Trying to Improve

Yesterday I was out shooting with my friend. Ron.  Ron is the reason I got back into photography in the first place.  When I met him, he was taking photos of the 4th of July fireworks.  Since then we have done several photo shoots together.  Always fun.  He is much more active in shooting photos than I am.  He doesn't have to do a 365 day challenge because he takes photos every day anyway.  I have learned much from him as he is a natural teacher.  Some of it he has to reteach  me because I forget.  And some of the technical stuff is just too overwhelming for me.  But he is patient.

One of his favorite places to shoot is the south pound of Lincoln Park.  It is by the zoo so we did both. Mostly a frustrating day for me.  Because I take so many photos with my phone now, I am just pointing and shooting.   With my "real camera" I have much more to think about.  I was using my telephoto lens a lot and having trouble getting sharp pictures.  As Ron pointed out and then I remembered, shooting at 300 mm, the shutter speed needs to be at least 1/600.

 Although at this size both photos look pretty sharp, the second one when blown up really is sharp.  The first is fuzzy.  The shutter speed was too long for the focal length of the lens on the first photo.   Both were shot at 5.6 aperture, the widest this lens allows and both were shot at 300 mm (the farthest zoom).  But the second picture while not 1/600 of a second as it should have been, it was 1/400 of a second as oppose to 1/160 for the first.

He also showed me how to shoot in live mode again using my LCD screen instead of my view finder and how to magnify the image and super focus.  I never really ended up using that.  I fell back into the point and shoot and got a few photos I liked, changing focal lengths and composition.

Not really sure which I like best.  Some others I liked as well.

My favorite of the day however was the bird in the bush.  And even though the shutter speed was slow in some of the photos, I got some really sharp images.  I wonder if it has to do with aperture. There is supposedly a "sweet spot" with lenses that at certain apertures the lens takes sharper pictures.  I tend to take photos with the aperture wide open, giving me a very shallow depth of field.  The photo below was taken at 14.  The focal length is 260, but the shutter speed is only 1/80.  This picture should have come out very blurry, but it didn't.  

Ron suggest analyzing my photos to improve.  I haven't done a lot of that so this blog is sort of trying to accomplish this.  My thought process  has always been that you are either good at something or you are not.  That practice really isn't helpful or perhaps it is annoying or just tedious.  I think I will see if I can improve.

The Corners of Composition

Last fall I took an online photography course called The Art of Seeing.  Mostly it was about composition and what the instructor calls the "big four."  Line, texture, color and pattern.  I enjoyed the course and learned a lot.  Looking back at past photos I realized that I am intuitively drawn to these corners of composition.  I also realized that these "big four" are corner stones of life.

Line is is the direction of our lives.  The direction may be straight or curvy, long or short.  There may be multiple lines, or one strong, unfaltering one.  There may be a fork in the line, a choice to be made.  There are no good or bad lines.  No wrong or right.  They are our lines.  Our directions.

Texture is the richness we add to our lives with friends and activities.  Family ties.  Support of others, support of ourselves.







Color is what brightens our world and makes us happy.  Color is our dreams and our accomplishments.

Patterns are the rituals we keep and our every day routines.  The habits we form both good and bad.

Photos

It occur to me  last night in bed that I wrote a blog about photography and did not include any photographs.  I meant to.  So here are some of the photos I have taken so far on my journey.

These were all photos taken with my Canon.  Mostly with my 100 mm Macro lens.  The land scape is with my super wide lens.  15 mm I think.

The ones below were done with my camera phone

The Beginning

On December 31, I started a 365 day photography challenge.  Setting up my own rules, I have to take a photograph every day and publish it.  Originally I was posting to Instagram and to Facebook, but now just to Facebook.  I use what ever camera I have handy so often times it is the camera on my cell phone. So far I have only missed 2 days.  Back in my perfectionist days, I would have tossed in the towel, since I haven't been "perfect".  But I am o.k. with it.  Maybe I will keep track and add them on to the end.

I suppose the first question is why am I doing this.  The answer: Because I love photography and I find myself, like writing, not getting it done.  I am trying to build a habit.  To make photography part of my every day life.  I certainly want to improve, but also to quiet my inner critic who is always telling me that my work is not good enough.  One of my irrational thinking patterns is the "all or nothing" pattern.  I will never get anything published with National Geographic so why should I even bother.  In fact I may never sell any photos or produce great works of arts.  There is tremendous competition out there.  Why should I attempt to produce something that will most likely never amount to anything.  That is what I am exploring this year.  Why do I want to take photographs.  Yes I love taking photos and occasionally, I think get a pretty good one.  But what is the meaning for me.  What is the purpose.  I am hoping that by doing it, the meaning will come.

What I have learned so far is that there are many supportive people out there.  People who are liking my photos and encouraging me along the way.  And I appreciate every single one of them.  And while I get frustrated sometimes because I feel like the camera on my phone takes better photos than what I can take with my Canon, I can do more artistic photos with my Canon.  I have more options.  And it is the photos that I take with my Canon that I generally get the most likes though not always.

I am learning that photography is about detail.  And I am not a detailed person.  I am taking an online class on taking portraits in natural light and am overwhelmed by everything you have to pay attention to.  I have taken some very good portraits--by accident.  Most of my photos that I like are accidental photos.  Though I think my "accidents" are better than other people's.  When I took a class on composition I realized that I am naturally drawn to the elements of composition.  And although some of my photos are "snap shots" they are thoughtful snap shots.  Some of my accidental portraits used the light in a way that we are learning.  I think what the class does is helps me with consistency.  Hopefully I will learn how to take more consistently good photos.

What I am struggling with is coming up with something new and unique every day.  I know there are photos everywhere, but what is interesting and what is dull.  What is just ordinary and what is ordinary but interesting.  The other piece that I struggle with is taking a photo that has a meaning.  That conveys an emotion.  I might have a dozen photos that I have taken over the years that I feel falls into the emotional category.  The instructor I have now is asking the question what are you trying to covey with this portrait.  What mood.  My friend, another photographer, and I look at each other and shrug our shoulders.  Not a clue.  I nice picture.  Is that enough?