Sometimes, you take a photo not because it’s well composed, but because its meaning strikes you.
Watching back from the tram
Photographer Artist or Photographer Technician?
I’m a technician. Not an artist. I have no doubt about that. So why do I pretend to make photos? (in the Ansel Adams sense)
Cyclist in the street
When I was in Oslo early June, I tried to spend as much time as possible in the streets taking photos. For me, as I was there for work, it meant mainly in the morning on my way to the office. Which was good: the light was great. High enough to go between buildings, but not above them.
Become a Good Photographer, Step One: Define Soup
There is a scene in the animated series Archer where everybody is stuck in the elevator. Krieger, the mad scientist, is holding a Thermos bottle. Someone asks him: is that soup in there? And he answers in an enigmatic way: define “soup”.
Sunrise on the rocks
I won’t only show what I think are good photos here. It’s worth discussing failures as well, and it’s important to be honest. Here is such a failure.
Applying My Own Lessons
I discussed wanting but failing to start a project lately. My conclusion was that if you can’t find an obvious project, one way of starting could be to choose a technology, a constraint, or a theme, then go out and take photos to see where it goes.
I was in Oslo lately (for work). So I decided to put that conclusion into practice. I decided:
- Not to shoot monochrome because it’s currently my comfort zone.
- Shoot only streets, because landscapes are a safe zone for me and I want to learn street (human activity) photography.
- Use only one camera and travel light.
Finally, I decided to experiment with a few techniques:
- Camera movements.
- Shadows.
- Patterns.
Snow at Dunnottar
This is one of the first monochrome photos I made back in 2006. It was taken at Dunnottar, a fortress on a rock in Northern Scotland. I wanted to learn digital monochrome at a time when it wasn’t that common (or it was just desaturation and super flat).
Why Can’t I Start a Photography Project?
I’ve spent the better part of six months telling myself I need a photography project. The logic is sound: focused work develops technique faster than scattered shooting, sustained exploration reveals patterns in my visual thinking, and constraints paradoxically liberate creativity. Yet here I sit, project-less, waiting for something to ignite sufficient passion to sustain months of dedicated work.
Boats
This is another seashore photo from Northern Scotland. It was taken in 2006 with a Canon 350D (I know, archaic) + Canon 17-55IS.
This time the subjects are the boats around the centre of the frame. Boats always make an interesting scene because they evoque the sound and smell of the sea, the stillness of the water (this isn’t a long exposure), and they have interesting symmetry due to their reflections.
To make sure that the boats are obviously the subject and to make the shot a bit more interesting, I placed myself where the top of the wooden ladder on the pier framed the boats, left and right.
I also tried to make the background shore and the stone pier frame these same boats, top and bottom.
Finally, I tried to put the shore line, the pier, and the ladder legs on third lines to balance the frame.
To balance the brightness and colour of the sky and the sea, I used a light ND grad.
I would have preferred to have the boats a bit more centred. But if I moved up, I lost the framing of the ladder, and if I changed the angle I lost the pier in the foreground.
In terms of processing, I didn’t do much apart from readjusting the levels a little bit.
#Photography #PhotosExplained #Analysis
Part vs Whole
Following my previous post about the obsession with details, photography genres require different ways of seeing and representing the subjects that I find hard to adapt to.
