Archive for Inspiration

50 amazing Flickr streams

Beyond the stuff I've been posting in my twitter stream, I haven't really had much time to post proper blog posts here on this blog recently - and my apologies about that. What I have been doing, however, is browsing Flickr to get some amazing inspiration, ideas, and tips for the whats and hows of photography. Throughout the past few weeks, I've been keeping bookmarks of my best finds. I've found a whole load of amazing photographers who have made me smile, filled me with wonder, made me shy with inadequacy, and proud to be part of this whole 'photography' thing. My only shame in all of this is that there are many more than 50 good - nay, great - photographers out there - so I would very much like to encourage you to post a comment with your favourite Flickr streams... So hereby, without further ado or messing about - my top 50 recent finds on Flickr.

Read all of 50 amazing Flickr streams (28 comments so far)

Top 50 photography websites

Of course, Photocritic is your favourite photography resource in the whole wide world, and you'd be mad to think otherwise. Nonetheless, I have to admit that there are some pretty damn amazing websites out there. This is my attempt at collecting some of my favourites - which isn't easy, considering how many bookmarks I have. So, I give to you, 50 of my favourite photography websites - these should keep you busy for a while...

Read all of Top 50 photography websites (98 comments so far)

Beyond puppies and rainbows

A few weeks ago, I had an e-mail from a reader, who was eager to show off some of her photographs. I was intrigued by her Flickr nickname, and as it turns out, the lady has some pretty exciting ideas about what a photograph should be. If you're looking for puppies, rainbows and 'moose in sunset' type clichés, you're in the wrong place - but for that very reason, Lisa caught my attention. I asked her if she wouldn't please let me interview her, to find out what you can do as a photographer to break the mould, and develop a unique photography style. Luckily, she was happy to help...

Read all of Beyond puppies and rainbows (3 comments so far)

The 12 best photos of 2007

I first covered Earth Shots, the photo of the day contest, back in November 2006 and ever since, I have displayed their photo of the day widget in the side bar of Photocritic (see right!). Even when there's a rather long time between updates, I keep checking back on my own site just to have a quick look at what the talented Earthshots submitters are up to. It's surreal to think about it, but this week Earth Shots celebrated their first birthday, and what an incredible first year it has been! Scanning through their archives you can see 365 fantastic images of our planet and among them are some truly spectacular shots. To celebrate, I got the guy behind Earth Shots - Will - to pick some of his favourites. 12 months, 12 pictures - makes perfect sense, yes?

Read all of The 12 best photos of 2007 (17 comments so far)

Street photography in Montreal

I know I have a nasty tendency to keep rambling on about photographer's rights, but it's something I find quite interesting. On one of my recent posts, a full 64% of you (that's 238 people!) told me that people tried to stop you from taking photos. Of course, 35% of you stuck to your guns (and your rights) and continued to take photos anyway - that thread has a lot of interesting comments in it, too, so it's worth having a peek. If you're in Quebec, however, things might just be a little bit different...

Read all of Street photography in Montreal (18 comments so far)

Showing Panoramas on-line

If you're anything like me, you at some point discovered a button alowing you to take panorama pictures. Perhaps you try it once or twice, and then you think 'well, that was fun, now what?' and promptly forget about it. You did, didn't you? I knew it. Finally, there's a solution...

Read all of Showing Panoramas on-line (16 comments so far)

Portraiture: Borrow their soul!

A few years ago, I was part of a creative arts project in Arizona and southern Utah, where we did a lot of work with Native American people -- a 'world through our eyes' type thing. One of the things that was brought up when we were dealing with more traditional tribes, was that we weren't to take any photos. Perhaps surprisingly, some people believe that when you take photos of them, you steal a part of their soul. Religions and superstitions aside, I think it's a good way to look at portraiture. Stealing souls is a bit harsh, but if your photographs don't at least borrow a little bit of soul from your subjects, I believe you may have failed as a photographer. For this article, I've chosen to do a critique some of the photos submitted to me by Isaac - an USC film student with a passion for photography. His images illustrate very well how adding a touch of feel (or soul, if you will) can lift your portraiture.

Read all of Portraiture: Borrow their soul! (10 comments so far)

Think of photos as paintings

There's a lot to be said for how the accessibility of affordable digital cameras has improved the level of photography overall, and I'm strongly in favour of the idea that digital photography is a good thing. The downside of digital photography is that we are seeing a whole generation of people who never saw a frame of film as something precious. There are thousands upon thousands of photographers out there who only started thinking about photography when they weren't limited to 24 or 36 frames before bringing the film to the local shop, and then wait for hours for the results.

Read all of Think of photos as paintings (21 comments so far)