Food Photographer of the Year and tuition

I have the pleasure of being asked to be on the judging panel for the forthcoming  Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2012. Entries close on 31st January so enter now. There are many categories including three sections for under 18's so get your children involved too. I can't wait for next year's competition as I will be eligible to enter and shall encourage my children to have a go too. No need to worry about nepotism or foul play, they are unlikely to listen to any advice I offer on  photography. Which brings me to...........tuition.

I have been offering one to one photographic tuition for about a year after a rewarding spell running an after school photography course at Caistor Yarborough School. It has made me ponder my own early photographic development and I now conclude that there is a crucial part of the learning process missing with digital cameras. Anybody who has shot film will remember the joy of the shots that "came out" either by fluke or judgement and the despair of the one that didn't make it. Whilst having little nostalgia for horrible chemicals, just 36 frames and dust on negatives that you couldn't quite shift, film had the useful but sometimes cruel ability to teach harsh lessons. That great shot that failed to materialise on the emulsion because of poor exposure, the weird missing bit because the shutter didn't sync with the flash, the unrescuable over-exposed shot in bright sunlight etc. Film meant enthusiasts had to understand exposure and boy did you learn quickly when your hopes were dashed by a completely transparent negative. And you only used a camera not loaded with film once. Ever.

I have had a number of aspiring photographers in the studio with little knowledge on shutters, apertures and ASA. That's fine for those happy to never stray from Auto but these people are holding their photography back. So there you have it, the phenomenal technology at work enabling you to make mistakes at no (financial) cost with digital can actually curb your photographic development unless you get that camera off its Auto setting and show it who is boss. Oh well, at least it put an end to those annoying stickers the lab put on rubbish holiday snaps.

Film v Digital - Different yet similar

I get asked about the merits of digital photography regularly and the assumption is always that digital must have changed my job beyond recognition. I have certainly had to learn a whole new skill set since my days shooting film. Funny then that we appear to be in the midst of an analogue revival. Lomo and Diana film cameras are suddenly gaining a cult following, special edition vinyl LP's are back and digital emulations of film are everywhere right now. I dabble in this a bit and enjoy producing the odd wedding shot that has a look of Fuji Velvia, a great slide film that had lovely warm saturated colour. Not very realistic but sometimes that's just what you want. Below is a shot fiddled with using a light-leak texture. One £1300 Canon lens made to look like I used a broken Kodak Instamatic!

A few months a go I was approached by Marc Aspland, a good friend and Staff Sports Photographer of The Times (more of him coming soon) to work on some pictures from the riots. Marc noticed how similar some of the shots were to wartime Blitz shots of London. My job was to make the modern digital shots look like hand printed images from film. The resulting spread is reproduced below courtesy of The Times and explains how I did it. I miss the hand printing a little but don't miss the stained clothing, stink of fix and brown finger nails! "Nothing's changed" I hear you say.

 ©The Times. Reproduced with permission