Life through a lens

PHOTOGRAPHYKNOWING HOW TO speak and write in English doesn't stop us valuing wonderful poetry and literature, and yet somehow the same is not always true of photography. We can all point a camera and, in this digital age, millions of images are produced every day. But the true magic of photography is less often appreciated. Father-and-son team Ed and Peter Gordon of ExploreLight are out to change this.

“Ever wondered why your photographs don’t capture what you’re seeing, don’t convey what you want?” asks Peter, summing up many people’s frustration with the medium. “It’s all to do with the fact your camera doesn’t work in the same way as your eye,” he explains.

Offering on-location landscape photography courses in the Wicklow mountains, the west of Ireland and further afield to the US, Ed and Peter aim to train the eye to see like a camera, and give you a few tips along the way (see panel), to get results that actually feel like your experience of what you are looking at. Their own work is on view this month in the exhibition space at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin’s Temple Bar, where snowy Wicklow scenes, pine forests, atmospheric lakes and misty views of Glendalough adorn the walls.

The experience of carrying his father’s photography equipment as a child initially put Peter off photography, plus the frustration that, as he puts it, “I couldn’t shoot what I saw”. So he chose to study history and politics at university instead. A Master’s degree in security and conflict studies at DCU followed, but it was during his long vacations that his love of photography grew.

“Dad travels a lot, and we’d meet up in places such as New Zealand, India and the US. We’d spend a couple of weeks working together and it would be intense.” Eventually, as he learned the craft, Peter realised that photography, not politics, was his passion.

Also in Temple Bar this month, at the Gallery of Photography, Ten Miles Roundby Jackie Nickerson demonstrates that, with an artist's eye, the camera can capture a totally different sense of Ireland. Nickerson's particular focus is her home county of Louth, and experiencing the evocative feel of her views of farmyards, muddy tracks, grasslands, living rooms and the people that inhabit them makes an interesting comparison to the Ireland of the Gordons' work.

The Gallery of Photography also runs a range of courses, from black and white photography and darkroom techniques, to portraits and documentary photography. Their courses are taken by would-be professionals and interested amateurs alike, along with masterclasses by some of Ireland’s best known photographers.

For yet another different "take" on picture making, the exhibition Unframed, at Man Made Images Gallery in Charlestown, Co Donegal, demonstrates the sheer range of images the medium can create, from evocative to uncanny.

Since the invention of the camera, however, our history has increasingly been told through images, and Picturing New Yorkat IMMA (December is proving to be a photography-lover's dream month) shows how a sense of New York has been shaped by iconic photographers such as Diane Arbus, Alfred Stieglitz and Cindy Sherman.

With a little extra know-how, our own photos could be adding to the developing story of Ireland, its moments and its memories. So, as Tanya Kiang, director of the Gallery of Photography asks, “isn’t that worth an extra effort?”

If you want to give the gift of better photography, vouchers are available from the Gallery of Photography and ExploreLight. Both can also advise buyers on what choice to make from the seemingly bewildering array of cameras on sale. The increasing sophistication of cameras actually makes it even more important to learn how to operate them. As Kiang says, “the cleverer cameras become, the cleverer we have to get to use them. It’s liberating when you can teach someone to switch off the ‘auto’ settings and take the pictures they want to take, not the ones the camera wants them to.”

FIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

• Early morning and late evening are the best times to photograph the landscape. Don't be afraid to get up early or stay out late to catch the best light of the day.

• Explore your local landscape and consider how locations might be affected by seasonal colour and different lighting conditions. Just because the shot isn't right today doesn't mean it won't be right tomorrow.

• Use a tripod. If you want to use your camera at optimum settings in early morning or late evening light, a tripod is essential for sharp images.

• Get to know the manual settings on your camera and start taking real control of your photography.

• Start to consider how your camera records light as opposed to your eye. An awareness of how your camera reacts to light allows you to pre-visualise outcomes and make much better images. Peter Gordon

ExploreLight Photography, www.explorelight.com. Smock Alley Theatre exhibition is on from December 9th to 23rd.

Gallery of Photography, www.galleryofphotography.ie. Ten Miles Round until January 24th.

Man Made Images Gallery, www.man-madeimages.eu. Unframed until February 19th.

Irish Museum of Modern Art, www.imma.ie. Picturing New York until February 7th, admission charge applies.