What have I learned as a photographer
Those who use the Blog site and those who attend the presentations via camera clubs in person and via zoom have given great feedback over the years, and I am most grateful for this. The sessions I have spent judging for clubs again both in person and via zoom have also been enlightening and rewarding. this has grown to the extent that I deliver 30 to 40 events per annum with all the proceeds going to the British Heart Foundation. I have enjoyed the journey of presenting and judging but a recent Q&A at one of the talks lead me to consider reviewing the past 10 years of this process and what I have learnt about photography, photographers and myself.
So What have I learned as a photographer in the past 10 years?
Lets begin with Judging
Its a stressful process being a judge as you want to give the best feedback you can.
Its only a personal view and another person will judge the images differently - you and the members need to realise that.
Its not about me as a judge its about the images and the photographers.
You MUST be kind and CONSTRUCTIVE - from the feedback I believe I am.
You need to be consistent - Do the comments match the marks - from the feedback I believe they do.
You need to try and leave all you biases , likes and dislikes at home and judge the images in front of you on their own merits. I always try and select the based images based on the principle "I wish I had taken that image".
If there is time at the end of the evening then its great to have a Q&A with the members to clarify and justify any comments you made.
For prints I never ask for them ahead of the evening as the committee members have enough to do keeping the club running without pampering to me (the judge). The exception to this is an online judging of DPI as a preview of the images ahead of the night enables you to see them at their best, as quality can be impacted when streamed on line.
You never know who is listening .
On a Camversation talk the editor of the RPS magazine was on the session and later contacted me to ask if I would produce an article for the RPS magazine - I said Yes.
On a Camversation talk the a person from New York USA later contacted me to as if I would deliver the talk via zoom to their club in New Yor - I said Yes.
When I presented at the Camversation stand at the 2026 camera show at the NEC I was not aware that a person in the crowd had won a competition at their local camera club, the prize being to select a speaker for the season. Based on this 15min talk I delivered she had selected me as her speaker.
Judging has improved my personal photography tremendously.
I had never realised until I started judging that I could review an image an give feedback in such a short space of time, Although you do always panic that you will get it wrong or not have anything to say! So far that's never happened.
I always ask for feedback on how I have done in my judging and thankfully the feedback has always been amazingly positive and they keep asking me back - so I couldn't have been too bad. I am aware however that feedback is the only way to improve in whatever you are doing and you must be brave enough to ask for that input.
What about Photography TALKS?
I was a regular club member and in a strong club of talented photographers at Deal Camera Club where I managed to perform well. I did however I became frustrated with the talks we were getting as from my personal perspective they we very lacking for several reasons.
(This applies to some and certainly not all)
Presenters who clearly were not well versed in presenting
Some presenters would show up to 200 images
Little variety
No explanation of the process
No failures shared
No learnings shared
No engagement with me and my colleagues
I often left the evening with nothing that impacted my photography or progress as a photographer
This lead me to the conclusion that its easy to criticize others but are you prepared to step up to the plate yourself and do any better!
I felt I was not progressing as a club member although a camera club is a great outlet for your work and a great social network.
I needed a challenge and an element that would enable me to grow and develop as a photographer and hence decided to see if I could deliver photography talks?
I started with a subject that is my favourite genre of photograph - Street & Architecture .
This was a big success and the information I was delivering and the actual delivery of the talk clearly appeared to engage with club members. I soon established that you need to work hard to get a strong active engagement from members as they have been pushed into a very passive relationship with presenters and this was something I wanted to overcome. A lively engaged group with opinions and views makes it a much more interesting evening for both of us. As popularity of this talk grew I found I was getting repeat questions and requests for other types of talks which has lead to me developing a portfolio of eleven talks.
Here is a visual representation of the evolution
Talk No.1 - Street and Architecture
As this was my preferred area it was a logical and comfortable place to start as I felt I had a breadth of proven material in these areas.
What did I include in my talk
Theory of street photography
Theory of architecture photography
Evaluation of an image from previsualisation to original image shot then through to the final image all supported with in-depth critique of the image
A review of a range of images across both genre
This talk is regularly updated and remains popular with some clubs asking for a repeat run for new members
What did I learn: - I take images of environmental street photography with a single person trapped in a space with a way out!
This talk constantly raised a question : - How do you do you Black and white images and to answer this I put together the Black & White talk.
Talk No.2 - Black & White
I have had my biggest successes over the years with black and white images and it was interesting to see how talk No.1 generated so much interest in this area
What did I include in my talk
Theory Black and White photography
Tips and tricks for Black and White photography
Evaluation of an image from previsualisation to original image shot then through to the final image all supported with in-depth critique of the image
A review of a range of images
This talk resulted in the RPS magazine article and this led to my collaboration with the software company DXO due to my extensive use of silver efex pro software
This talk is regularly updated and remains popular with some clubs now asking for a repeat run for new members.
What did I learn: People don't understand the theory and stick with a formulae that has not work for them so far
This talk constantly raised a question : - So how do you do your colour images?
Talk No.3 - Colourful side of life
What did I include in my talk
Theory Colour photography
Tips and tricks for Colour photography
Evaluation of an image from previsualisation to original image shot then through to the final image all supported with in-depth critique of the image
A review of a range of images
What did I learn: People don't understand the theory of colour
Talk No.4 - Colour or Black & White
Talks No. 2 & No.3 raised the constant question: - So how do you decide if its a colour or black & white image?
What did I include in my talk
Theory Colour and Black and white photography
A review of the reasons that drive the decision process.
Evaluation of a selection of images that compare the colour and black and white options relative to the selection criteria
A review of a range of images from different genre with each image defined by its decision criteria
What did I Learn: Peoples selection of which mode for an image was quite arbitrary.
Talk No.5 - Anatomy of a shot
The journey for an image from previsualisation to raw image to final image with a full critique of the image was so popular that it warranted a stand alone talk with all new images.
Explanation of the evaluation critique principles
Journey through a number of images exploring the journey
What did I learn: People found the whole evaluation system fascinating to the point that they were going to use it themselves.
Talk No.6 - From There to Here a Photographers Journey
This came out of a request from one of the clubs who wanted something to act as motivation for members at all levels to encourage members to continue to develop and try new things
The talk was based around the ever evolving bucket list of challenges I had set myself over the past years as development challenges for myself
The talk included what kit I used and when I used it, along with planning of shoots and management of the shoots.
The key aspect was the bucket list which is that it is highly personalised and pushes you to constantly take on new challenges and I still add to mine list each year.
What did I learn: People get some success and stick with that rather than taking a risk and being prepared to learn from failure.
Talk No.7 - World Tour
This talk has suffered from the success of the others in that it is more akin to your standard club talk with a look at a range of images covering a global narrative. It has proved popular when presented however the others offer a very different offering and hence are selected in preference.
What did I learn: The desire is for a different style of talks which impacts on this.
World Tour Talk
Talk No.8 - Philosophy of your photography (part 1)
This came about due to listening to podcasts in COVID and asking questions about what we do and why we do it as photographers.
The talk was based around a range of subjects that explore what we do with our photography and why.
There is an attempt apply some science to the photography process
The group are encourage to be highly interactive in the talk - and clearly they are keen to get things off their chest!
What did I learn: People want to explore these areas and want to enter into open debate and discussion.
Talk No.9 - Philosophy of your photography (part 2)
Wow part 1 was popular - was their areas I had not explored and clearly there were
The talk was based around a range of subjects form the comparison of pro and amateur photography to a look at various research papers on photographic philosophy and some graphic layout tests.
There is again an attempt apply some science to the photography process
The group are encourage to be highly interactive in the talk - and clearly they are keen to get things off their chest!
What did I learn:People want to further explore these areas and want to enter into open debate and discussion.
Talk No.10 - Philosophy of your photography (part 3)
Could I take asking questions about what we do and why we do it as photographers further.
The talk was based around and evaluation of the base constructs of photographs as defined by research on viewer management and perception.
There is again an attempt apply some science to the photography process
The group are encourage to be highly interactive in the talk - and clearly they are keen to get things off their chest!
What did I learn: this remains to be seen as its too new at this point to judge
What have I learned as a photographer - In Summary
You need to keep challenging yourself
Failure and success are valuable outcome - not daring to try is the only failure
Some things were scary to do
The talk I did for Camversation at the NEC camera show was daunting
The Interview I did with Camversation was daunting
Club photographers spend too much energy trying to please judges and lose track of the creative element that drew them to photography in the first place.
Clubs had become quite sterile non interative environments but this is chaging
Photographers are afraid to share as they think they are giving it all away however this is not the cases as 90% of what we deliver can be learned from the web and from books. It the elusive 10% which is our own unique view of the work that is the differentiator and that cant be given away.
I am now a slower more considered photographer who uses previsualistion and narative as the cornerston of the "good" images I take.
I have gained greater admiration for my photographic heroes - Lee Miller and Vivian Maier
I took the plunge and purchased a Twin Lens Rolleiflex
Its so hard to use
Its so slow to use
Its made me a better photographer
May admiration for the work of Lee Miller and Vivian Maier has gone even higher.
So what was the question that lead to this Blog post
QUESTION: If you love Vivian Maiers work so much and youve purchased a Rolleiflex then have you started shooting self portraites as this was an area of photography she was so good at?
ANSWER: No I havent and this is something my wife has asked me since getting the camera but its just not me.
CONCLUSIONS: There are very few images of me either taken by myself or other people. As an intovert personality its not something that sits comfortabley with me. The few self portraites that exist are all distorted reflections! Maybe thi all liks back to the fact that I ralised when I build my first talk on street and architecture is that I take images of people trapped in a space or I take imahes that have an opital illusion element and leave the viewer engaed but uneasy,
This may be too deep and means i've done too many philosophy talks ?
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