Canadian Winter

Leave room.
Leave room for the viewer's story.
Leave room for the subject to move.
In this shot, I didn't include the whole body and face. The viewer can fill in the blanks and well imagine themselves or someone they know stick-handling the ball.
In this shot, I didn't fill the frame. I left room for the subject to move across the ice.
Leave room.

Kodak Brownie

What adds to the subject and what takes away? This is important to consider when composing our shots. In the background of this picture we see sweet bokeh bubbling up from the top of the camera, which adds. When the picture was still in colour, the gold of the bokeh was too much and ended being too loud and distracting. Also the art piece on the wall to the left of the camera was just as distracting as the golden bokeh. Converting to black and white was the answer.

Oh deer

There were several deer in and amongst a group of cabins. I was able to get close enough to get this shot.
Cropping can make all the difference! I cropped out the distractions and simplified the composition. Leaving space for the deer's line of sight was important to me. It adds a bit of intrigue - we want to know more and it is also calming.

Capturing Character

You might have thought I was going to talk about the character of people. Rather, I am going to talk about capturing the character of flowers. Each flower seems to have a personality, a purpose. Some are soft and gentle, given to comfort. Others are dynamic and exciting, full of life!

This soft peach coloured carnation is a very gentle soul. Her tenderness is best captured with a shallow depth of field. She invites us to come close. Hard edges are blurred with the f/2.8 aperture and coming as close as my camera would allow.

And then we have this chrysanthemum. She is so full of movement and celebration! She calls me to step back a little more to take her all in, to watch as she dances in the light. Though I still used f/2.8 I did not shoot as close as I did for the gentle carnation.

I shot both of these images with my 60 mm macro lens at a speed of 1/60 and my ISO was 400.

Tree Tops and Red Tops

This first image is a good example of when filling the frame is a good choice. Some subjects call for this and this subject is certainly one. The tree, large and looming definitely wins the main stage here!

I shot at a speed of 1/1000 and aperture of f/5.6. My focal length was 70 mm and ISO 100.

Repeating pops of colour helps to bring a busy composition together. The red draws the eye throughout the image, in a way that is almost orderly. When the image has a lot going on it is important to remember to include something that will ground or guide.

I shot at a speed of 1/1000 with an aperture of f/5.6. My focal length was 70 mm and ISO 100.

Hotel

I shot this image in my city's beloved Exchange District. Some might have tried to get this shot sans truck but I quite like the ordinary in my compositions.

Including the Hotel sign balances the image and also adds interest.

My shutter speed was 1/100. The aperture was f/7.1 which allowed for an increased depth of field. My focal length was 24 mm and ISO 100.

The Forks

Each one of these images has a design element that leads the viewer into the picture and straight to the subject.
In the top picture, we have the rubber mats that act as our pathway to the skating rink. Once there we might look up to the tower and see the Canadian flag waving but then our eye travels back down the trees and back to the pathway and to the rink once more.
In the cityscape scene, we hop onto the train and take a ride straight downtown to the corporate highrises. Our eyes hover over the cluster of buildings and then down to catch the train back again.
The last picture has us traversing the stairs to the front entryway of Johnston Terminal. The trees on the far right keep our eyes from traveling off the picture.
Keeping the viewers engaged by giving them a subject to visit without distracting pieces that pull the eyes off the picture is important.

Train Town

Include the telling things in your compositions. Sometimes we shy away from street and business signs and climb a little higher to avoid entire structures to get that great shot. On occasion, perhaps more often than this, it is better to include these things as they inform the viewer about the whole. If you intentionally include these things, the overall composition will also be improved.

I shot this image with my 60 mm macro lens - it is what I had with me. My shutter speed was 1/4000 and my aperture was f/2.8. ISO was fixed at 100.

Basket

In no hurry, this gentleman peddles slowly down the street. What you may not notice is he is taking a drag on his smoke and just movin' along, taking in the sights and sounds of the neighborhood.

Shot in the Exchange District in Winnipeg, Manitoba back in the fall of 2011. When I happened upon this guy I didn't have time to change my settings so I shot with what I had. My shutter speed was 1/6400 and aperture was f/5.6. What is most ridiculous to me is my ISO setting. For those who have been following my posts, you'll be a little surprised to read it was set at 800. I do not know what that was about and since this was more than a year ago, try as I might, I cannot remember for the life of me!

Still, I liked the shot and decided to work with what I had. Currently on a quest to incorporate interesting colour and textures into my photography, I imported this image into photoshop and played around until I found something that worked well with both the original composition and the one in my head.

Points of View

I shot this picture looking down at my own feet but ended up flipping the image vertically as it seemed to present better that way.

The negative space adds to the subject of the boot tips. Called Points of View, we see immediately that there is more than one view, one way of looking at things. The faint lines in the white floorboards seem to agree with the one point of view. However, the one more forward takes the lead.

I shot with a speed of 1/40 and aperture of f/2.8. Once on my computer I brought this image into photoshop to add a texture layer but chose one that would not make the negative space disappear in clutter. Layers can add but they also can detract or distract from what the photographer is trying to say.

Railway Crossing

Once again, changing this into a black and white image resulted in a better photo. The bright golden yellow field in the background distracted from the flow of the pathway to the clearing and finally to the railway crossing.

When you import your images into your photo publishing/processing program, pull out the colour and see if the result brings an improvement. Of course, this largely depends on what your subject is...or is not.

Here, in this image, the subject is not the field but it presented that way with the colour. The railway crossing was all but lost with the distraction of the yellow mass. In addition, the flow was interrupted before the intended stop at the railway crossing.

I shot this image with a shutter speed of 1/80 and aperture of f/10. My ISO was firmly fixed at 100.

Can't See the Forest for the Trees

Contrast and colour in composition can be necessary to the whole. The yellow burst in between the grey trunks and the deep dark background is necessary to engage viewers.

I went back to this location a week after I shot this. The leaves had fallen. The scene no longer drew me in. Without the yellow, apart from searching for this same spot, I would have just moved on without a second glance.

Closer Than We Think

It is not so far away, Christmas.

When taking shots of Christmas ornaments it is a good idea to try and get close. Sometimes the big wow-wee photos of trees in all their splendor work out well but often the ornaments are lost to the greater show.

Get close and make sure you have good lighting. Take the ornament off the tree to decrease clutter. Here, some of the light spots in the back (some sweet bokeh) and also the shadow in front, echo the shape of the ornament, pointing to it instead of taking away from it.

Snowflake Tree

The snowflakes were ready for harvesting...

I'd like to talk a little bit about exposure in snow compositions. Left to our camera's mind and eye, our winter images would most often be underexposed. When reading the landscape, the camera sees a predominantly white image as too bright and will compensate by decreasing the exposure (when on automatic) or give a reading on the light meter that the image is overexposed (for those who shoot manually). Subsequently, we are often inclined to bump down the exposure ourselves. This leaves us with a dark image.

"Push the whites to the right." Remember that phrase. On your histogram (use it - it is most helpful!) often we like to see the bulk of the pixels right in the center of the graph. Not so with a white landscape! Adjust your settings until the peak of the pixels is at the far right of your graph, without spilling over off the graph. Then you will have a properly exposed winter image (or any white image).

"Push the whites to the right!"

Winter Road

Last winter was an exceptional one for hoarfrost. There were many days when the frost would blanket the trees and stay well into the day, sometimes even overnight. It was a winter wonderland!

I shot this picture in Winnipeg. I chose to go to an older part of the city, where the trees were plentiful and mature. The resulting images I took had beautiful canopies of frost covered branches reaching across the roads to meet.

I shot at a focal length of 27 with an aperture of f/8 and shutter speed of 1/200.

Once on my computer I cooled the tones even more than what was already present, which resulted in a blue tint to the snow and ice that I quite liked.

First Snow

Last weekend, the south-east part of our province experienced the first snowstorm of the season. Power lines were down, visibility was poor, bringing much to a standstill for a day or more, especially for those without power.

Contrast can be powerful in an image. Here, the difference between the beautiful golden tamaracks and the white blanket of snow is much greater than if the snow was not present. The contrast is key.

The golden tufts of grasses along the creek edge draws our eye to the patch of tamaracks by way of sameness...sameness of colour. We tend to look for similarities and look at contrast. Both work well together in this image.

I shot this image at a speed of 1/400 and aperture of f/6.3.

Autumn's Warmth

Today the landscape looks very different than just one week ago. Last weekend, we had summer heat in the autumn woods. This weekend we have snow and cold. Looking at this image makes me forget the icy chill if only for a short while.

I used my 60 mm macro lens for this shot. It was a sunny day so I opted for a fast shutter speed of 1/1600 to compensate for the large aperture of f/2.8 which I wanted for good bokeh in the background. The blurred background lends itself to the impression of dancing flames which only helps the warmth I was trying to capture in this image.

I do not have the leaf right in the middle but rather a little off centre, which I find to be a more interesting composition.

Solitude

We all need it at some point: solitude. Some more than others but each of us, all of us, need this.

I shot this image on a beautiful autumn day. It felt more like summer than fall but the colours were definitely autumn's.

With the bright sky, I opted for an aperture of f/9.0 and fast shutter speed of 1/320. Though I didn't need the depth of field the f/9.0 provided, I didn't want to blow out the image because of the bright light. Choosing to bump up the speed also ensured a properly exposed image.

Once on my computer I added two texture layers, breaking up the negative space a bit. While some negative space was important to this composition of solitude there was too much I found it to be too stark, too bare, for the solitude to be inviting. There is a fine line between the solitude sought after in a chaotic world and the solitude that speaks of loneliness. Once I applied the layers, it was exactly as I wished the image to be.

Autumnal Days

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life. ~P.D. James

Autumn's light was perfect for this shot. Summer's temperature made it easy; no chilly fingers to contend with.

I shot at f/7.1 with a shutter speed of 1/60. 1/60 is about as slow as I would opt to hand-hold my camera. Any slower and the risk of camera shake increases.

The path brings our eye into the picture and guides us through it, without allowing us to leave the scene. Once we reach the top of the image, the yellow leaves welcome us and then the evergreen brings us back down to the foreground brush. And then we begin again on the path...

Prairie Diamonds

How beautiful, these prairie diamonds! Soon to disappear, like riches can and do, these glistening gems of frosted wheat were to be enjoyed in the present, not hoarded nor wasted, but enjoyed...and shared.

Positioning myself and lens so the sun was shining just right on on the subject with the right amount of glisten and silhouette, I began to shoot. My shutter speed was 1/640 with an aperture of f/9. As is my habit, I used ISO 100. This was no problem with such bright conditions.

I softened the image by adding a gentle texture layer over top in Photoshop.