Videos are great for recording events and action. Every week most of us watch hours of moving images in some form or other.

So why do we still take still photographs?

When we see a moving image we watch it very much as we do real events happening around us. We look to see what it’s going to do. We enjoy trying to anticipate its next action. Because we’re concentrating on the action we take in relatively little of the detail of the image and concentrate largely on the aspects of it that are changing.

Because we are pre-occupied with action, we often miss detail. That is why it is quite common to see something in a still photograph that we did not notice when we were taking the picture. 

The still photograph doesn’t change, so we have time to study it in detail. A good still photograph therefore has the potential to convey so much more in terms of human emotion. We can see sadness, pathos, despair and tragedy as well as anger, joy, love and beauty. It has the potential to capture human strength alongside human weakness. A really great still photograph, much like a painting, has the ability of showing us something different each time we look at it.

Still photographs get hung on walls or stood on sideboards as a constant reminder of a point in time. Videos tend to be less enduring being archived into constantly growing storage capacity. 

Try to look good for the video camera, but make doubly sure that you look your best in those enduring stills.

email bob@lookgoodoncamera.com to find out more

Go to Home Page www.lookgoodoncamera.com 

To look your best in photos you need to be relaxed.While today’s cameras can produce good photos almost anywhere, for truly beautiful portrait photography you need to have the facilities of a photographic studio. I can show you how to look better in pictures anywhere, but if you want really great photographs you need studio lighting. Because it is necessary to reduce the resolution of images to make them manageable on the web, the difference in technical quality between photographs posted on websites is not always obvious. However you can get a feel for the difference by comparing shots in our gallery taken in studio conditions e.g. Cheryl, Guy, and Rose with those that were not taken in a studio e.g. Emma and Fiona. For many people the thought of just visiting a studio is daunting, let alone the prospect of posing for a photo-shoot. If you add to that the need to change clothes, hairstyles and make-up, all in an alien environment, then unless you are a professional model, you are almost certain to feel uncomfortable. If you are uncomfortable you are not going to look your best. Every good photographer knows that relaxing their subjects is crucial to producing good glamour, fashion, or portrait photographs: and that can be difficult when the subject is in unfamiliar surroundings.Just as cameras have got smaller, so accessories such as lights and backdrops have become more portable. So it is now possible to set up a studio in anyone’s home, provided that they have some electric points and 10 square metres or so of potential space (for those of you who like me who are more familiar with imperial measurements that’s about 10 feet by 10 feet). I have significant experience of setting up my studio in flats and houses. Yes it takes a little more time and I may have to re-arrange some furniture, but I am extremely careful and your carpets, furniture and paint-work will be safe with me!You have the advantage of being in your own environment, with your own changing facilities, close to all your clothes and personal grooming aids. Please give me a call or email me if you would like to know more.

email bob@lookgoodoncamera.com to find out more about looking good in photos or telephone 07920 130985

Go to Home Page www.lookgoodoncamera.com 

When I was a lad, cameras were expensive and difficult to use. (Black and white films only, you had to load and unload them in the dark, remember to wind on the film after each shot, take photos with no focusing aids………..). Small wonder then, that it took a camera competent photographer to produce anything approaching a decent photograph.

No matter how photogenic you were, uncle Fred’s photos were going to be pretty naff anyway. There were no computers and no internet. There was therefore no danger of finding photographs of yourself posted on websites or publically accessible photo albums such as Photobox, Pixmania, Kodak etc etc.

Technology has changed all that. Relatively inexpensive point and shoot pocket digital cameras can produce technically good photographs without any know-how being necessary on the part of the photographer. Once taken those photos can be uploaded onto computer and made available to a host of people via email, websites, blogs and commercial album sites.

So if you want to look good in all those photos that your friends and relatives are going to take (and then distribute to all and sundry), maybe you should take some positive action to make yourself more photogenic. It really isn’t difficult to look better in photographs. You just need a little practice.

Email me on bob@lookgoodoncamera.com for more information 

Go to Home Page www.lookgoodoncamera.com 

Being photogenic and looking good on camera have a lot to do with self-esteem. If you feel positive about yourself then you will present yourself in a positive way with naturally out-going body language and confident posture. As a consequence you will look better in photos taken of you.

Psychiatrists and psychologists have recognised the importance of raising self-esteem in the treatment and prevention of many cases of mental ill-health. As a physician myself, I am surprised that techniques to raise self-esteem are not used more widely to help mentally well people perform better, feel better about themselves, and thereby derive greater pleasure out of life. 

Our Look Good on Camera photo-shoots are designed to enhance self esteem and give you tips on how you can feed your self esteem whenever you have self doubts. Come on, book yourself in and start feeling good, looking good and enjoying life more than you ever thought possible.

email bob@lookgoodoncamera.com to find out more about looking good in photos or telephone 07920 130985

These fascinating primates are native only to Madagascar (and a few surrounding small islands where they were probably introduced by humans).  They are allegedly unique among primates in that their social structure is matriarchal i.e. the female is dominant to the male ( I know a few human families like that!).

They range in size from the diminutive mouse lemur (less than 50 grams) to the largest surviving lemur, the indri weighing about 10 kilograms.

I cannot claim to have helpled these guys look good on camera. They are naturals. I suppose wild animals don’t have as many “hang-ups” as we do. They are beautiful creatures and worth every step we had to take through what was at times some pretty inhospitable terrain. On one occasion we were lucky enough to be standing beneath a troop of indris when they went into their erie territory claiming call which can be heard from as far as a few kilometres away. Truly awesome.

For as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to go to Madagascar. I must have learnt of its existence sometime in my long-forgotten childhood. I don’t know whether it was in a book, a story someone told me, or maybe a postage stamp from one of those packets of assorted foreign stamps that you used to be able to buy in Woolworths. Whatever the reason it was somewhere that I had to go.

Madagascar Trip September 2007

Here are a few of the photographs I took in Madagascar on what was primarily a wildlife holiday (‘wildlife’ as in birds and lemurs not clubbing!).

Needless to say I couldn’t resist photographing some of the delightful people we met along the way. As I don’t speak Malagasy I cannot claim to have coached any of my subjects. I did however need to get them to smile (not always successfully). Our guide told us that “smile please” in Malagasy was “Be cheeky” (I’m sure that’s not how you spell it).

It struck me immediately that “Be cheeky” is just what I should be telling my subjects in English when I want them to come alive for the camera. You never stop learning….

This highly individual lady was selling pineapples from a rural roadside stall.

Here is a classical example of a picture that had to be taken even though the light was appalling and I did not have my best camera with me. This cheerful chap was working in an aluminium foundry. He’s standing on the top of the mold while his colleagues are pouring molten metal into it within inches of his bare feet.

Wherever we stopped, youngsters would appear as if from nowhere. They weren’t begging, just curious. They were amazingly happy and always willing to be photographed.

This colourful party were walking to a wedding or christening at a neighbouring village. The people here think nothing of walking many miles to market, to family celebrations or just to fetch water.

On one of our early morning trips in search of waterfowl we came across these women collecting water from the river. They carry the water back in buckets with a layer of weed on the top to prevent it slopping out along the way.

Madagascar is a fantastic country with amazing scenery and unique flora and fauna. But for me the colourful happy people were the stars of the show. I only regret that I did not spend more time photographing them.