Switching into ’tilt-shift’ mode requires a bit of a mental shift. The lens is slow to work with, for the simple fact it is so manual. I love how this forces me to appreciate everything about the photo process. While it could be my own thinking limiting myself, the lens does seem suited to photographing certain things in a certain way. I can’t really tell you what that is, but I tend to know it, when I see it.

The funniest thing – I see-saw between loving the look of the lens to hating it!

Either way, it is good to mix up techniques and switch mental gears from time-to-time.

A few photographs from today.

Beach car. Rarotonga, Cook Islands. © www.thomaspickard.com

Woman fishing, Rarotonga, Cook Islands. © www.thomaspickard.com

Beach palm, Rarotonga, Cook Islands. © www.thomaspickard.com

Church, Rarotonga, Cook Islands. © www.thomaspickard.com

Family on beach, Rarotonga, Cook Islands. © www.thomaspickard.com

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Click to download. Winter 2011 Newsletter 2.2MB PDF

I am pretty stoked to announce that my first PDF Newsletter for Thomas Pickard Photography is up and available for download.

Coming in at 24-pages, the Newsletter has a magazine feel to it, complete with fresh new imagery and personal insights into my world of photography.

The Newsletter will come out in Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn of each year.

It took a surprising amount of work to create the first issue. I hope you download it, read it and recommend it to friends and colleagues who have an interest in the type of photography I produce.

If you would like future issues delivered direct to your inbox, please subscribe at this link: Newsletter Sign Up

And as always, if you have any questions or comments, then head over to Thomas Pickard Photography on Facebook and join the conversation.

Thanks for reading. Thomas.

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“The decision making muscle is the muscle that is exercised every time you push that button. This is the element of photography that assisting will never ever teach you because until you’re looking through that camera deciding wether the light is right, the composition is right, the model is in the right position, the wardrobe is spot on, the hair and make up are perfect, everything is lined up right, and everything else that you have to think about in creating a picture is to your liking, etc. You’ll never be actually logging those learned pieces of information into your brain. Making decisions of every element in your photograph is like exercising a muscle, and you learn more with every shot you take. That’s why it needs to be exercised, so that each time you shoot you are making better and better images.”

Photographer Nick Onken in his blog post titled: Exercising the Decision Making Muscle.

What I love most about this post by Nick is this: it applies to anyone with a camera.

And it is true – if you want to take better photos of [insert your favourite subject here], start by actively taking more photographs.

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Facebook me up.

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Portrait of Cook Island, David. Rarotonga, Cook Islands. © www.thomaspickard.com

Years ago, before I became a photographer, the idea of walking up to a total stranger and asking if I could take their photo, was right up there with gargling acid.

Clearly I have changed since then, as asking strangers if I can take their portrait is something I do pretty regularly these days.

When I was first getting into photography, I used to wonder what the ‘secret’ was to taking portraits. Then one day, I realised there was no secret – I simply had to make the decision in my mind and get on with asking the person if I could take their photo.

While that straight up approach works sometimes, these days I do things a little differently. Namely, I strike up a conversation and make a-hand-on-my-heart effort to get to know the person (as much as two strangers can).

I don’t reach for my camera and start snapping away. Instead, I talk. Have a conversation. Shoot the breeze. And I try and connect on some common interest.

In terms of asking if I can take some portraits, I decide if the location and light is good enough for one and then I ask myself if I think this person will be up for it.

By the time I ask, I have manually set my camera settings and mentally mapped out how I want to photograph the person. When I receive the nod of approval or a ‘yes you can’, I don’t mess around. I take the photographs in quick succession. Portraits with total strangers usually last about 90-seconds.

I always show people their photo, if it is a portrait. Not only is this polite, it helps them become part of the photo making process (I’m sure some people will disagree). At some level, if I gave a person permission to take my photo, I would like to have a look at the photo afterwards. I keep that in mind.

As for David, what a character! He talked my ear off for 30-minutes and he had some stories to tell. Cook Islanders’ are really friendly people and I am enjoying the on the spot travel portrait opportunities, as I meet more strangers on the island.

Related Posts:

Vietnam Day 14: Hanoi Portrait

Indonesian Portraits

Meet Mr Keong

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Stay in touch: Become a fan on Facebook

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Staff member serving food on the Reunification Express, on route from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, Vietnam. Copyright www.thomaspickard.com

Day 7 in Vietnam and we boarded the Reunification Express in Ho Chi Minh City for the 1,726 km journey to Hanoi. Whenever I felt like I needed a change of scenery from our very comfortable sleeping berth, I would grab my camera and tell Jane ‘I’m taking my camera for a walk’.

Taking photos on trains is tough for a whole variety of reasons. Number one, is that the train bumps and jiggles a lot, which means you can’t shoot at very low shutter speeds if you want sharp photos. Number two, is how dark the trains are. I photographed a lot at ISO 3200, f2.8 at 1/60th to 1/200th of a second.

Related Posts:

Vietnam Day 6. Con Dao Island Prison

Vietnam Day 5. Con Dao Islands Tea Stop

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Before I left I seriously considered not taking a single camera. Not sure what I was thinking, but in the end I settled on taking just one Nikon SLR body, one Nikon lens and all my memory cards. The result was a carry on bag that I could easily throw over my shoulder and my surfboard bag, which is 6 feet 9 inches long, weighed 10 kg and had to be checked. It has been years since I’ve travelled so light.

Photographically I didn’t shoot much compared to what I’d normally capture when on a photo taking trip. When I did take photographs, they tended to be more of the people I encountered. The outtakes below are the result.

I enjoy encounters with total strangers and the exchange of conversation that happens. Meeting new people, learning about them and their lives – even briefly – is what travel portraits are about for me. The act of taking a travel portrait is ultimately that person’s gift to me and something I’m always thankful for.

To put my brief relationship with each person below in context, I’ve included some background information on each photo.

Left: Scott Clark, Surf Guide. The first thing I noticed about Scott were his eyes and the intensity they held. I knew I wanted to take his portrait the moment I met him. Towards the end of my week long stay at the Surf Camp I was at, he gave me permission.

Right: Dive Instructor. I’d asked the owner of the Gili Dive shop if I could tag along on a scuba diving trip to take some general travel photos, to which he agreed. The first person I noticed was this Dive Instructor, who had a strong physical presence and a really laid back personality. On the boat trip back I asked if I could take his portrait. Though reluctant, he agreed. The back lighting was terrible, so I just blew it out with the exposure.

Left: I met this local fisherman and his wife (in the right hand photo), one afternoon while walking through Gerupak village. Gerupak is a tiny fishing village located at the end of a road in south-east Lombok with access to some great surfing breaks.

The fisherman was having problems with his two-stroke engines, so I offered to help him try and diagnose the problem (I’ve spent quite a bit of time maintaining two-stroke boating engines). We eventually isolated the problem to the engine’s carburetor, something he would need to replace. After about 45-minutes I asked if I could take his portrait on the beach about 30 feet from his house. Grabbing the wooden paddle from his boat, I had him stand in the shallows for the series of portraits I took.

The lighting was pretty flat, but travel portraiture is like that. You find a great subject and the lighting isn’t that good. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.

Right: I came back next day to chat with my new friend. This time his wife asked me to taker her photo with their child. I love it when that happens. While this was the portrait that I wanted, I also took a portrait of them together and some baby only photos, all of which I will be posting to them as prints.

Left: This Indonesian man worked at the three bungalow guest house I was staying at in the Gili Islands. Though we could hardly communicate, he was a friendly man and towards the end of my 5 night stay I indicated that I’d like to take his portrait as he was watering the garden. With an indifferent shrug of the shoulders he gave me permission.

Right: I was resting in the shade drinking a can of Sprite, when this young guy stopped to have a chat with me. He asked me the usual things – where I was from; where I was staying; what I did for work. Just before he rode off I popped the portrait question, positioned him a little better in relation to the background and took this shot.

Left: A chance encounter one afternoon led me to an impromptu game of soccer. Three against three. These two guys were my team mates and we thrashed the other side 4-1. After the game I threw the Australian branded soccer ball (I’m an Aussie), to my younger team mate and asked if I could take a portrait. I didn’t really need to ask as they were both proud to have their photo taken.

Right: I stumbled upon this lone Indonesian surfer while walking around one of the Gili Islands. Being a surfer we connected straight away. Like the boys in the left photo, he was psyched that I’d want to take his portrait. The light being reflected off the white sand behind me, was the perfect reflector for this shot.

All images can be licensed for magazine usage at my Portraits Gallery at www.thomaspickardstock.com

Related Posts:

Maldives Street Portraits

Meet Mr Keong

If You Are Not Bringing Ideas to the Table

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This weeks photo from the archive comes from the Great Wall Station, King George Island, Shetland Islands, Antarctica (phew…they have such long location names in Antarctica!).

Visiting an Antarctic station that doesn’t normally receive visitors is a big deal – I know because I’ve lived and worked at Antarctic stations and experienced first hand what it is like to have this huge influx of people into your life all of a sudden. While it can be a bit overwhelming, it can also be a pleasant change to the regular people you live with, day in and day out.

In this particular instance, I along with one other guide, took two zodiac loads of Chinese passengers from our ship, the Clipper Adventurer to the Great Wall Station for an afternoon visit. Great Wall Station isn’t used to visitors and the station staff do two-year stints, so let me tell you, they were pretty happy to see us!

So much so, they put on a big spread of afternoon tea and a tour of the station. Like our passengers, I find stations pretty interesting places. As a photographer, I always try and capture something about the place which sums up my experience.

In this instance, it was meeting this friendly young Chinese Weather Forecaster, who was on the last couple of months of a two-year stay. With excellent spoken English, he talked with me about his time on the ice and how much he was looking forward to going home.

Before we parted ways I asked if I could take a portrait. With a nod of approval I quickly found a prop – in this case the large carpeted wall with a picture of the Great Wall of China on it – and promptly asked my new friend to stand in front of it.

The result is this environmental portrait.

License the image by clicking on it.

Embed and share at  your own site, by clicking on the triangle in the bottom right hand corner.

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Commercial fishermen sleeping on the back deck of a commercial fishing dhoni (traditional Maldivian boat), off the coast of Addu (Seenu) Atoll, Indian Ocean, Maldives, on the 6th of June 2006

This technique is about understanding the relationship between a fast moving object (the vessel), the surroundings (the ocean) and the cameras shutter speed.

Let’s take the shutter speed. The lower the shutter speed – 1/30th, 1/15th, 1/8th…1 second, 2 second etc.. – the blurrier your image will be.

Now if we take a fast moving object such as the vessel, which was doing about 15-knots at the time of the photograph, and use a slow shutter speed, the wake from the vessel will appear blurry. Lower the shutter speed to a really slow setting – say 10 seconds – and the wake will have a distinct motion blur about it.

The question then becomes, how do you keep the deck in sharp focus at such long exposures?

You use a tripod.

As the vessel is clearly moving forward and gently rolling left to right, what you are trying to do is to ‘anchor’ your camera and tripod to the vessels movement. Without a tripod, you would never be able to hand hold the camera with a 15-second shutter speed and produce a sharp image of the vessel.

Place the camera on a tripod though and do everything you can to keep the tripod firmly pinned to the deck, and you may just get an image of the vessel in sharp focus. It typically takes a few shots to find out where the sweet spot is between a slow shutter speed, a creamy motion blur and a sharp vessel.

This technique is easiest when you are on a fast moving vessel. A faster moving vessel means you don’t need as low a shutter speed to get the motion blur effect. Though you still need a tripod, the shorter slow shutter speed means you have a greater chance of getting the deck in sharp focus.

The technical details for the photo above are: 15-seconds; f22; ISO 800

The image below is another example of the same technique.

This was a harder shot to produce as the ship was going much slower than the vessel in the photo above.

The technical details for the photo below are: 2-seconds; f22; ISO 100.

A tourist on the stern deck of the polar cruise ship the Clipper Adventurer, Drake Passage, on the 22 November 2008. (Motion blur).

One of my favourite shots using this technique is at the following link:

Paul Souders photo of a tanker passing beneath the Golden Gate Bridge

Keep experimenting with slow shutter speeds and moving objects and remember: technique is beyond the tools.

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A local fisherman travelling by longboat, Pak Meng, Trang Province, Thailand, on the 11 September 2009.

Every time I look at this, I think “I must get a 16×24 inch print made for my wall”.

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Ali, Bar Waiter at Soneva Fushi Resort, Maldives.

I have been doing a lot of portraits since arriving in the Maldives. I love doing portraits for the simple fact that it is a great opportunity to meet people and learn more about them.

The actual portrait session lasts anywhere from 5 to 15-minutes. Such a short time keeps me on my toes, especially when trying to produce a publishable image.

I love that moment when a complete stranger says ‘yes’ to my request for a portrait. It leaves me feeling privileged to be given the opportunity.

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