iPhone At Play – Charles Adams

Creativity - Exercises, iPhone, Photographers, Photography, Workshop  Comment
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My assistant, Charles Adams, spent this years Maine Fall Foliage Workshop photographing with the iPhone. Below he talks about his experience.
“Making images with an iPhone can be a terrific creative exercise. If you regularly shoot with a DSLR, the iPhone can simplify things and offer a new experience. I found this to be the case during this years fall foliage workshop. I left my Canon in the car along with all of the photographic requirements and responsibilities that I usually attach to it. It was a freeing experience. Suddenly the pressure to make the best photographs of my life was no longer there. I was free to play.
Being able to process your images seconds after shooting them is also key to the iPhone experience. The many apps available make it possible to shoot, edit, share, and get feedback before even getting back in the car. In my case, apps had a direct effect on which pictures I chose to make. I knew I was going to apply water color and oil painting filters to my images, so I tried to shoot accordingly. I set out to find good compositions with strong “bones.” “Bones” meaning solid structure that could benefit from the addition of dramatic effects.
The resulting images were fun to create. Changing the tools you use to make your images can offer new insights into your own photography. I strongly recommend allowing yourself to play.”
Visit Charles’ website here.
Find out about my digital photography workshops here.

Aerial Photography – Sossusvlei, Namibia

Destination - Namibia, Images - Photographs, Photography  Comment
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I recommend you seize every opportunity to photograph a location in the air.
When you go , take two cameras with different focal lengths. Use high shutter speeds (1000 plus). Ask your pilot to circle the most interesting areas and vary altitude. If possible, go doors off to reduce reflections. If it’s not, wear a black long sleeve shirt. Keep your lens/shade out of the wind. Shoot fast. As you fly, so will time.
Photographing the Sossusvlei dune fields by helicopter was a highlight for all of us during my recent workshop in Namibia. The views were simply divine. These images are all panoramic merges. We did a full 360 degree pano from the helicopter, just for fun.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.

Walk With Someone

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Paul Tornaquindici (top) and I (bottom) walked together many times in Namibia.
Standing a few feet apart, we made very different images.

 

Walk with someone and photograph together.

Then compare the results.

You’ll see a different way of looking at the world.

You’ll also have an opportunity to see how you see more clearly.

Even when the images you make are the same, you’ll learn that some results are driven by convention and this can prompt you to push further, to find something new, and to make your images more personal. Sometimes these differences can be found in context with your other images.

The comparisons and contrasts you’ll see by photographing with someone else can be extremely useful.

Find more resources on Creativity here.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.

Listen to the Words You Use

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watchyourwords
You can learn a lot just by listening to yourself. When you speak about yourself, your creative life, and the works you produce, the words you use can be very telling. Do the words you use share common themes?
When I review someone’s work I listen carefully to the words they use to describe themselves and their work. One person was particularly concerned with mortality, his family’s and his own, and he kept using words that had to do with time, often in a limiting way. These concerns were reflected in the images he was making but he wasn’t consciously aware that any of this was taking place. Often it’s best if these kinds of observations are simply stated, without any evaluation or judgement attached. With nothing more than one important observation, he gained new insight into and control of his life and his life’s work. Becoming more aware of how pervading his concerns were allowed him to consider his choices more clearly – actions, reactions, emotional responses, self-image, and the images he made. He felt energized.
I’ve had many similar encounters.
I know that I can learn a lot about myself, simply by listening to how I speak.
Find more inspiration in my Creativity Lessons.
Learn more in my Digital Photography Workshops.

Get Physical With Your Subjects

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touch
To truly touch your viewers you may have to touch someone or something else first.

We have many intelligences (intellectual, emotional, physical, etc), but when it comes to making images we often leave many of them out of the mix. Try energizing your creative process by using all of you.

Get physical. The power of touch can reveal volumes. Imagine how much and how quickly an extended hand or a pat on the back can say. This doesn’t only apply to interacting with people and animals. If you physically make contact with any subject, even inanimate objects, you’ll come to understand it better; its scale, texture, density and much more. You may even decide to make contact with more than your hands. Press your face up against a window. Step into the currents of swift-flowing waters. Lay down in shifting sands. Experience your subjects from many perspectives. Doing this will lead to many new ideas. It will also inform old ideas. As your understanding of your subjects grows, your images will take on new dimensions and new depths.

Find more resources on Creativity here.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.

Breaking the Rules

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breakingrules
In his book Photography and the Art of Seeing, Freeman Patterson offers excellent advice. List all of the rules of photography. Then break them. If you do this, you’ll develop a better understanding of the medium.
I recommend you take this advice one step further. List all of your rules of photography. And break them. You’ll either find confirmation that what you’re doing is right for you or you’ll make new breakthroughs. You’ll develop a better understanding of your personal relationship with the medium and your unique way of looking. Keep going. And revisit this list frequently.
Find my lists in my PDF Breaking The Rules.
Find more resources in my Lessons here.
Find out about my digital photography workshops here.

Tag Galaxy – Search Flickr Visually

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Tag Galaxy offers an interactive way to search Flickr visually.
GalaxyTag1
1    Type a tag and a galaxy of related tags will appear as orbiting planets.
TagGalaxy2 2    Click on a planet and images will be assembled in an interactive orb.
GalaxyTag3 3    Click on an image to see the whole image with title.
GalaxyTag4 4    Click again on the image to learn detailed information about it.
GalaxyTag5 5    Click Flickr Page to go to the source file and see comments and more.
GalaxyTag6
Visually find images on Flickr and connections between them with Tag Galaxy.
Try it now!
See my Namibia and Antarctica galleries on Flickr here.
Stay tuned for more.