Wisdom of the podcast.

I listen to podcasts; several in fact.

I know I'm not alone in this, but I'm surprised at how many of my photog friends don't subscribe. They're free, easy to listen to in your car, or on public transport (which I try to use on a day to day basis), and while there are duds, there are many good episodes.

One I listened to recently was Martin Bailey interviewing Don Komarechka. Don's a nature photographer from Ontario, who in addition to beautiful landscape work, shoots the most amazing snowflake photographs - see http://www.donkom.ca .

At the end of the podcast, Martin asked Don for three tips. He offered up the following gems:

1. Quoting a Life magazine photographer who was asked how he got such great shots: "Use f/8 and be there."  

In other words, whether you just get out of bed or travel, but put yourself in a position to make great photographs.

2. For his second tip, Don noted that many people return from trips with mediocre images saying "you had to be there". One of the reasons their shots aren't that great is because they don't try different angles - "work the shot" as they say. 

So the second tip was: "The world isn't 5 and a half feet tall."

3. The third tip was: Tell a story with your images, if you can.

He conceded this wasn't always possible - but we should look for it.

How true!

Happy Australia Day, 2013.

Shane Baker

Canberra