Innholdsfortegnelse for 12/19/2023 i Amateur Photographer

Well there goes another year. As usual our Christmas Special looks back at our highlights of the past 12 months. The AP team choose our favourite images, and our pick of the most interesting new kit, and our AP community name their best purchases. We pay tribute to the great photographers we have lost, and recap the key news stories of the year. In our big interviews the legendary Steve McCurry tells AP about his latest work, and Andrea Pizzini discusses his AI experiments creating fantasy cameras that we wish were real. What imaginary camera would you create? If you enjoy the variety of content that AP strives to provide each week, why not support us by taking out a subscription for next year? You’ll find the details on page…

Hollie Latham Hucker Technique Editor Sunset Run, Heacham Beach, Norfolk, October 2023 Apple iPhone 12, 1.55-4.2mm f/1.6-2.4, 1/1150sec at f/1.6, ISO 32 As a busy working mum of two, I rarely find time to dust off my camera. Thankfully the technology in phone cameras these days is rather good and of course, my phone goes everywhere with me. While I don’t own the latest and greatest model, being able to capture some fairly decent quality shots is a blessing; I still get my photo fix despite the daily chaos that comes with having a family. Most pictures I take tend to be portraits, so it came as a surprise to me when I picked this seascape scene as my favourite shot, as landscapes aren’t typically my forte. This sunset scene…

DAMIEN DEMOLDER AP’s former editor interviews photo legend Steve McCurry about his latest book AMY DAVIES Features Editor In our round-up of photography books, Amy picks out the best ones in 2023 ANDY WESTLAKE Technical Editor Our resident chief tester rounds up the best cameras and lenses of the year JAMES ABBOTT The top pro talks to photographer Andrea Pizzini for the story behind his AI versions of cameras JESSICA MILLER Dep. Online Editor Over to you, the readers – Jess compiles some of your favourite buys of the year AILSA MCWHINNIE At last we have a winner – our APOY manager reveals the R10 winners and overall winner…

The incredibly compact SmokeNINJA machine enhances the atmosphere and impact of photography and video shoots. Offering a dynamic selection of fog, dry ice, or steam settings to ensure your scenes are packed with a dramatic punch, it’s a next-generation smoke generator. The SmokeNINJA is a battery-powered, wireless, handheld mini smoke machine that’s aimed at photographers, videographers and on-the-go creative content shooters. At just over 14cm tall it weighs just 286g and can be quickly operated on location or in the studio, when inspiration strikes. It saves users from lugging around a heavy smoke machine, needing mains power and having to carry a large canister of diluted liquid and even then only doing smoke/haze. This is quick, portable and convenient, and adds more creativity with effects such as Dry Ice and…

January ● Online photo sharing giants Flickr and SmugMug joined forces to set up the Flickr Foundation, to preserve billions of historic and culturally significant images (right). ● We sadly announced the death of two photographers close to AP, Marilyn Stafford (see page 48) and former contributor Jamie Harrison. February ● The winners of Garden Photographer of the Year were announced, with UK shooter Tony North triumphing with an astro image from the Canary Islands. ● Sony reveals a pro-spec, large-aperture standard prime, the FE 50mm F1.4 GM, effectively a successor to the six-year-old FE 50mm F1.4 ZA. March ● Sigma announced it would start making lenses for the Nikon Z mount, starting with its three existing F1.4 DC DN primes. ● The Sony Alpha A7R V was named Professional…

MOVING away from AI, a major technological breakthrough this year was the introduction of a global shutter image sensor on the Sony A9 III. Building on the company’s existing stacked CMOS design, this provides simultaneous data readout for all of the sensor pixels. As well as a blackout-free viewfinder feed, the global shutter eliminates any subject distortion due to rolling shutter, as well as any flickering and banding in artificial light. Sports and action photographers will mainly benefit; it enables high-speed continuous shooting of 120 frames per second in full resolution 24.6MP raw, complete with continuous AF and subject tracking and the ability to shoot with flash at any shutter speed (there’s no limitation with high-speed sync). While appealing to the high-end sports shooter demographic, it’s unlikely that global shutter…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Let’s hear it for Newport I read your recent article, 50 Years of Excellence, about the Newport College course, with great interest, being one of the first group of students that completed the Documentary Photography course. The course was revolutionary at the time, being very loosely structured with only one informal lecture, which took place every Wednesday. I remember David Hurn saying: ‘I am going to bombard you with images,’ which he definitely did, opening our eyes to pictures by photographers that few of us were aware of before. The course was almost totally practical, because that was the best way of learning photography, and the idea was to emulate the way of shooting pictures like the ones we had been shown. We had a lot…

Angela Nicholson Former technical editor at AP, Angela is now a regular contributor, writing technique features and camera tests. She founded the Facebook group SheClicks, which numbers around 12,500 members. Gone Fishing, by Lesley Martin Canon EOS R5 with Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM Kingfishers are a popular subject, but one of the most difficult birds to photograph because they’re so small and fast. Most people barely see a flash of blue, let alone capture a sharp image. That’s why Lesley Martin’s image sticks in my mind: it’s one of the best portraits of a kingfisher that I’ve ever seen. Lesley submitted it for the SheClicks July 2023 Challenge, which had the theme ‘Complementary Colours’, with a brief to have colours that pop together. The bright orange and blue…

I can hardly quite believe it’s time to select the best books of the year once again. Despite the difficulties it presents in terms of narrowing down the huge selection that passes across the features desk every year, it’s always one of my favourite things to do – and a real joy to put together the finished list of recommendations. As usual, I’ve tried to include a broad church of different volumes in my selection. There should be something to meet most budgets and interests, but we’re always keen to hear reader recommendations too – so do let us know your favourites via the usual methods listed on page 3. It’s been another great year for documentary and street photography books. These are a great favourite of mine as I…

Round Ten Low light Low light is like catnip to the photographer. As light drops and reduces, it gives dimension, depth, colour and atmosphere to a photographic image, allowing previously ordinary scenes to gradually come alive. Low light has the power to either reduce a potential composition to its basic elements, or it can introduce a riot of conflicting tones and colour temperatures. It’s no wonder that generations of photographers have exploited it to their advantage. This is always a particularly strong round, and seems to unleash entrants’ creativity. It’s also the final round of this year’s competition – we hope you have enjoyed it as much as the AP team has. 1 Daniel Sands UK 100pts Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24-105mm at 24mm, 10sec at f/9, ISO 50…

CAMERA CLUB WINNER Launceston Camera Club, Cornwall We’ve now been running our camera club competition for three years – and for the third time, the runaway winner is Launceston Camera Club. With an astonishing 905 points accumulated by no fewer than 27 members, this club knows how to galvanise its regulars to enter the competition and win points. They came an impressive 475 points ahead of their nearest competitors, second placed Plymouth Camera Club. Can they be beaten next year? May that be a challenge to other camera clubs across the country! Nigel Atherton says: ‘Scoring a hat-trick of wins is an amazing achievement by Launceston. Is there a club out there that will take on the challenge of stopping them from making it four next year?’ 1st Daniel Sands,…

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 the 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…

Photo Critique This image is one of my all-time favourites. I’ve loved it from the first time I saw it on an Instagram feed by the artist in 2017, and have since given it as a print as gifts to my friends. I have a much-adored version in my home and I have shown it in group exhibitions worldwide from China to Liverpool to Milan. So it was inevitable this would be my final image for the year and my chosen image for the festive season. Taken from Darch’s ongoing series Durlescombe, photographed in Devon, the work documents the people, landscapes, and local industries of a fading rural culture, and in doing so explores Darch’s own identity and attachment to a region where generations of his family once lived and…