I was weened on Amateur Photographer magazine. That was many years ago when a typical headline was " New Ilford FP4 now on sale" and the For Sale pages gave me hours of lusting over a F2AS or 500CM with one lady owner. In the main these days I never look at AP, except a sideways glance in the supermarket at another front cover offering me another "Shoot out - Nikon xxx v Canon xxx".
The only magazines I read are the BJP and Black and White Photography. They fit my need as a photography student. BJP to frustrate me due to its content and B&W to frustrate me due to my lack of expertise compared to the best monochrome workers. So, enter a new read and its an online magazine called "Great British Landscapes". Its in its 12th issue and having seen that they mean business I have signed up for a year. You can find it here and Issue 1 is free. Co written by Joe Cornish and Tim Parkin it includes work by a number of quality landscape photographers. The jewel, in my opinion is the video content where Joe works on an image in Photoshop and creates the final photograph. My Photoshop technique has got stale and seeing a master at work has encouraged me to try a new work flow and to be gentle with the image, slowly slowly, rather than my current 2 minute rush for the finish. Critiques, featured photographers, interviews, debate and technical articles make it a good read.
A second development, almost forgotten after FOCUS, is that my Lee Big Stopper has arrived after a long wait in the queue. A BS is a ND filter with a 10 stop factor. It is 100mmx100mm and fits the standard Lee holder. I know its already a bit old hat using one of these but having 5 minute exposure times in daylight is an interesting avenue. Movement recorded as swirls of light whether its water, clouds, cars or people allows me to create new work for myself and whether it gets into the coursework, we will wait and see. I am so conscious of the cliche, but while Michael Kenna gets away with it there is no reason why I shouldn't.
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