Hello there, thank you once again for joining me here! Hope you're having a fantastic Saturday, or whatever day you see this email. It's been a bit warm here in the UK recently, and yesterday there was a fantastic thunderstorm, which was nice because we haven't had a chance to enjoy them for a long time. We don't often get them here in the UK. However, they did remind me of growing up in Johannesburg, which is one of the thunderstorm capitals of the world.Today I wanted to share with you an...
17 days ago • 5 min read
Howzit!Been a bit warm here in the UK recently. Rather unsurprisingly, a lot of British people struggle when the heat is more than they're used to. This is when little tips and tricks, or, if you want to call them skills, come into play. Having grown up in a hot climate, for example, the best thing you can do during the day is to keep your windows shut and the curtains drawn.Photography is somewhat similar in that there are many skills people talk about and we're all aware of, but there are...
24 days ago • 6 min read
Finally, it is now something approaching warm here in the UK!A big warm welcome to all of you joining me this week here on the TPE newsletter. There's a lot in photography that is so important to being able to be confident with the camera, and make creative choices feel effortless. That's what we're looking at this week a technique that has never been taught in a tutorial. The Main Frame: Here's something I've come to believe after thirty years behind a camera. We don't get better at...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
The Main Frame: About a year ago, on one of those typical Saturday mornings, I was at my son's cricket practice. Cricket is one of those sports that’s impossible to explain if you weren't raised with it, but all you really need to know for this story is that it involves a very solid wooden bat. The setting was gorgeous. A big green field, trees caught in the breeze. Sunny day, optional We were lounging on the grass with the other parents when my son came running over, tripped, and his bat...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Welcome back! It's great to have you here for another edition of Notes On Seeing. The Main Frame: Photography is meant to be simple. Not easy. Simple. There's a difference, and it matters. Because somewhere along the way, a lot of us picked up the idea that getting better meant adding more. More technique. More rules. More equipment. More post-processing steps. More things to remember before we press the shutter. And the weight of all that "more" is quietly crushing the thing that drew us to...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Right. I need to make a confession. For years — and I mean a long time — I avoided harsh light. Or at the very least, I struggled with it. Growing up in South Africa, the sun was usually high and the shadows usually hard. So more often than not, the camera went back in the bag. And I think I know why. I'd learned photography on a diet of magazines — that was my education. Beautiful soft light, golden tones, everything looking effortless. So when I was standing in the midday sun with nowhere...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
A quick word before we begin. It's been a little while since I wrote. I wanted to say thank you for still being here — and to tell you where I've been. I've been building something. A primer called The Language of Photography: Learning to See. It's the distilled version of the thing I've been circling around in videos and newsletters for years — what photographers are actually doing when they make a picture that stops someone, and how you learn to do it by choice rather than by accident. It's...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Howzit everyone! Hope you're all having a fantastic weekend. I recently spoke with some people from the TPE community, and we discussed the idea of light in our photos. How people often complain about 'Bad' light, or fantasise about 'Great' light.For a long time, I felt trapped by those concepts - being told, for example, never to take a photo in the harsh midday African sun. The truth is, there isn't good or bad light, but there are good and bad ways to shoot in it. I'd like to share with...
7 months ago • 3 min read
Howzit all!Hope you're having a great day The Main Frame: Earlier this year, I was visiting a friend. One morning, she was making pancakes for her daughter, and I watched with complete fascination. She took out a recipe, a set of measuring cups, and all the ingredients. I watched her carefully scoop the flour into the cup, level it off with the back of a knife, measure the milk precisely, crack the egg, and then mix everything for exactly the amount of time the recipe told her to. For her,...
7 months ago • 3 min read