Earlier this week I talked about trying to include the concept of relationships in your images. This week’s photo assignment covers that topic. Give it a try and see what kind of relationships you can capture.
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In keeping with this week’s Don’t Forget the little guys post, I though it fitting that this week’s photo assignment should be about photographing the little guys. So forget about those big animals that everyone else is lusting after. This week I want you to focus on the little guys. The smaller animals that no one every thinks of. The little, the weak, the hidden, the photogenic. This week is about moving beyond the obvious subjects and going after the details. Good luck.
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This week’s photo assignment is to record an event. It can be any type of event, but the key is to tell a story through your images. Full coverage is what you are after, but it helps to pick a focus point for the story. In most cases, the idea is to follow a single person through the event and hare their experience with the audience. Remember, you were there, but your viewers might not have that advantage. It is up to you to record the event as it transpires, but also to create a sense of place. What was it like? What happened? Do the images make me wish I was there? These are the questions your images need to address.
My sample images were taken at my daughter’s youth triathlon this past weekend. This was Kara’s first triathlon and I wanted to catch it on film (or digital sensor as the case would be). This is only sampling of the images I captured (I ended up with 141 images taken over an hour period), but it should help to see the variety of images that are possible. Good luck as you look to record your own event.
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As photographers, one of our basic creative options is the aperture setting. By controlling the aperture, we not only control the amount of light, but also the amount of the image that will be in focus (called the depth of field). Smaller apertures (f/16 or f/22) render everything in focus. This is great for scenic landscapes, but makes it difficult to focus the viewer’s attention on a single part of the frame. By selecting a larger aperture (f/2.8 or f/4), much of the scene is rendered out of focus, forcing the viewer to focus their attention on the part that is in focus. Selective focus is a common technique photographers use to control the viewer’s experience. This past week, my photography students have been working to use shallow depth of field to emphasize the subject. Lets see how you do. As usually, I have included a selection of images that demonstrate the technique.
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Beginning photographers often try to include too much in their images. Too many people, too many animals, too much clutter. All of these things distract from the main subject by competing with the eye for prominence. The result is a visual mess that fails to hold the viewer’s interest. To combat this, photographers are told to get closer to their subject. Eliminate the clutter and remove the distractions.
This week’s photo assignment takes the concept of getting closer to the extreme. Instead of just getting closer, I want you to fill the frame with your subject. Before setting up the shot, ask yourself what the subject is. Once you have the answer, fill the frame with that subject and nothing else. Make the subject go from one side of the image to the other, isolating it by excluding everything else from the image. This process of visual isolation is the first step in learning to create pleasing compositions that emphasis the subject.
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One of the craziest things I hear people say on safari is, “don’t stop, we already saw ________ (fill in animal of your choice).” I am amazed at people who think that seeing something once means they shouldn’t bother looking. Yes, in a literal sense, they are correct. They have seen it, but seeing something does not mean you have learned anything or that you know anything about what you have seen.
Wildlife constantly changes its behavior. One sighting might reveal an elephant slowly walking along the side of the road. A few minutes later, and that same boring subject might enter into a play fight with an older sibling. You never know what is going to happen and the only way you can find out is to by there and wait for the drama to unfold.
From a photographer’s point of view, spending time with a subject, or visiting repeatedly, offers the opportunity to capture a wide range of different images, most of which would not be available after a single, short visit. I am constantly stressing to my students the importance of working the subject. Do not be satisfied with the first picture you take. Beginning photographers are eager to take pictures, but they rarely take enough. One click of the shutter and they think they got the shot. More experienced photographers know differently. The first shot might be good, but the goal is to do better. Look for new angles, interesting perspectives, or something that stands out as different. Only by working the subject from every possible angle will your photography progress beyond the simple record shot.
Oh, by the way, after you are done shooting all of those different images, throw out the bad ones and only share the good ones. It is one of the tricks we use to make people think we are good.
So, the assignment for this week is to pick a subject and work it. You can pick a specific subject (a child) or a type of subject (cars). The challenge is for you to capture a wide range of images depicting that subject in different ways. How many images do you need? There really isn’t a set number, but when you reach the point of where you just can’t think of another image, you are probably half-way there. Trust me, if you stick with it you will come up with more ideas. The difficult ones are usually the best. Enjoy.
In keeping with my elephant theme (some might call it an obsession) this week, I though I would share a collection of elephant images from my most recent safari (my subject of choice). I enjoy spending time with elephants in the field and hope to spend more time with them in the future because I never know what images I am going to capture. The one thing I do know is that it will be fun.
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With the two previous photo assignments focusing on panning and sports, I thought it fitting that this week we look into freezing motion. Our lives are constantly in motion and it can be fun to bring that motion to a stop with the press of a button. By freezing the motion we experience the image in a unique way, sometimes with humor (a silly expression) and sometimes with awe (as a bear snags a salmon out of the air). The challenge is to capture the right moment (you didn’t think it was going to be easy did you?).
Good frozen motion images require three things: a fast shutter speed, excellent timing, and a subject worth looking at.
Fast is a relative term. How fast a shutter speed do you need? It depends on what you are photographing (click here for more information about the relationship between shutter speed and motion). A flying vulture will require a faster shutter speed then a yawning leopard. Still, I recommend that you use the fastest shutter speed you can reasonably achieve. A setting of 1/250 of a second is a reasonable place to start, with the understanding that the shutter speed can be modified based on results. Faster subjects will need faster shutters speeds while slower subjects permit slower shutter speeds. Just remember to use the display screen on the back of your camera to review your images as you seek out the perfect shutter speed. If you are having problems obtaining fast enough speeds, don’t be afraid to crank up the ISO.
Timing is another essential element when freezing motion. To early and the viewer wants to know what happens next. Too late and the viewer feels she missed the moment. The key is to capture the action at its peak. The top of the jump, a fully extended yawn, maximum extension when reaching for one more leaf.
Finally we come to subject. Be it wildlife or something else (I admit that not everyone likes photographing wildlife……oh, the horror), we need to be conscious of what the subject is doing. Just as not all subjects are created equal, not all actions are equal. Some actions look great when frozen; others don’t. How do you know which is which? In the beginning you don’t. The only way to tell is to shoot everything and then look at the results. Only then can you tell what works and what doesn’t. With experience, it will become possible to predict (with some success) which situations will produce interesting results. In the meantime, just shoot and only share the good stuff.
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With the school year underway, I decided to step outside of my usually wildlife imagery and challenge you with something different. Therefore, this week’s photo assignment is sports. Here in Texas high school football is in full swing (despite the 95 degree weather) along with girls’ volleyball, soccer, and cross country. Over the past four years I have become the official sports photographer for The Winston School San Antonio and it is always a creative challenge to produce quality sports images. It also has the advantage of keeping my wildlife photography skills in practice as the overlap between sports and wildlife photography is considerable.
Sports photography offers a great opportunity to try your hand at capturing drama, victory, defeat, and good sportsmanship. Sports contain the opportunity to capture both obvious and subtle images. While most photographers will try to catch the quarterback breaking through the line and scoring a touchdown or be prepared for the devastating spike on the volleyball court, many will miss the side-stories that make compelling images in their own right. The cheer that goes up when a touchdown is scored. The high fives that are exchanged following a great tackle. The exhaustion at the end of a hard won game. The coach pushing her players to never give up. Sports offer drama on many levels and it is your job to capture that drama on film.
On the technical side, sports involve action, so fast shutter speeds are important. Modern camera can do amazing things at high ISO settings, so don’t be afraid to crank it up. Also, a good zoom lens can be very helpful in framing as the players move around. Good luck.
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This week’s photo assignment is about recording motion. Photographically speaking, motion can be recorded two ways: frozen or blurred. Sharp motion images are fairly straight forward and easy to produce when combined with a fast shutter speed and good timing. Successful blurred motion shots, on the other hand, are much more difficult to create. In this assignment, our goal is to use panning techniques to incorporate a sense of motion into the images. Panning is a technique whereby a slow shutter speed is combined with fluid tracking of the subject to produce a blurred image in which the subject is still recognizable. The result is the creation of a sense of motion in a still image.
The first key to panning involves selecting the correct shutter speed. To successfully pan, the camera’s shutter speed must be set to a fairly slow setting. The ideal setting will vary with each pan, depending on the subject’s speed. Slower subjects will require slower shutter speeds to enhance the blurring effect. With fairly quick moving subjects (running animals or moving cars) I usually recommend shutter speeds in the 1/10 – 1/15 of a second. This is a good starting point from which you can experiment to find the best results.
The second key to creating good pan motion shots involves tracking the subject. Rather then holding still, panning requires that the photographer follows the subject while taking the shot. Usually a smooth twisting of the hips while shooting is all it takes to keep the subject within the frame. A frequent mistake photographers make is to stop tracking the subject as they press the shutter button. This ruins the smooth blurring effect we are after. For a pan to work, it is essential that the movements be smooth and continue until after all of the images have been taken. One great way to combat this tendency is to fire multiple frames of the subject as you pan. Don’t settle for a single image when you can create multiple images to choose from (you never know which frame will be the best).
Good pan motion images are not easy to produce, but when successful they help to depict movement in a unique way to brings a sense of motion and energy to the image.
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As a photography teacher, I am constantly searching for themes around which I can base assignments. In the interest of sharing my ideas and assisting other teachers out there, I am introducing the weekly photo assignment. Each Friday I will post a new photographic challenge to keep either yourself or your students busy. In some cases, the themes will be my own concepts while others will be from viewing the work of other photographers (with appropriate credit given of course). In each case, I will try to include a number of examples to help clarify the concept and hopefully stir the creative embers. With that, I give you the first weekly photo assignment: The Rule of Thirds.
The Rule of thirds is a foundation of photographic composition. Imagine two horizontal lines and two vertical lines breaking up your image (like a tic-tac-toe grid shown above). Where the lines intersect each other (the red dots) are the image’s points of power. To apply the rule of thirds, move the most important parts of the image off center and place it directly under one of the points of power. Check out how the images below each utilize the rule of thirds, then grab your camera and see what you can do. Good luck.
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