How to Make Photographs at Which You Don’t Cringe Every Time you See Them - Part 2

This angry-photographer-post's theme: landscapes. Now, landscapes are a bit tricky, because it can be difficult to make them interesting. Landscape photos are similar to landscape paintings, although they take a lot less time and skill. When you take a good landscape picture, though, you take a good picture. I don’t profess to be on the level of Ansel Adams – far from it – but if you want some inspiration, take a look at some of his works.

Ansel Adams, I'm not sure what it is called.

Look at the juxtaposition of textures in the foreground and then in the middle portion of the picture. It appears as if you're looking at two different pictures - which is both the strong and the weak point of the photograph. There is a lot of contrast in this picture, such as between light and dark, rough and smooth, straight and curved, but there is nothing to unify the composition. Your eye is pulled towards the right, but the thing you want to see is out of the frame. Some people like this and think it is artistic. It drives me nuts. (Except in the case of portraits, where we are left to ponder the expression of the subject.)

Now, as discussed in the previous post, you want to make it so your eye moves around the picture. Ask any art teacher and they will tell you that the eye gets bored looking at a symmetrical picture three times as fast as looking at an asymmetrical (interesting) picture. The way to achieve this is by getting balance.

There may be several reasons for you to take a picture. One is that the landscape is so beautiful and you want to capture it. Another reason is to show your friends back home. Whatever You're doing, you're probably more concerned about taking the picture itself and capturing it for later than enjoying the scenery as you pass through it. I am, anyway, and it heightens my awareness of a need to constantly capture and store. In the end, I'll have nothing save a few empty - but well-taken! - pictures.

What Spain looks like. Remarkably similar to Home.

This is not a very good picture. It is flat and static, there is not much depth, and the plateau cuts the picture neatly in half. You should not show pictures like these to your friends and family. Yes, they might document what the Spanish countryside looks like, but again, not that interesting. Don't even take them. Okay, maybe you can take them, just for your own personal benefit, but don't show them to anyone.

Can you believe it? It's the same country!

Okay, this is better. Note the difference between the tree in the foreground and the mountain in the background, complemented by the road on the left, which leads into the distance. More interesting, yes.

The astute reader will realize that I have already posted some of these pictures before. However, not all of them. 

"1"

"A"

"Rhyme and Reason" - If you can correctly guess the inspiration for the these photos' names, I will write and/or dedicate a post to you.

Now, these are not necessarily landscapes (would you call them architecture?), but they illustrate themes I wish to discuss. In the first picture, there is a lot of depth leading from the nearest fountain to the art museum on the hill. I really like the line the spumes make, but the photographs are a little flat still. This is a good photograph, but it could be better.

Take the second photo graph. We still get a sense of depth, and a sense of expectancy, of emptiness, in the sky, but there is too much sky, and it makes the fountains and the building on the hill too small.

I really like the third picture because it keeps the distance that we saw in the first photograph, leading your eye towards the building. However, it also gives the composition a "U" shape - your eye sees the first lamp, dips down and follows the lamps, and then rises again to see the building. However, even this picture is not perfect - the soft glowing light of the first lamp gets lost in the sunset. The other lights contrast enough with the scenery to be considered acceptable.

Also, I'm so glad that I don't run any ads on this site. Otherwise, I might have to check about copyright issues, especially with things like Ansel Adams photographs. Typically, you don't have to ask permission if it's for personal use and if it's for free educational purposes.

Speaking of Ansel Adams, if you want to name-drop a niche-photographer among your friends, I suggest Tillman Crane. When I was younger, I confused him with Ansel Adams - they both have such artsy names befitting photographers. He taught my siblings photography when they were in high school

Yes, I support local artists. For more interesting art, look at Nathan Florence. He taught me art when I was in high school. 

How to Make an Interesting Photograph (Or: How to Make Photographs at Which You Don’t Cringe Every Time you See Them)

This may be a part in a longer series. My rage at poorly-taken pictures has abated, but that's not to say it won't flare up at a later date.


Whenever my family goes on trips and we only have one camera, I automatically make myself in charge of the camera (unless J-Chan is with me – then we can switch if we don’t have two cameras. Come to think of it, not having two cameras is a situation we will rarely encounter because it’s so important for all of us kiddio-sies to have them. Katie-Po might also be an exception). I have a compulsive need to be in control and take good pictures. If anyone else takes the photographs, I get annoyed and frustrated because they are done in a curmudgeonly fashion. No one has enough sensitivity to frame and composition.

To take a picture, it first helps to have something to take a picture of. I’m feeling lazy, so these pictures will be old ones from my albums.

Pictures with people and famous things - Pictures of a person standing in front of a famous thing are a great way to personalize your pictures and make your trip more memorable, and to all those non-believers back home you can point to the picture and say “Proof!” until they refute you with “Photoshop!” Once that accusation has been made, you can't really refute it, though. However, you know you were there, and that’s what matters. 

And I am here so you can take better pictures of that person standing next to that famous thing.

First thing you should know: take as few pictures of the person in the dead center of the picture as you can. In an interesting picture, your eye will move around (namely, from that person to famous thing and back). You need a really good reason to take a picture of the person in the middle – for example, imagine someone sitting along a wall with their feet up. If you’re near their feet, take a picture of them. This will mean that your camera will catch the depth as your friend’s feet go away from you, and their feet become their body, and their body becomes their face.

In the picture above are Teddy and me. Yes, we are important, but what we’re sitting behind is also important – a Cubist statue of Christ being scourged. Note that the angle of the picture has cropped out most all of Christ's body and that there is a lot of empty space at the bottom of our feet. Due to the vertical nature of the statue, I am okay with having Teddy and me be in the center of the picture, and even though I don't want a picture of a tourist in front of the Sagrada Familia (such as is there on the right), it actually balances out the picture. Also, this is not a good picture because it is blurry.

It is not necessary to take a full-body picture unless you want to expressly include that person’s clothes or to show how big/small the famous thing is. Besides, your head is smaller than your body. (Unless you are a baby, in which case your parent should have taken loads of pictures of you, some of them are bound to be good, and hey, most of these rules don’t apply to you anyway because you’re a baby.) Any picture taken of that person from the bust up is acceptable, because it means you as the photographer are close enough to get the details of his/her beautiful, radiant face, while still getting that famous thing in the background. Like so:

Depth! Bust! I wish there weren't a crane in this photo!

Okay, I somewhat liked the sultry look of the full-body shot. But note: I am not in the center, and my body is balanced by the Holy Family on the left and the strong diagonal of the column.

Kitschy Pictures

Lately, some readers might have noticed that there are a lot of ethereal pictures of space with too much pastel in their palette. It looks like an amateur reincarnation of Thomas Kinkade got a hold of those pictures and started painting the creation of the universe.

That is what I would have thought, anyway, had I not taken those pictures myself from the Hubble website. I gave credit to the website, so the astute readers among you will note that this is an unnecessary post to calm my insecurities and vent my dislike for overly-kitschy paintings.

At least I don’t have any pictures of dolphins at sunset…

The Leg Experiment: Shedding the Cocoon

In starting the leg experiment, I had no clear goals in mind. I was tired of shaving, and I did not feel that I had to conform to social mores. Four months later, I still have no solid goals in mind, but I have more reasons to continue not to shave. I have two this time: one biological and the other social. Without the supple foaming action of shaving cream, my legs haven’t been regularly moisturized, and I think the skin might be getting more blemishes – and perhaps a little tougher.

I also want to see how people react to a young woman who does not shave her legs - this is the social component. I haven’t talked much about my leg hair with my friends, and neither have I been exposing my leg hair. Much of the time I wear pants or long skirts, but this will change. I’m still more than a little self-conscious about the length and darkness of my leg hair. I’ve shown the growth many a time to Boudica and to Lala; Boudica reassures me every Sunday before I go to Church that she can’t see my leg hair. With summer quickly approaching, the cocoon needs to be shed, and my social world will know that I have leg hair!

A few weeks ago during spring break, Morwen, Tex, Tiger Lilly, and I went to the beach. I could not hide my leg hair there, and as we hung out on the sand and meandered along the boardwalk, I was a little self-conscious. I watched other people’s eyes to see if they darted to my ankles. Of all the people whose faces I peered into, only one or two flicked their eyes towards my lower half. Even then, I can’t be sure if they were looking at my leg hair. Morwen, Tex, and Tiger Lilly said not a word about my leg hair, but they know, I’m sure of it. It’s hard to miss.

I felt more comfortable uncovering my legs at the beach because, aside from my three friends, I was rubbing shoulders with people I was never going to see again. It’s a little different when I’m sitting in class twice a week next to the same people. They don’t care, but I think they care, and therein lies the crux of the matter.