Images With A Story

Sometimes the images one shoots can invoke stories around the events being frozen in time.  I like capturing moments in time where the viewer can explore the image and maybe add their caption to it.  One note concerning the wide angle shot –this is what happens when shooting a panorama image where the subject (person holding a cat) moves across the plain while camera is registering the image, scattering the subject within the fame.  I am rather fond of this image because it appeals to my time machine fantasy of present and future frozen in place.        

More Exit 270 Faces

I find that framing and timing are the key aspects of the faces of Exit 270.  You have to be aware of a person or group that seem to stand out within your space and then work quickly to capture their presence.  I will agree, that it is sometimes just plain luck being in the right spot at the right time.  Then other times it is a matter of just waiting and watching for that moment to happen in front of your camera.  I have been happy to say that no one has complained when I photographed him or her.  I have at all times respected my subjects’ rights not to be photographed.  Working with a Sony Nex7 camera and a 18-35mm zoom lens – allows me to work quickly in this genre of photography.

Los Meurtos

Dia de Los Meurtos, Exit 270 style.  It is the day we mourn those that left, and celebrates those that are here.  35,000 participants take part in the procession that winds for two miles through the downtown streets.  It can be best described as a cross between solemn and an Irish wake.  I shot over 150 photos of the participants in color, while the colors were vibrant and the painted faces were a rainbow of colors, I decided that a conversion to black and white was a better representation of the experience.  I used my street camera (Sony Nex7) with Sony f3.5 18-55mm lens and for wide shots the Sony f2.8 16mm coupled with their fisheye converter lens.  Most of the images were shot at ISO 100 through ISO 400.  I kept my aperture at f8 to f11 and with some help from Photoshop my imagination came to life. 

 

Different Genre

Different Genre

Every now and then I like to change genre –move into an area that is totally alien to my normal shooting mode.  I think all photographers would like to use paints rather than their familiar digital or film medium.  I once attempted to work with watercolor and discovered I did not have the patience to learn or spend the time working the medium.  I envy the painter, who although similar in his method of seeing has much more freedom in creating in paint what he sees, while the photographer is confined to the application of what he sees using various mechanical processes.  However, in an effort to change genre I attempted to apply my understanding of forms and light through abstract manipulation using the digital software process.  The images below were created in Photoshop and the Painter 4 essentials software.  The first three images are collages of two different images, with the fourth and fifth image created solely in Painter 4 from a still lifes I created.

 

Lines in Photography Part 2

The Line Part 2

The conscious use of lines in a photograph can add depth to a composition.  You can make the most use of lines by keeping your composition simple (see my post on “keeping it simple”).  We commonly think of lines in landscape where the horizon divides the land from the sky or in architecture where the lines are evident in the structure of the buildings.  However, lines can also be seen and used in almost any subject we photograph by using them to direct the eye to the main subject of the image.  Remember lines are not just straight.  They can be curves or combinations of straight and curved (see bowl and spoon below).  Sometimes the line is the subject of the photograph. 

Cameras used Nikon with 12mm Tokina wide angle lens and ProOptic 8mm fisheye lens,  and Sony Nex7 camera with 18-35mm lens