Unlike a 'written' book, which contains a finite amount of
words, a picture book contains literally every word you know. I love to
read, but I enjoy picture books for the simple reason that I get to read
whatever story I see in the images based on who I am and how I
interpret the images based on my history, my joys and sorrows, and even
my day right up to the moment I pick up the book.
Maybe that's one
of the reasons I love photography so much - the ability to capture a
moment that tells an entire story simply by making a record of the
configuration of light at one pivotal moment.
No sound. No motion.
No reference what so ever beyond the light as it was configured and frozen at that exact moment.
There
is an amazing elegance in capturing that one amazing story telling
image and I can feel it in my core every time I capture 'that' image on
any given day out shooting. That feeling is what drives me to keep
rolling off shots... it is the very core of my personal passion for
photography.
But... I must admit that there are exceptions where I
think the story is just too big for one single frame. Maybe I just need
to hone my photographic skills, but sometimes I just can't get the
whole story in one frame.
Here are a few examples of when the images I captured just compelled me to give in to a multi-image story.
Kline Creek Farm - Each photo tells a
piece of the story on its own, but the series together was just too
powerful for me to not tell the whole story with this compilation.
A simple prep of dough for Christmas
cookie day tradition at our house... many photos followed of the 'fun'
parts - shaping and decorating... but I these captures made me realized
that I typically left out the whole story of everything my wife does
prior to the 'fun parts'.
Detail Photos from Blacksmith set -
I was specifically looking to get the
sparks on this shot so had to bring down the shutter speed a bit -
1/30th - handheld. It was nice that there was a window off to the left
letting in perfectly filtered light on tools but trailing off near the
fire - could not have asked for better ambient light.
I had to play with the ISO and aperture on this one to get the water but also keep detail int he fire and coals.
I had to play with the ISO and aperture on this one to get the water but also keep detail int he fire and coals.
Maintaining that slower shutter was my goal here to get the motion of the mallet.
Took a few of these hoping for sparks - not so much, though.
Took a few of these hoping for sparks - not so much, though.
Took a few of these hoping for sparks - not so much, though... a few below the vice.
Played with the settings to get the fire but also detail in the coals.
So I wasn't planning on doing a BLOG on this but it was quite the journey so here goes... I got a new toy. Grabbed the BtS shots at the last second when it occurred to me to do BLOG... ugh - should have done a VLOG! A Light Tube - specifically a $45 LUXCEO RGB "Portable Wand"... I had been looking at various ones for a while and they were just honestly expensive for what I saw their usefulness as. Jump to Christmas and I have a $50 Amazon gift card - and I happen to see a YouTube video reviewing this little $45 Light Tube... so I bought one... I know - SHOCKER! Okay, so enough on my G.A.S. psychology... let's get on to the toy! So I decide I need to do the one thing that a Light Tube seems to be born to do... Swing around during a nice long shutter drag to create patterns. Let's start with The Setup: Monster on Plexi Platform held up by two boxes... LED wearing FESNEL modifier off to camera left... Light Tube behind Plexi - and it gets swung aro...
So a friend asked for some advice... She had been trying to get some photos of her daughter playing high school basketball and facing the eternal challenges of photography in a school gymnasium... She brought her camera and lenses over and explained that she had spent SOOOO much time on YouTube watching videos and finding that none of the tips she gleaned from them seemed to help... I decided that instead of walking her though what would likely have been her 4,738th lecture on the 'exposure triangle', I would try to distill down the relevant pieces of information she would need, and only those pieces, into something easy to remember but solid enough of a base that it could be built upon going forward... So, I decided to create a character. In my head I called him Ignatius Scardino Onofrio - I.S.O.... FYI - Scardino and Onofrio are family names from my lineage... Ignatius is just a fun name... ;) Before introducing her to Ignatius I gave her some core relevant bits on...
We made a quick trip to Cosley Zoo (great place to visit if you are looking for a quiet spot to enjoy - and photograph - some animals) in Wheaton, IL, arriving right at opening that morning, and found this beautiful bird still snuggled in and not quite ready to start the day. Most of the animals were lounging around and awaiting their morning keeper visits but this one just looked so snugly and perfectly content. There is something to be said for waking up in the perfect position and being so perfectly comfortable that you just feel like you need to just stay there and enjoy the moment until you absolutely have to move. In my head, that was what was going through this bird's mind that morning. Sometimes the worm just ain't worth the tradeoff... Sometimes you just gotta' enjoy the moment and accept that there will be another worm tomorrow.
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