it is becoming clear that a whole range of phenomena are transmitted through networks of friends in ways that are not entirely understood: happiness and depression, obesity, drinking and smoking habits, ill-health, the inclination to turn out and vote in elections, a taste for certain music or food, a preference for online privacy, even the tendency to attempt or think about suicide. They ripple through networks "like pebbles thrown into a pond", says Nicholas Christakis, a medical sociologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, who has pioneered much of the new work.
it is becoming clear that a whole range of phenomena are transmitted through networks of friends in ways that are not entirely understood: happiness and depression, obesity, drinking and smoking habits, ill-health, the inclination to turn out and vote in elections, a taste for certain music or food, a preference for online privacy, even the tendency to attempt or think about suicide. They ripple through networks "like pebbles thrown into a pond", says Nicholas Christakis, a medical sociologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, who has pioneered much of the new work.
Start with what you want to say, start with the story. Know where you are going. (what’s your destination)
You are answering the question WHY. Why is the photo important. How am I going to use it. What am I trying to say.
Knowing how you’ll use it is important, partially because the end product may introduce constraints such as aspect ratio, resolution, etc…
When thinking about the why, ask yourself, what compositional elements do I need to tell that story.
Consider not just your own perspective, but consider the perspective of your intended audience. Consider the cultural context you will be communicating in.
Powerful images eliminate distractions.
Re: portraiture, know your subjects personality. Find ways to draw that personality out to say what you want to say.
Emphasize what is.
Art is about drawing attention to specific elements in life and the world around us. We use all sorts of techniques to warp what is seen to add emphasis to the parts we think are important. Boring photos emphasize nothing.
All images are relational, by which we mean, we relate the subject matter of the image. You, as the artist, define that relationship and manipulate it, in order to create in the audience an emotion.
Elements of composition
Dimension - Texture - DOF - Foreground/Background - Shadow (directionality of light) - Rim lighting - Size of subject
Contrast - light/dark (more contrast adds impact. The faster you go from light to dark in a gradient the more rich a photo will appear.) (see the concept of compression as it relates to dynamic range, similar to the way an audio engineer will use compression) - anachronism (using two objects that don’t fit together – wrong time periods, opposing ideas [short/tall, thin/fat]- to emphasize the differences between the two.)
Know when to edit. Not all photos should be kept. - Is the photo deceptive, unflattering? - Quantity doesn’t mean quality.
Be familiar with moods/emotions. Be able to recognize them quickly, know how to work with each emotion.
Basic compositions for portraits: - face - head/shoulders - waist up - full profile
You use this HDR technique a lot, and it adds a surreal quality to the images. In this case, I like the subtly. I prefer it in fact, to the the image you posted a few days ago, of the church interior.
I've always been fond of the desaturated color palate. It conveys a feelings of bleakness, and if you aren't a bright person by nature, that studied lack of pretension (is use pretense lightly, i'm not sure its exactly the word i'm looking for) is soothing.
Compositionally i like the use of leading lines. Looking out into eternity adds to the restful nature of the photo. It also adds a bit of mystery. Where do the tracks lead? The subject itself taps into the cache of trains and brings to mind a bit of nostalgia, emphasized, I think, by the desaturated color palate.
I've been thinking about the idea of contrast in composition lately, and this photos use of it is interesting. In some ways, because of the use of HDR, there is less contrast over all in the dynamic range. HDR compresses the extreme ends, and this photo in particular has flat elements to its color.
on the other hand, you brought out contrast in color, in order to emphasize the texture of the tracks and railroad ties.
I noticed the HDR gradient effect, where in the texture of the tracks, it almost looks like a mask of clouds was added. That gives the photo as a whole a slightly dirty look, like it has been abused, which lends itself to the photo along side the overgrown nature of the scene.
Overall I see abandonment, nostalgia, and a touch of wanderlust all cast in a sense of heightened drama.
I'm going to try and start writing some kind of analysis with my photos, just because I think I've become a little lazy and because I'm trying to develop and think about why I take a photo. The process of thinking about what the compositional elements mean will hopefully exercise the mental muscle and work its way into the process before I actually take it. :) so here goes:
This is an HDR processes image, using the RAW file I created 5 images spaced 1 f/stop apart. The hope was to even out the sky and deepen the gradients in the clouds, which it did.
The first thing that hits me is the bigness of the sky. I put just a narrow strip of horizon and shot up because I wanted as much sky as possible, but I still wanted to anchor the image to a specific location.
The brilliance of the color is fanciful, though not by much. The scene was almost that bright and vibrant. The photo was taken Christmas day, just outside my parents house, which sits on the edge of town, next to a corn field.
The silhouetted houses in the background add a rustic vibe. This is country. Its simple, but grand.
I went blue with this one. There is no HDR here. The idea was to emphasize the evening. The deep blue in the sky reminds me of the song Silent Night for some reason, and I keep picturing a manger scene somewhere. The word "deep" keeps coming to mind.
I like the way this is framed. I strengthened the vignetting purposefully. The semicircle of orange in the sky creates concentric circles pulling your eyes to the farm houses on the horizon. The photo isn't so much about the houses though, as it is the funnel effect of the transition from black to blue to warm oranges and finally to nearly white at the epicenter of the sunset.
This photo is a cropped version, and done without HDR. I wanted to see how it would differ. Its a small variation.
Its interesting that the cloud in the middle of the photo stands out so much. Too much in fact. Its a distraction you don't see in the previous two images. The vignetting here makes the image feel more intimate, where the HDR version two images back is much more open ended.
This is the last of this series. The image works better wider. And, I think works better with the contrast between the warm and cool colors, the orange and red clouds in front of a deepening blue sky.
There is both a feeling of intimacy created by the vignetting and a feeling of expansiveness created by the wide angle lens' effect of stretching the clouds as they get nearer to the corners. I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere worth musing on.
What it does: "The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151b(f)(1)), prohibits nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that receive Federal funds from using those funds "to pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family planning, or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions." The August 1984 announcement by President Reagan of what has become known as the "Mexico City Policy" directed the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to expand this limitation and withhold USAID funds from NGOs that use non-USAID funds to engage in a wide range of activities, including providing advice, counseling, or information regarding abortion, or lobbying a foreign government to legalize or make abortion available."
What Obama Said:"These excessively broad conditions on grants and assistance awards are unwarranted. Moreover, they have undermined efforts to promote safe and effective voluntary family planning programs in foreign nations. Accordingly, I hereby revoke..."
So now my tax dollars are being used to pay for and promote the practice of abortion in foreign countries. *awesome*.
Washington Times - EDITORIAL: Obama's abortion war "Only three days into a new administration, the president of "hope" and "change" revealed that, in this enormous matter at least, he will not be a new leader who will work towards a kinder, gentler, more unified America. Instead he is immediately exacerbating old wounds in the body politic: He is simply a wolf in sheep's clothing. " (0) [tags: barackobamaabortionpolitics]
My name is Jason Wall. I live in Saint Louis, where I work for a large company doing web development. I photograph for fun and shoot weddings for profit. I write poetry when I feel like it, and post my opinions here on the blog. For more about me check out the About page.
My 43 Things My 43 Places
A dynamic Bible application I built using AJAX technologies that features the KJV, Strongs Concordance, Robinson's Morphilogical Analysis Codes, and Cross References (compiled from Strongs). AJAX Bible
