rant

Attitude goes a long way

April 30, 2009 by Younes

During my early morning round on twitter today, I stumbled on a tweep that said something along the lines of Thank God it’s Friday. My heart jumped in excitement and joy (I don’t hate my job, but I really like my week-ends). Then came utter disappointment, well, it’s only Thursday.

Fast forward to an hour later, I decided to reply to the tweep in question. Initially, I was thinking of saying something like “why the heck did you do that to me, not cool”. Then thinking about it, my final answer was: “For an instant you made believe it was Friday. Short-lived, but intense joy :D Thanks”. You see, it just got me thinking, on how often we choose to get down on ourselves, choose to see the glass half-empty instead of half-full.

The same happens to me at times when I go out shooting. You are chasing your next amazing shot, you are looking forward to that great display of light. You wait an hour, two, a day, the light just never makes it to your spot. You are disappointed, you mutter, you pack your gear, you leave, disgruntled. When that happens, you just have to remember why are doing this in the first place. Take note of your surroundings. Remind yourself of the beauty of the nature surrounding you. Sure, the sunset may not be the epic one you were praying for, but gee…do you have to take those mountains for granted too?

Just remember that whatever situation you are confronted with you can either cry and whine about it, or try and take the positive and run with it, it’s YOUR call. If all else fails, I often turn to Bobby McFerrin’s words of wisdom: Don’t worry, be happy.

waterfowl20lake20pano20howse20cephren20icefields20parkway_jpg_650

Tools of the trade

April 29, 2009 by Younes

hoh rainforest washington olympic road winding nature

“Gotta have a big camera, eh?” (yeah, I live in Canada) That’s a question I often hear when people look at my photographs. My standard answer (after several rounds of tongue biting) is somewhere along the lines of “Yeah, it’s HUGE”.

The thing is that the camera is, well, just a thing. It’s true that having a good SLR and a good set of lenses gives you options and more freedom for exploration (unfortunately I am still waiting for the hot models to come flocking my way…I guess that’s what dreams are for). The fact is, though, that the picture-making process is about vision, creativity and conscious decision-making. Pressing the shutter release is just the culmination of the process. This doesn’t mean that I never go snap-happy like Rambo in a shooting gallery, but in general, there is some work involved behind every shot.

Beyond the preparation aspect that I discussed last week on Darwin Wiggett’s blog, every shot involves a set of conscious decisions:

- what is your subject matter?

- which part of the subject matter do you want to reflect, emphasize or present?

- what focal length would better achieve that result?

- how do you frame your subject matter in a story-telling composition?

- how much depth-of-field will be needed to convey your story?

Chiaroscuro tree sun ray underexposed

When you have answered all these questions, you can now turn to your camera to record the moment. Your camera comes in handy to measure the amount of light on your subject in order to calculate the required exposure. But even then, it only measures what it perceives as proper exposure. Your sensor/film will take in as much light at f/8 for 1s as it does at f/2.8 for 1/125s, yet the resulting image can be completely different. Similarly, your camera’s meter exposes for midtones (18% gray to be more precise), but is that the proper exposure from an artistic point of view. You may want to underexpose your subject to add more mistery, or to make it stand out from other parts of the image. Overexposing your subject (ah the dreaded blinking highlights), can also be desirable at times. Again, your camera may give you pointers and tools to make your images, but unless you take over and make conscious decisions on what you want in your images, no camera will ever make great images for you (well until the invent the D5billion with the “nocrapimage” button, that is).

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