 This video is sponsored by Recoverit. Recover your essential data from any disaster. In modern photography we get so told that we must avoid mistakes, that we mustn't, you know, we mustn't do this, we mustn't do that. Don't, you know, don't for God's sake make this mistake because that's wrong. You know, we don't want that. We need to realise that actually making mistakes is what drives our photography forward. Dorothy Lang's migrant mother is one of the most famous photographs in the world. This haunting photograph of a young lady who is looking pensive with children around her at the height of the depression has seared itself into our public consciousness. It is tempting to think that this photograph sprung fully-formed. Of course that's not the case at all, that we can see through the contact sheets, the process that Dorothy went through creating these images, the mistakes that she made if you want to call them that, the dead ends, the trying things out that didn't quite work until she honed in on the thing that did work, that nugget of gold wrapped around that sort of almost initially shapeless lump of mud. You may be familiar with the phrase paralysis by analysis and that's what happens if we become obsessed with the idea of making mistakes, that we never feel we should trip the shutter because we might make a mistake. How's it, how's it? This idea of contact sheets, of seeing the working, the journey of a photographer as they skirt around a subject, as they seek out ideas and sometimes go through dead ends, I think is one of the greatest things that has happened to photography certainly in my kind of, you know, sort of 20 or 30 years, is that now there seem to be a proliferation of books like magnum contact sheets where you can see the working process of great photographers, of seeing what's going on around on the edges of these photographs that we are all so familiar with. I thought it'd be a fascinating experiment to share with you one of my own photographic journeys from a couple of years ago in Burno where I was wandering around and trying things out, seeing what was just moving me and hopefully it will give you inspiration about going on your own journeys of exploration, not sort of physically but throughout your camera, that's realizing that sometimes you go down a dead end and sometimes what seems like a blind alley actually ends up being a secret passageway into a hidden garden of delight. These are the sort of photographs that I take when I am out and about, just wandering around having a holiday with my phone, no real intent to photograph, simply just taking pictures of things that happen to catch my eye, something that out of the corner I go, that's quite interesting, let's see what it looks like when it's photographed. The sequence that I'd like to start with is this one here which was near a football stadium when we were walking along slightly outside of the city centre and I was quite taken by these shapes here on the ground, there's nothing in it, it's not an amazing photograph but it just goes show, something caught my eye and I was experimenting with it and because I'd stopped and was looking at this, level crossing or pedestrian crossing, I saw this gentleman standing in front of this broken down what looks like a car dealership or there's a lawn mower, I don't quite know, I don't speak, check and you can see that there was something in there and I was going like, oh what is, what is here, that instinctively I kind of felt that there was something but this wasn't it, this photograph of this man and some of the cars, it is not really where it was happening but then I looked down and I see the cracks on the pavement, the grass coming through and that's how I started going oh I quite like this, I like the juxtaposition of the grass forcing its way through the concrete and the patterns that the cracks are making and then you start looking around you go oh there's more, look at that manhole cover on the road, what an amazing sort of looking field that you have these circles and these graphic elements which I'm very much strongly drawn to and then of course because I'm now feeling in this mood of looking for shapes and graphic forms, I turn my attention to the light, you know the lamp posts and I quite like this photograph, it's interesting but then this is a complete non-starting, you can see, you know you sort of see there's obviously dogs had a pee here and you think well let's photograph and see what it comes out and it's just, there's nothing here you know so immediately you kind of go well there's nothing but again looking around you go okay well let's look at something closer that you've now been drawn to and experimenting with things, this is why I say, I've used the word mistake when I should actually sort of probably for more accurately said experimenting is trying things out, seeing how photographs work, taking photographs without worrying too much about the results, you know like here there's two here's two examples, you know a photograph, the one there's the building that is peeking over the fence feels like it's a little bit and it's in the way it's sort of distracting from the composition so here I'm you know trying to get rid of it by shifting up the composition a little bit and then you know moving on, it wasn't the world's most amazing photograph so and you know we are on holiday after all so I'm going to move on and take the next thing that interests me and this happened to be an underpass because we'd noticed a rundown football stadium in the sort of middle distance and so well we're going to have a look that looks kind of interesting and and I quite like the graffiti in the underpass and again I've been drawn back to these these cracks there must be something about this part of burner that made me feel like it was full of you know quite rundown and you can see how my focus is a little bit all over the place and that's kind of I think it's only when you're in this mood of taking photographs is a good thing because you are kind of reacting to the images or the opportunity that is around you and here we've got a bit closer to the the football stadium and again I'm drawn less to the the overall view of the thing but more of elements of it more of the graphic you know geometric nature of the building and here's a good example of me you know from an idea previously looking up at the the street lights where it's not quite panning out I can see what I'm trying to do here is to introduce another bit of interest in the composition by having that lamppost from the the building down the bottom left here is a photograph that I actually think could have been a lot better if I just spent a little bit more time on it and this of course is one of the downfalls and I will be the first to admit this approach of taking photographs where it's very much on the fly and very much moving quickly isn't the best at pulling out all of the options all of the possibility in the the scene in front of you that's probably because I am actually or I was actually on holiday you know with my wife so you know she while she has the patience of a saint when I'm taking photographs of course it's you can't just spend hours sitting and looking at a blue and orange underpass and teasing out all of its possibilities but you could use this exercise as a way of almost like a recce like a pre recce of going to a place that interests you or a city that is new to you and wandering around with your phone just taking photographs of things that appeal to you things that catch your eye and then coming back and doing an exercise like this that you use it as yeah like a pre test not pre test but as something you're just checking out the city seeing what potential is and you could revisit that at a later stage as you may know I don't really talk about gear here on the channel but I think in this case certainly looking at these photographs is worth pointing out the reason that I photograph on my iphone so only with these photographs is that I find it a lot quicker I find a lot more sort of natural for me to use and certainly less invasive for me as a person to have pictures that I take on my phone a lot of these photographs are from a simply a gut instinct and it's a lot easier for me to just have my phone and just take a picture rather than putting a dear solar up to my face which when I do that makes me think about the scene in a very different way it slows me down and and I prefer to work certainly in in this case of just walking around the streets a lot quicker it just goes to show that whatever you want to do is entirely up to you that there is no right there is no wrong it's what feels natural to you what feels comfortable one of the places we went to when we were in bernau was a house called the villa togan hut I think my pronunciation of that is correct which is a 1920s 1930s sort of modernist house and it's a good example of me making mistakes and again I've used that word and I'm going to clarify it again that it is more about experimentation rather than you know actual kind of mistakes like you know incorrect exposures or things like that but it's this willingness to make a mistake in a broader sense that I think we should all be engaging with is seeing something that appeals to us photographing it and then going okay well can I improve upon that or is it a dead end in some of these photographs I can see that I kind of went okay well that photograph didn't really go very further than that I'm drawn to lots of shapes I'm extremely inspired by this this building I loved it and looking around and this the set of photographs is a good example of how I kind of find an element in this case it's this pole that I can then begin to work on and some of the things work and some of them don't this this you know the footing here doesn't quite work for me I don't think it doesn't doesn't really have much of a purpose and and it just feels a little bit I don't want to say snapshotty but just it it feels a bit slap-dash whereas the other side of the pole the top of the pole going into the roof for me now feels a little bit more like it's in control probably because of the the coloring on here we got obviously the walls whereas the the other image had the floor itself which is dirty and and browns where this has got a bit a bit of a cleaner feel to the photographs and the same with this one where these these images are leaning now more towards less the building as a whole and more the small design elements that are holding my attention and here as kind of you can see if I flip back to this one previously this is my first photograph and I go oh I quite like the way that those those window panes sort of jam into the concrete here and I thought well let's add a little bit more intrigue and you see this doesn't quite have as stronger composition certainly for my personally as the previous one did again another good example of me seeing something I quite like that that bowl light that's hanging outside this door and this this image here feels a little bit cluttered a little bit too full on so I move around and it's it's here and and and I've taken more of the the the elements out of the composition made a little bit tighter but it's still not quite really doing anything for me so that's what you know talking about like it's a mistake it wasn't really anything there it's it I've photographed a couple of times and it's just now there's nothing you know photographing what feels interesting is a worthy worthy pursuit I love these kind of photographs where they're very simple and and have almost like a somewhat abstract quality to them when I go out photographing I don't really think about what specific things I'd like to photograph beyond things that appeal to me that draw my attention and you can see throughout all these photographs there's a general vibe about the things and they have a similar sort of aesthetic and there are certainly no people that's one of the things that I am not drawn to photographing people despite the fact that I wanted to be a photojournalist when I was I was younger I don't really do street photography in so much as you know photographing the people on the streets and it just goes to show that the mind interpretation of Birno may be very different to yours and all of this is absolutely fine you know we all find our own interesting ways of things and one may say you know you've missed so much by looking up at the shapes and I may say you've missed the shapes by looking at the people it's a fascinating discussion about how we all interact with things differently and how we are drawn to different things how do you feel about photographing in public let me know in the comments I'll be interested to hear about what your thoughts are do you get nervous at all I am an absolute sucker for airports I have to say there's something about airport architecture that I absolutely enjoy and this is us waiting at the airport in Birno to go home and in these photographs again at play you see me responding to something you see me trying different angles out on things and and occasionally being led down blind alleys and and occasionally finding great photographs that I really enjoy this this I thought was had the potential for an interesting photograph I don't feel that it's really successful at the end of the day it's just it's a kind of it's a math image but evidently I thought enough to photograph it twice and and here I very much like the the the graphic design of airports I find it very interesting especially these these bright colours against what is often a minimalist colour scheme within the airport itself I don't know where the the feeling of being drawn towards and just your images really comes from but it's quite strong within me and again you know here I'm trying out things I'm looking at photographs I'm experimenting with the various ideas that are being presented to me and I would encourage you to do the same thing this may be not necessarily your sort of cup of tea in terms of photography and you will have noticed throughout all of these images again as I as I've mentioned earlier in this video there is a lack of people because not really much of a people photographer I'm more drawn towards these more stark elements of the world that we are surrounded by this little sequence of images here leads me to one of my favourite photographs and it was gone off to the loo as you can probably gather and I went oh I quite like the look of this you know the ceiling and the curve of the door and and this sign it all came together so this is my initial photograph and then this is me doing a little bit of an edit on it and that's me rejigging the composition and I feel this composition doesn't quite work so you can sort of see that you need to sometimes if you've got the time just to go check out a picture and just give little tweaks is the difference now you may disagree with me you go maybe this one feels a lot stronger but for me this one because of this swathe of maroon sort of colour I think gives a lot more impact gives a lot more sort of presence in the image making compositional mistakes making visual mistakes making dead ends exploring routes that never work is always a worthy pursuit because at least it opens up your mind to the opportunities that are there for you you know if you're sitting at the time and at the time I was still smoking so I'd gone outside the building for a smoke and I was looking at this you know the the curve of the roof and I was like well there's something something there so you can start photographing things seeing what they come from you and of course as soon as you open up your mind you kickstart you start seeing other images this was you know one of the lights in the car park when I was looking out across and then you turn around and you go oh look you know here's here's another view of the building that you quite like now not none of these are particularly amazing photographs but they just go to show there is a process that sometimes you need to work through these processes you need to make the mistakes as it were to find the gems that are hidden out there I'm not going to say any of these photographs are gems but going back to Dorothy Lang's photographs that she didn't just take the first thing that she felt she moved on and she she teased out all the possibilities in there because she wasn't afraid to test things to to see what was fitting on her having taken all these photographs it would have been a travesty if I were to lose them if I'd accidentally deleted them or some other misfortune occurred and they just disappeared off of my hard 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