5 Feb 2024 Update

Is Photography Art?

I was reminded of this age old debate by some of the conversation at our meeting last week, as some of you are looking at photographs through the "eyes of a painter".  I was reminded of something I had read but cannot find that exact quote but I did find the following which expresses similar thoughts:

"Everyone can look at an orange and see an orange. But an illustrator might see lines and texture, a sculptor might see dimension, and a photographer might see light and shadow."

I saw light and shadow in the photo above in The Greenhouse on Wednesday evening.  To me it encapsulates the interior design of a restaurant called "The Greenhouse" suggesting warmth and exotic planting.

You may be interested to read this longer and more in-depth article from a photographer who sees himself firmly in the "artistic community".  

The difference between photography and most other art forms.
I have taken a lot of photographs this week as part of an assignment for a RPS course on "Creative Photography in the Home".  I have included some in this week's gallery and in the shared album.

International Garden Photographer of the Year

Coincidentally, Sue W shared a link to the results of the "International Garden Photographer of the Year Competition 2024" on the BBC. Thank you Sue.  You can see all the winners and previous years on the IGPOTY official site which shows a lot of very impressive photography and is well worth a look. One of the competition categories was "abstract views" which called upon an "artistic" rather than a documentary approach. The overall top 3 all came from this category!

My personal favourite is, however, the slime mould (2nd image below), you cannot get more documentary in style than this, but to do it at this scale shows incredible technical skills.

WG Digital Photo Club

Change of Date

I have had one response to my suggestion for a Digital Workshop on Wed 14 Feb but have to change the date as I had not realised 14 Feb is Ash Wednesday. I have therefore delayed the workshop by 2 weeks to Wed 28 Feb which will be an opportunity to consider uploading and developing photos taken in Corsham at our outing on 22 Feb. Please let me know if you are interested in these workshops.

Creative Photography in the Home

Experiments with depth of field, background and composition. Photograph everyday objects to create variety by changing DoF, perspective, background and composition.

Free Photo Management Software (PC or Mac)

I use Adobe LightRoom (LR) to organise my Photos by directory, in albums and by keywords. Up to now, LR has been the only consumer "Digital Asset Management (DAM)" package but new "players” are starting to emerge.

As a result an application called "Excire Foto Light" is currently available for free.

Do you need it to manage your photos? Read the following article in Digital Camera World about DAM and Excire to see if you would benefit. Follow the link in the article to download and install the software.