As you may have guessed from the headline – sorry to disappoint, but due to an internet outage, I was unable to upload the content for today’s post last night (yes I only write a day in advance…LOL). So, I’ll be back tomorrow with more photo goodness…
Category: personal
And there’s more!
First there was the blog… Then video tips got added… Then a podcast came to fruition… Audio tips got added…
And now: A Newsletter!
That’s right, I am happy to announce that the inaugural issue of the Canon Blogger Newsletter (CBN) is now ready for download. It’s pretty much an introductory issue more than anything else, in hopes of doing three things:
- Tempting your taste buds (photographically speaking)
- Letting you know what’s in store for future issues
- Getting some preliminary feedback
As with anything, the first incarnation will have room for improvement, so here’s what I’d like to know…What are your thoughts on the design and layout? Content? Creativity? Please let me know what you’d like to see as this really is your newsletter!
Here’s the link to… download the Newsletter Here
Last up, the September contest giveaway is closed to entries and finalists announced. I am waiting to hear back from the vendors on the grand prize winner, btu while we await that news, the October contest forges on. This month, the lucky winner gets a free license of Noise Ninja, one of the best known and most widely used software resources for photographers. Coming from the folks over at Picture Code, this is an $80 value for the Pro Bundle – well worth the money. To win this, simply enter a recent photo in the Flickr Contest Thread, for October – the theme for the contest is FALL! Good luck to everyone – let’s start snapping!
On that note, hope everyone had a great weekend. Surely there’s photos out there, so keep on shooting! (Don’t forget to sound off in the comments section with your thoughts on the newsletter!)
Grab the Feed Follow me on Twitter Enter the ContestTuesday Top Five Nuggets
In lieu of a software review, today instead just a couple news nuggets for you.
- First up, the finalists of the $500 giveaway have been determined. These six finalists are being considered to win a pretty impressive package of stuff including a Thinktank Photo Multimedia Bag System and a complete set of the Topaz Labs Photoshop Bundle. View the finalists gallery here.
- Next up, a recommendation: Even if you aren’t a subscriber to the Rangefinder Magazine (although you should be), you can read the current issue online here, (it’s a PDF download) which includes in the most recent issue an interview of none other than David Hobby, founder and author of the world-famous Strobist blog.
- From Scott over at one of my favorite daily reads (Weekly Photo TIps), there is a new PBS series starting this week on National Parks. I am definitely setting the DVR for this series!
- As a longtime fan of DIY-projects, this one on making a tripod for your P&S (or iPhone) out of a paperclip was just too cool to leave out of the list.
- And finally, for those that just insist on getting a photo fix regularly, visit former contest winner John Dunne’s blog, My Chi to see a great dilemma as he is torn between a color and a black and white version of a sunrise scene on the Promenade (psst….I like the black and white version!)…
Well, that’s it for today, be sure to stop back tomorrow for another dose of inspiration as we hit the midway point of the week (a.k.a. hump day)! Happy shooting and we’ll see you then…
Cabo Creativity
Last week’s first ever 5-day series of written work “The Five Elements of Control” featured 5 distinct ways in which you can control and increase the impact of your work. Those elements were through controlling for luminance, color, geometry, context, and composition. Hopefully, the perspective can be one many will find useful in elevating their own work. In taking the task to heart, today (my first day back after a week-long break in beautiful Cabo San Lucas), I am sharing a slideshow of some of my favorite recent shots. So, rather than suggesting others incorporate these techniques, I am trying to apply them to my own efforts as well. Here is where you get the chance to be the critic for my work, so by all means, share your thoughts, comments, feedback, and perspectives below.
In other blog and podcast notes, don’t forget, the $500 giveaway for the Thinktank Photo Multimedia Bag and Topaz Labs plugin bundle is still going on over on the Flickr site. We’re in the last week for submissions so we can wrap things up by the end of September, so time is drawing nigh! The thread to share your pictures (and the guidelines) is here for those interested. It’s a great opportunity to take advantage of some great products from Topaz Labs and Thinktank Photo (and thanks go out to the sponsors for their generous contributions)!
In case you haven’t noticed the sidebar, there are now short little audio tips being offered up courtesy of the folks over at Audioboo. The latest comes the shores of Cabo San Lucas with the peaceful waves of the Pacific crashing in the background! So, for the feed readers out there, stop on over to the blog and check out the audio tips – some hopefully good stuff there too.
Thanks also to the recording capabilities of my wife’s point-and-shoot camera, you are in for a special treat tomorrow in the form of a Quicktime video! Until then, here’s the promised stills from the trip. Happy shooting everyone and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow. (Don’t forget to let me know your thoughts and feedback in the comments!)
As a little postscript, since many will ask, I did my post processing in Lightroom and Photomatix (yes, some of these are HDR images). One image did reveal a pretty heavy dust spot on my sensor, so that one did see a round-robin through Photoshop for that one speck.
Five Elements of Control: #5 Composition
You knew it had to come back to this, right? I know, everyone is screaming by now “But Jason, you’ve talked about the Rule of Thirds until the cows literally came home!” Truth be told though, most people think about compositional positioning with their subject matter. While it’s true that subjects are ideally placed on a hot spot or along one of the gridlines in the ROT grid, but you can break the rules too, ya know! I say, put anything you want on a grid spot. Or don’t have a specific point of interest! Make the subject of your photo the space – negative space, as previously mentioned, can be a powerful thing!
You can also think of the ROT grid for any point of interest, not just subject points of interest. And, since we know that light (luminance, contrast, whatever your semantics prefer), geometry, color, and context can all be points of interest, then you can put any of these there and create visually grabbing photographs.
The greatest part of this exercise though, is that now we are looking at everything in a lot of new and creative ways. I bet you are asking yourselves lots of questions now: Does that light look good? DO those colors complement each other? What about that round wheel in a square table – that could be interesting, right? Keep on thinking and looking at the world around you from different angles and perspectives. Sooner than you realize it (if not already), your eyes will dart all over the place looking at things and you might not even be conscious that you are doing it.
When we migrate these exercises from the front of our brain to the back of our brains, making them automatic to the point where we no longer need to even think about looking for things – we just do it, then believe it or not, the compositional perspective also becomes second nature. You are already looking at how the light and colors on this corner of the room are really awesome contrasts to the darker shadows on the other side – and how cool is it that the funnel of light literally cuts through the darkness on that gridline?!
Some days you’ll have epiphanies, realizations, and great moments to capture, while others you may not see as many. Rest assured though, once your brain and eyes are trained to look for it – you’ll see it everywhere you go. So, take a look at the world around you – see what catches your eye – ask why if you like, but enjoy your moments, because these are the ones where you can really get creative with composition and take your photography to the next level! Just remember the Five Elements of Control:
Luminance
Color
Geometry
Context
Composition
Have a great weekend everyone – this officially wraps up my first week-long thematic series of blog posts. Hopefully you’ve found each one rewarding individually, and I would welcome any feedback, thoughts critiques, and comments, because this will likely become an eBook download. I’ll expand on each element some more, and include even more photos as examples of each, along with detailed critiques and highlights to help show readers why certain ones work, and others don’t.
So please let me know your thought! Who knows, feedback may get you a free copy of the eBook and a mention in the credits if you do! Thanks too, for all the comments already throughout this week, with your comments and insights on both the written word and photographs. We’ll be back to regular posting starting Monday! Until then, Happy Shooting!
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? 🙂 )
Super Santa Fe
As a kind of salute to the Santa Fe trip from this last weekend, I thought it might be fun to do just a photo-sharing day here on the blog so you can see some of the fun stuff from down in Santa Fe. We did a lot of walking around both days, so it was definitely a photo-walk type of atmosphere. The opportunity to take a solo vist over to the historic rail yard in Santa Fe also presented itself so I took advantage of that too. Here’s a sampling from the trip:
As you can see, we had a good time. I wasn’t exactly “focused” on photography as these shots are works in progress, but regardless, I did get the chance to practice a little. As the old saying goes though, we are always our own worst critic, so I’ll throw the critique doors open to the reading audience too. Do you like the processing? Composition? Technique? Etc.? Since some will likely ask, all of these HDR composites were done by pulling into Lightroom, then using the new Photomatix software from HDR Soft. (Be on the lookout for a review coming up on this latest incarnation too as it’s got some nice advancements and feature additions.)
In other news, keep in mind the latest Giveaway is underway over at the Flickr Group. You can win the Thinktank Photo Multimedia bag system and a Topaz Labs Photoshop Plugin bundle with a combined retail value of $500 just by submitting your favorite “Think in Color” photo to the Flickr thread! Until tomorrow, hope all your shots are fun ones! Happy Shooting!
Access Denied
Hey all, gotta a lot of great stuff to get to, so let’s jump right in
Sorry everybody, but Jason has been cut off from computer access per doctor’s (and spousal) orders. He will be back on Monday. In the meantime, he says to wish everyone “Happy Shooting” and “Have a great weekend!”
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!