Tag Archives: photography technique

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Mysterious

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“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
― Albert Einstein, The World As I See It

“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

The lure of mystery is perhaps a fundamental part of being human. We yearn to know and understand and fill our large brains with certainty, and yet, we are enthralled by those things that are beyond our scope. We are forever asking questions and posing stories. When I think of how mystery is portrayed in images, I immediately think of black and white photography. There’s something iconic and photojournalistic about the feel of monochrome. And there’s a philosophical point in trying to capture reality in black and white while always including a million shades of gray. Cinematically, there’s the trick of using black & white film to depict a night time scene that was actually shot during the daytime. Is that moonlight? Or sunlight?

Alfred Hitchcock built his legendary fame by creating cinematic mystery. One technique he used was high angle shots in dramatically contrasting black & white.

Perhaps mystery is where curiosity and fear intersect. Do you really want to know what lies ahead?

When the scene is painted in shades of gray and the picture seems a bit hazy, almost anything is possible. What would you like to happen?

Thanks to Patti for inviting us to Find the Mysterious in this challenge.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Reflections

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Reflective poetry gives voice to musings about life. As I walk around Cronemiller Lake in Peavy Arboretum, my thoughts tumble about, touching on the past, the present, the future, the things that worry me, the things that confuse me, the things I long for, the things I ought to do.

It feels jumbled, directionless, unsettled. I need to sit. I need to breathe, slowly. I practice leaning into gratitude, allowing the layered impressions of life and radiance to swim together in the water that surrounds everything – fish beneath, duckweed floating on the surface, dragonflies and branches above. We are all water, we are all together in the flow, we are all reflecting the light of Life.

“Wonderful how I celebrate you and myself!
How my thoughts play subtly at the spectacles around!
How the clouds pass silently overhead!
How the earth darts on and on! and how the sun, moon, stars, dart on and on!
How the water sports and sings! (Surely it is alive!)
How the trees rise and stand up—with strong trunks—with branches and leaves!
(Surely there is something more in each of the trees—some living Soul.)
O amazement of things! even the least particle!
O spirituality of things!” ~ Walt Whitman, Song at Sunset

Thanks to Anne for this inspiring Challenge.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Two Rectangles

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This week’s challenge offers a photography technique about composition. Edigio of Through Brazilian Eyes illustrates how two dominant rectangular areas in a photo create a balanced and pleasing image. I thought the example below seemed to offer a good example.

The porch pictured above belonged to a historic building on the William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge not far from my home. Unfortunately, it burned to the ground last December. Here’s a news photo I found of it in flames.

(Photo by Damien Miller/USFWS)

When I first read of this composition technique, I was reminded of an annual event that I visited in the Milwaukee Art Museum. It was called “Art in Bloom” and featured a contest of flower arrangements inspired by the artwork on exhibit. I tried to photograph the original art and the flower arrangement in a way that would showcase the similarities. Lo and behold, the two rectangles technique seemed to emerge!

In this case, more than two rectangles…

Thank you, Lens-Artists, for continually engaging our creative community. I wish you all the best – see you next week!

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Dramatic

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“The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.” — John F. Kennedy

The summer sky in New Mexico is strikingly close. I’m not sure why that is, but it took my breath away in an ordinary moment, outside a museum. I had been ambling along at the pace of a typical tourist browsing an exhibit and crossed a courtyard toward another section of the campus. There had been thunder showers off and on all day, and as I emerged from the building, I glanced up to see if I needed to put my hood up. This is what I saw, this dead tree silhouetted against the powerful, changing sky. This image has not been altered by any post-processing except cropping.

And this is Life in a single, passing moment – triumph and tragedy juxtaposed on a stage that we forget is all around us. There seems to be no greater opportunity to be caught up in the thrill of emotion and beauty than to simply become aware of what IS.

Thank you, Patti, for inviting us to be aware of what is Dramatic through our lenses. Click HERE to see her post.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Backlit

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“To love beauty is to see light.” – Victor Hugo

“The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.” – Leonardo da Vinci

This week’s photo challenge comes from Ann-Christine, who writes, “Backlight is a versatile instrument in making pictures really come alive, even if they are only silhouettes or very dark. For landscapes it can be magical.” I find that especially true when water is part of the landscape, adding reflection, glow, and sparkle. I am really happy that the rain in Oregon has let up, and warm sunshine is bedazzling the Coast. I had a glorious day there yesterday, and will return soon!

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Still Life

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“But in a still life, there is no end to our looking, which has become allied with the gaze of the painter; we look in and in, to the world of things, in their ambiance of cool or warm light, in and in, as long as we can stand to look, as long as we take pleasure in looking.”
― Mark Doty

“Bartholomeus went on, ‘I wanted to show that these objects are sensitive, suffer at the coming of night, faint at the departure of the last rays, which, by the way, also live in this room; they suffer as much, they fight against the darkness. There you have it. It’s the life of things, if you like. The French would call it a nature morte, a picture of inanimate objects. That is not what I’m trying to show. Flemish puts it better: a still life.”
― Georges Rodenbach, The Bells of Bruges

Patti has served up a worthy challenge for us this week: still life photography. I think of this genre as belonging to the studio or a fine arts classroom. It is all about creating a composition that is compelling, whether that be because of the juxtaposition of objects, or the light playing on textures, or the depth of field that draws the eye deeper into the photo. When I think of the shots I have taken that might qualify for this category, I think of the ones I spent more time staging. There’s a certain amount of creative manipulation that goes into this kind of photography, and I must admit, I don’t often go to those lengths. But when I do, it’s a lot of fun…and some frustration. I often know the WOW! result I want, but somehow, fail to get it. Playing around with the idea of the shot is exciting, though. I am really enjoying seeing your posts on this theme!

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Diagonals

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Diagonals are leading lines. They draw your eyesight and attention toward a vanishing point.

My brain is having fun with the idea of leading lines. Something like, “An aardvark, a can opener, and a Nihilist walk into a bar…”? Or maybe, “The night was dark and stormy…”.

Anyway, enjoy the gallery! Thanks to Patti for hosting a great challenge and explaining and illustrating the technique so well. Visit her blog HERE.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Triptych

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Our Challenge host this week, Ann-Christine, has given us a really fun idea to play around with. Here’s how she puts it:

 “With Three of a Kind, I want you to think about things related to your main photo – maybe a book, a flower, a room, a piece of art… Almost anything will fit in here – you could make your three images tell a story too! Simply put: Your post should have three separate images that are somehow related. (Another option is splitting one photo into three parts.)

There is a special word for this art of three – triptych. The shape may be seen in Christian Iconography and became a common conventional style for altar artworks in the Middle Ages, from the Gothic era forward, both in Europe and overseas.“

Here are a few groupings I created:

“A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and
simple images in whose presence
his heart first opened.” ― Albert Camus

“Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind.
And the third is to be kind.” ― Henry James

“To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones
knowing your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.” ― Mary Oliver

Please visit Ann-Christine’s post HERE to see some excellent examples of displaying photos in threes and play along with us Lens-Artists!

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: The Rule of Thirds

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I am always fascinated by the beauty of nature in its most exquisite detail. I’m sure some people would look at my files and think, “Jeez, what a bunch of boring shots of plants!” I like to think that if I focus on presentation, I can redeem the endless green. The “Rule of Thirds” is a helpful tool for adding interest and eye-appeal to the composition of a shot. Tina outlines this concept and poses this week’s Challenge in informative detail. Visit her post HERE to see how it’s done.

I picked up a few additional pointers from Tina’s post that I will keep in mind.  
“It’s important to compose birds with an area of open space in front, visually implying they could fly away at a given moment.“

“Another approach to composing is a “Z” configuration – structuring your image so that the viewer’s eye is moving from left to right – as most of our viewers typically read.“

“Good composition is like a suspension bridge – each line adds strength and takes none away…Making lines run into each other is not composition. There must be motive for the connection. Get the art of controlling the observer – that is composition.”
– Robert Henri

These are interesting concepts to ponder. What makes something pleasing or interesting to your eye? Leading lines, balance and symmetry, color, subject matter…there’s so much to consider in photography. And so much to see that’s pleasing and interesting in this wide world. Happy snapping, photographers!

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Bokeh

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Sofia, our host for this challenge, writes: “The term bokeh was first used to distinguish normal motion blur from the blur obtained when things are out of focus. It literally means blur in Japanese. The Nikon website, after a more complex and technical explanation reduces it to simply this: ‘bokeh is the pleasing or aesthetic quality of out-of-focus blur in a photograph’.” The picture above is of a very young fern, its leaves all rolled up. The soft focus background draws attention to the inward curl, like tiny arms hugging its own precious new life.

I like how the background blur in this closeup of a dewdrop on some beard lichen reminds me of neuron pathways in the brain. (I do wish the drop were in sharper focus, though.) The bokeh background feels very Zen-like to me. It’s what happens when you are calmly mindful of the thing right in front of you, while the background fades into a peaceful blur. Here’s a gallery of my nature close-ups with bokeh backgrounds:

Please visit Sofia’s post, HERE, for more on this technique and instructions for participating in the challenge.