Sunday Edition: Dave Allen and Alain Monnens

PHOTOSNACK #221

Every Sunday, I reach out to photographers previously featured on PHOTOSNACK and ask them to send me their spontaneous thoughts, observations, reflections, or advice.

Today, I am sharing with you the messages I got from Dave Allen and Alain Monnens.

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Dave Allen

After having one of my seal images shared on PHOTOSNACK, I wanted to share an image I took on the same day I was returning home.

This time, it's a landscape image of a water pump mill. I saw this on my way to photograph the seals, but the light was dull, flat, and totally uninspiring for a landscape image.

On my return, the clouds were pretty interesting, so I thought, let’s stop here and see what I can find. I can always come back if I like what I shoot. So after some time, I found the angle I wanted and set to working on a composition.

Out came the super wide 11-24mm. I do love shooting super wide! Using some filters to balance the sky to the foreground, I finally had my composition and exposure. The sky was rapidly changing, and the light started to become more intense. Sometimes, you have to be lucky, and even with the conditions I had, I got very lucky for a minute or so. After this, the clouds covered the horizon, and the sky went flat and started drizzling with rain.

What I learn from these moments is that it's about being out there. Even dull and flat conditions can change. More often than not, they don't, but they always have the potential to. They say fortune favors the brave. On this occasion, it did! So, thank you to Mother Nature for making this trip worth the journey.

I hope you like the image. It’s Horsey Water Pump Mill in Norfolk, United Kingdom. It was shot on a Canon 5DS with the 11-24mm F4 L, sitting pretty on my Gitzo Systemtic system using Lee filters. Exposure was 1/8 sec @f11 ISO50 at 19mm.

Dave Allen was featured in PHOTOSNACK #175.
You can follow him on Instagram here.

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Alain Monnens

We are spoiled with the technical possibilities of the cameras and lenses that have all come onto the market in recent years. As a product designer, I am always very curious - maybe too curious.

Do we all need all of these new features?

Often, my answer is no. The fixation on the speed of the autofocus and the number of megapixels is absurd. And I usually have reservations about some of the options that are added. Sometimes rightly so, I think, and sometimes...

For a long time, I had no interest in all the IBIS systems that were fitted into the cameras. Until last summer, when I started looking to see if I could use it after all. For example, at the Natour Criterium in my city I tried to visualize the speed of the riders. And, of course, IBIS came in handy to do this handheld. It is nothing special, but it is the first step to trying this feature, and it is one I want to explore more in the future. And there will still be helpful options on the cameras that offer the possibility to take other types of photos.

What I find equally fascinating about photography is that you can always learn and experiment to achieve different results. How do different photographers do something different with the same equipment and subject to create a different image? To say that photographing is a verb, only by doing and trying will you achieve new results.

Alain Monnens was featured in PHOTOSNACK #180.

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Sunday Editions connect you with photographers whose work you previously explored through PHOTOSNACK.

I want to reveal some authentic parts of the people behind the cameras.

I don’t ask them any specific questions. I ask them to share whatever comes to mind when they think about YOU, the readers of this newsletter.

It makes their responses genuine and personal.

I hope you enjoyed today's Sunday Edition.

Until next time,
Tomasz