Not Pictured; Gareth Dutton's Photography Blog

In case you think I've died...

2011-08-18T17:23:00.001+01:00

...I haven't, it's just that I do all my blogging over here at Small Aperture (that's a link, that is), so go check out SA for all my future blog posts.

Yes, I should have addressed this earlier.

For more images and info, be sure to visit www.garethdutton.com

Photographing in the Dark

2011-01-06T15:21:00.001Z

Right, let's get the terrible pun out of the way; low light photography is often seen in a bad light (I'm so, so sorry). Granted, it's generally accepted that it really is something of a pain if there's little to no light to work with, seeing as recording light is the essential process of photography; it's the equivalent of a landscape oil painter blindfolding himself before he starts to paint.

My time with event photography has given me just as many horror stories as everyone else, I'm sure. I won't run through them all, but my favourite was when I went to shoot a band whose "on stage lighting" comprised the L.E.D lights on their mixing desk (you know who you are, young man).

Panic ensued, and I had to ask for a desk lamp and some kitchen foil from the bar. I then proceeded to spread the kitchen foil on their laps and point the lamp at it, creating a very crude reflector. It gave me just enough light to get some dark yet atmospheric shots of the two of them which, thankfully, perfectly fitted the mood of the music.

Despite experiences like this, or maybe even because of experiences like this, I love low-light photography. I mean I don't jump for joy when I turn up to a job in a room plunged into almost complete darkness, but I also don't immediately fear the worst. I stand before you and can confidently say, thanks to a combination of previous experience and my predilection for low key photography, I am not afraid of the dark.

Your archetypal low light situation is a music gig. Low light isn't the only challenge in this environment; most bands have fancy strobes, whirly disco-bits and other such visual ambience to add to the atmosphere of their performance. This is both a blessing and a curse – you have beautiful light shows to accompany that elusive perfect moment but can be in constant danger of overexposing. Pulsating lights, for example, can prove a mighty headache, not to mention the constant changes in colour scheme.

Last year, I had the pleasure of shooting a wonderful band called The Magic Numbers. The performance was wonderful, emotive...and quite dark. Thankfully, a plethora of lighting effects, dry ice and other such bits and bobs were also present, which created an interesting backdrop to work with.

Now you may have heard of the standard requirements of many venues, which has almost become a catchphrase these days – that is "three songs, no flash". In case you're unaware, this pertains to the organiser's request to the photographer – you can shoot three songs, don't use your flash. As tempting as it may be to add exra light to the scene to assist you, I don't actually think flash is particularly useful in helping you get the absolute best images you can. When you fire your flash, depending on the strength / direction etc, the colours in the image are often neutralised, so you end up with a brighter but ultimately less dramatic and interesting image. Learning to work with available light can really help you understand how light works, allowing you to use it to your advantage.

It's always a good idea to get a nice prime lens to shoot with for low light photography. I often use the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II - a shockingly inexpensive lens, for a change, that gives fantastic results in low light.

In fact, my prime lens was absolutely essential for my commissioned work at the Royal Albert Hall. I was commissioned to shoot an Imogen Heap gig and, for much of the show, the low light would have been almost impossible to shoot in, especially to shoot a range of images I considered of good enough quality for such a prestigious venue, had I not packed my f/1.8. Here's what you can do with a nice, wide open prime:

So you've got your technique down for shooting gigs and bands in unfavourable lighting conditions. What happens if you have similar lighting conditions yet your subjects are half naked men whizzing around at speed, limbs flailing and bodies flipping? No, I'm not talking about the Red Hot Chili Peppers - this, of course, would be the world of pro wrestling photography. Even if you're not terribly keen on the subject matter, you'll find it's actually rather difficult to shoot well, and can help your photography immensely. And yes, I know I go on about it a bit.

These shots were taken using available light. Again, it's a good idea to shoot RAW for this kind of work, because lighting in most venues tends to have over saturated reds, oranges, greens – anything that's a pain to work with from a photographer's point of view, basically. Always try and get it right in the first place, of course, and don't rely on post-processing to "fix" it. The best situation is when you're using post processing to improve, rather than salvage, your image.

Once again, I avoid using flash in these venues, because wrestling is all about the drama and atmosphere. You can experience this in many ways when you're actually at a show (music, the atmosphere and interaction created by the crowd, in-ring storytelling) but, when recording an image, all you have to work with is the visual. If your image shows a neutrally lit hall, all you're getting is a very dull and amateur looking image of two blokes pulling and pushing at each other. It's a disservice to those working hard in the ring to look good if the resulting images make them look amateurish. Mood is of absolute importance in the creation of nearly any image.

A couple of notes to tie it all together, then – the trick to low light photography is being ready to adapt and react to what you are presented with – no two venues are the same and it's a good idea to get there as early as possible and get your test shots done before anything exciting happens. I always try to focus on and expose for the faces, depending on the shot. Finally, remember, low light conditions may seem like your enemy, but they're actually your friend; they'll force you to better understand how light works and that, dear readers, is no bad thing.

For more images and info, visit www.garethdutton.com

Heaven and God Can Be Found in Soho and Guildford Respectively.

2010-09-16T23:04:00.000+01:00

I'm writing you a fun little piece about two portraiture shoots I've undertaken this year. Both were for Issue 100 of GamesTM, which I am absolutely ecstatic to be a part of. Apart from seeing my work in the issue, I also got to shoot two very different but very wonderful members of the games industry – creator of Street Fighter IV, Mr Yoshinori Ono and creator of, well, several video games that I know, love and grew up with; head of Lionhead Studios and ex-Bullfrog (as in ex head of Bullfrog Productions – he didn't used to be a Bullfrog) Mr Peter Molyneux OBE.

In case you haven't clocked already, this is likely to be an obscenely nerdy blog update. I will do my level best to tone it down but I'm afraid the subject matter simply can't be dressed up. I will, of course, ensure it is an entertaining piece and won't forget to offer some photographic analysis, too. Besides, you're probably all nerdier than me anyway.

Maybe.

Let's kick off with Ono-san, shall we? I was tasked with producing photographs of Ono-San that would accompany his interview in Issue 100. We were to photograph him in a specially set-up arcade (consisting of dozens of consoles and large flatscreen TVs) in Soho, in the middle of London.

After meeting with the journalist outside our location, we excitedly nipped down the stairs into the venue. Inside lay a cavalcade of flashing screens, the sound of a hundred virtual fists crunching into a hundred virtual chins, a thousand buttons being tippity-tapped and thumbsticks being wiggly-wagged. And a bar. As an atheist, I don't personally believe in a Heaven, but to me, this is what it would look like.

In the corner sat Ono-san himself, mid-interview with another journalist. I just about managed to remember to prepare my equipment and take some test shots instead of hopelessly gawking at the neon wonderland that lay before me and then it was time for us to proceed to the interview area.

Ono-san himself was a great guy and an absolute joy to photograph. He was as much a wonderful caricature as his videogame characters are – rocking back and forth, laughing uproariously, gesticulating wildly as if he were performing the necessary motions for some kind of super move. At the same time he made some fantastically interesting and insightful comments about the upcoming (now released) Super SFIV and about the fighting game genre in general (I will spare the non gaming savvy of you the details).

The guy is absolutely full of energy - this is just him talking! (As always, click the images for large)

Although there was no trouble with the subject himself, the lighting was somewhat, well, horrendous. If we were sat in Heaven, the lighting, from a photographer's point of view, had been constructed in, flown in from and set up by Hell. I am aware that is a tenuous metaphor at best - I don't care.

Basically, I had a fast moving subject in a very dimly lit corner of the arcade to deal with. What's more, he was strongly backlit by green and orange lights. I discovered that there was one "sweet spot" I had to wait for, which was when Ono-san leaned forward a little into the path of a single, small overhead spotlight. Which was impossibly orange. That sounds like one of those colours on a wall paint colour chart – Impossibly Orange.

In the end, making use of the available light was by far the best option, better than using flash, as it gave a more accurate representation of how the venue really looked – keeping that underground, slightly dingy yet glorious, unnatural glow an arcade has, which would of course resonate with the readers of the magazine; Ono-san in his natural habitat. Firing off the flash would also, understandably, significantly disrupt the interview, so I never fire the flash during interview.

Following the interview, both the journalist and myself got to have a game of Street Fighter against him. You won't believe me, or maybe even care in the slightest, but we both beat him too! Greatest day of my life. Oh, there was my wedding too. Let's say....joint greatest day of my life.

We then had a very, very small window of time in which to take some posed shots. Hardly the shy and retiring type, Ono did whatever I asked him. If I'd have asked him to do a handstand and shout the alphabet backwards, I think he would've done. It's so refreshing to have such a fun, unreserved subject to photograph. He absolutely loved performing. What a guy.

I used a flash for these pics for two important reasons. First, these images were to be the posed shots, one of which would end up as what magazines call the "lead image" – an image or piece of art that accompanies the title, with the intention of drawing the reader in. I wanted a different feel to these pictures, to show the reader that it was intended as an accompaniment to the title. Second, using the flash allowed me to lower my ISO settings. The lower the ISO, the less grainy the image. Seeing as lead images tend to be printed at a larger size, it is a good idea to drop the ISO as low as is feasible in order to ensure a crisp, noiseless lead image.

Eventually, we had to leave the Kingdom of Heaven, wave goodbye to its cries of "KO!", its lovely multicoloured lights and its bar, but it's a day I won't forget in a hurry, that's for sure.

Onto Operation "Meet Mr Molyneux". I took the train to Lionhead Studios over in Guildford to provide photography that would also accompany the 100^th Issue of GamesTM Magazine. Popping on the train to meet and photograph an extremely influential and famous videogame developer, one whose games you remember from when you were about 9 years old (I'm having to use every ounce of my will to not list them all right now) and throughout your years as a younger man. Easy, right?

To be honest, any nervousness about this shoot melted away thanks to a combination of the sheer excitement of the opportunity, getting my mind "into the zone" (sounds intense, dunnit?) and the disarmingly friendly and humble nature of Peter himself, who was just great. Peter is funny, a blue-sky thinker (stop "humph!"ing fellow nerds) and incredibly self-aware.

That last sentence sounds a bit like a school report.

We ran through a few ideas and Peter was very responsive and welcoming to the ideas I came to him with. It was great to see the extreme attention to detail he exhibited concerning the below image of him pretending to play some kind of strategic game (still sounding like a school report).

He ran through a few possible combinations of the tokens I had brought along before settling on a setup he felt made logical sense. Truly this is a man who thinks carefully about every design decision he makes. It made sense to me – all of my favourite games he is responsible for still hold up today as playable and immensely fun and deep, and I was getting a glimpse into the mentality of the man who created these games that meant so much to me as a child – the god of the god games.

The main idea behind this shot was to give Peter something I knew he'd find interesting – it's creative, gives him something to do for the shot and is relevant to who he is and what he does. The background shows us a tantalising glimpse into some of the design processes without giving away what he's actually working on, and of course relates back to what is at the heart of everything he does – strategy and design. I added something of a dramatic vignette in order to focus on Peter and his actions rather than allowing you to get lost in the detail of the background. It also takes a bit of the boardroom stuffiness away from the image, which was bothering me a little.

We finished with a headshot and a bit of a videogame in-joke, which i can assure you went down well with the staff at GamesTM. You'd be guffhawing, too, if you knew. Honest. I am Scott Pilgrim...

All in all, it was very easy to work with Peter. He was responsive and had plenty of his own input to offer me without being controlling or overbearing. The overall pace, tone and nature of the shoot was dramatically different to the Ono shoot, which was of course equally as enjoyable. The vastly different experiences I had on these two shoots shows once again why portraiture is a joy, constantly suprising and a totally fresh adventure every single time.

Thanks for reading through friends, hope you've enjoyed it. Don't forget I also write for the wonderful Small Aperture blog now. Go and check it out – even the posts that aren't mine are entertaining!

I'll be popping up another post much sooner next time – expect a plethora of new wrestling photos. Plenty of character and charisma and there'll most likely be a chat about lighting and techniques. It won't all be wrestling though – I have another shoot coming up. If pulled off properly, the "big shot" I have in mind will use a couple of different techniques and will require a number of factors working together harmoniously. Sounds intriging, dunnit?!

Thanks for continuing to read the blog and I'll see you soon. Except I won't actually see you at all. Unless you know me. Then I probably will see you at some point. Just sayin'...

For more images and info, be sure to visit www.garethdutton.com

Just A Quickie

2010-08-26T12:43:00.000+01:00

Now don't cry - I do have an update for you, it's just not here.

How could this possibly be, you ask? Well that's because I now also write for Small Aperture, a fantastic photography blog who consider me good enough to publish on their blog. How very kind!

I do intend to write for both my own blog and Small Aperture, so expect an update here, too. Is this too ambitious? Yeah, probably.

Anyway, go to Small Aperture now and read my first entry - "You Don't Have to Shoot Weddings"

For more images and info, be sure to visit www.garethdutton.com

'Funny' Strange or 'Funny' Ha-Ha?

2010-08-06T15:10:00.000+01:00

A couple more portraiture sessions to show you lovely people – one of brilliant stand up comedian William Andrews and one of a good friend as an addition to my ongoing personal portraiture project. I'll warn you now, there are two occasions in the closing paragraph where I attempt to be funny. You might not spot them, I just thought it'd be only fair to warn you in advance. Technically, this little chucklesome disclaimer makes it three attempts. I'll stop now - let's talk about a real comedian instead.

I contacted Will to offer him my services with the intention of providing interesting, fresh promotional material. Apart from being a big fan of his act (having seen him twice at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London), I was looking at the standard of promo material for stand up comedians and have noticed just how...samey it all is. Even the biggest names mostly have fairly uninspiring images of them looking suprised with a white background, often taken from a higher angle (not sure why this means "comedy").

My personal opinion is that, if you are a stand up comedian, you want to show everyone why you are different from other stand ups, and why you stand out. Having a distinctive character, personality and style of comedy is what the most successful comics spend time building up; they become a brand. To pick a handful; Jack Dee – curmudgeonly wit, Lee Evans – visual, physical comedy used as a vehicle to deliver observational comedy, Tim Key - pretend poet with clever, intentionally bad poetry, Stewart Lee – being Stewart Lee (i.e. uncategorisable postmodern genius).

A Google image search of a dozen or so stand up comedians gave me pretty much the same images throughout; you could swap the heads around on the pictures and nobody would be able to tell you which ones had been altered. A nice exception to the rule was Bill Hicks – although that might have something to do with the ridiculous amount of charisma he had. I don't pretend to be an authority on stand up comedy but from my point of view as a photographer, eye catching, relevant photography is a useful tool for your customer to promote themselves.

Which brings me to my shoot with Will. I won't spoil what happens in his act but one of the elements of Will's act centres around him playing a character who is massively nervous. He frantically ploughs through a selection of cue cards, throwing them away as he scrambles for the next joke, hoping he can make the crowd laugh. The cards are a great visual addition and tie that part of the act together wonderfully; they make his panic all the more palpable as yet another cue card goes fluttering across the stage. As a result, and in the spirit of keeping the images simple yet strong, I also tied the theme of the shoot around these cards.

My approach for the shoot was to keep this central theme in mind and have only a handful of pre-planned ideas. This would give us several starting points which would then evolve naturally as the shoot progressed. I encourage whoever I'm shooting to build on the ideas with me. In a shoot like this, the input of your subject is very important - combining what you know about photography and what they know about their craft allows you to produce more relevant and interesting images.

Here are a handful of the final images (click for larger)

Will is a brilliant stand up and I feel he deserves shots that do justice to the quality and originality of his act. I'm on a bit of a mission now to provide more interesting promo material to comedians with real talent like Will, to help them further stand out from the crowd. I want to grab the attention of the casual customer because, in a leaflet full of identikit comedians, it pays to stand out.

My second shoot was an addition to an ongoing personal project of mine, to be completed in the year of 201X. With this project, there is no planning involved in relation to pose or expression. I only plan the colours and (literal, not thematic) tone of the images. I don't want to give too much away, but everyone I shoot for this project is either a friend who means something to me, a family member, or other such person who holds some kind of influence in my life. As a result, I tend not to pose these people. My intention is to make taking their photo as unobtrusive and natural an element of the day as possible. It's not a case of "right, let's take your photo, stand like this, look over there, give me wistful", it's a case of "wanna hang out tomorrow? Cool, I'll be doing your portrait so I'll bring the camera".

It's a great way of undertaking portraiture, because the process takes on a life of its own. The camera takes on the role of mere observer – whatever happens is recorded. This is one reason why the best candid street photography is so powerful and exciting. I'm not saying this is what I've achieved here, because the subject is obviously aware of being photographed. However, my aim is to bring the portraiture in this project as close to this aesthetic as possible.

How did I do?

I've no idea whether you're now throwing flowers or rotten veg at your monitor, but as long as you're throwing something, I'm happy. Quick note - probably best to not throw things at your computer, regardless of how much you love or hate the photos. Not sure what you'd throw at the screen if you were indifferent to them – perhaps some lint? If so, I reckon it's safe to throw a bit of lint.

As always, thanks for reading. I hope to keep the posts a little more frequent from now on (promises, promises). I'll be popping one up once Issue 100 of GamesTM comes out, where I'll bring you two portraiture sessions from two names that will hugely excite the videogame nerds amongst us. For now, get off the Internet and go do something useful.

For more images and info, be sure to visit www.garethdutton.com

More Portraiture, or, Moretraiture... a Look at Two Ludicrously Different Portrait Shoots

2010-07-26T12:50:00.000+01:00

Now don't worry if the title sounds a little dry – I'll avoid boring technical detail in my study of these two very different portraiture sessions and speak in more general terms about the elements of a portraiture session that are not pictured. Discussing lighting setups and other such preparation has not only been covered in previous posts, it's also not very interesting. Even to me. Basically, I'm using this idea to tie together some recent work I've undertaken and look at portraits at a more interesting level, instead of just making it a post about what I've done recently. If I did that, I might as well tell you what I had for breakfast today. For those who care, I had two slices of toast with cheese, tomato and rocket (aka middle-class lettuce) and a cup of coffee.

Yes, I need to go food shopping.

The majority of my work has been portraiture based recently. Some of it I am not able to show you as of yet (two sessions to be published in Issue 100 of GamesTM in September) but I will look at two other sessions and compare them. I've picked these two because they're about as polarised as they could be in every way possible. I'm essentially looking to celebrate the wonderful, fascinatingly diverse experiences you can have when photographing people.

First, let's look at a recent portraiture session I undertook for Web Designer Magazine. Every month, the magazine interviews a design studio, going "behind the scenes" to show the reader how the top studios operate on a day to day basis, and who is behind the final output consumed by the public. This shoot was of a London-based high flying design company called Unit9. If you're into that sort of thing, the stuff they do is very varied and interesting, as well as super slick. Take a look here – www.unit9.com

In terms of timescale and approach, this proved to be quite different to other shoots I have previously undertaken. There were 11 people to shoot in a fairly short space of time. I was shooting on location, so arriving an hour ahead of time allowed me to identify useable locations and lighting setups, as well as get a few interior and exterior shots of the office itself.

So the order of the day would be quickfire yet characterful portraits. Many of the people I would be shooting were classed as "Interactive Directors", people who direct other people to be creative, basically. To keep things moving along nicely, we picked one, plain, high-key background for the majority of the shots and used the metaphor of an ID being like a football manager and got everyone gesturing off camera to an imaginary team of players.

Seeing as I was working with creative types who weren't all necessarily comfortable in front of the lens, this gave them something to go off and act with. Interestingly, this approach helped bring out the character of each person in just a couple of minutes – some people were more excited by the idea, others needed more persuasion. Some people were fine with doing a spot of acting, others were less comfortable and dealt with that in different ways. As a result, you can see individual character in the end result and immediately get a sense of what that person is like.

A little tip for you when on location – it's always good to grab yourself an impromptu assistant where possible. This gives your portraiture subjects a familiar face to relate to, as well as help you get images that are as relevant as possible to the individual and their work. I don't claim to be an expert on what the good people at Unit9 do on a daily basis, so having someone from Unit9 help out on this occasion was invaluable. On this note, I'd like to say thank you very, very much to Alex. You helped me out a metric ton - good man.

Tip number two – if you're also planning on doing straighter headshots, it can be beneficial to do these after the initial themed portrait. This helps whoever you're shooting to relax after having a bit of a chuckle about the posed shots and giving them time to relax in your company (as best as they can in a 5 minute slot, anyway). With each person, after having some fun with their themed shot, I immediately asked for a more standard portrait, with no direction as to how to pose. Again, this is intended to ensure the character of the individual shines through.

Right, here's where it gets picture-heavy...(click for large, as usual)

Anrick


Fredrick

Martin

Robert

Simone

Kishi

Tom

Tony

Valentina

Yates

MD of Unit9, Piero Frescobaldi

I had a great time on this shoot. It was exciting to plough through 11 different portraits in roughly an hour, as I was treated to 11 very different personalities and challenged with the task of finding out very quickly what made them tick. I also shot everything in high key, for the first time in a very long time. I felt it would evoke the feeling of clean, elegant, crisp design, which is what the company is all about.

Righto, it's time to set your sails for opposite land as I delve into a more personal project – wrestling promotional images. These shoots differed in almost every way conceivable to the Unit9 shoot. They were taken at my home studio as opposed to on location, used studio lighting as opposed to a flashgun, reflector and window light; I spent a good, long time with each individual as opposed to a quickfire 5-10 minutes, I've built up friendships with these people as opposed to shooting people I've never met before, the subjects were putting on a personality that wasn't theirs, as opposed to trying to show the true personality of the person being photographed (to an extent) and finally, the lighting was dramatic and low-key.

Now, I won't go into the subject of wrestling in too much detail because, again, if you're not into it, you won't find the finer details particularly interesting, so I'll keep it short. Basically, in a promotional picture, a wrestler has to look like a wrestler. They have to look like superheroes (or indeed supervillains), especially if you're selling this character to an audience. Problems like incorrect exposure and poorly positioned lighting where you can see the background curtain don't make your wrestler look like a superhero; they end up looking like, well, someone in their underpants stood next to a curtain. Kids aren't stupid and there's a reason you can't see the studio floor and curtains in an action film poster.

First up, we have Wolf Alexander. Now I won't tell you whether he's a good guy or a bad guy. If you can't tell, please let me know and, after giving you a brief psychological examination, I will never take another photograph ever again.

Tag team shot with Chris Lehr

This guy is all about intensity and, essentially, frightening the children. I don't know about you, but some of these images scare the hell out of me and I created them. This is the advantage of spending large amounts of time with one person – you start with some preliminary shots, get the feeling and lighting right, allow the subject to relax into the shoot and, most importantly, connect with that person. My ideal shoot is one where we spend a good half an hour or more chatting over a coffee first, followed by taking time over the shoot itself, chatting to your subject while you adjust lighting setups, add props, etc, generally making it feel as informal as possible. That way, when you want something less literal and less poseable out of that person, they are able to respond more effectively and give you what you are after.

In order to expand on what I mean by that, let me throw you another little portraiture tip – portraiture is as much about your subject knowing you as it is about you knowing your subject. If your subject knows who you are and likes you, they will know what you want and will be happy to comply.

This brings me to my second wrestling promo shoot. Interestingly, despite this shoot still falling under the somewhat ridiculously niche category of "pro wrestling promo portrait", the desired outcome was very different to Wolf's photoshoot. Essentially, if you're taking shots of a bad guy, you have a much easier time and a lot more to work with, especially when it comes to bringing character out of the subject. When it comes to good guys, the danger is making them look bland; "good guy" (or girl in this case) doesn't have to mean nice and boring.

Rhia usually wrestles under the moniker of Rhia O' Reilly, with a sort of Irish good-time girl feel to her character. My intention with Rhia's shoot, however, was to give her a bit more range in her portfolio, so she could wrestle as more than one character.

With her O'Reilly image, I wanted to get across that sense of fun and celebration, which led us to this:

(I can't actually look at this picture without getting "Fiesta" by The Pogues in my head).

This was a good starting, "icebreaker" image to work with to lead us into the more challenging images I was looking to produce of Rhia. A lot of female wrestling photography goes down the line of good girl = "assets" on display, generally over-sexualised. Bad girl = "assets" hidden, angry / sour face. It's a fairly sexist, male oriented approach that doesn't sit well with me, because there are female wrestlers out there, Rhia being a fine example, who have bags of personality, can wrestle and are interesting, entertaining and attractive without having to, for want of a better phrase, put everything on show, or pose like they're auditioning for a lad's mag.

So the watch phrase for this part of the shoot was "strong and beautiful", without resorting to too much flesh or over-sexualising the image. I came up with a variety of shots in the end but let me share my two favourites with you.

What I like about these images is that I've worked with a common attitude / theme of 'determination'. I feel this is a good theme to work with for a fan favourite character without having to make them smile or look silly or goofy. Again, this was a closed set of sorts, with just Rhia and myself, and this gave me time to chat with her, take things slowly, and really get across to her what I wanted from the pictures and what image I wanted to give her (and of course to make sure she was on board with the idea).

To her credit, she performed fantastically, and the reason these images came out so well is because she has the character, charisma and intelligence to pull them off, and I can't wait to work with her again in the future.

Apologies again for the ludicrous length of this blog. I'm a bit of a binge blogger – I do nothing for a month or so then have one massive blogging session, leaving me feeling somewhat dazed and confused. I think it's time to close up with as succinct a paragraph as my writing style will allow.

The most exciting thing I've learnt here is that both of these sessions, at the heart of it, are classed as portraiture sessions, despite differing in almost every way. This shows how broad in scope the subject of portraiture is, and how you only have to change, at most, two elements of how a session is approached and the outcome can be astonishingly different. I mention this with the intention of helping you see what I see when it comes to portraiture. It makes me very, very happy indeed to say with confidence that I will never experience every possible permutation of portraiture because, at the heart of it, portraiture is as different from image to image as people are different from person to person.

That's your lot for now. On a side note, I was elated to hear that BBC 6music has been saved from being cut by the BBC. It's a triumph for the celebration of creativity and diversity. From the perspective of a music fan and a photographer - may those principles live on.

For more images and info, be sure to visit www.garethdutton.com

In The Name Of Originality, Enthusiasm and Pretentious, Self-contained Deconstruction

2010-05-27T13:28:00.001+01:00

I am Gareth Dutton. My interests include photography, videogames, contemporary fiction (a snootier way of saying "reading") and original, exciting, good music.

Which is why I'm a fan of BBC 6 Music. Which is why I attended the recent Save 6 Music protest,

held outside Broadcasting House on the 22^nd May 2010. This is one of those (many) occasions where photography brings me a real sense of purpose. Of course, just attending in the first place is a great way to show solidarity and support but when I am able to work in a medium I love in order to support something I love, it gives what I'm doing a real sense of validation.

As I mention on my website, my philosophy when it comes to photography is to always strive to photograph people, things and ideas that I truly have an interest in; if you have that personal connection with the subject of your photography, it comes across in the images you create. In relation to this point, the Save 6 Music Protest was followed by a gig in a secret location, available only to those who attended the protest. Amongst the bands were The Magic Numbers, a band who I've always had a passing interest in but totally fell in love with during the gig itself. Their live performance was incredible; full of charisma and brimming with emotion and a love of music.

I respect the fact that they're cool without feeling the need to wear ridiculously fashionable clothing and have stupid, attention-seeking haircuts. I've always hated those "cool" bands who, when interviewed, sit quietly, their heads dropped or looking away from the interviewer, saying almost nothing, like a 14 year old boy sat next to a girl he likes. Hiding the fact that you dont have a personality by being deliberately unenthusiastic about everything and anything does not constitute a sense of cool to me. Maybe I feel that way because I see enthusiasm as an important part of anyone's life. Surely a terrible life would be one without enthusiasm for anything.

I have noticed that in previous blog posts, I've been putting all the images right at the end, like some massive image dustbin. I'm going to sprinkle them around a little more this time, like jerk seasoning on a prime steak (I'm vegetarian, so I have no idea why I came up with that metaphor, or is it a simile?) and show you some Magic Numbers pictures at this point. I hope you can see how my newfound enthusiasm for these guys is reflected in the images. Oh, and yes I'm aware that I'm deconstructing what I do as I do it; it's what all the cool kids are doing these days.

(click for large)

They really do have a great stage presence. Michele Stodart, the bassist, totally captivates me with her performance, she's brilliant. Not to be creepy or anything...

...anyway, let's go back in time 3 hours or so to the protest itself. It was a baking hot day and, being whiter than a bleach-drenched snowman illuminated in the headlights of an SUV, I was suffering a little. Seriously, you could point a wind-up torch at me and I'd start sweating, although that might be to do with my fear of wind-up torches.

I digress. It was wonderful to see so many people turn up in support of this station – a humming throng of enthusiasm, people who care about something, all together in one space. Several of the DJs themselves appeared to say a few words, as well as musicians who had their break on 6 Music. Comedian Ed Byrne turned up to add his thoughts, giving birth to the phrase "Yes, we should be allowed to!" as an alternative to Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech.

(photographer's note - save Boggins)

In addition, BBC Asian Network also attended, as this station is being similarly threatened, and provided us with some great soundbites and a bit of bhangra to dance to. This is where taking photos comes in handy, because you have a valid excuse to not dance. I'm far too long and floppy to be dancing to bhangra – everyone involved (and those not involved in close proximity) would end up terribly embarrassed.

To finish up, I'll confusingly swoosh us forwards in time again, to the start of the secret gig, where we were treated to performances by Eliza Carthy and Mirrorkicks, two very different acts that show just how diverse and wonderful BBC 6 Music really is. Those of you who have read the blog before (or indeed just by reading through this one) will know that I'm not a fan of concision, so for a change I'm going to stop talking now. Yes, right now. Thanks for reading (I use brackets a lot, don't I?).

For more images and info, be sure to visit www.garethdutton.com

Professional Conduct? Yawn. How about Charities and Six Shooters?

2010-05-13T12:50:00.002+01:00

I wrote a blog post about conducting yourself out in the field when you're on commission. Then I rewrote it. Then I deleted some of it and wrote it again. Then I moved the paragraphs around a bit. Then I deleted some more. Then I re-worded it. Then I cut out the bits that didn't make sense and rearranged it. Then I didn't bother posting it, because I realised why I wasn't happy with it. It was boring.

Looking back at my original post, although this subject fits the introductory post's plan, I also mentioned that I would mix in general discussion, which hasn't really happened. I figured I'd adopt a change of pace for this entry; show you some recent work (although I'm afraid I can't show you some of my commissioned work until it's published, so I'm showing you some other stuff) and talk about plans, current artistic influences, that sort of thing.

If you want to learn about conducting yourself in the field (professional conduct that is, not holding a club aloft on a golf course in a thunderstorm) then there are plenty of resources out there online. It felt too dry and dull for my own personal tastes, which is probably why I couldn't make it work.

So, let's pop some photos down, eh? I did an unpaid, charity job recently in aid of the Homeless World Cup Foundation. I met up with three lads – An Eco Entrepeneur, a city banker and a property developer – who are being sponsored to sleep rough for three days and three nights at the end of August.

They contacted me to ask for some promotional photos to be used on a website. As it is for a very good cause and seeing as I rarely turn down an opportunity to indulge in some photography, I agreed to take on the job. The goal was to communicate to the website visitor that these three chaps – a banker, MD of a company and a property developer – are the sort of people you would least expect to find sleeping rough on the streets of London.

A few ideas came to mind, but I decided to go with making the shoot a sort of faux-fashion shoot, with a twist. The "models" wouldn't be modelling clothing, lifestyle or some sort of fashionable activity (you can tell I'm up to speed with all this fashion stuff), they would be modelling what it's like to be homeless.

The tone of this shoot was very important. I wanted the guys to use modelling style poses for things like asking for change, sitting in dirty streets, searching for food without it looking goofy or like a big huge joke. Obviously some humour would be involved, but very much on a tongue in cheek level, as opposed to making fun of homeless people.

Here's a small selection of the final images. Click for larger.

The Homeless Challenge website is still work in progress, but once their site is up, I'll give the site a mention in a future blog post and link you, for those of you interested in contributing.

That's your lot for photos this time around, folks. I've been experiencing a bit of a Wild West vibe as of late, as I've always held an interest in Spaghetti Westerns and the more factual, actual American history in general from that period but I've never really looked into it. Perversely, I have also been listening to the musical scores of Ennico Morricone, despite not having seen the films they are in, which I am due to watch very soon. My grandfather and my uncle were very much into the Wild West. My grandfather would read book after book of Wild West fiction and my uncle painted a huge scene of Custer's Last Stand shortly before his passing, which still hangs in my parents' house today.

All this has inspired me to take up a photo project that will be loosely inspired by the films of Sergio Leone. I'm not entirely sure what form this will take right now, be it incredibly literal or more of a flavour of his approach to direction. I have been toying with the idea of a photographic comic strip for some time and may take it down this road. Who knows? Well, I should, really.

For more images and info, be sure to visit www.garethdutton.com

Faces - Extra

2010-04-26T10:18:00.000+01:00

Me again.

I thought I'd throw a few extra faces at you, for those who haven't had a look around my website yet. These portraits are something of a contrast to those shown in the previous post; that's because they are not commissioned and are purely for my own, large scale ongoing art project.

When I add to this project I tend to sleep on an idea and not try too hard to meticulously plan the shoot. This is often significantly different to the way I may approach a project that has been given to me as a commission. After letting the image of whoever I am photographing sort of marinate in the back of my mind for a while, a particular idea sticks, one that just feels better than the others, and I can see the image in my head.

Not to say that this happens every time. Sometimes you can start a portrait with an idea that you are certain will work and then end up feeling underwhelmed with it, opting for something totally different.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is, be prepared but be prepared to change.

For more images and info, be sure to visit www.garethdutton.com

Faces.

2010-04-16T14:16:00.000+01:00

I have a couple of excuses for you to pick from to explain why I haven't updated my blog for a while.

The first is that I was waiting for some images to be published before I used them in this blog update, as a matter of common courtesy to GamesTM Magazine. I figured that it wouldn't be too professional to publish some content of their magazine before they did.

Another fine excuse is that every time I sat down to write about it, I realised that it's basically impossible to say anything about portraiture that hasn't already been said. What can I tell you that hasn't been said before? I could go with the "capturing someone forever in a moment in time" angle, as if I were some kind of voodoo photographer (you see this line a lot on wedding photographer sites). I could bore you with the basics of proper posing of your subject, how to relax your subject, etc. etc.

The list goes on. Not that I'll necessarily have anything drastically new to tell you about portraiture myself. When I write these entries, I always try my hardest to make them a little different and avoid clichéd writing techniques. Again, I'm not saying I'm always successful, but I'm always trying (there's a cliché right there).

I hold similar anxieties about the process of portraiture photography itself. You can guarantee from a purely mathematical point of view that the great idea you've just come up with has been thought of and created before; most likely it has been executed more effectively, too.

Of course, this goes for all photography. You could drive yourself insane trying to think of a way of creating something totally unique. By the same token, it can end up being counter-productive when you get to a point of creating an image that is totally obscure and different just for the sake of it. You lose a truth about your own work if the idea is so gratuitously alternative, obscure or surreal that it's no longer connected to you in any way as an artist.

The love behind the image disappears, and a tangible quality to the piece is lost. I feel uncomfortably disingenuous if I'm creating something purely because I think the style of that image will appeal to others. To quote Mo Sizlak from the Simpsons "It's post modern! Y'know, weird for the sake of weird".

The trade off, then, is the trickiest part of creating engaging portraiture. I'm usually averse to proverbs, and it seems especially inappropriate to use one in a blog update concerned with striving to create something unique, but the old adage "always put a little bit of yourself into your work" is one I agree with.

Personally, the trade off between creative freedom and creative focus is one I am acutely aware of whilst undertaking my current ongoing large scale portraiture project. It's great to be in charge but, as a result, I'm constantly battling with both creative freedom VS creative focus and the desire to create something unique VS the desire to create something that you actually like once it's finished.

Another common trade off comes from the motivation of creating the image and who it is being made for. I won’t get into this right now however, because we’re going off on a bit of a tangent already, and I intend to examine this in more depth in a later entry.

I guess you’ll be after some pictures now, right? Fair enough. I’ve worked with GamesTM magazine recently. Both of these commissions were published in this month’s issue, issue 95. Go and check it out in print if you haven’t seen it. If you’re a videogames fan at all, I would recommend buying the mag, too. It’s been an honour and a privilege to work with these guys; being able to photograph people I respect whilst working for people I respect is a wonderful thing.

The following images are a small selection from the two shoots I undertook recently. The first subject is Goichi Suda, or Suda51 as he is known. A games developer with an admirably fresh and, yes, very unique approach to videogame design. As a result, his games don’t feel like they are designed by committee and they celebrate the role of the auteur in what is becoming a progressively homogenised industry. His punk approach to design is admirable in my opinion, and is reflected in Grasshopper Manufacture’s slogan - “Punk’s Not Dead”.

(click images for large)

This shoot ended up being something of a high pressure affair. I don’t want to go too “behind the scenes” with the details (again, out of respect to the client) but, for reasons out of everyone’s control (with the exception of certain airlines), I was left with less than 20 minutes to set up, explain the theme of the shoot to Suda-san through his translator, and take the photos themselves. Thanks to extensive preparation (the importance of which I discuss in an earlier blog post, “Prepare.”), it took me 2 or 3 minutes to set up and get the test shots spot on with the desired exposure as opposed to spending 5 to 10 minutes fiddling with my settings and leaving me with less time to get the images. Suda-san himself was a brilliant subject, stunningly easy to direct and full of charisma. Once the nerves had settled down, I had a really great time in the company of someone I respect hugely.

The second subject is someone you’re more likely to have heard of. Shigeru Miyamoto is and has been a lead creative at Nintendo for many, many years. He is responsible for the Mario Brothers and Zelda games and has been an important figure at Nintendo for a very long time. He isn’t over in the UK very often, so we of course didn't want to miss the opportunity to photograph this great man.

( For the rest of the images, visit www.garethdutton.com/recent.html )

This shoot was also greatly exciting, but the nature of it was significantly different to the Suda51 shoot. We had been instructed to take any photos during the interview. There would be no opportunity for posed shots, so I would have to capture his character during the interview itself. The lighting was somewhat difficult to deal with at first; the room was dimly lit and hotel room lamps give off an unnatural orange glow that is awful for your colour balance settings. I felt that firing off a flashgun 80 times into the face of a deeply respected man of mature years might not be the most tactful way to photograph him during interview, especially seeing as putting him off his stride in an interview you might only secure twice a decade could have possibly rendered the journalist a little disgruntled. As a result, ISO had to be bumped up considerably.

On this front, when undertaking commissioned, commercial portraiture, it’s important to note that your client isn’t necessarily going to care as much about ISO settings as you do. The one thing they’re most worried about is having images to put in their magazine / on their website that capture the character of the subject and back up the tone of the article. It’s easy to get bogged down in image quality, and I for one am a stickler for it, but you must remember that, before anything else, portraiture is about getting across the character of the subject.

A good example of this rule being ignored is the recent conservative party image of David Cameron gazing earnestly into the lens with the slogan "We can't go on like this", which was met with unanimous ridicule. As a piece of photography, this interested me at to why it failed to have the desired effect.

There are number of factors. First, the expression is wrong. It's far too aggressive; there's no need for Cameron to be maintaining that intense a stare into the lens; it's uncomfortable for the viewer. Second, there has been far too much post processing of the image. His skin is unnaturally smooth. This is the kind of pp you would see in a model shoot, not for a political campaign. The feeling we get from such pp is that if this man is hiding his face from us, then how can we trust him? this "fashion-y" tone is further reinforced by the high key, white background, which is typical of fashion shoots.

To clarify, I'm not intending to make these comments politically charged - I'm looking at it purely from a photography point of view. I'm also not attacking the photographer for the final image, as I have no idea how much creative freedom he or she was given, so that would be unfair and churlish.

Presuming I'd have been given enough creative freedom, here's how I would have shot that image; a high quality studio photo with a low key, black background and little to no post processing. I would also tone down the intensity of the stare considerably. There are ways to look honest without battering the viewer into submission. The low key background, apart from personal preference, would eliminate the fashion shoot comparisons. Seeing every unedited nook and cranny of the face would say to the viewer "I'm not hiding anything, here I am as I am, telling you this".

With portraiture that intends to evoke a feeling or communicate a message, especially at that level, it's extremely important to consider all elements. Expression, background, lighting and post processing must all be given careful thought.

I was going to leave that whole section out because the blog post is getting rather long (again) but I thought it would be an interesting contemporary case study. Now I'm going to throw to the closing paragraph by saying "I'm throwing to the closing paragraph now".

I'm throwing to the closing paragraph now.

I'm quite sure that everything I've written above has been written before in a variety of styles, many of them exhibiting a greater ability to write and a sounder grasp of grammar, but hopefully I've added enough of myself to make it worth writing, even if I’m the only one to get something out of it. Remember, there are no new ideas and, as if to prove it, “there are no new ideas” is another proverb that was said by someone else first a long time ago and has been said by many others since.

In short, shoot first, ask questions later.

N.B - As an added note of interest - I went back through and edited this entry and ended up removing six common phrases I wasn't even fully conscious of including (for example "chock-full" and "to name but a few", to name but a few). There are still two left in the closing paragraph, but I didn't want to change them just for the sake of being different.

For more images and info, be sure to visit www.garethdutton.com

Prepare.

2010-01-21T21:51:00.003Z

You've booked a photographer for an event you are holding. He turns up half an hour late. Gingerly, he makes his way through the crowd towards, well, he's not sure where. Finds a spot, fiddles with his camera for 20 minutes, in which time the main activity of the night that he's there to cover is going on. In a totally different room. He spends the next hour taking photos of people, walls, the bar, everything. Except none of it is particularly relevant. Unfortunately, he never did make it to that back room with one of your main exhibits in it, although he did walk by it several times. He didn't even know it was there.

Now you have to consider how to approach writing him a tactfully worded thank you email. Dear photographer, many thanks for all the pictures of people talking to each other. It really put across the sense that there were people at the event. And that they were talking to each other. I enjoyed your interesting take on the colours you saw in our building, too. I never knew everything was so orange. Not to worry about turning up late, missing the main point of the evening and then leaving early because you hadn't charged your camera battery - it could happen to anyone.

Anyone who isn't fully prepared.

OK, so that's what could be classed as an extreme example. That said, I do not doubt for a second that there are photographers out there that follow this exact practice, time after time.

Although true of any photography, preparation is vital when covering events. A well prepared photographer will get the shots that truly document the night. Here's a little list of things I do or keep in mind with regards to event photography:

Figure out the lighting levels in each room / area, making a note of how to achieve the best exposure in each room. You won't always be looking to achieve a "perfect" exposure, depending on the room and the event itself. If you're in a room with a particular atmosphere and that is the intention of the room, you will want to match that atmosphere in order to correctly communicate the feel of the event.

To help achieve this, ensure you get a chance to speak to the organiser for at least 10 minutes before the event begins, ideally also by email prior to the day of the event. You will set yourself in good stead if you find out what is happening when and where, what the desired efffect of the photographs is to be (e.g. get a sense of the place being busy to document the success of the evening) and any shots in particular the organiser has in mind.

It seems like a small point, but making sure your white balance is as accurate as possible is also important for most reportage and coverage. Event coverage is, essentially, a photographic document. You want to reproduce the event as accurately as possible. Of course, there is much more to this than getting the colours correct in your image, but every little helps.

Reportage doesn't just require you to take a photo of what's there, therefore proving it was there that night. Anyone could do that. Good reportage and event coverage should focus on trying to get a sense of the evening across.

Make sure you know your way around the event area physically. Where you can and can't go, how best to traverse the space whilst remaining unobtrusive. I find that I get the best images when I remain inconspicuous. You do, of course, sometimes need to get directly involved and ask people to do certain things for you for a shot you have in mind, but try to make it fun for the participants, if at all possible. This is, in a way, another form of preparation; preparing your subjects prior to a staged shot.

Remember to bring your own personal style to the images, whatever that may be, whilst respecting and fulfilling the requests of the event organiser.

Oh, and remember to enjoy yourself!

If you do all this, you are totally prepared. You know your light, you know what the organiser wants from the shoot, you know what is happening where and when, you know your way around. As a result, you know you will take better photographs and end up with a happier client.

I suppose you want to see some examples, do you? Here are examples of two contrasting event types.

LDN Wrestling is a fantastic professional wrestling company I have the pleasure of working with on a regular basis. Although we undertake a variety of projects together, the most demanding are, without a doubt, coverage of matches themselves. The best moments last for less than a second.

The trick is getting the shot without the ropes in the picture; dealing with a shaking canvas alongside the low light conditions; getting as close as possible to the action whilst avoiding flying limbs. It's exhausting over a 3 hour period but just about the most fun you can have covering an event. As before, click on the images for large versions.

John Jones are an excellent art framing company who are keen to support emerging artists. They hold regular nights of art installations and music. Being surrounded by art and music while you work can be incredbly inspiring; you feel part of a bigger creative atmosphere.

That's all for this update. I'm not sure how it got so enormous. Sorry about that. Go and have a cup of tea and a choccy bar, you've earned it.

Next time, I'll be easing off the business side of things and tackling one of my favourite kinds of photography - portraits. Faces. People.

For more images and info, be sure to visit www.garethdutton.com

Not Pictured; When is a Landscape not a Landscape?

2010-01-10T15:09:00.004Z

Personally speaking, I have a hard time garnering any sort of enjoyment out of looking at landscape photography, even if the image demonstrates a high level of technical ability. Don't get me wrong, I love a burning scarlet sunset over rolling hills, reflected in a shimmering, clear lake as much as the next person, it's just that when you remove the element of actually being there, you lose something. You lose a lot, in fact.

As a result, I often feel that a traditional landscape photograph, no matter how well executed it is, doesn't get across the sensation of "being there". Whilst I don't completely agree with the notion that every photograph has to say something or tell a story, I tend to feel acutely aware of a lack of focus or feeling in a photo of a mountain on a nice day, for example.

Of course this also raises the question of what a "traditional landscape" is. Is it one that perfectly follows the rule of thirds, has some nice lines to lead you through the image and has perfect exposure, perhaps using an NDGrad filter to get the sky just right? Does a landscape image have to have a minimum field of view, in both width and depth, to be classed as such? Does it have to be landscape oriented or can it be portrait oriented? Does it matter? Have you fallen asleep?

I suppose what I'm really driving at is whether we need to worry about this question at all, and whether working within the limits of a landscape framework limits what we can do creatively.

Believe it or not, I do sometimes dabble in landscape myself (or at least I think I do). The main draw of this kind of photography I find is the adventure itself; going out into the big bad world and trying to create an interesting image from your surroundings. I sometimes feel frustrated at first, as you review your images so far and they're just hills, trees, mountains, arranged slightly differently each time.

The recent snow we've had has given me an opportunity to experiment a little more. I travelled up to the lake district and snapped some wintry scenes. I've picked a little selection of shots, some that lean towards the traditional and some that lean away. (click the images for larger versions)

With wintry scenes, I like to emphasise a starkness, similar to the way you might approach a desert photo. Strong, simple lines, minimalistic and sometimes with a human interest of some sort, either for a sense of scale or for a figure to relate to within the image.

The viaduct you can see is situated at Ribblehead. You'll find a nauseating wealth of images of landmarks such a viaducts and aqueducts, so it can be a real challenge to produce something more interesting. The heavy snow was a perfect opportunity to do this and I wanted to get across a sense of the temperature.

As for composition, landmarks like these are always shot at some kind of angle, to supposedly make them different and more interesting. Unfortunately, when everyone is doing this, it then makes it the norm to take this approach. That's why I've included an alternative approach, taking the viaduct head on with nobody in sight. It does weird things to your sense of perspective and you can't really tell how large a structure you're looking at. Is that a good thing? I don't know, but I just shoot what pleases me aesthetically.

So my answer to the question, "when is a landscape not a landscape?" is "when you stop worrying whether it's a landscape or not". I know it's cold outside, but wrap up warm, grab your camera and go break some rules.

For more images and info, be sure to visit www.garethdutton.com

Not Pictured; An Introduction

2010-01-04T12:15:00.000Z

The first thing that may enter your head as you read this introduction is why I've decided to call the blog "Not Pictured". I guess it's time to explain myself.

As I see it, photography isn't just about the image you see presented before you. There are countless elements that come together to form a great picture. These, of course, vary depending upon exactly what image you are trying to create.

Preparation, making a connection with the person you are photographing, foresight, predicting where and when the moment you want to capture will happen, sudden inspiration, an outside influence or suggestion, perhaps from the subjects themselves, working with unfavourable conditions and discovering a new approach as a result, sheer physical effort (for example, hefting your gear another half an hour up that mountain to see what you can find).

Then you have your own personal style and what has affected it and caused it to develop over time. This ranges far and wide also, from the photography you enjoy the most, to the films you watch, the kind of art you enjoy, the music you listen to, the books you read, everything.

These are just a few examples of the influences behind the final image you see, just a few of the things that are not pictured.

As a result, my intention is to make this blog a mixture of photography discussion and general discussion, discovering my own influences and reasons for my approach to photography. You don't have to know anything about f stops, ISO, spot metering, key shifting and other such exciting terms in order to understand what's going on, although I can't promise I won't get techy from time to time.

Which brings me nicely to a little something I'll leave you to think about. There's an age old question about photography; is it an art or a science? Everyone has their own answer, but I would say it is art with a small, yet essential, sprinkling of science. Like a big chocolate cake with a side order of spinach. If that makes sense.

My first topic (with actual photographic content!) will be all about landscapes. I'll be asking what exactly qualifies as a landscape, and how in the world do you make them at all interesting?

For more images and info, be sure to visit www.garethdutton.com