one image: irritation

lens: 24-70 2.8
shutter speed: 1/320
fstop: 5.6
ISO: 800

A couple of days ago I wrote about my photographic composing "eye" and admitted to being a bit geeky about it all. In case you did not catch it, I am a visual person. You should watch a movie with me. :) My eyes are always capturing the tiniest details, noticing the things in the background, picking up on facial expressions, distracted by the light and cinematography. I never remember the character's names in a movie. Never. Because it's an auditory thing and I simply do not find it meaningful enough to remember.

So on this random umbrella friday day I am going to take my geekness up a notch, just a bit. Not a lot, I am hoping.

This part of my geeky composing eye comes into play after I have taken the picture, when I am sitting at the computer staring at a photo that I cannot seem to decide if I like or not.

I have this OCD'ish thing sometimes with a photo, like the one above, where the photo will totally work for me except for one small irritating piece over which my eye cannot seem to stop obsessing.

For example, in the photo above: that stupid, white, upside-down, hand-written, sticker on the umbrella, the sticker that is not even completely stuck to the handle. (Which totally drives me crazy too.)

I want to rip it off and throw it in to the street.

You may have not even noticed the sticker, but my eye goes straight to it every time I look at this photo. Then it goes directly to those creepy monkey claw back scratchers, and then that's it, that's all I can handle. (Why do they make those back scratchers look like monkey claws?! Those are monkey claws right? Why did I take this photo?)

I do not care if the sticker adds an interesting detail to the photo.

Rip. It. Off.

Raise your hand if you agree with me.

Or maybe you should just raise your hand with me in agreement that your week has been one long week and you just need your space and that is why you are overly irritated at the stupid, white, upside-down, hand-written, sticker on the umbrella handle.

Then you can also raise your hand in agreement that even though this photo should be tossed, that one wooden back scratcher with the red claw looks really nice right now, and that you would not mind being the test subject for one of those at this very moment.

If you are raising your hand with me then many blessings for rest over your weekend and mine. We need it!

Now, if you need a soothing photo after looking at this one, click here to see one of my photog friend's umbrella photos. She told me last week that she had some to post but didn't get them up in time.
Heather, your delay was actually perfect timing. Your photo was needed on this very Friday to rescue me from mine. :)

Happy Friday!

one image: perspective

lens: 50mm 1.2

shutter speed: 1/125

fstop: 3.5

ISO: 200

Most of us are casual photographers, aiming at the life in front of us from the vantage point of where we are standing. We shoot at eye level, capturing the events and milestones unfolding around us from this level because it is quick and easy and most comfortably how we witness them...literally...at eye level. Any trip to a touristy spot will reveal a million people standing around, holding their cameras up to their faces, aiming at life. 

There is nothing wrong with this. This is how we gather memories. I do this to catch those quick moments at family gatherings, school events: lift, aim, shoot.

Lift, aim, shoot.

The problem is that we get stuck in that perspective rut because it is comfortable and easy. We do not know how to see life from any other vantage point because we have never taken the effort to see it any other way. (I'm tellin' ya, photography can be a great life teacher.)

My Picture Inspiration assignment this week was to capture a picture from "the ground up." Our teacher pushed us in this area for this very reason: to get out of our comfortable rut, to see life from a different perspective.

So yesterday I risked staining my white cardigan sweater, stretched out on the grass underneath the play structure and caught this little lady peering over the edge from my "ground up" perspective. 

I have always liked shooting from the ground up, but I have to tell you, I had to be mindful about this one. I was tired, ready to be home, and wished I could just lift, aim, and shoot.

I am so glad I chose to be mindful, become one with the ground.

I would not have caught the leading lines of the ladder taking my eye up to her's. 

I would not have been able to include the beautiful woodwork, compose the lines of the railing and the ceiling and the ladder into a way that settled my eye. 

I would not have been able to place her above me with her hair falling around her face, her one blue eye becoming the target of my focus.

I would not have captured what has now become one of my favorite photos I have taken lately. 

Yea for my PI assignment!

See what changing your perspective does for your soul when you realize all that you would have missed if you had not crawled out of your comfortable place of lift, aim, shoot?

one image: letting a photo find you

Lens 24-70 2.8
shutter speed 1/50, f2.8
ISO 400

Sometimes the best photos are caught when you stumble upon them.
Some are best caught when you anticipate them
This one was caught doing both.

I stumbled upon this precious scene--he inside the massive toy box contentedly playing alone. I crouched a few feet away and anticipated him looking up to discover me. I could see the photo in my mind and I smiled when it came to be, ripe with perfect timing.

I have found that my best photos are those that have found me. They are also the ones that I patiently wait for to reveal themselves.

Of course there are many artfully composed photos out there that I admire, but it is the one that is made from real life that I adore the most.

If you are like me, and you like these kinds of photographs, you will find that the best thing we can do to improve our "eye" is to venture out each day and do some stumbling and anticipating. I never cease to be amazed at the photos that find me, almost as if they were waiting just for me.


Photo geeks....I actually took this photo a year and a half ago. I honestly do not know what I was doing with the settings at the time. I believe this was taken on my old camera and so that slow shutter speed was the result of not wanting to bump up my ISO because of the grain I would get in the photo if I did. I am impressed that I got the photo as sharp as I did. Not sure if I knew the rule of thumb: to avoid hand-held camera shake, keep your shutter at a number that is equivalent to the focal length of your lens. So if you are shooting with a 24-70mm lens, then going below 1/70th of a second in your shutter speed is dipping into blurry waters. Oh well, thankful for the shot!

finding you

Call me weird, but my favorite perspective to use for composing a shot is one that looks as if the scene was captured from the view of a silent, invisible observer. Like a small creature following with curiosity, taking in the scene from an unseen vantage point. Not to seem creepy or anything, it's just a vantage point that renders something more to me. Hard to put my finger on it. (Perhaps you can articulate it better, or differently?)

Anyway, for example, the photo above....that little creature (me) was crouched at the gate peering into the arena watching the horses make wide dusty trails along the inside of the fence. She (the little creature) was happy to observe and remain invisible till the photo she saw in her mind's eye actually came to be.

The picture below... the small creature appeared on the road long after the horses and riders had passed. She silently knelt in the dirt and captured their retreat as if Time was caught lingering along the road still holding the previous moment. 

I only share this because a couple of days ago someone asked me what camera I used because, in her words, I take such great pictures. The question did not irritate me at all, it just simply revealed a common misconception about photography. There are a gazillion people out there in photo-land that have spoken to this issue, so this is not new with me, but I can certainly attest to the truthfulness of the fact that:

YOU are the creator of a good photograph, not the camera.

YOU are the soul and spirit behind an image that speaks more loudly than the pixels or film upon which it is formed.

I believe this is true for any and all forms of creativity and expression and I only humbly speak from my own experience when I tell you that to try and attain that beauty from your art by any other road, other than the one that leads from your own heart, is less than satisfying. Really, it is. You might be successful, you might even be good, but you are lying to yourself and ultimately short changing yourself. 

I have to remind myself of this almost every day. It is the only place I have found peace in what I create. 

Hope this encourages you to find the YOU behind your art.