And right now, I am wanting to talk about where I get to learn more about Photography, and I am sure many of us do; but for a few that don't, this might be something good to look into.
First off, Magazines, who here doesn't spend a lot of time flipping through a magazine, looking at the photos, no matter what the magazine is about, we all do it. I spend a small fortune on magazines each month... I should really stop spending so much, but I keep doing it.
There are a couple good North American photo based magazines, but I find the vast majority to be too full of ads in the back, and useless tripe for me; I spend a few $'s more on the UK photo magazines, and get a lot more out of them, but I'll get to them in a moment.
I have always been a fan of the Canadian mag Photo Life, as I think it very important to support the few Canadian magazines we have, the Outdoor Photography Canada is also a decent magazine, and while I am not a huge landscape photographer, I still like the pretty pictures
I know everyone loves American Photo and Popular Photography, which are both owned by the same production company, and to be very honest... I can't stand them. Too full of the big retailers ad's in the back half of the magazine, and I do mean HALF! Sometimes more...
BUT... every now and then, they do come up with a great article, and American Photo does a great job on heavily image ladened issue on their Amateur special.
For those of you that are a bit more advanced, and would like to know some Professional tips, Digital Photo Pro from North America or the UK Based Photo Pro are two of my favorites to read.
UK based Digital Camera World & Digital SLR Photography are both wonderful magazines, but neither are cheap, both around the $13 each mark, but both have some great tutorials and tips. I personally think they are worth every penny that Chapters charges for them.
For the B&W Fine art Collector and Enthusiast, this is the ONLY magazine to check out in my opinion. I have spent many an hour going through this magazine page by page, just taking in the stunning B&W images. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the B&W image, as I spent many hours in the darkroom in years past.
For the Portrait and Wedding photographers, I highly recommend checking out any Fashion magazine such as Zink, GQ or even Maxim... For the Wedding Market, most of them are filled with just photos of dresses or other items that the couple need to think about for the day, with not many actual Wedding Photos...
that being said, Real Weddings Vancouver is a great magazine for just real Wedding Photos... in-fact, I have a stack of them next to my computer where I am currently sitting. I have also started to pick up the Pacific Wedding magazine, it too has a lot of images that one can see how the pros see their Weddings.
Podcasts:
I am not sure who here all listens to Podcasts, I listen to lots of them, but a Podcast is a free download from Apple's iTunes, which you can download for free from the Apple Website, even for a Windows based computer. My top two favorites, are Shutters Inc, by Audio2U from Australia, and TWiP (This Week in Photography).
Shutters Inc: while I love their jocularity, not everyone will; but what I love most about these two guys, is that they both are everyday real photographers. Meaning that they do not always shoot top of the line gear, and they are big into the DIY techniques. Shelton being the professional of the show, a big Wedding Photographer to Australia often refers to his live-in-lens, being the Nikon 85mm F1.8, which is far from top of the line glass. Bruce being a bit more novice, and often is the one asking the questions that many of us are asking. It is a great listen, and I find myself laughing a lot at this pair. I really have to thank Harry at this time for steering me in their direction, it truly is a great podcast.
TWiP: is a bit more of a serious listen, although the two main hosts have backed out a bit, and have let others co-hosts take the front seat, and a little more jocularity has crept its way in. Local Vancouverite Lisa Bentney (aka: Mostly Lisa) is a frequent guest host there lately. And aside from Lisa... most of these guys have been doing the photography thing for a long time, most of them are at the top of their game, and only use the top of the line gear. Many questions that they answer, they usually offer the most expensive way of going about it as their first answer. But that doesn't stop me from listening to them every week... They still bring up great subjects and often have a great guest on for an interview, such as Joe McNally, Aaron Johnson creator of whattheduck, and more recently Rebekka Flickr Self Portrait extrodinaire. I am not even going to attempt to say or type her last name, she lives in Iceland, and is a great inspiration to all that view her photos.
Another podcast I listen to, is LightSource, which is kinda dry, but a great listen to if you are into studio lighting at all, they have had some great guests as well, including David Hobby the Strobist himself.
I hope this helps everyone, and I wish you all a great weekend.
Cheers
JR
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