Back in November, I discussed some photography-related podcasts I was listening to at the time. (Part 1, Part 2)

Today, let’s look at a couple more I’ve enjoyed since then, plus one that I’ve come around to.

Radiant Vista’s The Daily Critique is a video podcast worth its weight in gold. Hosting by Craig Tanner, each show (not really daily these days, but frequently updated, nonetheless) takes a picture submitted by a listener and is analyzed by the host. He works through the image, first looking at the metadata to see how it was shot and with what gear. He analyzes the layout, the composition, the color, the thematic elements, and more about each picture.

If you learn by seeing, this is the show to watch. Along the way, he talks about “perfect world improvements,” and uses his own Photoshop-fu to show you how to spruce up an image, whether it’s by cloning parts of it, highlighting certain colors, cropping an image, or something else. It is NOT a Photoshop course by any stretch, but it gives you an idea of what can be done in there.

The shows are relatively short, averaging about eight or ten minutes, but sometimes stretching out to 15. He talks fast with a slightly southern accent, so you’re never lost. He puts you very much at ease.

Craig Tanner’s audio podcast, Radiant Vista, is a more general photography podcast. This one tends to take one topic on at a time, whether it’s something technical like depth of field or something more general like the importance of “play” in your photographic sessions. Each show is about a half hour. I’ve only listened to a few selected ones, but I’ve learned a lot, even on those shows not devoted to technical things. Or maybe I’m just an outside observer who enjoys hearing stories of photographic workshops I’ll never attend.

The podcast hasn’t updated since September, but the archives are not very timely. It’s a good general photography podcast, even if it does occasionally veer off a tad into “creativity” exercises and theories. Just follow the show titles and you’ll be able to figure out which episodes are best suited to you.

The Candid Frame, hosted by Ibarionex Parillo, is a (mostly) weekly half hour interview show with a new photographer every outing. The goal on this podcast is not to talk gear and tips and tricks, but rather to get to the heart of what the photographer is doing or trying to do with his or her artwork. Obviously, this is one in which your mileage will vary wildly from week to week, depending on the person being interviewed. I’ve heard interviews with gothic landscape painters, a fellow podcaster, portrait photographers, documentarians, and more. It runs the whole gamut. Honestly, most of it bores me. The most interesting show so far was a recent one in which Parillo talks about his personal career move to more straight-up photography. He’s trying to move away from the teaching and writing thing, and move back into making his career more as a straight-up photographer.

Parillo also appears on The Focus Ring podcast, which I discussed previously, and which updated with its 11th and also show for 2007.

I’ve also become addicted to Lightsource recently. I mentioned it in my last Photography Podcast writeup as one that wasn’t really in my ballpark. The two hosts focus mostly on lights and lighting strategies, which is beyond me at this point. It’s not as bad as that, though. The more shows I listen to, the more I learn about photography, in general. A recent interview (episode 52) with Roy Cox was particularly interesting, as the Baltimore-based portrait/editorial photographer told the story of how he clawed and scratched his way up in the world, renting a small room in a warehouse without lights to taking most of the warehouse over and shooting for everyone from Hollywood to models. Check out episode 49 for an interview with Jock McDonald, a portrait photography with some funny stories. Other episodes were dedicated to architecture photographers, food photographers, and fashion photographers. It’s interesting to learn all the different angles and the high end technical stuff just breezes right by me without annoying me.

They do, however, sound EXACTLY like those NPR-like hosts on Saturday Night Live in the Alec Baldwin Christmas sketch. It’s scary. But it’s still ten times better than the obnoxiously wacky zany morning show host of Photo Talk Radio.

Related Various and Sundry Posts:

• The Benefits of a Tripod (25 Nov 2007)
• Christmas Tree Angel (24 Nov 2007)
• Waterfall (11 Nov 2007)
• Choosing the Right Camera (for me) (25 Oct 2007)

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 11:11 am and is filed under Photography, Podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.