I know that Four Starters is not a photo-log. On the other hand, all the other writers are sometimes involved in photography. Most of the pictures that accompany the articles are self-made. As a matter of fact, I see so many digital camera’s around nowadays, everybody seems involved in photography.

The most important thing in making a good photo is the person behind the camera, is an often heard cliché. But it’s true.
Hitchcock was able to make great movies, that are still exciting today, although he only had two colors available: black and white, but he mastered the technique of storytelling and suspension. In this perspective I’ve got a few tips, how everybody can make impressive pictures, with any camera, no matter what size your lens is.

Tip # 1

Get as close to your subject as your camera allows you, maybe even closer. Zooming in on a person like a paparazzi is safe, but even though the viewer might not understand a thing about wide angles and depth of field, he will experience a zoom-shot as distant and unpersonal anyway. Secondly, getting closer allows less clutter of distracting objects in the photo, which brings me to the next tip:

Tip # 2

When I decide on composition I often choose to eliminate as many objects in a shot as possible, so that only the necessary remain. Even sometimes afterwards I choose to crop the photo’s to exclude even more. ‘Less is More’ is very true in photography.

Tip # 3

To achieve the previous tips, you need one more thing. You need your objects to allow you to get near. This might be stirring in the beginning, but I can assure you it gives a real kick, and it is much more fun to have interaction with the person that you shoot, than to just be a hidden observer. Off course there are ways to make it easier:
You could have a business-card with the web address, where people can review the picture, Sometimes just kindly nodding, and showing your camera in the air, can be enough. I’ve done this a lot, and nobody ever objected.

Finally you just have to get out there and experiment. On the site hocus-focus.com, I’m publishing weekly simple exercises, so you have a little kick in the butt, to get out and focus.

All of the starters are now present at the Barcamp Berlin and it has already proven to be fruitful. Our first FourStarters tool has been developed just today. It actually is a freebee productivity tool for your desktop, and it is Mac and PC friendly.

Download the free tool here

Most of you must have already heard from Pecha Kucha. For the ones who haven’t, Garr Reynolds explains it in detail on his blog. But in short:

On a Pecha Kucha evening, people who have something to share with others can tell their story to the audience with only one constraint: Each of the 20 slides they have to use is shown for only 20 seconds.

The Pecha Kucha (which means chit-chat) originated in Japan, and quickly spread around the globe. Berlin was one of the first cities to follow, so I had to check it out locally.

What I experienced earlier in Rotterdam and the Hague, was that the evening completely depends on the quality of the speakers. It can be shit, or a hit. The same case in Berlin:

Shiro Masuyama

Shiro MASUYAMA from Japan hardly spoke English nor German. Although the slides showed interesting art installations, it was impossible to understand a word, so I could have just watched them on the internet. Twenty seconds suddenly seemed like a awful long time for a slide.

However, there were two speakers who actually saved the evening with their projects:

Tobi’s Timemachine:

Tobi has developed a Firefox Plug-in that restyles any web page to the 90’s, completely with animated gif’s and midi-music. Completely useless, but we, the audience, loved it. FourStarters would look like this. You can download his timemachine or watch some more examples on flickr.

Alex von Furstenberg:

David Henry Brown Jr is an Artist based in NYC. For one of his projects he used to dress up as a German royalty called Alex von Furstenberg. He would bluf his way into VIP parties this way, and meet up with famous Celebrities to gain his 15 minutes of fame.

His talk really gave extra value to his photos, giving extra information behind every shot. The reason for example, that he had a red nose on some of the pictures, was that he had to wait in the cold before he finally found a way to penetrate into the party ground.

Of course I visited the party afterwards (which wasn’t VIP) to collect a picture with Alex von Furstenberg for my personal 15 minutes of fame.

Round Up:

First of all, the Evening could have used a bit more spice to my taste. Why not ‘boo’ at someone who doesn’t captivate your attention, and ‘cheer’ at someone who does? It may sound harsh, but they are grown-ups who choose to get up that stage. At least it motivates them more to improve, than their friends saying “Great Talk!”.

Secondly, some of the Speakers have no clue about their audience. The event is mainly visited by designers, architects, artists, filmmakers and musicians. So there is no point in asking “Who of you owns a Football Club to sponsor me?” Pecha Kucha is a great place to promote your projects, but don’t expect any miracles if the audience has the same interests as yourself.

Did I learn anything? No. Did I get inspired? Yes.

Will I participate in the future? Yes.

About what? To be continued…

Hi, my name is Eelke Dekker, a fellow Starter since July. I will serve as your wake-up call from Berlin, writing about design and visual communication. This is my first post, I hope you enjoy it.

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I’m not really an expert on retail design, so the only possible way for me to approach this subject, is through the eyes of a consumer, which I happen to also be. While exploring the streets of Berlin, the ultimate designer metropole, my attention was drawn by a remarkable marketing strategy. The barbershop I passed by, had big, clear signs in front of the shop and on the windows with a very straightforward message:

Up until that day I had never ever been cut by a stranger, I mean, not even once. I always had friends and family around who could for better of worse do the job. Only once my hair was touched by a stranger, when a nurse washed it in the hospital.

I was not quite sure, why the concept that the shop owner had chosen six years earlier was so strong, that it got me entering the shop, sitting down, getting my hair washed and cut, paying the €10 bucks and heading off.

A simple Message

On my way home, I saw several other barbershop which had the same deal for the same price. But the same message didn’t appeal. What the previous owner had perfectly understood, was that in order to get me inside his shop he had to communicate one simple message: get a new cut fast and cheap. He used the complete display window to communicate this.

I noticed some other shops using the same technique.

When you are opening up a shop, realize that your façade is probably the cheapest and most effective advertisement that you have, so why not cut to the chase and get your message across?

I think the same thing goes for your website design. Sure you can complicate things by listing numerous advantages of your business compared to others, but often it is much more effective to focus on the one most important message. Consider your landing page as your shop window.