Photographs are hugely important! At least to me anyway… I am fortunate that my mother took so many pictures of the family when we were kids. We have literally thousands of negatives of our entire history in Africa. About 13 years ago I purchased a professional negative scanner (Nikon Cool Scan III) to digitally capture our life’s journey. This was way before I took photography seriously, but in a sense, it was the beginning of the road I am now on. As I scanned the photographs, it was like watching a replay of our lives in slow motion. I can remember how home sick I felt when I scanned images of the farm that I grew up on as a kid. I could remember the happy days that we spent at Lake McIlwaine in Zimbabwe where I used to go sailing. I remembered what our lives were like during the Rhodesian war. I remembered the happy times spent with the family on our holidays. And I remembered the sadness at the loss of my brother Bradley.

Photographs like these are extremely precious and will never be relived again. Organizing a vast collection of photographs into date order quickly reveals huge gaps of time where there are no photographs at all! There were years where I didn’t have a single photograph of myself. I’ve learnt that you just need to keep taking photographs (all the time). For a lot of people we all know how it goes… you buy a camera, you take lots of pictures until you get bored of it; and then don’t take any more pictures until it’s someone’s birthday. Simply put, you just need to keep taking photos. Every time I take a photograph of a family member, I find myself saying how precious that image will probably become in time.

Since I’ve started on my photography journey, I’ve often come across folk who have little or no regard for the value of a photograph. There’s nothing wrong with this… each to their own… but a part of me does wonder if it will come back to bite them as time goes by.

Very sadly my father passed away in May of this year. As I reflect on the impact he’s had in my life, I’m glad I have so many photographs of the times we shared as I grew up. I’m glad that I became a photographer. I’m glad I have precious photographs which I will remember him by. Few people have achieved as much in their lifetime as my father did. He became a pilot, revolutionized commercial fishing in Southern Africa; and started a business on 60 Rhodesian Dollars and grew the business to the point that every milk bottle sold in Zimbabwe was milked with his milking machines. My father’s achievements in life are many — he did everything in life he wanted to. An achievement in its own right. But most of all, he was a loving father.

As I write this blog post, it reminds of a post that Joe McNally posted some time ago. Taking a picture of a feeling (link) and his feedback response (link).

I’m so glad that I became a photographer… I get the privilege to capture memories of loved ones…

Below are a few photographs of our family’s history.

This is a picture of my Grand Father at their home in 1931. My Grand Father and his two brothers were early pioneers in Southern Rhodesia. They arrived in 1901 from the Boer War, originally from London. They were part of the team to build the infrastructure of Rhodesia. The home shown in the picture was my mothers first home.

This is my Grand Father's car travelling with the family.

This is my mother when she was 18 years old when she was staying with her Grand Mother.

My Father at 23 years old when he immegrated to Rhodesia.

My Father next to his aeroplane getting ready for a trip to Mozambique to spend a weekend on Paradise Island.

The family travelling to Durban, South Africa for a holiday next to the sea. In the picture is my brother standing next to the car and there's me sitting in the back peering out the window.

Visiting my sister near the Zambian border at the Umfolozi river near Mushimbi Pools.

Me with my brother and sister. It was common during the war to carry a gun wherever you went.

My brother often travelled on company business to various farms. He attached the gun to the truck as a means to protect himself from terroist attack during the war.

The family was invited to visit the local chief and he gave us a chicken to take home for dinner. That's me sitting next to the chief...

A fly over the Lake Kariba dam wall. My father was in charge of the fishing fleet for what was the largest man made lake at that time.

My father inspecting a new milking machine installation that was manufactured by his business..

This is a photograph of me at 9 years old soon after my brother Bradley had died.

Me with my father at Lake Kariba.

Me a few years later aged 17 years old. Visiting Worlds View at Inyanga with a betamax video camera.

My father helping me test out a new lighting technique early during my photography study.

My father again helping me out by posing for a photograph.

This was one of my father's favourite photographs of himself which I took one Sunday lunch time.

Both my parents helping me out by posing for a photograph.

My favourite photograph of my father. This shows what he was like. He liked cooking in the kitchen and always wore his apron. The books behind him are also very fitting as he was always very studious.

This update is more about the training I’ve been doing through Damien Lovegrove workshops.

The Lovegrove moment continues…

I mentioned in my first post that the Urban Portraits workshop I attended (link) changed everything for me. The camera techniques were awesome! I learnt more about lighting and exposure on that day, that books and online materials simply cannot compete. I could use the camera techniques the very next day, however, what did take time was learning to ‘see’. If you’re not used to ‘seeing’ with the photographer’s eye, then this is a skill that needs to be developed. During this time your head is buzzing everyday looking out for potential locations. You start to imagine how the location would look in natural light, the framing and composition, if using flashes, where would they go and how would you want the light to fall. Getting to this stage is very exciting and when you setup your flashes on stands (whilst on a shoot), you feel confident and excited to be taking some nice pictures.

6 months later… I was about to embark on a 3 month holiday (towards the end of 2009) and I decided to do a post-production workshop with Marko Nurminen (Damien’s picture editor). My pictures were nice, but not great. I realized the importance of post-production and being able to do it well was also key. The workshop I attended had a total of 4 delegates and Marko edited about 10 photos from each delegate and explained in detail the what’s and the why’s with the adjustments he was making. After a few images, you begin to see a pattern and over the course of the day, you learn what makes a good image. There’s plenty of free material online about how to do specific things with Photoshop, but none of them tell you what makes a good image. This workshop with Marko has been the basis for all my picture editing since.

Shortly afterwards I was on my 3 month tour of Australia and the Philippines. I was so excited to just have fun photographing my trip and spending time with family and friends abroad. I took just 7Kgs of clothes and 26Kgs of camera gear! There’s a few images from my holiday at the end of this post…

The Training

Upon my return to the UK, it was time to find a job and resume my photographic training. Once you get past the basics in photography, books become less relevant (in my opinion) and there really is no substitute for spending time with a professional photographer. When I first came across Damien’s blog (back in November 2008), I found the images instantly desirable and wished I could make such photographs myself. Needless to say, all my training has been with Damien. Every workshop I’ve been on and still plan to go on is all part of a big plan. I’ve worked out precisely which workshops I need to do next and make sure I cover the right things when the time is right.

My third Lovegrove workshop was Passion on the Streets in Amsterdam (B&W – link, colour – link). My main motivation for attending this workshop was learning the dark art of capturing images of loved up couples. What I learnt about taking images with couples cannot easily be expressed through books. Damien pointed out significant aspects to this kind of picture taking that rocked my world. My comprehension of images with couples has been taken to a new level.

One aspect of photography that I had largely ignored was lighting in-doors. I find it easier to focus all my attention on one thing and move on to the next thing. About the only aspect to in-door lighting I had done (a while back) was this pub shooting guide (link). Virtually all of my lighting was on-location outdoors. To help me focus on in-door lighting, I attended the Cherish the Dress workshop with both Damien and Chris Hanley (link). Wow! This workshop changed everything and has made me totally re-think lighting in general. If you can’t tell already, this workshop has had a significant impact. This workshop was the first time I met Chris Hanley and his shooting advice is first class stuff. Like Damien, Chris is very generous with information and covers everything in detail which is so important on a shoot like this. Working with both Damien and Chris really adds a new dimension. It’s so much fun to watch them spar with each other throughout the day and who’s going to get the best images… This workshop was also the first time I had met Chloe-Jasmine Whichello (one of the models for the workshop). She is such a joy to photograph and is simply amazing!

I own a few flash accessories such as gels, light modifiers, etc… However, I needed to grasp clearly the best way to use the equipment. So the next workshop I attended was the legendary Speedlight Mastery workshop (link). I had originally booked the October workshop, however, I quickly changed this to August in Manchester when I discovered that Chloe-Jasmine was going to be there. This was an amazing workshop and the day was filled with fun. I learned more advanced lighting techniques with speedlites, ring flashes and softboxes all triggered with Pocket Wizards.

Tacit Knowledge

You may have noticed that all of my training involves Damien. Why? There’s a few reasons… Damien’s workshops are always fun and he’s very generous with information. However, there’s a more important reason. It’s about tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is something that cannot be learnt from books. It can only be learnt by being with the person or finding your own way of doing it. For instance, it’s unlikely you’ll find a book about ‘how to ride a bicycle’. This is something that cannot be learnt from a book but rather requires someone to show you how to ride a bicycle. If you like the images that Damien makes, and you want to learn how to make similar photographs yourself, then you have to be with Damien to learn how to make them. Simples…. it’s tacit knowledge…

My journey in photography continues….

Below are some of my photos from my travels abroad nearly a year ago…

My cousin Barry Johnston in Melbourne.

My first frame at Apollo Bay.

A back street in Melbourne.

Melbourne at night...

Portrait of Ryan (a member of the family).

The small lighthouse in the Gold Coast.

Broad Beach looking north. You can see the storm coming in from the right.

This is a structure that represents the split between Queensland and New South Wales. In this shot, I'm looking straight up!

I love the way this photo looks in Black & White!

I used a polarising filter to remove the reflections of the sea... Taken at around 9:30am.

Danger Falls.

Part of the river running through Brisbane.

I think I got carried away taking photographs!

A kararoki bar on Boracay Island, Philippines.

West Cove Resort in Boracay. You can just imagine sitting having a beer here can't you!

Boats mooring up at the end of the day...

I was really impressed at how quickly Graham became familiar with the camera and when he started taking nice images, he knew why he needed some ‘L’ glass. Since then he’s purchased the EF 24-70mm L F2.8 USM and the EF 700-200mm L F2.8 IS USM lenses (not mention flashes, stands etc). These lenses are real money and he’s taking some really nice images with them. We’ve been on portrait shoots, photographing bands in pubs, location scouting, etc… Last weekend, Graham has gone further by photographing a show at the local theatre company and he often goes to festival events to shoot there also.

It’s simply amazing to see someone so inspired about photography and he’s really getting involved with the whole process. Graham is also going to his first Damain Lovegrove workshop which we are both doing in Amsterdam later this year. Really looking forward to it! I just happen to have a few landscape images that Graham has taken over the recent winter period.

Photograph by Graham Law.

Photograph by Graham Law.

Photograph by Graham Law.

Photograph by Graham Law.