Articles – Page 2 – CanonBlogger

Five Elements of Control: #4 Context

September 17, 2009 Jason1 Comment

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!)

Grab the feed

Taking it to the next level!

September 1, 2009 Jason5 Comments

Writing, writing everywhere

We all have aspirations of taking our work to “the next level”. How we define our “levels” of success is largely a personal matter. Here I am always happy to share my aspirations and goals with the larger community. It is likely no secret that as a blogger, the written word is an enjoyable “tool” for me. In writing both blog posts here, and articles for the PhotographyBB magazine (and special shout outs and thanks to Dave Seeram, editor-in-chief of said magazine), it has become pretty clear that writing for blogs and writing for magazines requires different approaches. To that end, there is some content on the blog that has never been incorporated into any magazine. Likewise, some magazine content has never seen the light of the blogosphere. Well, that convergence begins today, courtesy of my good friend, Eizabeth Gast (a.k.a. “Firgs” of Design by Firgs).

In looking at her work online with her own blog, and her social presence as well, I thought she might enjoy reading an article I wrote for the magazine. Well, she has helped with editing, and it now also has a great blog form to it as well. Since she was so instrumental in its transition from magazine to blog, I offered it up to her for use if she liked – needless to say, I think she liked it enough because it’s on her blog today! Thanks Firgs! You are the best! If you want to read more about the importance of how social networking can play into photography – stop over and read her blog. Heck, stop over anyway and tell her thanks for me! 🙂

The Comment Contest Winner

In other news, the Comments Contest was a huge success! With only one repeat and one tweeted link, the count totaled 15, matching the highest total ever received for a single post! After taking out the repeat and the tweet, lucky #13 is the number I plugged in over at www.Random.org (another link I picked up from Firgs!). Wit the Random Number Generator (drumroll please…) the winner in the Comments Contest is – believe it or not, lucky #13! That winner is is andie! So, Andie, if you could drop me an email, you are the lucky winner of a $25 gift card to B&H Photo!

The “Win a Wacom” Giveaway

Submissions for this giveaway are now closed. Over the next few days I will be going through all the entries and winnowing out the best of the best and choosing a winner! Be sure to tune in as we move toward Friday!

The Super September Giveaway

Remember the Topaz Labs software I mentioned yesterday? And the Thinktank Photo Multimedia Bag System? Yup, it’s now time and they are up for grabs in the latest and greatest giveaway over on the Flickr page. A new thread has been created (yes, a little ahead of schedule), so feel free to start putting your work in there. The direct link to that thread is here. The theme is Think in Color, so I am sure a rainbow will appear in short order, with lots of creativity!

I was going to do a write-up of some more plugins from the Topaz Suite, but time and space just got away from me, so if you wanna see more about this great plugin set, be sure to stop back in tomorrow as I promise to have that review together for your reading enjoyment. On that note, have a rockin’ day and happy shooting!

When it rains, it pours!

May 1, 2009 Jason3 Comments

Well, yesterday I had a great conversation with Tom Hogarty, senior Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for inclusion in the upcoming podcast. In my excitement to finish the post production side, I came downstairs at 3am to my man-cave, and found that Jason Moore had finished an article I sent him for possible inclusion in his “Workflow Friday” series, and posted that out there. Egads! Thanks to Jason for that outlet as well.

What’s kind of exciting about that article, is that not only did Jason find it interesting enough to include with the collection of folks that have been featured thus far on his blog, but the good folks (Hi Dave!) over at Photography BB have released their latest free online magazine, and the article was included in there as well! (I must be doing something right! *grin*) Be sure to download that magazine as well, because there really are some talented writers and photographers sharing their perspectives. I’m also honored that Dave has included the CB Learning Digital Photography podcast in his list of favorite online media sources for photography (we’re #1 in the audio section – woOt!).

When it rains, ir really does pour! However, because of the interview with Mr. Hogarty, the podcast is thus delayed again, because the two themes of Listener Questions and Answers and Questions with Adobe seamed together pretty well. I may have it compiled early enough to post before the weekend, but don’t expect any miracles there. More likely that will be published next week Tuesday under the software heading of the new schedule (since it’s about Lightroom – there’s also some great links you’ll want in the show notes).

For today though, I do have a little maintenance announcement as well: for those of you picking up the blog via Feedburner, you will likely be getting a double dose of images, because as promised, I am also uploading the images from yesterday’s post to share on Flickr, so you will likely see some repetition there. It’s also a little exciting to share that the feedburner subscription hit an all time high not once but twice this week of 691 listeners/readers. So, thanks to everyone that has signed up – it really means a lot that so many have found the CB resource useful!

That’s about it for this first Friday in May – have a great weekend everyone! Happy Shooting and we’ll catch you back here on Monday for the latest in the hardware reviews. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite selections from this past week in the What the Duck series:

Sex and photography?

December 15, 2008 Jason1 Comment

The Influence of Sex on Photography

This has been a topic I’ve wanted to address for some time now, because I think gender does have an impact on how we look at, and how we capture imagery. We all know that men and women are different, so it should come as no surprise that we see the world differently. Thus it also naturally would follow that we take pictures differently too. So, can we really break down how men and women take pictures differently?
Probably, given a scenario, anyone could devise a set of criteria to measure how people see the world. In fact, a recent article in Popular Photography (the one that inspired me to finally write this actually), suggests that men tend to think of images in technical terms (the geometry, the depth of field, the aperture, the shutter speed, the lighting, etc.) while women tend to look at images in terms of the impact and the meaning of the image. I am very much oversimplifying things here, so would highly encourage you to read the article at Popular Photography, but it does give us an indication that not only do we view the world differently, but that the world reacts to us differently as well.

I found the latter statement to be profoundly interesting… the world reacts to men photographers versus women photographers differently. It makes sense once it’s said, and you think about it. But are we aware of how we are impacting the shot? This is particularly a useful question to ask if we are taking portraits. People respond to genders differently all the time – call it a gender bias. It’s not necessarily a bad thing (though it can be if taken to an extreme), but it is something that we as photographers should try to get a sense of as we capture our images. So, put your radar antenna up – and look at how people respond to you. Are you getting the reaction or the expressions you want? If not, it might be simply the gender bias factor coming into play. Since there’s not much you can do about your own gender (at least not without a serious fiscal investment in some extensive medical procedures), about all we can do is be aware of it, and when possible mitigate the bias when we do encounter it.

For me that means talking to women and men, and working collaboratively when the situation permits. Surely though, there are other ways to address role that sex plays too. So, now that I’ve got your radar up – think about it, and consider these questions:

Are people reacting the way I want them to, and if not, could my gender be a factor?
How can I mitigate that?

Share your thoughts and answers in the comments!

Photography for Fun?

September 4, 2008 Jason5 Comments

As I started a new job here in Colorado, I was actually quite excited to do so, because a fair portion of it includes some photography portrait work, event photography, and a lot of publishing in catalogs, brochures, and marketing materials.

As a hobbyist photographer for going on 4 years now, I would guess that I am similar to many other hobbyists – I enjoy learning more about the field, and at some point, there has always been an interest in “taking things to the next level.” Today, my Thursday Thoughts revolve around that premise, and the age old adage that one should be careful what one wishes for.

Taking pictures for ones own pleasure and self expression is always gratifying, but when taking on photography as a profession, your own creative vision can very quickly become muffled, if not lost on the creative vision of others. In the past month of working at my new position, I am already noticing that photography at work has become very much that – work. What it has also done though, is what I was most fearful of – I am taking my camera gear out less and less for my own creative expression and enjoyment. I guess the silver lining is the awareness came rather quickly.

Now, I am making sure I take some time regularly to get out and just take pictures for the sake of taking pictures – doing it for fun and my own learning and advancement. So, for my Thursday Thoughts, I figured it might be useful to share my own mission with the rest of the listening audience: whatever your goals or dreams are with photography, make sure you save some time for yourself and your own creative vision and self expression. After all, isn’t that what drew you to photography in the first place?

Happy shooting!

Kickstart that Creativity

July 17, 2008 Jason1 Comment

In a rut? Got writer’s block or photo funk? Here’s some great ways to kickstart those creative juices! This is actually part of a larger work I am putting together, called 101 Sources of Inspiration. Here’s the first 25 I’ve put together:

Inspired Photography:

25 sources of inspiration

As we all endeavor to find new ways to express ourselves creatively, we can often find ourselves in search of inspiration to give purpose and definition to our expression. Here are a number of sources that can inspire. Some are traditional, while others are hopefully new venues to spark those creative juices.

Tour a museum
Look at others works. The internet is rife with photo blogs, galleries, and imagery that can awe and inspire.
Listen to music – of all types!
The dictionary – open to any random page, find the 1^st noun (or verb, or adjective, whatever) and try to capture a picture that encompasses the essence of that word.
Take any object you see every day and turn it upside down, backwards or sideways. Use it in that position for a day or two (unless it’s a drinking glass!) Your brain will be forced to think differently.
Read! Whether it’s a magazine, book, recipe, or anything, it doesn’t matter. Go to the local bookstore and pick up something you’ve never read before and open to the first page that catches your eye. Inspiration can often come from such places.
Pick a letter of the alphabet and try to find that in objects around you (buttons on the phone don’t count!).
Draw! It doesn’t have to be structured with paints or anything – use a crayon, pen, pencil, whatever you have handy. Just start doodling and a direction or theme will come to you eventually.
Close your eyes. Count your breaths. If you don’t fall asleep you will start to hear things you didn’t hear before, or sense things you were otherwise unaware of. Pick any one of them and try to define it in one word. Now take that word and express it with your camera!
Donate some time to a worthy cause. Pick a cause, whether it’s the United Way, March of Dimes, your church, or some other local venue. Participating in such a way has its own rewards and often can be an excellent source of inspiration. The Big Brother/Big Sister program is also a great one!
Buy a compact (you can get these at a discount in places like dollar stores, yard sales, and flea markets.) and use that mirror to look at things. Looking at the reflection of something can often open your mind to new possibilities.
Take a walk in a new area. Whether it’s a forest road, a new street, or whatever – new scenes can often inspire.
Visit a place you frequent during an unusual time. (For example, if you get a coffee at Dunkin Doughnuts every morning – try stopping in at night.)
Change your desktop to a neutral gray – your eye will start wandering away from the bland to find color or something of interest elsewhere.
Plant something. The act of planting gets you doing something to help the environment, and gets your hands doing something different.
Join a photo club.
Sing the first line of the first song that comes to mind – out loud! Take the third word and find a way to capture that word in camera.
Go to the hardware store and stroll the aisles looking at the products. If something catches your eye, go with it. If nothing does, buy a box of something, anything. Whether it’s nails, screws, washers, grommets, o-rings, or whatever happens to be in the next closest aisle. Take it home and dump the contents on a table. Take a picture of it. Now start arranging the objects. Take a picture of that. Keep re-arranging, and taking pictures. Look down at the objects. Look up at them (if you can). Put them on their side, upside down or any which way works. Try balancing one on top of another. You’d be surprised where this takes you!
Open an old photo album and look through some of your past work. Pick a number and say you’ll make it your next project to re-create that scene.
Spell the longest word you can think of. Now try to find a way to capture the essence of that concept on film! (Anti-disestablishmentarianism doesn’t count!)
Dance to the next song you hear on the radio (or your iPod)! What do your feet do? Take a picture of your feet!
Make a trip to the local animal shelter.
Take a self-portrait. It doesn’t have to be your face – try just your hands, feet, or knees.
Organize a photo-walk. Put an ad on Craigslist or your local paper and make it open to all. You’d be surprised the amount of people that show up who have ideas of their own to share that can really jump-start your creativity.
Go to a playground and play on the swings, merry-go-round, or see-saw. Act goofy! Changing your mindset and environment to that of a kid can open up creative avenues that have been closed for a while.

Got another way to inspire or encourage creativity? Sound off in the comments…meanwhile, happy shooting, watch those apertures, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

The Beauty of Bokeh

July 7, 2008 Jason2 Comments

Happy Monday to all – before getting into this week’s first post, I’d like to take a moment and remind everone of the NEW CONTEST that CB has started. The theme is Photograph Freedom, and there are prizes to be had. More details can be found on the post from 7-3, linked here.

On to new news, I was thinking about subjects over the course of the weekend that could serve as useful material for fellow photographers and aspiring photographers that has not seen much coverage lately (no sense in repeating everything that everyone else has already said 10 different ways, right?). I got to thinking about everything that makes for capturing great images, and one aspect that contributes (or detracts from) that I’ve not seen much attention on lately is that of bokeh. So, in the spirit of putting out new and original (as well as useful) content, I did a bit of research over the weekend, and have put together an article on The Beauty of Bokeh. Any who would like to read this initial version are welcome to download the PDF file attached to this post.

In closing for Monday, I’d like to leave it to the readers out there: what are your thoughts on the quality and nature of bokeh? Do you clean up your bokeh or do you like the effect it has on images? What types of bokeh appeal to you and what do you find not as appealing? Share your thoughts in the comments!

More coffee Monday

June 2, 2008 Jason2 Comments

Judging from my soreness even today after a weekend of home improvement projects, I would imagine that tomorrow morning will be even more of the same – I will definitely be partaking of more than a few cups of joe to get me on my feet and functional.

I did take some time to do some cleanup work of the weekend on the photo gallery side of things for my website and the project side of things for the blog too though. The lucky readers (lucky possibly being a subjective term in this case) will get a sneak preview of my latest gallery addition as I ran out of time and do not have a link on the site to this yet (or the thumbnail for that matter).

On the blog maintenance, I’ve changed the notice for comments – apparently the spam flag was set a little too severely as people were making comments and it was taking up to a month in some cases before those got discovered and re-tagged. So, your comments should become visible much more quickly now. With that in mind, I thought I’d also share the latest photo gallery that I am putting up on my website with those of you who are tuning in, so now you can comment more easily! Last but not least, I had mentioned an article that was forthcoming both in the video tutorial last week, and in another one of the posts. Well, after going through several re-writes and different takes on it, I’ve decided not to publish that, as it’s just to dense of a topic for a short listen or read. If anyone is interested in it though, the subject is creative development.

I looked at an essay that came out in the most recent issue of Shutterbug Magazine, where Jack Hollingsworth looks at how photographers develop their in the essay The Ladder: In Defense of Imitation . He defines 3 stages or phases of development: imaginative, adaptive, and innovative. While both interesting and logical, it raises more questions than it answers. I found myself in similar shoes when trying to address just a few of those questions ir raised in my mind – more questions, practically all of which were subjective in nature. So, the article will likely not see the light of day here at CB. If anyone is interested in a heavy read, let me know via email and I’ll be happy to forward a copy of that article to whomever requests it directly.

That said, the blog was not a good place for it, so I discarded the idea for CB and went with the photo montage. A sneak peak was done a few weeks ago, and it’s now complete. Visit my photo site for the full gallery here

Hope everyone’s weekends were good ones. Here’s to a new week – happy shooting, and watch that ISO!

Less is More…

May 1, 2008 JasonLeave a comment

Thursday Thoughts for May 1st, 2008

In photography, the idea of keeping your scenes simple is one that I know about, but all too often, forget to consider during composition. I typically will see something and move to take the picture without taking into account the surroundings. Then later on the computer, I see stray objects or shadows I didn’t see in camera, or more correctly, didn’t think to take note of in camera. So, I hit the delete key and try again some other time. Invariably though, the best shots I get are the ones where either by intent or dumb luck turn out to be the ones with the simplest composition. A dewdrop, a sunset, a boat, a leaf, a smiling face, whatever you like…they all have worked for me due in no small part (in my opinion anyway) to the absence of other elements in the scene. There are no barnacles or trash cans in the sunset shot, the boat and its reflection are the entire shot, and the smile is super close so everything else was thrown way out of focus. The images work due in no small part to the simple composition. The age old adage reveals itself again: Keep. It. Simple. Stupid. (KISS).

While the KISS idea is nothing new to photography, I am finding more and more that the same concept can also be applied to blog entries. Some of my most popular blog posts and video tutorials are simple ones. Short videos that are no longer than 2-3 minutes seem to be more popular, and post subjects that are easily read either in bullet points or numbered lists (Top 7 of ’07, Top Ten Landscape Tips, Top Five Lighting Rules, etc., etc., etc….you get the idea).

Just my random Thursday thoughts for the week – kind of photo related, but also tangential. Although I would suspect that this new-found knowledge may manifest itself in future postings, so…for those who stop in to get lengthy reads, enjoy them while they last – they could be gone tomorrow! *gasp*