FILM Photographer of the Year 2020 Discussion Thread ***Final Scores Added***

Carl Hall said:
...and you think an older man taking a sneaky photo from a distance with a telephoto lens will make you look LESS like a pervert?

Oh Brian :LOL:
Click to expand...

Well OK it has to be a man then as my wife might see the shot and ask me what am I doing (wasting my time) taking shots of women. :eek: she'll never believe my explanation.
 
excalibur2 said:
Well OK it has to be a man then as my wife might see the shot and ask me what am I doing (wasting my time) taking shots of women. :eek: she'll never believe my explanation.
Click to expand...
You might want to try a less scary mask when you're looking for natural subjects Brian. ;)
 
Like Nige @FishyFish I left my comfort zone a distant memory somewhere over the horizon and actually spoke to people :eek: on the street today. Of 5 (I think) people approached they all agreed, god only knows why, to have their photo snapped by me, I was more surprised than they were I think. Anyway hopefully something presentable in the can, just got to finish the roll to find out. It's really not something I am into but quite chuffed that I approached people and they didn't run away screaming or punch me :)

Coincidentally I'm just rewatching the Road to Palmyra on iplayer and Don McCullin has just said "people think I'm tough but they don't realise how hard it has been for me to put on this charade of toughness".
 
Well for stranger portrait....in the time allocated you are gonna need luck and be at the right time and place o_O ? Went out this morning and the problem is most people look ordinary and never came across a person with a very interesting face like a man 100 years old full of wrinkles ....so the alternative would be a shot of someone doing something e.g. working and I'll have to try on a weekday.
 
Mrs Snap said:
It's over 7 months since the theme was announced on 1st Dec last year.....;)
Click to expand...

o_O I thought is was the mystery month in July :eggface: but you have to knock off 3 months for lockdown and the choice of a victim is more limited by people wearing a mask, although a funny one could be interesting.
AAMOI one of the great stranger portraits was Steve McCurrry's Afghan girl on Kodachrome.
 
I've been watching a lot of Sean Tucker on YouTube lately, and in one video he says that it's good to photograph things that are temporary, as once you've taken your photo it's unique and can't be recreated later. He's talking about taking street photos at road works etc, but I think people in masks, people queueing outside of shops, or covid related signs would make great images that will be interesting for years after the virus has gone.
 
Carl Hall said:
I've been watching a lot of Sean Tucker on YouTube lately, and in one video he says that it's good to photograph things that are temporary, as once you've taken your photo it's unique and can't be recreated later. He's talking about taking street photos at road works etc, but I think people in masks, people queueing outside of shops, or covid related signs would make great images that will be interesting for years after the virus has gone.
Click to expand...

Definitely. I've got a thread in the projects folder containing pandemic related photos I've been making.

Think of all the photos you see of things that have changed over time: Fashions; Cars; Shops; Places etc. The photos of what might seem boring, everyday subjects we make today will be sources of interest and nostalgia in years to come.
 
Well I would like to have a go this month and just thinking a way around the subject title which is restrictive in saying "stranger portrait" to me this means "head and shoulders". Actually members in jobs have an advantage e.g. a head and shoulders of a nurse with a mask looking down at an imaginary patient, someone in the office doing something similar.
Anyway the important thing is to enter something even shoehorning erm now where can I find someone doing tree surgery to use my 300mm lens;)
 
excalibur2 said:
Well I would like to have a go this month and just thinking a way around the subject title which is restrictive in saying "stranger portrait" to me this means "head and shoulders". Actually members in jobs have an advantage e.g. a head and shoulders of a nurse with a mask looking down at an imaginary patient, someone in the office doing something similar.
Anyway the important thing is to enter something even shoehorning erm now where can I find someone doing tree surgery to use my 300mm lens;)
Click to expand...
Think broader Bri.

Does it have to be head and shoulders classic portrait?
Does it even have to be a person?
Does it even have to be solo?
Photography rules/,guidelines have recently been discussed , try think beyond them ;)
 
Asha said:
Think broader Bri.

Does it have to be head and shoulders classic portrait?
Does it even have to be a person?
Does it even have to be solo?
Photography rules/,guidelines have recently been discussed , try think beyond them ;)
Click to expand...

Well Asha I suppose you could call next door's cat a stranger o_O
Anyway have just had some fun scanning at 4800dpi (software fiddle at that scan) to crop the neg to see more clearly a tree surgeon taken at a distance with a 70-210 zoom...anti shake in Photoshop helps a bit, might be useful at a last resort. Well if I said I used a pinhole or Ilford Sporti every one would say :clap: :D
Actually for a massive 35mm crop, grain isn't the problem but artifacts erm maybe a mist covering it would look better anyway enough about me and good luck for everyone else as I think it's a difficult comp this month.
 
excalibur2 said:
Actually members in jobs have an advantage
Click to expand...
Oh no we don't! Working from home full time means even less getting out and about, I wouldn't call work colleagues strangers, we don't do Video meetings because of bandwidth and even if I was in work we are not allowed to take photos without special permission.
 
sirch said:
Oh no we don't! Working from home full time means even less getting out and about, I wouldn't call work colleagues strangers, we don't do Video meetings because of bandwidth and even if I was in work we are not allowed to take photos without special permission.
Click to expand...

Well I could probably get some VG shots of workers in my son's landscaping business....but I don't want to cheat as I know them.
 
:banghead::banghead::banghead: just processed the roll with stranger portraits on to find they are all massively over exposed, negs nealy black. I'll have to see if I can get anything off when dry but it doesn't look good. Got a few colour ones in another camera but I don't hold out much hope for them either and I'm not doing them again. b*****ks!
 
sirch said:
:banghead::banghead::banghead: just processed the roll with stranger portraits on to find they are all massively over exposed, negs nealy black. I'll have to see if I can get anything off when dry but it doesn't look good. Got a few colour ones in another camera but I don't hold out much hope for them either and I'm not doing them again. b*****ks!
Click to expand...

I've just had the invoice from Filmdev for my roll, so I'm now waiting with baited breath. Given my nervousness around asking strangers if I could make a portrait, I won't be surprised if I've made some sort of fundamental error. Hopefully not though. I guess I'll find out later.
I know at least some of the shots were a stop under-exposed, but as I was metering Portra 400 at 200asa, that would just put them at box speed (he says hopefully...).
 
I have some portraits!

Not sure any of them are amazing (my fault, not the subjects), but there are a few I quite like. One or two of them I've missed focus on slightly, and one I'd got high hopes for has the subject not looking at the camera (although I'm not sure that matters - in another the person turned to show their profile after agreeing to let me make the picture and I quite like that one). Anyway, I'll make a decision on which to include (unless I go and take more before the deadline).

Hopefully, next time I go out my nerves will be a little less in the way and I'll take better care over focusing and the subjects pose.
 
Last edited:
Well its supposed to be a nice sunny day so out on the bike for some shots and also to sort out this month's comp subject, well lateral thinking it's easy (well you still have to take a VG photo) all you have to do is think:- live\dead or whatever stranger portrait...erm now where did I see a picture in a cemetery o_O ;)
 
Well couldn't be bothered to go to the local nick and take a shot of a missing person poster, so cycled along the towpath and saw an opportunity at a lock,,well you know the saying step back erm but amusingly this wouldn't work as I chose a 135mm lens and when the boat and person was at the bottom I took a few reasonable snaps but as the boat was rising the 135mm was the wrong lens and the time I got the F4 out of my back pack, with a zoom, the best shots had gone. :banghead:
 
I bumped into this guy getting his yacht ready to launch the following day in Lochinver, NW Scotland. He told me that he had been sailing there last year when he had the call to go home for a major operation, and had left his yacht there for much of the past year. He was now fully recovered and was intending to sail solo home to the Solway and then round Ireland prior to the autumn weather, and it was great to see how excited he was to do this after his ill heaalth. Could I take his photo? Certainly!
 
Last edited:
excalibur2 said:
Well couldn't be bothered to go to the local nick and take a shot of a missing person poster, so cycled along the towpath and saw an opportunity at a lock,,well you know the saying step back erm but amusingly this wouldn't work as I chose a 135mm lens and when the boat and person was at the bottom I took a few reasonable snaps but as the boat was rising the 135mm was the wrong lens and the time I got the F4 out of my back pack, with a zoom, the best shots had gone. :banghead:
Click to expand...

Well used the Chinon CE for 11 shots and none came out :eek: , the shutter was firing and it's not the film and as the battery was going flat I switched the film to the T90 to use it up. So that's that for an entry into the comp :(
Can't wait to see the negs and hope it's not a case of the film not winding on and if it is, its in the bin for the Chinon.
 
Last chance for entries folks.
 
FishyFish said:
Exactly how long have you been re-spooling the cassette for @Asha? :D
Click to expand...

I had one of them walkman thingies and being a young teenager, would want to listen to the same song over and over ( in fact strangely i still have that yearn now occasionally :thinking:), so inevitably with the continual rewind/ play sequence the tape would jam in the rollers and involve precision extraction and respooling.......Cue replay song, rewind, press play and jam again :crying::LOL:
 
Well as I get older thinking outside the box and ideas is getting worse. I've copied an old photo taken in 1949 of French actress Anouk Aimee outside a shop, so I went back to the same spot to take a now shot....Why am annoyed at myself? Well a young girl passing by was interested in the old photos I had of the village and what I was doing and stupid me as I probably could have got her to do the same walk and smile as in the original shot. :banghead:
 
RaglanSurf said:
It was a tricky subject and I have to be honest when the theme was chosen it was based on the assumption that we would, as is usual over the summer, be inundated with vintage car and plane festivals and WWII re-enactments.
Click to expand...

You though this was tricky ... what on earth are we supposed to do for negative space? :LOL:
 
sirch said:
You though this was tricky ... what on earth are we supposed to do for negative space? :LOL:
Click to expand...
I thought negative space was one of the easier themes this year :LOL:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top