Overexposed

Today's strip (ha ha, strip) of What The Duck reminded me of a phone conversation I had with Brandi earlier this week. We were joking around that I should start a photo business specializing in bourdoir photography, so I could "really love my work".

Within seconds, I had ruled that plan out when I imagined myself saying two things in the near future.

Scenario A: "Errrrrrrrrr....uhhhhh, so you want to do something special for your husband for your 60th anniversary, huh?"

Scenario B: Me, climbing out of the bedroom window quickly with all of my photo gear as bedroom door is being smashed in, "What do you mean you didn't tell your homicidal NFL linebacker husband about this because it was a surprise for him?"

Yeah, I'll pass.

I am totally missing my camera. I keep seeing shots everywhere I look. I can't wait to get it back in a few weeks.

Composition

I call this "Second day of Spring Break and bored already!" (ha ha)
I took this shot of Trevor and his friend on Tuesday at the pond. Don't they look bored silly? It's just a candid shot but it is a good example about composition and how I've changed my shooting habits.

The night we studied composition, I wrote 4 pages of notes. Great great stuff but there is no way I will memorize and implement it all right now. So I've been focusing on just two or three for now, practicing them, and getting proficient at them. Then I'll add another 2 or 3.

Here is just one of many things I learned in Fundamentals I, it's something simple, and it can help anyone get a little better. It's called The Rule Of Thirds.


No, not like THAT.....ewwwww. (Although What The Duck rules!)

It's a generally known photography principle....I just didn't generally know it before the class;) Before taking the course, I would have taken something more like this:
The subject center frame and the bridge centered vertically. Not bad. A bit boring maybe.

But if you will divide your viewfinder or LCD display into thirds like this:The four points where lines intersect is where you generally want to have your "center of interest". Tom called them "power points".

Vertical subjects (buildings, towers, trees, standing people, etc) should ideally line up with a vertical third mark, like DJ and his reflection in the water in this picture.

Horizontal subjects (horizons, horizontal lines, etc) should be lined up with a horizontal third like the bridge in this picture.

Do you have to do this every time? No. There are all kinds of exceptions that I haven't learned yet. I'm just a beginner, like most people who read this little blog. So try this the next time you are taking shots. It'll take some practice to get it right, but I think you'll find your candid shots looking a little more "photograph" than "snapshot".

Footnote: For those of you worried I might go off the deep end after my camera broke last night and had to get shipped off for repair, don't worry. I'll make do with my old point and shoot for a few weeks. This was just after tonight's sunset shot with a Kodak P850 in manual mode set at f-3.6, 1/640, iso-100.

I am so bummed.....

I was playing around with my camera shooting Trevor in the early afternoon sunlight when he mentioned that the chain had come off of his electric scooter and wedged in the wheel earlier during the day.

So we walked into the garage so I could fix his ride. I set my camera onto of the large trash can and got to work. A minute later, the thing fell off of the can, plummeting 3 feet to the concrete floor. No one was even near it. Seeing it on the ground made me feel sick.

It did turn back on, the lens isn't damaged but the body did crack at the hot shoe and built in flash.
So it is off to Nikon for repair for a few weeks and I am left cameraless in the mean time :( :( :( I had definite plans for some specific shoots in the next few weeks plus class is starting back soon. Ugh! Sick sick sick.

I have a point and shoot, but what fun is that? Last shot in the Nikon was this one. I was trying to get him to turn his head a little more to his left to get short side lighting.

Alexis, the most excellent wife that she is, tried to make me feel better by saying, "Maybe we should just get you a new camera body."

Anyone got a D-200 for sale?

If A Picture Paints A Thousand Words...

then what in the hell is my photography trying to say?

I spent some time this weekend watching Zack Arias give online critique of portfolios of aspiring photographers. I learned a lot from watching these, even though I have no desire or intent to ever "go professional". But two things he said stuck with me.

First, passion and talent are two separate things. All the passion in the world doesn't make a talented artist. He gave a painful (ha ha) auditory example by "sharing his passion for singing". I think talent is pretty much innate. I don't think my level of talent can decline but it can be cultivated through practice and through skill enhancement. Passion for a hobby or art on the other hand is fluid, it ebbs and flows. I have the passion right now for photography. The question is whether I have the potential talent to take me to the level of photographer that I want to be.

That leads to the second question and the point of this post. What is my voice? What am I trying to do through my photography?

In his reviews, Zack noted once or twice when a photographer's work was "all over the place" instead of trying to find their niche. Granted, he was reviewing mostly professionals relative to their professional work and I have only been really shooting for less than a year, but those two questions are still important for me. I'm not questioning the validity of what I'm doing, this isn't some existential bull----. For the sake of focusing my growth, I'm trying to target what it is that I am actually trying to accomplish through photography. So here are a few random thoughts on that.

Amateur vs professional
I want to be a great amateur photographer. I have no desire to be paid for what I end up doing with photography. This has nothing to do with some self righteous "won't sell out my art" kind of thing. It's a personal preference. I find that when I get paid to do something, I stop loving it and it becomes a job, a chore, drudgery. I learned that from catering a few events. I started photography as a hobby to get away from the stress, not add to it. I think it's great that some people can do it and enjoy it.

Technical Proficiency
Interestingly enough, I'm finding that regardless of wanting to be amateur or pro, if you want to be great, you have to get better at the same things from the technical standpoint. Exposure. Lighting. Composition. etc. etc. etc. As an amateur, I just get to skip out on all the talk about work flow and marketing.

I want to be great. So I am taking classes in UT's Personal Development course. Classes are signing up now ( see course offerings)and if you are in the greater Knoxville area, I highly recommend you sign up at least for the Fundamentals of Photography I course or a similar course near you. The first 8 week course has really made me better but I have a long way to go. If you can't find a local course, Zack's Onelight DVD course looks very promising.

It doesn't end there. I am watching the work AND work methods of people who are better than me. Find a mentor, join local meeting groups, etc.

So what do I want to do with my photography? Two things.

First - I want to capture memories for my family and friends with amazingly well taken photographs that are good enough to be in a magazine. I want them to saw "Wow! That's a GREAT shot" and not even know why it is so fantastic. I'll just smile and remember appreciate the technical aspects that went into it.

Second - I want to create art with my camera. I want to take once in a lifetime shots.....over and over and over again. Whether it be nature, architecture, or edgy artistry, I want to shoot frame worthy photographs that make people stop, look, and think.

[On edit: For the record...that was only 684 words so I guess one picture would have been overkill:) ]

Scavenger Hunt: Knoxville

Updated: (originally posted as incomplete 2/25/09, finished 3/15/2009). This was harder than I thought it would be. I would have liked my shots to be more artistic or if the weather could have cooperated for the past 3 days:) .

So TJ of TJ's Photo Expressions mentioned joining in on a photo scavenger hunt being hosted by NicoleB. I was thinking, Nicole has the upper hand getting to shoot in Hungary at the moment. But that's the great thing about photography. It opens your eyes to the great and unique things around you, where ever you are.

That's why I'm doing this assignment. It gets you to appreciate what's right in your back yard and gets you to open your eyes. I will post what I've got so far and hopefully will finish by 3-15-09, the due date. Feel free to snap along. It doesn't matter if you're just doing point and shoot or creating works of art. It's about SEEING. Have fun and sign up at NicoleB Daily.

I'll bump this back up to a current post once it's done.

1) local currency (plain old ugly American money)

2) local flag (I've been waiting 3 days for the rain to stop to get a shot of a University of Tennessee flag....the rain has not stopped!)

3) local food

4) something rusty (bridge in Oak Ridge TN)

5) local wildlife (The rain has been so persistent, ducks have quit going to the lake, they just hang out in the puddles!)

6) local nature (Sunrise at The Cove)

7) local stamp (Hmmmm all of our postage stamps are not "local", but Alexis used to work in accounting for retailers and suggest a state tax stamp found on cigarettes.)

8) part of your neighborhood (it can be a very small part)
Reflection of sky and tree in the pond in our subdivision.

9) traditional house (John Oliver's cabin in Cades Cove during last week's field trip. Not the best angle but I wanted to show the river rock chimney. This has carried over into the regional modern homes, even the McMansions on golf courses use a lot of river rock.)

10) a local person

11) local weather (Sat 3-14-09)

12) local transportation (Stuck in infinite construction mode, it's been suggested that the TN state symbol be changed to an orange/white construction barrel. I snapped this one from an overpass last thursday when I640 was snarled.)

13) traditional local clothing (Well, it IS TRADITIONAL if you happen to be a HAZMAT worker involved in the clean up of the decades of radioactive waste in Oak Ridge! A comment to a November 2008 article in Knoxville News Sentinel: "My projection is those white protective suits will become the new fashion in Oak Ridge." Shot taken 3-14-09 at AMSE. )

14) night sky (Yacht club taken at 11pm on Lake Loudon under a full moon, TN. 30 sec exp)

15) sunrise (Moon over sunrise at Lake Loudon)

16) local product non food (Electricity - per Wikipedia, the Tennessee Valley Authority TVA is the nation's largest public power company, providing electric power to nearly 8.5 million customers in the Tennessee Valley. It acts primarily as an electric power wholesaler, selling to 158 retail power distributors and 61 directly served industrial or government customers. Power comes from dams providing hydroelectric power, fossil fuel plants, nuclear power plants, combustion turbines and wind turbines.)17) something furry (Ollie the Wonder Chinchilla)

18) something feathery (canadian goose at our pond)

19) a sign of the season (front yard in bloom)

20) a part of you (self portrait self portrait self portrait self portrait)

21) your main hobby (See yesterday's post for how I got my 9 year old to take these shots. First shot was a split second too late as I am already coming down and the rear leg isn't tucked any more. )

22) a local shop (Goody's is/was based in Knoxville, operating some 300+ stores across the south east US. They closed up shop February 28th, putting a lot of locals out of a job.)

23) a local restaurant (The "Full House" is my fave, a tamale in a bowl of chili. I love that it's walk up window service.)

Baker-Peters House was built in 1840 and is now a jazz club and restaurant. Rumor has it the place is haunted by it's namesake.

24) a street sign (near Building K-25 the top secret facility, now being torn down, that developed the uranium 235 used in the bomb dropped on Hiroshima)

25) a local mail box (30 second exposure of my 9 y/o at midnight at our mailboxes last month after a snowstorm, I thought the blurred face made him look like a ghost from A Haunting)

Shadow Saturday

As part of Nicole B's photo scavenger hunt which I have to post tomorrow, I needed to take a picture of my main hobby. So I set up the shot in our basement and then let Trevor actually fire the shot. This one actually turned out to be perfect for Hey Harriet's weekly Shadow Shot Sunday meme.

I set my Nikon D-60 (quit snickering....it's all I have for now) with a 18-55 zoom lens on a tripod, turned portrait. I connected it to a strobe (SB-600) on my other tripod with a ttl cord. I used manual focus and set it for where I WOULD be when Trevor shot. This is where I screwed up a bit, I calculated using an aperture of f-7.1 based on my guide number but erred in 1) forgot I was shooting a 400 ISO and 2) was using a 24mm guide number instead of the focal length I was using.

Anyway on this shot, I didn't have the framing set up right so when I kicked a front leg front kick and he took this shot, this is what showed up. I actually liked the shadow in this one!
Speaking of shadows, here is Trevor's. I took it this morning at the American Museum of Science and Energy. It is a hands on exhibit in which you stand in front of some kind of medium on the wall and a flash fires at you. Your shadow is "frozen" on the wall for about 5-10 seconds. Cool, huh?

Aliens Like Ice Cream

Aliens have landed in Knoxville and I got the shot while at lunch this week!

This is a display on top of Graffix Tattoo located on Central. I have driven by this place at least two dozen times since our offices relocated near this area at the end of October and I have NEVER seen it until this week.

This is my new favorite guilty pleasure, The Original Freezo!
Yep, an old fashioned walk up. You place your order at one window, wait around the pick up window talking to the other customers, and then sit on the concrete tables "out back" (aka, over yonder). Alexis says their milk shakes rock. I wouldn't know, I always go for the "full house", a homemade tamale in a bowlful o' chili.

We had a full moon this week, so I couldn't resist an 11pm run to take some more night time shots.
The final showing for Fundamentals I? It went great. I was very happy with the comments from Tom and fellow classmates. I took all of the votes from your comments from the last post and I am embarrassed to admit, put them in a spreadsheet and tallied them up. Interestingly, the votes summed up either in total or weighted (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) produced the same list and matched my initial picks except for one. The final pictures chosen were:
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18

Now that THAT's behind me, I have to bust my arse to meet Nancy's scavenger hunt by Sunday.

Your Vote Needed NOW!!!! Before Wednesday

Ok, I know I'm late getting this up but I have had such a hard time deciding what pictures to post.

I have the final showing in our last Fundamentals of Photography-I course on Wednesday and I have to pick 4 pictures I've taken since class began. Here are my finalists. Please pick your three favorites by number (number is above the picture) and rank them in order in the comments.

Note: Anonymous comments are enabled so you can comment even if you don't have a blogger or google account. Comment moderation is on, so it won't show up until after I click them.

THANKS A TON FOR YOUR HELP!

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20THANKS TO ALL WHO HELP ME OUT WITH THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!