Why take a photo a day?

It sounds a big commitment, to take a photo every day. So what can you get out of it?

1. Photos are a great way to jog your memory.

While big events stick in our heads, the smaller details slip by us. Do you remember what that person looked like that you had a great conversation with on the train? How about the day your child discovered that kicking leaves in the park was so much fun? How great would it be to be able to look back in the future and remember all those moments in time?

2. You will be a better photographer as a result.

Henri Cartier-Bresson said “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst”. You’ll get to use your camera more, and it will become instinctive to use, rather than a piece of equipment at the end of your arm. You’ll stretch yourself and take photographs you wouldn’t normally take.

Some tips to help you take a photo a day

1. Don’t underestimate the commitment

Taking a photo a day is more of a challenge than you may think. If you go into it without realising what you are getting into, it may become stressful keeping up. That’s the last thing you want. Taking photos is is fun.

2. Quality or quantity? Quality and quantity?

When I go out ‘to photograph’, I can end up in a mind-set that is trying to achieve perfection (whatever that is!). If I have lots of time on my hands I will spend it looking at the subject of my shoot, getting a feel for the place, thinking through various compositions. I love the process, it gives me time and space to think. However, I have a full-time non-photographic job and a young family, so I’ve had to adapt my photography. If you are trying to fit in time for this every day, you will need to think on your feet, and react to the moment. This can end up improving your eye. I find I am thinking about composition all the time I am on this project, subconsciously framing things in my minds eye. Remember: sometimes a photo is better than no photo at all.

3. The best camera is the one you have with you

Up until recently, you could have called me ‘traditional’ when it came to my photography. At the very least photography meant taking my DSLR with me. Maybe even a backpack with lenses, filters, etc. I came to realise I was missing a lot of good shots, simply because I didn’t carry all that gear with me all the time. There are some great compact cameras available now, with pretty impressive image quality. I bought a Panasonic -GF1 recently, and its portability has meant I take it with me nearly all of the time (check out our Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 resources page for more info). Do you have a mobile ‘phone? You can take some creative ‘photos with these, and most importantly, it’s probably with you right now.

4. Try something new

It’s the creative side of photography that gets me excited when I pick up my camera. But it’s all too easy to find a subject matter or style you feel comfortable with, and stick to it. I’ve got stuck in a rut with this myself, on more than one occasion. It’s going to be hard sustaining your project if you have to find something fresh that’s within your zone of comfort every day. Take up the challenge and do something different – it could spark off a whole new direction for you!

5. There’s always macros

Inevitably, there will be days when the weather keeps you indoors. Days when you’ve eaten supper, put the kids to bed, and realised you haven’t got today’s shot. Don’t give up! Macro photography can save the day for you. There are so many interesting details in everyday objects around the home – get in close and show us a new angle. Arrange some lamps to light it in an interesting way. Showing a small part of something in an abstract way can really get people wondering what your photo is.

6. Tell your story

There’s more to your photo than just the image. Why did you take it? Where were you? How did it form part of your day? We all like to know the story behind the photo.

7. Keep on going

There will be days when you think there’s nothing new to photograph, and your creative juices have run dry. Rubbish! Go for a short walk, the world is on your doorstep. You can find something to inspire you. Have you walked down all the street in your neighbourhood yet? How about near work? Is there something interesting in a box in the loft or basement? Is anyone visiting today – you could try a portrait.

8. Share your photos, share your passion

Photos are for looking at, don’t just leave them on your computer. If you have a blog, post them there. If not, take a look at sites like Flickr and 365 Project. They let you share your photos for free, and make new contacts – you can give each other encouragement, inspire one another with your ideas. There is even a group dedicated to this at Flickr 365 project.

See Photo-a-day project – day 1 for my first photo in my own project.

Have you got a photo-a-day project? Leave us a comment so we can look at it.

Have you ever wondered why the humble camera strap is the way it is?

Black Rapid RS-5 camera strap

Landscape photography was not so bad. I’d put my kit in a photographer’s rucksack, the weight was evenly distributed, and those hills stayed still long enough for me to get my gear out and set up without missing the shot.

But photography while sightseeing, or walking about an urban environment didn’t work so well. My manufacturer-supplied camera strap would pull on my neck and back if used in the traditional position (which also left the view screen banging onto coat fasteners – and led to a scratched screen), or if I slung it ‘bandolier-style’ across my body, that left the lens sticking out from my hip for passers-by to jostle.

Presumably Ron Henry, the founder of Black Rapid and an experienced music and wedding photographer had the same problems, because he invented a range of camera straps to make carrying cameras more comfortable and easier and quicker to handle.

Pay money for a camera strap? My camera came with one included!

Black Rapid FastenR connected

The Black Rapid RS-5 is well made, with strong stitching, a padded area and a breathable mesh underside where the weight rests on your shoulder. It attaches to your camera using the tripod mount, using Rapid’s FastenR (a connector made from solid stainless steel, with a D-ring and a high-grade rubber compression washer that ensures a good, tight fit). One advantage of this is that if you have a large lens with a tripod mount, you can attach the strap to that, helping the balance when you carry it. The length of the strap is adjustable, so you can get your camera hanging in a convenient position so that your hand falls on the camera grip. When you grip your camera and move it up to eye level, the connector slides up the strap, ensuring it doesn’t ride up. The strap also has useful pockets big enough for a battery, memory card and mobile ‘phone.

I’ve taken my Black Rapid RS-5 strap on a few trips, where I knew that I didn’t want to carry a hefty camera bag around, and wanted quick access to my camera for street photography. Five days in Paris was great, and I got plenty of shots that I’d have missed if my camera was in a bag, and had no difficulties with the weight of the camera. I also felt more comfortable with the way the camera rests by your side, with the lens perpendicular to your body – no more jostling against passers-by or worries about banging the lens.

Conclusion

It seems ridiculous that I spent a small fortune on camera bodies and lenses, yet all this time a $65 camera strap could have made using them much more comfortable and convenient. My Canon strap is now at the back of a drawer, never to see the light of day again. Highly recommended.

Here’s a video that shows the ergonomics of the strap.

The Panasonic Lumix GF1 is available from Amazon.com in the following configurations:-

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 with 20mm f/1.7 Aspherical Lens

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 with 14-45mm Lens

“Do you want a compact 12mp system that almost rivals a 5D, fits in your pocket and produces knockout results? A landscape camera capable of truly remarkable images, with RAW output that will literally make you double take? A hiking companion without compromise? Bridging the gap at last, the GF-1 has me spellbound.”

Read about his experience in his article Panasonic GF-1 Review in the Landscape.

If you are interested in how David manages to achieve such an impressive depth of focus on this camera, read the comments below the article, where he explains how to focus the lens hyperfocally when you have no lens markings.

Reviews

Click links for full reviews.

DPReview – Highly Recommended

“with the excellent low-profile 20mm F1.7 lens attached the GF1 becomes a sublime thing that (if you can live without a zoom) genuinely fills the yawning gap twixt the worlds of compact cameras and SLRs. It’s fast, fun, capable of stunning results in raw mode (and competitive results in JPEG mode), offers decent HD movie capture, and has enough features to satisfy even the most enthusiastic tweaker.”

The Luminous Landscape

“In the final analysis what we come down to is that the GF1 is likely the best of breed at the moment, but not a panacea for someone looking for a semi-pocketable large sensor camera.”

Camera Labs – 85%

“So our review of the fourth Micro Four Thirds body is another glowing one, and in many respects the GF1 is the best model yet. It’s a lot less physically compelling when fitted with the 14-45mm zoom, but mount the 20mm and you’ll have one of the most satisfying combinations we’ve used for a long time – and one which easily comes Highly Recommended. Of course, fit this lens on the E-P1 instead and you’ll enjoy the benefit of stabilisation too – but as we said a moment ago, regardless of how many times we cover the pros and cons, you’ll already have your favourite body and are unlikely to be swayed.”

Imaging Resource

“Overall, the Panasonic GF1 is an extremely good camera for such a small package, recording impressive detail thanks to its quality sensor, image processor, and fine optics.”

MacWorld – 4 out of 5

“The DMC-GF1 provides a very satisfying shooting experience. Responsive and easy to work with, the camera has a sound and feel that is very similar to a 35mm rangefinder camera.”

ByThom compares the GF1 to the Olympus E-P1, particularly with respect to jpeg quality, and scores it 3/5.

Software Support

The GF1 RAW file format is recognised by Adobe Camera Raw and Apple’s Aperture version 3.

Eye-Fi Support

I was interested in whether the Eye-Fi range of cards would work on the GF1, as it could provide an easy way to geotag. I asked the following in the Eye-Fi forums:-

Panasonic Lumix GF1 + EyeFi Geo + Aperture 3?

I’m wondering if this combination would work?

I think the tricky thing would be that I use RAW format instead of jpeg. What would happen to the geotagging information?

Maybe if the GF1 can shoot RAW+jpeg, the geo data would be embedded in the jpeg, and I could marry the info up with the RAW in Aperture?

The Eye-Fi guys replied:-

The Geo card does not transfer RAW images only the Pro Cards can do that, and only JPGs can be geo-tagged by the Eye-Fi Cards.

So to answer your question if you used a Pro Card with your Lumix and shoot in RAW+Jpeg you can then use the geo-data from the Jpegs to add it into the RAW files using Aperture. Also please keep in mind that the Eye-Fi Cards do not import directly into Aperture, only to a folder on the Mac (or into iPhoto) so you will have to import them yourself.

Since I have an iPhone, I decided to use that to geoteg my photos within Aperture 3.

Exposure compensation is your friend

Your camera expects the average exposure of your photo to be 18% grey, so when faced with a lot of really bright, white snow, it under-exposes by 1 – 2 stops, to bring the overall exposure back to what it expects.

To correct for the sensor under-exposing, use your exposure compensation control, to over-expose the scene by 1 – 2 stops, and your snow will come out looking white, instead of a dull grey.

Check the picture and histogram once you’ve taken the shot, to see if you have got it right.

If your camera has exposure bracketing, you may want to turn this on, so that you get a shot both over and under-exposed, either side of your settings.

I would always recommend shooting in RAW mode too – you can do a certain amount of exposure compensation back on your computer. But always try to get it right in camera, if possible.

Snow scene shot using evaluative metering and no exposure compensation

Snow scene shot using evaluative metering and +1 ev exposure compensation

White Balance

If you have set your camera to use auto white balance, then your snow may have a blue color cast to it when you view the image. This is caused by the snow reflecting the sky.

To correct this, you need to set the correct white balance for your conditions. You can do this either by choosing a fixed setting that your camera provides (such as “sunny” or “cloudy”), or by setting a custom white balance. This is usually done by taking a photograph of the snow, so that the color that should be white takes up most of the central area of the image, then choosing “custom white balance” from the camera’s menu system and choosing the photo you have just taken (check your camera manual for the exact procedure on your model).

The camera now knows that the snow should be white, and sets the white balance accordingly.

If you didn’t set your camera up with the correct white balance, don’t panic! As long as you shot in RAW, you can change the white balance in a program such as Photoshop. You will be able to pick from a list of preset values (again, “sunny”, “cloudy”, etc.) or use a color-picker tool (an eye-drop shaped icon) in the white balance settings to pick the snow as your white point.

Snow photo using auto white balance - notice the blue color cast

Snow photo with the white balance corrected - no blue color cast!

Cover: Cumulus mediocris clouds over Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, as seen from Arthurs Seat, 2.30 pm, August 2007.

Some pictures simply demand to be taken, says Ben Albrecht, owner of a jewellery gallery in Melbourne. Ben had just enjoyed lunch with his wife’s family from Italy at a Mornington Peninsula vineyard when they stopped at Arthurs Seat. The lookout offers one of Victoria’s most spectacular panoramas over Port Phillip Bay.

“It was an amazing day (in August 2007), blue as blue, with two cloud layers,” Ben recalls. “So still, with only one boat visible.” A keen photographer from schooldays, Ben always keeps a camera in the car.

January: Clouds over Clonbinane, central Victoria, hold the promise of showers or thunderstorms, 7 November 2007, 6.25 pm. The clouds are stratocumulus cumulonimbogenitus (front centre), cumulonimbus capillatus (rear left) and altocumulus (top left).

Educational consultant Ross Kimber has been a keen photographer for 30 years and takes his camera everywhere. He was returning to Melbourne on the Hume Freeway in November 2007 when he spotted a storm near Clonbinane as the sun was setting. “I loved the light on the paddocks; the impending drama,” he recalls. The Bureau had forecast the risk of a shower or thunderstorm about the hills near Melbourne. Ross says he was worried the light might have faded before he could stop the car and take a photo, but fortunately he caught “a beautiful moment in time”. Ross says digital photography has made a huge difference to his pastime. “No more prohibitive film costs, no more lab work; I’m in complete control,” he says.

February: Rain falls at sunset on Paroo Station, Meekatharra, central Western Australia, 1 April 2007, 6.15 pm. The clouds are cumulonimbus praecipitatio.

Louise Ford is a keen photographer and pastoralist on Paroo Station, near Meekatharra, central Western Australia, where she and husband Jim run 1000 cattle on 200,000 hectares. The thunderstorm that contributed useful rain to their property in April 2007 — “we usually need a good, soaking rain,” she says — excited Louise. She rushed to the back of the homestead and photographed the storm as the sun set.

March: A rainbow forms over Victoria Dock and SullivanÕs Cove, Hobart, during pre-frontal showers, 23 February 2008, 4.55 pm. The clouds are nimbostratus praecipitatio.

Web designer Jamie Scuglia enjoys his holidays around Australia, camera always on standby. In February 2008, Jamie was ensconced in a Hobart hotel and by late afternoon was glum about the less-than-summery water view. But the room turned out to be the right place at the right time as the sun came out during a rain shower and fashioned a rainbow over Victoria Dock and Sullivan’s Cove alongside the Derwent River. “The interesting lighting lasted perhaps 10 minutes,” he recalls.

April: A sea fog blows in over Newport beach, late 2004.

Professional photographer John Grainger frequently pursues weather phenomena around Sydney. In November 2004, he was in the central city about midday when he caught a glimpse of fog coming in from the sea. Hoping the sea fog would linger, he drove to the northern beaches, stopping at each headland to check the backdrop for his photographs. After about an hour he reached Newport Beach and waited for the fog to thin a little to reveal glimpses of buildings, bathers and Norfolk Island pines.

May: Irisation or cloud iridescence amid cumulus cloud at Katherine Gorge, Northern Territory, 2 December 2005, 3.30 pm.

Enthusiastic photographer Peter Ostry frequently visits friends in the Northern Territory and particularly enjoys photographing the territory’s famous thunderstorms. But one tranquil afternoon in December 2005 he was “doing the tourist river cruise” on the Katherine Gorge when the peace was broken by his niece Angela who cried: “Look at that!” while pointing to rainbow-like colours amid the clouds. Peter, a refinery production operator at Geelong in Victoria, reached for his camera and captured an unusually bright cloud iridescence. “It was a spectacular hour-long display of intense colour during the build-up to the Wet season,” he recalls. “I’d only seen fleeting examples before.”

June: Aurora australis (the Southern Lights) over Casey station, Antarctica, 28 June 2008, 11:27 pm. The green colour is emitted when oxygen atoms in the upper atmosphere are struck by charged particles from the sun.

Todor Iolovski quit his job as an electronics engineer for the adventure of a 14-month Antarctic posting as a Bureau of Meteorology Technical Officer (Engineering) at Australia’s Casey Station. In June 2008, on a clear, windless night at about midnight, Todor’s 30-year passion for photography enabled him to endure two hours outdoors at minus 20 degrees to take 10 long-exposure photographs. His picture of the Aurora australis was an exposure of 3 minutes 40 seconds, which also captured star trails as the earth turned. “In such very dry conditions, the camera won’t freeze,” Todor says, but he kept four spare batteries in his pocket because they can fail at such low temperatures. “The hard part was wandering around for new vantage points as the aurora changed direction, from east, to north-east, to south.” Todor only went inside when it got too cold to change the batteries.

July: A storm front and rain approach yachts anchored at Rushcutters Bay, Sydney, on the afternoon of 7 August 2008. The clouds are cumulonimbus with arcus (shelf cloud) and praecipitatio (rain).

Terry Ross, a former current affairs cameraman, now enjoys a less stressful life as a real estate photographer. But urgency was the order of the day mid-afternoon in August 2008 when he glimpsed storm clouds rolling over Sydney harbour — “huge, like a big cigar”, he says. Terry sped to Rushcutters Bay, possibly ignoring a number of road rules. “I was thinking madly of the right lens and exposure; it’s no good to just whack it on automatic mode.” He shot a dozen frames in a minute and got soaked retreating to the car. The thunderstorm, rain and small hail that hit Sydney was due to a cold front and low pressure system that had moved across New South Wales, producing heavy rainfall in the south of the state and snow on the Central Tablelands earlier in the day.

August: Sun shines through dense smoke near Mt Lindsay, Denmark, southwest Western Australia, April 2004. The smoke was from a fuel-reduction burn.

Kade Bouwman always keeps his camera nearby when he operates earthmoving equipment around Denmark, near Albany, in southwest Western Australia. His enthusiasm paid off in April 2004 when he watched helicopters drop a ring of fire bombs into forest near Mt Lindsay for a fuel reduction burn. “Soon there was a circle of fire — and whoof, suddenly the updraught drew flames into the middle, and up she went, spectacularly but briefly. Thirty minutes later, everything was quiet.”

September: Floodwaters move through Ourdel Station, Windorah, southwest Queensland, on a February afternoon, 2008. Stratocumulus stratiformis clouds are overhead. Windorah is in the Channel Country, which drains to Lake Eyre.

Happiness is being belted into a small helicopter without a door and leaning out to photograph a vast southwest Queensland landscape under water. Cyclonic rains had transformed the state’s Channel Country in February 2008 for only the fifth time in the past 30 years, and local school principal and station owner Helen Commens was there to record it. She says she was glad to have captured just a fraction of “this amazing 360-degree water world”, before the run-off drained slowly from Cooper Creek to inland Australia. The flooding at Windorah lasted for about six weeks and peaked at about six metres on 29 January.

October: Mammatus cloud associated with cumulonimbus over Derby airport, northwest Western Australia, at sunset, 9 December 2004, 6 pm, in memory of Maria Elizabeth Robinson.

Few people know Western Australia’s vast landscapes as well as Tony Robinson. For seven years he was a pilot with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, operating out of Port Hedland and Carnarvon, and is now a flight operations inspector for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. Tony has also worked out of more than 30 major and minor airports, always with a camera ready in the cockpit or the car. This routine paid off late one afternoon in December 2004 when thunderstorm clouds appeared over Derby airport in northwest WA. The mammatus clouds, associated with a deepening trough or front, loomed briefly “out of nowhere” from the base of the storm cloud directly over the small terminal.

November: A thunderstorm front approaches New Brighton Beach, north coast of New South Wales, 30 December 2008, 4.03 pm, with cumulonimbus clouds and stratocumulus extensions in the foreground.

Kathryn Lynch’s family knows she will drop everything and be out the door with her camera when dramatic weather looms near their home at Pittwater, on Sydney’s northern beaches. The recent convert to photography is “really, really enjoying it, becoming a real weather watcher, and taking two cameras everywhere.” Kathryn was holidaying near Byron Bay in December 2008, and was tracking a storm on the Bureau of Meteorology website when conditions became very hot and still mid-afternoon. “Then a terrific wind whipped things along the beach as the tail-end of the storm came over,” she says. “I kept on shooting, shielding the camera between shots; and the cricketers also played on.”

December: Lightning under cumulonimbus cloud, Moana Beach, south of Adelaide, 6 December 2005, 1.14 am.

John McDermott, an opal miner, artist and keen photographer, was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. In December 2005, in the middle of the night, John was standing knee-deep in the shallows at Moana Beach, south of Adelaide, photographing lightning and its reflection in the water. “Suddenly I felt an electric charge in my hair,” he recalls, “and the tripod was resonating with a bit of a hum like a transformer.” He quickly splashed to dry land, and now vows: “I’ll only do that once!” John’s technique for photographing lightning is to leave the shutter open and use quick reflexes to close it.

All photographs are copyright the original photographers credited.

More information on the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Calendar and the weather phenomenon depicted in the photographs is available from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology web site.

1. They want to see some of my photos
2. They want the address of my web site
3. I don’t have any photos to show them, nor a pen and paper to scrawl down my web site details on

I thought I should finally remedy these things, so the question was, How?

Business cards are, well, let’s face it, for squares like accountants and solicitors, and being a photographer, I needed something cool and creative. So I ordered some Moo MiniCards.

What are Moo MiniCards?

Moo MiniCards are like business cards, but far, far funkier. They have less height, and Moo will print your photos on one side, and your details on the other.

How many photos can you use? Try a different photo on every card (of course, you don’t have to have a different photo on every card, but it wouldn’t feel right to have them all the same).

The clever thing with the photos is that you don’t have to prepare and upload every one. Moo can talk to your Flickr, Bebo, Etsy or Facebook account, and grab the images from there. You then get to position the card template over the area of your image you want printed. It’s easy and simple.

What are they like?

I ordered some cards to promote my personal website, and a holder. They came well packaged, and greeted me with a cheery message. The Moo guys obviously have an eye for detail and a sense of humour.

The holder is designed to open with one hand, and swivel to reveal your cards. It comes with a welcome card and some discount cards to give your friends.

The cards themselves are really nice – they are made from a thick card, and are laminated, giving them a satin finish. The colours are true to the original photos, and the black and white ones show no colour cast and smooth tones.

The cards sit perfectly in the holder, and are easily slid out with your thumb.

I’ve been very impressed with the Moo MiniCards. They are of a higher quality than I had expected, and at the time I ordered, cost £11.99 (UK) or $19.99 (US) for 100. I’ve already given away all my discount cards to friends who want to order some for themselves, so I can’t be alone in admiring them!

Moo MiniCards have developed a bit of a cult following – they even have a flickr group with over 10,000 members, dedicated to people showing off their designs.

Moo MiniCards are available from Moo.com, and ship worldwide.

Shell-shocked US soldier awaiting transportation away from the frontline. Têt Offensive, Hué, South Vietnam, 1968.

Don McCullin’s professional life has several ironies in it.

Recognised as one of the UK’s leading photojournalists, he failed his photographic theory test while serving in the RAF, and was unable to become an RAF photographer. This led to him spending his national service in the darkroom.

Although he won many prestigious international awards for his work, and was honoured with a CBE in 1993, he was refused permission to cover the Falklands war by the British Government, and entry to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf war.

It is his ability to capture the human-scale experience of world events that has made his work so potent, and revealed the tragedies behind the headlines.

Making his own destiny

The Guv'nors

McCullin’s first-ever published photograph, The Guv’nors, captured a gang from Finsbury Park, London, outside a dilapidated house. It was first published in the Observer in 1958 after a policeman was murdered by one of the gang members. McCullin later flew to Berlin in 1961 on his own initiative to photograph the building of the Berlin wall, which resulted in him winning the “British Press Award” and getting a year’s contract with The Observer. After covering the civil war in Cyprus in 1964, and winning the 1965 “World Press Photo Premier Award”, he covered the civil war in the Congo, which after being liberated from Belgian rule, was torn apart by ethnic conflict.

In 1966, McCullin joined The London Sunday Times Magazine, a relationship which lasted two decades and saw his photos covering famine in Africa, the Vietnam war and conflicts in the Middle East, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Northern Ireland, Uganda (where he was banned for life by Idi Amin) and El Salvador published amongst the glossy weekend ads, waking British people on a Sunday morning to the plight of the rest of the world.

McCullin's reputation had spread beyond his peers by 1968 - The Beatles even requested a photo-shoot with him, where he captured some great moments between the band members.

This is England

Early Shift.

Despite being best known for his photography covering conflict and crisis abroad, Don McCullin returned to England between these world events to document the lives of the poor and socially disadvantaged in his home country. He spent a lot of time in the North East of England, amongst the poverty of working families in the mining and steel industries. I can relate to a lot of these photographs, as I spent 17 years living in the area, and despite four decades having passed, much of the social disadvantagement he shows is still present today.

Sentenced to peace

I have been manipulated, and I have in turn manipulated others, by recording their response to suffering and misery. So there is guilt in every direction: guilt because I don’t practice religion, guilt because I was able to walk away, while this man was dying of starvation or being murdered by another man with a gun. And I am tired of guilt, tired of saying to myself: “I didn’t kill that man on that photograph, I didn’t starve that child.” That’s why I want to photograph landscapes and flowers. I am sentencing myself to peace.
– Don McCullin

Towards an Iron Age hill fort, Somerset, 1991

100 Photos de Don McCullin covers his career, with some of the best examples of his work across all subjects. Many of the images are sad, some express hope, all are moving. The lustre finish to the pages suits the, at times gritty and distressing, documentary style in many of the photographs. But his work isn’t without moments of joy. The young Teddy boy at a dance, the Beatles larking about and a young couple dressed up to go out all feature in this book, and show another side to the world McCullin has witnessed. Highly reccommended.

All photographs in this article are copyright Don McCullin.

Don McCullin Interviews

There is a great BBC interview with Don McCullin on the BBC website.
The National Media Museum has an interview with Don McCullin.
Don McCullin talks about poverty in this video interview.

Don McCullin books

100 Photos de Don McCullin pour la liberté de la presse is available from Amazon UK, but alas, does not seem to be on the US Amazon site at this time.

There are, however, many other fine books by Dan McCullin available.