A Telescope, A Young Boy's Imagination, Lasting Impressions

My fascination with the night sky began many years ago when I was a young lad growing up in Southeastern Oklahoma. The night skies in that area back then, and even still today, were dark and clear with low levels of light pollution interfering with your ability to clearly see the thousands of stars. I often would spend hours after dark standing out in the small field next to my grandparents home and gaze towards the sky. A highlight would be if a meteor streaked by or on occasion I could  catch a glimpse of a satellite speeding high over head appearing to be a very dim and small point of light. I knew a few of the constellations, but not many and understood that some of the points of light I saw were planets. About the only ones I could identify for sure was Venus which most often hovered low in the western sky and was very bright along with Jupiter. I must have been somewhere around 14 years old when my parents bought for me a simple and inexpensive telescope. That simple devise opened up a whole new universe and offered me a chance to capture a first glance at the wonders of the moon and a few of the planets.

A Similar Version of my telescope (Internet Photo)

The telescope was a simple reflecting model, also known as a Newtonian, the kind with a concave mirror in the bottom where light entering the top would bounce back towards another smaller mirror near the front that angled the light thru an eyepiece attached to the side. It was a low power beginners model with a small 3 inch mirror which did not have much light gathering or resolving power. Even so, it offered great views of the moon and as I was to discover interesting views of some of the planets.

At my first views of the moon, I was astonished at what I saw. Even though I had many times before seen photos of the moon in science books, for the first time I was able to see it live for myself. And those views were incredible. Craters and mountain ranges and dark Maria (seas) became at once real and immediate. Each night its appearance changed as the moon's orbit caused its terminator shadow to wax and wane. I could not get enough of it, but one evening I turned my small little telescope toward a glowing spot in the sky. Its appearance was different than the stars, a softer tone with a slight yellow color. It hovered rather high in the sky almost calling out to me to have a look.

Keith Bridgman Photo 

It took some time to eventually locate the small glowing speck and when I finally brought the light into focus I realized I was for the first time seeing the ringed planet Saturn. It floated inside my view against a solid black background like it was magically suspended on an invisible string, a small image but unmistakably a real live planet...with a tilted golden ring circling it.

Internet Photo - A slightly larger view of what I saw

 I sat outside long past when I should have retired inside, watching it quiver thru the unstable atmosphere. From that moment on, Saturn became my favorite planet and that little telescope became my favorite possession.

Eventually, I also pointed it toward what I knew to be Jupiter, the largest planet, and in spite of the poor optics I was able to see several of Jupiter's moons as pin points of light extending to either side. Most exciting though was when I first noticed the faint band of clouds that circled the planet. There was no color to any of it, just gray and white and most of the gray was barely discernible.

Internet Photo

Over time I found Mars, the red planet. and on a clear night I could just make out one of its polar ice caps as a white smudge on one end of the small reddish orb. Of course back then I didn't even think about taking photographs of what I saw, but I did at times make crude drawings. It was quite an exciting adventure for it was during that time America's manned space program was just getting off the ground and that little telescope made a young lad feel, however small it might have been, as though he were part of that grand adventure.

Mars similar to what I viewed - Internet Photo

Today, I will from time to time spend a couple hours out on a dark clear evening and point my camera skyward to capture the wonders of the Milky Way.

Keith Bridgman photo

When I do, I am often taken back to those early years and that simple little telescope that helped to open up the imagination of a young boy. There were few things my parents ever purchased for me that generated a lasting impact; one was that simple astronomical devise. A lifetime of memories were generated as I viewed the heavens, the kind of memories that only can be imprinted into a young boy's imagination and dreams.

It's Not What You Look At - It's What You See That is Important

Great photographers are the ones who know how to see photographically. They have an uncanny ability to observe well past the ordinary outward appearance of a subject to visualize the potential of what is there. They do not look at just the physical elements, they see what others fail to notice and then they apply their technical skill to capture that vision.

Many beginning and novice picture takers rely primarily on the ability of their camera to create a technically good photograph. They often will mistakenly equate creating a technically good photograph with being a good photographer. Sometimes they get it right, but most times they do not always understand what it takes to separate themselves from being an ordinary picture taker of things.

You see an ordinary picture taker takes pictures of what they are looking at, and that is where it usually ends. A photographer who has mastered the art of seeing, will look beyond the physical nature of a subject and visualize how that subject can be captured in an artistic way. In short, they understand how to use light to bring out the hidden qualities of what is presented to them. They rarely take photos, they make and create expressions of art.

They will look into the future to grasp the potential of what can be captured. They sense how a change of seasons, time of day, weather, angles of light, lens selection, exposure values, perspective all come into play when taking a photograph that stands apart from the ordinary. A picture taker will look at something, think it looks good, take a quick snap shot, then walk away probably never to return to that moment or location again. The Cell phone phenomena cameras contribute to this photo ideology as much as anything else. I see it all the time; a quick raise of the hand, flip of the thumb, another selfie, another snap shot of whatever with no or little consideration of composition, light, or quality of moment. It's just a fun picture that will most likely be deleted before too long. Cell phone technology has progressed a great deal in recent years and the potential to create amazing images does exist, but it takes more than technology, it requires a visual commitment.

Someone who places a greater importance on how to see photographically, will observe and remember. They recognize what is possible and return sometimes multiple times until they capture what they have visualized in the best possible light using quality equipment to it's fullest.

This approach is as much a feeling as it is a visual sense. What they photograph becomes a part of who they are. Their images tell the story of how they see the world, of how the world impacts them. They are constantly seeking new opportunities and they lock onto moments like radar locks onto and tracks a moving object.

Looking at the world simply identifies interesting subjects. Being able to see beyond what you are looking at requires the use of emotion to identify what is truly important to us as photographers.

Vanishing Point - Add Depth and Perspective to Your Images

A good number of years ago I had an art teacher who taught the class about an artistic technique called Vanishing Point. Simply stated Vanishing Point (VP) is a way to create a 3-dimensional look on a flat plane. It is accomplished by having all of the 'Lines' pointing to a distant point in such a way to make them appear to converge at that point.

In photography applying this technique is an effective way to provide added depth and perspective to your images. The nature of a photograph already uses VP to a degree simply because you already capture a 3-D scene onto a flat plane. What I am referring to is to purposefully use light and angles to generate a greater sense of perspective and depth to our images. There are a great number of ways to do this, but we are going to look at a few specific examples to illustrate the concept.

Take the image of the canola field above. As a panoramic it offers a good example of how to use VP to good effect. The image was created using 4 or 5 images stitched together. The clouds are streaming inline and appear to be converging to a single point in the distance. The road on the left provides a classic example of a converging point. The overall look of the image provides a tremendous sense of perspective. It would be difficult to obtain this look with a single image except possibly by using a very wide angle lens.

On the right we have another image of a Kentucky back road. It offers a classic look of converging lines and VP along with a sense of mystery and nostalgia. Sometimes by changing the angle of the camera you can enhance the appearance of converging lines like this one did. As a portrait frame is works quite well, however if shot as a landscape, the VP effect would have been reduced in this situation. It is the long straight line of the road that provides the VP and when coupled with the rows of trees on either side, it provides a nice sense of depth.

Vanishing Point does not always need to be demonstrated using straight lines. Sometimes, curved lines are effective. The image of the back road provides a small sense of how that works, but the next image is a better example.

Here is another Kentucky back road that effectively uses the curve of the road and fence row to provided a great deal of depth. The VP is easily detected as your eye is drawn deep into the image by the use of those curved lines. Fences are especially good at providing a depth perspective. The key is have it anchored near the front of the image and then allow it to extend across and into the scene without actually exiting the landscape.

A great way create VP is to use artificial lights like speedlights. Two things make the next image of an F-4 Phantom effective: use of color, and use of Vanishing Point. The placement of the lights generated a forward movement of the shadows. The placement of the camera positioned the aircraft in such a way as to point the hardware attached to the wings toward a vanishing point behind the aircraft. Also by centering the nose of the aircraft near the central point of the image, everything else by default moves behind it and follows the VP lines. The Vanishing Point of the lines generated by the wing hardware converges almost exactly where the nose point is if you extend the lines backward. In this case, the alignment was a happy accident, but one that helped make the image as powerful as it turned out. The aircraft provides a powerful appearance of moving toward you.

Using Vanishing Point to provide a sense of depth and perspective to your images is an effective way to generate unique and exciting photographs. It also connects you as an artists to the master artists of old who discovered how to use Vanishing Point to create realistic looking works of art.