Innholdsfortegnelse for 8/1/2023 i Amateur Photographer

HOLLIE LATHAM HUCKER Technique Editor Hollie compiles the best street photographs from you, our readers DAMIEN DEMOLDER Former AP editor Damien talks to street photographer Alan Schaller PETER DENCH The AP regular and street photographer chats ethics with fellow street shooters AMY DAVIES Features Editor Amy finds out about a new tome celebrating underappreciated street photography AILSA MCWHINNIE Our APOY co-ordinator brings you the results of Round Five, Portraits ANDY WESTLAKE Technical Editor Chief reviewer Andy tests the Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8, a zoom for Sony full-frame cameras…

Astronomy equipment manufacturer Vaonis has announced Hestia, a device that allows smartphone users to turn their handset into a smart telescope. ‘With its patented six-lens optical design featuring a 30mm (1.2in) objective and prisms to collect and focus the light directly into your smartphone’s camera sensor, Hestia pushes back the limits of miniaturization,’ said the company. It also features a 1/4in thread so it can be used with a tripod with a pan-and-tilt fluid head, while optional accessories include a tripod, solar filter for sun shots, hard case, finderscope, and a motorised mount. Hestia is available to pre-order on Kickstarter for prices starting at £115 with deliveries expected by the end of the year. An accompanying iOS and Android app, Gravity by Vaonis, will help users locate celestial bodies, and…

7 daysA week in photography Working on AP, I sometimes see letters from photographers, mainly of a more conservative creative bent, who claim that editing images on the computer is somehow cheating. Are these the same types who head out to popular beauty spots at the weekend and take landscape images that cheat even more? By cheating, I mean deliberately obscuring the fact that the UK is an overcrowded country, and ignoring the other stuff happening around them: other photographers, tourists, ice cream vans and so on. Isn’t it also our job as photographers to record the world as it is in 2023, not how we’d like it to be? A massive gulf has opened between depictions of the landscape in ‘art’ photography and more mainstream work. Art photographers, for…

AP picture of the week Wildlife Never Sleeps by Brooklyn Freeman Canon EOS R7, Canon 800mm, 1/125sec at F11, ISO 2500 ‘This beautiful juvenile bird was finding his wings and taking in his surroundings whilst being very photogenic for me. At dusk this owlet was waiting to be fed from his mother and this is my best shot! Instagram: @wildlifephotographybybrooklyn #appicoftheweek Win! The AP Pic of the Week winner currently wins a 3 Legged Thing Alan 2.0 monopod kit worth £169.99. This robust carbon fibre monopod can support camera gear up to 60kg, and thanks to its 5-sections folds small enough for travel. Ideal for sports and wildlife photography, it features a dual spring-loaded 1/4in-20 and 3/8in-16 thread at the top for a choice of mounts. It comes in a…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Jolly hockey sticks Being involved with two local amateur sports clubs I must agree with John Griffin and Mhairi Chambers regarding the lack of sports photography in AP. This lack of interest is also reflected in the judging of sports photography in camera club competitions. My involvement in sports photography began in 2016. Looking for a project, I wrote to my local hockey club to explain that I am an amateur and requested permission to attend their home matches. My request was granted and permission was given. Our relationship has become very strong, and they use my images to promote the club and encourage new membership. My cameras of choice have always been Canon and at first, I was using an EOS 7D and a 5D…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH Olympus Tough TG-6 ● £399 ● explore.omsystem.com Olympus’s Tough compacts have habitually won our underwater camera group tests, and this latest model is still the best of its type. It’s waterproof to 15m, shockproof against a 2.4m drop, crushproof and freezeproof. The 25-100mm equivalent lens is paired with a 12MP sensor, and viewing is via a 3in LCD. This is also one of the few rugged cameras that can record raw files. Reviewed Dec 2022 Ricoh GR III ● £949 ● ricohgr.eu/en-gb A favourite of street photographers, the GR III combines a 24MP APS-C sensor and a sharp 28mm equivalent f/2.8 lens in a slim, pocketable body. It offers sensitivities up to ISO 102,400 and 4fps shooting, while in-body image stabilisation helps keeps image sharp. Viewing is…

Welcome to our street special. We’ve spoken to some accomplished exponents of street photography, notably Alan Schaller, whose beautifully composed and executed black & white work continues to impress and inspire. You don’t have to be a pro to succeed in this genre, however, as Chris Porsz – a paramedic by profession – also reveals. Other highlights include a guide to analogue street shooting and, coming bang up to date, how to get great shots using a smartphone. The ethics of street photography are covered, too. Hardware-wise, we review the new Canon V10, a budget vlogging camera, and the Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8, an attractive zoom lens for full-frame. Enjoy the issue. Connect with us @ EMAIL US at ap.ed@kelsey.co.uk with your letters, send us a link to your online gallery,…

Venus Optics has announced a new professional-grade macro lens, the Laowa Aurogon FF 10-50x NA0.5 Supermicro APO for full-frame mirrorless cameras. Boasting a 10x-50x magnification, the new lens is available in mounts including Canon EF and RF, Nikon F and Z, Sony E, and L. The set of the objective lens and four tube lenses is priced at 8,999 Yuan (around £960). Pricing outside of China is to be announced. See www.venuslens.net for updates.…

It’s pretty important for those who use their cameras to pay their bills to have a signature of some sort, something recognisable that marks them out from the crowd, and which makes them the first person photography-buyers think of when they visualise their next campaign. Some photographers get known for the types of things they photograph, like cars, people, dogs or products, while others use a specific eye-catching technique that they practice, perfect and roll out again and again until we all take notice. A strong signature gets you noticed more quickly as what you do – your ‘thing’ – is much more obvious, but after a while of sticking to that ‘thing’ some photographers find themselves down an alleyway they can’t escape from without totally re-inventing themselves. The trick,…

Reclaim the Street is an impressively weighty tome. Its pages show off a breadth and depth of street photography work from a range of sources, many of which are hidden – or at the very least underappreciated. Curated by street photography stalwart Matt Stuart and edited by another big name in the field, Stephen McClaren, it’s an attempt to shine a light on different facets of the genre in an engaging and well-thought-through collection. Speaking to Matt, it’s clear he’s incredibly proud of the work that has gone into putting Reclaim the Street together. The term ‘labour of love’ is perhaps overused, but here it seems to be wholly accurate – with roughly four years of almost constant work required to finish the final manuscript. He explains, ‘I realised there…

The 70:15:40 Project UK, which aims to help redress the challenges faced by women, trans and non-binary people in photography and videography, has announced its inaugural winners. Each gets £40,000 worth of support to create and exhibit a photo series or short film on the subject of ‘Change.’ The Project’s name reflects the fact that while women comprise 70% of photography graduates, only 15% of pros are female – and they earn on average 40% less than men. It was set up by MPB and backers include the RPS. See bit.ly/mpbproject.…

Round Five Portraits Portraiture is always a challenge. It can be easy to become overwhelmed by our own creativity, or distracted by the technicalities of studio flash, or confused by the pattern and modelling of natural light. There’s potential to forget there’s an individual in front of the camera who needs directing and who has a story to tell – a story that it’s our duty to capture in a single frame. A successful portrait has an edge – a certain something that, in a split second, reveals some small detail or nuance about the person. And the beauty of it is, a different photographer a moment later might reproduce something completely different from the same set-up. A good portrait encourages the viewer to look longer and deeper into the…

Steve Elliott Instagram: @steveelliottphotography My favourite places to shoot are in London along the South Bank starting at Borough and progressing on past the Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern, Embankment Station and the Southbank Centre. I worked in central London for years and it never fails to impress me. Over the past two years I have also been drawn to Lisbon, Portugal, with the MAAT Museum and Champalimaud Centre being favourite spots. It was not until I moved to the country that I realised how much of a city person I am and how much I miss it. I started taking street photography images in London to begin with. Initially because I knew the area well and I wanted some images to make me feel less homesick. Someone commented on one…

Simon Murphy Simon Murphy travels extensively, shooting human interest stories which see him photographing a wide range of subjects, from musicians and actors to the Dalai Lama. His project, called Govanhill, focuses on an area in Glasgow’s southside, and the images form a ‘Portrait of the Place’, aiming to give an insight into one of Scotland’s most diverse but deprived areas. The project is about community and diversity. Instagram: @smurph77 Just wander Clear your mind and simply wander. Wandering is a huge part of the process, and you must put the time in. Wander for long enough, and you will tune into the flow of the street and notice the gifts that everyday life throws your way. Feel the fear All the best pictures exist just beyond the boundary of…

● £369 ● uk.shimodadesigns.com Shimoda has offered women-specific straps for its backpacks for a while, but it’s now introduced a range of backpacks that are designed for women and come with the Women’s Tech Straps. There are two lines in the Women’s series, the Explore v2 backpacks that are available with 25L or 30L capacity and the Action X v2 backpacks that are available in three capacities (25, 30 and 40L). The Action X v2 packs have a roll-close top and more mounting points for straps than the Explore v2 packs, making them best suited to people wanting to combine their photography with sports such as skiing or mountain climbing. The Explore v2 backpacks have a cleaner-looking, more traditional design with a large zip-closed top section with internal organisers, a…

Photo Critique I can think of no other subset of photography afflicted with more dogma than street photography. For some reason work in the street is chained, nailed, hair-shirted, tortured and terrorised with an astonishing range of rules, laws, commandments and reputation-threatening gentlemanly agreements regarding what can and can’t be done, and what is and isn’t appropriate. One might believe a direct pass into the Kingdom of Heaven will only be granted to those who do not crop, who show their work in black & white, who indeed shoot in black & white, and to those who go unnoticed among men to record humanity’s spontaneous intimacies. Perhaps we should blame M Cartier-Bresson – or at least the clergy that upholds the church of perpetuated myths that has risen around his…