Well, you have been good haven’t you! And since I promised yesterday I suppose you’ll want to see pictures of Austin, Richards dog from yesterday’s shoot. Austin is a spaniel, with an amazing sandy coloured nose that I would never tire of stroking. His eyes are just perfectly designed for successful scrounging sorties. They match his coat so nicely. Can you tell I was taken with him?
.jpg "Austin under the pier")
.jpg "Austin's muzzle.")
Aww!
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I can’t tell you how excited I am today. After work (which went well too) I met Richard, his son and dog for an actual photo session together. It’s been a while since I spent an hour just focusing on photographing someone and it felt great to be spending time doing it again. Richard is someone who I meet regularly in the course of my work and he is one of the most likeable people I know. When Richard chats to you you feel that he is interested in what you are saying. He makes you smile; it’s in his nature.
I discovered that he is into photography too, and so I asked him if he would by willing to be photographed. After checking the 100portraits stuff he agreed, modestly, to help me. He was a fantastic subject and I think that the qualities that make everyone like him so much, have come out in all his pictures. Thanks Richard, I love these.
If you want to see Richard’s daily photograph check out his “blip” pages.
I thought I’d try posting a few today instead of just my favourite. (That’s my favourite above however).
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If you are good boys and girls tomorrow you might see a picture of Richards amazingly handsome hound……
In the last “little lesson” I looked at how important it was to have a clear subject that you expected the viewer to be drawn to. If there are too many competing subjects, then the viewer finds it confusing. Another related aspect of composition is that the subject shouldn’t be surrounded by distracting elements. Let me give you an example:
The tree with its reflected image provides a focal point for your eyes. The problem is that there is some grass growing in the foreground about 3 strands of which are distracting when you try to look at the tree. Almost a good picture, but this lets it down.
This is the original picture of Jess that I used for my 100 portraits project. Clearly Jess’s face is the subject here, but notice how you keep getting drawn to look at the ceiling lights near her head. I removed these for the project as shown below:
In the following picture, the kitten is the subject, but notice how my mouth on the upper right draws your attention. Humans are programmed to scan pictures for faces and this really cuts down on view-time for kitty. Poor composition I’m afraid.
.jpg "kitten")
In the following picture of me on our boat (in younger days), the classic error of having something rising out of my head has been committed. It’s an easy error as you are usually looking at someone’s eyes through the camera and not therefore scanning the top of their head. This backstay (wire) will draw your eye when you look at me.
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The following photograph of a young footballer didn’t need a plantpot behind his head. Notice how that draws your attention from his eyes.
This next one taken on a previous trip to Madeira would have been better without the foliage in the foreground. How much effort would it have cost me to shoot from over it or perhaps to the side. Very distracting.
.jpg "St Michaels point Madeira")
And to close, here is a portrait of Bob. He is the subject, and there are no distracting elements. This is the strongest picture in this posting because of that clear focus on the subject with no distractions:
So in summary:
Items growing from your subject, poles, plantpots, distracting colours or patterns should be avoided.
Bright lights draw the eye, so if they are near your subject they will probably be distracting.
Parts of faces or just any other faces tend to draw the eye so they can be a problem
Watch out for intruding foreground items, e.g. grass, intruding on the subject.
Next time: Simple rule of thirds.
I often drive by the lochside at the mouth of loch long while working, and there is often a naval supply ship docked. Imagine my surprise a few weeks ago to round the bend and see an aircraft carrier in front of me. It’s HMS Illustrious and I don’t expect to see it in Loch Long again; perhaps it was here on an exercise? I couldn’t resist taking a snap even though it was misty and getting a little dark. Not at all great pictures, but interesting.
For the anoraks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Illustrious_(R06)
.jpg "Illustrious in loch long 1")
.jpg "Illustrious in loch long 2")
I went for a walk today in the Queen Elizabeth Forest near Aberfoyle in the Trossachs. I had my camera on my back but didn’t bother taking it out at all. The light was grey and flat, with a totally cloudy sky. The darkening effect of the forest adding to this meant that I couldn’t get inspired at all. I was shamed by my wife who brought out her new Canon 1000d and started trying to take some pictures of nice colour contrasts that she saw in the foliage. I was suitably shamed and realised that I might have tried a little harder to find something interesting whatever the light. I put my macro lens on and homed in on a few little details that caught my eye.
I have no idea what this strange growth on a twig is, but it wasn’t a native part of the tree. It looked parasitic.
These tiny fronds were growing on a rock and seemed a little like a forest in miniature themselves.
.jpg "QEFP ferns or mosses")
This waterfall was at the beginning and the end of the loop that we walked. I had turned my nose up at it because “the light wasn’t interesting”. On the way back my spirit of photographic contrition made me have a go with my mini tripod on a rock despite the near twighlight conditions. I dont love the result, but at least it was a more honest effort from me.
Moral of the story: Sometimes we can forget to make pictures for fun because the perfect setting or moment is not there. I won’t post these on my Flickr page, but they might interest a botanist at least.
