Just a few news nuggets today of some things that have been going on and simmering on the proverbial stove for the past few weeks. Many of these are now starting to bubble up to the surface, so here’s a little hint as to what I’ve been up to, and what is ahead for the blog and podcast… Continue reading “A Look Ahead…”
Category: Assignments
Five Elements of Control: #4 Context
Have you ever seen something that looks so out of place that it catches your eye? Well catch it with your lens too, because contextual positioning of subjects in interesting or unusual/unexpected areas creates visual interest. This is what I refer to as controlling the context of your subject. So many times I’ve heard people tell me “but how can I change the surroundings?” The answer lies not in changing the surroundings of subjects you want to shoot, butin reversing that idea: find unusual subjects in your given surroundings. Say you are on a photo walk and in a city area. Well, try and find subject matter that contradicts the sense of city.
Additionally, you can also create contextual appeal by the use of negative space too. See something standing all by itsef, or away from other things? That’s a picture possibility! Conversely, something that is amidst other things could be a cue for creative expression. What if you saw a plastic water bottle among some glass beer bottles? That could be cool…or what if you had a computer mouse sitting in a mousetrap? You can create subject and background contextual associations in your own environment too ya know. Photographers that make good money do it all the time. (Hint: that’s called stock photography! 🙂 )
Here’s a few examples to give you a springboard for creativity. Find something you like? Tell me below! (I love to get feedback on photos just like everyone else…) Got your own ideas? Share those below too! Sound off in the comments, and don’t forget to keep on shooting! (That Flickr Contest thread is still alive and kicking you know – great chance to win $500 of gear, including a Thinktank bag System and a copy of the Topaz Labs PS Plugin Bundle!)
Five Elements of Control: #3 Geometry
Earlier this week, we looked at the idea of how contrast/luminance can impact a photo, and that your creative style may tend toward a wider contrast or a narrower contrast. Then, yesterday we looked at how the element of color can impact a photo, both in the sense of how colors can balance and compete against one another, and how bright versus dark colors can play off each other. Since we’re moving from more theoretical to more tangible elements that we want to include in our photos, next up is the geometry of our photos.
So, what is geometry? Basically, it’s shapes! Shapes are everywhere, and the types of shapes (or the geometry) can play a huge role in the impact of your photos. So, it makes sense to include geometry as an element of control. Since shapes are nothing more than lines that are connected together, this also means we are looking at the lines in a photo. Whether it’s long rectangular lines of grass or circular lines of a persons eyes, the sharpness of square and angles lines in architecture or the looping curves of ovals in a landscape, shapes and lines can really define our work. So, with that in mind, let’s look at a few photos here to help illustrate what kind of impact different shapes can have. Look through the images and see if you can find all the different types of geometric shapes. What kinds of shapes do you see? DO they help or hurt the photos? Share your thoughts in the comments! In the meantime, Happy Shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for #4 of the Five Elements of Control…(any guess what it is? 🙂 )
The Benefits of the Back Story
We all know that our photography at its best can stand on its own – no jazzy or snazzy music, no cheesy frames or doohicky slideshows. However, some of our best (and worst) photos also come with some pretty incredible stories. Just one read through Joe McNally’s “The Moment It Clicks” will give you unique insight into how setting the stage or giving some insider perspective on a photo or body of work can both add value and meaning.
A while back, I posted a photo with the title “The Boneyard and the Back Story”. In that post, the story was in the obstacles that had to be overcome to achieve the photo. For a nostalgic look back, you can read that entire post here. Since it’s been a while, I’d like to revisit this idea of sharing more photos along with their back story with everyone.
The back story isn’t nearly as glamorous as my previous one, but telling nonetheless. While this may seem to be a pretty cool shot of a sunset in a marina area, what makes it more meaningful to me is that this was taken in South Carolina. The dichotomy? Sunset – on the east coast! Usually sunrises are associated with facing east and sunsets are facing west, so catching a shot like this at sunset in SC was particularly pleasurable.
How did it happen? Through networking of course! When I used to live in SC, a few friends and I started a photo club in the area. It became relatively successful with a peak membership of 40-50 members. It still exists today but I do not participate to the same extent that I used to. Well, a young guy joined the club as he started learning and studying landscape photography. He lived in the area near this scene and knew of it. After tracking the sunsets for some time (at least a year or so, which is impressive enough), he knew the time of year to visit and capture images much like the ne above. Not only did he share this knowledge willingly, but he also invited me to go capture the scene with him one evening.
From my perspective, it was a successful shoot! But, what about the rest of the audience? Does it work for you? What about your own photos and back stories? Feel free to share links to images and your own stories with the blog either in the comments or with me via email. Don’t have any yet? Then make that your next assignment – go in search of a photo and journal the back story! In the meantime, happy shooting (and story making!)! We’ll see you again tomorrow. Don’t forget the September Giveaway with that huge prize package of the Thinktank Photo bag System and Topaz Labs Plugin Collection. The Flickr thread is open and ready for business!
The first ever Comment Contest!
After a short (and unexpected) break from blogging yesterday, here’s a Friday Free-For-All for you!
Here’s where reader input is going to be what makes or breaks the content – that’s right, I am putting it all on the reading audience. You can link to your own site in the comments, and the “Comment Luv” plugin will show the most recent post for fellow bloggers too. Here’s what the content topics are to chose from (you can pick one, two, three, or all of the topics to address in your comment):
- What are your favorite iPhone/iTouch applications (for photography)?
- Who would you like to see guest-write here on the blog (you can include yourself too)?
- If Canon Blogger were to start a monthly newsletter, what would you like to see in said newsletter?
- If Canon Blogger were to start publishing eBooks for download, what topics would you like to see addressed?
- What one photo tip would you share with others above all else to help improve their photography (and “Take off the lenscap” is not allowed! LOL)
The best part of this? Some lucky commenter will win a $25 gift card to B&H Photo from yours truly! Yup, no sponsors, no tricks, no gimmicks, no nothin’ but free moolah to the best photo store on the planet! All out of my pocket! What am I looking for? Useful content and ideas that will help me generate more resources to share with everyone. So, get your thinking caps on and get to commenting. If you post a comment and think of something later, feel free to add it – but your name can only be “entered” in the Comment Contest once!
When does it end? Midnight Sunday! (August 30, 2009 – so if you are reading through archives and this is like March 15th, 2035, sorry, the contest is over…)
And speaking of contests, you also only have three days left to get your shots into the Flickr thread for the “Win a Wacom” contest! The contest pool of entries has increased a tad bit, but you can’t win if you don’t play, so get a shot or two in over the weekend – as they say at the Lotto – “Hey, ya never know!”
Finally, on this last Friday of August, I’d like to share yet again, an absolutely hysterical strip from What The Duck (I shared it earlier this week), but this just floored me, so had to give another shout out for those that haven’t picked up WTD in your readers yet (and you should!). So, have a laugh, then have some fun and share your thoughts – the sky is the limit. Have a great weekend everyone and we’ll see you back here on Monday!
How to build a star tracker!
Rather than go through another hardware review today, I thought I would share a different kind of hardware with you – the DIY kind! Over the weekend I embarked on a little project on building a device to track stars as they move across the sky (even though it’s really the earth that’s moving and not the sky). Now granted, there are better ways to build star trackers, but many involve electronic motors, are more complex (in my mind anyway), and can get kind of costly (at least from what I’ve read). So, I figured I’d start simple, and go from there. Join me in this adventure in building my first star tracker for under $20!
It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot in doing it, both about other methods, some of the short comings of this approach, but for the cost, figured it’d be a good entry into doing these kinds of things for comparison sake. Check out the main YouTube video that gives a narrative on the process and my finished result:
The reference material I used for building this leaf-style star tracker came from a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology (sounds impressive enough to me!), so figured I should give credit here as well: http://people.rit.edu/andpph/text-star-tracker.html
If you have thoughts, comments, feedback, or suggestions to either improve this one, on how you’ve made your own (or plan on making one), and even if you have shots to share made from DIY star tracker kits, please feel free to et me know via either the comments or email! I will start a photo gallery for all shots shared and plan on updating that monthly with all the photos received, either via links in the comments or via email!
Happy (star) shooting, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!
P.S. Don’t forget, we’ve still got the Wacom Bamboo Fun Giveaway going on all this month! Share your shots in the Flickr thread and you’re entered to win this prize worth $100 retail! Thanks go out to the folks at Wacom for contributing this awesome tool for blog readers and podcast listeners!
Let me count the ways…
The age old phrase of “let me count the ways” seemed like as good a theme as any to announce the newest contest from the blog here for the Learning Digital Photography podcast. I just got word from the folks at OnOne software that they really liked the post on Genuine Fractals – so much that they would like to participate in a giveaway! Can you guess the prize? Yup, that’s right, the entire OnOne Plug-in Suite: 4.5! This is an amazing offer, as the package normally retails for $500! That’s five hundred big ones! I don’t know about you, but if I had an opportunity to win a software package worth $500, I’d certainly stand up and listen…so, since we’ve got this contest announcement for the month of July that involves software, there will be no software review today.
Oh yeah, so anyway, that’s the prize package. How do you enter? Easy – just like the last couple of contests – it just requires a little participation. A new thread will be set up on Flickr for people to contribute photos. (It’s already live but entries will not be accepted until midnight Mountain time tonight.) Here’s the rules:
- Since the contest sponsor is onOne – then the theme shall be Numbers. I am not going to interpret or give any ideas here, but if your photo incorporates something to do with numbers (any number, multiple numbers, use of numbers, whatever), then it will be accepted.
- Join the Learning Digital Photography Flickr Group – the images will be shared in there anyway, and this is a great way to see other inspirational images from people that are regularly contributing to the common pool…just make sure you post your images in the thread titled Numbers Contest (easily linked for you right here)
- Photos will only be accepted for the month of July (and that are uploaded during that month, so no archived images will be accepted) Only 31 days to enter so get clicking! 🙂
- One photo limit per participant. Sorry all, but with a prize package this huge, I know there’s going to be a lot of entries, so in order to make judging easier one entry per person.
- Photo manipulation is acceptable – after all, it’s for a prize that encourages massaging those pixels, so edit away! However, you just be the original copyright owner of the photo used – no “borrowing” the work of others. People found using others images will be removed from consideration.
- Images should be no larger than 800 pixels on their longest side, and no shorter than 600 pixels on the longest side. If you need to upsize a photo, use the onOne Genuine Fractals trial! 🙂 On that note, please also refrain from using digital frames to increase image dimensions – images with frames that advance will be cropped.
- By submitting images, you agree to allow your photos to be featured in the web gallery and here on the blog without expectation of compensation. The three finalists will have an opportunity to have their photos link back to their Flickr Stream, website, or blog if they like as the finalists will be notified of their advancement one day in advance of being featured on the blog.
- The product is being offered by the folks from onOne on the basis that it is NFR – not for resale. The prize cannot be re-sold to someone else.
- Judging will be done by myself and I have one representative from onOne who will also assist with making the determination. Decisions of the judges are final.
- There will be three rounds of judging:
- As in the past, the initial pool will be whittled down to ten and the images collated into a web gallery for display here on the blog.
- Three finalists will then be pulled and featured here on the blog for a final day or two of consideration.
- Last, the grand prize winner will be declared after even more careful determination from all participating judges. OnOne has generously donated their time for judging as well, so we’ll compare notes and come to a mutual consensus to determine the winner.
Good luck to everyone and have a Happy month of Shooting! Thanks especially go out to the good folks at OnOne for their generous contribution of the Plugin Suite 4.5 Software for some lucky reader/listener/participant. Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
Come on Ride the Train
It’s somewhat fitting this week that yours truly is making serious use of the mass transit in Denver because a project that has finally come to fruition is a photo-themed shoot of trains. I’ve always found them quite interesting, and only recently did I come into possession of a very high quality model train to pose as I desired for specific types of compositional and focal impressions. Since the podcast isn’t quite finished, I figured now would be as good a time as any to share with you a sampling of my Train project…
So, there’s the “Train Series”. I tried various lighting scenarios, depth of field, and compositional approaches to see the effect each has. I know which one(s) I like the best – what about you? Any favorites, thoughts, feedback, criqitues? What about your own themed projects? Any sources of inspiration? feel free to share them in the comments section! Happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
A Dose of Inspiration
For those that are keeping up via feed reader, you may have noticed some Flickr additions over the weekend. As the “What’s This?” arc came to completion, I thought it might be fun to compile all the images into their own dedicated set on Flickr for everyone to enjoy. As it turned out, I had not been keeping up with cross-posting images there as much as I had thought, so it took several visits back and forth between the site files and Flickr to get everything together. The Flickr images show up as their own feed posts, so there were a few extra feeds over the last few days. It’s rather fun to see the collected images all in one place, and it also brings a project to completion. See the complete 22 week collection here: What’s This? Flickr Gallery
Seeing projects come to completion can be a motivating force and can drive inspiration, so I’ve also brought myself current with the latest photography magazines. Most especially relevant for today was the latest issue of Rangefinder magazine. The web version can be found at www.rangefindermag.com and is enjoyable to be sure, but the print version really shows so much better. Get your copy off newstands – this issue is well worth it! Artists such as Dixie Dixon and Jay Stock give a great dose of inspiration and demonstrate that anyone can be successful if you have the passion and inspiration, no matter if you are new to photography or have been around the block a few times. Also in this issue is an excellent article on creating your own fine art photography books. The price tag is high, but the end results seem pretty amazing!
From the blog front:
- I also would like to take a moment to thank Crash Taylor again for his Thursday Thoughts interview last week. Some great imagery in there also serve as excellent sources of inspiration, so be sure to stop over at his site and see the latest developments he has to offer. Thanks Crash!
- For those of you that have not downloaded the podcast yet, be sure to take some time to give it a listen – you can win the new Streetwalker backpack from Think Tank Photo! I did my review on the show, and am giving the back to some lucky listener. Find out how by listening to the show. It’s a $140 value and you can have it for free! How’s that for a dose of inspiration?
Feel free to share your images too – remember, at the end of the month, I will be doing a montage of all the images submitted to the “Flat” theme thread over at the Canon Blogger Flickr presence to feature here on the blog, so get in while you can to win fame and fortune! (Well, maybe not, but it’s always fun to see your images online, right?)
New Years Resolutions…
We all do it – set some sort of expectation of what we want/need/should do for the upcoming year. Whether we admit it or not, everybody thinks at some point about doing something new, better, different, or whatever. What usually happens is some lofty goal or achievement that receives attention for a month or so before petering out.
This year, CB is setting everyone up to succeed…in taking more photos! Instead of a generic goal, I’ve come up with a way to not only achieve those ends, but also to reward those that do! Every month, CB will host a new “assignment”. You can upload your photos to the CB Flickr Group any time you like within that month. At the end of the month, I will compile a montage of 10 or so images and give accolades here on the blog. To get things started, I’ve set the themes for the first four months. Feel free to chime in with your own ideas in that thread, or just start contributing pics!
As always, because Flickr is its own entity, I cannot help protect your images there, so make sure to keep your images at web-friendly resolutions and sizes to protect your copyright (Flickr strips out meta data).