LPB Spotlight: Jamey Howard
Another year, another interview. This time we put Jamey Howard in the spotlight
Tell us a little about yourself
Jamey Howard, 29, living in Croydon, studied journalism, worked for BBC News for a while and now I’m a Digital Content Producer for Red Bee Media. As well as taking photos I love to cook. In fact, that’s just given me an idea for taking photos at Borough Market, cheers! Oh, I also like trainers but I’ve only got sixty pairs now because my girlfriend made me sell a load when we bought our flat.
When did you get interested in photography?
When I realised I couldn’t draw pictures, or even colour inside the lines… I still can’t, actually. I did do a little photography at Uni and I
enjoyed it but I wasn’t very good and waiting for film to develop annoyed me. Plus I kept fumbling the negatives onto the floor and getting
fingerprints on them. There’s only so long you can call that a style before you get rumbled. When digital SLRs started getting cheaper I bought one to take pictures of trainers and discovered that you needed to learn about apertures and stuff. So I figured I might as well put the knowledge to use and started taking it to work with me.
When and, more importantly, why did you start photoblogging?
A few months after I bought my first DSLR I started blogging because I’d seen other people’s photoblogs and it seemed like a good way to keep interested. When I began, the bright green colour scheme of my blog annoyed me a bit but now I think I’m learning to process shots so they work with it, but still look decent in their own right. Perhaps. Maybe.
Can you describe the style of your photoblog?
The style of my photoblog is green. The style of the photos published on it, however, varies quite a lot. Probably too much. By the way, have you noticed I use really short sentences when typing yet? [No, not really] Apologies for that [Accepted]. Anyway back to the question and instead of telling you what I’ve done, I’m going to tell you what I’d like to do more of. I want to do more portraits, of anyone, it doesn’t matter if I know them or not. If anyone reading this looks interesting get in touch and I’ll take a portrait of you, please. I’d also like to do more with off-camera lighting. I should get out with the camera more, too. Not taking photos makes me complacent, which should be completely counter-intuitive but there you go. I’m going to leave the inspiration part of the question for the end, if that’s ok.
What has your blog brought you so far?
I’ve done a couple of commissions, sold some prints, assisted on a couple of professional shoots and done a couple of interviews. But the most important thing the blog has done is make me learn to process shots, I think. Oh, and I’ve met a lot of other bloggers too, which is ace.
What camera(s) do you use?
I use a Canon EOS 20D, almost always with a Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L lens on the front. I love that lens.
Which tools do you use for post-processing, and do you use a lot of post-processing on your shots?
I use Photoshop and yes, I do quite a bit of work on most of them. I’m not very purist about my photos. If it turns out they look better upside down with a clown superimposed into the corner and a gaussian blur on the blue channel then I’ll do it. Whatever works, innit.
Do you ever have any lack of inspiration and, if so, what do you do about it?
No, I never lack inspiration at all. Why, who told you otherwise? It’s a vicious lie… But supposing I was to lack inspiration, well then what I
might do is sit at home getting progressively more annoyed with myself and looking at other people’s work which would infuriate me because it was better than mine. Then I’d start comfort eating because I was down about photography and eventually I suppose I’d waddle out of the house and try to take some photos which would be crap. But then two days later I’d take the best photo ever and be happy again. But as I said, I never lack inspiration so that’s just a wild guess.
Would you like to share one or more other photoblogs with us which you personally like?
I’m going to come back to the topic of inspiration here, if that’s ok. Some of these aren’t blogs but they all inspire me. In no particular order:
Jeff Metal is my photographic mentor. We used to do a radio show together (oh, I DJ too, forgot to mention that in the first answer) back before I got into photography. He takes a lot of photos of hip-hop people and he was my first real exposure to all the stuff I now take for granted.
David ‘Milou’ Baker started blogging at pretty much the same time as me. We usually take completely different photos to each other but I love going out shooting with him.
Erwin Olaf, because his lighting is so intriguingly flat and even and most of the time I can’t reverse-engineer it, which makes me like it even more.
Strobist.com for all of the fantastic info about getting started with off-camera lighting. I love that site.
Jamel Shabazz, for providing a very good reason why it’s important to keep photographs that might just seem ordinary at the time they’re taken, but turn out to be special down the line.
Andrzej Dragan because I love his attitude and the way he blasted away all that crap about a portrait having to tell you something about the person. Portraits can be interesting in their own right and that’s enough.
David Nightingale for showing me that you can post very good photographs on a very frequent basis (quantity and quality). Also for putting up with lots of questions and, more importantly, answering them in a timely fashion. Thank you.
Julia Fullerton-Batten for letting me tag along on shoots.
John Washington because he inspires me when it comes to colour and contrast.
Jide Alakija for being great to go out shooting with. I always come back with good shots when we meet up.
There are loads of others but I’ve already dragged this out long enough so sorry to the ones I missed.
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