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Photography Composition Basics – Balance

scottbourne — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:09:22 +0000

Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons

One of the most enduring themes in art is the concept of harmonious balance. Balance is something the human eye just naturally gravitates to. It’s something that is automatically pleasing to most people.

When you’re composing a shot, look for ways to introduce this concept. It can be done using many of the traditional “rules” of photography such as iteration, repetition, rule of thirds etc.

In the image above, I introduced simple balance into my composition by shooting the two birds perfectly juxtaposed against each other – side-by-side but facing away from each other.

It’s no Pulitzer-prize winning photo, but for the purpose of this brief tutorial, it should give you some ideas on how you might introduce balance into your next image.

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Photographers You Should Know About – Edward Weston

scottbourne — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:32:03 +0000

Charis Wilson – Photo by Edward Weston – Public Domain

This is the third in my “Photographers That You Should Know About” series - the first was Lange, the second was Strand.

Edward Weston lived from 1886 until 1958. He was known to make the commonplace more wondrous and beautiful. He was one of the pioneers of modern art photography and was a contemporary of greats like Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Margarethe Mather, and Georgie O’Keeffe. He was a member of the famed Ansel Adams’ F-64 camera club.

His work spanned nearly six decades and he was primarily known for shooting landscapes and natural forms such as shells and rocks. His work often received attention from Ansel Adams who said Weston was one of the “few creative artists.”

His photography world included a successful portrait studio in California but his work really took shape when he started shooting simple forms, landscapes and nudes. He also photographed for the WPA and was the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1937.

One of the things I particularly admire about Mr. Weston is the fact that he battled Parkinson’s disease but still tried to make compelling images. I have had recent medical challenges of my own so I understand just how big an impact illness can have on your desire to make serious photographs. In Mr. Weston’s case, it did eventually stop him from making images, but his sons Brett and Cole went on to be very successful photographers in their own right and helped to protect the legacy of their father.

Some of his best work was done at Point Lobos, Ca. He also made amazing images of one of his muses – Charis Wilson.

To give you another reason to research the work of Mr. Weston, read one of his more famous quotes and one that has always intrigued me.

“Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual. Edward Weston”

I have no doubt that a serious study of Edward Weston’s photography will help improve your own.

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Idea Connection – A Most Under-rated Way To Improve Photographic Creativity

scottbourne — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 14:30:55 +0000

Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons

As a photographer, I struggle with being creative. All my life I’ve been good at the technical side of the transaction, but never felt like I was truly creative. I realized that most creative people fall into one of two camps.

1. Those who are natively, organically wired as creatives. I’m not in that bunch but I do envy them.

2. Those who are good at “connecting” ideas in order to become creative. That’s me. I connect things well.

Here are some examples. I started studying Ansel Adams’ work in the mid 90s. I mean really study it as in I wrote a masters-level thesis about him. During that process I started connecting why his photos worked. There were many reasons but a couple that popped out quickly were his willingness to isolate the background from the rest of the scene and/or his willingness to add depth to a scene by including a strong, close, foreground object – relative to the background.

I then started looking at paintings, movies, television shows, etc. I started connecting the fact that the background played as important a role as the foreground or the subject. Hence, years later I began to get more creative in my use of backgrounds to isolate subjects.

This is a very hard topic to explain, and I don’t know if this makes any sense to anyone but me, but I wanted to share it just in case. Creativity can be nothing more than a series of connections and the application of those connections to a photograph.

These days, when teaching a field workshop you might hear me say 100 times “background, background, background.” That’s me trying to get you to think differently about the background because for me, that started a whole new phase in my career. Something as simple as connecting the importance of the background to the rest of the shot eventually helped me develop the simple wildlife portrait style that has served me well.

I hope this helps. I thought trying to break down the thought process I used to get there might make it easier to understand.

How To Turn Your Car Into A Wildlife Photography Blind

scottbourne — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 13:46:32 +0000

Lots of you email to ask how I get so close to birds in particular and wildlife in general. There are two secrets…

1. I have really long lenses (Sigma 300-800 f/5.6) and Canon 800 f/5.6
2. I use my car as a blind

For whatever reason, most wildlife (birds included) won’t spook or flush when they see a car. Open the car door, step out of the car, now that’s a totally different situation. But as long as you stay in the car, your chances of getting close enough to wildlife to get the shot are improved by 90%.

You have two options for shooting from the car. One is to use a bean bag. This is the least expensive. There are many different brands around. I like large ones that provide the most support. You simply lay your long lens across the bag which is forked over the car door. I use the Kirk Khaki Fat Bag FILLED – found here at $42.95.

The other option is to use a window mount. Kirk makes my favorite called the Kirk Window Mount found here at $249.95.

The window mount provides a steadier base, but takes longer to set up.

Both can be used when shooting prone to offer more support for long lenses outside the car.

If you’re trying for wildlife, give this set up a chance. It will get you closer than you’ve ever gotten before and with practice, you’ll be surprised at how easy it becomes to work with these tools.

One caveat to note is not all cars work well with either a bag or a window mount. The window mount in particular works better in cars with very wide door/window openings like an SUV. In my Jaguar XK convertible, neither is much help

Ten Things People Don’t Know (Or Have Wrong) About The New Lytro Field Camera

scottbourne — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:07:59 +0000

Most of the people opining about the Lytro have never seen one, never held one, never used one – but these days, I guess authority doesn’t count for much in a culture where everyone’s entitled to their opinion even if it’s not based on a single fact, completely wrong and slung with bad intent.

Now that I have that off my chest let me continue by saying I do have a Lyrtro. I’ve used one on multiple occasions and now I actually own one. I have owned one for several days now. So what you read from me is based on my own experience. You may disagree – that’s cool – but if you DO disagree, ask yourself what the basis of the disagreement is. If you haven’t ever seen, touched or used the camera you might want to ease up until you do. That said, here are 10 things that people don’t know or have wrong about the Lytro FIeld Camera.

1. They expect a launch product from a startup to be the be-all, end-all under $500 camera the world has been waiting for on day one. Silly – that’s just silly. The company is just getting started. This first camera is a mere proof of concept. It’s a way of demonstrating the technology and teaching people to think differently about photography.

2. Those who say the camera will fail because the launch product isn’t perfect have no idea what they are talking about. Lytro is very, very well funded. They are in it for the long haul. Their business is probably safer than many of the big name companies you can mention.

3. The Lytro is not intended to take the photographer out of photography. It’s in fact just the other way around. To use a Lytro properly, you must learn to see and think differently. It requires skill to use properly and those who think the “focus in post” trick is all this camera is about are sorely lacking information.

4. The Lytro is eventually going to have more features. The company will slowly unlock and rev features that make the camera more and more useful. They rightly focused on one thing to get the ball rolling. Once people get used to the idea of light field photography, they will be ready to take next steps and I’ve seen with my own eyes evidence that Lytro is ready to offer those steps. They won’t happen overnight – but they will happen.

5. Some say the Lytro photos can’t be shared – WRONG. Here are all the ways you can currently share a Lytro photo (that I know of.) You can print it on any printer (makes a good 5×5 print) you can save it as a JPG and share that like any JPG. You can send it to WordPress or Facebook via a plugin or upload to Lytro.com (free). Using Facebook, WordPress and Lytro.com you retain all the post-capture functions.

6. Some think that $500 for a first generation camera with this radical technology is too much. If they only knew that less than two years ago it would have cost tens of thousands of dollars to do the same thing, they might have a different opinion.

7. People who think in terms of shutter speed, low-light capability, depth-of-field, i.e., all the normal “camera” stuff are missing the point about the Lytro. It’s about the immersive experience. It’s not like any other camera so all the usual camera measuring sticks are pretty much meaningless.

8. The Lytro’s importance to us as photographers is more closely related to the impact it will have on photography’s future than it is its immediate ability to make cool photos.

9. Some people don’t like the shape of the camera. I have been saying for the last 15 years that there’s no reason for a digital camera to look like a traditional film camera. Marketing departments have demanded that because they knew digital would achieve quicker uptake if the cameras resembled film cameras. We’re past that. The digital v. film war is over. Digital won. There’s no need to make cameras that look like film cameras of old.

10. The complaints that have been voiced about the camera to be too small to be rugged are misplaced. We did a test (not on purpose) where dropped the camera five feet onto a tile floor. Not a nick. Not a scratch. No problem. Nothing broke. The camera works 100% as it should. It’s a tough little cookie.

Stop The Presses – I’m Going With Creative Commons

scottbourne — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 13:55:03 +0000

Most of you know I’ve used a rights-managed approach to selling my photography. My pal Trey Ratcliff - has posted a series of threads on his website and on Google+ about his views on Creative Commons and why he prefers that business model.

Trey’s argument is that the exposure he’s gotten via being open and sharing his photos with the world under a CC license has more than outweighed the cost in infringement. He rightly argues that most of the infringers are judgment proof so going after them is indeed an expensive waste of time and trouble in some cases.

Trey says his business is exploding because he is using what he calls an “open sharing” approach. Now here I start to get a little skeptical. Trey hasn’t done any A – B testing that I know of to prove his business is exploding solely because of his take on Creative Commons and more open sharing. When I asked him if he isn’t possibly failing to capture money he would if he used a rights-managed approach he turned my question back on me. He asked me how I could prove I wouldn’t make more money if I switched from rights-managed to Creative Commons.

That floored me because I had no good answer. So a test is in order. I have plenty of experience using the old method. We both make very good money using our current methods but maybe there’s more to be made using Trey’s way than mine. Trey argues we live in a new world where the new business models will triumph. He’s one of the most gifted and talented artists I know, not to mention a tremendous businessman. So why shouldn’t I listen to him? I’m not too old to change.

I decided to shake the chip off my shoulder and open myself up to ridicule (what else is new) and agree to give this a try. I won’t change overnight. I’ll take a month or two to run out this new model. I will have to re-structure my entire business workflow but frankly, I’m excited to see if it works. I want it to work. I do get tired of chasing down the infringers. And Creatives Commons is not really that different than what I am doing now. Let me explain.

Using a rights-managed approach – when people ask me for permission to use my photos in a non-commercial manner, I almost ALWAYS give it to them – free of charge. I only charge when people want to make money off my work. Using this new CC method, I’m merely giving that permission up front, skipping the step requiring someone to ask for my permission.

Will people abuse this? I am 100% sure of it. But I am going to try to take Trey’s attitude and say “whatever.” Karma works both ways. By my willingness to share maybe something good will come back to me and the people who abuse my trust will have to face their own karma. And if some people enjoy my work that wouldn’t have otherwise, well that’s not cash but it is a form of payment.

There are a couple of other facts to note. Even though Trey uses this open sharing / CC approach, he still registers his images with the Library of Congress. He has in fact gone after some of the big infringers who have the ability to pay. I too register my images and just like Trey, I’ll continue to go after the big fish who use my work in a commercial environment without permission. But I’m not going to worry about the small stuff.

If sharing more openly can both help grow my business and at the same time make some people happy, that’s great.

The license I intend to use can be found here:
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons

I want to re-iterate – this is an experiment. I may need some help from all of you who embrace this model. I may need some guidance. I plan to do the best I can at making the transition simple and painless for me, for my clients and for my staff. I’m sure it will take some getting used to.

I want to thank Trey for leading the way here and I hope at the end of my experiment I am able to see the same results he has.

Stay tuned.

Run Your Photo Business (or take pictures) Like Steve Jobs Ran Apple

scottbourne — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:21:38 +0000

Photo by Matt Yohe – CC

NOTE: Cross-posted at GoingPro

Since Apple has more cash on hand than most countries, I figure they might not be a bad company to use as a model. While this is very simplified, it shows you the path that you might want to consider if you want the kind of success Mr. Jobs enjoyed at Apple. I’ve distilled the following ideas from a series of articles I read about Mr. Jobs and then converted them to something that should be relevant to most professional photographers.

1. Try to look at your business as a way to solve other people’s problems not just a place that sells 8×10″ prints. What product or service can you offer that will introduce a positive change in your client’s lives? THAT is what you should be selling.

2. Make sure that you are absolutely passionate about photography. Get a different job if you don’t love what you are doing. Your clients can tell whether or not you’re sincerely passionate about what you do and they’ll respond positively.

3. Be really good at “seeing.” Not just photographically – although that matters a great deal – but also be good at seeing opportunity. How many times have you seen a group of photographers gather at the same beautiful lake or sunset or mountain and come away with different photos? The same thing happens in business. Your photography business could be located right next door to your competitor’s business but if you “see” better, both photographically and business-wise, you’ll win.

4. Learn how completely unrelated businesses do some of the same tasks you do as a professional photographer and then see if you can apply that in your business. Don’t limit yourself to doing what all the other studios in town do. Go WAY outside the norm to see where the best ideas are and then creatively mix and match.

5. Sell your photographic services to people who share your beliefs, feelings and desires. Think of them as part of your team. They want to belong to something. Sell a vision of something much bigger than a portrait session. Sell something like protecting memories.

6. Don’t ever try to be second best. Get rid of every photo in your portfolio that isn’t simply spectacular. If that leaves you with five shots – so be it. Don’t spend any time working on anything that is mediocre. Say no more than you say yes.

7. Simplify. Everything. Simplify your photography, your workflow, your product offerings. Pick something you love, be good at it, sell that thing, reduce the noise.

8. Always under-promise and over-deliver. Create experiences – don’t just sell stuff. Protect, share and keep memories, don’t just take pictures.

9. Let the product tell a story. Don’t spend too much time being the focus of your photo business. Let the work speak for itself and make sure it says something – otherwise, there will be nobody talking.

10. Go big or stay home. Be proficient. Shoot for the stars. See yourself – not based on what you think you can do, but on what you wish you could do.

This is just a smattering of ideas. They apply to photography and all other areas of life. They apply to professionals and amateurs – to hobbyists and prosumers. Think about this stuff and see if there isn’t at least one thing you can apply today that will improve your work, your business or your life.

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Sitting For An Icon – Having Your Portrait Made By A Real Pro

scottbourne — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:28:55 +0000

Photo Copyright Matthew Jordan Smith – Used With Permission

Regular readers know that I am perhaps one of the luckiest people in the world. I am friends or associates with some of the finest photographers on the planet. I regularly get to shoot or teach or speak alongside the best.

Many of you also know I deeply respect and admire Matthew Jordan Smith. I happen to think he is an iconic photographer who will be remembered for his ability to capture raw emotion in anyone.

And….regular readers know that I am not pretty nor am I fond of having my photograph taken. In fact, 90% of the reason I became a photographer was to avoid having my picture made. Let’s face it, I have a face built for radio.

But every once in a while I get lucky and run into someone who is so good at their craft, so passionate about their art and so able to draw me out of my shell that I get an image of me that I think is passable.

This portrait made of me by Matthew is such a portrait. It’s amazing to see myself and think I don’t 100% suck! The only reason I don’t is that a real, genuine, talented, giving and patient photographer made the shot.

Matthew had VERY little to work with. He had an unattractive model, one beauty dish, two foam core boards on C-stands and no sync cord. So he made the shot using the modeling light from the beauty dish and we used this guitar that was sitting around the studio as a prop. (Hint – when photographing men – give them something – ANYTHING – to do with their hands and the shot will work much better.)

Since I am a guitar player, it was a perfect fit and the few people out there in the world who are close to me love the shot.

But wait – there’s more to the story.

There is another thing to talk about and that is what it is like to sit for a talented pro. I highly recommend all of you reading this seek out a gifted craftsperson to make your portrait. It’s good experience to sit on the other side of the lens and to feel what your clients feel when you ask THEM to pose. It’s an enlightening and educational experience.

I appreciate the fact that the great Matthew Jordan Smith – who is usually photographing beautiful movie stars or musicians like Oprah and Beyonce – took the time to give me this gift.

If you haven’t heard of Matthew before now – well get busy studying his work. You’ll be better off for it and if you are lucky enough to run into him at a convention or workshop, try to get him to make your portrait. If he can do this for me, imagine what he can do for you!

Creativity Exercises For Photographers

scottbourne — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:12:42 +0000

Photography by Scott Bourne:

Sometimes you need to just shake things up. You need to reset, restart and re-think what you’re doing. In order for that to have meaning you actually have to do SOMETHING. You can’t just sit around and do everything the way you always have and expect things to change. So here are some exercises designed to shake up your artistic eye and your photographic world. Try any or all of these if you want a change.

1. Buy a big box of crayons, a big pad of paper and start drawing and coloring. Draw shapes and use different colors.

2. Design and dress up in a clown costume. Yes I know it sounds weird but I’ve tried this exercise and believe it or not it opens up your mind in new ways.

3. Study falling water. It can be a waterfall or water dripping from a fountain or a faucet and then make photos of it.

4. Start clipping magazines. Clip photos that move you, interest you or disturb you. Save these and refer to them once in a while for inspiration.

5. Go sit on a child’s swing set (make sure it is sturdy enough to support you) and then swing back and forth shooting the sky and the ground alternatively.

6. Watch a TV show or a movie or a play that you would normally not be interested in.

7. Stare at clouds and try to determine what shapes you see in the clouds.

8. Write a letter to a future version of yourself explaining what your creative process was like now.

9. Make a list of 25 things you really like about yourself.

10. Share these experiences with other photographers, do them as a group and see where it leads.

I’ve shared these sorts of exercises before and those of you who do them routinely tell me that they are helpful. I hope this set is no exception.

Photography Is Changing

scottbourne — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:54:08 +0000

Photo by Scott Bourne – 2012

The Internet is abuzz – people are concerned – photography is changing.

Kodak is no longer making cameras – or Kodachrome for that matter. Lytro has developed a camera that lets you focus in post. Experts predict that photo journalism as we know it is a dying craft since so-called “citizen journalists” report with their smart phones. The traditional stock photography market is all but dead, replaced with a business that pays photographers pennies where it used to pay them hundreds – even thousands of dollars. Still cameras now almost all shoot very high-quality video. Thousands of professional film labs are out of business leaving just a few national labs that specialize in digital printing.

I could go on and on and on if I wanted to, but it’s not necessary. Yes, photography is changing. And here’s something you should know – there’s NOTHING new about that. Photography has been changing since it was invented.

It started with the camera obscura, then the Daguerreotype, then Henry Fox Talbot invented the negative to positive paper process. There were also tintypes, wet plate negatives, dry plate negatives, sheet film, roll film, black and white, then color, then positive film. And let’s not forget the hardware. We went through box cameras, flashlight powder, flashbulbs, filters, instant photos, disposable cameras and yes even the digital camera.

I’m just scraping the surface here. I haven’t even mentioned all the various forms of photography such as street photography, landscape photography, art photography, sports photography. And then there’s all the various styles of the masters from people like Paul Strand, Gordon Parks, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Minor White, and more.

As you can see, even though this is a very brief list of photographic change it provides abundant evidence that photography is always changing. To me, that’s a good thing. I am older than most of you – yet this medium still captivates me and has captivated me since I was 14 years old. I firmly believe that one of the reasons for that is simply my ability to count on it to change and become more interesting.

If you’re one of those who sits and grumbles at every new technology or technique, take some real time to study the true history of photography. You’ll see what I’m talking about and hopefully that will free you up to embrace the change, not fight it.