This post is all about how she advised me to overcome the technical frustrations and lack of experience that I believed were holding me back.

Books such as Within the Frame by David duChemin, have helped people like me – hobbyists, amateurs, semi-pros whatever label you choose – to understand the criticality of the right blend of technical mastery (the craft) and vision – the ability to use that craft visually to express a compelling story. This mix of craft and vision is David’s sweet-spot, but I also find it helpful to think of it in a slightly different way – the science and art of photography respectively.

For me, the science of photography is the tools, techniques and rules of photography. This might be the film speed, the aperture, the lens selected, the shutter-speed chosen or the camera body used, for example. It might be the use of hot shoe flash to enhance a light source or knowing that selecting f2.8 over f16 will have an immediate effect on depth of field, color tone, the available shutter speed and the ISO required to ensure the correct exposure. Other examples might include: understanding how to meter correctly, or how to do panning shots, or what the rule of thirds is. They are all important because they allow you to execute the image technically. And there is a fairly exhaustive list that covers “how” to take the picture.

The art of photography though is the “Why to” take the picture. What aesthetic am I trying to convey with this image? What is the story we are telling and what is the right context to show? Once these are clear then you work on the “how to” – the science of executing that vision. Having mastery over the science allows you the freedom and confidence to experiment, to break the rules, to innovate. Photographers are creative by nature and use different visual effects to tell their story. They use light, contrast, color, pattern, motion, stability; They capture emotion, sentiment, empathy, compassion, humanity. They achieve this by having the skill, experience and confidence that mastery of the craft allows them. But it is the “why” they are taking that picture that will be differentiating.

In my review with Ami, we spent over 50% of our time exploring the “why” – what aesthetic was a I creating? what story was I telling? why was I there? Why had I composed the shot in that way, or selected that lens? Only towards the end of our time together did we explore where I thought my technique was holding me back or frustrating me. As I began to discuss this with her,  I realized that I was being very “left brain” about how I took my images. I kept looking at everything from a very logical, procedural approach, worrying about technique. It was limiting me. For example I would think that when I had mastered metering complex lighting, only then could I advance to take shots that could utilize this technique or when I had mastered the technical aspects of panning, only then I could focus on getting great dynamic or motion shots. Ami helped me to reverse that perspective and see the technical challenges in the context of the artistic need. Most of my barriers, I realized were self-imposed. Whilst I thought I was squandering the great photographic opportunities provided to me by living in Cairo because technically I was not competent enough, ironically the reality was that I was squandering them because I was not thinking artistically. I wasn’t focused on the humanity, the story telling, the environment or the aesthetics. Until I do that, my images would not be differentiating.

If we look at the image of the young boy in a mosque (above left), you can see that the highlights are a little blown out on his shirt. It spoils what otherwise would be a very powerful image. I let the excitement of the moment – discovering this boy sitting in a shaft of light with all the others around him focusing on getting to evening prayers – get the better of me. Although I bracketed and tried different types of metering to cover my bases, I wasn’t really in full control. I was doing  what the books told me to do, and I understood why I had to do that but my actions were not based on experience or deep understanding. But when it mattered, under pressure, it wasn’t second nature, and so inevitably my image needed rescuing in Lightroom afterwards – and even then I cant really overcome that clipping. Ami’s cure for this was very simple. Just get to the point where the camera is just an extension of you. Every time you leave the house take your camera with you. It doesn’t always have to be a pro DSLR, but ideally take the camera you want to become really familiar with, put an unobtrusive lens on it and go a out and take photos. So, if you are going to the supermarket, take the camera with you and practice. Seems silly? If I told you that this is exactly what Ami does when she goes to the supermarket, would that help it sound less silly? When you no longer have to look up from the viewfinder to change the settings, or to think about how something will look or feel, then you are able to free yourself up to think about “why” you are there, what you are trying to show with your image and to ensure that the tools are there just to execute your vision.

In the second image of the praying Muslim man and his daughter, I included it in the review because I wanted advice. I knew it was not an image that I would normally share as there were aspects of it that just didn’t work, but I was frustrated that I had thought so hard about the technique and still not pulled the image off. I had visualized precisely what I wanted to take. A story that showed contrasts: dynamic motion of the blur showing movement versus the static nature of the child; the devotion of religion contrasting with the innocence of youth; the additional contrast of male and female, young and old. Potentially I had achieved some of those ideas, yet we can all see that the image doesn’t really work.

Ami’s advice was not to beat myself up over the technique. Although she added it is a little unusual for someone after a only a year of photography to be able to visualize in my head the image as clearly as I had, sometimes the image just isn’t there to be taken. In this case there were a number of factors that suggested this.

Firstly, the black bag was a major distraction. It would have mattered not where I stood, from which side or which angle, the bag would still have been there and still impacting on the image’s aesthetic. I should probably have just walked away and tried taking the image on another day.

Secondly the viewpoint itself created problems. By looking down on the subject, I have allowed a horizontal line to cross the man’s head, and one to go through his body. Both are dominant and distracting. Had I moved my camera to floor level, I would have also had a solid red backdrop from the curtain, less distraction from the carpet and removed those horizontal lines. This would have created a much more interesting picture – but of course the issue of the black bag would still have been there.

Thirdly with the exception of the man that was purposely blurred, the rest of the image was not tack sharp. Hand holding a long lens in low light will always prove a challenge, but Ami suggested sitting on the floor and using my body and crossed legs as a human tripod to create some stability or leaning against a pillar – anything to help stabilize the lens.

So overcoming technical issues and frustration at my lack of craft really boiled down to 4 things:

• Practise – every day if possible. If you are uncomfortable about a particular issue, go out and experiment and try and work out how to overcome it yourself.
• Know your strengths – Use these to your advantage but don’t neglect the areas that need work
• Relax – Don’t fixate on the technical issues and don’t be too hard on yourself
• Make your camera an extension of you. Take it with you everywhere.

Ami’s ability to pinpoint where I was technically and what the real barriers to progressing was nothing short of startling. She had me completely sussed within minutes! By nature I am a bit of a perfectionist and get easily frustrated when technique – the science – lets me down, because I know that for me, having the critical building blocks of the science mastered is what will allow me to really begin to express my art. I am beginning to understand that there is no secret sauce that full time photographers get given a recipe of or that there is not some secret code or answer that is shrouded in some sort of masonic secrecy. Their secret sauce is a tireless daily focus on their craft, but also ensuring that they apply as equal diligence to stimulating, nurturing and feeding their more artistic, visionary, creative side.

Ami, like others I have read or listened to, was in no way diluting the importance of that familiarity or comfort with the technology or the technique. But she is someone that – as many others will confirm – has not studied all the rules or the techniques, and is certainly not bound by them. Her focus is on the aesthetic, on telling the story. She shoots instinctively, and her advice to me was to stop thinking too much about the technical side and concentrate more on why my images should move people.

You can read the sequence of posts by clicking these links:
Slowing down with Ami Vitale
Having a reason to be there with Ami Vitale – Review critique Part 2
The science and the art of photography with Ami Vitale – Critique review Part 3
How to make compelling travel images with Ami Vitale – Critique review Part 4

Put simply, the advice was: Have a reason to be there. Tell their story.

Although Ami’s advice  was simple it still needs a little further explanation, so let me expand a little. The first thing that we need to do is to pick a subject and then tell the story of that subject. It doesn’t matter what the subject is, but in the act of creating a subject we create a focus for our images and the expectation that there is a story to be told. Maybe you don’t know the whole story yet, maybe the images are part of the journey. Maybe you have an idea, maybe a feeling or maybe an emotion that you are trying to share. But one thing is for sure is that the image that will really tell the story – the image that really connects with people – will come because you were acutely aware of the context. The story could be a single image or it could be a photo-essay – if it is the latter each image needs to stand on its own. But either way you can’t tell a story without a context. You can’t have the context without knowing what you are there to capture.

You are not just some accidental tourist, hoping to be in the right place at the right time to shoot the next iteration of Steve McCurry’s Afghan girl. This I suggest is missing the point. I am sure we have all done it. Day 1 of a workshop or holiday in a new country, over-run by potentially iconic shots and furiously snapping away as we tick off National Geographic’s next cover image in our mind. The reality though is that this scatter gun approach seldom yields result – it is akin to “being jack of all trades and master of none”.

And when we are out of synch with our environment then we are not really able to see where the real stories are. We haven’t tuned into the people around us and our part in their story.  As a result the images don’t quite hit the mark. They might be technically good, you might be a master of your craft but they still look like Marco Ryan images, not Ami Vitale images right?

For example let’s look at my picture of the “Egyptian man in the coffee shop” (left). A nice portrait, well executed and there is clearly a connection between us. Ami’s critique about the picture itself (good connection, great light, simple clean background, nice composition) were all positive and helpful, but, she suggested, had I shown him drinking coffee, or puffing on a sheesha pipe or a cigarette, the image would have had more impact. As submitted, you would never know where this man was sitting or what his story was – at least not from the picture. In fact, as Ami gently reminded me, the title tells you more than the picture – lovely though the light and tonal range might be! You’d never guess from this that he was a retired guide for the Pyramids would you? If I had slowed down, chosen my composition better, I could have given you a hint of  that story –  the tip of the great Pyramid was just visible through the window (out of shot) to the right. Why didn’t I include it? For once it was not because I was in a rush (see my last post about slowing down) – quite the opposite. I was probably just fixated on getting a good catchlight or the right tones or demonstrating my perceived mastery of the rule of thirds. The truth is I can’t remember. And that says it all doesn’t it? In effect I was in super-tourist mode (albeit a slightly over-camera’d tourist in this case!) and because I lacked a reason to be there – because I lacked a framework or context for the story – the picture became anonymous.

One of the ingredients that differentiates Ami’s images from, say, mine is that everything she shoots is contextual. Her images are compelling because they are a result of observation, communication, understanding and seeing the subject in the context of the story. She ALWAYS has a reason for being there. She always knows her story, her angle. And my images? Well if  I am brutally honest, they are probably still opportunistic. I kid myself that I am there for a reason – for example maybe I wanted to create a “Blurb” book as a Christmas present on “The Artisans of Old Cairo” –  but the reality is I am doing tick-box photo-journalism. In fact not even that.Tick box photo-tourism. It is not that the images are bad, it’s just that they are not great and they fail to really connect because I am not clear about what story I am trying to tell.

Because the real story is theirs, not mine. The real reason to be there is to capture some aspect of humanity, to tell their story. Travel photography is, Ami suggested, not about the location, but about being intimate with a place or a subject; seeing beyond the simple, and seeing things that create complexity in your images. You can only do that by knowing why you are there and what it is that you are trying to convey with your images.

Ami used my image of the father and son working on their lathe in their workshop (left) as dusk approaches, to amplify her point. As it stands it is a nice image. Good use of light, not bad composition, with some context provided by the use of contrast (both figurative contrast with the people’s difference in age and literal contrast with the use of light and shade) and with a a couple of things you might change (the red and blue bag behind the boy’s head for example). Overall then a pretty decent image. Yet it could be so much more. It is, Ami suggested, an image with potential. And here is is why.

It has the potential to tell an amazing story, but it loses impact because  it is unclear what  that story is. Is it about struggle? Is it about working conditions? Child labour? What does this image tell you? It loses impact because I haven’t provided the context and as a result it is unclear what story it is that I am trying to tell.

Lets pretend for a second that I had delivered an iconic image about manual labour. That starts to suggest a story. Manual labour, Ami suggested running with the example, is a powerful symbol of man’s toil for survival. It gives us a glimpse into the past, and a single portrait like this is like a single quotation: Interesting in its own right, perhaps even memorable, but when seen in context as part of a story, it can be so much more. In the (non existent) iconic version of the  image we are expressing the humanity of man’s struggle for survival. We have context. We have a reason to be there. Yet in my  actual version (left), because I lacked that reason, that context, so the story is unclear and the impact of the image is diluted.

Ami’s questions challenged my assumptions, yet inspired me to think differently. “What is the story then?”, she asked. It is simply not clear. Is it their suffering that they had no other work option or is this a joyous image of a father and son free to run their own family business? Is it the sheer daily graft that leaves them exhausted at the end of the day covered in oil? What were they making? What detail could we have shown that would have made this image more compelling? If I had spent all day there, would I have different images to show for it? What story would I be able to tell? Does my image express the humanity of the situation?

For example, Cairo is the second most densely populated city in the world, after Mexico City, with a population of about 26 million people. Yet this image doesn’t begin to convey that or to provide that context. Perhaps it was not meant to, but if you now view this image in that context, suddenly things change. It now becomes perhaps about their own private space, their room to breath amongst the suffocating urban sprawl. Perhaps the  toil and the light are symbolic of other small tradesmen struggling to eek an existence against the poverty that Cairo’s scale has made such an unhappy bedfellow? The message then is that the context and story are inextricably linked.

Of course I had seen this so differently before talking with Ami. Ami made me realise that having a reason to be there – having clarity about the story that you are telling – makes it relevant not just for me, but for them. Perhaps if I had gone there with a translator or learnt a phrase that explained why I was there, they might have posed or allowed me to spend the afternoon with them observing their life. Having the reason to be there then – that understanding of what story it is that you are there to tell – allows us to find the common ground, to be able to create the environment in which their story can emerge, rather than just being an observer with a lens.We become facilitators of them expressing their story not authors of how they fit into our story. Go back, she said. Go back to the same place time and time again with a story in mind. Spend time understanding the context, and then use that insight to create a compelling image, because in the case of the father and son above, the potential is there.

In my last post, I shared Ami’s advice on the need to slow down and immerse yourself in the environment. Each of the themes she raised with me  are strong enough to stand alone. Each one when applied independently will raise your game and improve your images. The real impact though happens when these themes get combined. Then we begin to see where the potential to improve really lies.

The next post will cover how to step-change our technical ability and craft, as well as overcoming technical issues and frustrations – again using a couple of images form the review set to illustrate Ami’s insight and advice. I count myself blessed to have been given such great mentoring. I would love it if, having read and enjoyed this, you felt motivated to share this with others. Please tweet, post on facebook, digg or whatever your social network preference is.

You can read the sequence of posts by clicking these links:
Slowing down with Ami Vitale
Having a reason to be there with Ami Vitale – Review critique Part 2
The science and the art of photography with Ami Vitale – Critique review Part 3
How to make compelling travel images with Ami Vitale – Critique review Part 4

If Ami’s portfolio is what you are after then visit her website, www.amivitale.com. It would be inappropriate let alone presumptuous for someone of my meager photographic talents to comment on Ami’s photographs. Many far more qualified than I have earmarked her as one of the truly outstanding photographic talents of her generation and I suspect the world is a better place for having someone of Ami’s skill, compassion and empathy using their visual story telling capabilities to help others.

So I am going to tackle this in two parts – the first part is this post about my experience and the process of having 10 of my recent images reviewed by Ami. The second part  - a series of 3-4 shorter posts – will each cover one of the key themes and detailed feedback, together with the ideas and suggestions that Ami gave me – which I think that others on similar “journeys” of photographic discovery may find helpful, re-assuring or even encouraging.

You can read the sequence of posts by clicking these links:
Slowing down with Ami Vitale
Having a reason to be there with Ami Vitale – Review critique Part 2
The science and the art of photography with Ami Vitale – Critique review Part 3
How to make compelling travel images with Ami Vitale – Critique review Part 4

Booking the time with Ami was something that I orchestrated through the website, The Compelling Image for a cost of $160 – which I think is incredible value and, dare I say it given the time I had with Ami and the benefits I gained, is too cheap! For those of you wanting to take an online course in photography, then do look at “The Compelling Image” – they have some truly outstanding professionals providing you with individual tuition, assignments and critiques for a very reasonable price. You can find out more about all of their courses, including the option to have Ami Vitale review your work, at www.thecompellingimage.com.

Anyway back to the review. I have to say it felt pretty nerve racking. Like many photographers I have that weird mix of wanting to share my images so that people can see them, but also nagging self-doubt that they are really good enough. You can imagine therefore my angst at having to submit 10 images to be formally critiqued by someone of Ami’s standard, even though I knew by her reputation that Ami, of all people, would provide incredible objective insight, advice and encouragement.

Ami Vitale Portfolio Review – Images by Marco Ryan

The first challenge was selecting which 10 images to submit. Now that sounds very arrogant – I don’t mean that I had so many great images to chose from that I struggled to sort the “chaff from the wheat”. Far from it. In my case I have so much chaff, that I struggled to find the wheat!  But obviously you want to show both your potential and also perhaps examples of where you are seeking guidance – the aim after all of such a review is to learn from somebody that you respect and whose work you acknowledge as being the type of quality that you aspire to achieve at some stage on your own photographic journey. I was conscious too that the images I selected would of course shape the discussion. Obvious when said like that, but I can’t tell you how long I spent wondering which ones to select – even taking advice from a couple of photography buddies to help me be objective about it! You can see the 10 images that I selected for review in the slideshow above and if you want to browse my other images then you can review those in my gallery.

The mechanics of the review are very straightforward. You select on the “The Compelling Image” website from a range of pre-ordained dates, when you want the review to happen; you pay your money, and on that day, the “course” is enabled for you. Once enabled you upload your images via the TCI website where you also have the opportunity to attach a commentary about each picture – why you had taken it, what you were trying to achieve, what you thought worked and what you thought didn’t etc.

Within hours of enrolling on the course – even though the course was still a few days off – Ami had been in touch by email. She wanted to know my background, my motivations my interests and then she wanted to arrange to have a chat with me via Skype on the day of the course (it is technically a one day course).

Ami could not have been more gracious or delightful. Full of ideas, full of encouragement and full of support, she began by seeking understanding about each image – Why had I chosen to submit this image? What did it mean for me? Why had I composed it that way? What other angles/viewpoints had I considered and why?  How many frames had I shot? How longed had I spent thinking about the image before shooting it? She had clearly prepared thoroughly for our call because as we discussed each image, Ami delivered real insight and the benefit of her extensive experience in identifying what is was that she liked or where there were areas she wanted clarification over.

Some images that I thought were my strongest, she liked, but usually Ami felt that they were missing something, or could have been better! Other images which I just liked, she loved – and for quite different reasons from me. As we went through each of the images, we kept returning to a number of dominant themes, but I am going to save those details and the specific critique for my next post. But at no stage was this dispiriting. Gavin Gough shared with me that “critiquing somebody’s photographs is only slightly less hazardous than offering thoughts on the perceived beauty of their children in my experience. It’s easy to offer praise alone and that’s often what reviewers resort to – or they go to the other end of the scale and pick things apart without offering encouragement”.

I can’t amplify sufficiently how productive, enjoyable and without being too over the top, humbling the whole review process with Ami was. It was just terrific fun. But of course it was also much more than that. It was incredibly focused, balanced between praise and constructive criticism, positive, helpful and motivating. Ami’s great skill is in simplifying things – helping the complex seem straightforward, removing the mental barriers that are blocking your ability to advance, and leaving you more reflective, upbeat and ready to go.  She makes you see things is an uncluttered and objective way, that as soon as she says them just seem so obvious that you kick yourself for making everything that went before so complicated. In just one hour I came away already thinking differently, motivated to just go and try new things and inspired by the opportunities that were now in front of me, yet also aware of what I should not repeat or get frustrated by.

Mentoring at its best, then. In terms of developing my photography I suspect I shall look back on this process as one of those seminal moments where I felt I had made a step change.

Like many who have met or know Ami – even virtually as I did – you realize that you have just spent time with someone very special.  There is an inner calm, a compassion and a genuine warmth in the interest she displays in you and your photographs that is all too rare these days. I too have joined the rapidly increasing Ami Vitale fan base!

Ami has kindly allowed me to share with you her comments and feedback. My next post will cover one of the key themes we discussed, using one of the images together with the comments I made as part of the submission process, and more interestingly, the critique that I received from Ami.

Please help and spread the word by clicking on the share button below, retweeting, facebook updates etc. And if you haven’t already done so, lose yourself for a few hours and get inspired by visiting Ami’s portfolio.