- untouched 13
- featured photographer 4
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) 3
- Camera Settings 3
- Photo library management 3
- camera technique 3
- Monthly Themes 2
- Post Production 2
- composition 2
- iPhone 2
- photographers 2
- Camera Controls 1
- Essential IT Skills 1
- General Interest 1
- Photobook 1
- Software 1
- challenges 1
- meetings 1
Trent Parke — Chasing Light and Personal Vision
Australian photographer Trent Parke is known for dramatic black-and-white images where light transforms everyday scenes into something mysterious and cinematic. In this article we explore his philosophy of chasing light, experimenting boldly and developing long-term photographic projects.
Controlling Colour Temperature and Tint on Mobile Devices
Modern mobile phones give photographers simple but powerful control over colour. This article explains how to adjust colour temperature and tint when taking a photo and during editing, helping you correct colour casts or creatively warm or cool an image. With just a few small adjustments, mobile photographers can make their pictures look more natural — or use colour deliberately to enhance mood and atmosphere.
Movement – Techniques for Mobile Phone Users
You don’t need specialist kit to capture movement. Mobile phones offer powerful tools such as Live/Long Exposure modes, burst shooting, panning, Portrait mode and creative camera movement. By working with timing, stability and observation, phone photographers can portray speed, energy, or subtle transition just as effectively as with traditional cameras.
Movement - our Theme for March
March’s theme is Movement. This could be shown through motion blur, frozen action, implied movement, or conceptual change. Experiment with shutter speed, timing, and composition to explore how a still image can convey energy, transition, or the passage of time. Think beyond “something blurry” and consider what is moving — and why it matters.
Mathew Wylie – Embracing Imperfection
Mathew Wylie, often described as a contemporary Texan street photographer, embraces imperfection through low-fi, mobile-led imagery that prioritises mood over technical precision. His grainy, atmospheric street scenes challenge the obsession with sharpness and control, encouraging photographers to respond instinctively rather than engineer perfection. Studying his work pushes me to question my own structured approach and to explore whether feeling, rather than refinement, can lead the image.
WGPC – Colour Temperature: Warm, Cool, and Everything In Between
This article introduces colour temperature as a key factor in how photographs feel rather than how technically accurate they are. Using familiar WGPC image types such as sunsets, interiors, and black and white conversions, it shows how automatic camera settings can neutralise or distort the character of light. By understanding and adjusting colour temperature deliberately, photographers can better match mood, memory, and intention, and take greater creative control over their images.
What Is Colour?
This article explores what colour really is and shows that it is not a fixed property of objects but an interpretation shaped by light, human vision, cameras, screens, and print. By comparing how the same subject appears under different lighting and display conditions, the accompanying practical exercise encourages photographers to observe how unstable colour can be. The aim is to move away from the idea of “correct” colour and towards using colour deliberately as a creative tool, setting the scene for next week’s focus on colour temperature and tint.
Photographer Focus: Masao Yamamoto — The Beauty of Quiet Things
Yamamoto’s work celebrates quiet, imperfect, memory-like images.
Ordinary subjects can become meaningful when approached reflectively.
My “electronic junk” project echoes this idea of photographing traces of time.
WGPC – Electronics versus Mechanics and the Battle for Colour
his article reflects on how photography has moved from fully mechanical origins to today’s electronically driven cameras, and how that shift has quietly transferred creative control—especially over colour—from photographer to camera. Even images described as “straight out of camera” are the result of complex digital interpretation. The piece sets the scene for a short series exploring colour temperature and tint, encouraging photographers to understand how colour is constructed, how it affects mood and tone (including in black and white), and how taking back control can be a powerful creative choice.
Photographer Spotlight: Jaume Llorens
Jaume Llorens is the assigned photographer for my current course assignment. His work sits in the space between photography and constructed image-making, using subtly combined photographs to create landscapes that feel believable yet psychologically displaced. The images prioritise mood, ambiguity, and emotional coherence over literal description or technical perfection, encouraging slower looking and open interpretation. The assignment is prompting me to explore uncertainty, simplification, and image combination in my own work, and to question how far an image can be pushed away from straight representation before it loses its photographic truth.
Meeting Notes 28 Jan 2026
At our meeting this week I gave a short presentation based on comments by the head of Instagram that, because od AI, quality photography is dead (on his platform). He suggested that “real photographers” would have to create imperfect images in order to stand out in a field of AI produced “perfect images”. I developed those thoughts to illustrate how some of the photographers I have studied recently are already “breaking the rules” that perceived wisdom in photography clubs expect.
Untouched Review 23 Jan
Overall, this small set forms a coherent and introspective mini-sequence, unified by a strong sense of enclosure, weight, and obstruction. The images rely on form, texture, and tonal restraint rather than overt subject matter, inviting the viewer to read them symbolically rather than literally. Doors, windows, and architectural details become metaphors rather than descriptions, with darkness used as an active compositional element rather than empty space. The work feels deliberate and confident, prioritising mood, ambiguity, and graphic strength over narrative clarity, and sits comfortably within a minimalist, contemplative black-and-white aesthetic.
The Right Way!
This article reflects on a year of creative study in monochrome photography under Simon Ellingworth and questions the dominance of rigid, rules-based critique within contemporary photographic culture. It argues that while technical conventions have value, an over-reliance on them can suppress experimentation and originality, particularly for developing photographers. Drawing on recent minimalist black-and-white work that deliberately embraces over-exposure and abstraction, the piece advocates risk-taking, creative failure, and personal vision as essential components of photographic growth. Ultimately, it suggests that a photograph’s success lies not in universal approval, but in its ability to provoke thought, challenge expectations, and resonate with at least one viewer.
Untouched - 18 Jan 26
A quiet, winter-appropriate set with a strong bias toward atmosphere, restraint, and observation rather than spectacle. There’s a clear thread of mist, water, and low-contrast tonality, punctuated by a small cluster of colour sunset images that act as visual outliers.
Featured Photographer: Jeffrey Conley
Read: Conley’s work centres on abstraction and reduction, often removing scale and context so the subject becomes ambiguous.
Meaning: The images ask questions rather than provide answers, encouraging slow looking and personal interpretation.
Summary: I admire the discipline and intent behind his minimalism, but some images lose me when abstraction introduces too much visual distraction—provocative, thoughtful work that doesn’t always resolve comfortably.
Untouched Weekly Review 11 Jan 2026
A quiet but coherent week, with winter light and night skies providing a shared theme. The strongest images lean into atmosphere and restraint; where brightness or effects become dominant, pulling back slightly would help maintain balance. Even with fewer submissions, there’s a clear sense of seasonal observation and mood.
Untouched Weekly Review we 1 Jan 2026
The latest set shows a strong and consistent engagement with form, structure and abstraction, particularly through the use of symmetry, repetition and texture in monochrome. The abstract images by Tim Ravenscroft demonstrate confident control of composition and tonal balance, with recurring themes of geometry and surface detail handled thoughtfully. Vic Steadman’s winter landscape provides a quieter counterpoint, using natural framing and atmosphere to create depth and a clear sense of place. Across the batch, compositions are generally well considered, with only minor refinements suggested around edge control, tonal emphasis and balance.
Untouched Weekly Review – 28 December 2025,
This week’s set feels like a quiet walk through observation, closeness, and endings. There’s a strong sense of encounter—whether with animals, flowers at different stages of life, or a solitary tree set against a dramatic sky. Across the panel, photographers are clearly responding to what is in front of them, rather than imposing heavy technique, which suits the “untouched” brief well.
Key Learning Themes
Proximity changes meaning – moving closer (physically or emotionally) often reveals the strongest images.
Mood comes from light and timing, not processing – especially evident in the monochrome studies and the final landscape.
Untouched 22 Dec 2025
This week’s submissions show a strong collective response to winter light, particularly at sunrise and sunset. Across the set there is a clear appreciation of atmosphere — mist, silhouetted trees, glowing skies and low-angle sunlight are all used to convey season and mood. Whether in open landscapes or within the built environment, photographers have been alert to fleeting light and colour, producing images that feel timely, calm and observational rather than overworked.