Famous photographer...

For this weeks blog I found a quiz: Which famous photographer are you? The quiz consisted of seven simply questions. To finish it took only a few seconds. By taking this quiz I could find out which famous photographer`s style fits me the best. Right after I got my answer I had know idea who the famous photgrapher was, The description for him and me as a photgrapher in the quiz was: "We are passive onlookers in a world that moves perpetually. Our only moment of creation is that 1/125th of a second when the shutter clicks, the signal is given, and the motion is stopped...".  It might be true about me, I don't really know.. The famous photographer I got was Henri Cartier-Bresson. I decided to make some research about him.

                 

Henri Cartier-Bresson was born 1908 in Chanteloupe, France. Since he was a little boy he has been taking snap-shots, which he started taking at holidays. He elevated "snap shooting" to a higher level of art. He had an uncandid ability as a photographer to capture people in their "decisive moment", as a former art student, he developed the subtle and sensitive eye for composition, this and his self-effacingmethods of work among his thoughts of photography made him legendary as a photographer  among contemporary photojournalists.

                                                        

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Above are two of Henri's photographs, both of which I found intriguing. I really like black and white photos, especially natural ones. I think that the black and white add a certain feeling to photos, a time change and realism. I don't think that I take the same kind of photos as Cartier-Bresson, but I really like this kind of photos and would like to get better at taking pictures similiar to his, but in my way..

Here you can read more about Henri Cartier-Bresson in a brief biography.

Sport photography

Since we're going to take sport photos this week I searched on google to find any tips for indoor sport photography and espacially basketball. 


              I found one article about Indoor Sports Photography which I think was good. There was six short tips to consider while photographing sports indoor. It gives tips on settings for the camera, for example raising the ISO on the camera when the light isn't great. That allows you to shoot at a higher shutter speed, and it's easier to get better shots. Another thing it said was "look for expressions" - sport photographing is all about watching, waiting and trying to capture the most expressfull emotions of the game. 


             I also looked for some great basketball photos and found the website of Walter Iooss. I really liked his game pictures, they really shows emotions and the intense of the game. What I noticed with his basketball pictures is that most of the pictures is taken from a lower standpoint, which makes the players look even taller and "greater". Even the ceiling in the picture makes the whole building looks bigger. The picture that I liked the most is this one:

Walter Iooss, Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia, 1967

                  This photo is also on Walter's website but in black and white, which I think adds more character to that picture.

                 After reading that article by Christina M Dickson and watching Iooss's basketball picture I've got some idea for my photo assignment.

Tips from the videos

For todays assignment I watched some videos from this websites:


http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/specials/photography-specials/photo-tips/capturing-movement-dslr-hd-video-tips.html?source=email_photo


- Shoot JPEG or RAW?
- Candid shots
- Birthday photos


           One of the video that interested me was "Shoot JPEG or RAW". I wanted to watch that one to really understand the meaning of RAW. I have always used JPEG for all my picture which may not have been the smartest thing. To use the RAW function for your photos make them "last longer". With that I mean, If the pictures that re original in RAW-format is going to stay as the original picture much longer if you for example makes copies of it of upload it on the internet. One time, long ago I took one setting of photos in RAW, but, kinda didn't know how to be able to use those picture.. So there's a challenge.. :)


          The second video I chosed was "Candid shots". Which is photos you're taking when real things actually happens, instead of organised group photos. I usually like to find differents angels in different situation but I find it hard to make the photos as realistic as possible. By that I mean, capturing the real smiles instead of the fake smiles that is put on someones face when they know that there is a camera around them. In this video the photographer showed how to find new angeles and composition while taking picture of kids that are playing around. I think that as a photographer you should also participate in the game or what ever is going on. For example, he could have got up in the swing and taken photos of the child pushing the swing.
 
         The last video I want to talk about is "Birthday Photos". Since I'm not a big fan of the flash, I wanted to see what he had to say about it. Simply, if their's a party with candles, don't use your flash (if you don't have a super expensive one, haha...) beacuse that would take away the feeling in the picture. The most interesting about that video though is when he in the end says "Somethimes when you use your brain, to overide the cameras brain, you end up with smarter results". That is something we should think of all the time, do not rely on the auto function, explore your camera and be smarter than it is and your result could be really good.

First reading assignment

For this week I read the articles from these websites:

http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles1110/ab1110-1.html - The Traditional Rules of Composition, Part One. http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles1210/ab1210-1.html - The Traditional Rules of Composition, Part Two.

http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0910/ab0910-1.html - Fine Art Compositions: Top 15

http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles1010/ab1010-1.html - What Is A Snapshot?

After reading these four articles from Alan Briot I've got more knowledge about the basics about composition and the meaning of snapshots. As he says in the first article, it's important to learn the rules of composition first, to then be able to "brake the rules" in the right way. I have no prior knowledge of the 18 rules of composition used in photography but I believe I have a basic understanding of how use these rules to improve my skills as a photographer. In past photos I have tried to layer the composition of my photos to make them more aestethicly pleasing. So the viewer has to look at each layer to appreciate the photo. With my new found knowledge I plan to use it to improve my skills and to make my photos more appealing.

I have never heard the term snapshot before, it might be because I am from Sweden or the fact that I have never taken a formal class in photography. Before reading the article I used google translate to see what the word in swedish is; Ögonblicksbild. Which then I could figure out what it's about. The swedish translation means almost "picture of the moment" or easily momentpicture.. haha. I would say that a snapshot would be taking a picture just for the sake of taking a picture, it not capturing the true nature of the person, place or thing the photographer is photographing. Just caputering the moment. I would not think that it would be that many "rules" as in his article. A snapshot is a photo without meaning, a photo that does not render a emtional response from the view which in tern makes it undisirable. Before reading this article I felt that I was taking photographs but now it feels most of the photographs have actually been snapshots. But some of the rules between snapshots and photographs seem silly, for example using jpegs instead of prints doesnt mean that its not a great photo.

Arts should have no limits...
While I was reading the article from website number three above "Fine Art Compositions: Top 15" and especially number 14 "The "right" color balance is the strongest way of seeing color" I raised my eyebrows.. haha. Below that headline it says that "there is no such a thing as the "right" color balance in fine art", and I totally agree, I also think that there is no such a thing as right or wrong in any subject of photography. It's a good thing to know every "rule" and "guideline" and then be able to work after that, but the best pictures might be the craziest ones. What pleases one person may not please another, that's the nature of being an artist.

Introduction

              Since this is the first post I want to introduce myself and my experience of photography. My name is Malin Johansson, I'm now a freshmen at Rocky Mountain College. I'm from the west coast of Sweden. I got my first camera when I was fourteen, a small one, maybe 3.2 megapixels. A year after that I bought my first camera, still digital but for me it was good. I got more interested in photography and how to be able to see things from new perspectives. A year later after that I bought my first SLR, which made everything even more fun. But since I have tried to figure out every features by myself I have never understood the most basic things. I don't know how all the numbers of a photo works, or what they mean.. So by taking the course "topics of photography" I'm hoping to get better and develop my knowledge of photography.

               This first picture of the leaf I took a few years ago in the fall. It was dew outside and I wanted to capture the cool patterns that was now eaiser to see. I brought the leaf in to my because I wanted it to be on a black background. In photoshop I just made the background totally dark and lower the brightness.

This picture I added here just because I like the way of sharpness and blur, sometimes I think the bluriness is more interesting than the sharp part of the picture..

This picture below is taken in Hemsedal, Norway. A lot of skiers and snowboarder were going over a big jump, what the picture is not telling is that below this snowboarder there is a giant inflatable plastic pillow. I wanted it to look like the snowboarders and skiers were high up in the air and I tried to catch them in the picture while the background behind them was just the sky, so the mountain as a background wouldn't destract the picture of the person.

Below is a picture of Daniel Lemma, a Swedish singer. He performed where I work as a waitress and also take some pictures for their website. I find it kinda hard to take these pictures of the artists and bands that come and play, that's because I don't like to use the flash that is on the camera and because they never sit still. I always have to test a lot of the functions on the camera (which I never remember... haha) but sometimes it works out okay.

So that's the kind of picture that I've been taken before and now I want to be able to take all kinds of picture and to learn the functions on the camera so I can develop my creativity!