CCC Forum

Here's your chance to see what is involved and enter next year's competition - http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/la ... nced-94623.

Incidentally, our very own David Candlish did a review of the series after a couple of episodes - http://davidcandlish.photography/news/2 ... -tv-review.

Not being a Sky subsciber, I had been kind of regretting not being able to view the programmes until I discovered that one of the judges was Rut Blees Luxemburg. I saw her speak once and it was excruciating. The kindest thing I can find to say is that the only thing more boring than her photographs is hearing her talk about them. Hers was the last session on the day and around half of the audience left well before the end. Something I have never seen at a conference before or since.

Spoilers!
I still have a few episodes to watch!

Sadly despite my best efforts of scrolling through to the signup link I noticed who won. Surprising, I think he was far from the strongest. He had the most rapport with the judges though.

davidc wrote:Sadly despite my best efforts of scrolling through to the signup link I noticed who won. Surprising, I think he was far from the strongest. He had the most rapport with the judges though.

Apologies, I did not mean to spoil things for you.

While I do not know anything of the other judges, despite my not liking her work*, Rut Blees Luxemburg is successfully making a living from producing contemporary fine art photography and all credit to her. I can see similarities in the two shots** from the winner which featured in the Amateur Photographer article. It does not matter what level of competition someone is involved in, as you have noted, pandering to the judges' preferences clearly helps.

* Which counts for nothing.

** I do not think much of those, either.

Heh you didn't spoil anything, don't worry. If you ever give spoilers for an episode of Bake-Off though.... THEN there will be trouble!

davidc wrote:f you ever give spoilers for an episode of Bake-Off though.... THEN there will be trouble!

Since I have never seen it, that is unlikely to happen.

You are missing out on a legend of modern programming!

I watched the last episode the other night (NO SPOILERS I PROMISE).

I quite liked the show in general but I believe the overall premise is somewhat flawed. Each week they cover different aspects of photography i.e. street, landscape, portraits, the body etc. This felt like they were searching for a "jack of all trades" photographer rather than a "master" of one. Each tog had their moments but equally some performed badly but if you've never photographed those subjects can you blame them?? There also appears to be a free for all when choosing equipment for your task, so you need to be knowledgeable in rangefinder, medium format, m3/4s plus DSLRs.

The other aspect that most of them struggled with is explaining your "vision" or whatever they choose to call it in choosing the final image(s). I felt that if you talked the talk your images had more sway with the judges.

I still fondly remember a series on the BBC from around 10 years ago with Tom Ang called "A Picture of Britain" if I recall correctly. The premise was simple. Each week Ang would visit a different part of the country with three professional photographers and they would each be given a camera to try. The cameras would always range from a top spec professional model, through enthusiast level to basic.

The best bit was seeing what a pro would would doing with something low end and on a couple of weeks the togs received mobile phones with cameras. Back then, these were quite rudimentary and the first guy hated his. He kept saying that at the end of the shoot he was going to throw it away into the sea. In the end he gave it to a young lad he met who expressed an interest in it. Later on a woman was given something similar, recognised it for what it was and accepted its limitations. She went on to produce some exquisite images.

It seems to me that despite the huge popularity of photography, even if most shots end up being selfies, mainstream TV is doing little to promote it. Which makes the Sky Arts initative welcome, despite any flaws. I see that Sky Arts is available on Now TV and there is a free trial, so I am going to make sure that I see the programmes.

UPDATE: Having belatedly checked, the series was actually called "A Digital Picture of Britain" and aired in 2005 at the time when digital photography was just starting to become mainstream. The photographers involved were still shooting on film and were being encouraged to try out the new medium. The link below has more details about those involved and features some big names.

http://library.lincoln.ac.uk/items/97400

PS One thought, if we really want to give photography a boost, can anyone get Jeremy Clarkson interested in using a camera? Provided he does not use it to hit anyone, of course.