Olly Headey Photography
Captured #05: May 2024
The reason I’m out pounding the streets of Edinburgh so much is because I really enjoy photography and I want to get better at it, as quickly as I can. It’s that simple. Sometimes the mojo isn’t there, or I feel bored of visiting the same old places, but I drag myself out anyway because you need to constantly practice in order to improve. You also need to get used to failure, to making mistakes and learning from them.
If you go shooting and return with nothing it can be a little demoralising, but if you go out often enough then the wins start to outweigh the losses. If you only go out once a month and come back with nothing, you might get fed up and lose interest.
So if you have a chance to go shooting, take it. Rain or shine. Even if it’s just 30 mins over lunch. Take loads of photos (if you’re shooting digital!), accept most will be terrible, try new things and whatever you do, don’t overthink it.
Street Photography Workshop with Paul Reid
I spent a day on the streets of Glasgow this month with Paul Reid. Despite living less than an hour away I haven’t spent a huge amount of time in Glasgow, and I’ve never taken to the streets there with camera in hand. This is a shame as it’s such a great place to photograph. Gritty.
Paul’s workshop was great. I was lucky in that there were only two of us on it (normally there’s six), so we got a lot of hands-on advice, from composition to street portraiture, as well as being introduced to some interesting locations (some less salubrious than others, gotta say 😅).
It’s on the pricey side but overall I’d recommend. Paul also does a different workshop which is more focused on street portraits, usually in London but there’s one in Edinburgh at the end of July.
Here are some photos I took on the day. Quite pleased with them.
Apps Apps Apps
I’ve talked about Instagram alternatives on here before, and a new one caught my eye this month – Refrakt. This one feels rather special. It’s early days and it’s a (part-time) labour of love one person, but it’s quite remarkable how nice it is to use, and how complete it already feels. Much more so than foto. Or Lyrak.
Despite everyone’s public photos being used as cattle feed for Meta’s AI content farm, I’ll be sticking with Instagram for now because that’s where the community is. I’ll keep trying out these new and shiny products though because I genuinely think the world needs something made by for photographers. These competitor apps “just” need a critical mass of people to create an engaged and active community, and probably paying a small fee for the privilege (Refrakt Premium is $40/year – pretty good value).
Photos from May 2024
A selection of photos during May, some of which haven’t made their way onto social media. Exclusives! More on the ‘gram of course 😊📷
Reading matter
What I’ve been reading this month.
FujiLove Magazine
I resubscribed to FujiLove this month after a year's hiatus (I wanted to read the Dawn Eagleton interview) and I'd forgotten how good it is! It's niche in that it only features photographers who shoot on Fuji X/GFX, but this is a broad church. I find it a perfect mix of imagery, gear and thoughtful writing.
We were fortunate to get some incredible Aurora over the UK this month. I wrote a blog about my experience photographing it which contains a bunch of photos.
What an experience! 🤩
Viewing gallery
Some videos I’ve enjoyed this month.
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The Culture Scene: Street Photography in Govanhill. A 10-minute documentary on BBC iPlayer (sorry international readers!) about Scottish street photographer Simon Murphy. Simon has been documenting Govanhill in Glasgow for over 20 years using his medium format camera. Wonderful work. Foolishly, I missed his recent show in Glasgow.
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The Power of Black and White Photography. I discovered Doriyan Coleman’s YouTube recently and I love it. His videos feel thoughtful and considered unlike many channels which just scream “content factory” to me. He doesn’t have a huge following yet, so go and follow him today!
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White Balance: My (slightly odd) Approach. I enjoy Sean Tucker’s videos. While I don’t agree with this (indeed odd) approach, the video does a good job of explaining how to think about white balance in general.
An Edinburgh Photo Walk
The last @streetphotosocial photo walk in April went really well – a whole afternoon of sun! ☀️
The next photo walk will be on Saturday 8th June, 1:30pm - 3:30pm. More details on Instagram.
Pray to the weather gods please 🙏
Listen Up
Top of the pods this month…
Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT
I love everything about Billie Eilish and this LP is a stunner that gets better with every listen.
I'd also recommend watching her cameo with Lana Del Rey at Coachella. Mesmerising.
🖤
Blatant Advertising
I’ve made rather a lot of Lightroom presets over the past few years so I decided to create a collection of some favourites. If you’re a Lightroom user, maybe you’d like to try them out?
It’s pay-what-you-want (minimum of $2) which is a lot cheaper than most people charge, but I think the quality is just as good. See what you think!
Ok, that’s your lot. Laters… 👋