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thoughts on creativity & photography by Cherie
July 2010 Posts
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We often speak of capturing the mood of a person when we photograph. How do we capture the 'mood' of a place?
I do church directory photography, and part of my ministry is to capture place. Here is a recent photograph from First Methodist Church in Salem, Oregon.
I wanted to capture the beautiful rose window in the balcony while conveying a sense of the whole space. So here's what I did: I went into the pulpit (OK, I sort of climbed onto the railing so I would be higher - shhh...don't tell), used an 11-17 WIDE angle lens, and added flash so the book would light up and be the focal point of the image. Our eyes are still drawn to the stained glass windows, but they return again and again to the Bible in the pulpit.
To me, the image conveys a sense of history, of long patience, of peace, of expectation. The result, I hope, is a story of PLACE.
A really nice shot, Cherie ... a well-thought-out shot too ... and somehow, they seem to live near one another! It's the thinking that MAKES a shot like this ... and that takes knowledge and practice along with that photographer's eye ...
Neil
Adding the SB800 to give that extra kiss of light right where you need it is brilliant! The more I use mine, the more I love it!
OK, so last night I was out walking in a local park with a friend. He hopped up onto a stone wall, squatted down, and said, "Look, the gargoyles are come to life."
I didn't have my camera with me. Who takes their camera to a park at midnight? (OK, usually I would have. It's the curse of the professional photographer. If we don't have the camera, we might MISS something!)
Wait, I did have a camera with me. In my iPhone. God bless my iPhone - how did I ever live without it? The marching anthem of millions across the world. No, I don't want to hear from the Droid and Blackberry contingents. We can peaceably co-exist, OK? :)
For this image, I bumped the brightness/contrast a BUNCH, and then I applied a posterizing effect, backing it off until it was very subtle, but told a stone-like story.
Gargoyles can be scary enough without coming to life!
I've been working on a new website for my studio for MONTHS. What that means is that I've been thinking about it but avoiding actually DOING it, because the work seems overwhelming. It is such a big project! I feel swamped before I even begin.
But this week, with the help of a web designer, I finally sat down and came up with a step-by-step list of what I need to do. When the project is broken down into chunks, it doesn't seem nearly as scary.
That's how it always works though, doesn't it? Whether we're contemplating a new website design or a major life change, it seems terrifying until we break it down into manageable sections. We are much more likely to take initial and subsequent steps if they don't seem so big.
By the way, here are a couple of montage images that I worked on yesterday. I created twelve of these puppies. I'm proud of myself! One foot in front of the other... :)
OOOO, I like the montages.
I hear you. Even though I have been trying to delegate the rebuilding of my website to others, there is a huge amount of thinking, planning, writing verbiage that really expresses what I am all about, choosing images that communicate the right look that can be done by no one else but ME. It does seem overwhelming!
