Cookies Any One

Happy Halloween everyone. While the object of the day is to be sweet for the kids, it wouldn't be sweet if ANY of them get hurt. So please be safe out there with not only your kids but make it a community project to work together in keeping all our little angels(?) safe on this special day for the Dentist of the world.

Pro Pix Tips. I thought it most appropriate to talk about cookies in this PPT post. Not the kind you eat but the kind that we use in photography. They are a part of the GOBO family of light shaping tools. So what's a GOBO? It's technically anything placed between a light source and the area that the light source is illuminating for the purpose of controlling or shaping that light. In other word something that GOes Between (BO) the subject and light source. GOBOs have several different styles to produce several different results. Two of the most common use are scrims and flags. We well look at these in a upcoming post. The cookie is used to project a shape or pattern onto an area of the subject. They can be made of almost anything which will reform the light in color or shape. Size has no issue except as it pertains to the composition placement. It can be any form. I have seen ladders used as well as glasses, plants, stained glass windows, window frames, window blind, you name it, it's probably been used. They can add to the natural sitting of the photo or be use to create feel or emotion, or add a clarifying element in the tell of the story presented in the shot.

The term cookie is kind of a nickname for the word Cuculoris which is found in the movie and theatrical field. Another nickname is the word coo-koo which is not used nearly as much as cookie. If we were to really dive into this subject in depth we would note the cookie is broken down into at least four categories which more or less applies to the material they're made of.

If we were in the studio and wanted to create a natural on location look of a subject looking out a window when there's no window to look out of, we could place a cookie that would cast a window frame shape onto our background surface. With the use of a filter we could make it look as though the sun was shining right in even if we were taking the photo in a cave. Cookies cast shadows that create an illusion which we want to help in the composition of our photograph. They can add to the story or be used to direct attention to the subject.

The truly funny thing about cookies is that they can be found in must general every photograph especially those taken outside the studio. Where theres a shadow being cast there's a cookie casting it. Now there are some who would tell you that in order for it to be a cookie it has to be unnatural or even had to have been place into position. Well what ever floats your boat but the results are the same. I know that there would be a difference but if I want a leafy branch shadow behind my subject whether it comes from a real tree that is living there or from a rubber hose with leaves cut out from construction paper, I don't care. What you decide is up to you but for me, well it's rare for me to find a cookie I don't like.

That's cookies in a nut shell (yes I meant it say it that way). We will talk more about GOBOs and how to use them to compose you photos in our upcoming post. Until then, have a great day everybody!

Richard

Defective Calculators

Hello everyone. Hope all is going well with you. I am glad that the last post didn't keep you from coming back. I really hope that you have been working on your composition skills. It's been windy here but I was able to get some good shots today so don't let a windy day discourage you.

Before we get back on track with our Pro Pix Tips series on composition I would like to toss out this post which is a sort of follow up of the last one. We were discussing opinions and how they really control our lives. After posting that to the blog I was reminded of a story that I had related to some folks I know that took place about 6 years ago. I thought that it truly had some merit to what I was trying to point out in the last post. I hope it helps you get a clearer picture of what I was trying to convey.

Some people I know had a child attending one of the areas elementary schools. Like most parents I know they would check out the child's back pack when they got home from school in order to check for notes from the school teacher and to glance at the work they were doing. As they were looking through some math work sheets they were happy to see the high scores in view of the fact that their child had been having trouble in the past with their understanding of math. Their happiness quickly changed to bewilderment when they began noting that many of the math problems had been incorrectly answer yet were not marked so. Prompted by this they began looking through the rest of the math work sheet not only from that day but from the last week and noted there were numerous such incidents. The parent asked for an received a time to have a meeting with the child's teacher to solve this obvious oversight. Image the surprise of the parent when the teach disagreed with the parent that the answers were incorrect. The parent ask the teach since when had 7 plus 8 equal 12? The parent noted that when they graduated from school those numbers equaled 15. The teacher asked the parent to read the instructions that were on the work sheet. They read something like add the two numbers together to come up with an answer to the problem. The teacher explained to the parent that in the case of 7+8 the child did what the instructions had told them to do. Since 12 was greater than the larger of the two numbers the child had successfully add the two numbers together even though the sum was incorrectly calculated. Therefore the answer was partially correct and therefore not completely wrong. Only if the calculated answer had been 8 or less would the answer been incorrect and mark as such. In short an incorrectly calculated answer could still be correct even if only partly so. When asked how the teacher expected the child to learn what the correct answer was the teacher said that they felt that in time the student would discover what the correct answer was. In the mean time they didn't want to demean the child or give them any cause to feel they were a failure especially when they partially answered the problem correctly. Now I don't know about you but if I had teachers like that when I was in school I would have gotten a scholarship to Harvard. Now I have to tell you that even though I had no reason to doubt their story I still found another family I knew pretty well and asked them about it being that there child attended the same school but in a different grade. They didn't hesitate one second in confirming the story with as similar one of their own. It would seem that the process of formulating an answer is more important the obtaining the correct answer. Would you like your doctor to operate that way. "Well I took his blood pressure and listen to his heart with my stethoscope and thought all he had was a chest cold but the autopsy said he actually had a heart attack. I didn't see that coming!"

I would suggest to the teacher as well as to all of you that when 7+8 is calculated to equal 12 that there is something wrong with the process of formulating an answer. Left unchecked our reluctance to risk demeaning the child could lead to coming up with opinions that can screw a lot of peoples lives up royally. It is due to this kind of reasoning that leads to people calculating that because they can drive to the store, use a microwave oven and put food out on a table, they are chefs.

I can see that kind of reasoning on display today even in my own life. Simply going through the motions of making a decision makes no difference if we elect to come up with a solution we have derived from misunderstandings and pipe dreams that paint a false picture of greener grass that's just a mere decision away. Many times there is no such thing as a do over when we discover the truth.

The Good Book say that the truth will set us free. To do that we have to be able to separate the truth from opinion or false truths as they are know by in some circles. We must be truthful to ourselves first because it we can't be truthful to ourselves well..........I think you got the idea.

Good opinions come from sound reasoning which comes from our desire to research and discover the correct solution to the situation. If it's worth doing than it's worth doing it right. The rats calculated that it was a good idea to run after the pied piper but from all accounts I'v seen they appeared to have miscalculated. The moral to that part of the story is don't be a under informed rat cause you may wind up in a place that there may be no return. That would be bad!

We'll hit the old composition series with the next post. With that in mind I think I smell cookies. What does that have to do with composition? You'll have to check out the next PPTs to find out.

Have a great day everybody!

Richard

An Opinion, In My Opinion!

Hi everyone! I hope that the PPTs are helping you with your composing of your photos. We've only scratched the surface and there is so much more to cover. For some you might be saying that you didn't know there was so much effecting the composition of the photograph. If you did the mirror and flashlight experiment you may have been shocked just how big a difference the positioning of the light makes. Up till now you may have thought that if the picture was in focus and the exposure your pretty good then you picture was perfect. My hope is that you will discover with this series of PPTs that there is just a bit more to a great photo that focus and exposure. Whether that hope is realized or not is out of my control. What is in my control is whether I choose to try to make a difference or not. It's easy to choose to do nothing and not risk failure. There are times when going to war having little chance of winning the day has its' merits do to the principles involved. But there is something to be said about choosing your battles and it's here where I choose to focus this blog posting.

Like most of you it seems that I need to almost constantly need to be reminded of the things I've learned over the years. Recently I have had to be reminded that opinions are like a certain part of the human anatomy, everybody has one. It seems that nobody views things in the same way. When I was a cop we learned that if you had two people involved in a situation you could always count on have three sides to the story, person number 1s' side, person number 2s' side, and what really happened. I actually watched a demonstration once where a group of people were watching a couple of people talking when unexpectedly a person came out of nowhere, grabbed a purse belonging to one of the folks involved in the conversation and ran off stage with it. Those viewing this event were reassured that the theft was staged but were then asked a series of questions referencing the description of the "thief". No one got the description correct. In fact they were split on what gender they were. Some stated they had glasses when they didn't while others failed to notice they had a coat on but not hat. It was kind of like watching the game were you secretly tell one person a story and tell them to pass it on secretly to the next person and repeat that until everyone has had the story told to them and then see how close the story the last person told heard it compared to what was told to the first person. Most of the time you can hardly tell any similarities at all.

I was also recently remind of the movie "War Games" (at least in my opinion that was the name of it) were a boy hacked into a NORAD computer thinking he had found a site for new computer games and decided to play Thermo Nuclear War. The computer was built to automatically control the US Nuclear response to any threats and it could also calculate all the different options on how to win a Nuclear war. The computer naturally gets out of control and no one realizes it thinking that the things they're seeing the Russians doing were real. And of course the computer is playing as though it's real so now the whole world is headed for nuclear annihilation and no one can stop it. Finally, the star of the show (the kid that started the whole thing) gets the computer to play itself in a game of tic tac toe which it begins to divert all of it attention to trying to find a way to win the game even though by playing itself it is impossible to win which in turn causes it to do the same with the Thermo Nuclear War game driving the computer nuts and disaster is avoided. So after the computer tries every possible combinations in which to find a way to win at Thermo Nuclear War the computer says to guy who created it, "That's a strange game. The only way to win is not to play." It's a great anti nuclear war movie if your in to that kind of thing.

So how are these two things related and what's my point to all of this? I don't know. Only kidding. When you start listening to peoples opinions and react to them, I have found that you've probably just started playing a very dangerous game. Why? Because like most things in life, opinions have mutated over the years. For the most part, opinions are not longer based on truths or facts. They are tainted by how it effects those who are giving the opinion or what they want or is some cases what they don't want. Ego and arrogance as well as fear of being shown up or out done also plays a role. Rarely do they have your sole interest in mind. But that's not all of the problem. Sometimes the issue of getting someones opinion is complicated by the fact that we really don't want their opinion as much as we want them to agree with what we think or what we want to do. That way if it all goes wrong we can blame someone else thereby avoiding any semblance of responsibility for the choice we made.

So now you're asking, "So what?" Well has any ones opinion had an effect on your life. Can you say government? How about relationships or employment status? The movie "It's a wonderful life" comes to mind. Our lives are so entangled with so many others that many times our lives seem so far out of our control. That's not a fun place to be.

Opinions are getting unreliable at best and destructive at worse, in my opinion. The Good Book says we should seek out wise counsel but that's not very easy nowadays. Because the world so entwines our lives, it hard to find someone who doesn't have a dog in the hunt and even then there may be a dog in the hunt that you just don't know about that is effecting the opinioner which in turn effects the opinionee. Being victimized by a tainted opinion is bad, but it's even worse when you are both the opinioner and opinionee.

My reason for this post is because a lot of things in our society seems to be getting diluted or lax in their meanings and purpose. It's easy to slip into that arena. It's dangerous and very crippling and therefor a place that should be actively avoided as much as possible. It's a major problem within the photography community, in my opinion, and left unchecked could ultimately alter the industry permanently. Everything is constantly in a state of change but whether that change is for the better or not is up to us. For that to happen maybe we should revisit what is driving us and rediscover truth and reality. Only then can opinions regain their value and importance in our world and stop confusing and destroying it. It all starts with each of us individually. It won't be easy but nothing worth while is, in my opinion. I pledge to do my best and while I'm sure I will not always succeed, I will still continue to do my part. Will you?

Have a great day everybody!

Richard

Getting Light Into Shape

Hello everyone! I have to laugh because this posting has been in the typing process since they started rescuing the miners in Chile. So I intend to finish this and possibly start another before I call it a day.

We're going to continue easing our way into composition in this installment of Pro Pix Tips. As I have mentioned before, there are some many things that make up composition that it just can't be covered in one post or even a lot of post. So far we have discussed the importance of why we are taking the photo in the first place. Once we do that, we need to determine how we are going to accomplish our purpose. Since our tool of choice is the camera and since camera work by capturing reflected light than it only stands to reason that how we capture that light plays a very important role in composing the picture we what to "paint". How we use light in order to capture the subject of the picture sets the tone for the overall feel that the viewer of the picture gets. An example of this is easy and fun to demonstrate especially around Halloween (pay close attention Chris). Get a flashlight and stand in front of a mirror. With the room dark, stand in front of the mirror and take the flashlight and hold it just under your chin and shine the light up into your face. Spooky, right? Now move the flashlight around so that it shines on your face for several different angles and note the different looks and feeling that each angle creates. Don't forget to shine the light at the back of your head on order to create a silhouette in the mirror. How does the light make your face look different. Light that is shined directly into your face generally fattens out your facial features and usually makes your face look fat or in my case, fatter. Lighting up only half of your face usually gives a feeling of mystery. Continue to play with the flashlight in front of the mirror and really study what the light does but you might want to do that when nobody is around to see you.

So while you're standing in front of the mirror with a flashlight let's take a look at five of the most popular styles of lighting.

1. Butterfly lighting. To demonstrate this lighting pattern take the flashlight and shine it directly into your face from just slightly above you. Note how your face is fully lit while noting the shadow that is formed under your nose. Because of the angle, the shadow will take on the appearance of a butterfly, hence the name. This type of lighting is use primarily in high fashion but doesn't do well for most people as it is not very flattering because it flattens the face. You should note that this light is easily produced by the camera's pop up flash or on board flash. Both flashes have the nickname of "ugly lights" for a reason.

2. Loop lighting. To demonstrate this lighting pattern, move the light slightly to the right or left and raise the angle of the light to about 45 degrees. The object is to produce a shadow created by your nose down toward the corner of your month on the opposite side of the face where the light is shining from. This shadow should resemble a loop shape. You should also note that the light starts to drop off in intensity as move around the opposite side of your face. It's important the the loop shadow under the nose and the shadow caused by the drop off do not touch or meet. There should be a highlighted area on the opposite cheek which should extend to keep these shadows from connecting.

3. Rembrandt Lighting. This lighting pattern gets its' name from the style of lighting used by the painter Rembrandt (go figure) in most if not all his portrait painting in order to create the kind of contrast in the composition that would create the 3-D illusion from a 2-D image. In photography this pattern is created by moving the light slightly further left or right causing the loop shadow to meet with the shadow created by the light fall off which now creates a triangle shaped highlight on the opposite cheek. It's this characteristic triangle highlight that the Rembrandt pattern is known by.

4. Split Lighting. This lighting pattern gets its' name because the light is positioned at a 90 degree angle to the subject thereby illuminating only half of the subjects face with the split going right down the center of the subjects nose. This pattern for me adds mystery or what other photographers call drama to the shot.

5. Rim or Accent Lighting. This pattern is usually use in conjunction with one of the other lighting patterns to give some separation between the subject and the background. But don't forget the silhouette shots. While these are generally lit with natural lighting from behind the subject it can be done with a studio light.

The important thing to remember here is that the overall feeling of the photograph is very much controlled by how the light is shining on your subject. If you're going for a soft and tranquil feel or mood than you probably don't want to use Split Lighting. Likewise, you probably won't want to use Butterfly Lighting for a dramatic look or feel to your photograph. But remember that with every rule there are exceptions and you're not confined to these set positions. The key is to experiment with the light much as you have while standing in front of the mirror. But keep in mind that is some cases the lighting may generate a variety of emotions or feelings leading to a misinterpretation of the ones you as the photographer intended. The success or failure of the photograph you take depends on how accurately you compose the shot and how you use your light plays a critical role.

Experimenting helps you to grow as a photographer. You can read or hear a bunch of techniques and theories and not have them sink in so you learn from them. Get your hands dirty and continually ask the DZ (David Ziser) question, "What happens if ....?" Don't get upset or discouraged if you look at the camera's LCD screen to view the photo you just took and you instinctively scream out loud "Were the hell did that come from?" That is a phrase that crosses the lips of even the biggest dogs in the photographer pack. It may be an ops but it's an opportunity to run with the big dogs and improve your skills. Stick with the shot till you get the look you're after cause that's when you do your best learning. So when your spouse or kids catch you standing in the dark in front of the mirror shinning a flashlight at your face and they ask you what you're doing you answer, "I'm learning stuff, that's what I'm doing!"

Well, that about it for this PPT's. Have a great day everybody!

Richard

The Trick Is To Get Dumber!

Hi everyone! Hope you are have a great week and ready for the weekend. Thanks for stopping by. I realize that it takes time and that is something I don't what to ever take for granted.

For the past several post, we have been taking a look at the wonderful world of composition. We have discussed the need for first having a reason to take the photo. It's hard to know how to get the shot or know when you've gotten it if you don't have a clue as what your reason for taking the shot and the story you want the shot to tell. And that has led us to the discussion on "how?" to take the shot and with our first glance into the "how" abyss we got just a small glimpse of how many different considerations there were to consider and we only saw the stuff on top. So I'm sure that the suspense is killing you. The tension is so thick you can cut it with a weed whacker. But before we hit the 10 meter diving platform we might want to cover another part of "Why".

Many years ago I heard one of my "friends" say, "The more I learn, the less I know." I really don't remember much about the circumstances surrounding the event with the exception that the statement made me stop and think for a minute to fully grasp it. Once I did, I realized how important this idea was and put it into my "life toolbox" and have tried to live by it as much as I can. Have you caught the meaning of those words yet? I am reminded virtually every day of this phrase but since I came back from Richard's Big Adventure out west where I started on my ponderings I have found a renewed appreciation for it. An ex-wife had a similar saying, "Ignorance is bliss". The Bible states that there's nothing new under the sun. I get a kick out of people who think they have created something or discovered something "new". I don't know how many times I've heard that a new species was discovered and make out like until they found it, well, it didn't exist. We all know that it in fact did exist, we just didn't know it. But if we didn't know it existed the day before it was found, then did it really exist. Ignorance is bliss! The fact is that everything exist, we just haven't discovered it yet. Does that make us stupid or just uninformed. I'm reminded of an incident that happened in a local trade school many years back. Several student were taking an electronics class and were about two weeks into the program. The instructor had just finished discussing how one type of circuit worked and immediately started discussing how another type of circuit worked. Instantly, one of the students became notably frustrated. When the instructor ask why, the student replied that he had signed up for the course to fix radios and was getting impatient to do so. The instructor put down his book, set down on the corner of his desk. He leaned over toward the student and ask these very simple but poignant questions. "How do you know something is broke when you don't know what it does? How do you fix something if you don't know how it works?" I saw a similar situation in the volunteer fire department. Everyone would show up to fight a fire but getting those same people to go to training to learn how to fight a fire was a whole different story.

We live in a microwave society where everyone wants what they want right now without making the effort to learn how to do it. We go to the store and purchase some frozen microwavable foods, throw them into the microwave until they're hot, take them out of the microwave and throw them on the table, and "voila", they're a chef. Gang, just because someone owns a Bible doesn't mean they practice what it teaches. Just because you own a hammer and a saw doesn't make you able to build a house. There is a lot of automatic settings in the world but that doesn't mean that they provide the best results.

As we dive further into photo composition, one of the things I'm sure you will notice sooner or later is that you may have not given any thought to some of the things that go into the composing of a photograph. Many might even question whether it's even important to take these many complicated thing into consideration when all we have to do is set our camera on auto and let it do the work for us. Yes, you will get a photo that is generally in focus and evenly exposed and would probably meet the "good enough" criteria, but is it really. How do you know that's the best photograph you can get if you don't know how to get a better photograph? An example of this happened just today at one of our theatre venues. I had noted the past few visits that I had made to that location that the photo seemed a little dark and grayish looking in some parts of the photo. They looked OK and guest were buying them but still I just wasn't happy with the look. Tonight when I stopped by I had the time and the equipment on board to try to improve the looks of the photos. I used the experience and knowledge I had to choose a setting and location for an additional flash and adjusted the angle and placed a diffuser on it and had my manager take a shot. The result was a vast improvement over what we were getting. The color and lighting was much better. Was it perfect? Are you kidding? It could have used more tweaking but perfection in the photo is not necessary as situation doesn't call for that. But it did call for better results than we were getting. My point is that if my experience and knowledge of photography stopped at the automatic setting, well the photos would still look like they did and who would have noticed cause there was nothing to compare them to.

As my experience and studies continues, I find that the more I learn, the less I know. It seems that as I learn something new it serves to open the door for two or more things I don't know. It's that three steps forward, two steps back thing. It seems in order to be better the trick is to get dumber not because I'm not learning but because as I learn I discover a bigger and more exciting world of photography has been there waiting for me to turn a corner and see it. I believe that as long as we continue to push the envelope there will always be something waiting for us to discover just around the next bend.

When I was take a training class there was a sign that had been hung over one of the blackboards in a class room that read, "When you're through learning, you're through!" We can't serve our clients to the degree they deserve if we remain satisfied with the just good enough thinking and the I just don't want to waist my time learning anything attitude. So as we continue on our quest remember that there really is a good reason to learn all these things. We do it to separate our work from the ho hum and mundane work that seems to be running amuck! So, do we want to get better and smarter at doing our work? If so, let's get dumber!

Well, we will continue looking at composition next post. Until then, have a great day everyone!

Richard

Have My Point. Now What?

Hello everyone! Thanks for checking out the post today. As you know, we are taking a look at the wonderful world of composition in a series of Pro Pix Tips and today we are going to start looking at the second step of composing that photograph you want to take. But before we get started I'd like to catch you up on some previously mentioned projects we are working on.

I told you about a mobile production unit we are putting together. We had to bring this vehicle in from way out West and that was not a fun task but we got it back here into town by the grace of God. But that's just about how far we have gotten on it. It will need a lot of cleaning up before we can start working on it to make the changes we need to make it useful. We hope to have that task done by the end of the week. She's a beauty and I can't wait to get it operational. When completed, we will have a vehicle that can handle virtually any on site location event to include weddings, engagement and senior shoots, church directory shoots, party and special event shoot, and on the list goes. We will be able to have power for our light systems and an area for our models and customers to change without being potentially exposed. We will have the ability to carry virtually any equipment we need in order to get the results we want and the model(s)/customer(s) will be able to view their photos on a full size screen and see how they look while quick and basic editing is done right there on the spot. And when it is hot there will be a cool place for those on the shoot to keep their cool with water and soft drinks available. We'll keep you updated from time to time as we make further progress.

The History of Branson movie is still being edited. I had a call from Mike Johnson who owns Bear Creek Production and is the director/producer of this documentary movie and was given an update on the progress of the video. Production has been interrupted several times due to layout changes and conflicting projects that had to be address but still a lot of progress is being made and when we have a release date I will let you all know.

Pro Pix Tips: Let's get out the old can opener and begin digging into this next part of composition. In our last post I said that the very first step to good composition was having a reason to take the picture. I also said that every picture tells a story and the trick is to ensure that the story it tells is the one you intended to tell. Therefore answering the question, "Why" brings us to the next step in composing our photo, "How?"

"How" is not as simple as many self proclaimed photographers might have you to believe. It has several factors that will determine how you take the shot. In fact, contrary to popular belief, virtually every "How?" is not limited to one shot. In fact, a whole series of shots should be made to capture the photograph as your minds eye envisions it. One way that generally tips you off about how good and experienced the photographer is is to watch how many different adjustment and angles he or she makes when setting up their shot (I'm throwing that little tidbit in for free). Even the most seasoned pro takes a lot of pictures in order to get just the right look they're looking for. To get just the right look for that one photograph that the pro releases, they may take a staggering number of shots all with little to hug changes in setting and positioning. The thing that determines what the right look is will be determined by what story you're trying to tell. It also determines where you will take the photograph, either on location or in a studio setting. While we will discuss the "Where" question in a future post, I bring it up now because the location has a deep impact on "how" you're going to set up your lighting for the shot. Usually, how we capture the ambient (natural or existing) light greatly impacts the composition of the photo. If our subject is located in a shady area with a sun lit background how will you balance the lighting in the shot? Is the shade producing any splotches of sunlight onto your subject giving them a kind of lighted bullet hole effect? Will you need any kind of light shaping tool such as a scrim, reflector, flag, or even a cookie to control the light and contrast of the shot? Have I just started talking Greek to you with some of those terms. If so, than depth of field, white balance, key and fill lighting, as well as noddle points may be equally unfamiliar to you. Not to worry. We will touch on these and much more in future post.

As I said at the beginning of this post, "how" is not as easy as some people make it out to be. What determines that is whether or not you want to settle on the just "good enough" band wagon or rather take the time and effort to apply some effort to get the right shot that captures fully what the minds' eye sees. Decide not to be a GETGB (pronounced "get-geeb") which naturally stands for "good enough to get by" person. Commit to taking some pride in each and every shot you take by going the extra effort to get the shot right.

We'll continue with "How?" in our next PPT by looking at the different ways to light our photograph. Have a great day everybody!

Richard

What's The Point?

Hi, everybody. The season here is really at a contradictory time of year. On the one hand, tour buses are on the increase with each passing week. On the other hand, Christmas is right around the corner. I'm only about 7 weeks from my traditional viewing of the movie "A Christmas Carol" starring George C. (Patton) Scott. I just love that show. In fact, I just love the story no matter which version is showing but I like the afore mentioned one the best. And while I love the Holiday part of the year it's still the end of the year and business from the tourism side drops to zero and we have to lay off our employees. It's also that time of the year where we really have to honestly look at where we are and compare that with where we hoped we would be and sometimes that isn't a pretty thing to do. You always have to evaluate how the business is doing and see where improvements can be made. Sometimes, changes are easy to recognize and other times it's like Snipe hunting (for you long time hillbilly folks you will know what Snipe hunting is, for the rest as an old timer). Either, way it always makes for a bit of stress and sometimes a few sleepless nights but much like beating yourself with a hammer it always feels so good when you get done.

I continue to be amazed at the amount of revelations that keep coming which have been prompted by the "trilogy" post about service station attendants. I have taken a little extra time during the course of the day to surf the net looking for articles that have some connection with those ideas that were proposed in those blogs. And boy are they out there. I read one which was openly encouraging folks to sell their photos online telling them that there was a lot of demand for photos of all kind and it didn't matter how much knowledge or experience you had or how good a camera you own, just take the pictures and post them for sale on line. Don't worry cause I'm not going to take off down that road today. However, it has encouraged me to continue exploring done the path I talked about in those blogs. I have me ideas and I will keep you posted on them. But for today let's continue our discussion on composition with todays Pro Pix Tips.

If you have kids then you will understand the thought I have about the most favorite word in a small child's vocabulary is the word "why". Why is one of those words that can be as annoying and frustrating as it is exciting and necessary. Recently, the word "why" is loosing its' popularity as more and more people don't care why, just that something is or does. But there are those times that "why" just needs to have an answer. Anyone who will admit to knowing me will tell you that on more than one occasion they have heard me say that every picture tells a story whether you thing it does or not. The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand word is quite correct. Have you ever found a photo that was taken many years ago and when you looked at it you had no clue where it was taken or who those people are standing around you. The story has completely changed from the intent of what the photographer was wanting to tell. What the story is telling now is that the photographer did not take "why" into account when they were composing the shot there by failing to capture the memory that was intended. Sometimes we capture a memorable event but, because the composing of the picture was done without insuring that the "why" is properly captures, the story the picture tells can be quite different from the intent. An example can come from out souvenir trade that we do inside area restaurants. We tell our folks to get the guest to set next to each other and have the male put his arm around the lady he's with. The story here is of two people who care about each other and enjoying their time together. But on several occasions our folks can't or won't get the couple to set next to each other and take the picture with the table of food piled high on there plates between them. The story here is (especially if either one or both are over weight) these folks are fat and here's the reason why. "Why am I taking this photo?" is the first question you ask yourself when you begin compose your photo. It's hard to know when you get to where you're going if you don't have a destination in mind. If there's no reason for the picture than what's the point of taking it? It's only when you have a point to the photo, a story to tell, that you can press on to the rest of the composition techniques. "Why" identifies the subject of the photo. Only then can you begin to position the subject of the photo in such a way that the future views of the photo will easily be able to identify. In doing so, that all import first step is made to lead the viewer to the rest of the story (sorry Paul, but the phrase fit so well here). If the "why" and thereby the subject of the photo is not established then no matter what you do to compose the rest of the shot will matter.

One last thing that I would like to add before tying a bow on this post for the day. It's about the old "kiss" thing, Keep Image Subject Simple. OK that may have been a shameless act of acronym stealing but it still works as the Keep It Simple Stupid thing. A major problem in the composing process is that some folks try to capture the entire book of "Gone with the wind" in one photo thereby trying to make a picture worth a million words with very few of them making any sense at all. "Busy" photos are not very appealing at best and extremely confusing at worst. There are several techniques that can be used to accomplish this, but they all start with the question "Why?". Otherwise the photo you take may be met with another question you as the photographer never want to hear asked of your work, "What's the point?".

Well, we're off like a herd of turtles with our discussion of composition. Tune in next time when we'll hear our hero say, "How?". Have a great day everyone!

Richard

Bread and Butter Composition!

Hello everyone! Like always, I'm glad you stopped by to check on us. I have had a few comments about the "trilogy" posts about comparing photography with the service station attendants. One told me that they didn't finish reading it cause they had better things to do which I personally thought was funny cause that mirrors the very point I was trying to make. Well, the my "gone with the wind" rant is over but it has sparked a lot of thing that I'm sure you will hear about in the near future. But for now, let's see what other trouble I can stir up.

As I'm writing todays post, I am munching down on Bread and Butter pickles. My love for these things goes back to my preteen days when a lady who attended the church where my father was the pastor gave our family a jar or two she had canned herself. The phrase "to die for" doesn't come close to how good they were. I would wait the whole year for this wonderful lady to bring these tasty chips of shear heaven sent goodness to our family. But like most things in life, the deliveries stopped and I have searched in vain to find any that could even approach there flavor. I'm sure you have heard that close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades. Well, when it comes to that savory taste of Betty's homemake Bread and Butter pickles I can assure you that they support the fore mentioned phrase.

In the capturing of a photograph, composition in critical. All the elements have to be in concert with each other in order to turn an ordinary photo into a work of art and beauty. Getting close, like Betty's pickles, just doesn't satisfy the eye and brain of the viewer. That doesn't mean that an ordinary picture isn't good or fails to capture the story behind the reasoning for the photo. It's simply the effect that the photo produces or fails to produce that makes the difference. Without proper composition the photograph can leave you confused (in my case more than normal), uncomfortable, or anyone of a number of emotions and feelings. And there doesn't have to be that much of a change to make the difference. Let's see if I can demonstrate this for you. Let's try a couple of exercises to see what happens to your feelings. Fold your arms over your chest without thinking about how to do it. If you're like most folks, you will note that one arm naturally crosses over the other with the fingers of one hand are exposed while the others are tucked under the arm. How do you feel? Are you comfortable? Does this position feel natural to you? Ok, now let's make a little change. Uncross your arms and let them hang by your side. Now recross them over your chest again but this time reverse which arm crosses the other as well as the fingers that are out or tucked under the arm. Did you have to stop and think about it? In some cases people have to really concentrate on the procedure of completing the task. How does this reversal make you fell? Does it feel natural or comfortable to you? Just a simple change of the same thing but with very different feelings. Now for this next one you'll need to have someone assist you. If no one is available than a real good imagination will work just not as well. Start by having the your assistant looking at you at or about eye level. Engage in some conversation and take note of your feelings. Now set down in front of your assistant while they remain standing and have them engage you in conversation will leaning over and looking down on you. Have them get closer and closer to you as they continue you talk with you in normal conversation. Take note of how you feel and then reverse you and your assistants positions and repeat the exercise and again take note of how you feel. When did you feel comfortable or uncomfortable, did you ever feel intimidated or intimidating/aggressive?

Perspective and positioning are very important parts of the compositional process. How you place your subject dictates comfort, tension, mystery, passion, joy, sadness, confidence. And we haven't even talked about the lighting aspects. Hand placement, how the head tilts, direction of the light source all work to compose the symphony you are painting with you view finder. There are several so called rules of composition that you can use to help with the majority of your compositions. The most notable is the rule of thirds. In a nut shell, try to divide your view finder into 9 equal block much like placing a tic tac toe grid to overlay your picture. You will note that the straight lines intersect at four point. It's at these intersection where you should place your subject. By doing so, you are placing your subject at a very artistically comfortable or pleasing position within the photos composition. If your subject is looking toward the right, make sure to place them at one of the crossing point on the left side of the photo so they appear to be looking into the photo instead of looking outside the photo. Facial expressions to include smile especially depending on the event can effect the viewer. I recently saw some photos that were take at a funeral where the subjects were posing while they were smiling. Now normally that is desirable but since I know the photos where taken at a funeral the smiles and group photos made me a little uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong, I'm not condemning the photos. They were good shots. It just seemed that the smiles were a little out of place and the group photo appeared to be a family reunion instead of a funeral.

Photos have power and that power is derived largely from how it is composed. We will try to explore this world of composition over the next few post. Until then, try to revisit some of the earlier post concerning taking pictures from many different angles and with varying amounts of light on the subject. Review the rule of thirds and practice shooting a few photos using the rule of thirds. Try to read your feelings as you look threw the view finder and make sure there is a true and real reason for the photo being taken in the first place. Look at how the light is falling on your subject and note what feelings it introduces into the photo. Look at the photo and see what attracts your attention first. If it's not the subject of the photo try to determine why and visa versa. Take the photos in landscape (horizontal) and portrait (vertical) style and see which if any seems more natural and comfortable.

We will spend several post dealing with composition and maybe shed some light onto this all important subject so that your future photos will tell the story you want told.

Until next time guys, have a great day!

Richard