Continuing with our new theme of the craft of digital photography, Darren Rowse of Problogger fame has a very useful site called, Digital Photography School.

Darren has a lot of experience in digital photography and has virtually made his living from his main digicam blog.

Now he’s offering keen digital photographers a chance to contribute to DPS directly :

One of the aspects that I’ve been loving about Digital Photography School over the last few months is that among the DPS community are a growing number of digital photographers who have some amazing gifts and abilities when it comes to their photography. What’s more, many of them are willing to share what they know with the rest of us - helping us all to learn more as a community.

If you’re one of these people with some great experience to share I’d love to invite you to do it more formally in the weeks ahead.

Catch the offer here.

Photographing a city is made much easier by the new generation of compact digital cameras. They are light and easy to strap to a belt, have their own zoom and flash facilities built in, and you only need some spare batteries to be in business, without having to lug heavy camera bags around with you.

Photographing your own city is a good way of building an archive of a rapidly changing cityscape, or just recording historic buildings for posterity. The local press may also be interested in using your collection from time to time, so there’s even the possibility of a future business.

At Syntagma, we’re beginning a photo exercise around our headquarters in the glorious city of Exeter, Devon, England. Here’s an example :

The Cathedral Close at Lunchtime — April

We are building a photo archive of Exeter over the summer months, in different lights and from different angles. The whole is designed to convey the gorgeous picture-book quality of this very ancient town.

I’ve found the best way to approach this project is by walking rather than driving around. When you walk, you’re free to divert down any interesting byway that may be impossible in a car.

I’m using a good quality compact digital camera : Advent 8MP, which I can slot onto my belt, plus a spare set of batteries.

Two things I’m looking for : the picturesque and the quirky. Both yield interesting images that others will want to look at. Here’s an example of the picturesque :

Lunchtime in an Elizabethan setting

The next pic is definitely quirky. It’s Parliament Street, Exeter, which is little more than 2 feet in width. There hasn’t been a parliament in Exeter for a good many centuries, but the Council still keeps it up — just.

Super-slim Parliament Street, Exeter

Why don’t you try photographing your own home town?

You can see the whole of this set of images on our Flickr Photostream.

The ancient craft of castle building is not practised much nowadays. But to many of us it remains a fascinating study.

These thoughts were brought on by news that a particularly fine example of castle technology had been put up for sale.

Near where I live in the West Country of England stands the oldest surviving castle in Britain. It’s called Rougemont, which means Red Hill after the iron-rich Devon soil. The French name indicates it was built by the Normans around 1070. Here’s a picture of the old gatehouse I took this morning :

The official website describes it thus : “Exeter Castle [Rougemont] is an interesting Norman stone ringwork fortress, founded by Baldwin de Brionne. The entrance with its projecting barbican, is an 11th century square three storey gatehouse, with above the gate-passage, chambers lit by unusual triangular-headed windows. Its strong earthworks and curtain wall are flanked by square and round towers, which command the north-west corner of old town wall.”

Interestingly, it has now been sold. It’s apparently been passed to a property company which wants to use it as an entertainment venue. Is that an appropriate use for this magnificent building?

Here’s another picture showing the ravishing setting of the grounds around Rougemont.

Many of the older buildings inside the castle were pulled down to make room for a Georgian courthouse, which still stands, and some more recent administrative buildings to the rear.

However, if, like me you are interested in the ancient craft of castle building, get along to see Rougemont if you can before it’s turned into yet another rock concert arena.

Our feature on William Morris, promised for March 24, will appear later this week. Apologies for the delay.

Anyone who knows about crafts will be familiar with the famous Arts and Crafts Movement of 19th-century England founded by William Morris, John Ruskin and others.

However, the Birmingham Craftsman’s Club is not so well known. The Craftsman’s Club was inspired by the ideals of Ruskin and William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. Robert Catterson Smith believed that in the age of the machine, craftsmanship had become devoid of human feeling and stated “The business of craftsmanship is to express emotion.”

The Craftsman’s Club was a movement founded in 1902 with the object of establishing a high standard of craftsmanship in Birmingham. It was founded by Catterson-Smith, then Principal of the Birmingham School of Art.

Only men could be members, unfortunately, and they had to be established practising artists or craftsmen. Crafts included were :

Painters
Jewellers
Goldsmiths
Silversmiths
Sculptors
Architects
Draughtsmen

The Club was relatively small, with 21 subscriptions in the first year, growing to 50 members in its later years. Several members of staff from the Birmingham School of Art were active members of the Club. At the monthly meetings, one of the members would present a paper illustrated with photographs or lantern slides. The Club held annual exhibitions and also arranged summer trips.

In those days, crafts were taken very seriously and were usually based around professionals rather than amateurs and hobbyists, as today.