Innholdsfortegnelse for 11/5/24 i Amateur Photographer

Since the current Israel-Gaza conflict began on 7 October 2023, 131 journalists have been killed in that region alone. Where once upon a time, a vest with ‘Press’ written on it would mark you as a neutral observer, now they are specifically targeted in wars and authoritarian states in all corners of the world as antagonists attempt to eliminate any witnesses to their atrocities. This week we report on a unique training school that aims to teach journalists how to stay alive. Hopefully your own travel plans don’t require the need for such skills, but a great holiday can still be spoiled by carrying too much kit. This week we present some tips on travelling light without compromise. Don’t forget to enter your best shots into the travel round of…

THE FILM Photographer of the Year 2024, organised by AP in association with Analogue Wonderland, Kodak Professional and Ricoh, is now open for entries. The judging panel, which includes representatives from these companies and AP’s Nigel Atherton and Jessica Miller, are looking for a set of five to eight images that show your ability to shoot fantastic film images across a range of situations and styles. The winner gets over £4,000 of prizes, including a Pentax 17 film camera, a year’s supply of Kodak film, a year’s supply of film developing and scanning with the Analogue Wonderland lab, and other goodies. Entries close on 5 January 2025, with the winners set to be announced on 10 March. Full details are at bit.ly/APfilmcontest…

In association with Round nine Travel Experiencing cultures different from our own is exhilarating, and the sights and colours of new places provide plenty of inspiration for our photography. Distilling such experiences into a single image is a huge challenge, as it’s tempting to include as much as possible in the frame, so try to only include what really matters. It also goes without saying that showing respect for the people and traditions you might encounter is more important than any photograph, so if someone makes it clear they aren’t comfortable with your camera, walk away. Your guest judge Your guest judge for Round Nine, Travel, is Bella Falk, a multi-award-winning travel blogger, writer, photographer and documentary director based in London. In 2024 she won Trade Feature of the Year…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH Benedict Brain Benedict Brain is a UK-based photographer, author, journalist, and educator. He leads photography workshops, speaks internationally about the art and craft of photography, exhibits his work globally, and has published books available worldwide. www.benedictbrain.com On a recent trip down the East African coast, I found myself wandering the narrow streets of Stone Town, Zanzibar. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the sense of history hits you immediately. The crumbling, stone buildings are a photographer’s dream, but the narrow and bustling streets make photography tricky. Before long, though, I became fascinated by the doors – each one unique, and full of character. Some are intricately carved, rich with detail, while others are simple, worn, or even scrawled with graffiti. Together, they tell the story of…

CALLUM McINERNEY-RILEY The AP regular’s guide to choosing the best gear to travel light for travel photography ANDY WESTLAKE Technical Editor Our resident camera and lens expert tests the Panasonic Lumix GH7 hybrid camera AMY DAVIES Features Editor AP’s smartphone tester assesses Apple’s flagships, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max JENNIFER FORWARD-HAYTER The photographer explores a training course for journalists working in war zones BEN BRAIN In our regular Behind the Print series, Ben explains how he created a stunning artwork AILSA McWHINNIE Our APOY co-ordinator launches Round 9 and presents tips for sucess…

THE 2025 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize has announced its shortlist, with Cristina de Middel, Rahim Fortune, Tarrah Krajnak and Lindokuhle Sobekwa making it to the final round. The winner of the £30,000 prize will be announced at an award ceremony at The Photographers’ Gallery in central London on 15 May 2025, with the other finalists each receiving £5,000. Full details of the Prize exhibition and award evening will be announced in early 2025. The annual exhibition of work from the shortlisted projects will also be on show at The Photographers’ Gallery from 7 March to 15 June 2025.…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH We all like to photograph different things when we travel, from landscapes, to local cultures and street scenes. Very often, it will be the spectacular and very different architecture of other countries and cities that catches our eye, and while we don’t have to worry too much about perspectives and viewpoints for other kinds of subject matter, with buildings it does make a difference. The main issue is that it’s often not possible to take photographs of tall buildings without tilting the camera upwards – and this introduces the dreaded ‘converging vertical’ or ‘keystoning’ effect, where the sides of the building appear to lean inwards. Sometimes people blame wideangle lenses for this, but it’s tilting the camera that does it. Buildings will look straighter if you photograph…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Making my head hurt In spite of using what I thought to be reasonable kit, a tripod and careful focusing, I felt I was not achieving the depth of field that I was expecting in my landscapes and so decided to try to understand why this might be. This has taken me on a journey of reading about concepts such as visual acuity, circles of confusion, diffraction, sensor pixel count and size and degree of enlargement of the finished image in determining depth of field when focusing. With what I now understand, when I do the arithmetic to calculate the DoF to expect for a given focus distance, the degree of enlargement and viewing distance of the final image, I find that it can be surprisingly…

Before the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympics I had never heard of blind football. And when the sport was advertised on Channel 4 I assumed that I must have misheard. But as the TV presenter went on to announce the fixtures, I realised I hadn’t been mistaken at all. Blind football was definitely ‘a thing’ and it was about to blow my narrow mind. At first, the pairing of two relatively familiar concepts, ‘blind’ and ‘football’, seemed an uncomfortable juxtaposition wildly inconsistent with my mental map of how the world works. Even when I learned that the ball contains a bell so that players can locate it, there were still so many questions, such as how do the players know where the goal is, or locate their team mates? The short…

APPLE has announced the wider availability of the first set of Apple Intelligence (read AI) features for the iPhone, iPad and macOS computers, first announced at the iPhone 16 launch on 11 September. For photographers, which is just about every iPhone owner these days, key features include natural-language search, enabling you to find images and videos stored on the phone simply by describing them (Apple gave the very Californian example of ‘Maya skateboarding in a tie-dye shirt.’) It’s also possible to search for a specific scene in a video, and the AI-powered search tools offer smart completion suggestions. Some of the tools have been available to iPhone users since mid-October via an upgrade of the phone’s operating system, iOS 18, and are now out of beta (test) phase. To recap,…

7 days A week in photography LOMOGRAPHY has released the Lomo’Instant Wide Glass instant camera, which takes Fujifilm Instax Wide film. Key features include a 90mm multi-coated glass lens and 0.3m close focusing distance, along with a manual exposure compensation control and an additional f/22 stop for a greater depth of field (the standard fixed aperture is f/8). Multiple exposure and bulb shooting modes are available too, along with coloured gel filters, a Splitzer lens attachment, and a lens cap remote control featuring a shutter release button and a timer switch. It’s available now for £249 from bit.ly/lomowideglass…

ANGLESEY-based photography tour operator The Photographic Adventure Company recently got a boost from business mogul Theo Paphitis of TV’s Dragons’ Den fame. The company was one of six weekly winners of his Small Business Sunday (#SBS) competition, with Paphitis reposting about the winners to his sizeable Twitter and Instagram audience. The Photographic Adventure Company also gets access to a network of small and micro businesses across the UK. ‘It is incredibly humbling and exciting to have this boost and support from Theo so early on in my business journey,’ says Greg Childs, founder of The Photographic Adventure Company. ‘We have only just entered our second year of business and up until about three weeks ago I was still working from either the kitchen table or the sofa.’ More than 4,000…

Callum McInerney-Riley Callum McInerney-Riley has been a Technical Writer at Amateur Photographer, reviewing cameras and accessories. A keen photographer for over 15 years, he now runs a company that creates photography and video content for a host of large brands. www.primecreative.io In Atomic Habits, James Clear explains that reducing friction – small obstacles that make it harder to take action – can help to make habits stick. This concept is highly relevant to travel photography. When weighed down by heavy gear, the hassle of setting up and moving around makes spontaneous photos less appealing. By simplifying your setup and packing light, you improve your travel experience, making it easier to take photos and allowing creativity to flow without the burden of logistics. What to pack and when Selecting the right…

7 days A week in photography AP picture of the week Ely Cathedral in Early Morning Light by Glynis Pierson DJI Mini 4 Pro, 1/320sec at f/1.7, ISO 150 ‘I’ve been capturing images of Ely Cathedral since I started using a drone just over a year ago. It’s a magnificent medieval building which is local to me and it looks fabulous from many angles. This was taken just after sunrise.’ X and Instagram: @glynpierson #appicoftheweek Win! The AP Pic of the Week winner will receive a beautifully framed print of their winning image worth up to £100. If you Love it, Frame it! ThisPicture.com is an experienced, high-quality framing company with a unique, easy-to-use website. Build single or multi-image frames with a few clicks of your mouse and select from…