can still make money from events and portrait photography, however, and to tie in with this action special issue of AP, here’s how you can turn a tidy profit from taking shots of local sports teams, dance clubs and the like. TeamPhotoOrdering is a new service set up by Stanley Baker Studios, a long-established (since 1964) photo lab and printing company with a strong background in school photography. Using a similar package to that provided for school photographers, TeamPhotoOrdering provides a complete editing and marketing service…

Human Playground: Why We Play by Hannelore Vandenbussche £59.95, teNeues, hardback, 288 pages, ISBN: 9783961713776 Also available as a docuseries on Netflix, Human Playground sees the world through the concept of play as explored by photographer Hannelore Vandenbussche. With beautiful photographs of a diverse range of worldwide games and sports, the monograph aims to deal with the central question of ‘why we play’. By taking a look at themes which span the globe, such as ancient rituals, rites of passage, business, pain, perfection and sacredness, this is a book which manages to encompass what it is to be human. Philosophy aside, the photography is gorgeous. From the Donga stick fighters of Ethiopia to the Tarahumara runners of Mexico, to Cuba’s female boxers and the Buzkashi of Central Asia, this is…

Will Cheung Veteran photography journalist Will Cheung has seen huge technological advances, especially with AF and burst shooting. Combine the two and the potential for wonderful shots is beyond imagination. www.williamcheung.co.uk A fraction of a second is very brief in terms of time but photographically it’s the difference between success or failure. Success means capturing that fleeting smile of a newborn, the ball leaving the face of the racquet or a bird in flight with its wings in the perfect position. Failure means hitting the delete key. There is skill to getting a perfectly timed shot, whether that is catching a magical moment or pushing the shutter button at the instant key elements of a composition come together to make an engaging image. This is what master photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson…

I doubt many of you have watched the American television docuseries Dance Moms? Or perhaps you glimpsed a few episodes when collecting dirty dinner plates from your children, then took more of an interest, finally sitting down next to them to watch episode after episode? It’s been known to happen. The show follows the training and careers of children in dance and showbusiness under the tutelage of Abby Lee Miller profiling the relationships between Miller, the dancers, and their often over-the-top and bickering mothers. ‘My life was kind of like Dance Moms. I’ve been dancing since I was three which I did competitively until the end of high school; then my social life kicked in when I turned 18 and kind of lost that passion. That competitiveness took it out…

Testbench CAMERA TEST For and against Data file The digital age has proven quite challenging for a lot of photographic companies, especially for those from a medium format background. Big sensors and a market a fraction of the size of the mainstream made it a very expensive business, and while many went to the wall Hasselblad has hung on. After a long and pretty dark winter for the Swedish firm, spring sprung in 2016 when it launched the Hasselblad X1D 50C. This small, highly portable and relatively lightweight camera marked quite a diversion from the company’s H series of studio models and, with a price that was attractive at the time, the fortunes of this historic brand were miraculously transformed. Demand exceeded capacity for supply, order books were once…