Jun11
Indonesia Photos
UPDATE: Just to be clear, I don’t believe the photo below is from McHowat’s Indonesian travels. Indeed, a good deal of his images were shot outside Indonesia. But I thought this image was a particularly nice example of his work. Visit his site to see some of the Indonesia images.
One of my favorite things to do - aside from grabbing my digital camera gear and heading off to some place I’ve never been - is researching and looking at the work of new, lesser-known amateur photographers. I am constantly amazed by the images some people consistently producer, even by so-called “amateurs.” They take their cameras out and pointed their lenses, and they capture a bit of how they see the world with every click of the shutter. In essence, I sometimes feel the photographs we take say as much about us as they do about the people or subject in them.
Because I enjoy the varied work of other photographers so much, I often turn to Flickr, as I’m sure many of you do. There’s a great variety of material there. And some of it is definitely worth a look, like the work of Richard McHowat.
McHowat uses the Flickr alias turboman2002. A Scottsman, he has lived in Indonesia for years and he picked up his camera as a way to document his life. His website contains a number of snapshots of he and friends posing, but it’s the rest of his photography that caught my eye.
A few of McHowat’s images are digitally manipulated to a degree that I personally don’t care for much. But I think McHowat really hits his stride with some strong portrait work, especially the black and white, and some very good landscape work like the image above.
Now, if you’ll permit me a bit of an aside, how extraordinary is it that in 2007 I can sit here at the computer in my bedroom in Washington, D.C., wearing shorts and bare feet while looking at the work of an amateur photographer from Scotland who now lives in Indonesia. Incredible!
Someday soon I’d like to stop and consider just what the Internet has done for photography. That’s an entire blog post in itself. But it is truly remarkable when you think about it.
McHowat is not a professional photographer - just a very good amateur. And had it not been for the Internet, indeed, had it not been for Flickr, I would almost certainly never have seen his images. Pretty cool!
So check out his gallery and drop me a comment letting me know what you think.
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Richard Mchowat Jun 25th 2007 at 07:03 pm 1
Dear Christopher,
Many thanks for your kind words! I am indeed a keen amateur and only recently returned to the world of photography when I discovered that my twin sister Fiona (flickr name ’sadferret’) had taken it up and was publishing some great shots. I sent her my D70 as an excuse to go and get myself a D200 and I also bought CS2 to see whether I could improve some of the pictures I was taking.
Flickr has been a great medium for staying in touch with my sister and we correspond daily through it - she is a much better photographer than me and to think neither of us were taking pictures a year ago! I have also met any number of other amateur photographers that I frequently correspond with and I’ve found that by keeping to a relatively small group of contacts it has been very rewarding - a common interest always draws people together. Flickr can be a very reinforcing experience as most of the comments are positive and helpful which I find very encouraging. It also makes you try that bit harder to improve.
I have recently moved to Toronto (I work with international banking group HSBC so this is my 16th move!) and have already hooked up with Bonnie Shulman (same name in flickr), another great photographer, who has helped me settle in here.
My daughter Martin and son Tom also have flickr pages so we regularly share pictures and chat. And recently a long lost cousin in the US found my pics on flickr so we have re-established contact.
Were it not for flickr, I’m not sure I’d have the same motivation to get out there and take pictures - with nobody to share them with I think I wouldn’t find myself looking for almost any excuse to get out and try something new.
Modern equipment can make photography appealing to almost anyone and I find CS2 helps develop the creative side…if used judiciously! I think some of my earlier efforts with CS were just that - some basic experimentation - which I’ve now grown out of!
Again, thanks for your kind words and i shall now have a good look through your blog!
Kind regards,
Richard
Christopher Scholl Jun 25th 2007 at 07:18 pm 2
Too bad I didn’t know about your move to Toronto - I was there on Thursday of last week.
Anyway, good to have you on board here. Please consider subscribing to the RSS feed to stay on top of what’s happening here.
Bonnie Shulman Jun 25th 2007 at 08:13 pm 3
Christopher:
You did well by finding Richard’s photos; he has done stunning work and I am always impressed by his latest postings on flickr. You mentioned his photos of Indonesia, I would also recommend checking out his extensive range of photos of Scotland; they have made me want to drop everything and travel to Scotland immediately.
Regards,
Bonnie Shulman
Christopher Scholl Jun 25th 2007 at 08:16 pm 4
Thanks, Bonnie. I’ll check it out.
sadferret Jun 26th 2007 at 12:18 pm 5
Richard was taking incredible photos when he was twenty, he just took a break for a while. I’m ever grateful to him for putting his Nikon D70 in my care, though Flickr and photography I have learned to see my surroundings in a whole new light. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with from Canada, I think it’s going to be exciting!
Squidfire Jan 28th 2008 at 10:43 am 6
I think an important part of becoming a better photographer is looking at the work of others and looking for your own style. Looking at lesser known ‘amatuers’ is a great start, like you say, Flickr isa good start, but there are quite a lot of good rss feeds for some awesome photographers just starting out. It always amazing me the things people can make look amazing just taking the photo from a differnt viewpoint!
Thanks
ridhocyber Mar 6th 2008 at 02:41 pm 7
cool…
may i use this image form my computer wallpapper?
i love indonesia!