Innholdsfortegnelse for 4/22/25 i Amateur Photographer

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and nowhere is that saying more applicable than in the world of close-up photography – where even creepy-crawlies reveal their intricate beauty to the inquisitive lens. Our cover feature explores the beauty in details. Speaking of bugs, Keiran Perry became a fly on the wall (albeit a canvas one) in a travelling circus for his fascinating documentary project, which we showcase this week. And Eve Arnold was also a fly on the wall when she shot her now iconic project about a more conventional beauty, Marilyn Monroe, which we revisit this week. Meanwhile for motorsport photographer Nick Dungan the Sony A1 II is a thing of beauty. Find out why in this week’s field test. Connect with us @…

HONOR has announced the 400 Lite budget smartphone, which features a 108MP main camera with f/1.75 aperture and a dedicated AI Camera Button. This is the first of its kind, according to Honor, giving quick access to Google Lens and AI Motion Sensing Capture, along with photo-editing features like AI Eraser and Outpainting. A new Moving Photo mode also combines HD images into a three-second movie. In addition, the Honor 400 Lite comes with three specialised portrait modes, Environmental, Classic and Close-up, which cater for various focal lengths. Available now for £249.99 from honor.com/uk…

The ‘Globe Of Death’ sounds like a Star Wars villain’s planet-destroying space station, a place to avoid, rather than voluntarily spend time in. But, like many photographers, Keiran Perry was ready to go where others might fear to tread. ‘I’d been travelling with the circus for a while, and someone asked me “Do you want to go into the Globe of Death?”,’ Perry explains. ‘There’d be three people in there, whizzing around the globe on motorbikes. It’s only a small cage, maybe 10ft high. The circus had the first all-female Globe of Death group. It’s an incredibly dangerous job. It’s loud. There’s a strong smell of petrol. They’re aggressive machines, and you’ve got tyres tearing around metal. People can get hurt.’ Washed downstream Though many people might dream of running…

● £270 ● vanguardworld.com I’ve tested any number of lightweight travel tripods in the past, but this design from Vanguard is a bit different. With a slimline travel-friendly design, integrated levelling base, and a pan-and-tilt head included in the kit, it’s primarily designed for video. You could use the leg-set for photography, but you’d probably want a different head. This tripod uses 5-section twist-lock legs with no centre column, which allows it to fold down to just 6cm in diameter. It achieves a very useful 148cm maximum height, which puts the camera close to eye level for me as a six-footer. That’s equally valuable when shooting using a viewfinder, as it is for recording a presenter talking to camera. You get three leg angles which enable shooting as low as…

Paul Russell Spend some time with 50mm equiv. You’ll master depth of field and perspective, giving you a solid grounding to see what interests you before you expand your kit. Barry Alan Get it right in camera to avoid slaving over a hot computer! Donna Shoots People How to set up my camera with my flash gun. It took me quite a few years to figure it out and in one day it was almost as if a voice explained it to me. I just knew and set up the flash and camera and just did it. It was such an a-ha moment. Brick Cop©️ @Brick_Cop Be patient, lie on the floor to get the right angle, the results are worth it. Mark Buckley Your 50mm reversed is a close-up…

TRACY CALDER The winner and finalists of the CUPOTY Challenge share their tips with CUPOTY co-founder Tracy GRAEME GREEN The photographer and writer talks to Keiran Perry about why his travels with a circus was so rewarding NICK DUNGAN Pro motorsports photographer Nick Dungan on why the Sony Alpha A1 II has become his go-to camera AMY DAVIES Features Editor In Books and Exhibitions, Amy looks at a tome by Eve Arnold about Marilyn Monroe DAMIEN DEMOLDER AP’s former editor tests Neewer’s feature-packed, great-value LED light ANDY WESTLAKE Technical Editor Chief reviewer Andy tests a lightweight and portable video tripod from Vanguard…

When I was very young my father used to shoot on slide film. Images of our trips were either viewed on a handheld battery-powered slide viewer, passed around from person to person, or en masse via a slide projector directed at the wall of our hall. My dad’s projector turned photo sharing into a quasi-cinematic experience, to which several neighbours were usually invited. In return for politely feigned interest in our trips, they’d be rewarded with vol-au-vents and sherry. Fast forward to today and those posting their travel photos on social media do so in the expectation of themselves being rewarded; with profile-boosting ‘likes’. It’s not just pictures of far-flung destinations – it’s shots in the taxi, at the airport and collecting baggage. Never mind waiting to land; we’ve posted…

The King’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. Until 7 September 2025 £11 / concessions. Visit rct.uk for all opening times Portraiture has long played a vital role in shaping the public’s perception and understanding of the Royal Family. In this exhibition, we can take a look at how photography has been used during the past century to achieve that aim. Huge names in the photographic world are featured, including Cecil Beaton, Lord Snowdon, Norman Parkinson, Annie Leibovitz, Andy Warhol, Rankin and many, many more besides. The show charts how royal portrait photography has been used from the 1920s up to the present day, with a collection of prints, proofs and documents from the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives. It’s interesting to see how the more formal, stiff work of…

The popularity of photography as a pastime gradually increased in the years following Fox Talbot’s invention of the negative-positive process in 1835. In the late 1880s, the introduction of flexible film to replace heavy and fragile glass plates saw a mushrooming in this interest, and photography became affordable to the masses. As technology improved and evolved, numerous film formats emerged, but by the middle of the 20th century the market was dominated by 120 rollfilm and 35mm cassettes. Once-popular formats, such as 127, 126 Instamatic and 110, fell into decline along with the cameras that used them. Most obsolete-format cameras can still be used with a little ingenuity, but two formats – Disc film and APS – are not amenable to DIY hacks. So as the remaining long-expired stock of…

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 a wide range of frames, window mounts and glazing options. Each frame comes with a three-year guarantee and FREE P&P within the UK. Visit thispicture.co.uk Stonechat at Sunrise by Gareth Clifford Canon EOS R6 Mark II, Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II + Canon Extender EF 1.4x III, 1/2000sec at f/4, ISO 4000, 280mm ‘Taken on a cold icy January morning, this stonechat took a perch on the reeds in front of me. I…

I’m going to stick my neck out here and brace myself for accusations of being an artistic philistine. But I’m going to say it anyway: When it comes to revered photographic images of the past, many are not worth the paper they’re printed on. Because of my interest in classic cameras, I tend to haunt auction houses and browse online catalogues, some of which offer images. Many of these pictures up for auction are by photographers whose names I know and whose photography I’ve long admired. Some are by photographers that I’ve never heard of, but whose pictures impress me mightily nonetheless. Then there are the others. For example... ● What appears to be a couple of middle-age people embracing in a hotel corridor. I say ‘appears to be’ because…

IN our 8 April issue, we ran a feature on leading astro-photographer Josh Dury and his new book, 52 Assignments: Night Photography. We’ve now had an update from the publishers, Ammonite Press, and the book’s new on-sale date will be 13 May. The book comes highly recommended and Josh will also be speaking at our Festival of Outdoor Photography at the Royal Geographical Society in London from 30 May to 1 June. You can book your early bird discounted tickets at bit.ly/fopdetails…

The Chinese philosopher Confucius once said, ‘Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.’ I was thinking about this the other day when my daughter pointed out a disused billboard by the side of the road and asked me to photograph a section of the paint and paper lifting off its surface. Where others might have seen an eyesore, she saw pleasing shapes, forms and colours. As the traffic whizzed by, we stood for a minute, side-by-side, admiring this accidental art. It’s no secret that beauty is subjective and that what we consider beautiful is determined by our background, culture, social conditioning and experiences. But what I find interesting is how an object, scene or circumstance can become more beautiful when its attractiveness is pointed out by someone else.…

Massive colour range A total of eight modes are on board for controlling colour and Kelvin temperatures between 2500K and 7500K. Built-in ‘gels’ Colour effects that emulate the colours produced by numbered Lee and Rosco gels are built in. App control Wireless control via the Neewer app brings a nicer interface as well as the ability to colour-match objects and other lights. At a glance £250 ● 80W RGBWW LED light● Built-in battery● Bowens mount● Plenty of external power options● Nicely made● uk.neewer.com LED lights for photography and videography have come a very long way in their relatively short lifetime, with this Neewer HB80C head somewhat embodying all that progress in a single entity. Not only does it cost dramatically less than a similar light would have just five years…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Manual labour I have just bought an ‘entry level’ Canon EOS R50 and the online manual is 812 pages long. How can that possibly make sense? I have been taking photos since primary school when my dad (a keen photographer and AP reader) bought me a second-hand box camera. Post processing was always an evening in our darkroom. I have owned many cameras over 65+ years of amateur photography, and with a few reservations I recently traded my Canon EOS 6D in for an R50. It works fine with all my lenses and is light as a feather, even with the added adapter. It takes subjectively better photos than almost all the earlier cameras I’ve owned. I don’t need 99% of the features, just control over…