Interesting fact

This evening I was absently mindly surfing the web while half listening to the news when I came across this article, it is from a couple of years ago but am sure still relevant.

http://www.ispwp.com/the-secret-life-of-wedding-photographers.html

It was interesting to see sure a huge difference between peoples perceptions of a wedding photographers working time compared to the reality.

From the little bit of sports photography that I do I would guess that the percentages would similarly apply to most forms of photography.

Exercise 15 - Positioning a Point

For this exercise we were asked to take three photographs each with a single point.  Each photograph to have the point in a different part of the frame.  These are the three photographs I took for this exercise which I have marked to show the division easier.

I took this photograph just before the squirrell jumped down off the lawn, he had bounded across, down onto the path.  I positioned him at the bottom of the frame so you can see where he has come from and a little in from the border.  Usually I would try to have the subject looking/moving into the fame not out of it but in this case the border shown is enough to anticipate what he s going to do next.  It adds an interest as you wonder what is over the boarder and why he is going that way.  The diagonal of the squirrells body adds movement.

I positioned the summer house to the left of the frame as I wanted it to appear like it was alone in an ideallic setting.  In fact it was outside a church and this was part of the church grounds.  If it had been any further into the frame you would have been able to see some of the grave stones in the photograph.

I positioned the bench low on the right of the frame for this photograph.  It is positioned on the right so you can imagine sitting on it and where they would be looking.  It always looks more 'correct' if a person would be looking into rather than out of a photograph.  By positioning the bench low in the frame it shows off the hight of the tree behind and gives impression of it looking over/sheltering the bench.

I also reviewed some of the previous photographs with a single point to see the division in them:

 

Part Two - Elements of Design (Points)

With my first assignment in the post today I read through the second part of the course, elements of design and am ready to get going again.

Project:  Points

Situations that would make a clear photograph of a point:

* Single swan on a lake
* Single house in a landscape/hillside
* Church in countryside
* Boat on a lake/in the sea

* Single person on the ice pad
* Plane in the sky
* Single floating balloon

* One book on a desk
* One item of cloathing on a washing line
* One red tomato on a tomato plant


I looked back through some photographs that I had taken previously to find some with a single point, here are a few I found:

 Looking back through my photographs I found it hard to find any with just a single point, often the posible point was too large, taking up over half the frame.

A long day

I was very fortunate to have been invited to cover last weekends NSHL In Line Hockey tournament at Bisley in Surrey.

It went really well and the organiser has given me first refusal to cover a world tournament they are organising next January.

I found it to be a very long day and hard on the feet but the positive feedback received from the players and tournament organiser more than made up for that.

Here are just a few photographs from the tournament.

 

 

It's in the post

It's taken a week or so to get in the post but my first assignment is now on it's way to my tutor :-)

Photographs for Assignment 1

These are the photographs i'm submitted for my first assignment:

Broad/Narrow

Diagonal/Round

High/Low

Dark/Light

Many/Few

Pointed/Blunt

Straight/Curved

Rough/Smooth

Black & White

In the studio

I treated myself to a 1-1 lesson at a local studio at the weekend.  I did a single term on studio lighting when at college many many years ago but never really got the hang of it.

Here are some of the things that were covered:

 Using a single light

Broad Lighting

Main light and fill light

Lighting from above

Lighting from above and with fill light

High Key

With fancy background

Using hyperfocal focusing (useful photographing kids)

Many thanks to Will at Unique Capture for his patience and a very useful afternoon, i'm looking forward to hiring their studio again soon to try out what I learnt.