Photo of the Week #228

I have always been a person who cropped to a standard aspect ratio, you know, 8x10, 16x20, 36x24, that sort of thing. The main reason was so in the event I wanted to print the images, it would be easy to obtain matts, frames and glass for framing. Odd sized photos meant custom Matts at least and therefore, more cash. You know how many images I’ve actually framed? Not many.

The image below was used in a “Critique Night” at my local club and it was suggested to me that the photo may be stronger if I brought the bottom up a little closer to the cliff. Originally, I left a significant strip of water between the camera and the cliff. I gave it a look when I got home and this is the result.

As always, would love to hear comments and constructive criticism.

Photo of the Week # 221

I am often a little late to the “party”, let’s just get that out of the way first thing. It took me a little longer than most to learn composition techniques. Good composition often involves what you leave out of the frame as much as what you put in. When we start out in photography, we run around pointing and snapping like crazy and of course, they are all masterpieces, right? Back in the beginning, I would expect to bring home a basket ful of “good” shots or I was not happy about it. I heard about Ansel Adams’ comments where he said “a crop of 12 good images a year being a good crop” and I thought, “really?”.

The light bulb finally came on and I began to see what Ansel was saying. I looked back at all my old work and realized that the vast majority of it was documentary photography at best, snapshots. This is all very normal and part of learning. I also used to adhere to a few “standard” aspect ratios too…..to make it easier to print or frame. Of course not a whole lot of them got framed either so that really didn’t make sense either. Finally, I came to the realization that by far the most common place for anyone to consume photos was on social media and currently, mostly on a small phone screen. I began to see that by allowing myself some creativity in something as simple as cropping an image, I could change it immensely. There are people out there who simply will not crop a photo, not even for straightening a crooked horizon! I think those people are missing out on a valuable tool.

This image is called Sawtooth Range and was made in Alaska. I love the beautifully atmospheric nature of the shot and the 2:1 panoramic aspect ratio works great from my point of view.

Photo of the Week #220

The shot below is a shot I made in southern Utah. With all the famous places in southern Utah, this one might not be as recognizable as others, but that’s one of the things I like to do. Millions of people have images of Monument Valley (so do I), but sometimes you find places that are just as beautiful as the iconic spots but not as “peopley”. Since photographers began sharing their work online, some places are now inundated with people, all lining up to shoot the same photo that thousands before them have already got. You know the old story…..when all the peole are busy looking in one direction, sometimes all you have to do is to look the other.

Years In The Making

I’ve found myself frustrated many times because I was in an amazing location at the worst possible time of the day. To get good travel shots, you would like a nice light, yet we don’t necessarily have the time to wait. This location looks best late day light, in the morning it’s in shade. For me, that meant a lot of driving as our house was about 2 1/2 hours from here. This time round, according to the metadata, it was around 4:30pm (I usually forget to set the time when I go into a different time zone so who knows?). This day, everything seemed to align for me and I got this.