Out of the Ordinary

From day to day we condition ourselves to routine.  While routine helps us feel comfortable, it dulls our perception.  As a photographer it is vitally important to observe that which is around you to find things you otherwise might have missed if you locked your mind on to your daily routine.

In the case of the picture above, I did not expect to find meaning in it.  I realized what the picture meant to me only when I viewed it a few weeks later on my computer screen.

We sit at and use desks daily, and as a consequence they become filled with the things we use every day.  We keep both items that we treasure and items that hold no value to us in the same place, depending on the level of maintenance the owner devotes to organization.  Looking at a desk you can get an of the owner's personality, and a snapshot of the events occurring in their life.

Expect the Unexpected

I captured this image in New York City near Times Square.  I had taken a bus trip down to the city for the day to view a small portion of the vast amount of art in the city.  The day wasn't a particularly good day for photography.  The sky was heavily overcast and it had been raining on and off throughout my visit.  I rely heavily on the sun as a light source, and was having difficulty finding images without it.  At the end of the day I sat on the bus looking through the few images I had taken unimpressed with the results.  Once the bus started moving it was only a short distance before the bright Applebee's sign caught my eye.  Knowing that I hadn't taken anything I particularly liked, I decided that while it was unlikely that I would produce anything worthwhile through the bus window, that I'd make one last ditch attempt.

That last attempt proved to be completely worthwhile!   In my last post I talked about how you never know where you are going to find a good photograph, and this image follows the same rule.  The difference is that I had almost no expectation that this photograph of a bright New York City street was even going to come out.  With digital photography it costs almost nothing to take an image, so use that to your advantage.  Take pictures of things you don't expect to work.  Most of the time you will be right, but every once in a while you'll be surprised with what you capture.

Hidden in Plain Sight

 

 The most important aspect of photography is careful observation.  As I was hiking a few days ago I walked along the path looking around at the trees, the sunlight coming through the woods, and the fall colors around me.  I was focused on the big picture as I walked down the trail.  Had I stayed with that train of thought, I would not have found this photo.  As I walked, I looked down to watch my step on some rocks this leaf caught my eye laying on the ground with some dew which had yet to burn off with the morning sun.  As I glanced around I saw that the path was spattered with leaves and dew.  I realized then that photographs are hiding everywhere, especially where you least expect them.

Opportunity

Rarity in today's world is something that I treasure.  This photograph is one that I have found I could only have captured at that very moment at the right time of the year during a clear day.  The reflection of the sunset off of the green painted door only occurs during the late fall when the leaves have fallen off the trees and the sun doesn't reach so high in the sky. 
I was only able to see this reflection at one angle from the door as I was walking by it during one sunset.  It caught my eye at the right moment, and had I not been paying attention at that very moment, I would have missed the photograph entirely.  After seeing the reflection I walked up to the door and experimented with a few angles, but found that only this particular angle gave the best reflection

Introduction and Photography Basics

Introduction

I am a photograher, digital artist and analytical chemist, who graduated from Union College in 2009, living in Mechanicville, New York.  I use light in its many forms to create artwork.  Primarily I focus on photography, and digital works created from photographs, but I occasionally branch into other forms of art such as painting, digital painting, and sculpture.

My goal in creating this blog is to provide some helpful context to my photographs.  Often fine art photographers post their work online without any explanation to how the image was created.  While every artist must have their secrets, I feel it serves the art community well for artists to explain some aspects of their work.

Photography is a unique art medium as it solely utilizes a complex piece of technology in its creation.  The medium inherently requires a basic understanding of technology in order for discussion of its creation to proceed.  While I do not want to explain each technical aspect of the camera, in order to understand my posts I would like to lay down the basics.

Photography Basics

While cameras exist in many different forms from digital point-and-shoots, camera-phones, webcams, and SLRs (Single Lens Reflex), fine art and professional photographers primarily use digial SLRs to create their work.  DSLRs allow maximum control of image making, allowing the user to change lenses to suit their needs, quickly set aperture, ISO sensitivity, and shutter speed.

Shutter Speed

Adjusting shutter speed alters how long the image sensor is exposed to light.  It is most commonly referred to in seconds and fractions of a second.  A fast moving subject such as an athlete will require a faster shutter speed in order to avoid a blurring.  Longer shutter speeds are used to capture more light, such as shots taken at night, or images of waterfalls.

 

This is a 30 second exposure of a stream at night.  The light source was two streetlights, one orange, and one fluorescent.

You can also employ a few tricks with long exposures.  I'll let you figure out how the following image was made.

 

 Aperture

Aperture is an iris inside the lens that closes as the shutter is released.  It controls the depth of field of the photograph.  Often in close-up images of flowers or insects the focus of the image is sharp, but the background is blurry, this is depth of field.

As the iris closes smaller, aperture number increases.  As aperture number increases, sharpness of the image increases, and parts of the background will come into focus.  Ansel Adams is known for his extremely sharp photographs. However, as the iris decreases, light that hits the sensor decreases as well.  Some of Ansel Adam's photographs had such a small aperture that they required half an hour exposures.  A balancing act between shutter speed and aperture occurs within every photograph according to the photographer's desires.


ISO Sensitivity

During the film era, a photographer selected the film ISO speed they wanted for their given application, and they were stuck with that speed until they finished that roll.  Today, ISO speed in digital cameras can be set on the fly.  ISO sensitivity is simply the sensor's sensitivity to light.  Sensitivity increases with ISO number from 200 to 400 and now with recent cameras, up to 32,000.  The downside to increasing sensitivity is that noise also increases.  Currently camera manufacturers are pushing their ISO performance further which will allow their cameras to have better low-light performance, something especially sought after by event photographers at concerts and weddings..