Depth

Although a photograph is two-dimensional, it can appear to have perspective or be three-dimensional.

What makes one image appear flat while another has great depth?
It has to do with the concept of foreground and background. The foreground or positive space is usually the subject. The background or negative space is the background.

When there is no differentiation between foreground and background, as with patterns, the image appears flat or 2D. An image that has depth or appears 3D has a foreground, middle-ground and a background. The difference between the foreground and the background allows the viewer to move back through space.

Monochromatic

Black and White or Sepia are both monochromatic or a single color. The images in this blog are monochrome rather than in color.  There is a reason for this.

When first learning how to draw you learn about lines, shading, form, light and shadow through using values of black and white.  Learning to draw in black and white before learning color theory and painting allows one to build on the basics, before adding more advanced techniques.  Learning how to see in black and white also helps photographers for the same reason.

When working in black and white the quality of light will be good or poor, the composition will be strong or weak, there is no compensating for poor composition in black and white, as there is in color due its emotional component. Using a monochrome setting in your camera will help you to create a solid foundation.

Camera as a Journal

With the idea of a camera as a journal, I photographed the people nearby while waiting to take public transportation on a rainy day.

Visual Storytelling

"These are not diaries these are journals.  I want to know about the world you inhabit, the people around you, who are they, how do they behave.  Language and behavior that's all the actors got to work with, so keep your eyes open, observe, record.  How is emotion expressed thru action, gesture.  Understand other people and you'll begin to understand yourself."     ~ the movie Fame 2009

I used to think of photographs as individual stand alone pieces, which they can be, but they also can be strung together to tell a story.  How you place images together changes how the story is read.  When I started photographing weddings I realized it was more about the story than a single image and I began exploring the idea of visual stories.

Use your camera to journal about the world around you. Photograph the people, their interactions with others to discover their story. If you prefer places to people,  choose a space in nature and photograph it over time. How can a place tell a story, what does adding the element of time do?

Inspiration

I believe you can find inspiration anywhere. I find a lot of my inspiration from books and movies, as you can tell from the quotes used in this blog. Other times, I find inspiration in the people around me and in the random acts of kindness of strangers.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Be open, inspiration can strike anywhere and anytime!

View Points

A statute of an angel caught my eye while walking through beautiful Piedmont Avenue Cemetery.  The angel below, sits outside of a mausoleum on a hill overlooking the cemetery. Walking up the stairs for a better view this is what I saw.

Approaching from the front at eye level

Crouching down low and looking up place emphasis on her beautiful hands 

Changing point of view to a higher one, a whole new image emerges

A final image, taken at eye level

Up high to down low

"Sometimes all it takes is a tiny shift of perspective to see something familiar in a totally new light"

~ the book Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

How we approach our subject or life can be straight on or from different perspectives. When we shift our point of view, we can discover the unexpected.

The tendency to photograph from eye level is how most people approach an image. Shifting our approach to a child's point of view or down low to the ground can add new observations and change the scale of objects. Things that were small become large like in the movie Antz, where a simple backyard full of grass becomes a jungle like obstacle course.

Another point of view is the bird's eye or from up high.  The world seen from the skies above transforms farms and fields into a patchwork quilt, new lines and shapes emerge that are not visible when looking straight on.

Try exploring the world from a range of point of views, down low to up high and the in-between.