Exploring Motion – Andrew Nixon

Alumni, Workshop  Comment
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In my Maine Islands digital photography workshop, Andrew Nixon explored creating a dynamic tension between the still and the moving. He typically uses long exposures of moving subjects. But he tried a few new twists on his standard practices, like moving the camera. While he explored other ideas and tried many new things, he always returned to the same theme which gave his images a distinctive quality that stood out from his peers.
What themes make your images distinctive?
What experiments will help you explore and develop this further?
Find out more about Andrew Nixon here.
Read more in my creativity lessons.
Find out more about my Maine Islands digital photography workshop here.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.

Gesture

Creativity  Comment
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“There are as many forms of memory as there are ways of perceiving, and every one of them is worth mining for inspiration.” – Twyla Tharp – The Creative Habit

 

Still images suggest motion, rather than reproducing it as moving pictures do. Images not only suggest the relative motions of their subjects, they also imply motions of their own. Almost all compositions are filled with lines of force, both visible and invisible, that direct the eye. Find them. And emphasize them.

How? Gesture. Before making an exposure, make the gesture of your composition with your body. Move your body, echoing the composition.

Be bold. Draw in the air at arm’s length with your shoulders and elbows. Make broad sweeping gestures. Don’t draw with one finger holding the rest of your body still. Focus on the essentials of the composition rather than detail and texture. Include texture in your gestures only if doing so helps you understand the rhythmic structure of an image.

While you are making images, research this moving dimension. Doing this will make you aware of and amplify the kinesthetic understanding your body already has of your subjects. Gesture can enliven any composition, making it seem more expressive and life-like. Gesture and your images will be stronger for it.

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