The magic of old photo's

The other day I was thumbing through a Facebook page of an old friend of mine I have not seen in many, many years. Posted on his page were photo after photo of his family through the years. It was such a nice collection and anyone could readily see the joy and pride that glowed from within those images. I almost felt like I had experienced 40 years of his family life in just a few minutes. None of the photo's were very artistic, but they certainly captured the moments and memories.

Most of what I write about relates to artistic flavors of photography and I even at times tend to shun those more informal, yet meaningful and personal photo's.  I must admit, that approach has been a mistake I have made  for far too long, and as a consequence have failed to take anywhere near enough of those kinds of photographs.

Even so, on our bookshelves sit 8 or 10 old albums of exactly those kinds of images. Most were taken with simple disposable cameras and are not of very good quality, yet they retain a sense of spontaneity that more polished images tend to neglect. More importantly, they possess more personal value than all of the so called higher quality images I've ever taken.

I believe one day in the far, far, future, the images that will carry the most value historically will be those old family type photo's. All of the high quality images of scenic wonders will over time lose their impact except as a connection to a transitional era of ecological order. 

Yet, those simple, more personal images will resonate about who we were as a people and society, and future generations long removed from today will gaze in wonder about why that child was making that kind of face, or why did they dress up that dog, or what were all those candles doing on that cake. 

Who knows, but I believe every single person who has ever taken a snapshot photograph of someone in his family has contributed to the visual history of our era. Those histories will in time become some of the most valuable pieces of information we can pass on to the future.   

Stretch Your Imagination...Photographically

Just imagine some of the most incredible photographs you've ever seen. They may reside inside a National Geographic or some other nature magazine. They may reside inside a coffee table book about exotic locations. They may hang on a wall or adorn an office space, or maybe float around on a website. Now...imagine this. You took those photo's.

You're probably thinking ...yeah right...but, I'm serious...why not you? There are no reasons why you can't take those same kind of awe inspiring images. It's just a matter of believing you can do it and taking the steps to learn how. Certainly fundamentals come into play. Taking great photos does require a solid understanding of the basics, but that's the least important element...it takes more than that. It takes a sense of awareness of what makes a great photograph, and all great photographs begin with Light.

Photography is 90% seeing and 10% photographing. Unfortunately most people never move past the 10% part. They seem to flounder on high center trying to figure out how to take a mechanical picture and never move beyond that aspect and miss out on learning about the other 90% of the essentials of photography.

One thing I've learned over the years about photography is that imagination is more valuable than technical skill. Oh, understanding the technical stuff is important, but it's not everything. What really is important is being able to recognize that photographic moment...to see beyond the ordinary to observe the extraordinary. Applying technical elements to a potential photographic moment matters little if you're not looking at the right moment. Stretching your imagination will carry your photography much further than spending a lot of effort trying to figure out the magic camera settings formula. Contrary to popular belief, there are no magic formulas for camera settings, just an understanding of how the camera sees and reacts to light, then using that understanding in imaginative ways.

I know a lot of photographers...some of them are really good...many are moving on up...some are stuck in the dark ages photographically. They just can't seem to jump start their imaginations vividly enough to move forward. That is unfortunate, because all of them are quite capable of taking amazing photographs, but allow preconceived misconceptions to hold them back.

Coming up in another few weeks, we're still working out the details, I'll be teaching another photography workshop that will spend a lot of time exploring this idea of jump starting your imagination photographically. We'll talk about the basics of course, but those basics are simply the foundation from which the best part of photography springs from. The intent is to get the participants to start thinking beyond the obvious and to look at the world from a different perspective, to give up the notion of always photographing the same ole things the same ole ways. We'll encourage them to step outside of their comfort zones and to look at photography from the aspect of combining a measure of technical skill with Stretching their Imaginations. It should be fun.

Keith

Sunsets and Sunrises - do's and don'ts

Because of their bold displays of light most photographers are drawn to sunsets and sunrises, and rightly so for the most part. What most of them do not realize is that sunsets and sunrises are pretty much considered cliche material in the photography world. They have been photographed so much and so often by just about everyone who owns a camera, that to truly take a unique version of one requires an exceptional array of circumstances and skill.

Even so, there are some do's and don'ts you can apply to your attempts at photographing these amazing moments of light. Let's take a look a few of them.

First of all, one of the biggest mistakes novice photographers make when photographing sunsets or sunrises is to center the sun in the middle of the image and to divide the scene half and half between the sky and ground. Here's a coupe of examples.

Don't

In this first picture the sun has risen several points above the horizon. the exposure is not so bad here but the composition of the scene leaves a lot to be desired. With the sun centered the way it is, the interest level drops way off...it's just too symmetrical with not enough variation in the scene nor any central point of interest or reference. To correct an image like this, the sun should be offset to one side and more of terrain included. Something like this:

Do

In this image, the composition is much stronger as there is a central point of interest and variation in the scene.

Here's another example of what not to do.

Don't

In this image, once again the sun is centered and the composition is spaced half and half between the sky and the ground. Although the fence and barn add a bit of interest, this is not exactly a very good arrangement photographically speaking.  To correct an image like this apply the same kind of principle to offset the sun to one side and include more of the sky with just a sliver of landscape at the bottom to provide a sense of scale. The sky is the main ingredient here...so make it your main subject.

Do

Do

Sunsets can also be taken in the vertical. The vertical or portrait view allows for more sky to be included and works well when there are a lot of textures in the composition. Framing the sunset in the bow of tree is a nice effect and serves to bring attention to the main subject.

Although I still find myself pointing my camera at both sunsets and sunrises I prefer sunrises as they tend to occur when the atmospheric conditions offer a greater variety of conditions. Early morning light offers a great amount of contrasts both subtle and bold...throw in a little fog and you have a great combination.  The trick is to not so much focus on the rising sun...but to focus on the effects the light has on the scene. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. In this photo the sun is nowhere to be seen, but you do see the effects of that wonderful morning glow.

Do

Sometimes I will turn around and look the other direction during a sunrise. Some of the best light of the day can be found in opposition to where the sun is actually coming up. This photo was taken at sunrise...actually just before the sun broke the horizon. It is looking west toward the setting moon away from the source of the light, and a soft glow was filtering across the farm country. Not long after this image taken, the sun actually did rise and the conditions changed to a more harsh kind of lighting...and my shooting for the morning was over.

Here is another example of looking the other direction, except this time during a sunset. The best light I discovered was behind me...the actual sunset was rather ordinary.

So, as you can see, capturing sunsets and sunrises don't always have to include the typical cliche images. Look at the effects of the light instead of the source and you just might discover some amazing opportunities to capture a unique collection of sunrise and sunset moments.

Keith