photo-lifestyle.com

Photo Stores Closing

It appears there are photo stores closing up shop all over the world. When I moved to Kurume 25 years ago there was a small photo shop near the main train station. It was a well known landmark on the corner of the main street running North and South through the middle of town. I felt rather sad when I drove past yesterday and noticed the sign had been painted over. Evidently it has succumbed to the near complete shift from film based to digital photos, and joined the trend of photo stores closing everywhere.

I bought my first personal camera, a little Canon T70, at that shop, and had countless baby and toddler pictures of my daughter developed there. Now, if I want a camera, I have to go to a mega electronic store and hope I’m lucky enough to find a clerk who knows a Canon from a Nikon. More likely I’ll get someone who has to poke around for a brochure to tell me how long the battery will last.

When I was young, I used to get down these ponderously huge photo albums that were probably a bit bigger than I was, and pour over the photos pasted in them. Those old black and white photos of my grandfather’s first tractor, my great aunt and uncle just before their traffic accident, and all the uncles on top of Mt. Jefferson with their crampons and ice axes had a major role in giving me the sense of belonging and solid foundation that has made me the person I am.

Now with the movement toward digital photos almost complete, and photo stores closing up shop wherever you go, one has to wonder whether people showing each other the backs of their cameras, and sending each other digital files over the internet will really serve to provide the sense of belonging we got from pondering the same pictures in those big photo albums over and over again.

Always Carry a Tripod – The Venus Jupiter Conjunction

You may have already noticed two bright planets in the evening sky. The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter has been striking throughout November.

Astronomical events were the farthest thing from my mind this evening, though. I had no idea the climax, or closest conjunction was to take place on December 1st. I had just been sharply reprimanded for asking an honest question, and was running late for another job across town. I raced around in something of a dither, gathering keys and supplies, and came bursting out of the front door planning to rush to the car.

The spectacular scene on the horizon was enough to completely overpower any thoughts of unjust reprimands or waiting students. I knew I had no time, but this moment called for a tripod. I just happened to have a miniature tripod in my purse that my mom had handed me a few days earlier. I quick screwed it on my little pocket casio, balanced it precariously on my daughter’s bike seat, set the camera to “city lights” mode and gingerly pushed the shutter.

The result was amazing. Venus to the left at magnitude -4 was clearly visible, and Jupiter to the right and a little higher in the sky at magnitude -2 was a definite little dot. The moon looks like a smile to complete a happy face.

My work was in an 11th floor condo close to the city center. It was only 15 minutes later, but the moon was already much thinner. I asked if I could take a shot from my students’ balcony before we began, and took this second shot from there. It’s hard to believe it could be possible to capture a conjunction with a pocket digital camera and a mini tripod. My photo lifestyle is definitely going to include carrying a tripod from now on. Hurray for technology!

Nature Photography Tips 3 – The Essence of a Great Photo

What one tip for taking nature photography would sum up the essence of the art? I’m sure there could be a dozen different answers to this question, and they would all be right, here’s what I was told yesterday.

It was the first clear day in weeks, so I took my mom to visit the private gardens of Mr. Bridgestone of Bridgestone Tires. I was hoping to get some shots of the maple and ginkgo leaves in their autumn glory through the gates and hedges. The man who was standing guard happened to be the head caretaker. To our delight, he invited us to go in to one small section of the grounds to get closeups, and later took some time to talk with us.

The subject of what is the essence of a great photo came up, and he told us he has been taking pictures for a living most of his life. His take on the question:

It’s important to know the basic principles of good photography such as the rule of three and put them to use, but that alone won’t make a photo great.

A great photo has two factors. First, it expresses what the photographer actually sees and feels. It tells a story about the situation. For instance, if it is late evening, it might show a long shadow to indicate that.

In addition to that, the photographer thinks about what the audience who views the photo will want to see. If the photo succeeds in expressing the photographer’s personal experience, and the viewer senses that and experiences the same thing with a sense of satisfaction that says, “Yes, that’s just how I would have seen it,” then you have a great photo. The key is an inner level of communication between the photographer and the viewer.

I ended up taking literally hundreds of shots yesterday. Many of them simply document what the garden looked like, but I chose these three because, although they may not be great photos, they tend to express what I was feeling. I have a huge thing for moss, and the main garden consists of a whole hillside of moss as ground cover. I wanted to protray the moist cool feel that it contributes, so I set the camera low to the ground, and let the autumn leaves be simply a background for the garden’s main feature.

The magic of being surrounded with bright maple leaves was hard to capture in a photo. I didn’t realize until I got home that the hole in the foreground branches I was shooting through for this shot was roughly heartshaped. It seemed appropriate, as I was trying to protray how I felt about the riot of color around me.

And finally, my favorite. The evening sun was streaming toward me from an angle, igniting each leaf like a thousand molten furnaces. This is one I think will end up printed out and mounted on my wall. Do click on it and view it enlarged with the black frame it makes all the difference.

I learned a valuable lesson yesterday. We’ll be continuing with the basic principles of photo composition in this Nature Photography Tips series, but I wanted to take time out to interject with a vision of what we are actually striving to achieve with all our lines and dimensions.

My Personal Favorite Photo

I thought I’d show you my personal favorite photo of all time.  Actually it’s a set of three photos.

Mai has stayed with our family off and on since she was 8 years old. Last summer we knew we wouldn’t have much more time together, as she would be be studying for her college entrance exam, so we went to spend one last day at the beach. It was one of those precious days where everyone knows the fun won’t last forever. Mai has a huge thing for being in or near water, so she was in her element, and we all had a great time, but that’s not why it’s my favorite series of photos.

I had research sand sculpture on the web the night before, and come up with the idea for a sand gecko. It seemed one of the easiest projects for us novices, so I printed out a sample photo, and we used it for a pattern. It turned out to be much more work than we had anticipated, and we spent about three happy hours on it. He wasn’t much to look at, but by the time we were finished we felt we had bonded with friend gecko, and were quite proud of our creative genius, but there’s actually a much deeper reason I love these snapshots.

By the time we finally finished our handiwork and took this photo of daughter Elizabeth and Mai it was quite late in the afternoon. Most of the people around us had drug their surfboards and ice chests back up the embankment to their cars and driven home. By the time we had fired up the coals for the BBQ and were eating our marinated chicken, we were completely alone, it was just us and the setting sun watching the surf come up just a little higher with each wave. We felt like queens with a private beach all to ourselves. The beach was quite wide, and we were up against the stone wall for the embankment, far from the actual surf.
Then, just as we were starting to think about packing up, we were suddenly standing in about 3 inches of sea water, and there was no sand to be seen. The waves were splashing at our knees as we dashed furiously around trying to fish our belongings out of the current before they washed out to sea. We had to slosh about 30 yards along the beach to reach the stairs up to the car, and of course had to make several trips before we were quite packed up and all sitting in the car, out of breath and thoroughly spooked.

When we heard what had actually happened, we were even more spooked. It turned out there had been an earthquake far out at sea, and a tsunami warning had been issued. The tsunami had actually come on shore, but was only 2 cm. high, so hadn’t done any damage.

We had been playing on the beach all day with no radio, and there had been no audible warning signal. I suppose some of the others had heard and gone home, explaining why we ended up alone toward evening. If a 2cm. tsunami caused the waves to be splashing at our knees, what would 10 cm. have been like? I love these photos because they remind me how fragile life really is. I was reminded to be thankful for each day God gives us, and also, to always take a radio to the beach!

Touching Up a Snapshot

I’m not sure if my good friend Jade wanted me to touch up the snapshot of her precious daughter she sent me this morning or not. I think perhaps it was only because I had sent her a picture of a black tea chiffon cake for her cooking blog. Anyway, she wrote that she has dropped her camera, and the lens as she puts it is all “swobbly.” Thus, she explains, the black edges. I suspect, though that the damage is more serious than even she suspects, as the flash is a bit too harsh, and the subject – especially the chinese dress seems overexposed.

I don’t have Photo-shop, but there was a comparable program on my desktop called “Picture It! 9.” I got it out and set to work to see if I could touch up the snapshot and make a lasting peice of art out of it, swobbly lensed camera notwithstanding. First, I found a great feature called smart erase. All I had to do to get rid of the blurred fern in the background was draw a circle around it and press the button. Wah-Lah. It disappeared. That was fun, so I went wild erasing everything in the background I thought shouldn’t be there.

I couldn’t erase the sharp edge on the chinese cabinet, so I used a blending brush to soften the top edge. Then I sat back to wonder what I could do about the overexposed dress. How about a grey transparent edge? I found a soft brush, chose a color from the background of the snapshot, and started scribbling a border freehand.

The result wasn’t bad, although now that I look at it again, I fear I went a bit overboard on the lower edge. I still needed to do something to soften the light on her face, so tried changing it to black and white. That helped a bit, but not enough.

Then I started playing with different filters. I found one that made the photo look like a drawing in criss-crossed colored pencils. First I just used that and wondered if perhaps I wasn’t finished. Then on second thought I decided perhaps it still looked too harsh, so I added a canvas effect filter over the top. Now I can’t decide which I like better.

I have no idea whether her mom will be pleased or annoyed that I’ve taken such liberties with her daughter, but if nothing else, I’ve demonstrated that touching up a snapshot can make a major difference, and you don’t have to settle for the original version of a candid photo.