Focusing on capturing the perfect shot

Thomas Lyons
In Cootehill

One of the treasures Cootehill Arts Festival’s jam-packed programme offered last week drew in a substantial crowd on a Friday morning. Billed as ‘How to use your phone to take great photographs’ Paul Moore’s workshop certainly caught the attention of the locals.

Around 25 people packed into The Fridge on Market Street that morning as he imparted his wisdom on all things photographic.
Paul is a photographer who specialises in photography of nature and familiar locations, but his images often have an element of the surreal or hyper-real in them. The most engaging thing is he uses only a smartphone to take his pictures. He then manipulates, distorts, and edits them using smartphone apps.
The workshop introduced participants to the fundamentals of photography, as well as his own special techniques and tricks.
He is enthusiastic, engaging and knowledgable. Over three and a half hours, 45 minutes of which involved participants wandering around the town snapping everything that moved, Paul covered everything from taking the picture to selling them.
Self taught in his chosen field, Paul explained to the group how he turned his back on the life as a financial advisor to become a full time snapper. Although his father was an amateur photographer he said growing up his exposure to film was limited: “Before my son was born the only cameras I used were disposable. I wanted to be a movie script writer. I wrote action adventure films set in Tullamore,” he laughed.
The first hour and a half of the workshop dealt with how to take a good shot. This touched on essentials like focus, use of light, composition, perspective and storytelling. The photographer’s journey is part of Paul’s workshop. He talks about how he started taking photos when his first child was born and how it escalated to the point where he now makes a living selling his work through a website for use as book covers.

 

Focus

Leading by example he illustrated the importance of the fundamentals of photography with handy hints and tips. He advocates the use of tripods, lights, additional lenses to assist with the shots you are taking, but really it is all about getting the right shot and then working with it. To get the right shot the most important thing to do is correctly focus the camera.
Three key pieces of information that any prospective photographer must keep in mind are: make sure your picture is in focus, keep your hand steady and always wipe your lens before you take a picture.
After the group disperse to the far flung corners of Cootehill they return with the pictures. Paul then showed how to use processing apps like Snapseed, Handy Photo and Juxtaposer to enhance the images.
The workshop was a perfect example of bringing art to a broad audience. A device in our pocket that can be used to create a piece of art that will last forever, or at least until you have to delete it to make room for memes.
If you would like to see how the group got on you can go check out the hash tag #chillarts18 on Instagram to have a gander at the group’s efforts.