by tmoffett | Oct 28, 2010 | Color, Composition, Landscape, Ramblings
Reflections
As hard as it is to do sometimes, it is good to get out of your comfort zone. I teach this all the time to my students as I assign them to photograph things that are not their forte. Doing it out of choice is harder to do, though. One rainy afternoon I found myself at the marina in Newport and decided to try something new. I have always admired photographers who shoot in locations like this and work wonders with their images. This is not where I choose to do most of my work. I fail find the organization in this kind of chaos. I am about simplicity.
I made the choice to find and photograph something that day. I had no tripod with me at the time, which made matters worse. I am always on a tripod. I didn’t have any idea what I might be able to find, but I went looking. I was way out of my comfort zone.
It was a great experience. I learned that even though I don’t choose to photograph this way very often, I can do it. I began to see things that I wouldn’t normally see. I began isolating the reflections in the water from the bouts. The scenes became abstract and I saw line, color, shape and form. I learned that beauty is everywhere, we just need to open our eyes. It is about vision.It is about the love of photography.
by tmoffett | Oct 25, 2010 | Color, Composition, Landscape, Ramblings
Sunset, Gotts Point
I used to shoot square images a lot. My wedding camera, back in the days of film, was square. I sometimes miss that Bronica. I liked the feel of it. I liked the format. It was refreshing because it was different. It was sometimes challenging to shoot interesting compositions because it was symmetrical. I got used to it and loved it. Now I shoot almost entirely digital. I have one format. Occasionally I still see square, though, and I shoot and crop. This is one such image.
While out at the lake earlier this month, I watched the sun setting and this pastel image appeared before my eyes. I set up my tripod and camera, and rotated from horizontal to vertical and back again. The image was not in the rectangle frame of my DSLR. It was most definitely square. The lines created by the rocks and the horizon leading left to right are strong. The placement of the sun in the upper right, perfect. This is the perfect composition to be photographed square. It has a strong vertical feel to it, yet it is perfectly square. My mind drifted back to my Bronica SQai. I could feel it in my hands as I squeezed the shutter. Even the color of the image is reminiscent of the color from Kodak VPS, my favorite color film that Kodak ever made. The pastel colors rendered warm and inviting. The contrast soft and smooth. This image reminds me a lot of my days shooting film. Those were good days.
by tmoffett | Oct 20, 2010 | Black and White, Composition, Landscape
Oregon Shoreline
This image from the Shorelines Portfolio shows a stark contrast from the calm image that I posted yesterday. Using a faster shutter speed, I was able to maintain a greater feeling of turbulence in the ocean as the waves crash into the rock outcroppings along the shore. When photographing moving water, shutter speed selection is critical. Use a very slow shutter speed and all of the motion is smoothed out, sometimes to the extent of being mushy and washed out, lacking detail. Too fast of a shutter speed and every drop of water is frozen in space. The in between shutter speeds are what I usually work with, getting a perfect blend of detail and movement.
I had been to this location before at high tide, so arriving in the dark just prior to low tide this time, I had no idea what I might find. I was not disappointed. As the sun crept over the horizon, I found many tide pools filled with sea stars and other ocean life. I also found this composition waiting to be photographed. I love the still water reflecting the overcast sky on the dark rock in the foreground with the turbulence of a raging sea behind it. The image, to me, is all about turbulence in life and finding peace as we rise above it. Hindsight is 20/20. When rising above the trial, we look back and can see the beauty of where we have passed.
by tmoffett | Oct 19, 2010 | Black and White, Composition, Landscape
Floating Rock, Yachats, Oregon
Dead Center. A colleague of mine was given this nickname in college because she loved symmetrical compositions. The main subject always in dead center. I dedicate this image to her.
I am always teaching and preaching the Rule of Thirds and the Golden Mean. If my students learn nothing else about composition, they better know understand those. So why do I occasionally not use them? Because it works! When deviating from a tried and true technique, such as the Rule of Thirds, there better be a reason for it. In this image, there is. The outcropping rock on each side of center appear to point to the center rock and then the water coming forward breaks up the composition enough to add interest and direction. The edge of the water in the foreground give a defining edge that completes a circular composition, giving the viewers eye a place to go, preventing it from stagnating in the center of the image as so many dead center compositions do.
I love off center compositions that maintain a visual balance, however it is good to break it up once in a while and do something different. Just make sure there is a reason for it and that it works visually. Like I tell my students, “Rules were meant to be broken, but you better have a reason for it!”
by tmoffett | Oct 16, 2010 | Color, Composition, Landscape, Photographic Philosophy, Uncategorized
The Tetons
Landscape photography is so much more than just snapping pictures of scenic areas. We must deal with finding a the scene, analyzing composition and working with the light that nature gives us. That doesn’t mean that we make photographs of scenic places under the light that is there when we conveniently decide to be there, wherever there is. It means that we may get up at 4:00 AM and go out in the winter cold in order to arrive and be ready when the morning light first breaks over the horizon. It may mean that we suffer in the late summer heat to find our location and composition and then patiently wait for the setting sun to deliver the quality of light needed to create the mood in our photograph to say what we want it to say. Some days I will set up and wait, only to have the light fizzle out and not deliver. That’s okay. It’s just part of being a photographer.
Learning your craft, really learning it, is a major part of becoming an artist. We must understand the technical aspects of the camera and composition first, and then when photographing from the heart we are able to create masterpieces without having to think logically during the process. We can truly work on an emotional level only when we can work on the technical level without thinking about it. It must become a part of us. I see many students who refuse to learn and master the technical and then wonder why their photographs do not have the emotional impact that they would like. Photography is a blend of art and science, and we must comprehend both if we are to master our craft.
by tmoffett | Oct 14, 2010 | Color, Composition, Landscape, Uncategorized
Foggy Morning, Redfish Lake
The Stanley are is one of my favorites! On one late summer morning I was treated to a heavy fog in the entire valley. As I drove toward Redfish Lake, the fog thinned out a bit so that the foreground was visible, but the trees across the lake were nearly gone. It was a beautiful sight. The fog was beginning to lift, so I didn’t have much time to photograph, but pausing for a moment first to take it all in and feel the surroundings (a necessity for me before photographing), I then proceeded to set up camera and tripod. I first made some images of the boats in the marina, then turned my attention toward the shoreline. I found this small peninsula with a large log, surrounded mostly by the morning fog, which provided the weight to balance with the trees at the left edge of the composition. The feeling of stillness, calm and peace prevailed with just enough detail to move the eye throughout the image to keep it interesting and hold attention. I love the trees just showing through the fog enough to create a bit of mystery. It was a great morning to be out enjoying God’s great creations.
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