WHAT you choose to photograph is often the first choice — when you see something that you want to photograph, that choice tends to define all your other creative choices. You can choose to shoot anything — landscapes, people, weddings, pets, insects, or abstract artistic images. You can choose to dabble in all types of photography, or be a specialist.
Every other page of photos is all about people, and we decided to photograph one person for pretty much the whole project, but hopefully some things we learn from experimenting with photos of Nicole will be useful for all sorts of photography.
Bottom Line: It matters WHAT subjects you choose shoot, and for some it defines their life as a photographer.
Left
Right
Aerial photography is clearly a unique way of looking at the world. We usually don't get to see the world from above, so the patterns we see are often new, startling and interesting.
I have dabbled in aerial, renting a helicopter with pilot. It turns out to be easy to do, but not easy to get great shots. You can NOT pilot a chopper and also takes photos as you can with a fixed wing craft, so you need to instruct a pilot as to what you want to do. Choppers fly low, so if you ask a pilot to hover over an interesting spot, people below may call the local police out of concern, which tends to crimp your shooting.
Macro photography is the opposite of aerial — very close rather than very far — but also presents a way of seeing that is uncommon, so it can be very interesting.
This photo of the buds of a grapevine flower has a nice texture, but also looks strangely like the grapes that will form in a few months.
If you get into macro work you tend to walk around and see nothing but tiny things — flowers, insects, fabric textures.
Macro work requires special attention to get enough depth of field and enough light to support that depth of field. And, as in all nature photography, if you get very serious about it, you need to become a student of the subject you photograph.
People. Most people find people to be the most interesting subject, so people became the single subject for the rest of this project. In particular, one person: Nicole Pierce, a friend who is a dancer, choreographer, stand-up comic, and founder of Egoart, her multi-faceted art ensemble.
Textures and patterns. I tend to collect textures and patterns, usually little fragments of scenes. This utility grate with multiple layers of paint is a favorite of mine. I sometimes call this Very Low Altitude Aerial Photography, since you can look straight down from about a foot or two high and see some interesting things — without renting a chopper.
Side note: only when I put this image side by side with Nicole, with her eyes, did I realize that the little diamond shapes also look like eyes — context makes a big difference.
Travel photography. Some people find they don't really experience a new place unless they photograph it, which enhances their seeing. (Other people find that taking pictures "removes" you from the experience of being in a foreign place. I think both can be true.)
Unless you are the gregarious type, who can walk up to strangers, engage them in their own language, and then ask to take photos, you will tend, like me, to take "glimpses" of how the foreign location strikes you.
This is the inside of the Roman Coliseum, which, like Niagara Falls, is too amazing for any amount of commercialization to really dilute.
Landscape photography might be thought of as a subset of nature photography, but many people have devoted their lives just to shooting the shapes and textures of farms, fields, and mountains.
This shot came while driving over the eastern Appalachian mountains in Virginia. It had rained heavily for a few days, and as the sun rose we were climbing up the hills on a major highway. I glanced back and saw an endless series of misty ridges, with mist rising from the valleys between.
Remarkably, there was a large official rest stop right ahead, with a perfect view. I was able to set up a tripod and shot to my heart's content — although I had to shoot fast, as the rising sun constantly changed the look of the scene.
It may surprise some people that this photo was taken at 400mm. People automatically think wide-angle when they think of landscapes, but clearly wide-angle is not always the answer.
The photo below was taken at 135mm — with this subject it became more dramatic the more I zoomed in.
Nature photography is one of the largest subsets of photography — hardly a surprise, given the visual richness of the natural world. Here, an endangered white rhino stands in the Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania — one of the world's most remarkable wildlife destinations. In Africa, wildlife is so plentiful that you don't need to be a biologist or professional to get pictures — in most situations wildlife photos require a high level of expertise and patience.
Pets — a subject somewhere between people and wildlife. We seem to find great "humanity" in our animals, which is kind of odd. I think our bond with animals is based on our shared membership among higher animals, with whom we share not just two eyes and two ears, but complex emotional lives.
Aerial photography is clearly a unique way of looking at the world. We usually don't get to see the world from above, so the patterns we see are often new, startling and interesting.
I have dabbled in aerial, renting a helicopter with pilot. It turns out to be easy to do, but not easy to get great shots. You can NOT pilot a chopper and also takes photos as you can with a fixed wing craft, so you need to instruct a pilot as to what you want to do. Choppers fly low, so if you ask a pilot to hover over an interesting spot, people below may call the local police out of concern, which tends to crimp your shooting.
Macro photography is the opposite of aerial — very close rather than very far — but also presents a way of seeing that is uncommon, so it can be very interesting.
This photo of the buds of a grapevine flower has a nice texture, but also looks strangely like the grapes that will form in a few months.
If you get into macro work you tend to walk around and see nothing but tiny things — flowers, insects, fabric textures.
Macro work requires special attention to get enough depth of field and enough light to support that depth of field. And, as in all nature photography, if you get very serious about it, you need to become a student of the subject you photograph.
People. Most people find people to be the most interesting subject, so people became the single subject for the rest of this project. In particular, one person: Nicole Pierce, a friend who is a dancer, choreographer, stand-up comic, and founder of Egoart, her multi-faceted art ensemble.
Textures and patterns. I tend to collect textures and patterns, usually little fragments of scenes. This utility grate with multiple layers of paint is a favorite of mine. I sometimes call this Very Low Altitude Aerial Photography, since you can look straight down from about a foot or two high and see some interesting things — without renting a chopper.
Side note: only when I put this image side by side with Nicole, with her eyes, did I realize that the little diamond shapes also look like eyes — context makes a big difference.
Travel photography. Some people find they don't really experience a new place unless they photograph it, which enhances their seeing. (Other people find that taking pictures "removes" you from the experience of being in a foreign place. I think both can be true.)
Unless you are the gregarious type, who can walk up to strangers, engage them in their own language, and then ask to take photos, you will tend, like me, to take "glimpses" of how the foreign location strikes you.
This is the inside of the Roman Coliseum, which, like Niagara Falls, is too amazing for any amount of commercialization to really dilute.
Landscape photography might be thought of as a subset of nature photography, but many people have devoted their lives just to shooting the shapes and textures of farms, fields, and mountains.
This shot came while driving over the eastern Appalachian mountains in Virginia. It had rained heavily for a few days, and as the sun rose we were climbing up the hills on a major highway. I glanced back and saw an endless series of misty ridges, with mist rising from the valleys between.
Remarkably, there was a large official rest stop right ahead, with a perfect view. I was able to set up a tripod and shot to my heart's content — although I had to shoot fast, as the rising sun constantly changed the look of the scene.
It may surprise some people that this photo was taken at 400mm. People automatically think wide-angle when they think of landscapes, but clearly wide-angle is not always the answer.
The photo below was taken at 135mm — with this subject it became more dramatic the more I zoomed in.
Nature photography is one of the largest subsets of photography — hardly a surprise, given the visual richness of the natural world. Here, an endangered white rhino stands in the Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania — one of the world's most remarkable wildlife destinations. In Africa, wildlife is so plentiful that you don't need to be a biologist or professional to get pictures — in most situations wildlife photos require a high level of expertise and patience.
Pets — a subject somewhere between people and wildlife. We seem to find great "humanity" in our animals, which is kind of odd. I think our bond with animals is based on our shared membership among higher animals, with whom we share not just two eyes and two ears, but complex emotional lives.
