Author: David

A Completely Unreliable but Deeply Factual Diagram of How the OM Clan Evolved (Note: This chart is emotionally accurate, if not historically endorsed by Olympus.) The Roots (The Founders) Maitani The patriarch. The reason the family exists. Favours minimalism, mistrusts large things, believes cameras should fit in a jacket pocket rather than require their own luggage allowance. Branches into: Essentially: The branch of “We Don’t Need Electricity But It Does Look Nice.” The Original Siblings OM-1 – The Firstborn Staunch, mechanical, unimpressed by trends. Descendant of “If it isn’t broken, don’t automate it.” Gives rise to: OM-2 – The Golden…

A gentle, practical reflection on portrait photography – rooted in simplicity, patience, and working with what’s close at hand. In this understated daytime segment from Me And My Camera, renowned British portrait photographer Patrick Lichfield offers calm, experience-led advice on photographing people without fuss or pretence. Rather than presenting photography as something technical or inaccessible, Lichfield reduces it to its essentials: light, space, and human presence. Filmed by Thames Television and broadcast on ITV on 14th September 1981, the programme shows Lichfield transforming an ordinary living room into a workable portrait studio. Chairs, windows, curtains, and walls become tools -…

The simple, beginner-friendly guide to building the perfect Olympus OM starter kit. One of the joys of the Olympus OM system is how many lenses exist for it – small, sharp, affordable, and beautifully made. But for beginners, the choice can feel overwhelming: This guide gives you the three-lens starter kit that works for every OM beginner, explains why it works, and lists the exact lens versions worth buying. These are the lenses that teach you composition, variety, and creative control – without spending a fortune. The OM Beginner Holy Trinity With these three lenses, you can shoot: This is…

Jacques Henri Lartigue is one of those photographers who makes everyone else look as though they’re trying too hard. He did not chase assignments, did not cultivate mystique, and did not spend his life worrying about whether photography was art or documentation or something in between. He simply photographed what delighted him. This turned out to be almost everything. Lartigue was born in 1894 into a wealthy French family, which immediately solved a problem that has distracted most photographers ever since: money. He never needed to earn a living with a camera. As a result, he never had to compromise,…

I didn’t go to Fuerteventura for photography.I went for the surfing. That’s worth saying upfront, because surf trips don’t leave much room for photographic intention. Most days are shaped by tide, wind, swell, and the quiet negotiation between enthusiasm and what your shoulders will tolerate. You’re either in the water waiting for something to happen, or standing afterwards, damp and salt-stiff, rehydrating and waiting for your arms to feel like part of your body again. Photography, if it happens at all, happens around that. This was my first visit to Fuerteventura – widely considered the surf capital of Europe, a…

How to pick the right film for the right situation – without getting overwhelmed. Choosing a film stock is one of the most enjoyable parts of film photography… and also one of the most confusing for beginners. This guide breaks it down with zero jargon and explains exactly which films to start with, how they behave, and how to match them to your creative style. 1. The Three Types of Film (Simplified) Film comes in three broad categories: Colour Negative Film Examples: Kodak Gold, Ultramax, Portra. Black & White Film Examples: Ilford HP5, Kodak Tri-X. Slide Film (E-6) Examples: Velvia,…

So you’ve just bought – or maybe inherited – your first Olympus OM camera. It might have come from eBay, a charity shop, or the back of a cupboard. It might have belonged to a parent, a grandparent, or someone who once loved photography but never really explained how any of it worked. You hold it in your hands and it feels solid. Mechanical. Different from anything modern.And then the question arrives, usually quietly: Where do I actually begin? That’s what OM Basics is for. What this series is (and what it isn’t) The Olympus OM system has been written…

Helmut Newton never hesitated. His portraits looked straight back – cool, self-possessed, and often half-dressed. He photographed women with force, desire with geometry, and fashion with a kind of playful danger that has never been matched. Newton didn’t follow the rules of commercial photography; he quietly dismantled them, then rebuilt them on his own terms. Today, he’s remembered for the big tools: Hasselblads, Rolleiflexes, and the sculptural square frames they produced. But Newton was never tied to a single system. He used whatever camera gave him speed and clarity in the moment – Nikons, Pentaxes, Konicas, Leicas, and yes, Olympus.…

There are reasons we pick up a camera that have nothing to do with photography. For some, it’s expression. For others, escape. For me, it’s memory. Film has always been more than a medium – it’s a form of proof. Proof that moments existed before the world moved on, that light once fell across someone I loved, that I was there to see it. Shooting film slows everything down; it gives weight to time. You choose a moment and trust it, knowing you won’t see the result until much later. In that delay, something sacred happens. The act becomes about…

David Bailey didn’t just change photography — he changed what photographers looked like. Gone were the stiff suits and polite distances of the ’50s lensmen. Bailey swaggered in with a leather jacket, a camera and a working-class accent — and made being a photographer look cool. He shot The Beatles, the Stones and Warhol with the same raw energy he brought to Soho models and East End gangsters. And while he may be better known for his Rolleiflex, his partnership with Olympus during the 1970s and ’80s brought a swagger to the brand that no amount of spec sheets ever…