philosophy

Black & White Silhouettes in North Straub Park St. Petersburg Florida Fine Art Photography

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North Straub Park in downtown St. Petersburg Florida - inquire about purchasing a fine art print of this imagePhotographs I like to look at make me feel something.  They can also make me think of something, either something I see in the photo itself or that gets triggered in my mind from looking at the photo.  One does not need to travel far nor wide to make images that can provoke thought and feeling.  It does not even need to be a new place.  I have been in North Straub Park with my camera hundreds of times over the course of teaching 300+ photography lessons in downtown St. Petersburg, yet I could still make an image of the park that I liked and wanted to share.  I recommend going out this weekend and looking more carefully at a place you commonly go and see if you cannot make an image for yourself that makes you think and feel.

Entrance in the Clouds

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An entrance to a cloud kingdom - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/200thI have written before about how photographing clouds is always good.  To end this week I wanted to share this cloud gateway image to fuel your imagination for what may lay beyond the clouds.  This is how I often think myself.  No matter how stormy the surroundings may be, there remains at least a small portion that is bright and hopeful.  As long as that small part still exists, so does hope, and therefore so does life.

Have a Photography Philosophy Part 1 - make photos for yourself

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One of my all-time favorite personal photos, man contemplating Tokyo - Nikon D80 Nikkor 50mm @ f/8 ISO 400 1/250th (notice early in my DSLR photography learning I used settings I would definitely not today!)Earlier today I came up with an idea for a new photography tip series entitled, "Having a Photography Philosophy," as there are intangible things that going into photography beyond mastering exposure and even composition.  One of my personal photography philosophies has always been, even from the very start of getting more seriously into photography, was to first and foremost make photographs for myself.  It also may surprise you that I even carry this philosophy into shoots I do for clients.  The way I see it, clients have browsed my portfolios.  Therefore, they must like what they have seen to have hired me.  Thus, if I make shots that appeal to me, as I have always done in the past, then the photos I make for the client now will appeal to them as well.  Of course not every shoot allows for such creative freedom, but when I make portraits for clients or photograph cars for clients, I make shots I think look cool.  I want the final shots to also be ones I like.  This philosophy balanced with client input I believe creates very successful final images.

In my personal shooting I entirely shoot for myself first and foremost.  I go out to make shots that I like.  If someone else happens to like them, that is great, but not necessarily important to me.  After all, if you do not even like the photos you are making, how can you ever expect anyone else to like them either?  

The photo in this post is one of my all-time personal favorites.  If I could only choose one photo to remind me of what my life was like in Tokyo, it would probably be this one.  I walked by this very spot almost every day, and like the man pictured, never ceased to stop and stare at all the action, all the craziness, all the life before me.  It was also one of the very first, if not the first shot I ever took with my Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens that I bought in Bic Camera just to frame left.  So as you can see, this photo cannot possibly have the same amount of meaning to anyone else, which is why it is important to make photographs for yourself.

Abstract tunnel gate photograph

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A regular building gate made into a mystical tunnel with photography knowledge - Nikon D300 Nikkor 50mm @ f/3.2 ISO 200 1/125thSometimes I like to make photos that offer an impression or a feeling or a dream, rather than producing as realistic a representation of a subject as possible.  The above shot features a metal gate half-opened leading to an open air hallway through a building.  I thought if I focused on the gate using my 50mm lens at a large aperture, the bokeh that composition and settings would produce would make for a very abstract "light at the end of the tunnel" kind of shot.  If I had made this shot look as it did to my eyes, it would have been pretty boring.  Instead, using a few simple photography shooting skills, a more interesting shot was produced that will make any viewer stop and wonder what is in the light at the end of this tunnel?

Fire Escape black & white in St. Petersburg Florida

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Signs of the city, fire escapes -- Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 1/100th ISO 200Fire escapes clinging to the sides of buildings both tall and short always remind me of city life for some reason, in particular New York City.  As the above shot was made right here in St. Petersburg, Florida, fire escapes are not exclusively found in big cities.  I have never actually even been on a fire escape, but when I see them I always imagine making a narrow escape from a sticky situation, or covertly gaining access to a rooftop.

Dreaming in black & white portrait of a young woman

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Dreaming in black & white portrait of a young woman - Nikon D80 Nikkor 50mm @ f/2 ISO 200 1/200thSome photos you edit immediately, some you get to years later, others you put aside because you know eventually you will want to edit them.  The latter is the case for the above photograph.  It was made two months ago, but it was not in the right mind frame to edit it until apparently today.  Occasionally I would look at it in my Random folder in Aperture 3 and think, do something with this photo now?  No, not yet, but keep it here, I will do something someday.  

I wanted the image to have a dream-like feel to it, so the choice to process it in black & white was natural.  I chose a push process filter in Nik Silver Efex Pro and to that applied a yellow filter to really soften the whites and leave just a few shadows for contrast.  I used the glamor glow filter in Nik Color Efex Pro to also soften the image.  

In composing the shot I did not want the young woman's face to be seen directly, as that would lead the viewer away from vague dreaming and more to wondering who she was.  The profile view shows a little, but leaves a lot a mystery, especially what might she be looking at or what is the expression on her face?