Canal walks, Dog shit and Shape and Form..

Hello my faithful blog followers *stares at a empty room* - Ah crap.

Right, I'm going to make an appeal to those of you who read this who are thinking about improving your photography skills...

I went out to the cinema today with the kids (they feature a lot in my photo's and blog entries: I have no other life.) which involves a short walk along the canal towpath which we can access from the end of the garden. 

Actually before I appeal to budding photographers could I first appeal to dog owners... You know those signs that say "clean up after your dog"? they're for YOU!! I am sick and tired of doing a dogshit slalom every time I want to walk somewhere because you think that its OK to ignore the fact that your dog has just laid a stinking brown egg in the middle of the path... I am seriously considering doing a stake out and everytime someone's dog has an ignored crap I will follow you home and return it to you.....!

Where was I ... ?

Oh yeah, so we're walking to the cinema and I have my old D700 (that's a Nikon Slr type camera) slung over my shoulder (as per usual I always have a camera on me, it's always when you don't have one that you miss something awesome) and I am snapping away like a crocodile in a swimming pool (does that analogy work?... Whatever) and I've seen a particularly interesting leaf of something that I'm focusing on, when a bloke says "'scuse me mate can I ask you about your camera?". Turns out he is carrying a Nikon D80 and he asks me where he can get a good deal on a better camera. Now here's the bit that I'm appealing to you about, this fella, nice as he was, already has a few hundred quids worth of camera weighing him down, yet he was of the firm belief that by spending hundreds more, he will suddenly become the next great name in photographic circles, with his work adorning the walls of the best galleries on the planet.... Wrong. It's quite a simple principle,but the difference between the hardware that we use is not that great, a few extra pixels here, a better lens there, but the greatest tool to anyone can have is a little knowledge and experience. So before you plan on remortgaging the house to buy a Hassleblad, buy a few photo tutorial type magazines or even do a weeks worth of night school classes in photographic basics. Ask yourself the following question "What is the rule of thirds, Shutter speed, Aperture and Sensitivity and how do they affect the photos I'm taking?", and if you can't answer it then find out, because a few simple tricks and that little bit of knowledge will change how you take pictures forever....

To illustrate my point, and this may backfire if you hate the picture, I was doing a Shape and Form study

this weekend and I took a few shots using my iPhone, just the camera, no fancy apps or anything. Hopefully it demonstrates that you can take a good (ish) quality photo using the most basic equipment.

Before that though, 2 pictures I snapped whilst out and about, I'd post more but to be honest i can't be arsed...

As per usual, click on the images and open them up for the best quality.

The first is Callum, just before I pushed him in the canal (joke!), I think the reflection is kinda cool....

Next is a Heron mid flight, it very nearly shat on me!

And finally an iPhone picture, just an iphone picture, not £1000's of pounds worth of kit.

Thanks for reading, I hope you don't feel like it's a waste of time.

And PLEASE PLEASE leave comments or questions.

Matt