Meanderings
Random thoughts that creep into the head
Findingviews
Picture sales and an open notebook of thoughts from Orginal Robart
Workshop prep, originally uploaded by originalrobart.
I took this photo as part of @satscenes regular Twitter game. Coincidentally this shot is of computers being prepared to run a series of short workshops on using Twitter and Facebook.
The pictured captured a something I saw on Saturday – an important objective of Satscenes, but when I saw the full sized picture on Flickr (I had taken this shot using my mobile phone), it felt perhaps a little boring. A little ordinary and possibly a bit less than the moment that had inspired it.
Then I thought a little more. The things we see most of the time are ordinary. Most of the world is not extraordinary. Perhaps there is art in just reminding ourselves how things are, in addition to the art that finds something special and inspires us.
For a moment perhaps I had used self criticism to forget one of the points of photography – to record the world; in all of its mundanity.
Buying glasses, originally uploaded by originalrobart.
Buying Glasses is all about looking at the design that comes from a display. I recently needed to buy new spectacles – a good experience as I have an excellent optician, but that’s not the point. I noticed the precision in which the glasses were laid out on display and thought it would make a fun perspective shot.
That got me thinking about the relationship between celebrity, art and design in advertising.
One common norm in advertising is “stick a celebrity in and people will come”. In fact these days you cannot move for celebrity filled advertising.
Yet art, photography, design and pretty much all the creative arts tell us – get the image right and people will be moved in the way you want them to.
Are these two in conflict, or are they mutually self reinforcing?
Do some creatives work out beautiful images only to be told to stick a celeb in regardless of the quality of there work.
Or do the powers of art and celebrity combine to produce uber ads; adverts so imbued with emotional + celeb allure that we cannot help but buy.
Or is something else, more interesting going on?
Personally I think we’d only ever complain if we were bombarded with dull and uninteresting advertising.
Oranges, originally uploaded by originalrobart.
This image of oranges for sale screams the colour “orange” at you. Orange is a bright, healthy, fun and somewhat energetic colour. Even a picture of oranges for sale contains a fair bit of power.
Its all about having a key colour that drives the emotional impact of the picture. We associated certain feelings and conditions with specific colours – red is for danger, blue is for cold and so on. So if we dominate a picture with that colour we’ll drive a feeling home to our viewer.
This is a story telling practice in photography that has nothing to do with the technology or related technical details. Its all about typing together observation, colour and the desired impact you want your photograph to have. The third point is the important one – desired emotional impact. Artistically images have a point and that point can be beyond a simple recording of a scene. If you the emphasise that with colour then you’ll have bigger impact and a better photograph. For me the important point is for the photographer to make that choice – a clinical documentary recording, or a photograph that drives the observers emotions.
The choice is up to the photographer.
And an easy to do this is to use colour wisely
If you click here you’ll find a simple colour chart to get you started
I teach beginners digital photography and had a recent discussion with a student who has done extremely well and is now central to a new camera club being set up. He was finding that the role of club leader was reducing his shooting time and whilst rewarding it was not actually taking pictures.
This is a common problem.
If you have a creative drive and creative urges are high then you will naturally want to push yourself forward as hard as possible. When you find yourself drawn in a direction that reduces your creative time, or when life intervenes to reduce the time available for your art then frustration is natural. After all a great artist once said that the best way improve yourself is to do something everyday. Unfortunately for many people this is difficult and leads to frustration.
Frustration is counter productive and needs to be avoided. A frustrated artist may end up dwelling on the negative or the impossible. It may lead to a paralysis of action. Not a good thing.
I have this problem too. Some times the work I do leads me away from the creative and I find myself wondering about what to do next.
I have found one answer to the problem. It is to float in the wind. It is impossible to control everything that happens in life. What is in control however is your attitude and ability to take advantage of opportunity. So what you need to do is not worry when life stops you from doing what you want. Relax, deal with one problem at a time and get back out there taking pictures as soon as you can. However just because you cannot go our with your best camera that should not stop you. These days most of us carry cameras in our phones. Take a moment out to quickly take a picture of things that catch your eye. This quick snapping will help you keep your eye in on composition.
So don’t make a chore out of things, don’t get stressed, snap away and when you can go out and do great work.
That way you can go on for years, ever improving your craft.
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I was recently looking for a good list of tips for a short landscape photography session for a course I was teaching and as a result came up with these. The tips are specifically not about camera functions, the members of my course owned a wide range of cameras and I needed tips that were specific to any level of camera technology.
1) Take advantage of foreground detail – something close to you can really help if you have objects of interest in it. A foreground object can lead the eye into the picture of assist in giving an idea of depth and scale.
2) Play with perspective. Lines that flow and carry your eyes through a photograph can be a big help in giving a sense of both perspective and emotional depth.
3) Generally avoid the sun, however a sun low on the horizon can help fill the sky and add emotion to a picture. This helps explain why there are so many sunset pictures.
4) Don’t worry if the light is dull when you take a photograph. This can always be improved in Photoshop providing the rest of the composition is good.
5) Using a tripod with a slow shutter speed can help you freeze a subject in your landscape whilst softening elements like clouds and moving water.
6) Watch out for the shadows of clouds. Shadows in the right place can add atmosphere. In the wrong place – they can just dull out or ‘smudge’ an image – by making it look dark or taking the emphasis off your main subject.
7) Experiment with low and high viewpoints. You can often get a better effect by looking along, up or down rather than restricting yourself to eye level.
Watch the skies – birds in the right place can really add to the atmosphere of a photograph.
9) Play with the focus when looking at a landscape. By putting different parts of the landscape in or out of focus you can gain some interesting effects.
10) Use details or features in the landscape to emphasise your main subject.
Image via Wikipedia
On a day that was warmer than expected yet still cool – we had yet to really reach Spring. I was in Basildon Park near Reading. An interesting house used in films that is surrounded by extensive park lands. I wasn’t walking the parks, but did see the house and paid some attention one tree opposite the entrance. It was a tree that was frozen between seasons
There the mummified remains of leaves and old nut cases left over from Autumn and the kind of barrenness of branch that comes only with mid winter intermingled. Yet there was some evidence of new growth as well. It was a tree full of textures that were taking full advantage of silver light. The sun was breaking through thin clouds – giving us a strange bright and pleasant light.
The stage was set for a series of photographs that explored the branches leaves and textures of the tree. I discovered that it was the textures and colours that were created on this day that I was most attracted. That’s how the picture got its name. It was photographing seasonal remnants on a day that itself was quite Winter or Spring. Its the shapes and textures that make it for me in this image.
Image via Wikipedia
I run regular community education photography and the two most common problems I see are not understanding what the camera can do, and not understanding what makes a good photograph. The problem with the camera is normally caused by camera handbooks being just impossible to understand for most people. The problem with understanding photographic composition is one of experience and vision.
The problem with learning how your camera works can be fixed surprisingly effectively by working with the person involved, and whilst learning composition is harder you can teach someone to observe and that is the basis of good camera work.
I also know that not everyone can make it to a formal class and that something a little more flexible can be the solution.
To me that looks like a hole to fill in.
That is why I have decided to offer private photography tuition. The concept here is not to put someone into a large class but to work with them and their camera to solve the problems they are facing. Think of it as a small scale workshop, designed specifically to give some one a sense of fun and achievement whilst they are picking up a set of skills that will be useful. Since it is all about practical skills, and all about practice these personal tuition sessions can be be teach more in short time than a course which has a larger syllabus and a class to defer to.
That is why I am doing this – to offer something that is more than a manual, and different to a class. It is a form of focussed coaching designed around the individual.
Should you be interested in this contact me via my photography web site at http://originalrobart.co.uk/default.aspx
If you’re not interested just think for a moment about why I’ve decided to offer this service this way. Perhaps just using this idea as a way of thinking and practicing your photography will help you.
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One of the truths of photography is that despite planning, intention and care you can never be sure when the opportunity for a good photograph will present itself. I’ve talked about my mobile phone being a note book that I use to record ideas for photographs, and maybe even the images themselves. That is useful – there is no doubt of it, but this cannot beat carrying a camera as often as possible. It’s one of the reasons that a good many photographers as well as owning a good collection of powerful SLR cameras also keep a good pocket sized camera on hand. They’re simply following the rules that you need a camera to take photograph and good images can be seen anywhere at any time.
Here’s an example from my own work. I have two clients that are separated by the Blorenge mountain in South Wales. I know from experience that local weather conditions can vary the views from absolutely zero to quite beautiful vistas. I was passing over that mountain this week, the weather was freezing cold but glorious and there was enough view and light to take a few pictures. Had I not bothered to have a camera handy there would be no pictures.
Here are some links to those images.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grandetour/4356222113/
http://www.redbubble.com/people/robdavies/art/4653867-1-softly-we-see-the-sugar-loaf
So remember carry a camera and be opportunistic. You never know when a good photograph will reveal itself to you.
Here’s a quick and easy tip that has nothing to do with the classic suggestion of running a blog to help people find you.
This one is entirely for content creators, and so seems appropriate for a photography blog.
If you create content – particularly if you are a blogger of a photographer then you should take a look at Zemanta and Apture.
Both of these services do a single job well – they allow for the integration of content from a number of sources into a blog entry. Using Zemanta or Apture can really help a blogger quickly find a reference or image to insert. Of course all of this content has to come from somewhere… this is where you come in. By making your content available to Zemanta or Apture you can increase your chances of being discovered simply some bloggers, somewhere in the world will refer to your work.
Take a look at what these services offer – for a creative person they are potential discovery engines.
I’ve been considering adding the content from http://sharedcreation.tumblr.com/ to this blog. I’ve now come down on the side of adding this content. Here’s why. What I do with http://sharedcreation.tumblr.com/ is to hunt through the Internet for photographs and sometimes videos that I find inherently interesting. I then pass a few comments on the subject matter, techniques, content and simply what this makes me feel. The idea is that I produce a stream of inspiration that is created by combining the words and images. I try to update http://sharedcreation.tumblr.com/ most days – and this typically works out to around 5 updates per week.
To me this fits in perfectly with the concept of Findingviews being a notebook of thoughts. In Findingviews I like to write about what I am doing, pass experiences on, and pass along ideas. I think adding how I feel about other images and art makes a lot of sense. It is adding another piece to the puzzle to let you see what is going on.
I hope you find the new images interesting, and entertaining.