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I want to finish 2024 with a light-hearted look back at my favourite things from 2024. Why not, eh? So join me as I pick up on some stuff from the past year, which has been an excellent year for me and my podcast. so thank you for being with me, dear listener.

In this episode, I tell you 

• What was the most popular episode of the Photography Explained Podcast in 2024?
• What was the least popular episode of the Photography Explained Podcast in 2024?
• What is the oddest photography question I was asked in 2024?
• What was the best photography question I was asked in 2024?
• Who cares about all this photography stuff anyway?
• Rubbish photos
• RAW vs JPEG – I don’t know what I am talking about.
• What are irrelevant details in my world of photography?
• My one photo rule
• What are the recurring themes in the Photography Explained Podcast in 2024?
• Why you shouldn't use flash photography in museums

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid!

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions - just click here. Not only will I answer your question, but I will also give you a lovely, big shout out, which is nice.

Find out more about the podcast on the Photography Explained Podcast website

And find out all about me on my photography website

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us a text

I have loads of rubbish photos cluttering up my computer, clogging up my hard drives, and preventing me from finding the good stuff that must be in there somewhere, surely?

We all take rubbish photos every now and then, so it’s okay—not every photo we take is a masterpiece. But if a photo is rubbish, get rid of it. If you have photos that you are never going to do anything with, why not get rid of them, too?

In this episode, I tell you 

• How this happened
• How many photos I have
• What I am going to do about it
• How this will help you

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do
• One good or bad related thing that I did once (yes, really)

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid! 

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions - just click here. Not only will I answer your question, but I will also give you a lovely, big shout out, which is nice.

Find out more about the podcast on the Photography Explained Podcast website

And find out all about me on my photography website

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us a text

RAW and JPEG are file formats. Photographers use both. JPEG images have an amount of processing and compressing done to them when a photo is taken. RAW photos have no processing done to them other than creating the file, that is.

JPEG photos can be viewed by anyone straight off the memory card. To view RAW photos, you need specialist software.

JPEG files are smaller than RAW files, but RAW files contain more data to work with than JPEG files.

These are the main differences, but what does this all mean?

Do we need to know all this stuff? Yes, we do, dear listener.

In this episode, I tell you 

• What JPEG is
• What RAW is
• What the differences are in the RAW vs JPEG debate
• Why this stuff matters

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do
• One good or bad related thing that I did once (yes, really)

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions - just click here. Not only will I answer your question, but I will also give you a lovely, big shout out, which is nice.

Find out more about the podcast on the Photography Explained Podcast website

And find out all about me on my photography website

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us a text

Digital camera sensors are important, sensitive, expensive bits of kit that need looking after. There are things that we can do to protect them from bad stuff, but if bad stuff gets to them, there are things that we can do to remove that stuff.

This applies to all of us photographers at all times, so it is pretty important that we know this stuff.

In this episode, I tell you 

• How to prevent bad stuff from getting to your camera's sensor
• What to do when you get bad stuff on your camera sensor
• What bad stuff is that gets on our sensors
• Why prevention is so much better than cleaning

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos (just look)
• What I do

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions - just click here. Not only will I answer your question, but I will also give you a lovely, big shout out, which is nice.

Find out more about the podcast on the Photography Explained Podcast website

And find out all about me on my photography website

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us a text

So you are in a museum or an art gallery. Or some other similar place. It is lovely and quiet, with nice low-level lighting and local lights highlighting all those fantastic exhibits. The whole place has been carefully designed with a bespoke lighting scheme.

And you see something really cool that you would love to photograph. What do you do?

Look is what you so—no more. Do not take a photo. Do not start popping your flash gun. Or the flash-type thing on your phone. 

And in this very ranty episode, I tell you

• Why you should not use your flash in an art gallery or museum
• Why is using flash a waste of time anyway?
• I ask why everyone is photographing the same thing at the same time.
• Why you should stop taking photos of everything
• An alternative plan to stop this nonsense

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos (just look)
• What I do

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions - just click here. Not only will I answer your question, but I will also give you a lovely, big shout out, which is nice.

Find out more about the podcast on the Photography Explained Podcast website

And find out all about me on my photography website

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us a text

Camera lenses are optical and engineering marvels. Camera lenses must be treated with care and respect when used, stored carefully and regularly maintained and cleaned. Take good care of your camera lenses, and they will take good care of you for years. 

In this episode, I tell you.

• What needs protecting in a lens?
• What gear can help you look after your lenses?
• How you store lenses.
• How you clean lenses.
• How to safely change lenses.
• How to safely use lenses.

I also want to tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos?
• How I look after my lenses.

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions - just click here. Not only will I answer your question, but I will also give you a lovely, big shout out, which is nice.

Find out more about the podcast on the Photography Explained Podcast website

And find out all about me on my photography website

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us a text

There are so many lenses out there. How can you possibly know which lens or lenses will help you? Relax – I have got this covered.

Lenses on cameras give photographers options. To understand how lenses can help you take better photos, you need to know what you want to photograph, how you want to take these photos, and what you want your photos to look like. Once you know these things, you can find the lenses that work for you and look into the wonderful world of lenses.

In this episode, I tell you.

• Where do you start with this?
• How I ended up with the lenses I have
• How the lenses I have help me to take the photos I need

I also want to tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos?
• What I do. Or did.

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions - just click here. Not only will I answer your question, but I will also give you a lovely, big shout out, which is nice.

Find out more about the podcast on the Photography Explained Podcast website

And find out all about me on my photography website

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us a text

A listener asked me to do an episode strictly on lenses, so here it is. If you want me to explain something, just hit the “Send us a text” link on the podcast feed, and you can have your own almost personalised episode of the podcast. How utterly splendid.

Lenses attach to cameras and focus what you point your camera at onto the camera sensor. So, lenses are quite important in photography terms!

In this episode, I tell you.

• What are the main types of lenses?
• What focal length is (quickly).
• What aperture is (not as quickly).
• What does this stuff all mean to you?

I also want to tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos?
• What I do.

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions - just click here. Not only will I answer your question, but I will also give you a lovely, big shout out, which is nice.

Find out more about the podcast on the Photography Explained Podcast website

And find out all about me on my photography website

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us a text

OK, I have spoken a lot about taking better photos. But in the final episode of this series, I tell you what you need to do. Yes, dear listener, it is time for you to start your journey to take better photos—which we all want to do, right?

So this is what you do. Start with choosing your best 20 photos. Put them in a safe place, be it a folder, album, or even a pile on the floor. But start with 20 photos and go from there.

Simple eh?

In this episode, I tell you.

• How to get down to your best 20 photos.
• How this will help you.
• How you can keep improving your image capture.
• Why simply thinking before taking a photo is such a powerful tool.

I also want to tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos?
• What I do.

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions - just click here. Not only will I answer your question, but I will also give you a lovely, big shout out, which is nice.

Find out more about the podcast on the Photography Explained Podcast website

And find out all about me on my photography website

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us a text

To be the best at one photography thing, you must decide what that one photography thing is. This is how you can find your perfect photography niche.

Trust me, I have been there. I used to photograph everything and anything for anyone and everyone. I was all things to all people. And what was the result of that? I was all over the place and not very good at anything. Sure, I could take a decent standard of photos, but that was all—good enough. And I wasn’t improving; I was staying average at lots of things.

Does this sound familiar to you? Are you constantly trying different things but not progressing? Are you wondering how to improve your photography?

If you are, you are in the right place.

In this episode, I tell you.

• Why choosing a photography niche will help you to take better photos.
• How you can choose your very own photography niche.
• And what you need to do next once you have done this.

I also want to tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos?
• What I do.

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about, answering your photography questions - just click here. Not only will I answer your question, but I will also give you a lovely, big shout out, which is nice.

Find out more about the podcast on the Photography Explained Podcast website

And find out all about me on my photography website

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick