Subtle but different…
It makes all the difference. I know. You are rolling your eyes right now. Lessons. Again. Boring.
See the room. ?? A little bit more wall makes it look a lot less crowded. Huh? Convincing? Can you see what I am getting at?
Sometimes it really it too subtle to care. And at other times, there is a big change in changing perspective. What does the image convey, or, the photographer wish to convey? … the difference between ooo… and ah…
… not one good. Disney. The location is clear from background. This is another memento, a family record documenting a fun time. The kids were cooperative. My camera failed me. The light was muted. I needed a slower shutter speed. Film! My f-stop was probably as large as the lens allowed. I was doomed to failure. Digital probably would have saved me. Film came in a single ISO. It was inflexible. I suppose I was lucky to get what I got. It is sadly dissatisfying now. But you can tell it is film and it denotes an era long past. iPhone would do so much better now. Film is dead. Long live film.
Intentionally. I shot this on the fly through the car window as we sped along some highway. Does it matter? Ha ha. Relevant? It’s not a good shot. It’s not bad. Reasoning: I wanted a pic, a representative pic of the fall foliage. I was not willing to stop every 100 feet. So, shoot, get what you can, and sort the rest later. Reason: Otherwise you would not have shot nothing.
Technique: I keep the camera on the dash board. Wide angle? Too wide. So I use something like – aha! – 60mm on my trusty zoom. I let everything else go automatic. A shutter speed too slow will give you motion blur.
It works. Shot after shot. Some good. Some bad. But there is something to show the fall foliage. Fine photography it ain’t and you may roundly criticize. But it works for me. I stay married and we get somewhere to where we were headed.
Shhh! One mustn’t be late to Thanksgiving….
What to say? There are a thousand ways. But some pictures look better when the subject is off center. The background should not compete. Muted is good. it all comes together. Colleen smiles and it makes me smile. Infectious? Contagious?
As to selfies, you can see my left handedness in play. Camera in the right hand. I peek at the background – too bright, too dark, too distracting. Freeman stage, the setting sun, the living room. Everything is set up for failure. But “the selfie” is the object. Imperfectly it worked.
I just spin the catalog and up popped a dragonfly. Imperfect, there is much to criticize. And yet the image is arresting. Nice dark background. Focus, a bit soft; spider web, potential; flower, past prime. Hey, it was random!
There is always better. I strive. But I accept imperfection. Hey, it’s a dragonfly. You got one to compare?
a la Magritte. No, I am not so presumptuous. However, this image evoked his memory. Lose the pipes. Alas, at the time I did not consider them. The image of the view camera…. I should know better. I admonish myself for failing to get the distraction out. A certain starkness does remain. Almost… no cigar. Better? Can I do…. Sure, but I won’t be back again. Alas.
? Well, I switched over the Sony RX100 and used its electronic zoom to get in close. I don’t see a rooster every day. I settled for a sharply focused close-up. The background was not ideal. Composition was okay for the position of the bird in the image frame. It was what I could get. The bird was on the move.
I shot the next image with my Nikon Z5 and 200mm zoom. The bird is on the move rapidly out of range. You can see the motion blur. Once again, not perfect, but I came away with an image and a memory. Sometimes you know what to do and never get the chance to put the wish onto the memory card.
This blog has been on hiatus since … awhile – about nine years. Ha ha, I got an email from a long lost friend and visitors and even a new follower. Oh my! Nuts.
Cats. Black cats. Hard to photograph. They are black. Yup. And the fur is hard to see in terms of texture. Usually you are left with a black shape. Eyes. It’s in the eyes! You need to be pin sharp in focus with the eyes. Do it and you have a shot. Otherwise… well, composition helps too. Background? Hey! The cat is on a stairway and I am looking down. But the illusion works that Tillie on the stair and I am looking up. Neat!
Sometimes it’s not necessary to see the whole object. In this case the ship is a common shot. But focusing in on a detail of the structure would bring the viewers attention in a way that is unique. It can be the difference that makes the shot stand out. With digital it’s ok to get a wide view and close up. But I find that the zoomed in shots tend to hold more interest.
it’s an interesting shot. There are foreground elements and there’s the tall ship in the background. What’s disconcerting is the wide angle distortion. It looks like the tall ship is falling out of the picture toward the back. Somehow in a vertical picture the distortion seems more noticeable. But the shot does stop you for a second look. Here’s an instance where cropping can’t really save you. I like the colors, probably helped by a polarizing filter. I am still a sucker for that brilliant blue cloudless sky. Hey! I tried to get all the elements into the image. Not bad, but it could’ve been better.
PhotoCritical 