Photo Tip #21

Photo Tip #21-Store Your Camera Setup for Your NEXT Shoot

Come up with basic settings for your camera-ones that you use the most frequently. For example, ISO 100, F/16, aperture priority, RAW/high JPEG, etc. and get in the habit of leaving your camera with these settings in place. If, in the field, you stray from these settings, no worries, just remember to put your camera back to it's basic settings BEFORE you unload it (film or flash memory.)

Remember, it's very easy *the next time* you go out shooting to forget to check these things. Keeping your camera on the same basic setup most of the time, and especially every time you store it, will help ensure you don't accidentally forget and shoot a lot of pictures with your camera on an incorrect setting.

Vehicle

PrettyBlueJagNo1, originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

The theme for today is: vehicle.

According to the wiki, a vehicle can include any means of transport, including those made by nature and those made by man. So, for example, a floating tree trunk and an iceberg can both be considered vehicles, as can a bicycle and a car. A chariot, a stagecoach, a buggy, a barge, an ox-cart, a rickshaw?Yup, all vehicles.

I wonder how many people went out and photographed icebergs for this challenge? I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess, probably not many.

But, by "going out on a limb..." Yup. You guess it. Another vehicle. It's a vicious cycle, isn't it? Vicious, you know, as in "one that keeps moving." (Oh crap, there it goes again!) Hey, it's Friday, what were you expecting? You remember Friday, don't you? It's that "vehicle" for the weekend to start?

Yes, I thought you might. Remind me to stop looking things up on the wiki, it's Friday already.

Until next time...

Photo Tip #20

Photo Tip #20-Just Add People

When doing an environmental or a tableau vivant-style portrait (one with a "setting" and not just a "headshot") try composing the image first, adding the people in only after you're happy with the basic composition of the frame. This will help eliminate unnecessary background objects and provide a sense of balance to your compositions. By doing this, as you edit, you won't have to eliminate any images because the background or setting was wrong-you'll be able to focus on more variable details of the portrait-the facial expressions, skin tone, lighting on the face, and gestures to pick out the best shots.

Painters Every Photographer Should Know - Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth was an American painter born in 1917 in the small rural Pennsylvania town of Chadds Ford. The youngest of five children, born to an illustrator and artist father, N. C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth's childhood was shaped by his ill health. Stricken with whooping cough at a young age, his parents opted to pull him out of school and provide for his education at home. He was home schooled in many subjects, including art education. He died in January of 2009, at the age of 91, leaving behind several children, one of whom is now an exhibiting artist as well.

No study of Andrew Wyeth would be complete without addressing on some level his popularity. Known as a "painter of the people" Andrew Wyeth achieved a level of artistic success few artists even dream about hitting. Almost as his stardom increased, so too claim the critics, did his reputation as an artist decline. It's been said that his stardom "cannibalized" his art-inexpensive prints saturated the market to the point of lowering the value of his "real" work. A student of art today could almost undertake a complete study of Wyeth, not just as an artist, but perhaps as a lesson in "how to move art to the masses" (maybe even "how not to move art to the masses" depending upon your point of view.) Much has been written about Wyeth, both during his heyday as a best selling artist and in his later years but, popularity and commercial success aside, Wyeth was an influential painter.

Known to shun traditional oils, Wyeth instead opted to work with watercolors, drybrush (a technique where watercolors are used but water is squeezed or otherwise removed from the brush) and egg tempera (a medium where egg yolks are used as a binding agent and mixed with pigment to make paint.) Perhaps Andrew Wyeth is famous not so much for the type of painter he was, but more the painter he wasn't, as his subjects and style also varied drastically from many of the abstract oil painters from that period.

Andrew Wyeth painted typically rural subjects, like those you might find in rural Pennsylvania. His subjects were often open, desolate landscapes and much of his work showed traces where humans were left behind (tracks, roads, beds, chairs, etc.) Wyeth preferred the quiet contemplative desolation of the rural landscape-much of his work sets a quiet mood. He liked to disguise the familiar by light or distance and there's a certain "approach yet withdrawal" about his work. Standing in sharp contrast of the abstract painters that were popular of the day, Wyeth painted a quiet realism-his work is as much about detail as it is about space, a study in both the pensive and the perspective of rural American life at the time.

What Photographers Can Learn From Him
The concept of a "quiet mood" is a wonderful "take" for a photographer looking to Wyeth for inspiration. Since Wyeth was not an abstract painter, his work bears the mark of realism-as a photographer, here is an example of heavily used textures with a clear focus. So much of today's "textures with layers" work really resembles Wyeth's paintings. His work was subtle yet detailed-photographers should be comfortable with a certain level of detail, as much of photography is about detail and it has roots in the same sort of realism that Wyeth knew, yet a photographer could learn a lot by incorporating a certain subtlety into their work, the way Wyeth did.

Much like Michael Kenna, a Wyeth painting is more a dialogue with the viewer than it is a finished product. The concept of suggestion-the traces of human touch left behind can really add a lot to photographic work. A lot of photographers (myself included) don't always work with portraits but, by leaving out a person, a photograph can suffer-the photographer can drop a center of interest that's naturally present with a portrait. By opting to include instead hints of a person, small touches, subtle tells of a presence that have been left behind-things like chairs, beds, boots, signs, even tracks in the earth-Wyeth's work become more like a haiku and less like prose-subtle, contemplative, pensive, moody. These elements can translate directly, as they do with Kenna, to photography and the notion of a creating a discourse with a viewer, rather than crafting a finished product lends itself well with the modern notion of highly interactive art. It's as if the viewer is drawn in by what's not present in the image and that sort of "approach yet withdrawal" creates a natural tension in the work.

Wyeth's color palette was simple, featuring many browns and grays, and he used light and distance well in his work to give depth and assign meaning. To paraphrase that old adage, "objects closer in mirror are more important than they appear" would sum up Wyeth's perspective quite well. In his famous piece, Christina's World, Wyeth painted a girl, crippled by polio, crawling across an open field with a house in the distance. The use of space, sense of depth, and level of detail in the work lends meaning and importance to the elements in the painting. Once again, photographers could learn a lot by looking to Wyeth's example of using light or distance to assign importance to elements in an image. By putting more important objects in the front of the frame, adding a lot of depth, working with space, detail, subtle colors, and texture carefully, a photographer could really craft images with great impact.

For his quiet mood, his mastery of light and distance, his texture with focus, the quiet desolation of Andrew Wyeth earns him a spot in the ranks of "Painters Every Photographer Should Know." You can read more about Andrew Wyeth on the wikipedia entry about him and look for more posts (and painters) as part of the series.

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This is next in a series called "Painters Every Photographer Should Know." The painting shown here is Andrew Wyeth's Master Bedroom 1965. Please note that the paintings in this series are not copyright the author of this website, may be subject to international copyright law, and are provided her for educational purposes only.

Photo Tip #19

Photo Tip #19-The Doors of Perception

Perception is sometimes the key to making interesting work. Move beyond simple subjects, and introduce symbolic elements, subjects that have a cultural significance, or subjects that have multiple interpretations to help you make more lasting, compelling images.

Somebody Please Help Me, I'm Cursed

Water, originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

By now you probably know that I went to a carnival this weekend, so that I could take some pictures. That's all well and good, and I suppose you're now expecting me to cough up some shots of kids on rides, of bright lights, of things twirling around. So, what do I come up with? Water. Still water.

Yes, I know doesn't make any sense to me either. But, I couldn't help myself. I loved the way the lights were softly reflected on the water. I thought I wanted to paint this someday, so I'd take a quick snap, and here it is. It's probably going to be the best shot from the night too. I'm cursed like this.

Let me explain. You see, I'm the type of photographer who could go somewhere, hike up a mountain, or lower myself into the deepest depths of the ocean. While I'm down there? A bunch of ok shots. But, get me back into the boat or the plane or the whatever and I'll take this stupid little "one off" shot of somebody fastening a belt, fixing a shoelace, or some such thing and that? That will be the picture of the day. I never get what I came for, I never wind up dancing with "the girl I brought to the party." Me? No, that would be easy. And I never do things the easy way. If I wanted to take a picture of water, why, I'd have to go to the desert. Or the moon. Or some other Godforsaken place, one where you'd never expect to find not a drop of water in the joint. Want to shoot portraits? Easy-look for privacy. Autumn leaves? No problem, shoot for spring flowers. Aaaaarrrrggghhhh.

It's a hard life, really it is. Somebody please help me, I'm cursed.

Until next time...

Photo Tip #18

Photo Tip #18-Learn to Sequence Your Work

Editing is not enough-learn to sequence your work as well. Learn how to transition from one image to the next, either tonally, by subject matter, lens, or some other way, to maximize the impact of your presentations and showoff a clean, clear, well-defined body of work, rather than a scattering of "one off" shots.

The Case for Paint-Make It Stop

Flag, originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

Since I've been setting up my studio to do encaustics, I've noticed that lately I've been bitten by the bug. I've started to sketch out the first paintings that I want to do once the setup is complete, and I can hardly wait to get going, to get painting again, only in the new medium.

An interesting thing about paint, one which I've been reminded since all this encaustic work has started to happen, is that, when you work with paint, you're not limited to "reality" in the same way as photography. Sure, it's never stopped me before, but right now anyway, I'm starting to enjoy the expanse of an imagination unbound. For example, I started to think about nature, about what I like about nature. Then I started to think about leaves, because, well, because it's autumn and so I guess the time was right. Then I started to think about birds on a wire, and birds, and flying, and all of the freedom of association that comes with flight. I had this idea to do encaustic panels, basically a "bird's eye view" of the world, and call it "as the crow flies." I could even get little houses, make roads, and all of that, maybe using something like an old Monopoly game.

It's a funny thing about crows. I've wanted to do a crow series as a photographer for a long time but never got around to it. I bought these fake little stuffed crows, and I was going to sort of "plant" them around, taking their picture as I went. That's a great idea, and I might still do it at some point, but my point today is that, by dabbling in paint, by using encaustics and drawing, rather than photography, I can actually make my crows without, well, without making my crows. It sounds almost easy. Doesn't it? Who knew photography was so much work? (Well, ok, I shouldn't really say that but, like, you get the idea.)

So then my mind started racing and I started sketching again. All the different paintings I want to do. For some reason, I almost always start out a photograph or a painting as a sketch and I never sketch all that well. Just smudges, smears, a few quick lines on a page, but that's all I really need to get myself going-it's all in the head anyway, right? As my mind goes around at ten million miles an hour, I try, I hope, to just save off little tidbits, tiny morsels of what I want to do for my next big project. Now, I'm afraid that encaustics are going to turn into the next pit for me. I'm going to have ten million ideas running around in my head and I'm going to be helpless. "Make it stop," I'll say, "please make it stop."

For some reason, I always have a million ideas but can never actually get anything done. Somehow, I'm haunted by all these little notions, vague recollections, pieces and parts, bits not yet realized. What do you do when you have this problem? Try to forget? Try to remember? Work harder? Or just relax and have a beer? (That last one is actually starting to sound just about good right about now.)

If you'll excuse me, I think it's time to rename "Miller Time" to be "Encaustic Hour" (yet, somehow, celebrate it with some "golden umber" if you know what I mean.)

Until next time...

Photo Tip #17

Photo Tip #17-Edit Your Work

Learn to edit your work. Divide your images into groups and learn to eliminate "duplicate" images (images that are very close, but essentially the same subject or viewpoint.) Edit wisely and be merciless in your selections for best results.

When In Doubt Hit Desaturate

Bumper Cars No 1, originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

Does a photo always work as a black and white?

This is something I ask myself a lot lately. I think the answer is "no" it doesn't. Only if a photo "works" does it really work in black and white. Only if the composition is strong enough, if there's texture, tonal range, some depth to the image, does a photo really work in black and white.

I see a lot of photography, some of it good some of it, not so much. The one thing that stands out to me about digital photography is that, while black and white film photography sometimes gave us "boring" results, you could almost always make a print out of something. No so much with today's digital format. I see a lot of color tints (there's nothing worse than a slightly "urine yellow" colored black and white photo, IMHO.) I see a lot of muddy prints (no contrast and everything just muddy gray, with no black points, and no proper white points.) I see the Zone system getting thrown out the window. Everybody just wants to push that convenient, little "desaturate" button, and, newsflash! It doesn't always work like that.

Take this image. Is it an ok image? I think I like it enough, it's kind of fun to see inside the bumper cars. But, if this had been a darkroom print, no way this would work. I would spend a lot more time getting the contrast better, dodging and burning, fixing things. Photoshop, in a lot of ways, makes us lazy. Because we *can* fix things, we often *don't bother* to fix things. And that's, well, you don't need me to tell you that's probably bad, right?

If you're shooting digital, you're probably better off shooting color unless you really know what you are doing. Digital black and white has a real ugly side to it, it's just wrong on so many levels. If you aren't familiar with how traditional black and white prints should look, if you haven't spent too much time in a "wet" darkroom, it's probably never too late. Get in there. Learn how to print. Learn how to print well. Digital black and white prints, when done well, look fantastic, but there's a steep learning curve and any mistakes you make can be quite off the mark.

A lot of people say, "yes, well, I only shoot for the web" in response to that. What they don't realize is that learning to print will make you a better shooter. You'll learn what will and what won't print, and you'll learn to avoid that which won't print. In turn, your results will improve. Yes, even for the web. Even if you never ever print another single image in your life, learning to print is not a waste of time. Really.

When I shot these bumper cars, I looked at the floor and I was a little bit worried that it wouldn't turn out-it was dark, maybe too dark. So, I took so test shots-looked into the little peephole in the back. Only after I saw that it came out ok, that I thought I could get a decent print from it, that's when I started shooting the bumper cars. Oddly enough, my friend and shooting buddy, Kathy, walked right up to me while I was shooting the bumper cars and said, "that looks interesting, but I wonder how that dark floor will print."

"Test shot. Here. Look. Oddly enough it works," I said to her as I showed her my viewfinder.

After she shot a few frames, she showed me some of her shots and said, "it looks like it's going to block up but it's holding up ok." It was. It did. Learning to print does that to you in the field.

The "when in doubt hit desaturate" model doesn't always work. If a photo doesn't really "work" in color, black and white can't really "save" it and it might do nothing more than showoff your inability to print.

Time for me to get off my soapbox and back to processing. Look for some acceptable black and white prints to come this week.

Until next time...

Photo Tip #16

Photo Tip #16-Shoot early and often

Like voting in Chicago ("early and often") shoot more images than you think you will need and arrive early/stay late to events so that you can catch unexpected vantage points or different views on the same subject. Flash memory or even film is cheap, typically cheaper than not getting the shot, so expose lots of frames for best results.

I Just Don't Know What to Think

PurpleGuy, originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

Ok, so last night, I went to the carnival. For those of you who don't know, a lot of photographers shoot the "carnival at night" type of work-you can probably guess (if you've never seen it before) the type of work I'm talking about here. Wonderful swirling lights, neon trails of color, the excitement of an entire "strange" environment lit up at night. It's very fun to shoot, especially at first but then, after a while, it can all start to look a little bit...well....maybe "the same" would be the right way to describe it.

So, I go to the carnival and take my infrared camera. And it takes pictures. And they don't look anything like the "normal" carnival pictures you might typically see. They look like this. This little purple guy. All whacked out, a bit odd, maybe even a bit "off" and that's the polite way of describing them. I guess it's safe to say, well, they aren't "normal" not by any stretch of the imagination. Odd colors, odd shapes, weird things happening with the light, and that's just for starters.

Now, I've got all these pictures of the carnival and, frankly, I really don't know what to do with them. I don't know what to think. I'm not sure that I like them-I mean, they don't look like anything that I've seen before, and they are "weird" even for me (that's really saying something.) On the other hand, well, I kind of like the idea that they don't look like anything else you might happen to come across. The world is full of photographers, and every photographer has so many cameras and yet, from all of those cameras, from all of those eyes, from all that vision, not one person, not one single person who ever came before me stopped and thought to do *this.* Maybe there's a reason for that-maybe you shouldn't do *this.* But, then again, maybe this is creative, new, funky, cool, and makes people laugh. I don't think there's anything wrong with making people smile, is there? I mean, are photographs (and, in turn, photographers) supposed to be miserable all of the time? Because, well, if that's the case....

Yeah, weird, I know. And I just don't know what to think.

Until next time...

Photo Tip #15

Photo Tip #15-What's in the Bag?

Keep track of what you keep in your camera bag for better results. Try to eliminate unnecessary items, limit yourself to one or a small number of lenses, and keep your accessories to a minimum for better results and a lighter load.