Breathe Pictures Podcast | Photography And Film Making

A special pop-up episode today of The Photowalk as I trek along an old disused railway path with social photographer Tom Humble who is looking to launch PhoToCo, a photography app to cut through the noise of movies, adverts 'every other post' and feeds you aren't interested in, but do we really need another? Aren't there enough already? What's different about this? Why might it change ALL apps and the way we work? Questions answered today, along with a revisit to a very personal work which became a book, The Winter We Walked Alone. Links will be on the SHOW PAGE as always and my sincere thanks to mpb.com who sponsor this show and the Extra Milers without whom we wouldn't be walking every week.

Across the next two weeks, a brace of Friday Summer Specials featuring seven former guests from our three-year archive sharing important life learnings from their careers about photography, about creativity, about LIFE. In this first show, former army photographer and now documentarian Giles Penfound, the philosophical YouTuber Sean Tucker, documentary photographer Amelia Troubridge, creative thinker Scott Shillum, a National Geo Explorer Hailey Sadler, the landscape photographer and YouTuber Thomas Heaton and photographer, filmmaker and director, Vincent Laforet. Links to all stories and guests will be on the SHOW PAGE as always and my sincere thanks to mpb.com who sponsor this show and the Extra Milers without whom we wouldn't be walking every week.  

Documentary photographer Ian Howorth talks about identity, curiosity and his latest book, A Country Kind of Silence. Also today, the wonder in the ordinary, we visit a tree of life on two continents and there are WISH YOU WERE HEREs from North America. We have a very vulnerable and down-to-earth honest answer to "What's your why" from one of our Extra Milers and a story about acceptance and change, plus it being the second Friday of the month, street photographer Valérie Jardin is here with Visual Stories. This month we’re talking about the thing in the sky that lights our photographs but doesn’t always choose to play nicely which also becomes the new assignment for the month of August. Links to all stories and guests will be on the SHOW PAGE as always and my sincere thanks to mpb.com who sponsor this show and the Extra Milers without whom we wouldn't be walking every week.

A special edition this week as I vacation in Wales, walking the rugged Pembrokeshire coastline, not with your letters this time, but a selection of recordings that have featured in Extra Mile editions, our Patreon-supported shows which follow the Friday walking episodes. This is a behind-the-scenes invite to hear stories you will not have heard in the free stream. Today, photojournalist Erin Trieb shares a personal encounter that leads to a greater understanding of mental health and the military, I go in search of a tombstone in a windswept graveyard in Kent, moving a continent to start a new life, inspiration from a grandparent, imposter syndrome, street storytelling, a photo pilgrimage to Lockerbie, and a 'why' that warms my creative heart. Links to all stories and guests will be on the SHOW PAGE as always and my sincere thanks to mpb.com who sponsor this show and the Extra Milers without whom we wouldn't be walking every week.

Celebrated American sports photographer Jean Fruth joins us while we walk today, to talk about how to 'read the game' for better pictures on the field and in life. Jean is known for her love and photography of baseball, plus mentoring new photographers, though we also talk about the perfect snack, pizza, missed shots and The Rolling Stones. Also this week, WISH YOU WERE HERE, authenticity, why imperfection can be perfect and Mali Davies joins me with the 'feature roughly in the middle of the show' to talk about photographing through the chaos of trees in woodland. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to mpb.com and the Extra Milers.

Portrait, celebrity, fashion and theatre photographer, Craig Fleming shares his story from being a roadworker, to photographing Hollywood's finest for the LA Times, though it seems everybody is a portrait opportunity, frequently visiting air and country shows to make personal project portraits of the strangers he meets. Also today, photographers who aren't able to recall faces or visualise objects in their imagination, tackling the why question and Jeffery Saddoris, podcaster, writer and artist starts the first of his monthly features called Personal Connections, where your thoughts will shape each month's discussion. This time, visiting art galleries and the limitations of ai. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to mpb.com and the Extra Milers.

Author, mentor, and photographer Gill Moon talks of her love for calmer landscapes finding beauty in the detail, giving others a voice within her books about nature and the environment. Also today, Valérie Jardin returns for part 2 of her series on making better street photographs, today - the art of the grab shot. There's inspiration to make a photographic road trip that you've been planning your whole life, how privacy laws affect your right to make pictures in public, photographing markets in The Gambia, camera art and finding peaceful moments away from the day job photographing crime scenes. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to mpb.com and the Extra Milers.

A podcast that takes a mailbag, a camera, your thoughts (and a dog) out into nature, spending time together making pictures and sharing inspirational stories. Today's guest, documentary photographer Paul Choy from Mauritius shares what he's found to be the 'secret' word of trust whilst recording 'unscripted moments of everyday life he encounters all over the world'. Also today, being 'just a bloke' with a camera, aerial scenes of delight, goldfish; the snack of the walker and will ai make you a better friend? See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to mpb.com and the Extra Milers.

Meeting a stranger along a path leads one special listener to make his first 'street portrait' and unwittingly introduces us to an adventuring hiker who has changed his life, leaving the corporate hamster wheel to become a 'professional' walker. Also today, conquering an American mountain, making your own audio photowalk stories, a scary photographic proposal and the most fantastic story of the flask, a famous Canadian coffee shop and a very expectant mum. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to the Extra Milers  and mpb.com.

We use photography and taking pictures to help with a myriad of positive mindful pursuits, but what happens when the enjoyment of picture-making starts to challenge our creative self-belief, leading us to doubt our work and achievements? My multi-disciplinarian guest Jeremy Bassetti, photographer, lecturer, travel writer and podcaster, believes he has an answer and he shares it today. From the mailbag, finding courage to make stories with complete strangers, happenstance on top of a mountain, and a portrait that changed one of our listener's life. We also start a new feature with Mali Davies, as he invites you to 'Find your tree'. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to the Extra Milers  and mpb.com.

An extended show this week as I journey to North Wales, to Eryri (formerly Snowdonia) to speak, hike and climb with photographer, teacher, mentor, wild camper and outward-bound survival skills trainer, Andy Fisher. We talk about the majesty of the largest national park in Wales with its nine mountain ranges. We chat about family, survival, mental health, bush skills, human endeavour and meet an unexpected mountaineering guest from the other side of the world. I also face an 'adventure first' and you're invited to join me as I learn about the importance of self-challenge. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to the Extra Milers  and mpb.com.

The only walking photography podcast of its kind, from the Netherlands, Loek van Vliet talks today about his long-term photography project Earthly Windows, a trip through time and space in Europe. Valerie Jardin begins a new monthly series of Visual Stories; a mini street workshop and Extra Miler Matt Dolinski shares his thoughts on how photography helps his mental health. Letters as we walk today on an unknown phenomenon that removes your ability to recall objects in your mind, the walking stick and the trail walkers, pictures without an agenda in Sweden, and why leaving your work for strangers to find can result in exciting adventures. We also reveal the flask winner following May's assignment.  See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to the Extra Milers and mpb.com.

Scott Chouciño changed his photographic career direction completely during and following the pandemic. He embraced quitting at a time many creatives were clinging to whatever social or financial life raft made available. It was a 'plan' that worked. From portraits to food and filmmaking. Also today from your letters into the show, fighting the MojoDemon, a Sicilian monochrome adventure, abandoned movie theatres and looking forward, not back. It being the first Friday of the month, we have a new photo assignment which now takes its place as the 'Feature roughly in the middle of the show'. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to the Extra Milers and mpb.com.

Viktor Hübner spent two years hitchhiking across America photographing and interviewing the people he met by chance during a time of political confusion and upheaval. He seems to have found a superpower, and he shares it today. Also, a film about dad and the echoes of time, 365 inspirational help for those making picture-a-day projects, the answer to last week’s pictorial 'quizette' about ai where we asked you to identify the real photos from those made from zeros and ones. We talk about the right to roam and I make a 'schoolboy error' attempting to make a picture for the latest assignment. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to the Extra Milers and mpb.com.

Writer, photographer, TEDx speaker, and the author of the 1,000 True Fans essay, Kevin Kelly talks about his new book 'Excellent Advice for Living, Wisdom I wish I'd known earlier,' 450 wisdom tweets. Also on the show today, the lights are off in the Himalayas, thoughts about making 'Day Trips to Hell,' and a show page challenge to see if you can identify reality from deep fake. There’s a very touching story today about how photography has brought one of our writers back from a very dark place, news about Africa '24 and we're inviting entries for the May's photo assignment. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to the Extra Milers and mpb.com.

The great passport to life; your camera. Today travel stories from three photographers; Giles Penfound whose photo projects made in and about concentration camps changed his entire approach to making documentary pictures when an army photographer, Marissa Roth on an emotional pilgrimage to Tibet and ocean passages across the Atlantic, plus Duncan Ferguson visits a mountain range in Nepal. We also talk to international music photographer Nathan Reinds about Eurovision, and there are letters about the power of music in storytelling, and how photography changed one listener's life completely. We release the full itinerary for Africa '24 and invite you to take part in the new assignment for May; a packed show! See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to the Extra Milers and mpb.com.

Five decades behind the lens, American photographer Ave Pildas talks about making pictures of those who come to stand on the stars of Hollywood's famous Walk of Fame, plus he shares some of his 'secrets' when it comes to photographing people in a street scene. In the mailbag and on the show; could you make a picture every hour on the hour of your day for a whole year? We meet one teacher who has just completed this challenge; the ULTIMATE challenge perhaps? Also, the unparalleled rugged and AWESOME landscape of Nepal, a story of resilience, and it being the first Friday of May, we launch a new photo assignment for the month to come, where you'll need a sharpened pencil as much as photographic focus. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to the Extra Milers and mpb.com.

Is ai really coming to get us? Maybe not yet. Maybe not at all. This week is a show about the majesty of music, the beauty of emotion, the tactile nature of bookmaking, finding your why, celebrating our mistakes, just being human. We hear from Paul Gotts and John Ash who believe in giving a voice to unpublished photographers and Extra Miler Lynn Fraser who is part of their new project called Littoral. Letters to the show about rekindling a love for photography post-pandemic, why the moon seems to be sharper and more detailed on some smartphones, and the realisation that your why may be a lot closer to home than you think. There are stories on chasing the moon's shadow from a 737 and finding dust in your wonderfully soft-centred eye. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to the Extra Milers and mpb.com.

A special photowalk made in the north-east of England with Extra Miler, writer and photographer, Paul Hutson. We start in York, chasing and finding ghosts, walk the wall and Shambles, discover a highwayman and take supper with Guy Fawkes. Street photographer Dan Baker joins us to make a seaside walk in Cleethorpes and the philosophical photographer and YouTuber Sean Tucker shares some plans for life and projects. In Grimsby, we visit the docks of this historic fishing mecca and set to sea in a 50s trawler to learn what life was like in peacetime's most dangerous occupation. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to the Extra Milers and mpb.com.

Today, a special episode in which I travel to Farnham in leafy Surrey, England, to speak with former Head Curator at the Imperial War Museum London, Hilary Roberts, who for four decades assisted then led the curation of the most impressive and important collection of conflict photographs in Europe. Eleven million photographs tell the story of conflict internationally and we talk about the responsibility of such a historical task. Also, what makes an iconic photograph, a friendship with Don McCullin, and is ai a danger to the authenticity of photographs moving forward? Just some of the subjects discussed in this episode. See the SHOW PAGE for reference pictures and films. Our thanks to the Extra Milers and mpb.com.