6X6

Manual Photography Cheat Sheet

A lovely designed reminder of the fundamentals of photography by Living In The Stills. 

The SixBySix Photography Round Up No.4

Instagram Gets a Kick In Again 

In typical Guardian fashion Instagram got pulled apart this week and not without a response by incensed bloggers . The article seemed to think that Instagram was somehow 'debasing photography'. I am so bored of this preachy and aristocratic viewpoint. By making the point all about filters, the writer completely missed the point about how social mobile photography is changing the very nature of media itself.

Olympic Robo Cameras

As London 2012 approaches, thousands of photographers will be hitting London to capture the perfect olympic shot. But some people are going to the extremes to get the shot. Check out the geekery of these photo robo cams. 

Capturing Libya through Hipstamatic

Read this great interview with Ben Lowy on how he captured Libya using his iphone and Hipstamatic. A perfect example of how mobile photography is disrupting the conventions of journalism. 

The rise of mobile photography

 

 

Nice video from MPG member Oliver Lang talking about the rise of mobile photography at CNET Australia’s panel series for the Digital Show in Melbourne.

Obscure and wonderful Instagram hashtags

Hashtags on Instagram are just bloody amazing.

I am constantly amazed by the diversity and richness of what to find. It's like hitting a new seam of photographic gold everytime I come across a new one lurking on someone's feed.

It's surprising that hashtags often get overlooked, both by users and brands. However, the more you dig the more you find how these tags truly are the connective tissue for small and mega communities.

My hashtag archaeology has led me to conclude that the more extreme in #hashtag obscurity the more vibrant the micro-community is that feeds off the hashtag.

Of course the most popular hashtags are tracked and monitored daily, with #love pulling in over 23m photos and #foodporn 2.5m photos. But the hot hashtags are not always the biggest!

So to celebrate the obscure and wonderful I thought I would share a few recent interesting finds.

 

#texturestalker - 81 photos

_{Credit: @hennybeaumont} 

 

How social photography is changing the way brands tell stories

I attended a great night at The Hosptial Club last week, hosted by Getty Images on the topic of ‘How social photography is changing the way brands tell stories’.

They had some good and bad speakers, but overall it was a fascinating interrogation of the emerging trend of mobile photography and how it overlaps into social media.

Here are a few reflections: 

A problem with definition

The first speaker @rugfoot used the term iphoneography (admitting that it was a very confused term) to characterise the main topic of the evening. To me this seemed way too narrow and biased for the talk and subject area. Undoubtedly iphones dominate, but this is changing fast. I personally subscribe to the wider term social mobile photography.  

Four options to engage using social mobile photography 

@rugfoot talked about how brands have four main options to engage using social mobile photography:  1) Cover an event with a mob of Instagrammers 2) Engage super users and seduce them to evangelise the brand 3) Crowdsource images around a promoted hashtag 4) Take the Red Bull approach and pull off a mega event.

The Making of the Leica M9-P Edition Hermè

Watch the making of the Leica M9-P Edition Hermes. This is bind boggingly glorious stuff. Beautiful. 

11 tips for better mobile photography

1. Never leave your cameraphone at home.

Sounds simple right? But get into that habit of always having your camera available. It is always those times when you need it most when you left it behind or couldn't be bothered. Remember the best camera is the one you have with you. Thank god for smartphones!

 

2. Don't go looking for 'the shot'; it will find you

If you go out with the intention of 'finding some killer shots' invariably you won't.  You will end up frustrated and envious of pro photographers who just seem to pull it off. Keep calm and find your flow. Put your camera down and look around. Be patient and the moment will find you. 

The SixBySix Photography Round Up No.3

Check out the 'Iris Camera': a camera controlled by your eye 

I recently checked out the RCA postgraduate show and found a biometrics enabled camera controlled by your eye. Designed by Mimi Zou, a London based designer, the camera understands who you are by looking at your Iris signature and lets you capture exactly what you see by tracking your eye. It's a really interesting concept, although I wonder how practical it might be. Combine this with face recognition and you have the perfect storm! 

 

 

Capturing smiles around the world with the Yoko Ono mobile photography app

I also went to the Yoko Ono exhibition at the Serpentine recently which was a massive disappointment. However, her latest mobile photography project promises to be so much more rewarding. Say hello to #smilesfilm an app which compiles all of the pictures of people’s smiles taken and uploaded to either Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #smilesfilm. 

 

Smartphones are no longer phones they are passports to your digital life

A new survey in the UK found that while people spend just three minutes a day taking photographs, photography was the most popular thing to use a smartphone for, with 74 per cent saying that they had taken photos with their handset. Plus a whopping 17 mins 9 seconds is spent on social media, second only to mobile internet use. The future of social mobile photography is safe!

Inspired Photographs Not Taken

Loving the book 'Photographs Not Taken' edited by Will Steacy.

It is a wonderfully moving account of the photos of that could have been.

It really makes you think about how photography contributes to memory and what it actually means to capture a decisive moment. Or not. And the consequences of the moment fading into history unrealised.

The Guardian has a good review here. 

What's in my mobile photography camera bag?

I get asked a lot about which apps I use and how I use them.

So here is a quick tour of what's in my mobile photography camera bag.

Shooting

First up, unlike most other mobile photographers, my go to camera is the native iphone camera. Perhaps its habit, but I can't seem to break the instinct to hit that silver icon and tap away.

However, I have started to use 645 Pro in the last few months. It gives you a real degree of freedom and some nifty features, like shooting in multiple formats and saving to high quality Tiffs.