Wordpress for iPhone
Posted on July 22nd, 2008 by Paul
This is a test post from my iPhone.
No photography allowed!
Posted on June 1st, 2008 by Paul
Fox 5 TV station in Washington DC interviewed Joel Lawson yesterday about harassment of photographers at Union Station. While an Amtrak spokesperson was explaining that photography is allowed in Union Station, a security guard interrupted to tell the journalist to stop filming the interview!
(via Photo Attorney)
PicLens
Posted on March 27th, 2008 by Paul
I’ve installed PicLens on my Moments in Time photoblog.
PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience for viewing images on the web. Photos will come to life via a cinematic presentation that goes well beyond the confines of the traditional browser window. With PicLens, browsing and viewing images on the web will never be the same again.
To install it, go to the PicLens site and download a small add-on. It works with most modern browsers.
Give it a whirl, and let me know what you think.
Online Communities
Posted on March 14th, 2008 by Paul
One very good way to get inspiration and feedback is to participate in an online photographic community. There are zillions to choose from, but I’m only going to mention a few that I’m involved with.
- Photo Friday: Each week, a new photo assignment is posted. Your mission is the creative interpretation of that assignment. Votes are also collected for the previous weeks assignment for a "Noteworthy" award. Competition is tough; I’ve only gotten one noteworthy image.
- Thursday Challenge: Another weekly themed assignment.
- Photosig: A photography display and critique site. You can upload your photos for critiques, and critique other people’s photos. You can learn a lot by critiquing photos other than your own, and be inspired by some of the wonderful photography on this site.
- Vazaar: A very high quality theme and critique site. Only 20 per cent of the submitted photos are featured on this site, and competition is fierce. Users can also request critiques of their photos, and the system encourages active participation in the process.
- Onexposure: An arts project and photographic community. Only the very highest quality images are displayed here, and all photos are screened by editors before being published. Browsing the published images is an excellent source of inspiration.
- Naturescapes.net: A site for monthly articles, discussion forums, critiques and shopping for photographic supplies. Many professional nature photographers frequent this site, and are very helpful in the forums.
There are many, many, many more sites to choose from, and some may suck more time out of you than you would like. So choose wisely, join a community, and create art!
It’s just a blur
Posted on February 27th, 2008 by Paul
When I first started taking photos, I strived for the sharpest images possible. I wanted the widest depth of field and the crispest details. Once I started expanding my art, though, I began to experiment with blurring.
One example we’ve all seen before is light trails from cars. It’s easy to do; set your camera on a tripod or brace it with something, set a low ISO and long shutter speed, and click away. This particular example was taken on a busy New York city street for 10 seconds, braced against a traffic signal pole.
The street scene was nice (and one of my favorites), but it’s not really abstract. I tried a slow shutter speed again with some grasses waving in the wind, and came up with this image. This is something I would have hated in my earlier days, but now it’s a wonderfully abstract image, showing colors and motion.
Now that I’d taken photos of objects that blurred themselves during a period of time, I wanted more. I started experimenting with zoom blurs, where you zoom the lens during the exposure.
My first tries were during a night-time Mardi Gras parade.
Both of these were taken at a 1/2 second shutter speed, and zoomed during the exposure. It took quite a few tries to get the hang of zooming at just the right time.
The trick is to start zooming and then click the shutter. You’ll have many, many images you’ll trash, but you might come up with several keepers. Don’t be afraid to try; digital images are cheap.
Next I tried moving the camera as I took an image. I found a field of pretty flowers, set a long shutter speed (this is 1/25; I really could have used an ND filter), and moving the camera straight up as I took the image. This works really well with vertical objects such as flowers and trees, but almost anything will give you a nice abstract image.
I’m a big fan of flower images, and this is a wonderful way to create new images.
And finally, two of my favorite zoom blurs.
The red flower in the middle of the zoom really makes the left image, I think, and I’m really happy I found these blue and yellow flowers together. It’s like an explosion of bright colors.
Just Say Click
Posted on February 25th, 2008 by Paul
Sometimes, you just don’t have time to spend with a personal creative project. Sometimes, your weekend consists of 13 hour days at work, and you’re too tired to pull out the camera.
So try taking photographs without one.
Composition is a visual exercise; no camera is needed. You can do it anywhere: driving your car, sitting at your desk, or almost anywhere.
Take a look around you and pretend you have your camera with you. What would you take a picture of? How would you frame it? How do the compositional elements come together? Picture all of this in your mind and say "click".
You’ve just taken a mental photograph.
Sure, you say, that’s all well and good, but how do I show it to people?
That’s not the point. The point is to learn, to practice, to grow in your own personal creativity.
There’s a story that’s been going around for a few years about a basketball experiment. I have no idea if it’s true or not, but it doesn’t really matter.
Three groups of people were taken to a gym, the story goes, and asked to shoot a series of free throws. They were then divided up into three groups.
The first group did nothing. The second came to the gym every day for a month and practiced free throws for 30 minutes.
The third group was told to think about free throws. Visualize it in their minds. See themselves step up to the line, see the ball leave their hands, see if fall effortlessly through the hoop. Nothin’ but net.
After 30 days, they were tested again. The first group showed zero improvement, which was expected. The second, the group that practiced for 30 minutes each day, improved by 95%.
The third, the visualization group, improved by 90%.
This can easily be applied to photography. How many times have you heard "it’s not the camera, it’s the photographer"? How much effort goes into creating a photograph before you even pick up the camera?
Give it a try. It’s important to say "click" (you can say it to yourself, if you’re self-conscious) so that you have that feeling of completion and accomplishment. "Click" means that you’re happy with your composition and ready to take the image.
Visualize it. Practice it. Create art.
12 Things to Photograph…
Posted on February 22nd, 2008 by Paul
It’s not often I subscribe to a blog based on one post, but this was an excellent article.
You’ll photograph lots of subjects and reel off tens or even hundreds of thousands of images before you lay down your camera for the last time. Some of those pictures will be memorable; a few will serve as milestones in your life. One or two might even change it.
Here are twelve subjects we think you should photograph before you die.
12 Things to Photograph Before You Die, by Photopreneur.
SlideShow Pro
Posted on February 21st, 2008 by Paul
I’ve recently purchased the Slideshow Pro plug-in to Lightroom, and updated my Signs of Katrina album.
Take a look and let me know what you think.
Artsmoke
Posted on February 19th, 2008 by Paul
Photographing smoke is a great exercise in creativity, since there is no wrong way to do it and a bazillion ways to do it right.
That being said, there are a few guidelines that make it easier.
I like to use incense sticks (or "joss" sticks) as my smoke source. It provides a steady source of smoke, and you can take many different images using one stick.
Candles can also be used, but the best smoke comes just as you blow out the flame.
This image was taken with an ordinary red taper candle. I had a black velvet background about two feet behind the candle, and an on-camera flash set to minimum. I lit the candle, pre-focused and composed (this is highly cropped), blew out the candle and made several exposures. Be careful not to create too many air currents when you blow out the candle. Or, deliberately create them and see what you get!
With a joss stick, I used the same black velvet background. This time, however, I used a studio flash with a grid below and to the left of the smoke. To get the cleanest lines of smoke, you need a small aperture (for a large depth of field) and a lot of light.
Be sure to ventilate the room every once in a while. Not only do you want to clear the room so you can breathe, but the halfway dissipated smoke can interfere with the light, contrast, sharpness and detail in your images.
You want to keep the air movement in the room to a minimum, and controlled deliberately. See what happens if you just let the smoke rise, then try slowly waving your hand near the smoke. Very small air currents work better than large ones. Also try letting the smoke curl up under a spoon or other object.
Once you have an image you like, you can try and turn it into a work of art with Photoshop. Here’s how I created this image.
First, I captured the left part of this image on its own. I brought it into Photoshop and adjusted levels to get a higher contrast and completely blacken the background. Then, I inverted the image to turn the background white.
Next, I extended the canvas to the right. I duplicated the layer, selected free transform, and dragged to the right to create a mirror image.
Then I created two hue/saturation adjustment layers; one masked on the right and one masked on the left. By adjusting the hue on each, I was able to create some colors that I liked, roughly opposite to each other.
Here is another version we created during this session. Julie explains her process of editing this on our After & Before photoblog, where we post before and after images along with our techniques for creating them.
Here’s the original with the black background.
Smoke photography can be lots of fun, but it can get a little frustrating, too. You can take many, many images before you end up with one you like; I know I did. Keep at it, and have fun!
Think differently. See differently. Create art.
Color and Emotion
Posted on February 17th, 2008 by Paul
The goal of most art is to provoke an emotional response from the viewer. Fundamentally, art is the communication of emotion.
In photographic art, nothing provokes an emotional response better than color. Show a person a black and white image of a gruesome automobile accident and they will be disturbed. Show that same image to them in color and they are likely to become physically ill. As a more pleasant example, show a person a black and white image of a red rose, and they’ll notice the texture, shading and composition. Show it to them in color, and they’ll feel the power and energy of love.
Colors have been identified with emotions for as long as we can remember. A man’s face gets red with rage, a woman who is depressed is feeling blue, a cowardly man is yellow, a lover may be green with jealousy, and a woman who is feeling healthy is “in the pink”.
The emotions triggered by a specific color can depend on nationality, social upbringing, personal preference and past experiences. Some studies have shown, however, that some colors or combinations of colors can affect people regardless of other factors.
The science of color psychology can get very complex, but understanding how some colors are traditionally linked with emotions can help when you want to elicit a specific response.
Let’s examine some major colors and some of the traditional meanings and triggers generally accepted in western culture.
Red, a primary color, is an emotionally intense color. It can signify danger, which can have the effect of raising respiration rate and blood pressure. It is the color of blood and fire, so it can also signify energy, war, power and strength, as well as passion, desire, and love. Red has very high visibility, which is why danger signs and flashing danger lights are usually in red.
Yellow, another primary color, is one of the most difficult colors to visually focus on. It is the color of sunshine and triggers joy, happiness, sense of intellect and energy. It has a stimulating impact on memory. If overused or used with the wrong combination of colors (such as brown or dark orange), it can signify criticism or laziness. Darker shades of yellow can evoke feelings of decay and sickness.
Blue, the third primary color, is the easiest for the eye to focus on. It can signify peace, tranquility, trust, loyalty, faith and wisdom. Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows metabolism and produces a calming effect. Lighter blues are associated with health, tranquility and understanding, while darker blues are associated with power, strength, integrity and knowledge.
Green is the color of nature. It includes all the qualities of yellow and blue (its parent colors), and is associated with hope, growth, freshness, soothing, sharing, and good health. It is the most restful color for the human eye, and can suggest safety and purity. Darker greens can be associated with jealousy, greed and ambition. When yellow is dominant in green, it can indicate sickness, cowardice, and discord.
Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It can symbolize steadfastness, courage, confidence, friendliness and cheerfulness. Orange is not as aggressive as red, but nonetheless stimulates mental activity and invigorates the body.
White is almost always associated with positive emotions. It is the color of purity, goodness, innocence and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection.
Black is a mysterious color, associated with evil, shadow, death, formality and ultimate power. It usually has a negative connotation, but can also represent elegance and prestige.
While in the past, some black and white purists have decried color photography as less artistic than black and white photography, I would tend to disagree. While no one can dispute that black and white photography can create some beautiful images, color — if used properly — can induce a stronger emotional impact.
Though most of us will look at the colors in art and simply enjoy the emotions produced, learning to intentionally use these colors can be an important artistic tool and even a lifelong obsession.
