#365 PHOTOWALK: A BEAUTIFUL CURIOUS LIFE
Editorial and fine art documentary photographer Alys Tomlinson is my guest, whose curious mind and methodical personal research take her on photographic adventures to make beautiful stories about people, cultures and ideas we might otherwise never discover. There's a sub-theme also running today which aligns with the edition number as we learn together about attempting/making the ultimate personal photo project; 'The 365'. And, some news, about Africa' 24.
FURTHER REFERENCES WITHIN THE SHOW: Email your stories and pictures, our Facebook group, the Photowalk VERO, become an Extra Miler and support the show, Irvine Welsh, Jason Florio from episode 300 on an African adventure, Jenny Stein (The Family Photographer), Reuben Radding from episode 363, with additional GALLERY LINKS BELOW.
Our friends at MPB.com support this show; the number one platform in the UK, US and Europe (with bases in Brighton, Brooklyn and Berlin) when it comes to buying, trading or selling quality used kit online. They help us as photographers to tell our unique stories by providing a safe place to buy, trade and sell the kit we need and in doing so, we become a part of the sustainable circular economy. Buy used, spend less and get more at MPB.com.
Photographs above from Alys Tomlinson’s Gli Isolani. Photographs copyright. Not to be reproduced or used without express permission from the photographer.
Shooting into the sun and a strange find as I sketchbooked my pictures from the walk today.
VIDEO INSPIRATION
The Trainspotting author referenced by Alys Tomlinson during our conversation.
A personal travel vlog to Africa. Please excuse the self indulgence.
365 ADVICE
FROM JEFF STEWART
Neale, I am a new listener to The Photowalk podcast, and look forward to each episode. Into my second year of 365ing and my third week of photographing the latest 365, having started January 1st of last year.
It was after about two or three days into 2022 that I decided to continue shooting, and gave myself guidelines for how I wanted to challenge myself as if taking photographs every day wasn't enough. I joined the Project 365 Flickr group, and have been posting with them since the start.
I was going to shoot with my Samsung Galaxy smartphone, which I would have with me wherever I would be at any time of the day. My photographs were going to be square, and I would alternate between colour and black and white.
Starting a 365 in the middle of a Canadian winter can be quite a challenge, but I persevered.
Of all of the photographs taken in 2022, only four were shot inside my home. Most were taken within walking distance in Toronto. Some were taken on long solitary photo walks. Others were taken with other photo walkers, including the Toronto Photo Walks group. Some were taken on the coldest days of winter and the hottest days of summer; in the snow, rain, fog, and sun; and in the morning, throughout the day, and into the evening. Some were walked to, over kilometers, and others were driven to, with minimal walking involved.
I figure that I took about 30,000 photographs on my Samsung during 2022 to get 365 that I was satisfied with. I posted other photographs during this time period as well.
I have created two Flickr albums for my Project 365 photographs, as follows:
Project 365 (2023) and Project 365 (2022).
My advice; make it a habit. Make it a part of improving your mental and physical health. Enjoy the challenge.
One of Jeff’s 365ers.
FROM RICHARD YARP
Hi Neale, I completed a 365 in the middle of 2016. Like you mentioned on the show, you can start any day. I started mine in the middle of June, in 2015 and was able to complete it in June 2016.
It was indeed a challenge to ensure I kept it up. But once I had gone over 6 weeks it became routine. It was a challenge coming up with ideas each day. My family was only an occasional participant as they were not always willing to be a subject, as was our family dog.
As I was commuting into Houston daily (about 36 miles from our home in The Woodlands, Texas) I would try and make a stop either on my way to work, or on my way home, at places where I felt compelled to make a picture. Every evening I would download my photos on to Lightroom and quickly edit them down to my one good photo. I always felt better if I had what I thought was at least some good shots early in the day as the pressure would be off.
As for posting, I had gotten the idea of the 365 from another podcaster, Jenny Stein, who hosted The Family Photographer (currently idle although she has talked about bringing it back). I was an avid listener of her show and she started a Flickr Group for listeners to post their 365 photos. It ended up being an amazing community of photographers that all supported each other. Since then I have been doing a continual “52 Week” project for the past 6 1/2 years where I take and post at least a photo a week with that same group of photographer friends I made. With my 52-week project I have only missed one or two weeks since June, 2016.
The benefits of the 365:
Over the course of the year I took over 15,000 photos although only posted 365. Because of that, my technical skills developed very quickly
My compositional skills also developed rather quickly
I became a ruthless editor of my work. Even if I took 200 photos on a day, except in very rare occasions, only one photo/day made the cut to be posted
As my work got better so did the engagement I would see on Flickr. I have been fortunate to have been selected to be on Flickr’s daily Explore page approx 100 times since early 2016
My Lightroom skills also developed very quickly. I had been a user of Apple’s Aperture program but they had discontinued it in 2014-2015. This forced me to learn Lightroom
I got into the habit of carrying a camera with me daily. A habit I have pretty much kept to this day. I think this is a key to being successful. And yes, it was ok to use cell phone photos but as my goal was to improve my skills overall I pretty much kept to my DSLR at the time, a Nikon D80
At the end of the day this is your project, not anyone else’s. So, play by your rules. If you can’t get to post on a given day, don’t worry about it. Post them/it when you can. Some in our group would only post weekly. And if you miss a day, substitute a photo from another day.
I could talk on and on about the benefits and tips but I will leave it here for now. Here is a link to my album for that first 365 project on Flickr.
FROM STEPHEN SINNER
Sooo many thoughts about my first attempt (and failure?) at a proper 365 in 2022; so, what I learned, and what I hope to implement in my second attempt this year.
First up, being a stubborn literalist by nature, I started 2022 with the goal of posting a photo taken on the day it was posted every day of the year. Simple, right?
Simple until you realize 'real life' is all around you; family, weather, fatigue, 50+ hour work weeks and so on.
So it’s 2023, what am I gonna do differently?
You remember I said I'm stubborn, well, I still believe a 365 should be as I described, but with that said, I am now gonna allow myself a one-day grace period from when the photo was taken.
Other thoughts, goals, & objectives ...
not every photo needs to outdo the next (quit trying so hard, I guess?)
expand my subject matter, (it all does not need to be south city architecture - my subject)
photograph people (I have never really tried, but I do know it frightens me)
As a sidenote: it does give me hope to hear in almost all your interviews with street photographers that even they have to overcome fears, issues, etc when photographing people.
Anyway, not so short & sharp, but it does check off another objective for 2023... and that is to become more involved & interactive with "The Photowalk". It is a wonderful collection of folk!!
FROM KELLY MITCHELL
I have done a 365… I am surprised my hair didn’t turn grey! It was fun, but it was definitely a challenge, it was always easier to do while I was on holiday or a handful of days off when I had more time to work on it. I did learn after a while not to stress over it, and there were days that were missed, it’s life.
So then I decided, “Oh let’s do a ‘52 Weeks in Black and White'.’ I think I am a sucker for punishment. But it was fun, and I did learn from it… learned to look more and find some intriguing things. Some images I really did work on and some were the last minute kind, and there were weeks that were missed due to one thing or the other. But in the end, it was a good challenge and good fun.
This is an older site, so some of the links do not work anymore. But it does look like all of the images are still there. I should really figure out how to transfer it over to Squarespace. Oh look another project to work on haha :)
FROM GUSTAF JANSSON
And after listening to the last episode I want to share my 365-story; it’s not just about the challenge of doing a photo each day, it’s also a story about having a tool that differs from anything I’ve worked with.
Short backstory:
I bought a Fujifilm X-M1 as my first camera back in 2014, it was a great little camera, but I wanted more (as you do), so I got an X-T20 after some years, and then an X-H1 (after the price drop). With the X-Pro 3 released, I found myself interested in that kind of camera and bought a used one. That was the beginning of my love for rangefinder cameras.
After 7 years with different Fujis, I took the step and sold all my fuji gear, just to buy a Leica M10 and a TTArtisan 50mm f1.4. I had tried my friend’s M10r and the joy shooting, holding and handling that was on a totally different level! So I said to myself, you have to use this M10 every single day to learn the rangefinder system. So from day one, I started a 365 project to push myself. And I did!
With all the social media turbulence at Instagram during 2021/2022 I decided to publish my project exclusively on my Glass.photo profile. And it was a great place to make a project like that, the community is really supportive!
There’s a lot to tell about a 365-project, everyone who has done it, knows it. Anyone that plans to start one, just do it. But remember, you don’t need to be perfect!
After the last day of my project, I looked at all the photos and started to re-master them in BnW. I wanted to make something with this, it felt so empty just leaving them there. So I started to write new captions for the photos, some of them got a little story, some just a sentence. And now I’m almost ready to send a PDF to the printer. I will print a first draft to see how it looks, and the plan is to make documentation of this for pre-orders during late Jan/early Feb. Like a photo book, but very different.
Dropbox link to the preview of my first year with Leica and you can read more about my thoughts HERE.
It was my first year with Leica, a memory I will store on a bookshelf, and maybe on people’s walls.
Thanks for a great podcast!
FROM MALI DAVIES
As per you last podcast with Mr Mark Littlejohn, you talked about 365. Now I did one a couple of years ago, here is the LINK.
But now you have got me thinking of doing another! 365, 50 times around the sun. This is to coincide with my turning 50 and 5 years of YouTube. Hopefully a book or two at the end of it?
So being official and all that, big thanks for all the support, lovely comments and the community of people you have gathered. It is a joy, and I also can’t wait to listen to the podcasts and the extra-mile content. A true love of what you do and long may it continue.
Now get OVVVF MY LAND!
Sithee!
The opening photograph to my own 365 (NJ). Made as I walked by the lakes with Sir. Barkalot at sunrise.
