Photo of the Week - Week 18

When I compose my photos, particularly with landscapes, the goal is to draw the viewer in. I want the viewer to feel like they are in the scene, that they are there or have been there. At the bazaar I sold at earlier this month, that was one of the comments I heard about some of my photos - that people felt like they were there or could step into the image to be there. Hearing that was very gratifying - it meant that I had achieved my goal; with some of my photos, at least.

How to accomplish this? I'm no expert, but I have a few ideas of how I at least try to draw a viewer into an image.

Let's walk through the below image, which I took in Papallacta, Ecuador not too long ago.

Camera Info
Shutter Speed: 0.4s
Aperture: F22
ISO: 100
Lens: Tamron 17-50mm
Focal Length: 34mm

First, have a goal that you are leading the viewer towards. In this case, it's a chair near the rear of the image.

Second, leading lines. Lines in an image direct our gaze and tell us where to look. We have a pathway that winds us towards the goal - the chair - in the back.

Third, lighting. In the above example, the lighting is a combination of natural and post-processing. The area of vegetation and trees was naturally dark while the area by the chair naturally light. I heightened this just a bit by selectively under-exposing the periphery of the image and leaving the pathway up to the chair not as dark. In retrospect, I should have lightened more of the area around the chair to heighten this effect a bit more - the area above the chair remained a little too dark.

Fourth, composition. The above image places the focal goal - the goal - roughly on intersecting lines, one-third of the way down from the top and one-third of the way from the left of the image.

So, those are a few of my thoughts on composition and leading the viewer into an image. Again, just a few ideas I keep in mind when composing and creating an image!

Photo of the Week - Week 17

I've slowly been working through a couple batches of photos I was able to take in the past couple of weeks.

One of the things I enjoy doing is focusing on details of a particular site; so often the things that stick in my mind are the small details of a particular place. As I make a concerted effort to find details, it seems that I am able to see so much more and to see it from a different perspective. A recent visit to Hacienda San Augustine in Cotopaxi, Ecuador, yielded lots of great shots, but here is one in particular that I liked:

Camera Info
Shutter Speed: 1/40s
Aperture: F8.0
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 100
Lens: Tamron 17-50mm

The image is cropped just slightly and I then desaturated most of the colors, all using Adobe Lightroom 4. I also selectively darkened the upper portion of the image to help focus the eye on the lower portion of the image where the flowers are.

As I was walking around the hacienda (an incredible location, by the way), I noticed this fountain and took a closer look, which is when I noticed the flowers in there. I tried a few different angles and lenses, but this particular image got it, for me.

I like the position of the flowers, for one, as well as the framing along the bottom and the left edge of the image. There is also a bit of balance between the flowers and the brighter portion of the image diagonal to them in the top left. The other detail I like is the splash to the left of one of the flowers; while this is largely a static scene, this motion captured (by luck, not skill, by any stretch of the imagination) adds some dynamism to the image.

Growing the Business

Back at the beginning of the year, one of the many goals I set was to grow my photography business. While I still have a few specific sub-goals left (more on that a bit later), I have been able to fulfill a few mileposts.

Years ago I remember being taught that a goal left unwritten remains a dream. As I pondered how to grow my photography business, I decided that I needed to set some specific goals and then write out a plan to achieve them.

I knew that a bazaar was organized twice a year at work, once before Mother's Day and once again before Christmas, so I decided to set the goal to sell at the pre-Mother's Day bazaar, which would probably be in late April or early May.

With that in mind, I set the following goals: March - put together a portfolio of photos I wanted to sell in large framed prints and also as cards, then have them printed. April, have the photos framed and then make the cards. I would also need to design and print my business cards, fliers for portrait photography, and put together a small portrait portfolio to demonstrate.

I was able to get my portfolio together with plenty of time and have the prints made. Then things got a bit hectic.

I found out the exact date for the bazaar with about 10 days of notice. As a result, I ended up going to a frame shop that was close by and could get the work done quickly, probably paying significantly more than I would had I taken the time to shop around a bit more.

At the end of it all, I feel the bazaar was a success for me - it was a great publicity opportunity and at least one neat thing came of it. Someone asked me if I would be interested in putting together an exposition of my work! While the details remain to be worked out, it is an exciting opportunity and one that will serve well to continue to grow and expand my business. During the bazaar I also got a lot of wonderful feedback from people who were there, some of whom have professional training in the arts, graphic design, and photography.

When I returned home that evening, I found that Getty Images had contacted me to license some of my images! It was a great couple of days!

As for my other photographic goals (working more with adults to take portraits), I have a couple of other projects that are in the nascent stages ... hopefully more on those in the near future!

Photo of the Week - Week 16

This week's photo is a recent set of photos, actually, that I took of the Cotopaxi volcano.

I took approximately 12 individual images and merged them together into one larger image, for the below result:

(click through to see a larger version - on Flickr you can see the full-size version.)



I went down to the area of Cotopaxi to check out a camping site for an upcoming youth trip. As we were driving down there, I could see that Cotopaxi was totally clear; I couldn't wait to get closer and make some great images. After a long rainy season, I was thrilled to finally have a clear view of Cotopaxi - and several other volcanoes, for that matter.

As we got down to the location where we were going to scout out for the camping trip, I noticed that Cotopaxi was beginning to cloud up (we left at 7am and it was about 8:30). I got a few pictures, but none that really got my attention. We continued on checking out the location and I noticed that the peak of Cotopaxi was beginning to clear. I got my camera ready and waited; as soon as it cleared, I began shooting a series of shots, with the goal of stitching them together for one image.

I took the shots with my Canon 70-200mm L lens, zoomed in to 200mm and used Photoshop CS6 beta to stitch the images. I then added a slight vignette with Adobe Lightroom 4.