10 http://www.digitalcameraworld.comIt pays to be social...
Career booster
Social media really helped to accelerate
Ron’s photography career, but fitting it in
now alongside his other commitments
is harder. “I used to put a lot more time
into Instagram when I first started – one,
because I had the time; and two, because
it was up and coming back then so it was
important to invest some hours in it.”Art versus algorithms
Ron tries to shoot images for Instagram
once a week and interact on it daily, but
feels the platform is going off in a different
direction. “For me, photography has
always been about telling stories through
imagery,” he says. “If you’re trying to
create art for algorithms then in my
opinion you’re doing it wrong. So I’m
trying to take a step back, focus
my efforts on longer-term projects
and create meaningful content, which
I define as storytelling with a purpose.
What’s meaningful to me might not be
meaningful to someone else, though, but
it’s creating content for the right reasons.”one
to
one
I’m trying to take a
step back, focus my
efforts on longer-term
projects and create
meaningful content
The A7R III’s tilting rear
screen makes low- angle
shots like this a cinch.passion for shooting cityscapes – he’s used to
rising well before dawn and exploring urban
areas for hours on end – means he knows
where the best views are likely to be from,
and how to shoot them when he gets there.
The route for our Friday evening photo walk
has been sketched out by Ron beforehand; we
will rendezvous on Cornhill, then head to the
rooftop bar at Coq d’Argent on Poultry. After
that, it’s a brisk walk (Ron doesn’t hang
around) to Tower 42 – formerly known as the
NatWest Tower. Once the HQ of the bank’s
international division, it now accommodates
several bars and restaurants, including the
City Social. 24 floors up, its 360-degree views
offer some of the best vantage points from
which to see the evolving landscape, which
the ghastly weather is trying hard to obscure.
And climate conditions certainly bedevil us
at the start of the evening: following heavy
showers, Coq d’Argent’s roof terrace is
closed. This is a setback, as the views from
here towards the Bank of England and the
Royal Exchange are spectacular. Before the
City turbocharged its retail and hospitality
offerings, the best chance you had to shoot
images of this financial district’s old and new
architecture was from the top deck of a bus.
Fortunately, the shopping centre at One
New Change, with its postcard view of St
Paul’s Cathedral framed by the shopfronts
of a pedestrian alley, is just along Cheapside.
The rain has bestowed a small gift, though: it’sgiven the pavement a sheen, while umbrella-
toting pedestrians provide human interest.
Framing a shot here on some popular DSLR
models would require throwing a coat on the
wet pavement, but Ron can just kneel down
and use the Sony’s tilting rear display.
“I’ll always have grid lines enabled if I’m
shooting buildings,” Ron points out. He tries
both orientations to see which one he prefers,
and composes the image using some handily
positioned lead-in lines – the steel drain cover
that points neatly towards St Paul’s. A wide
aperture of f/4 blurs the image behind the
focus point of the drain cover, creating an
impressionistic rendition of the cathedral.
Framing a hero shot of St Paul’s from down
low is one approach, but to capture the true
majesty of the structure some elevation is
required. A quick lift ride up to the One New
Change rooftop bar is our next move, but
unfortunately for us most of the tourists in the
vicinity are thinking along the same lines. Ron
has a couple of minutes in which to compose
a shot of the dome of St Paul’s before a
succession of young couples move in to have
it star in their selfies. Working on the rear
screen of the A7R III, he uses a standing pool
of rainwater as a mirror device in the
foreground, to very good effect.