Photo Challenge – Introductions

Welcome to the first of what I hope to be many Rock Portrait Photography Challenges.

My idea is to present each of my photographer friends with a regular challenge to create one image in a particular theme. Nothing ground-breaking about this idea, but each of us has very different points of view, artistic visions, experience, skill sets and countries of origin, and can therefore present images that cover the gamut of the photographer spectrum – from basic enthusiast to experienced professional.  As site owner, I get to be the reviewer – for now (until one of the others regularly writes more than I do, and by default becomes head reviewer).

I intend to review these images from the point of view of you – the uninformed viewer.  I may, or may not present the point of view of the photographer as well.  We’ll see how I feel.

You see, whenever I look at images online, or in a gallery, I generally have no idea how or why it was created, so I make up my own view. Whether my conclusions are right or wrong are irrelevant. In fact, it’s my opinion that this is what art is all about. Art is just a word to describe the result of one person creating something (usually not particularly practical) that another person can interpret in an entirely different manner.

The four contributors at this time are:

1. Ken Warmington
   Ken is the most experienced of us all.  He’s an Australianised Canadian who has been shooting since before birth, uses Nikon exclusively, is particularly interested in black and white and HDR (high dynamic range) images and knows too damn much about photography.
2. Mat Ward
   Mat is a miserable Yorkshireman doing his very best to cheer up in the warm Aussie sun.  Well, he’s not as miserable as he seems, and he proves it by occasionally wearing orange t-shirts and funny hats.  Mat is learning the ropes with a Canon EOS 450D or something, and spends a lot of time trying to make the camera capture his world the way his very unusual mind sees it.
3. Joepi Paloma
   Joepi is the only cosmopolitan of us still living overseas, and she takes full advantage of her Manila home to go scuba diving in some of the very best locations in the world every weekend (grrrr!!!).  Joepi has recently purchased a 400D which is put to good use above water whilst her Canon A620 in it’s housing goes nuts in the depths of the tropics.  Joepi clearly has too much time on her hands as she is easily the most prolific photographer of us all.  She’s also a Nudibranch fanatic!  If you don’t know what that is you have two choices – either giggle uninformatively under your breath or go look it up in Wikipedia for the correct definition.
4. Stephen McGrath
   That’s me, of course. I’m the only real Aussie, although I tell everyone I’m Irish whenever Paddy comes over here to hand the Aussies a drubbing in International Rules football. I once tried telling an Irish girl that I was Irish and nearly got bonked over the head with a mouldy potato.  ( I did say “of Irish descent”).  Anyway, I use Canon gear – a 30D and 350D – and try to shoot in natural light (I hate flash), capturing candid moments.  Ken is my mentor, but we also work very well together due to our complimentary and very different points of view about everything.

Hopefully this challenge will kick off some excellent discussions, learning experiences and, at the very least, inspire the more busy of us to take photos more often.  And if we get enthusiastic enough, we may even start a podcast!  But let’s not get too excited…

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