Jul 29 2010

July 29th, 2010 – Leading Lines

Posted in 1S24H, Europe, HDR, Italy, July 2010, Lipari, Tilt Shift, Urban show hide 4 comments

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, 17mm, F 22, ISO 100, HDR, 9 Exposures

From the cold, derelict tracks of Boston to the warm, radiant streets of Lipari.

Lines are very important to me. Aside from the symbology behind it, I do my best to incorporate lines photographically in some sort of meaningful way. Using lines, either obtusely or subtlety, can help accentuate a shot and guide the viewer’s eye through the frame in the direction and order that you have intended. Looking for the lines in your scene is one of the best exercises that you can engage in while behind the camera. It gets your mind honed to looking for patterns that most people would probably overlook. It lets you frame a shot that would likely be missed by someone else. And it is one of the most effective ways to induce that ‘Aha’ moment when someone views your shot. Whether it jumps out at the viewer right away or not, effective use of lines creates a sense of awareness in your frame. I tells the viewer: “Look over here, follow me through, and then look over there. See what I want you to see.”

In this frame, I immediately fell in love with the outline of how this road curves and that is what I wanted to convey. To do this, I decided to use the framing created by the stone potted plants and positioned the dominant element in the bottom right corner of the frame. This is the starting point for your eyes. Next, I want your eyes to follow the path made by these plants all the way through the frame and terminate at the car parked on the street in the background. From there, your eyes are free to roam around and fill in the rest of the details. My goal with this shot is for you to take in all of the wonderful details in this scene in a particular order.

So next time you’re out, look for those patterns. Remember, lines don’t have to be obtuse. Be creative. Use whatever your scene has to offer you. Your viewers’ eyes will thank you.:)

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Jul 28 2010

July 28th, 2010 – Spool Wheel

Posted in 1S24H, Boston, HDR, July 2010, Massachusetts, Tilt Shift, UrbEx show hide 3 comments

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, 17mm, F 4, ISO 100, HDR, 9 Exposures

As photographers, we often hold ourselves to a principle of not manipulating a scene. We work around what is in front of us to fit the pieces of our story within the four walls of our frames.  This is certainly a very important way to understand photography but it is equally important to realize that it isn’t the only way. Sometimes, you need to task yourself with creating the context around your vision. Sometimes, manipulation of your scene will be needed to get there. I do not necessarily mean that you need to manipulate it in Post, but I am also not saying that it is out of the question.

What I am referring to here is the actual manipulation of your scene while you are still in it. Take the shot above as an example. Originally, the spool wheel was off of the tracks and on its side. My initial framing had me standing in front of the wheel so as to exclude it altogether. I knew that I wanted a head-on shot of the train car in front of me but it just didn’t feel right. That’s when I took it upon myself to roll the spool wheel onto the tracks and flip it up on one of its ends (thankfully, they are not nearly as heavy as they look, especially without any cables rolled around it).

When I recomposed, I was much happier with what I saw. While the spool wheel wasn’t actually very heavy, it did have a looming and overbearing feel to it like it could do some damage to the train in a collision. I chose a shallow depth of field to further accentuate the ‘stand-off’ look that I was going for. Like an old western – the train vs. the spool wheel shootout. My direction in color/tone stylization was also intentional to give it a funky western feel.

So the next time you are out and about and your scene seems to be missing that certain something, think about what it is missing and what you can add or remove to bring your idea to fruition. It might be the very thing that you shot needs to bring it to the next level.

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Jul 27 2010

July 27th, 2010 – Bottecchia

Posted in 1S24H, Architecture, Europe, HDR, Italy, July 2010, Lipari, Tilt Shift, Urban show hide 4 comments

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, 17mm, F 16, ISO 100, HDR, 9 Exposures

I love these quiet moments. I love stumbling onto them and figuring out a way to capture them. But more so, I really enjoy coming back to them during the review process. Every day, I spend about 30-45 minutes browsing through the past two years worth of images, at random, looking for the next shot to post in this 1S24H series. And when I stumble onto a shot like the one above, I tend to just pause and remember what the scene was like when I was standing there. I find it to be a very rewarding exercise because it keeps me grounded and it reminds me that there really are countless photo opportunities on every street.

Never take any scene for granted and refuse to tell yourself that ‘there is no shot over here’. There is always a shot.

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Jul 26 2010

July 26th, 2010 – Not An Exit

Posted in 1S24H, HDR, July 2010, Lawrence, Massachusetts, Tilt Shift, UrbEx show hide 2 comments

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, 17mm, F 4, ISO 100, HDR, 9 Exposures

I was doing some UrbEx HDR shooting with my good buddy, Bob Lussier, yesterday.  It’s a lucky thing to have such ready access to this feature-rich locale. During the first half of the shoot, I had my 17mm T/S lens on. After a little while, it dawned on me that my shots were pretty wide in scope, as would probably be expected with such a wide angle lens. To change it up, I kept the same lens on but resolved to create shots where I filled the frame as much as possible with 1-2 elements.  It was an interesting experiment. It’s very easy to put on an ultra-wide angle lens, plop the tripod down in any direction and grab a shot.  I do not say this in any derogatory tone at all. But, it did make things more interesting for me. I forced myself to compose tighter scenes while also competing with the natural distortion that comes with an ultra-wide angle lens.

It is often said that one of the most important lessons in photographic composition and style is to know which elements you should remove from your scene and how to effectively do so (not counting cloning it out in Photoshop:)).  It’s a lesson that I certainly agree with and it’s one that I recommend everyone pay some mind to during your next shoot. By learning how to remove the extraneous, you will be able to boil your shot down and convey exactly what you’re intending to share while removing unnecessary visual distractions. I do admit – at first, it was a bit frustrating but after 15 minutes or so of just walking around without the camera, I felt myself getting into that groove. That’s when I picked up the camera again and started making some shots. Go ahead and give it a shot yourself!

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Jul 25 2010

July 25th, 2010 – Reflective

Posted in 1S24H, Architecture, Boston, HDR, July 2010, Massachusetts, Urban show hide 4 comments

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM, 14mm, F 18, ISO 100, HDR, 9 Exposures

I met up with some great Twitter friends for a shoot around the CSC prior to the 3rd annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk yesterday.  Two of my buddies, Scott and Andrew, were from out of state so I decided to take them to the CSC because of the diverse photographic subject matter that it offers.  As we were walking to the plaza, I noticed this massive puddle – something of a rarity lately because Boston hasn’t had a terrible amount of rain.

I love reflection photography.  There is something very cool about displaying your world in an inverse, especially when its reciprocal is right there in the same frame.  Initially, I filled almost all of the frame with the reflection but I felt that it lost some context so I pulled back until I found a happy comp.

Two quick tips about reflections:

First, if you are wearing polarized sunglasses, you may not see the reflection altogether depending on the direction that you are standing in relation to the sun.  This is because polarized lenses will cut through reflective haze. So make sure you take that into consideration.

Second, make sure you take a 360 around your puddle. Often times, there will be a whole different shot that you hadn’t seen on the other side of the water. So, take the few seconds to explore it and you may reward yourself with several great shots.

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