By John T. Fowler, Photo Editor
This photographic column will be a regular feature in the contents of the Millstone News.
We’ll keep it short and sweet and do our best to make it useful and interesting. A focus (love that word) will be to help people get more pleasure from their own photography.
As a former photography instructor I recall how much pleasure I received from seeing students progress from snapshooters to winning camera club photo contests. Helping others improve is a great joy – I encourage all to be generous with their knowledge and skills. By giving forward you are sure to find you will receive even more in return.
We’ll do our best here to help photographers at all levels. There’ll be tips, both technical and creative, debunking of photo myths (of which there are many), links and leads to other sources of information, examples of outstanding work by others, perhaps, in time, even some critiquing of your own photos. We may even try to answer some questions from time to time. So let’s get started.
As a working photographer I often receive questions from others. Perhaps the most frequent question has to do with what camera one should buy. I usually answer with my wood analogy – if you need to haul firewood, you need a pickup truck. If you need to haul sawlogs you need an 18-wheeler.
As a photographer, if your need is only for good, sharp, colourful family photos for your albums and to share with friends and family, just about any “point-and-shoot” (P&S) auto digital camera will deliver results to thrill you. These little cameras can produce outstanding enlargements in the hands of a good technician. Some models are now standard walking-around cameras for the world’s top photojournalists.
Case in point – several years ago my daughter made a sunset photo at Sandbanks Park with a small (about 3 megapixel) P&S. It was a nice shot – she asked me if I could have an enlargement made for her living room wall.
“How large?” I asked.
“I measured the wall,” she answered. “Forty inches would be perfect.”
“Well, oooooooookay,” I choked. “I’ll see what I can do.”