Fun Friday: The adventure of learning….

The image above is of me flying my ulta-light over the Arizona Desert, what an adventure!!  In life I’ve found a number of things that are thrilling and I enjoy them all, but one of the most wonderful adventures for me is learning.  As a photographer there is one very good way to learn and improve your work, it’s called the critique.  At our workshops we spend a lot of time looking at our attendees images and doing critiques.  I think the most effective critique is to ask several questions; (1) Does the image work, (2) If not what is keeping it from working, (3) and finally how can we improve the image?  If you could ever attend one of our workshops we can do that for you, but you can do it yourself as well.  Let me walk you through how to do self critiques.

Firat an important point, the purpose of a critique is to identify what is holding your images back from being as successful as they could be, not to beat yourself up!  I once did a workshop with a wonderful photographer and friend, Pat O’Hara.  Pat is an incredible photographer and a great guy.  He started a critique session by putting a pretty awful picture on the screen and proceeded to make numerous observations of what was wrong with it.  Everyone in the room cringed knowing somebody was being taken apart by the critique.  After he finished with his multitude of suggestions, he asked whose it was.  No one confessed,then he shocked everyone by saying, it was his from the beginning of his career. Their was an audible sigh of relief.  He went onto explain that everyone starts doing work well below their goals.  It was one of the most effective critique techniques I’ve ever seen, and we use it to this day ourselves.  It’s important to remember that Rome was no t built in a day, and a photographer is not either!!!!  So give yourself permission to be in the process of learning, then you will start to see that mistakes are just opportunities toi know what to not do in the future!

O.K. what things do I look for, and that you should look for, when doing a critique?

(1.) What is the subject?  Is it presented in a clear and concise way?  How many distractions are in the image that draw the eye away from the subject?  How could you have prevented the clutter or distracting elements?  Look at the image below shot in Santa Fe.  It is a perfectly beautiful statue, but the window frame behind it is very distracting, now look at the image below right, see what a difference it makes when we watch out for the background!

See how much more effective the plain background is?  Another issue with the subject is how much of the frame does it fill?  most often a photogrpah will have more power if the subject is very obvious because it fills the frame.  The two images below illustrate this point.  I was in Colorado photographing an Aspen grove and these are two of my shots, the one below left is o.k., I think the one below right is much stronger, both shot from the same spot with different lenses!

(2) Is the light working for the subject?  A tip here is that angular light in early morning and late afternoon on sunny days will  be warmer and have more character and also shows texture because of the angle of the light.  It’s worth shooting early and late!

(3)  Fill the Frame with the subject!  Very few photographs have been made worse by move in closer!  Below are to images made of rocks on the beach in Olympic National Park, while both work, I like the tight one!  You may not, but if you shoot them both you have two versions!

Below is another shot, made in Sonoma, California, that I hope you feel illustrates the value of cropping tight in the camera, I think it really works!

(4) Was the shot a vertical composition or a horizontal, you should shoot both, but one will  be the obvious best solution, as illustrated by these two images of Sol Duc Falls in Olympic National Park.

(5)  Is the horizon level?  This is easy, use a camera with a level built in or purchase a bubble level, believe it or not it is really hard to get level horizons, but as little discipline with solve the problem, see how the un-level horizon ruins this otherwise great shot?

When you have a great subject, in great light, with good conditions and you compose it effectively, guess what?  You’re getting there!!

Have a blessed weekend,

the pilgrim

One last image, my daughter Catherine and I with one of our buddies at Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina!  And you thought I was crazy for flying ultralights!!!!