Duncan Raban

Blog Intro

Hello there I am Duncan.....hope you like the little video of me with Victor the Volvo ........… my aim in compiling this blog, as a very passionate photographer for 30 years, is to try and inspire people to get their cameras outand photograph the world around them more often …... especially people, those they feel close to such as best friends and of coursetheir family.......and not just for birthdays, barbecues, weddings and holidays. When did you last take 30 pictures in succession of a best friend or you parents laughing, perhaps sitting at a bus stop? i think the most ordinary things we do every day make the best pictures, for example pushing a shopping trolley quickly makes a great photo and makes people laugh see molly aged 80 with a trolley with 50 packets of weetabix . i set this up… however it’s funny.

But, please be warned: I’m one of the least technical photographers in the world. I simply have no interest in all that technical mumbo jumbo people talk about in digital terms, so you’ll not hear me talk about megabytes, jpegs, tiffs or ram. And I’m embarrassed to admit at the grand old age of 52 I’ve never sent a photograph digitally via a computer, and I do not use that very clever Photoshop thing everyone loves so much. Believe it or not until recently I thought Photoshop was a camera shop…. like Jessops.

Over the past 30 years, I’ve been fortunate to photograph some of the most glamorous people and events around the world… and enjoyed every minute of it. I rarely had a pass or received an invitation to any of them .......… but because I was eager to get new and different photographs, I got into them anyway. It’s amazing what a Gucci suit and posh tiecan do for you! In one book on photography, it said “there’s no need to invite Duncan to this event …he will be inside anyway”. I was even referred to as the ‘Cockney Gatecrasher’.

Now all that’s changed and the subjects of my latest photographs are the real stars of everyday life – ordinary people the ones we all walk past daily on the street or see in the supermarket. I enjoy talking to and meeting new people so this is a real joy for me. And when I photograph them, I try to bring to the surface in a second that certain sparkle that’s inside all of us. I like to photograph people at the peak of laughter, you know that moment when you are really laughing out loud and capture the joy in that persons face.

However, again there’s one thing I want everybody to understand. When people come up to me and ask me questions about what camera I use, my response is invariably the same – it’s not the camera that takes the picture, it’s the person. The camera is just a recording tool, a bit like a paint brush of an artist when painting a beautiful picture .......a more expensive brush will not help you to be a better artist.

A lot of people think that the more expensive the camera they buy the better the pictures they’ll take. Not true ............ A more expensive camera is a bit like a more expensive car, it has a bigger engine and more gadgets but you’ll probably only use a fraction of its potential. An expensive camera will certainly give you quicker and better quality images. However, the content - which is what makes a great picture - is the combined product of the eye and the mind of the person using it. I believe good photos come from years of observing things around you daily in life, and the creativity you are just born with.

So as you’ll have gathered, the blogs that follow are in no way technical, but are designed to give you an insight into what I see, the way I think, work and, at the same time, hopefully offer some tips and ideas you might usefully apply to your own adventures in photography. Here are just a few to start with…..

Duncan’s Top Tips:

TIP 1:

Try to carry your camera in your hand as much as possible and not in a camera bag, so it becomes as comfortable for you to hold as a pen or a mobile phone; so your camera becomes part of you, when you hold a pen its so natural and you just write or draw your creativity flows through your body straight through the pen onto the paper, this is how comfortableI believe your camera has to be, and then you focus on the framing of thepicture and its shape.

TIP 2:

Keep the lens cap off so you’re always ready to take a photograph. I think it encourages one to use the camera more…this may sound odd but I have never used lens caps …...... they are a restriction to me.

TIP 3:

Keep your camera with you at all times .....… yes I mean almost daily .… and take at least 20 photographs everyday, many of these ideally of people – this is a sure way to become a better photographer:

TIP 4:

Try getting people to pose for you – depending on the type of person you are this might be difficult at first, but keep at it;

You just have to say; “Hello there!” and flatter people….and give them a compliment. “Wow that’s a great hat you’ve got on today….where did you get it from?” We all secretly love a bit of recognition. Just say you like something they are wearing… it’s not easy if you are shy…. however, with practice you can do it…. Try one compliment a day. I do it 3- 4 times a day…. It will make you feel good too. And more importantly people warm to you and relax and your pictures will look less posed.

TIP 5:

To become a better photographer takes a lot of creative energy… but it’s only through practice you can ever hope to become perfect. Just like an artist we are continually learning… as I am everyday.

The photographs I’ll be showing you in these blogs will be the photos I actually took withmy camera and will notin any way have been enhanced or altered in Photoshop. I use iPhoto to load pictures on to my computer (the amateur software that is supplied free with every Applemac.) I use it because it’s as easy as brushing your teeth and because I want people to be able to see each of my photographs as near as possible in its original version. I want people to see my work in the raw, so to speak, because to me digitally enhancing a photograph takes away the soul of the original photograph.

Remember when you look at photographs pre 1980s taken by some of some of our heroes of photography… Robert Doisneau, Thurston Hopkins, Brassai, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Henri Cartier-Bresson… their photographs were taken on film, no changes were made except possibly a few crops to the print in the darkroom. Very often today people learning photography are seeing an image that is not the original photograph that was taken I feel this is cheating in a way .......... Of course Photoshop is a really wonderful tool,however it will never replace framing a photograph and pushing that shutter at just the right moment.

SO folks if you have read this far I hope you feel a little inspired to use that camera more, and keep the lens cap off. I hope you like my almost daily photo stories.

All the best

Duncan.

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