Findingviews
Picture sales and an open notebook of thoughts from Orginal Robart
Merry Christmas, originally uploaded by originalrobart.
This is not one of my better photos. It was taken on Christmas day to be part of @satscenes a Twitter game. Despite the compositional and lighting issues this photo does serve to help us all learn a point. When you’re learning – and we are all always learning – bad photos have value in the lessons they teach us.
The glass bauble has captured too many reflections. It suggests too much going on. That could be good – if the rest of the photo was dark and we could really delve into those details. We cannot – and that just leaves us with distracting details. Distraction is not a good thing in a photograph. We need the image to direct us and not confuse us. This should be a simple and clear image and that is now lost. It leads me to 2 conclusions.
1) Always make sure you have the right amount of detail in a photograph – neither too much or 2 little.
2) Always make sure you have the right amount of light. The right amount of light is the brightness that will let the picture tell a story.
Details and lights are everything.
There was a time when I worked with a significant number of abstracts. Partially because I like an abstract that derives from reality – that – uses the lack of realism or photorealism to unleash
feelings or emotions, and also because I took a lot of bad photographs that leant themselves to this style. As my photography improved I worked more on straight forward shots but often my sense of abstract and fun would sneak back in. I have a feeling that 2010 will be a year of strong and more creative work – with lots more abstracts or perhaps exaggerations that feel can bring on emotions. I guess to me the abstract is a way to reach feelings.
‘Later in the night’ is a good example of my abstract file. It was taken in a pub, looking at the bar in dim light. I used a shortening of focus and a short exposure time (no flash) to capture everything as lights and shadows. A bit of Photoshop work tidied up the tones and grain to give it this dirty and film noir look. There is something about the 40’s style of noir that is dangerous, glamorous and sophisticated. Much more exciting than a regular pub.
That’s the inspiration to Later in the Night. The name comes from the simple joke that later in the night, when one is tired and perhaps worse the wear for a few drinks, this might be how you see the world