Photography Basics - Prelude

"...You can take great photographs with a camera set on "autoexposure" or "programmed exposure" as long as you are aware of what choices the camera is making, can evaluate them to see if they are what you want, and know how to override them if necessary. You should be in control of what your camera is doing, not the other way around. (p.16)"

"Cameras can't think. They don't know what you're photographing nor do they know how you want your picture to appear. (p. 22)"

From John Shaw’s Landscape Photography

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I have wanted to do this for a long time, and that is to give a "tutorial" of sorts on the basics of photography. Almost everybody likes to see a good photograph. What defines a good photograph is subjective, but yet the technical aspects of taking that photograph are the same no matter what the style or "genre" of the photograph. Quite often I see photographs that are lacking in some respect because the camera did all the work in determining the exposure and the composition wasn't well thought out.

First of all, I am not an expert in photography nor do I pretend to be one. However, I have spent the better part of the last seven years having photography as a serious hobby and have thought and read about it quite a bit, but more importantly I have gone out and taken thousands and thousands of photos, and messed up thousands of times! It is through those mistakes where I have grown as a photographer. Having a gorgeous scene in front of me and coming home to find out I missed something and all the photos are trash is a real-life lesson as to the importance of thinking about the technical aspects of photography while in the field.

I use a fully-manual 35mm film camera, which is a rarity in today's digital world! However, the rules of photography are the same for my camera built in the late 70s and the digital point-and-shoot camera purchased earlier this year. In a lot of ways, I wish that everybody would take some time learning the basics of photography on a fully-manual camera. Being in full-control of the camera makes you think about everything (and makes you pay when you don't), but really gets you to understand the principles behind exposure. These principles can then carry over to the vacation photographer and his fully-automatic digital P&S camera.

There are two main areas in which I am constantly learning and trying to improve my photography: exposure and composition. It is these two areas where I find the greatest need in a lot of photos that I see from people on vacation to those who are selling photos for a living. Most of the problems I think are just ignorance, not really knowing any different and having the camera do all the "thinking". When somebody has thought about the photograph, consciously, the viewer can tell and the photo truly comes to life.

Although my discussion will primarily focus on my passion of Nature photography, the principles apply to all genres of photography. So if nature photography isn't your thing, but you still want to learn about exposure and composition take what you can and apply it to your own situation.

The following can change (and probably will) but below is something of a "Table of Contents" for my discussion of Photography Basics.

1. Foreword - My "photographic journey"
2. Introduction
3. Exposure
   1. Introduction
   2. The three parts of exposure determination
      1. Aperture (depth-of-field)
      2. Shutter Speed (movement)
      3. Film Speed
   3. Stops and the reciprocity principle
4. Composition
   1. Introduction
   2. Time of Day
   3. Finding subjects
   4. Rule of Thirds
5. Equipment
   1. Tripods
   2. Filters
   3. Lenses
6. Appendix
   1. Features of many digital P&S cameras
   2. Resolution and printing

I hope to start this endeavor soon, as time warrants with all the other stuff I have going on! I hope that there is some interest (even if there isn't I will still do it for my own enjoyment and learning). If questions arise or there is something you want me to cover please let me know!

I'm Back!

I had mentioned earlier that I had some film in for processing. Well, I just got my two rolls of slide film from the processor! Overall I am very pleased with the results – in a way it is kind of a relief! Looking at the slides proved to me once again that I love this hobby and that I need to do it more often.

While I was going around taking the photos a lot of the techniques and technical know-how came back to me, but there are still things that I forgot or over-looked. If I can continue to shoot some film on a more regular basis, those things will hopefully be corrected as I practice.

I hope to have some of these slides scanned soon so that I can actually discuss them here, but that might be a few days before I can get those since I do not own a slide scanner. But in the meantime here are some initial comments that I have (I will try and scan some slides that demonstrate these and discuss them later).

Initial comments from Joshua Tree Slides:

Bracketing is a good idea!

Put some photos in sharp focus throughout

Look for things intruding into the frame

Meter entire scene (although not as bad a problem this time, I got lucky!)

Double check metering

For star trails, put something terrestrial into the photo

On Location

Before moving back out to California, I lived in Chicago for a number of years. It was out there that I began to love photography. Since I am a nature photographer, being such in Chicago wouldn't seem like a good fit, and in many ways it wasn't. Overall there are not a lot of "landscapes" to be shot around Chicago, but Cook County had a lot of Forest Preserves which afforded decent places to go take photos (generally not broad, sweeping landscapes, but what I called "creative cropping"). Needless to say I got pretty familiar with the preserves around where I lived and worked!

Just because of the way things worked out I usually would get out and take photos before work to catch the sunrise. I would get up well before dawn, park my car along side the road (the preserve parking lots usually wouldn't open until around the time of sunrise), get all my stuff together, and head into the woods using the light of my headlamp. After getting to the spot I was thinking of, or finding one along the way I would usually have some time to set up my camera gear, and then just wait for the sun to rise. What a magical time of day! Watching the sky get brighter, maybe grabbing some shots of the higher clouds with some color, and then seeing the world around getting bathed in warm, golden light makes you forget where you are for the moment. I really think that even in Chicago what I saw on those occasions out in the forest preserves at dawn were things that not very many people ever experienced. Sure the trails in the forest preserve were used by many people, but at the wrong times! Every so often depending on where I was I would see a mountain biker or even another hiker, but not until the sun was up for a while and I was heading back to my car.

In many places around Cook County especially in the southwest suburbs the lakes, ponds, and sloughs were really close to the roads. So often there I was sitting along side the road with my camera on the tripod waiting for the sun to rise while people drove right past at 45-50 miles per hour. I always wondered if somebody who took that road to work everyday, never looking off to the side, after seeing me there with my camera, realized the beauty of the scene they had always missed and started to actually pay attention. Quite often when I was hid from the road, but yet very close to it and seeing some amazing things I just had to chuckle as all these people were driving right past and missing it all!

Even though I took a lot of photos around Chicago, I was also privledged to go on a number of vacations where Michelle and I would be able to go to some amazing places and I would shoot up a good number of rolls. Moving out to Southern California presents an entirely different set of locations and environments in which to shoot although to be honest I have only done so really only twice (see the "Photography Revival" below) and it is starting to bug me! I really need to start getting out and exploring the photographic possibilities around me!

There is one little problem however, even though San Diego County and the surrounding areas go from the ocean to foothills to pine-covered mountains (snow covered in the winter) to the desert floor, the time it takes to get to those locations is much further than it took me to get to the forest preserves in Chicago. For instance to take photos at sunrise in the desert means I would have to leave Escondido at least three hours earlier if not more (two hours to drive, an hour to hike/find a location). And that would be the case for a lot of places. So taking those kind of photos on my way to work just wouldn't work out. I would almost have to spend the night out "on location" as to alievate the early morning driving.

There is a nature preserve in Escondido just a couple of miles away as well as other decent places fairly close that I haven't even really begun to explore their photographic potential yet so I have plenty to do in the short term! Now I just need to get out and do it!

Learning About Photography

There are two main vehicles by which I have learned (and am learning) the art of nature photography. The first is through the books of John Shaw, and the second is actually going out and taking photos (and messing up a lot!). The books by John Shaw are unbelievable, just the full-color photos contained in the books makes you want to go out and take your own photos, but also his earlier books deal with the equipment that I currently own and use (fully manual film cameras). His later books that I have deal with more sophisticated film cameras, but I can still gain a lot by reading them. Below are some excerpts from his book Focus on Nature: The Creative Process Behind Making Great Photographs in the Field, (New York: Amphoto, 1991), that I found extremely useful and well said. I hope you enjoy them as well.

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Introduction
Photography is a way to order the chaos around you by emphasizing some aspects of the environment and ignoring others. You do this by choosing what to photograph and what to include in the frame. Then by using the tools of photography (lenses, films, light and exposure) and selecting a vantage point from which to photograph, you emphasize one aspect or another of your subject. In effect, you're telling the viewer what is important by your having made choices.

But order doesn't happen automatically. Simply pointing a camera at a subject doesn't guarantee a successful photograph if success is defined as an interesting, engaging work that involves the viewer's mind and emotions. You have to structure a photograph both technically and aesthetically without allowing these concerns to overwhelm the subject matter. When the construction of a photograph is more noticeable than its content, you've failed as a photographer; instead you are a dilettante in the worst sense of the word.

How to arrange a picture, how to make order out of chaos, should be a conscious decision on your part. Structuring your visual environment is the role of composition, and the more you can consciously control this structure, the better a photographer you'll be. I believe that far too often - myself included - tend to be sloppy when it comes to making decisions. We slide be with such vague thoughts as "That's a pretty scene" or "Oh, I like that" without analyzing exactly what we mean. You should ask yourself some questions. What has influenced me? Why am I visually excited about a particular situation? What specifically can I do to emphasize the subject?

There is quite a difference between the procedure of photography and the process of photography; but a good work has both. Photography is a synthesis of two ways of dealing with the world, two ways of dealing with subject matter. On one hand, you must be a technician, determining shutter speeds and f-stops, choosing equipment and mounting lenses for example. You must have a rational, strictly scientific approach to your work. Here, step two must follow step one in the correct manner in order for the machinery to work properly to record an image. This side of photography is the logical world of procedure. On the other hand, you must also be a poet and an artist, paying attention to the intuitive and mystical world of your inner vision. You have to bring your own sense of emotions about the subject to the photograph, otherwise it'll be lifeless. You must be able to see an image. This is the process of taking a picture.

Procedure without process is as much a failure as process without procedure. A photograph can't be successful without the interplay and mutual support of these aspects. Everyone has seen photographs that are technically immaculate but aesthetically insipid. The usual reaction to such pictures is that they are dull, uninspired work. Everyone has also seen photographs that are intensely personal and evocative yet lack a solid basis in technique. These are judged to be the result of bad craftsmanship and an inability to control the medium. The artist with his vision and the craftsman with his tools must unite to create a successful product. (9-10)

Seeing the Light
Most people don't see the nuances of light on the landscape. A photograph is only a two-dimensional representation of our experience. The fuller the experience, the more it touches all of our senses, the better our photographs are. Visual sensitivity to the landscape and how it is shaped by light is a skill that we need to develop. We must learn to spontaneously respond to unexpected moments of clarity and light. We literally must have insight.

Many of us have never seen the light. I believe this happens because we are in such a hurry that we don't have the time to watch how the light changes and consequently alters the appearance of subjects. Without noticing change, we see neither the beginning nor the end but think that how subjects look at the observed moment is how they always look.

We tend to do this, consciously or not. I am as guilty of being in a hurry as everyone else. When I travel to a new location, I often feel I must get a definitive photograph immediately. The pressure I place on myself to produce prevents me from seeing what is happening around me. Like most other people, I need to slow down. Keep in mind that our perception of a place is colored by the time of day and year that we saw it. For example, if you visit the Everglades on a morning in February, the way it looks at that particular time is the way it will be locked into your memory, But the Everglades in February isn't the Everglades in July, and the Everglades in the morning isn't the Everglades at twilight.

I realize that most of us are pressed for time to photograph. We have appointments to keep, jobs to go to, and engagements that take up our time. But learning to see the light, to see how light changes a subject during a day or a season's duration, is of utmost importance. The word "photography" literally means to paint with light. An awareness of light is our first and most essential tool in terms of our aesthetic control when taking a photograph.

Slow down, stay a little longer, just wait and watch. Only be being in the field and observing the light play upon the landscape can you truly learn to see the world around you. (17)

Graphic Elements
In photography, that is, photo-graphics, you're dealing with the graphic elements that are common to all visual arts. You must be conscious of the basic building blocks of design: color, line, pattern, texture and form. The become your visual vocabulary, and photographic technique provides the syntax. The synthesis of the two is communication. (19)

Photography Revival

Some of you know that I am something of an amateur nature photographer (my website is www.mvpol.com). It is a hobby that at one time I was looking into how I could actually take pictures for a living. This had kind of fallen off of my radar the past couple of years because of two primary reasons: 1) going to seminary full time took most of my attention, time and resources and 2) in July of 2006 I broke my favorite and most used lens in a freak hiking accident (instead of unclipping my backpack’s sternum strap I unclipped one of my camera strap buckles and the camera went crashing onto some concrete).

The lack of that lens really hurt my ability to take the photos that I wanted to take. One of the lenses that a landscape/nature photographer needs is a wide angle lens (technically speaking anything under 50mm is a wide-angle lens, under 24mm they become more “fish-eye” wide-angle lenses). The lens that I broke was a 28mm-90mm zoom lens, and because of its wide-angle capability as well as everything up to 90mm I found it very useful in composing my shots. I have a 50mm lens and a 70mm-210mm zoom lens that I used, but very much missed my 28mm-90mm zoom lens. All that to say, I was quite depressed and never felt like going out and taking photos because I knew I couldn’t do what I wanted to do.

This past weekend I went camping at Joshua Tree National Park. We had been there two times before I always thought that this would be a great place to take some nice photos. Well, this time I actually decided to do it. I borrowed a 28mm fixed lens from a professor (thanks Dr. Clark!) and bought some film (I didn’t even have any in the house, how sad is that?!). I was going to be arriving at the park a couple of hours earlier than everybody else so I knew I would have some time in the late afternoon to get out.

Needless to say, I loved every minute of it! Just going through all my equipment trying to figure out what I needed to carry along, loading film, cleaning lens, was such a joy! Then I started walking around actually taking photos trying to remember all that I had learned in the previous years about exposure, depth of field, composition, etc. I was having so much fun setting up my tripod again, figuring out the best composition, and determining exposure. On my website I talk about the moment that got me really hooked on nature photography, and I experienced that again in a similar manner. The first time was looking at a processed slide on a light box, this time it was looking through the viewfinder. I had been walking around mainly taking photos of some climbers who were scaling the rocks in our campsite. Once I got away from them I saw a composition of some Joshua Trees framing a rock formation in the background, I put on Dr. Clark’s 28mm lens, set up my tripod, looked through the viewfinder, and BAM!! I was hooked again! I had a polarizing filter on the lens which made the sky a deep rich blue, the green of the Joshua Tree leaves was verdant, all contrasted with the harshness of the rocks and hills in the background. That was all it took for my heart to start racing and my love of nature photography to come flooding back!

Now I have no idea if that photo I took actually turned out (the film is being processed right now), but even if it didn’t – I know that I am able to take the photos I want and just need to get back into practice again. I do hope that I get some good photos out of this weekend (or else I might be posting again soon as to why I hate photography!) and I cannot wait to throw them on a lightbox and take a look!

One thing that frustrates me concerning nature photography is that I see a lot of people displaying and selling photos that, in my opinion, stink. So many times I see prints being sold that are out of focus, horrible color (usually from being over-exposed), poor composition, and the like; but yet they are trying to sell the print for $150! Obviously there are those photos that I see that absolutely blow me away and confirm that I am in a different league, but yet I am relatively new at this and am proud of most of my work.

In the future I will talk more about photography since I have been “revived” again (hopefully I can actually get out and do it more!), but I am thinking of getting a little more technical as to how to take good photographs. In the past couple of years people who know I am into photography have asked me questions about photography, but also I have heard people who don’t know how to use their digital cameras. Having a basic understanding of photography and its principles helps to understand what your camera is doing and why and might even get you to the point where you are telling the camera what to do instead of the other way around. Also some thoughts about composition and taking photos that will take your photos to another level.

So if you are interested in me doing this let me know so that I can have some motivation for pursuing that endeavor! Also, if you are in my area, let me know and someday we can go out and shoot some rolls or memory cards as the case may be!

Purpose of this, my new blog

I doubt anybody will be reading this blog, but oh well! The purpose of the "VPol Photography Blog" is pretty self-explanatory - to allow me the chance to blog about my photography! I had been posting these sort of comments on my other blog but thought it mught be best to separate the two.

I got the idea from a fellow student who is a professional photographer and he has a blog talking about and displaying his most recent work (his website is here).

This blog, then, will give me the opportunity to talk about photography, my recent outings (if I can get out and take photos!), as well as answer questions about photography.

So I hope you will visit every so often and participate in the discussion!