Best Photos in the World

© Samuel Aranda

Last week World Press Photo announced this year’s winners of their annual photo contest. World Press Photo could be said to be the Nobel Prize for photojournalists, and for 2012 Samuel Aranda from Spain brought home the most prestigious prize, the World Press Photo of the year. Kudos to Aranda for a very strong image. The photograph shows a woman holding her wounded son in her arms. It’s captured inside a mosque used as a field hospital by demonstrators against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, during clashes in Sanaa, Yemen.

What actually surprises me of this year’s awards is the fact that a whole lot of great images have been picked by the jury. Of course you may say, it’s the most prestigious photojournalistic contest in the world. But surprisingly often I have found the many winning pictures to be quite boring and definitely not long-lasting in my memory. At least for me. So my delight seeing the result of this year was even more exuberant because of my lowered expectations from previous years.

I have often wondered by which criterions the pictures for the World Press Photo have been selected. For me it looks like pictures of war, destructions, grief and pictures taken during excess danger to the photographer would be picked as winners, no matter what other photographic qualities they lack. Going back to what I believe a good photograph is about (you may want to have a look at my post A Good Photograph, What is that? to find out about that) usually the winners would have some stopping power, but hardly anything more. They would often play on a one-dimensional level, lacking depth and lacking openings to other interpretations – thus being very literal and boring. For me it seemed like there was no evaluation of artistic or creative qualities as part of what makes a photograph stand out to excellence.

So what made the jury pick those pictures the previous years, which for me clearly wasn’t the best of the best of all photojournalistic work? I had no clue, until I read a blog posting by Alex Garcia last year, a rewarded photojournalist at Chicago Tribune. In his post 2 Essential Ingredients of Contest-Winning Photos he states that access and intimacy are the two qualities that triggers juries of photojournalistic contests. Access simply means how hard it is to get a photo and intimacy provides the personal connection for which we strive with other human beings to create, according to Garcia. I believe Alex Garcia to be absolutely right. Finally I understood what made previous winners of World Press Photo winners. The intimacy part I recognize being important, but access? I don’t really care how hard it has been to take a certain photograph, even if the photographer was shot during the process. For me it just doesn’t make the photograph any better how much hardship the photographer had to withstand. Whatever it can’t tell me while watching a photograph, doesn’t matter. Of course I might be curious about how a certain picture was taken, but that is all.

So I believe Alex Garcia’s evaluation is spot on, but it makes me a little sad on behalf of photojournalism and documentary photography. There is so much excellent work being done out there, and these are the criterions they are judge by!? No wonder I have more and more move away from pure journalistic work. Don’t get me wrong I am deeply passionate about making important stories, but the superficial news coverage has just become less and less interesting for me. I want to know why, not only if something happens.

All the better judging the result of this year’s World Press Photo. I don’t know if it signifies a change in mentally from the organizers, but I am just delighted that some really good pictures have been awarded this year. Aranda’s picture isn’t necessarily the best of the year in my opinion, but that doesn’t matter. It’s only my opinion anyway, but there can be no doubt about the fact that it is a very good photograph. If you are interested in having a look at more winning pictures from this year’s contest have a look here: 2012 World Press Photo. And here are two of my personal favourites:

© Damir Sagolj

© Brent Stirton

More Rain

I am almost a little embarrassed to announce that a handful of awards have rained down upon me lately. Don’t take me wrong; I am very honoured, but it puts a focus on me that I am not quite comfortable with. Or maybe it’s more that I am more concerned about my work and what I try to express than me as a person. At the same time I recognise that the awards are given for exactly that reason. So I guess I don’t really know what I am trying to say. Anyway, I am really honoured and truly delighted to be given such acknowledgement. Despite what I just tried to say, it means a lot to me to feel my blog friends and fellow bloggers appreciate what my blog is about. Enough sentiments, though, let’s get down to business.

First I was award the Hug Award by This Man’s Journey/Island Traveler and shortly after by Arindam. It’s a beautiful award, according to the guidelines it’s for people who, without giving up or compromising their own religious, spiritual, or political beliefs, are able to nurture hope and respect the dignity of all people. There are actually quite a few guidelines that goes along with the award, please have a look here: Hope Unites Globally – HUG Award Guidelines. According to the guidelines upon receiving the award, I need to nominate at least one other person. Although I can nominate as many as I want to that reflects the essence of the award. First of all I will give hug back to Island Traveler and Arindam, thanks my friends. Here is my list of nominees (there are actually quite a few others I would have liked to add – but the award can only be given once):
Niasunset
The Hook
Dearrosie
Three Well Being

Next award: Elenacaravela awarded me with the Kreative Blogger Award. Thank you so much my artist friend. Coming from you it means something extra. Besides thanking Elenacaravela, I must select 6 blogs to pass on the award, and reveal 10 things about me that you may not already know. First 10 things about myself: Short tempered, love to eat rotten fish (what we in Norwegian call gravlaks or rakørret – I am not descending from the Vikings for nothing), I love sushi for that matter, too, I don’t trust powers to be, can’t understand why people need guns in a civil society, get angry when I discover ignorance – but can unfortunately be ignorant myself in between, I really don’t like social conversations – prefer to say something when I actually have something to say among people I care for, I am stubborn – very, by sarcasm I survive a crazy world; and finally I need a glass of milk a day to keep going. My nominees for the Kreative Blogger Award are:
Photographical moments
Silk Purse Productions
Simply Charming
Rastelly
Abu Zar/Visual Journey
Tricia Booker Photography

The last award was given by Figments & Imaginations. I would like to thank her sincerely for the ABC Blogger Award. According to the guidelines the award can be passed on to as many nominees as I wish to, and in addition I need to use the alphabet to describe myself, or give a little information about who I am. First my nominees for this award:
Cocomino/Life in Kawagoe
J.A. Robinson/The Daily Graff
Upon Atlas
Lesley Carter/Bucket List Publications

To comply with the alphabet requirement; instead of listing much about me, I would rather make a list of movies I can recommend. It still says something about me, just as much as any arbitrary list of features I can figure out about myself, anyway. As to the movies, they don’t necessarily represent my best-of-list, but it’s all movies I can truly recommend:

Angel-A, Blade Runner, Cinema Paradiso, Despicable Me, Elling, Fight Club, Good Night, and Good Luck, Hotel Splendide, Inception, Jarhead, Kitchen Stories, Labyrinth, Mystery Train, No Country for Old Men, Once Upon a Time in America, Platoon, Quinceañera, Redacted, Shaun of the Dead, Time Bandits, Unthinkable, V for Vendetta, Waking Ned Devine, X-Men, Y Tu Mamá También, Zombieland.

Flashed Away

I want to finish up my thoughts about flash photography which I started in my previous post, so I hope you not so technical minded will have me excused one more time – even if it’s going to be less hardcore technical this time. I promise it will be a long time till next before I will do it again. So as to not make it completely worthless to have passed by, I have laid out a handful of pictures to show what you can achieve by using the little shoe mounted flash. I hope those of you who don’t care about technique at least will be able to enjoy those pictures.

Last time I gave the theory behind getting the most out of the flash – and did so by explaining how to use the camera in manual mode. Today I will continue with some thoughts about using flash in automatic mode. One should actually assume that it would be easier and faster – and to some extent it is, but at the same time I have found that it’s impossible to predict how the cameras «think». And unfortunately one camera «thinks» differently than another in automatic flash mode, and one brand seems to «thinks» differently than another. So when going automatic, it’s unavoidable with some trial and error first time out. Anyway the basic idea when going automatic is that the camera itself will do the necessary calculations, as soon as you have put in the ratio of exposure between available light and flash light. Remember the trick to get interesting flash pictures when using a shoe mounted (or handheld) flash is to combine available light with flash light.

On a basic level most cameras «think» that whatever exposure compensation you dial in on the camera will affect the whole exposure – the combined exposure of the two light sources that is, while exposure compensation dialled in on the flash itself will only affect the flash light. So to return to the two basic setups from my last posting: If you want to equally blend available light and flash light, you actually don’t do anything, because the camera will automatically take care of the mix and adjust the exposure – which means underexpose both so as to make the combination come out correctly. The only thing you need to do is make sure the exposure mode of the camera is not set to program, P, green, red or complete automatic mode – whatever you camera has available for you. This will only set the shutter speed to the sync speed for flash photography and thus result in those regular ugly flash photos with a washed out foreground and a completely black background. My advice is to set the mode to aperture priority which means you yourself set the aperture before taking a photo and the camera automatically takes care of shutter speed. Setting the camera to aperture priority mode makes sure your camera can adjust the exposure to any available light situations. If necessary it can use 1 second or it can use 1/1000 of a second when that is necessary. By the way don’t worry about long exposure time when using flash. The flash will anyway freezes the subject and whatever movement cause by the available light exposure will only add some interesting features to the picture.

One more thing: You need to make sure the camera’s focusing point is locked onto the subject in the front when the reading of the flash exposure and the focusing point is connected. Otherwise the amount of flash light on the subject will probably be way too much since the focusing point may be set on the background.

Now to the other set-up I mentioned last time; fill-in flash or using the flash to lighten up dark shadows. In automatic mode you set the flash to -2 or two exposure values down. That’s it, and the camera will supposedly take care of the rest. In another word, you use the exposure compensation on the flash to adjust the ration between available light and flash light, while the exposure compensation on the camera will affect the combined exposure. That is; if you want to make the combined exposure lighter or darker you use the exposure compensation on the camera. If you want to increase or decrease the amount of flash light relative to available light you use the exposure compensation on the flash.

What if you only have a point-and-shoot camera? Can you get interesting flash pictures with those cameras? Quite few actually have a so-called slow sync flash setting, which will do exactly what I have talked about here. You just don’t have equal amount of possibilities to adjust particularly the ratio of light between available and flash light.

One last point: If you use your camera in manual mode and use the built-in exposure meter, be aware of the fact that when you turn on the flash it will most likely adjust the readings to compensate for the added flash. So if you want to work manually, you need to meter the exposure of available light before switching on the flash.

In a Flash of Moment

Today’s blog is going to be more for the mere photographic minded (and I hope the rest of you will forgive me for that). I don’t usually write about technique, because there is plenty of information about how to handle a camera out there – and I am more interested in the creative process of photography anyway. But this time I will make an exception, simply because the technique I am about to describe may boost creativity as well.

This post is going to be about how to make a shoe mounted flash not only work, but give an interesting and quite different look to your pictures. Flash pictures you may ask? That is always gonna be harsh contrast, lousy quality and no control on your part… But really, no! Before the digital era I used to be sharp and very good at using flash. I had to. Back then I was shooting slides, and to get the best quality I would usually use a slow film at 100 iso or even Kodachrome 64. When light went low, you had to be able to either use a flash or set up a whole shebang of lighting equipment. I got good with the handheld flash. At some point I almost as a rule used the flash – day or night. It became part of my signature. But when the digital era took over, suddenly I didn’t need the flash any more, I could just ramp up the iso-setting of the camera, and I was able to shoot in any lighting condition. How cool was that! I packed down the flash, and never look back again. Until recently that is. Not long ago I finally dug into my camera bag again, and found the old flash (and found out that I actually had to buy a new one, too), because it’s not bad at all, but really just another creative device in my toolbox – when I need that special look.

The main factor for success with the shoe mounted flash (or even better if you hold it in your hand with an extension cord) is to mix available light and light from the flash. And the trick to gain control of this mix is to think about the process as taking two pictures on the same frame – even though it happens at the same time – in one exposure. First you take a picture with the available light and then you take the same picture with the flash (or the other way around, if you like to think about it that way, because it really doesn’t matter, it’s only a mental exercise; as I said it happens simultaneous – at least for the argument here). And what happens when you add two pictures on top of each other? The two light sources will add up and make the final picture lighter – too light. Which means you will have to make each captured picture darker, so the total adds up to a correct exposure. Thus you will have to underexpose them.

Let’s see how that works in real life. And I will start with explaining two useful set-ups using manual exposure control. That will make it easier to understand the process, even if you are never going to shoot manually. Let’s say you are shooting indoor. You want to take advantage of the special look you can get from mixing equally available light and light from the flash. To get a correct added exposure you set the camera so that it underexposes the subject lit by available light with 1 exposure value (either stop down the aperture one step or cut the exposure time in half). And you set the flash 1 exposure value down, too. Where the flash hit the subject the total of the two underexposed pictures (which albeit is but one frame) will give you a correct exposure, while where only available light is picked up, the subject – usually the background – will be underexposed and that is fine. It doesn’t sound too difficult does it? Try it out!

Here is the other set-up I mentioned I would explain: It’s midday sunshine. The shadows under the nose and in the eye sockets of the person you want to photograph are black. Not to mention if the person wears a hat. Time to mount the flash again. But this time you will only underexpose the flash. You set it to minus 2 exposure values. The exposure for the available light is as if no flash was added. That’s it; you are good to go with a so-called fill-in flash. Two exposure values down on the flash doesn’t sound like a lot, but it actually brings the light from the flash so much down, that it will only affect the shadows. That’s why you with this set-up don’t need to underexpose the available light. Here is the beauty: You can mix any ration of available light and flash as long as the sum of the two exposure values you step down are -2. In the first step-up the available light was -1 and the flash -1. Hence the sum is -2. In the second setup the available light was 0 and the flash -2. Again the sum is -2. So if you want to give a little more flash than the equal set-up in the beginning, you could for instance go for -½ EV for the flash and -1½ EV for the the available light. The sum is still -2. It works!

I’ll stop now, and get back to the automatic approach next time. I have already written too way too much, despite the fact that in my previous post I complain about myself too often writing too long texts. So thank you for staying to the end.

15 Great Blogs

Collecting awards may seem like a way to put oneself in the limelight. Though it is a big boost and inspiration to be acknowledged for the effort one put into blogging – and it certainly feels fulfilling to have verified that people actually read and appreciate what you do, for me the biggest deal about blogger awards is to spread the awareness about other great bloggers that exist out there. It’s really what the awards are about, to me at least. It’s an opportunity to tell the blog sphere about all – or some at least – of the blogs that you yourself have found to be excellent and inspiring. Thus it’s a delight for me to now be able to do exactly that.

Over the last two months I have been nominated four times for the Versatile Blogger Award. I been busy travelling and working and haven’t had time to fulfil the requirements that comes along with the award. But here it is. First of all I would like to thank the four bloggers who nominated me for the award. Thank you so much Uponatlas, The Daily Graf, Whenquiet’s Blog and finally Linda Hersley. I am deeply honoured by being chosen. And by the way, they are all great blogs to look up, too. After all they did get a Versatile Blogger Award themselves and thus could nominate me.

As part of the fulfilment of the requirements that comes along with Versatile Blogger Award here is a list of 15 wonderful and, yes, versatile blogs. Please look them up; they are worthy of spending some time with. Some of the blogs I hereby nominate have already at least once been nominated, but for me the list wouldn’t be complete without them – and I don’t think they need to fulfil any requirements again, if time or opportunity doesn’t make it possible.

15 great blogs in random order:
August McLaughlin’s Blog
IsobelandCat’s Blog
GMB Akash – A Photojournalist’s Blog
This Man’s Journey
Elenacaravela’s Blog
Joshi Daniel Photography
Visual Journey
Winsomebella
Draw and Shoot
Twelve Months of Creativity
Nina Lex
Fabulous 50’s
Annika Ruohonen Photography
Georgette Sullins’s Blog
Bente Haarstad Photography

In addition to these great blogs, I once before nominated 16 blogs for the Versatile Blogger Award. If you haven’t look them up yet, please do so at my post: Versatile Blogger Award.

To fulfil the last requirement of my nomination, I need to share seven items about myself that you don’t already know:
● I don’t have patience for slow drivers
● I love sugar, but try to step back from evilness
● I have a secret dream of once doing an ultra marathon
● I wish I sometimes weren’t so lazy
● By age I am too old to be young, but in my mind I still feel like a boy
● I really like Laphroaig (you don’t know what it is? Shame on you)
● I think long postings can be pain in the but (simply because too often I don’t have the time to read them) – so how come I always end up writing one myself?

Finally here are the rules that go along with the Versatile Blogger Award:
● Make a post with a list of 15 nominated blog
● Inform the nominees that they are nominated
● Share seven items about yourself that readers don’t already know
● Thank the blogger who gave you this award.

Movies to Watch

Since I have just returned from Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, this post will be a little different than usual. In a sense it will still be about creativity and imagery, but this time taken from the film industry. This post is in a way a tribute to all those great movies that were showcased through the week of the festival. Sundance Film Festival is the biggest festival for independent film in US, and as such is both a great manifestation of the creative forces outside of mainstream Hollywood and an intense experience of the best movies the whole world are able to muster. This is the 7th time I cover Sundance Film Festival and the quality of films being showcased was – once again – amazing. Here is a little summary of my favorite movies from this year’s festival.

Let me start with my two absolute favourites. First of all The Ambassador emerges as an outstanding document of the problems facing Africa. Behind the film stands the Danish journalist Mads Brügger. He bought himself a diplomatic title and passport from Liberia and entered the Central African Republic as their ambassador. The purpose was to expose the trading of blood diamonds in this maybe most corrupt of all African countries. Mads Brügger plays the role with wit and an almost naïve approach, like an arrogant, postcolonial, upper class, white diplomat, sporting dark glasses, riding boots and a cigarette holder. He ominously uncovers the comprehensive corruption, among Africans and Westerners alike. Really one to watch.

The second of my favourite films is a drama that takes place in Kashmir. Valley of Saints is a delightful, beautiful, enlightening and sweet story about Gulzar, a working-class boatman on Dal Lake, that falls in love with a pretty biology scientists and how he gradually realizes that the ecology of the lake faces an alarming threat. The lovely story takes place against a background of political uprising and a weeklong military curfew. The landscape is serene; the acting honest and wonderful – even though none of them are actually actors, and the cinematography simply outstanding. If you have to have some moments of hard action to be able to enjoy a film, this might not be the one for you, but otherwise it’s one of the best I have seen in a long time.

Other movies in the dramatic category I really enjoyed, was My Brother, the Devil, a Muslim gangbanger film with a gay twist taken place in London. It’s a film rich in beauty, humility, authenticity and depth. The Words is another dramatic film about a young writer who suddenly achieves success after having found a complete manuscript that he passes on as his own. When he meets an old man that turns out to be the one who wrote the manuscript, his whole life changes dramatically. This is a well crafted and subtle tale that examines how overwhelming desire can lead to unforeseen and unwanted consequences.

Two recommendation in the documentary category: In 5 Broken Cameras the Palestinian Emad Burnat tells the story of how his village of farmers fights Israeli settlers who take over their land. During filming 5 cameras are lost and broken due to violence by Israeli soldiers. Finding North is a shocking document about hunger in USA. It reveals that one out of six (or 50 millions) US citizens suffer from food insecurity – they don’t know if they have food for the next meal. It reveals the disgrace of US politicians who rather subsidise corporate agriculture that produces unhealthy products with high content of starch and sugar, instead of helping their own people get food on the table.

Two movies for those who enjoy humour: First of all; 2 Days in New York is a movie by French Julie Delpy that heightens cultural differences to comedic extremes. A hilarious film – featuring Chris Rock. Sleepwalk with Me is an autobiographical movie about the comedian Mike Birbiglia – based on his successful one-man show. Great fun.

I have to mention two movies in their own class, both way out there and rather weird. Wrong is a movie I absolutely didn’t like, but I met many who were equally delighted about it. So if you don’t have the same taste as me, I will recommend it. And if you don’t know my taste, I guess you will have to take a chance. 100 per cent weird. The exact opposite can be said about Excision. This one I really liked. Macabre and really bizarre.

My last recommendation is going to be Under African Skies about Paul Simon and the making of his album Graceland with South African musicians during UN’s cultural ban of South Africa which resulted in protests from all of the world as well as ANC. It follows Paul Simon back to South Africa 25 years later, a return which ends with a reconciliation with ANC. A delightful movie.

Hopefully these movies will hit the cinemas of the world one day. Let me round up this post with a little digression; a picture of me enjoying something else than movies in Park City (© Pat O’Rourke):

Replenishing the Creative Well

I want to follow up last week’s post about morning pages – which is, just as a reminder, a tool that Julia Cameron describes in her book The Artist’s Way to access one’s creative well and regaining creativity again. But just as important, and as part of the creative development, is to replenish that creative well. While morning pages can be look upon as withdrawals, what Cameron calls the artist date can be look upon as deposits. Every so often we need to fill up the well with new impulses and give ourselves some nice experiences without having to be creative ourselves.

Cameron writes: «Think of this combination of tools in terms of a radio receiver and transmitter. It’s a two-step, two-directional process: in and then out. Doing your morning pages, you are sending – notifying yourself and the universe of your dreams, dissatisfaction, hopes. Doing your artist date, you are receiving – opening yourself to insight, inspiration, guidance».

The artist’s date is nothing but a treat to yourself. Going to a concert. Enjoying a moment of silence. Going for a walk. Watching a movie. Treating yourself with a nice meal. Visiting an art museum. Doing meditation. The important thing is that is has to be done by you and you only. No friends, no spouse, no kids, no lover, no dog, no colleague is allowed to come along. It’s a date with the artist within you, and only the two or you. Your inner artist needs to be taken out, to be pampered with and listened to. It doesn’t even have to cost anything. If you are running love on money, take a solo trip to the beach, visit a great junk store, make yourself an omelette or watch an old movie. It’s not about money, it is the time commitment that needs to be fulfilled. An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. For both the morning pages and the artist date to work, you need to do it consistently over a longer period. Just as you need to write those three morning pages every day – every day – you need to treat yourself with an artist date every week – every week.

Cameron again: «As artists, we must learn to be self-nourished. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them – to restock the trout pond, so to speak».

So go out there and have some fun. And know that it’s only doing good for your creative self. As a matter of fact it’s necessary.

This is all I will talk about The Artist’s Way this time. If you would like to know more about making your creative self blossom, have a look a Cameron’s book. As for myself I have a whole week of artist date ahead of me. As I am writing this I am in Park City, Utah. It’s during Sundance Film Festival, so I am in for a lot of movies the next week – and hopefully some powder skiing, too.