One of the things you learn about photography is that to grow you need to interact with other people who share your passion for photography.  This interaction helps you to understand their motivations, goals, and aspirations.  My experience is that most photographers are the sort of people who WANT to tell you about their passion, their skills, and their dreams.  They will go to any amount of detail to help you understand how they got a shot, how they got this far in the photography business or why they choose to stay an amateur photographer even though there work is is better than many “pros”.

The thing is I have a pretty small group of photographers that I interact with regularly.  There are some good ones for sure, but I’m always wishing that I knew more.  The solution to this for now is podcasts.  A couple of podcast in particular are my favorites.  These are not my favorites because they provide technical details but rather because they provide the background information and insight about lots of photographers from lots of different backgrounds.  I would be hard pressed to pick between these two podcasts so I hope you’ll check them both out.  I get all of my podcasts from iTunes but you can pick your poison for deliver method.

First is “F-Stop Beyond“  This podcast is put on by Ron Dawson.  Ron is an expert in the videography world but brings us personal interaction with many of wonderful photographers.   Ron is always looking for the personal angle and the insight to what makes each of the photographers tick.  He’s easygoing in the podcast and asks questions that are often more pointed than the interviewee would expect.  He makes them think and that makes the listener think too.

Second is “The Candid Frame“  this podcast is hosted by Ibarionex R. Perello.  Ibarionex is a wonderful interviewer and he has some great questions for the photographers that interviews.   He is also looking for the insight as to who the photographers is, where he came from, and what is important to him as as a “creative”.    As a teacher himself, Ibarionex has the gift of technical insight and he uses that to get to the photographer’s core essence.  He always finishes his interviews by asking “Name one photographer that you admire or would recommend to the listeners”.   This is a great way to get linked to even more amazing photographers that you wouldn’t otherwise know.

Be warned, both of these podcasts are about human  nature, not technical prowess.  They let you get to know some of the best photographers out there as people not as “technicians”.  You’ll rarely, if ever hear any talk of F-stops or shutter speeds.  Instead you’ll hear a conversation between friends.  Just the kind of talk you’d have with your photographer friends over a beer at the local pub.  What a great way to spend a commute to work – listening in on the conversations of photographers that you can admire.

Be sure and take a listen – I bet you’ll be downloading all the back issues too.  I did!   Now if I could get one of them to interview David Hobby the Strobist…