words + photos : tuesday

I am not a professional photographer. I just like taking photos. I like documenting my life's experience with photos that reflect the emotions and the relationships and that celebrate everyday life. When I create scrapbook pages I am striving for a complementary balance between words + photos. They are equally important to me in the process.

Today I want you to think about the way in which you take, and deal with, your photos - your own personal process.

• Do you "see" stories through the lens of your camera?


• What parts of picture-taking are you struggling with?


• What parts are you trying to make perfect when in reality everything you are doing is just fine?


• What, if anything, do you want to learn about photography?


• In what ways could you simplify your photo-taking, photo-organizing, or working with photos?

My personal photo basics:

1. I use a Canon Digital Rebel.


2. My everyday lens is a Canon 28-105 (recommended by Tara who is super smart). I also have a Canon 50mm 1.4 (I used to have the 1.8 which was great until it died + I upgraded).


3. Handing Chris the camera and letting him go for it is one of the best things I have ever done. One of the results has been that I actually show up in our collection of photos. I am a part of the story too.


4. Going in with my brother and sister a couple years back to buy my parents a Digital Rebel was also really great in that they supply me with lots + lots of photos.


5. We all shoot in automatic. My preference is the "running man" or action setting.


6. Taking photos is a part of my lifestyle. The camera is kept out in our house. Sometimes Chris grabs it, sometimes I do, and Simon is becoming a fan as well. I don't take it with me everywhere I go, but often enough to capture some pretty cool moments.


7. I use Photoshop CS3 to resize, adjust, add text to my photos.

What do I think about when taking photos?

1. I look for emotion. I look for life. I look for connections between people, places, and things. I look for things that will support stories I currently want to tell and others that will spur me on to telling new ones.


2. I take a ton of photos and then a ton more. I am not overwhelmed by them because I am ruthless in winnowing them down to the best five or less in a series of shots on the same subject. I don't need 50 photos of Simon playing Star Wars because it is entirely possible that I will take 50 more shots tomorrow. Read more about being ruthless below.
   


3. I am conscious of light (the lack of or the excess amounts) but will take the shot even if it doesn't seem like it will come out because interesting "accidents" occur all the time.


4. I am conscious of wanting to "be in the moment" as well as "capture the moment."


5. I like photographing objects in my environment. I also like the way things connect with one another - the place where the sidewalk meets the grass, etc. Today I will be heading over to our local farmer's market for my first time this spring and plan to take a bunch of photos.


6. I am often thinking of the story I may be able to tell with these photos as I am taking them. This often leads me to take different photos than I may have anticipated in the beginning as I allow myself to follow the story.


7. I move around with the camera. I get close and I move father away. I will walk to one side and then another. Moving around makes it more likely that I will get a shot that will speak to me emotionally.


8. I am completely happy to not have my subjects looking at the camera. I don't always need to have them looking straight into the camera to tell a story. My goal is not to invade the environment with my camera but rather to blend right in in the most unobtrusive way possible.

[ iPhoto program ]

How do I deal with my photos?

1. I use iPhoto for my photo management. Files are labeled with names (for example: Simon On Bike) and I have an external hard drive to archive/backup my photos. I do this at least once a month.


2. Sometimes I print my photos here at home on my HP Photosmart D7360 or upload and print from either Shutterfly or scrapbookpictures.com. In general I tend to print at home for the ease of making adjustments as I am creating my projects. When I work on bigger projects (such as a book) I tend to upload photos and have them all printed and work with what comes back. I am currently storing my printed photos in 4x6 card drawers (unorganized as of today) per Stacy Julian's system (Photo Freedom). As you can tell, I don't follow it exactly. I take the parts that work for me and run with them.


3. My older photos (such as the ones of me as a child) are scanned in at 300 dpi and often enlarged. I do as little adjustments to those photos as possible. I love that many of them are off color or grainy. They are authentic representations of the original photos. If I do anything at all I may lighten them up just a bit (using levels or curves).


4. One of the things I do most often with my photos is crop them in iPhoto or Photoshop, or with my square punch after printing. I often crop with my focal point either to the left or right of center.


5. I am ruthless when it comes to deleting my photos. As I mentioned above, I don't need more than five (and probably less than three) from a similar series of shots. I simply delete, delete, delete. It makes for a cleaner folder of photos, less to choose from when I create a page (which can be a good thing), and I think I learn a bit about my self as a photo-taker in the process. Obviously this whole process of deleting depends upon the event and the story you plan to tell.

[ look for a layout using this photo later this week: notice how it tells a story even without words ]

How do I choose which photos to use?

1. I look for photos that will complete my story.


2. If I am going to use more than one photo for my story I often look for contrast between the images: some up close + some far away.


3. I love enlargements. When choosing photos for a layout that I know will include a bunch of photos I tend to choose at least one to enlarge. I like the resulting contrast in size and the impact that an enlargement can make on the overall feel of the page. Think about the layout with the boots from yesterday's post - I could have enlarged any of those to use for the focal point but I chose the boots. The boots told a story in and of themselves.


4. There's really no right or wrong in deciding which photo(s) to use. Just pick one/some and go for it. Stop worrying about whether it is the "right" photo for your story.

[ 12 x 12 photo enlargement on the left : from Life Artist ]

My favorite things to do with photos on a layout:

1. Enlarge. I especially love enlarging to 12x12 and using the photo as one whole page in a spread.


2. Add type directly onto the photo in Photoshop.


3. Create photo gatherings where a bunch of photos are grouped together without spaces in between (this can be done by hand or in Photoshop).

[ photo gathering : from A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking ]

Things to think about:

1. Stop messing with your photos. One of the cool things about the day + age we live in is the advances in digital photography. I know I take a TON more photos than I ever did with film - I am definitely capturing more moments. But what I have found in chatting with people during classes is that people spend way too much time messing with their photos trying to achieve the perfect lighting, perfect color, etc. In many ways it can become another distraction from getting your stories told.


2. If you can, turn off your flash. I rarely, if ever, use the flash on my camera (this is more challenging to do with a point + shoot vs. a SLR)


3. Decide how much you want to learn about photography and go for it. One book I love to reference from time to time is called Seeing Creatively: Design, Color & Composition in Photography.


4. I think I often "see" in stories. The next time you are taking photos, see what sorts of stories you can "see" while shooting. This is just another reason I like to carry a small notebook.


5. Many of my most favorite photos have come from our everyday life. Don't feel like it has to be a special occasion to pull out your camera and capture life.

[ The full words + photos series can be found here: monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday. ]