I could not do a month of posts on what inspires me and my photography without mentioning my family. You know who you are, and you know how cool you are, you don’t really need me to blog about it. Thank you.
Archive for the ‘INSPIRATION’ Category
Inspiration 24 – Family…
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009Inspiration 20,21,22 – 3 Great Photographic Locations for Landscapes
Monday, June 22nd, 2009Here’s 3 special locations that I have found incredibly awe inspiring and are just great for lansdcape photography…
Soussusvlei, Namibia –
There is something amazingly spectacular about the desert and the way light changes the colour of the sand – this is photographic paradise IMHO.
Les Contamines Alpine Lake Surrounds, French Alps, France –
France is so vast I am sure there are so many special little corners for amazing photography, one such place is the Alpine area of the Jovet Lakes a few hours hike up from Les Contamines. Fresh mountain air snow capped reflections in high altitude lakes – awesome.
The road to Mt. Cook, South Island New Zealand -
My 2 week experience of New Zealand (like most I guess) was largely weather dependant, thankfully the weather played its part and we were blessed with 10 from 14 days of sunshine, 1 such day was on the road to Mount Cook, from Christchurch. The light, the colours, the roughness of the mountain peaks – I could have spent a month there…
Inspiration 19 – TED
Friday, June 19th, 2009A ‘one link’ post today to TED
Theres not much more to say really; there is just so much cutting edge, thought provoking and interesting content on this site that providing links to specific talks is almost pointless…ok, heres a couple that I have enjoyed…
Inspiration 18 – Humour…
Thursday, June 18th, 2009A few days ago I was halfway through my blog posts of things that inspire me (see the first post)…today’s is humour…
I try not to use the whole day reading blogs but there are two photographers blogs that more often than not leave me with a dry smile on my face (ok, an outright grin)…
Check out these posts from Joe McNally and Paul Souders - subscribe – and be very pleasantly entertained and educated at the same time…
Fantastic!
Inspiration 17 – London & Paris…
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009…shots taken using my holga 120N…
LONDON
PARIS
…
Inspiration 16 – My HOLGA
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009Holga’s are fun.
I found out about the Holga watching the ‘extras’ DVD on (the first season*) of Lost…? * I think it was the first season…anyway…Matthew Fox was talking about walking around the set taking photos (something Jeff Bridges apparently does often – see his book here) and wanted a camera that could take a beach style environment, or something to that effect…
A little ‘googling’ later, enter Randy at Holgamods (its the A: to the last Q: on the page), next thing, a nice little Holga 120N arrived in the post (cheaper than UK). Thanks Donna for the help!
First film..total disaster…
Next film…more gaffer tape…
Many films later…a hack handheld panoramic of Trafalgar Square London….(its not everyones cup of tea)…now is it…but I like.
Trying something different can always be inspirational, or at very least educational, even if it doesn’t work exactly how you expected. This exercise requires the lost art of patience that you can bypass with a lens baby or PS filter…
A worthwhile investment in time and effort for a bit of creative crazy on the side…it will be used again soon…
Inspiration 15 – Interesting alternate websites…
Monday, June 15th, 2009They are changing, all the time, but here are 9 interesting websites that currently help in keeping the mind active…spend some time with these…
Inspiration 13 – Children’s Books
Saturday, June 13th, 2009In thinking about inspiration for photography (and strangely enough it’s been really easy so far)
I have spent time trying to think what sparked imagination, yes there’s ZOO TV, Elvis and White-water rafting down the Zambezi River but there’s also some books I read as a child, irrespective of topic they all seemed to take your imagination way off into strange worlds and places, and, there was a simplicity of the world prior to MTV (big inspiration)…
So here are 3 books that are fun, (apart from Alice in Wonderland, which probably deserves a whole post on its own…and there’s that gwen stefani video: what you waiting for?…)
If you haven’t read a children’s book for a while or can’t get hold of a kaleidoscope or a story viewfinder (Hansel and Gretel I seem to recall was insane) check out one from the list below you never know what circuits they might spark…
Inspiration 12 – Get up, walk outside, and look up at the sky!
Friday, June 12th, 2009It’s everywhere in the world, it’s constantly changing, it’s the most awesome backdrop to any photograph, its usually the most inspiring at sunrise, and my guess is… like me, you missed it this morning…It’s time get up, walk outside, and look up!… you never know you might even see a part of heaven up there…
Inspiration 10 – Photographers who didn’t start off being photographers (part 2 – Chase Jarvis)
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009Couldn’t go through the month without blogging about Chase Jarvis…especially as he also didn’t start off being a photographer (see yesterdays post)…
Why is Chase inspirational?
And…he sounds like a really nice guy…I mean, how many people you know who at Chase’s level directly reply to your twitter messages almost immediately…
Chase, if you get to read this post..to your continued success!!!
Inspiration 09 – Photographers who didn’t start off being photographers (part 1 – Sacha Dean Biyan)
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009Ok, so we are well into June’s blog posts covering random things that inspire me and my photography, I say random, as this is a very personal list and there’s probably no thread running through it, other than it’s a little bit of what I find inspirational.
So todays post: Photographers who didn’t start off being photographers (Part 1 – Sacha Dean Biyan)
Apart from Sacha’s very slick very cool commercial website www.eccentris.com (click here for low bandwidth version…i find it hard to choose favourites but theres something about photo’s no. 56+78 on the ‘lite’ site…)
…anyway as I was saying apart from the sexiest site intro I have seen, Sacha’s personal site Earth Pilgrim is more worthy of a visit…
awesome…
Inspiration 08 – Poetry, Lyrics & Kevin Max
Monday, June 8th, 2009
Music in general has always been a huge influence in my life but in trying to decode what about it really inspires me, its definitely the imagery thats conjured up by the lyrics, more so than the sound.
Yes, I will be blogging this month about, Bono and Michael Stipe, who’s lyrics I think are incredible (and meaningful) however I wanted to do a first post about: Kevin Max.
Definitely some albums worthy of checking out…but rather than bang on about albums I will simplify it down to one line to start … I have been listening to an older CD I had bought ages ago but this line just kept getting me…
Song 13 ‘Deconstructing Venus’ from the Album ‘Stereotype Be’…has the chorus line
“…/yeah you wear Versace but you look like a dirty bird…/ ”
…man, how many photographs does that make you think of taking or is it just me?
Rock on Kevin Max!
Inspiration 02,03,04,05,06 & 07 – Islands
Saturday, June 6th, 2009Been without internet connection for a few days whilst in Addo Elephant National Park, near Port Elizabeth, South Africa for the last few days.
Awesome predator sightings, but sadly not the best conditions for photography (read = animals too fast moving…but might post some blurred hyena shots!).
Anyway back to my inspirations, Islands have for a long time been intriguing to me; remote, often topographically totally different, strange changeable weather, unique vegetation and a way of life that seems to say: ‘up yours’ to the city without actually lifting a finger.
After spending 3 weeks in Hawaii about 5 years ago (including an awesome helicopter flight highly recommend Jack Harter Helicopters) over the Na Pali Cliffs I have been bitten by the Island bug, the first three on the list below I have visited and the next three are definitely high on the hit list (its a long list but we have to start somewhere)!
Hawaii & Kauai, Hawaii
Sao’ Miguel, Azores
Zakynthos, Greece
Whitsunday Islands, Australia
Moorea Island
Galapagos Islands
Can anyone recommend any special island destinations that must be ‘on the list’?
Inspiration 01 – James Nachtwey
Monday, June 1st, 2009After my previous post regarding photographic inspiration I thought I would spend this month doing a series of short posts on this topic … they wont all be about photographers, and it wont be in any particular order, but here goes… No.1
Hero…
A few years ago a friend of mine living in France sent me over the DVDWar Photographer which if you havent seen try get hold of it and watch it – (Alan if you reading this thanks AGAIN for the gift!) and I found it incredible, hectic, but incredible.
You can also listen to James speak about his work here.
Adding meaning and significance to this degree to one’s photography must be an incredible achievement and yet James Nachtwey does it with such humility and ernest that one can only stand back in awe.
10 INSPIRATIONAL DIRECTORS / MOVIES
Thursday, April 9th, 2009I am not going to make a habit of list posts but I needed a break from all the web stuff and a focus on some creative
inspiration…movies…inspire me…sometimes its just one scene or a few shots but the feeling and mood of a beautifully shot sequence can just linger in your head for ages…here are 10 Directors and some of the movies that inpsire me (& my photography)…
This list is… just a list…are all pretty much up there for me. I have posted the video links if anyone needs a refresher!
Quentin Tarantino – Kill Bill 1
Zhang Yimou – House of Flying Daggers
Wes Anderson – The Darjeeling Limited
Sofia Coppola – Lost in translation
Further recommendations welcome…?
