Creating Exceptional Photographs

David Noton has been a professional travel photographer for more than twenty years. In Waiting for the Light he shares his approach to creating exceptional photographs. It soon becomes clear that luck plays little part and it is really down to hard work, patience and a meticulous approach to all aspects of picture making.

The first impression on picking up Waiting for the Light is just how good the pictures are. Whether they are familiar scenes or small details they leap off the page. They are so good and make the majority of travel pictures look ordinary; because they are and are not the result of the same amount of thought and effort. David Noton produces striking pictures of even familiar subjects; in a world awash with images David Noton’s pictures stand out; they are just that much better than the norm.

Understanding David Noton’s approach made me realise that despite the ubiquity of travel images there is still scope for a photographer to stand out and make a good living from stock travel images. However, he or she needs to have a good eye, patience, be thoughtful and prepared to put in the hard work and long hours. As I discovered when reviewing The Arctic, Treasure of the North simply photographing the wild places is no longer enough; there are too many people doing just that.

All Countries in a Single Book of Photographs

The Arctic, Treasure of the North is essentially a collection of photographs of the Arctic taken mostly by Bernd Römmelt over many years. It is a published in conjunction with Greenpeace with the aim of showing the fragile environment that is under threat from climate change and commercial exploitation.

This was a book I hoped and expected to enjoy but I was rather disappointed. The pictures are good but they did not really inspire. At first I put it down to the lack of a pictorial storyline, they felt somewhat disjointed. The supporting text by Thomas Henningsen does not really create a thread on which to hang the pictures. At first I struggled to understand why I was so underwhelmed but while reading a very different book on photography, Waiting for the Light by the travel photographer David Noton, it became clear.

This book has been published into a world where images of the wild places are ubiquitous through books, magazines and television. It has a lot of excellent competition and that is its problem. The photographs are good, at times excellent, but they need to be exceptional. To stand out in the modern world, where we have become blasé about superb images of the natural world, merely excellent is not good enough. It is a shame but familiarity undermines my reaction to The Arctic especially when BBC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic and the like are routinely feeding truly extraordinary wilderness images directly into our living rooms.

Effective Image Preparation Workflow for Freelance Photographers

An efficient workflow is needed by freelance photographers to prepare stock photographs for use or submission to libraries. A proven workflow and processing is described.

This work flow has been developed by a stock photographer over many years who has also used it for event photography and client jobs. It is therefore a flexible basis for any photographer to tailor to their own needs.

I had the opportunity to take photographs of John Spiers and Jon Boden, the folk duo Spiers and Boden, at the Bonington Theatre, Arnold, Nottingham on Saturday 28th May 2011. Apart from performing as a duo they are members of Bellowhead who will be touring this year.

I had a great evening enjoying the music and a chance to do some challenging photography. It did much to refresh my photographic drive.

Spiers and Boden Gallery

The galley is now uploaded. so enjoy the pictures at the Gallery:

Boden and Spiers

Don McCullin is known as a sensitive photographer of war and disaster. However since his retirement from such work he has built a reputation as a landscape photographer.

Southern Frontiers is Don McCullin's latest, very personal, book and adds to the growing reputation for his fine art black and white landscapes. It covers the southern edge of the Roman Empire in North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. It is A Journey Across the Roman Empire taken with the traveller and historian Barnaby Rogerson who provides the supporting text.

North Africa and Eastern Mediterranean

Southern Frontiers is in two parts. The first of which covers the Levant at the eastern end of the Mediterranean and is made up of Lebanon, Syria and and Jordan. The second section features The Maghreb of North Africa which includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.

Large Format Hardback

The result is a large format, and heavy, hardback which really needs reading at a table. Because of its size it is not really suitable for reading in bed or on one’s lap. It very much moves McCullin into the fine art sector of the photography market.

The format does allow the photographs to be printed large which they need to do full justice to the details. Both McCullin and Rogerson provide introductions and comments on how the works for Southern Frontiers were produced.

Rogerson provides a brief background to each country and particularly the Roman Empires role there.

In candid language Don McCullin tells how war formed him as photographer and man. He describes his personal conflicts as he photographed war and disaster.

Don MCCullin is best known for his war and disaster photography although since his retirement he has concentrated on landscape particularly around his home in Somerset. His most recent book of photographs, Southern Frontiers, explores the southern frontier of the Roman Empire. His latest work many would describe as fine art.

However in his photographic autobiography, Shaped by War, Don McCullin explains that he is not comfortable being described as an artist preferring to be simply known as a photographer.

Movingly Candid Text and Photographs

In Shaped by War Don McCullin acknowledges his lack of formal education but describes the learning he continues to achieve through his own efforts. That personal development is important to him and although perhaps uneducated he can be described as learned. The text is straightforward and centres on McCullin's career as a photographer, particularly of war, conflict and disaster.