Another simple subject that Brian enjoys tackling is nature itself.

As you can see from this photo, Brian still has his eye for color (seen in a previous post). His choice of angle makes an ordinary (yet beautiful) magnolia tree into something almost ethereal, allowing the viewer of the piece to feel as though they are lying beneath it, toes in the grass. I can feel the breeze blowing, can you?

This photo has a lot going on, yet almost nothing at all. At first glance, it is a photo of a pile of dead brown leaves. Who cares, right? But then one notices the bright green grass, which still shows strong signs of life and contrasts with the dull left side of the frame. And as one focuses on the leaf in the middle bridging the two halves, and on the dew drops perched precariously atop it, one has found the subject of the photo. There are leaves above it, and that bright swath of color at the right, but Brian has managed to draw our eye to the fleeting drops of dew. Well done.

Try to get out into nature over the holiday weekend. Find something ordinary and make it extraordinary through your camera lens. Play with the colors and lines found in nature itself, and email me your best shots at darkroomdreams@gmail.com!

Happy Columbus Day!

Someday, he has promised, he will give me a lesson in how to use all of his nifty photog gadgets (filters, EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM lens, etc). Until then, I will just admire his photos, and share them with you, in the hope of moving him beyond “amateur” and into “professional.” I certainly think he is capable, don’t you?

While a photographer might usually go for a straight-on flower shot, allowing the blossom to take up the entire frame, Brian decided to keep the flower off-center. This choice divides the frame into three sections: flower, sky, and earth. This causes it to stand out in contrast to its surroundings, which makes the blossom seem stronger (and somehow lonelier). This photo isn’t of the flower, but the flower in relation to its environment. Gorgeous, in my opinion. Frame it and put it on the wall!!

This photo is another example of how Brian uses line and color. Again, the frame is divided into three chunks. The lines of the rock lead to the lighthouse and up into the sky. The colors are clear and pure. It is simple but strong.

This photo is an example of how simplicity goes a long way. This flower box, shot straight on, centered, no fuss, would be a lovely print to hang on one’s wall. It contains a small range of bright colors that work well together. The purple-pink flowers jump out against the sea-blue wall. Brian saw an ordinary flower box and made it the object of art. Well done!

That’s it for now. Part two of Brian’s work, focusing on three other photographs I enjoy, will be tomorrow!

Do you have your own photographs that explore color and line? Email me at darkroomdreams@gmail.com and I’ll post them!

Related Links:

• Check out Brian’s camera. I want one!
  
• And his preferred lens. Very long name for a very awesome tool.
• There’s lots more to learn about the Salem lighthouse! For instance, that it’s actually called the Derby Wharf Lighthouse.

And probably high from chemical fumes. They do say that you’re supposed to take a breather every hour or so. Oops.

One of my favorite pictures from that course was actually from our first assignment, which was simply to go out into Boston and photograph people. I was too chicken to try to approach strangers to ask to photograph them, or to look like a creepy stalker photographing them from afar, so I took a different approach. I photographed from behind, so that they would never know.

Honestly, probably way more creepy than a snapshot from afar, but at least I didn’t have to confront anyone, and I could pretend it was my “artistic vision.”

This photo was taken in Quincey Market, which anyone who’s been to Boston knows is a tourist hub, full of street performers, food, and silly little things to buy that at that moment you need but will soon forget exist as soon as you get home.

(Unless it’s my beloved Charlie Chaplin purse, which I adore to this day. But that’s an entirely different matter.)

The girl in this photo was definitely a tourist, and was enthralled by a guy on stilts. (I have a picture of him somewhere, too.)

In class that week, my professor put my print on the board as an example of having a good color balance: black blacks and white whites. I was so proud it was kind of ridiculous. I probably even called to tell my mom, a virtual A+ paper on the fridge.

Sadly, I never made it back to the board again. I think I was trying too hard, and I never quite found a moment like this again that semester.

But I lost days of my life in that dark room trying, humming along to “A Case of You.”

Do you prefer old-fashioned dark rooms or playing in Photoshop? Email me at darkroomdreams@gmail.comwith some of your favorite work, or comment below!

Eh. Whatever. No soul-stirring going on there.

You know exactly what I mean, don’t you?

I’ll go first.

Now, I don’t think this is a terrible photograph, it’s just not what I had wanted to achieve. The corn was supposed to pop out of the picture much more than it does, but it seems even a shallow depth of field can’t make up for the fact that the single ear is the same color as the muddled background.

On that same day, I did manage to get a picture that I loved:

In this photo, the browns and tans of the corn stalks provide a great contrast to the clear autumnal blue sky. The angle, shot from below, gives a sense of being lost in the corn stalks, with the blurry stalk right in the front adding to that.

A third shot from that day also pleased me, as it gave a sense of the seemingly infinite nature of the fields:

Plus, the setting sun coming through the trees didn’t hurt.

What have you attempted and perhaps failed to achieve? Email me at darkroomdreams@gmail.com!