CONTENTS PAGE2 - HOW TO? NIGHTSCAPES
5 tips to remeber when shooting the night sky.
PAGE4 - TOM WOOD’S LANDSCAPES
His relatively unknown landscapes are being exhibitioned in North wales, find out more.
PAGE 6 - THE PROFESSIONALS TOM WOOD
We get to chat with Irish born photographer Tom Wood after his BBC4 documentary on ‘What Artists Do All Day?’.
PAGE 8 - READER’S WRITES HIDDEN GEMS
This is your page where you get to send in your images and get them published! This week, were looking at the places you like to go and shoot.
PAGE 9 - GO PRO, NICK DID!
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We dig deeper into the past of the ‘mad billianaire’ Nick Woodman, founder of GoPro.
PAGE 10 - REVIEW GO PRO HERO3+ BLACK EDITION
Capture test out the lastest edition of the GoPro.
PAGE 12 - WORKABLITY GETTING PUBLISHED
Every week we want to help those of you looking to progress futher in photography. This week we look at how to get your wok published.
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TO I D E
Welcome to the first ever edition of CAPTURE magazine. A photography magazine designed to inspire and intrigue those with a passion for photography. To us at CAPTURE it doesn’t matter if you’ve just bought your first DSLR, still rolling with film, or just going about with a compact point and shoot. By producing monthly tricks and tips from the industry, we aim to get you taking the best quality images. If your an aspiring photographer, we have a monthly article on how to break into the industry. We will also be interviewing some of the best photographers going, and asking them how they managed to get where they are now. Most of all we at CAPTURE want to motivate you into gear and get you clicking that shutter.
We want you to capture
everything!
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SHOOT F O R T H E
S TA R S Forget landscapes, try Nightscapes!
Night skys are one of the most amazing and interesting things to photograph for one main reason. Your camera captures something that your eyes can’t see. Recent advances in digital cameras means that if on the off chance your able to see the milky way, it wont look like the dim strip of silvery light. It will look like its glorious and stupendous galactic self. If you’re adventurous enough, Take your camera out and go out and find a clear sky at night, go lie down and stare at it, if nothing else its theraputic. Now, the longer you stare into the galaxy you will start to see more and more little specs of light otherwise known as stars (or planets or ufo’s who knows). This is because your eyes are adjusting to the darkness, as they do this your pupils get BIGGER. For them to do this you have to give your eyes TIME. Now apply this knowledge to the equipment in front of you, you want a long shutter speed with a large aperture. Use these settings as your starting guide 60th of a second - F2.8 - ISO 6400. If the moons is out and its not a really dark sky, try dropping making that aperture smaller, take it to F4. Your goal is to allow your camera to pick up light it wouldn’t normally by using extra long exposures. You can easily spead a few hours for each exposure and create something so rewarding, when you start to see star trails its easy to get carried away. Full circle star trails will consist of arund 80 minuets and its important to remember that complete darkness and no moon will be your best friend. What does your camera record?
Here are 5 Key points to help you on how to capture some incredible sights and make your way to stardom. Get it? Send in your Nightscapes and you might be able to find your picture in next weeks People’s Writes page. So get snapping some awesome shots.
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HOW TO...
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USE A TRIPOD Tripods are always handy. You can hold your camera for up to a 60th of a second, but you should always carry a tripod with you for clean sharp images. Just make sure it’s a sturdy one that doesn't wobble when you touch it. After 30th second exposures, a cable release is essential. A built in timer comes in pretty nifty too. Keep in mind that your subject is moving, at aporox 67,000mph. The world doesn’t stand still. After more than 1-2 seconds its like your standing on a merry-go round and taking a shot on a long shutter speed. Its just going to be blurry. Blurry isn’t always bad though, your stars are the only thing visable to be moving on a clear night.moving at about leaving behind a star trail.
LARGE APARTURE This is like the size of your pupils dilating when you try to look through the dark ness. Don’t forget that with apertures the numbers work backwards. The smaller the number the larger the aperture and the more light gets let in. So the best advice for doing this is to shoot with the lowest aperture you can get. 4.0 is perfect but you wont be able to get everything into focus.
HIGH ISO Most people will cringe at boosting your ISO up to its max. It can have a ‘noisy’ consequence but with the right settings and a bit of help from a good editing software can reduced noise. It’s a perfectly good way to improve your images.
PLAN AHEAD
IMPROVISE Photographing the night sky means you will have to think on your feet and be adaptable. (actually that’s photography in general) Mostly when working in a situations where oppotunities only come once. In a sort of decisive moment, when the moon rises perfectly over the clouds and the trees are just basking in it’s glow you have to be quick! If you don’t have a tripod to hand rest your camera on a ledge or rock and prop up the lens with a stone or a wallet, use anything you have to hand.
Failing to plan is planning to fail. As with any shoot planning ahead helps, and with stargazing knowing exactly where to stand to get the moon rising helps. Photographer’s Ephemeris, is one of the best apps available for all major platforms. Giving you times and dates for moonrise and moonset from any position on Earth as well as showing you on a satellite image where it all will happen, you just have to pray that place has signal.
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Photo courtesy of Tom Wood ‘Mersey Family Vauxhall
“
tom wood
Tom Wood is one of the most thoughtful photographers working today, in any genre.
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-K Wall Street Journal
LANDSCAPES | 18 JAN - 06 APR 2014 | MOSTYN For 40 years Wood has kept his Landscapes unseen, and now finally we get to see his collection, curated by Mark Durden. There are nearly 100 of woods extensive and varied pictures covering his birthplace, County Mayo in the West of Ireland, Merseyside and North Wales. His Work will be displayed in one of Mostyn’s original Victorian gallery spaces. Adding a personal touch, his Irish landscaped will be show in relation to fragile fragments of survivng family photographs, videos and intimate portraits of day to day life. Working in Merseyside for nearly 25 years he photographed a more urban scene, with peoples gardens, parks and wastelands, but again he doesn’t stray to far from people, as his work shows the attachments people have with places. His panoramic format landscapes of Vale of Clwyd where he has lived since 2003, show his concern with the demands and values of a photograph as a picture rather than a document. He refers to it as “the matter of Landscape”. Director of MOSTYN, Alfredo Cramerotti said: “We are proud at MOSTYN to have the privilege of premiering an outstanding body of work by Tom WoodThis previously unseen landscape work adds a whole new dimension to his oeuvre, one which will become pivotal in the realm of international art photography.“ This spring he l also appeared on BBC4 in a documentary series “What Artists Do All Day?” It aired February 26, 2014.
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Background Image Taken By Tabatha Jane Photography
interview with
Photographs courtesy of Tom Wood
with lots of good food and wine and the projected nominees, like the Oscars or something. I came on about midnight, amongst all these really great photographers and I won this award. Prix Dialogue de l’Humanite. I couldn’t believe it so I got on stage and I didn’t speak French and the only person I knew there was Martin Parr somewhere within the crowd, but I couldn’t see him. Fortunately they didn’t give me the mic to speak so it was okay. So I won €10,000, some of it I put into a really good Hi-Fi, because I really love playing music, so that’s one thing that’s good to come out of my career. It’s good to get books out as well, like when your book has your granny feeding the hens you know, it’s like a dream.
40 years is a long time to photograph every day, how many rolls of film, have you taken? Capture asks Tom Wood; How would you describe your own work?
I photograph life. I’m interested in what’s around me, but I’m interested in not documenting it but in exploring it. I don’t know what it means, all these things that effect me. I try and make pictures of those things and then I can have pictures I can learn from. They kind of have a life of there own, that’s what interests me most. What genre would you call that then? I used to keep a journal, and on the top I scribbled, ‘It’s got to be real’. I thought the streets when I was a student, we lived near the red light district, and I’d never seen prostitutes or ethnicity before so reality was interesting to me I suppose. If I’d prefer any other genre to be put in it would be realism.
How long does it take you to put together a body of work?
Too long, two years just to print the work hanging in Mostyn initially, and then another year after that. Its a lot of work for no money essentially.
How do you think you’ve created your reputation?
With difficulty, I haven’t tried to do it. Just the fact that I’ve done it for so long, usually people that I’ve taught, and then they’ve taught, giving talks about my work. I supposed people who have admired my work and became photographers often have gone on and become more successful than me and more famous than me. I could mention couple of famous examples, but I was lucky when I met Lee Friedlander. He really liked my work before that point, no one had said anything about it I showed it to the photographers gallery and the curator there looked at them carefully for 15 minuets and said I think the print quality quite makes it and went out the office and never came back. It was a typical reaction but when Lee Friedlander saw them it was like all those little details, he saw these first. He was really excited by the pictures and that helped me.
What were your inspirations?
I wasn’t inspired by anyone really, It wasn’t photographers that I liked it was photography itself. I used to collect pictures when I was 15, 16. Then I started making pictures and really enjoyed it. I collected portrait postcards mostly and right at the beginning I saw this Czech photographer Joseph Zudek, and his work is nothing like mine has needed up but I loved literally everything he did. I learned lots of lessons from Zudek, about what you photograph and how, to do with light and photography, again nothing to do with documenting. They called him the poet of Prague not the documentary of Prague.
Whats been the highlight of your career so far?
I was nominated for an award in France, I’d never been there before, and it was an incredible place. The whole town, a Medieval town was taken over by photography, with an incredible mix of people from all over the world into photography were all there. So to be nominated for the award you know, in a big Roman amphitheatre at night time with big screens and the place was full
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In the older days you would make contact prints, and they would be really small prints you’d have to look at it with a magnifying glass and you got 6 or 10 on a sheet of the same situation, and you’d have to pick because you couldn’t afford to print them all. So all the landscape work I’d never printed because I was always so many years behind with the people pictures. I never thought I’d print them out I just thought I’d come back and look at them at some point. So that took 2 years to print up the backlog, and even then I probably printed only two or three off each roll. I probably have still missed the best ones. If I were to go back through all the contact sheets now, I would probably pick different ones. So there’s always a lot of potential there, I took a lot of pictures. I
Shoot about 500 rolls every year, 20, 12 , 36
exposures on each. There’s never enough time. I wanted to take more pictures, and then we had two kids Ciaran, and Ruari.
It’s no secret that your work revolves around people but have you had any bad reactions from taking their pictures?
Well, in the beginning I always used to ask peoples permission. I was quite shy and used to hide behind the camera, I used to use the camera on a tripod and look down throughout the viewfinder, or twin lenses, and I’d go red in the face probably, flushed and people would know that I really wanted to take a picture of them. Id only ask people I was really interested in and it would take a lot of courage for me, but after a few years I saw this life you know, going on around me and missing it all. It would be great if I could capture that going on, so that’s when I began practicing with a small camera, doing candid work. But always when I’ve done that I’ve been sensitive to what people feel. I think generally you can kind of tell, if someone would object to being photographed and upset, so I wouldn’t attempt to photograph if that was the case. A lot of the people I photograph I feel, instinctively they know I’m doing it, even though they haven’t seen me you know, like the sense of being started at. So I have the feeling of people kind of tolerating me and I’m not like hiding with a long lens I’m right close to them anyway. I look at people and smile at people, so honestly it’s rarely happened where there’s been a negative reaction. I’ve had my face slapped of course, Chelsea reach, in a night club, but then that was a special circumstance, and there are times where certain people if your intruding, taking pictures, you have no right to do that so you feel bad you know. Sometimes you may not feel like your intruding, if its dark and someones crying and you take a picture of them obviously you’re intruding, even if you know that person. I made sure I never sold the pictures for money, advertising, editorial or something like that. I never even had a website, I still don’t. I didn’t want to feel like I was exploiting the people. The only reason I’m allowing for this stuff to come out now is because people
THE PROFESSIONALS
have scanned my books and most of the images are online anyway and so much time has passed, most the pictures where done 20 years ago. If I was in Liverpool doing it now I’d feel a lot more self conscious and feel unhappy about these pictures coming out now. I probably wouldn’t of done the TV show either.
You said before that you didn’t really want to make money from the images as not to exploit people, do you prefer it that way?
No, no, there was never a possibility that you could make money and a living as an artist or photographer until relatively recently. There weren’t even photography galleries, and art galleries didn’t think photography was art. So when I wanted to see photographic books there was no where to go. There was one magazine called creative camera, they had a tiny office, and they had like shelves behind with books behind from America that they would sell, but they were really expensive. I would go there every so often and spend the whole day in the office just looking at them, then I thought I’ve got to buy some because I’ve been here all day. So I started buying photography books, but then you know there was never a possibility, even as an artist its really hard to make a living. You can do commercial work, weddings, I worked for a wedding photographer in my holidays, for a few years. I’ve even done some part time teaching, I’ve done evening classes. You’ve either got to work commercially or teach. As I say up until 10 years ago no one could really make money as an artist or photographer, and the kind of people that did where Paul Graham and Martin Parr who where naturally entrepreneurial kind of figures you know, happy to go out and promote them selves. I remember once Paul Graham saying, and this was a long time ago, he had taken a year off just to promote himself. Yes, I would never have had the confidence or the money to do that. So my way out was, I got a job teaching on BTEC, 10 minutes from my house. I managed to do all my teaching in two days, and photographing the other 5 days, and my Wife always worked. I always thought if I was successful, and make money from the pictures I was making then it would change my relationships with the people I was photographing, because they would tell I was there to make money from it. So I thought if I’m nobody and I do the pictures. It seemed like a fair exchange.
How did you get exhibitions?
When I was trying to print up the landscape work I just didn’t have the time or the money it seemed overwhelming. 30 odd years of work at that time, how could I do that. So I asked the Arts Councillor of Wales for a grant, an assistant and for materials. How could I get this grant, it usually when to ballet or something for the community, it wasn’t for artists normally, but I wanted to produce this body of work. So I’d had a phone call from John Burgon, a cultural figure and writer he had this people book of mine, he said how bold over he was and how authentic it was. He said he could help me, and I was desperate for this landscape stuff to be printed up so I asked him for a reference and Chris Killip who teaches photography at Harvard. The two of them gave me a reference to the arts councillor of Wales and I got the money. So that was great. In his reference he said ‘You’ve saved a Merseyside that was forever unlosable.’
How would you advise others to proceed with their photography career?
You need to get a good body of work together before doing anything, then you need to be good at meeting people, networking and showing your work to people, but you’ve got to have the body of work to begin with. You could be the best photographer in the world but if no one sees your work then no ones going to know, that’s okay if you just want to do it for yourself which is how I started out. If the lights great, just take a picture and figure out what it means later.
Do you have a favourite Image?
That’s like your children you know, being asking who’s your favourite child. If your photographing in a democratic way then everything is possibly interesting how can you say one thing is your favourite. Absolutely no way would I have a favourite picture.
What types of cameras do you use?
I’ve always used a range of cameras because they all have different qualities, 5x4 will always have extra richness and quality. If I want more detail in a landscape for example the panoramic camera, Noble X is good where the lens actually revolves, it gives you a nice image, with everything in it. I’ve always wanted to get more stuff in so I’d use wider angle lenses but after a while the wide angle lens becomes to much about the lens you know, a bit too graphic. For street photography and something a bit spontaneous, I want something different, something where if I see the lights good I can just lift it up and it’s there. It’s all the subconscious stuff that interests me when you look back at the pictures you’ve taken. I’m interesting in exploring with different cameras they all do different things and when there are some things that cameras can’t record so then I’ll switch to video.
Where did Photieman come from?
In the beginning kids would pester you to take a picture so you’d take pictures of them just to shut them up, so then they would say, ‘oh where’s that picture of me’ So I’d always carry around a box of pictures to give to people. I always thought if I gave them the pictures its a fair exchange then if they saw me later they might think I was okay. In the beginning they called me David, not Photieman because the only pho -tographer they knew was David Bailey. Then they used to say, ‘act natural’ whenever they saw me because they knew I wouldn’t take their picture if they just started messing around. Then gradually I was the guy who took the photos so I became Photieman. Actually, I was getting on this train to New Brighton at Birkenhead, but the train was cancelled so I was getting of the train again, there was two fellas who were drunk trying to get on, and I recognised one of them as a kid I used to photograph him and he said “ ahhh, Photieman, where is your camera then?” And he slapped me on the shoulder and his mate on the shoulder and pointed at me and said ‘Photieman’. Want to know why he is standing on the cow?
Tom wood
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YOUR HIDDEN GEMS READER’S WRITES
Morfa-Bychan Beach This image was taken at Morfa-Bychan beach in Wales near the town of Porthmadog. For me this beach is perfect for photography in many ways and I have spend many a sunset on here on my own on the vast open space that is also one of a handful of beaches that allows vehicles to drive on it.
Great Orme, Llandudno This image was taken at one of my favourite locations in North Wales and is on the far side of the Great Orme at Llandudno. I have visited here on many occasions with my family and on my own and also for a backdrop for a variety of photoshoots. This image was taken whilst in the middle of another photoshoot here for a project I was working on but the weather was not right for the style of image I was trying to create. This lone girl dressed in bright red caught my eye, the basic range in colour red from the girl green from the grass and blue from the sky make a contrasting yet subtle image.
New York CIty This images was taken at sunset on top of the Empire State building in New York City. It is one of my favourite photographs because of the spectacular views and colourings across the city as the sun was setting.
Barbados - Saint James There aren’t many places you can look out of your bedroom and be greeted by a pirate ship floating on the horizon of a beautiful sunset framed perfectly by a palm tree. Conwy, North Wales This image was taken on the quay side at Conwy in north Wales. It was summertime and all the madness was in full swing as children and their parents, even grandparents and the occasional dog were taking part in the traditional pastime of crabbing. This scene for me has a nostalgic feel to it and reminds me of my own summer holidays to Wales.
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Anglesey - Porth Dafarch The entire island is made up of private beaches, untouched coves and thriving wildlife. This photo is from a more popular beach Porth Dafarch but you can still explore the area for great photos and also a great walk!
Crosby Beach This statue stands on Crosby beach near Liverpool and is one of many that Anthony Gormley commissioned and sited all over this stretch of beach in various positions in the water, at high tide some of them are totally submerged and has caused some alarm amongst passers by when first installed for this reason alone i still continue to go and look at these and photograph them in various conditions.
Founder of GoPro, Nick Woodman started his billion dollar company with the a simple strap and the idea to capture point of view action shots from his surfboard. The original concept of GoPro was to make any camera attachable by a strap, Woodman created his own made out of rubber bands and surfboard leashes.
“Founder of GoPro, Nick Woodman started his billion dollar company with the a simple strap.” Always the entrepreneur he took this idea and pitched his straps to Dot-com company in 2001 but failed to impress them. So Woodman took to the waves of indonesia and Austria for five months testing out various straps and capturing fantastic action shots. On his return along side working for 2 years, Woodman created a prototype of what would later be the GoPro 35mm Hero. (Yes ‘mm’ It was an underwater FILM camera!) Taking this billion dollar idea to trade shows in his beloved 1971 Volkswagen Bus called “The Biscuit” In 2004 at San Diego’s Action Sports Retailer trade show he finally cut a break and debuted the first of what would become a consumer phenomenon and one of the fastest-growing digital imaging companies.
“GoPro sold $150,000 worth of product in its first year.” As a prominent Silicon Valley investment banker for Robertson, Colman, Stephens & Woodman and brokered Pepsi’s purchase of Taco Bell in the 1970’s Nick’s father played a huge role in the development of GoPro in the early days and was one of the earliest investors. Providing his son with $200,000, Nick put in $30,000 of his own money and also received $35,000 from his mother. GoPro sold $150,000 worth of product in its first year, most of the cameras were sold to surf shops and specialty sports retailers, which Woodman called daily with the promise of the best images. In 2006 along came the Digital revolution in cameras and all kicked
off for GoPro. Finally changing to digital making it able to record 10 second videos peaked new interest and brought $800,000 in revenue, while the following year saw sales quadruple to $3.4 million. Since then go pro has kept up to date with all the latest technology advances such as High Definition and PureDigital. Now a billionaire thanks to Foxconn’s $200 million investment at a $2.25 billion valuation in December 2013, Woodman wished to expand GoPro into becoming a platform as well as a product. GoPro wants to also be known
“GoPro wants to also be known as a media company.” as a media company. Woodman says: “I think GoPro is producing some of the best short-form content out there today, there’s a phenomenal opportunity for us to leverage GoPro as a media brand.” Its latest design the GoPro HERO 3+ means straight uploads to you tube, (reportedly at least one video per minute is uploaded) created a huge following on YouTube as well other Internet sites all sharing their adrenalinesoaked, professionally made videos of surfers riding through barrels of waves and skiers parachuting off snow-covered cliffs, daredevil riders spinning off jumps, and even an Austrian Space diver called Felix Baumgartner. Just
“God I love my GoPro” because Its known as an action camera doesn’t stop the more sober of us using it. There has been viral videos of the camera being attached to birds and filming their flight across the grand canyon for example The GoPro dominates the market with their versatile little cameras designed to withstand all weather conditions, take knocks and blows and survive the most extreme environments. Just watch this video, and it will prove its worth. Woodman explains, “It’s not awesome just because it’s brilliant hardware, or a brilliant device. It’s awesome because of what it has enabled this person to do, and how it has made them feel. Then they think about how they did this, and think, ‘God I love my GoPro’.”
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Deeside leisure centre skate park
WE LIKE + Portability + Idiot proof + Affordable + It goes underwater! + Attachable + Good for travelling + I’ts own editing software + Easy upload to social networks + High image quality
The Black Edition uses 12Mpixel CMOS to offer its headline 4K recording resolution at 15 or 12.5 frames per second, and 4K Cinema (with a 17:9 aspect resolution of 4,096 x 2,160) at 12 frames per second. Then there are 2.7K and 2.7K Cinema options at 30 frames per second, 1440p at up to 48 frames per second, and 1080p at up to 60 frames per second’. Which all sounds pretty snazzy, even if you didn’t understand it all! But we wanted to know how well it functions as your average camera that you take around with you just to capture those special moments.
without WiFi lasts for 2,14minuets and with WiFi lasts for about and hour and a half recording time. Obviously this will decrease with the use of the WiFi, a higher frame rate, the app and then more when using the attachable screen. Yes, you did read that right, there is an attachable screen which you can buy separately for around £80. There is a range of products for the GoPro’s from chest harnesses and helmet mounts to remote
We got the latest model, the Go Pro Hero3+ Black Edition and ran it through some pretty standard tests and see what it had to offer. The camera doesn’t come with a memory card, and its not your standard SD card either. You’ll need a micro SD. You can’t just use any micro SD, GoPro recommend and so do we, that if you want to video you need to get a class 10 card. Class 10 has a faster write speed to attain more frames per second. Once you’ve got your card, slot it in the side and your ready to shoot. Simple. The LCD screen is small at 150mm x 100mm. To navigate through the display there are only two buttons which also function as the on/off button and the shutter button. All-together there are only 3 buttons on the whole thing making its simple but tricky to get through the menus. It’s easy once you get the hand of it. TIP: shutter button activates a menu and the on button scrolls. There are 5, 7 and 12Mpixel options for still images. You can shoot 30 photos in a one-second burst or a 30-second continuous mode at up to 10 photos a second which comes in handy when your trying to photograph a moving object. Although when we test this out at Deeside Leisure Centre skate park, there seemed to be a slight delay in the time of pressing the shutter and it actually taking the picture. Also, quite a slow start on the shutter speeds meaning a lot of blurry images before maybe one slightly clear one. There is a time lapse option ranging from 0.5 to 60-second intervals so you can set it up and your mates can go pose in 3...2...1.... You can capture still images and video simultaneously as well, although up to a maximum resolution of 1,440p video and not at the same time as any high-speed modes. Which comes in very useful so you don’t miss a chance to capture those really important moments in your life. The minimum focus distance is around 18cm meaning it is less than its previous generations, but it is 30%sharper in the background. One problem with having a fixed focal length is there is not auto focus and no zoom, what your pointing the lens at wont necessarily be in focus, you have to position the GoPro depending on what you want to be in focus, which to do this you kind of need a screen to see, which the actual camera doesn’t have.
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Battery life is okay. Using the HERO3+ on its own,
controls. We decided to make use of the Wifi and their GoPro app and test their monopole and chest harness. Starting with the WiFi, connecting it was quite time consuming. The GoPro creates its own network which you connect to and then using the app to access the settings, view the images and videos you’ve taken, and access the live feeds for ‘photo of the day’ and ‘video of the day.’ From here you can also save the images to your phone and share them to your friends. It weighs a measly 74g, which makes it incredibly easy to carry around with you. This is when we thought of the GoPro as the perfect camera for
REVIEW
tourists alike. When you’re on your holidays and you’re visiting those amazing places, you want high quality images you can blow up big and print. Unfortunately luggage weight restrictions make carrying your heavy DSLR and equipment really impractical and you wouldn’t be able to film your under water snorkelling sessions! The housing is only rated to 40m underwater but that’s still enough to get some amazing shots of exotic fishes. The most we got was our bath duck
called Donald. Never the less he still shows off the image quality you’d expect for around £300 worth of equipment under water. The monopole was great for holding the camera steady as we found it quite hard to not get camera shake with it being so light weight. You need a steady hand to take the pictures! The Chest harness was a really good way to keep the camera near you (again brilliant for on holiday, keeping the pick-pockets at bay). Yes, okay you look a little silly wearing it but it is actually quite comfy. A lot comfier than carrying a heavy chunky camera around all day. Its also a brilliant little camera for candid shots. You can be looking at your phone taking pictures and know would no any the wiser. We loved that!
The Hero3+ Black edition has some exclusives such as Superview a new option which is available when shooting 1080p or 720p footage. This provides more of a wide angle than the regular setting, avoiding fish eye distortion. Which gives you a very realistic idea of what your eyes actually see. Without the superview on you get this bulgy distortion which can look quirky but doesn’t always look good. When you’re taking a ‘‘selfie’’ in front of the Eiffel Tower you don’t want a weird shaped face and a bendy tower behind you. Another exclusive feature of the Hero3+Black Edition is the ‘low light’ setting which changes the ISO level enabling you to have a clearer image. We tested the difference on a picture of the night sky. The two pictures on the left,the one on top is without low light, and the other with. There seems to be quite a difference if your ask us. Due to the actual size of the sensor it doesn’t have the best dynamic range, creating bad exposure compensation. Which is why the landscape picture above is white in the left corner. Sunsets and bright lights, it doesn’t handle well. That being said most over exposed areas can be brought back using an editing software. When you come to put all your images and videos on the computer GoPro has it’s own editing software. Actually it has three. GoProStudio which is free and then you have GoProStudio Premium at $299 and GoProStudio Professional at $999. The file formats on the GoPro’s differ to that of a normal camera so you have to use a better quality editing software for your videos which is why they created their own, but this doesnt stop you using what you feel comfortable with for your pictures. The video editing is simple and easy to use also, we compared it to Final cut pro, and found it easier to use. Overall we would recommend this camera based on its ability for such a small and portable camera. Would you rather have a DSLR on your shoulder? This camera has its ups and its downs as camera but its right up their leading the way for video. The next generation of GoPro is going to be defiantly something to look out for. Budding photographers and cinematographers this is defiantly something you should give a try, you can attach it to pretty much anything and will defiantly get you motivated to get out and shoot something creative.
WE DID’NT LIKE - No screen -Slight shutter lag -Slow shutter speed -Fixed focal length
4K VIDEO RESOLUTION. 12MP@30FPS. AUTO LOW LIGHT MODES. BUILT-IN WI-FI. RECHARGEABLE. LIGHTWEIGHT. SUPERVIEW™.P R O F E S S I O N A L RECORDING MODES. WATERPROOF UP TO 131’/40M. 20% SMALLER. WEARABLE. SIMPLE. LIGHTWEIGHT. MOUNTABLE. AUTO LOW LIGHT MODES.
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d e h s i l b u P g n i t t e G
Not just professional photographers stand a chance of getting published in magazines, but it does mean that is who your competing against. So its important to remember that you are one in a million but editors are constantly looking for new, inventive and fresh photography, and it may just be that your particular vision coincides perfectly with theirs. “I guarantee that most photo editors will keep your work in a folder somewhere for future use if you send it their way. It makes their life easier and adds a personal touch to your work, showing that you took the extra effort to seek them out and had the courage to put yourself out there.” says DPG’s Photo Editor of 2013 Katy Danca Galli.
Imagine that you’re in an editor in a hectic office with an intray fillng up a nd anoverflowing desk and with a phone wedged under one ear, you can imagine that calling is not the best option. Email or letter is best. Check the magazine’s Web site for submission guidelines and address. For other companies, search the Internet for their web site and look under “contact us”. You can contact companies directly, by finding their address and sending them a copy of your photo(s). For magazines, the publisher’s address is always listed inside, on the publisher’s information page. Look for their masthead - A list of names of the staff.
You want to mail a professional-looking package, so use thick glossy paper, or luster paper, whatever you feel works best but go all out on paper quality. Only submit your best work. Be brutal when choosing. This will keep your overall quality high and make a greater impact. Enclose a cover letter with your name, phone number, email address, and mailing address as-well. Possibly make a web site featuring more of your work and reference that within your email, adding links to some of the best and most relevant images. If you submit by post make sure to send a CD including high-resolution images, plus a shot of yourself, a caption document and a thumbnail sheet. And dont forget to label everything! Things will get seperated and passed around. Include your name, contact info, detailed location of where the image was taken. Say your submitting to a diving magazine include dive site names if you can, species name, date, and a little fun anecdote about the image itself that they could build a story around, and use that as teh picture quote. Editors like it when your submission is already complete and ready to use. It saves them a job and it may increase the chances of getting published.
If you’re submitting a manipulated landscape shot to Digital Camera, say, then it won’t hurt to include the ‘original’ shot too and maybe a couple of different variations, so that the editor can see how it might form an interesting story. You don’t have to stop at supplying images either – why not write the words too? Pitching an article is am easier way that pitching an image alone.Magazine editors are generally not photographers, they’re writers so try packaging your photos with a pre-written article. Maybe start with describing the experience that led to that photo, that trip, that adventure say why you were there. You’re more likely to sell the article with the photos included than just some photos. A good tip is to not attach a writer to your story, and if you’re a writer, don’t attach a photographer. If you do that, you’re asking the magazine to take a chance on two new people they don’t know, instead of just one. Take a subject that’s your own and spend four or five years on it. And if you balk at doing that, well, that’s where you weed out the pretenders.
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WORKABILITY
The big mistake most people make is proposing a story that’s already been published recently. It’s worth having a read through previous magazines, or write in to one of your favourites, you should know what’s already been done that way. Have a look at the style the magazine’s write in, is it formal or informal, word count, look at the layout .. Read the magazines and see the type and style of articles they publish, who are they targetting? Sometimes thinking out side the box is really hard to do (expecially after reading back through all the articles) yet, sometimes a story from your own back garden will be nothing new to you, but to a busy editor in a big city its something they would probably never publish but, they could see how you handled it and its different!
Have a look at your photo’s why did you capture this? What is an interesting angle to this perticular shot? Was it the trip, the adventure, the subject? Whatever it is it needs to be unique and interesting. Think about how the magazine could use your photo, then market in that direction. For example: try making a sample advertisment out of your photo. You can use a word processor program or layout program like InDesign, and word publisher, and even Photoshop to design something professional. Full-page photos often need space for headlines or other information and pictures used across a double-page spread need space for the ‘gutter’ in the middle. It wouldn’t hurt to shoot variations of your images with this in mind. When minipulating certain images like landscapes, then it won’t hurt to include the ‘original’ shot too and maybe a couple of different variations, so that the editor can see how it might form an interesting story.
An editor might consider a quick phone call reasonable after a couple of weeks but most would prefer an email and none will like being harassed. That’s probably the quickest way to get this and any future submission thrown out. So go about who your ringing carefully. Get in touch with the right person, know who your speaking to. Try calling the main number of the company and ask for the name of the person in charge of editing, marketing, advertising, or whatever you’re after. For advertising, there’s probably an ad agency involved, so you should ask for the name of that company and call them. Ask to be connected to the person in charge (the editor, VP of Marketing, etc.). If the receptionist doesn’t know a name, ask for the department and then ask whoever you get connected to. Tell the receptionist why you’re calling and ask if they have any advice or know who you should talk to. You may get shuffled around, but if you can talk directly to the right person, You’ll make your marketing more effective. Only contact the Editor of the whole agazone if your really must.
Magazines assume that the work you’ve sent them is exclusive to them, so they won’t necessarily check with you before using your work. You will need to state that you will send your work elsewhere, if you wish to. If you do have work accepted then you need to know the ‘rights’ the magazine is buying from you. It’s common for magazines to insist on full rights in perpetuity. This means they can re-use the image in reprints, digests, foreign editions and so on. You still own the picture, but they’ve bought the right to use it whereever they want. The terms vary between publishers and it’s important that you’re absolutely clear what you’re selling. you can find this in their They wont appeciate using the same images and articles as someone else and it will make you unpopular if they do. Your Pay rate is usually unnogotiable, and is determined by the articles word count. A typical article may be 300 words or 600 words. Photography rates depend upon the size printed, so a full page pays more than a half page, and the cover shot pays the most, obviously. Specialist newsstand magazines pay by the page, so the proportion of the page taken up by your photo determines your fee. If you were submitting both words and pictures you could get anywhere from £60-200 per page, depending on the magazine.
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