Shooting Nearby Places

I just bought a new dSLR, last Thursday as a matter of fact.

I am not really into equipment as a rule, though I do seem to have a bit of it, but I needed another camera to use as backup on a couple of up coming weddings that I got sucked into. So I bought a Nikon D60.

Sunday I went out shooting with it. I needed to get to know it so I would be comfortable using the thing. I decided to go over to a little town aout 6 miles west of where we live and shoot the grain elevator that is there. We go to the pub across the street from it two or three time a month, but it just hit me that the elevator might make an interesting subject.

I arrived about 6PM the sun was lower and it lit the place very nicely. Shot all kinds of angles and things close up. There were an amazing amount of things there to shoot and the cool thing is that it was only 5 minutes from home.


So I guess this shows you don't have to travel very far to capture great images.

Amen Sister Emily

This past weekend my middle daughter gave her very first sermon at our church. She is attending Chicago Theological Seminary and is one of the seminary interns at our church in the summer.

She did a very nice job and we are very proud. I mentioned I should take a camera and my daughter had a fit. So I brought it anyway.

You can't tell a photographer to leave thier camera at home, especially for an important event like this.

Fire is our friend

Last weekend I was invited by a photographer friend to a house burning party. Her husband is a firefighter and a small group of us went to shoot the controled burn that the fire department did.

We had a hot time.(pun intended)

What the Hell Happened to Spring?

Well I have to say I am very quickly getting tired of this winter. My good friend Jeff was just finally able to tap his maple trees about 2 weeks later than he has in the past few years. By now he would have gallons of sap and be well on his way to producing surup.

I like to help him tap the trees and I usualy make a few images to document the process. I didn't get the chance to help him this year, so I'll have to visit him and help him boil. It's a good excuse to shoot the shit and drink a beer or two. It's better than watching football.

Brotherhood of the View Camera

This past weekend I went out shooting with a group of large format photographers who go by the handle Mid West Large Format Asylum. It's a nice group folks who get together once a month to expose some sheet film.

I had a great time. We met for breakfast and then starting at the light house in St. Joe MI. and worked our way up the lake shore and ended up in Holland, MI. The weather was perfect sunny and relatively warm.

I am hoping I will be able to meet up with this group again sometime soon.

Developing Your Own Photographic Style

It has been said that you should develop you own personal style.

But what does that mean exactly? It sounds easy enough, but is it really that simple.
How do you begin to develop a style? I am sure it's something many serious photographers have thought hard about.

I would suggest that you.

Look at lots of pictures. I think it is important to look at the photography of others. Not just the kind of photography you do personally but all types. If you are a nature shooter for example it won't hurt to study commercial, fine art and photojournalisum. There are common threads in all photography.

Try to look at as many original photographs as you can. There is nothing like seeing finely crafted photographic images just as the photographer made them. Books and magizines are good places to view photography also, but do take the oportunity if you can to see the originals if possible.

Shoot whenever and as much as you can. Even shoot things you wouldn't normaly shoot. The practice won't hurt and you can't develop a personal style if you don't make images.

At first you may find that your work looks like the work of others. Don't be afraid of emulating great photographers. Remember it took them a while to get to where they are, so it will take you some time also. As an individual you look at things a bit different that the rest of us and that will show up in your work.

Building your own style takes time. Just like your personality, your likes and dislikes, and your world views, it can change over you lifetime. Growth is good. Change is healthy. Just be yourself and a style will come.

Defining Photography Styles or Shooting for a Specific Audience

Yesterday I was involved photo critique with some friends from a camera club that I am a member of. It was something we thought we would try and see if we would like to do on a regular basis.

Invariably the topic of why a good image didn’t score as high in the club monthly competition comes up. A big reason is that the maker didn’t take the audience in consideration when they entered their image. The same image entered in a juried competition may do much better. Just because a picture scores low one place doesn’t negate its value. Things that score high in a camera club competition might not do as well in another type of photography competition.

People expect to see certain things depending on what the type of photography they deal with. An advertising client is expecting to see images that sell his product; likewise a fine art photography buyer has a set of standards that he works from. So if you wish to excel in any area of the photographic craft you need to know who your audience is and what they expect.

In any photographic pursuit a photographer needs to be mindful of what the final use is of the pictures they produce.

Too Many Images

I was reading an article on HDR in the Jan/Feb Photo Techniques magazine and it was interesting and informative but something the author said got me thinking.

He said "The downside of using this technique is that I need more space on my CF cards and disks, as well as more time needed for processing."

My first thought was so what? Storage is cheap, computers are faster, what's the problem? I then had the thought that yes storage is cheap, computers are faster and that is a problem.

The reason that it is a problem is because of the greater volume of work a person can produce in a given period of time. We are getting away from the practice of looking at our subject in greater detail and really seeing what is the best view of our subject before we click the shutter. Just kinda shooting from the hip.

That's ok if you are shooting action or some fast paced event, you can't spend that kind of time. This is the time when you shoot a lot and hope for the best. But when it come down to just every day kind of shooting I think we need to slow down and take the time needed to make a better photograph.

Here's an example of what I mean. Last weekend My friend Steve and I went out with our 4x5 cameras to photograph in a couple of old cemetaries that I know of. In a period of 3 of so hours I'll bet that we together didn't make more that a dozen or so exposures. If we were working with our digital cameras I'm sure we would have taken 200 plus shots each easily.

The mechanics of the 4 x 5 camera and expensive of the film make you slow down and think about what you are doing. I'll bet that we get a higher percentage of keepers, because we more deliberate in our shooting.

I don't want to give the impression that I am against new photographic methods, I love working digitally, but I think we need to stress less about quantity and more about quality.

When we are out shooting the question shouldn't be how many shots did we get, we should ask if we got anything worthwhile.