Discussion
_dobbo_ said:
So it's gone just in time for all the snow? 
What's next Matt?
Hi Ben,What's next Matt?
there are several options. Car wise over the last few months I have contemplated a 993 Turbo as I sold my 996 earlier in the year and would quite like another Porsche at some stage. Alternatively I am considering another old fiat 500 for popping to the shops and the train station (which is all the driving I do now) or maybe a Citroen Traction Avant or another DS although I will not find one like the one I had restored in a hurry. Might just not get any toys and take a big holiday to try and take some nice landscape photos somewhere interesting.
Simpo Two said:
I found the Otago Peninsular was a good place for photography though.
I'm sure it is, got some friends who moved down there 6 months ago so planninga good long visit sometime, has ace waves , great mountainbiking and pretty tasty landscapes to shoot too. only a 4-5 hr drive too.
Matt came in for a lot of abuse on DS for reasons I couldn't understand, I don't blame him for leaving.
I find DS a tough place to be at the best of times, although it doesn't help that my car photos aren't very good!
Matt - forget the car, take the holidays. I'll avoid saying foolish gushing things but it would be nice to see some photos from you again.
I find DS a tough place to be at the best of times, although it doesn't help that my car photos aren't very good!
Matt - forget the car, take the holidays. I'll avoid saying foolish gushing things but it would be nice to see some photos from you again.
GFWilliams said:
O/T: Matt - how come you stopped posting on DS and your website isn't working?
Well, to be honest I kind of fell out of love with car photography for several reasons and that other forum epitomised everything that I didn't really like about it. First off I love photography because there is so much too it. There is the creative dimension, all about composition and pre-visualising the shot, then there is the craftsmanship of understanding how it all works on a theoretical level, from the basics of aperture, shutter speed, exposure and the like; then there is that great feeling when it all comes together and you see what you've done and it just looks exactly how you wanted it; and of course you get to share that vision with other people which is great.
Somewhere in amongst all of that there is the kit and technology that you use which is kind of everything and nothing at the same time and regrettably on the DS forum and on this one as well to an extent the tail is always wagging the dog. Everything is about lenses, cameras, pixel counts, HDR, post processing etc. etc. which is interesting to a lot of people of course, but it's not interesting to me so I don't involve myself in the dialogue. This is far more acute in the car photography area than elsewhere because there is a variety of equipment that enables certain shots that otherwise wouldn't be possible, and I admit I used to like bolt on shots a lot; but unfortunately the emphasis became about the rigs and post processing and not about actually taking a great photo. Because the dependency for success was about the equipment that people had nobody was prepared to offer any help or advice. The idea of showing somebody a photo of your rig set up a huge ridiculous taboo, like the industry might implode or something.
When I started taking car photos there was no help or advice for anyone and nobody seemed to want to give any, and the better you got the worse it became. I wanted to try and help so I wrote some tutorials and spread them around the place and the feedback was really quite amazing. I still get emails from people quite frequently saying that these things had improved their shots hugely and that they were so glad somebody was prepared to offer advice. I really just wanted to give back something if that makes sense. Unfortunately it almost made me a target because some people would think "who does this guy think he is to be giving people advice and lifting the lid on our magic secrets and blah blah" so I became very unpopular. I didn't really see the point in contributing to a technology forum where all people wanted to do was bask in the glory of their actually quite ordinary photographs.
At about the same time I was getting more and more uninterested in working professionally. It's a very tough job physically and mentally travelling from one country to another with no time to do anything well or even plan locations and the like, and the politics of the industry and the pittance I earned was enough for me to call it a day. I suppose the fact that my domain has expired and I haven't yet sorted a new one just reflects my apathy for the whole thing, although I'm planning doing something new with it soon.
I sold all my digital kit three years ago and bought a medium format hasselblad a while before setting off on a big trip to Japan, NZ, Oz and the Cook Islands, with the purpose being to really try and learn about photography. I only camera film cameras (I had an xpan as well) and I can honestly say I learnt more in the first week than I had done in the two years previously, and it was a steep learning curve! I found a real satisfaction from getting the films back and nailing the shots that I wanted. By the time I got home a few months later the first of each of the bracketed frames was normally spot on in terms of both exposure and composition, and it was only then for me that I felt I was becoming a decent photographer.
When I got back I poured some more cash into large format panoramic equipment which is the same feeling but turned up to eleven. The camera is so simple that you are responsible for every decision, with the slightest mistake meaning you go home empty handed: you have to manually wind the film on to the right measurement, focus the image under a hood on a ground glass which is upside down and back to front..the complications are endless, and despite the colossal expense of £4 a frame I derive much more enjoyment from this than I ever have shooting anything else. I've got a little lumix digital camera that is also pretty good for catching the odd moment.
Unfortunately apart from a handful of serious landscape photographers I'm pretty much alone in the forest now photographically, so I just keep myself to myself and enjoy it. Not many people want to hear that actually learning to use the kit you've got properly is going to produce far better photos than spunking another few K on new gear, and I'm woefully out of step with what's going on with digital stuff at the moment. I shot my first double page spread for Car with a 4 megapixel second hand dslr and one of the cheapest lenses canon make. Nobody complained. I'd happily get a back for my blad when it becomes affordable but that isn't looking like it's going to happen any time soon.
Hope your shooting is going ok George. I saw something you took of a Porsche and it looked nice and tidy.
Matt
Matt,
Thanks a lot for you insight - it's very interesting and I can see where you are coming from. I am trying to keep car photography as a hobby, whilst I am at school still.
I remember talking to you about 2 years ago and you were warning me profusely that it isn't as glamorous as it would seem and that it can be horrible at times.
I think that what you have said about your tutorials is interesting. If you look on DS your original thread with the tutorial is still pinned. I think that times have changed. A lot of people now have rigs even if they're not big time pros (even I have one) and there is less secrecy of how it is done etc.
About 3 years on and your tutorial is still popular:
http://is-is.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=5375787...
It's interesting that you find film photography interesting - I think that a lot of people can't imagine going backwards and going to old technology as 'newer is better' is a philosophy held by many (even I hold it to a certain extent).
Well, you know what I'm going to ask - can we see some photos from your big trip
Cheers,
George
Thanks a lot for you insight - it's very interesting and I can see where you are coming from. I am trying to keep car photography as a hobby, whilst I am at school still.
I remember talking to you about 2 years ago and you were warning me profusely that it isn't as glamorous as it would seem and that it can be horrible at times.
I think that what you have said about your tutorials is interesting. If you look on DS your original thread with the tutorial is still pinned. I think that times have changed. A lot of people now have rigs even if they're not big time pros (even I have one) and there is less secrecy of how it is done etc.
About 3 years on and your tutorial is still popular:
http://is-is.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=5375787...
It's interesting that you find film photography interesting - I think that a lot of people can't imagine going backwards and going to old technology as 'newer is better' is a philosophy held by many (even I hold it to a certain extent).
Well, you know what I'm going to ask - can we see some photos from your big trip
Cheers,
George
le gravy noire said:
Not many people want to hear that actually learning to use the kit you've got properly is going to produce far better photos than spunking another few K on new gear...
Too true - my father (who's an occasional 'tog at best) has in the last 4 years gone from a 300D to a 450D and now to a 7D (yet the best lens he's currently got is the 18-135IS that came with the 7D (previously is was the 18-55IS)). He's never had any tuition/coaching, not got any books on photography, and doesn't get out there, try different things, practice - to him it's just another gadget and he's got to have the latest and best... 
havoc said:
le gravy noire said:
Not many people want to hear that actually learning to use the kit you've got properly is going to produce far better photos than spunking another few K on new gear...
Too true - my father (who's an occasional 'tog at best) has in the last 4 years gone from a 300D to a 450D and now to a 7D (yet the best lens he's currently got is the 18-135IS that came with the 7D (previously is was the 18-55IS)). He's never had any tuition/coaching, not got any books on photography, and doesn't get out there, try different things, practice - to him it's just another gadget and he's got to have the latest and best... GFWilliams said:
Matt,
Thanks a lot for you insight - it's very interesting and I can see where you are coming from. I am trying to keep car photography as a hobby, whilst I am at school still.
I remember talking to you about 2 years ago and you were warning me profusely that it isn't as glamorous as it would seem and that it can be horrible at times.
I think that what you have said about your tutorials is interesting. If you look on DS your original thread with the tutorial is still pinned. I think that times have changed. A lot of people now have rigs even if they're not big time pros (even I have one) and there is less secrecy of how it is done etc.
About 3 years on and your tutorial is still popular:
http://is-is.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=5375787...
It's interesting that you find film photography interesting - I think that a lot of people can't imagine going backwards and going to old technology as 'newer is better' is a philosophy held by many (even I hold it to a certain extent).
Well, you know what I'm going to ask - can we see some photos from your big trip
Cheers,
George
Hi George, I'll find a few from the trip and post them up for you...there was a thread on them but it's so long ago it's probably died. Thing is I don't think it's so much the technology that's the issue, I think it's just the approach that it encourages you to take. To try and explain, when it comes to taking a photo, the more you think about it the better it gets. Having to go through all the settings and be rigorous with the composition means that the result is better because it's more considered, not because of the technology if that makes sense. When you have to focus manually you think about what you are focussing on. When you calculate the exposure with a spot meter, all sorts of interesting opportunities are opened to you by realising the contrast of the situation and how, for example you could make the sky much more dramatic by pulling it in a zone with a stronger grad. When you compose something upside down and back to front you notice the shapes of the elements in a different way. When I use digital cameras, and maybe it's just me, my brain turns to slush and I just kind of snap away with it. I'd love a digital camera that had the feel of my film cameras, with the same simplicity that encouraged me to take the same considered approach.Thanks a lot for you insight - it's very interesting and I can see where you are coming from. I am trying to keep car photography as a hobby, whilst I am at school still.
I remember talking to you about 2 years ago and you were warning me profusely that it isn't as glamorous as it would seem and that it can be horrible at times.
I think that what you have said about your tutorials is interesting. If you look on DS your original thread with the tutorial is still pinned. I think that times have changed. A lot of people now have rigs even if they're not big time pros (even I have one) and there is less secrecy of how it is done etc.
About 3 years on and your tutorial is still popular:
http://is-is.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=5375787...
It's interesting that you find film photography interesting - I think that a lot of people can't imagine going backwards and going to old technology as 'newer is better' is a philosophy held by many (even I hold it to a certain extent).
Well, you know what I'm going to ask - can we see some photos from your big trip
Cheers,
George
Here's my current tool of choice:
Edited by le gravy noire on Wednesday 23 December 15:02
Edited by le gravy noire on Wednesday 23 December 15:03
Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff