Mark Holyoake Photography

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Add New Dimensions to Your Photography with Interesting Angles

We have all seen it – the straight-on, focus-in-the-foreground photograph that is beloved by many photographers. It is perfectly fine, but for the intrepid photographer looking to make a mark in this competitive area, how do you make your photo really stand out from the crowd? Manipulating angles is the easiest way to give photographs that extra boost of unusual ingenuity. When you mix up the way you take your photographs, your portfolio immediately has variety and the viewer can see your skill shine through. The obvious way to create drama with photography is to focus on one feature of the subject of the photograph and make it stand out. Has your subject got a striking aspect that you want to highlight? Take the photograph at an angle that is side on, at an angle. For example, a spiral staircase is often photographed from the top down, but focusing on the balustrade and changing the typical way of looking at it can make all the difference. If you change the level at which you take the photograph, you can create dynamic, fun images that are interesting for the viewer. Most portraits are taken at head height; why not take it at ankle level? You can form a totally different view of a person if you ask the subject to lie down and look horizontally up at the camera. If you're taking a portrait of a parent and child, why not take photographs from the perspective of each person? We often have dim memories of our time as children, so giving this alternative viewpoint can prove popular. Upwards is another direction that is often left out. Lie down under a tree canopy and take a photograph of rain f
Read more... Add New Dimensions to Your Photography with Interesting Angles

Monday, July 8, 2013

Photographing Sport

While much of today's online media rely on video and moving images to tell their stories, there is still a huge demand for photography from certain news outlets. The art of telling a story is pivotal to sports photography. While viewers are able to watch an entire match, game or event over the course of several minutes or hours, not everyone has the time or interest to devote to following their hobbies. A photograph is the perfect partner for a news report on a website or in more traditional media such as newspapers or magazines, whereby photographs are used to complement the narrative and editorial content of the publication. A good photograph not only captures a precise moment in the game but also sums up the general feeling of the story. If the article relates the loss of a match it would be inappropriate to show players or managers looking happy. This allows the reader to guess the tone of the article in conjunction with the headline. This poses many problems for sports photographers. In football, a photographer has 90 minutes to capture as many quality pictures as possible never quite knowing what the story will be at the end of the match.

Film versus Digital - The great debate

As technology develops there are always going to be purists and nostalgia obsessed photographers who preach the pros of old fashioned techniques over modern developments. In photography, the rise of digital cameras means that very rarely will you find a photographer, unless they've been to university, who can use the skills of a light room to develop their images. Recording Camera _Mark_Holyoake_Web

While most people choose digital for speed and cost reasons, the jury is still out as to whether the images are the same quality. The grain in a film print is far greater than a pixellated digital image. As Batman director Christopher Nolan states about his choice to shoot on film, "We're not counting pixels here." Secondly, the unpredictable nature of physically developing an image leads to some accidental discoveries. Double exposures and light leaks may not be the desired effect but removing any element of danger you remove any chance of experimenting. In terms of storage, a thousand digital prints only take up the space of a hard drive but hard drives are prone to failures and once they are lost they are irretrievable. Whereas, a developed negative is filed in seconds and as long as they are stored properly, they can last for 50 years.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Macro Photography

It seems fitting, at a time when a new exhibition exploring the photography of the solar system is opened, to take a look at the opposite capabilities of photography. Welcome to the wonderful world of macro. While photographing the unknown solar system above our heads is amazing, beautiful and captivating, it is also the world in front of us which our eyes literally can't see, which amazes me. The ability of a lens to detect so much detail and then magnify it with such precision is a great source of inspiration and allows us to see the world in a different way. Photos are referred to as "macro" when you are increase the size of an object in your picture from about half life-size, as represented on the image sensor, to five times life-size. You should use an f-stop no wider/larger than f/16 to get all or most of the main subject in focus. Experiment with wider/larger lens apertures, which will throw more of the subject out of focus and may produce pleasing artistic effects. Get creative with macro photography by shooting the subject from an unexpected angle. The most exciting thing about macro photography is that as technology improves, so does our ability to see the processes which make up our world. Processes which have always been there, but without the capability to see it, w
Read more... Macro Photography

Photographing the City

People often ask me, what my favourite subject to photograph is. For some, it may be sport which inspires them or maybe dance or travelling to different lands. While I appreciate the skill and determination required to capture such difficult subjects, the only thing which really inspires me is the city. Having grown up in the countryside, I am used to being surrounded by nature. I don't know whether this has numbed me to the beauty of nature but for some reason I find it hard to become truly inspired by the natural world. What many people find beautiful, I find average and uninteresting. Whereas, the random sprawl of the big city really makes me curious to explore through my camera. The way cities evolve overtime means that you have a patchwork of mismatched periods all within closely confined spaces. You could have a huge sky scraper next to a Victorian pub or a derelict warehouse next to a five star hotel. It's this diversity of textures and history which invite the artist to explore different areas their hidden histories. While nature in general doesn't interest me, the positioning and history of green spaces within inner cities fascinates me. Whether it Hyde Park, London with its boating lake or the old Horse racing track around Sefton Park, Liverpool. The scarcity of green spaces in cities means they are often utilised in interesting and creative ways.

Friday, June 21, 2013

What Does Your Profile Picture Really Mean?

For some, picking the perfect profile picture is as easy as clicking the first image in your computer's library, for others it is agony. Hours spent analysing their own face to scope out any potential insecurities and whether these are less visible in other images. Have you got a double chin, do you look tired or overweight? Probably not but certain angles and certain poses make some people feel better about their own image. The Myspace pose may have been the staple of the mid-noughties teen but now there are a whole range of different profile styles to choose from but what do they say about you? Classic portrait How to Spot It: The classic profile picture – showing the waist up, looking into the camera (or into the distance for artiness). What It Says About You: You are normal. The vast majority of profile pictures look like this. However, if it's professionally taken as a headshot or blatantly airbrushed you might come across as a show off. If it's a 'selfie' it screams insecurity as people now know you sit in your room taking pictures of yourself in your spare time. The landscape shot Read more... What Does Your Profile Picture Really Mean?

Why Photography Will Never Die

A picture is worth a thousand words. It's a cliché but is there still truth behind the phrase? In a world of instant communication, there is a constant demand for information and news. Whether this info comes from war torn countries, the UK riots or even the local village fete; news relies on visuals and imagery as much as it does words, statistics and information. What was more shocking during the riots which spread across the UK? Was it the news reports condemning the looting and violence? Or was it the videos and photographs of real people caught up in the melee? In scriptwriting and prose writing, there's a saying which says 'show not tell.' If you want your character to feel real to an audience you don't have them talking about their actions, you have them doing them. The ability to filter what an audience knows through story telling is a powerful tool in fiction and news features alike. Photography is one of the only mediums which can still shock its audience. A person in court on assault charges is less shocking than seeing someone beating another human being, especially if they appear weak or defenceless. Photography places the audienc
Read more... Why Photography Will Never Die

Friday, June 14, 2013

Photography: Who Owns the Copyright?

While it only really affects those who have been professionally commissioned, copyright can be a confusing minefield for any photographer. Who has the rights to the image? Legally, the copyright of any idea belongs to the person whose skill, ability and work went into creating the copyrighted work. There is no copyright in an idea only in how it is presented, for example, a clown logo outside a fast-food restaurant isn't in breach of a copyright. But, if that clown bears an overdue resemblance to a certain Ronald Macdonald, you may have one of the world's largest corporations knocking on your door. While this may not affect photographers it is good to bear in mind whether you think someone has plagiarised your work. In photography copyright, the 1 August 1989 is a key date to remember. On this date, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 came into force. Before this date, who ever commissioned the photograph owned the full copyright to the image. After this date, the photographer or their employee owns the copyright to the image, unless otherwise stated in the contract. While the people in the photograph may not own the copyright, they do have legal moral rights for the redistribution of their image. So, for example, if you want to create a new portfolio of your work or a new advertising campaign, you would need permission from the people who commissioned you to take the picture, or you may be liable fo
Read more... Photography: Who Owns the Copyright?

The Power of Photography

Recent images of a newborn baby being cut precariously from a sewer pipe have caused shock and repulsion across the world. The ability of photography to shock and spark debate never fails to amaze me and it seems that even in a world of pre-watershed sex and violence, photography still holds the occasional ability to make the world stand up and pay attention.

The photograph in question was taken in China once the baby’s mother (who only admitted to having given birth to the child) rang authorities after the infant apparently fell into the toilet by accident. The image has caused outrage worldwide but for very different reasons.

In China, the woman is being ostracised for such an act of wanton cruelty and demonic negligence. Whereas, in the UK, the media and society has looked to the symptomatic way in which a young mother could feel so pressured during pregnancy that, not only does she keep her pregnancy secret and deliver a child in a toilet, she resorts to such an act of desperation in order to maintain the life she wants. Granted this assumes that the mother in fact intended to dispose of the infant rather than it being an unfortunate accident.

Either way, the image of a child literally flushed down the toilet is an enduring one. In the modern world we are used to seeing infants in sanitised, nurturing environments and the shot of a child trapped in a womb of defecation is appalling on so many levels. This type of imagery would feel at home in a David Lynch or Werner Herzog film but the fact that such a strong political and social criticism is real is even the more powerful.

What is for sure is that this image may fade over time but it will always be there in the psyche of the world. This child will forever be the person who started life inside a toilet, betrayed by a mother who was in turn betrayed by her society. Even if this is a tragic accident with a redemptive ending, why would the mother have a newborn near the unsanitary public toilet rather than a hospital? The very circumstances brought about by the woman’s selfishness and desperation is a damning criticism of Chinese society.

There’s something gut wrenching about the site of a blue new-born covered in excrement, wedged inside a pipe and crying for help. While it is easy to criticise the mother, it should be remembered that through the power of photography, exposure has been shone on societies failings and hopefully this may lead to change in future – surely the greatest power that art can possess.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Getting it Right on Linkedin

The popularity of Linkedin among professionals has risen significantly in past years, so much so that it is now an essential part of the job application process. Competition for jobs post economic crisis has meant that more and more people are turning to Linkedin to give them an edge over the competition.

Given the nature of this social network, it would stand to reason that it should display only the very best and professional aspects of a user, in order to secure them the very best employment. You might assume that the format is pretty straight forward for most members of this job networking site, but you’d be wrong...

A common mistake of many hopeful Linkedin users happens when they misinterpret the medium. Linkedin is a networking site for professionals, this means that employers and other users expect your page to look the part. Countless bikini clad photos, blatant ‘selfies’ and cleavages are all over Linkedin, and not one of them is taken seriously. Employers are not interested on how well an employee tanned over their summer break, nor are they interested in hiring the biggest breasts in the office (we hope). Linkedin photos should be plain portraits which illustrate a workplace persona, in professional dress and with an appropriate expression.

Winking, leering, and closed eyes have all featured on some of Linkedin’s finest profile photo failures, without even considering the appalling choice of outfit and random background location. The key is to get the right balance between ‘passport photo’ and ‘career.’

Black and white, photoshopped, pixelated photos or scanned in prints are not ideal choices for Linkedin either. A clear digital image is all it takes to impress an employer, while techniques which mask the true image of a person are a hindrance at best. Employers must review thousands of applicants’ sites, which means they need their information clearly and readily available in order to save time and ensure they hire the right person.

Photos with animals, babies or a spouse are also an inappropriate addition to a Linkedin profile photo. Unless you and the baby, animal or spouse come as a twinset in your application (which I would strongly advise against) there is no reason for their image to be there, as it is simply a distraction. Your Linkedin profile is about YOU, and a chance for YOU to shine. Your loved ones will have their day too.

Finally, the worst crime a Linkedin user could possibly commit? Not having a photo at all. This is tant amount to self sabotage, which anyone who is looking for work could do without.