5fives with Angie Muldowney (hey, that’s me)!

About Angie

Normally there would be an introduction here about the person answering the question, but seeing as this is my own website, all you need to do is checkout my about page!

Your top five camera-bag essentials (non-photographic)

1. Hair ties – nothing more maddening than hair blowing in your face or in front of the lens.
2. Lip balm – a must in any bag.
3. Notebook and pen.
4. A snack and some water – I get grouchy when I’m hungry and don’t always want to waste time stopping for refreshments.
5. My phone – great for quickly checking things like tide times and sunset times (as well as train times for journey home).

top 5 photographers

1. Vivian Maier
2. Matt Stuart
3. Tim Walker
4. Martin Parr
5. Sarah Moon

Top 5 things you’d tell the 10 year old you

1. Always be kind to people, especially yourself – you ARE worth it.
2. You don’t need lots of ‘stuff’.
3. Despite what they tell you, you really won’t ever need to know how to calculate a simultaneous equation ‘when you’re older’.
4. Never go on a diet, diets make you fat.
5. Everything’s going to be alright.

Your top five guilty-pleasures

1. Coffee – my favourite would be a cappuccino (heavy on the espresso). Yes, I grind my own beans. Yes, I am a coffee-snob!
2. TV – I am trying to cut down on my TV watching time (although I am usually always doing something else on my laptop at the same time, much to my husbands annoyance who likes to give me surprise quizzes on the plot-line now and again to make sure I’m paying attention). Anything with murders and/or conspiracies is usually a winner with me.
3. Pretzels – the small ones in packets with big chinks of salt – maybe because they remind me of airplane snacks and flying off to sunny holidays.
4. Cake – any sort, I really don’t mind although anything lemony is a sure winner. Marie Antoinette was my kind of lady!
5. Make-up and beauty products – whether it’s bargain basement specials from elf or the latest formula of Chanel foundation I am addicted to the stuff.

Top five tips to budding photographers

1. Take photographs! This sounds obvious, I guess what I am saying is take photographs all the time; of your breakfast, your feet, that interesting looking lamp-post, the colourful shop window, interesting tufts of grass between paving slabs. Anything and everything, We’ve all got cameras on our phones now so there’s no excuse, and the more you take the more natural and relaxed it feels and the more experienced you’ll get at composition and at *seeing*.
2. Change your angle – lie down on the ground (or just hold the camera down low), or stand on a bench or wall for some different angles on familiar things, especially if you’re visiting somewhere that’s been photographed a million times before.
3. If you want to really understand how everything works, get hold of an old 35mm film SLR camera – it’s much easier to understand how and when you need to adjust apertures and/or exposures when you have to do it manually.
4. Share you work and get all the feedback you can – flickr is awesome for this, especially if you find a group that’s active and supportive. Some are just places to look at particularly themed photos (which is useful) but look for the once where there’s lots of discussion.
5. The rule of thirds is a fabulous way to ensure you have a balanced and beautifully composed photo, but it can be even more fun to break that rule!