PHOTOGRAPHER’S JOURNEY.com

There’s an old adage that experienced photographers know when it comes to shooting sunsets: the best views are behind you. Do you doubt it? Take a look at Ansel Adams’ best work. It’s so easy to miss the beautiful light behind you when shooting that spectacular sunset. Yet often that soft light hitting a subject behind you can be more powerful.

Still, people almost always strive for the most dramatic — assuming that dramatic means best. It’s true that dramatic photos can sometimes take a person’s breath away. But I have found as I have grown in my own photography that the subtleties of life can be far more interesting.

That is why I find Angela Drury’s images so beautiful.

Her photography is remarkably understated — simple, clean lines. Muted colors. And yet with each understated photo, I find a powerful beauty. She clearly avoids the balls-out drama of a purple-colored sky in favor of quiet, simple form and beauty. Her Iceland gallery appeals to me the most. But all her work is really quite beautiful.

I think when it comes to photography it is always important to remember that more is not necessarily more. Less is more. It is so tempting to photograph the “sunset” (a metaphor for anything that draws the eye of every single photographer) while completely missing the small moments that really pack more power and feeling on a small level than any “dramatic” photograph could.

I don’t know whether Ms. Drury looks behind her at sunsets. But I suspect she does.

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I’m afraid that I am a chronic tinkerer. So if you visited this site in the last few days, it probably has had ten or fifteen different looks as I try out new themes. This is why they should never let photographers be web designers! Anyway, I think I’ll be sticking with this theme for a while since it has a nice, crisp look suitable for a blog about digital cameras and digital photography. Let me know if you like the new look (or hate it)!

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I while ago I blogged about How to Compose a Photograph and there are some basic rules in there you should review if you’re not already familiar with them.

So let’s assume then that you are comfortable with the rule of thirds spelled out in that article, which in essence spells out that your subject matter should be located somewhere one-third of the way in from the outside border of the image — either top to bottom and preferably both. The question is, what do you do if the subject of your photograph is yellow against a green background? What do you do if you’ve got your shiny new digital camera pointed right at a beautiful brown tree silhouetted against a blue lake?

Ah… this is where color theory comes into play. Now, I won’t claim to be any sort of expert on this. There are plenty of them out there. But basic color theory is critical to understand if you are going to be serious about photography. The fact is, human eyes are designed to make some colors appear more dominant than others.

What are the most dominant colors? The basic three — in this order — you absolutely must know:

1. Yellow
2. Red
3. Blue

Blue will overpower most colors (one reason the bluish tone in shadows can be so noticeable sometimes). Red will overpower blue. And yellow is the king of colors. I guess that’s why crowns are…yellow? Well, you get the idea.

I’m sure you are wondering why, but that is beyond the purpose of this article. And frankly, it’s a bit beyond my own intellect! If you are more interested in color theory, there are many good articles on the Internet.

But for our purposes as photographers, we really only need to understand the big three here, since they are the ones that most commonly present themselves in the real world.

Take a look at my photo of a Chinese New Year celebration above. I think this clearly demonstrates two of the three colors and how they compete. Clearly, the yellow in the image is overpowering — and not just because there is more of it. The red, while not as strong as the yellow, overpowers the man’s black legs and the grey white wall of the background. And did you even notice the green of the dragon’s eyes?

What this means is that when we compose a photograph, we must bear in mind not only the outright composition — such as the rule of thirds — but the colors that make up that photograph. For example, how would one photograph a beautiful green leaf against a background of yellow flowers? Not too easily. The fact is, if a dominant color is in your photograph and it is not the subject, then you’d better get it out of there. Otherwise, viewers will see only the dominant color and the photo will fail.

I know. It sounds harsh. But it’s just the way the human eye works. Trust me. I’ve screwed up enough photographs to have learned the hard way.

So for example, let’s say you’re photographing a picture of a crowd with a lot of people all wearing different colors. Be mindful that the strongest of those colors, yellow, red and blue, should not be located in places where the viewer’s eye might find it distracting (the edge of the image, for example).

Bearing this color rule in mind will not only make a tremendous difference in your photography, it will also help you in the “digital darkroom” later, since you can selectively enhance or mute certain colors to your liking. Of course, it’s always better to get it right while shooting in the field in the first place.

Now if you’re smart — and no doubt you are — you have already figured out a flaw in this whole formula. You’re saying “Wait a minute, Chris, what if I want to shoot black and white photography?” Ah. You got me. It’s true, the standard rules of color don’t cut it in a black and white world. But guess what? There are some tricks in black and white photography that are essentially based in color theory.

More on that in a later post… so stick around!

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In college I had a very good friend named Matt Marton. Aside from being able to consistently beat the pants off me shooting pool — he was known for one thing: photography. Matt had wanted to be a professional photographer since he was in high school, as I recall.

I had several friends who at that age had no idea what they wanted to do for a living and were pretty much just enjoying the college experience, if you know what I mean. Others, like me, had some aim and direction (I pretty well knew I was headed toward journalism.) But Matt was uber-focused on being a professional photographer. He had a passion and a drive for it like none I had ever seen.

What made Matt stand out, aside from his large and jovial personality was his choice of fashion accessories. Simply put, he never went anywhere without his camera — a large, heavy, and very expensive Nikon. This was long before digital cameras came along. The thing had to weigh five pounds. But you’d never see the guy anywhere without it that camera strapped around his neck.

Even though Matt had obvious skill as a photographer — his images were sometimes breathtaking — I remember thinking it was a bit silly to lug that thing everywhere he went. But today I look back and realize that Matt had discovered the best trick for getting the best photos of all: Never go anywhere without your camera.

“Oh come on,” I can hear you saying. “I read this far only to learn the obvious?” Yep. I’m afraid so. But see, it isn’t actually that obvious. Can you honestly say you follow that rule? Do you follow it as well as Matt? Until you can say you do, then you are no doubt missing out on some of your best photo opportunities.

All the photography skills in the world don’t help when you come across an image you just have to capture and you don’t have a camera. If you’re like me, you know what I’m talking about. And there is nothing more frustrating to a photographer.

I have to admit, I am probably no better at following this rule than anyone. Maybe worse. But if I were to take my own advice more often I would no doubt be much better off. And in that spirit, I recently attended by niece’s baptism — a roughly two-hour drive out of town through some beatiful country. I brought my camera solely for the purpose of the baptism, since I knew the drive down would be raining and there would be no chance at shooting any of the scenic stops along the drive.

But I hadn’t considered the drive home, by which time the rain had stopped. Had I not brought my camera for the baptism, I would have seen this barn and completely missed the opportunity to photograph it.

I caught a glimpse of the barn while munching a quarter pounder with cheese with a bag of french fries wedged between my thighs at 60 miles an hour. Something about it stood out in the landscape. The barrenness. The isolation. Immediately I recognized it as a great photograph… if only I had brought my camera. And then I remembered I did! Wow… I felt so incredibly prepared. So incredibly like… Matt.

I made about a dozen images and selected this one as the best. The framing was right (rule of thirds and no distracting elements) and even though the barn sat farther away in the distance than in my other images, I thought it somehow captured a loneliness that fit the mood of the cloudy day. In essence, what you see in this photograph is pretty much what I saw. Although I did some tweaking in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to mute the colors and pump the contrast just a bit.

The bottom line is, if I didn’t have a camera with me that day, I would have missed making this image altogether. In a world with so many beautiful scenes and powerful moments for us photographers, that would be a terrible shame.

And on that note… thank you, Matt.

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Bear with me on this post… it’s less about photography and a bit more personal in nature. I just had to share.

I am fortunate in my chosen career as a network television news producer since I am regularly exposed to major historical events of all kinds. (For those of you who don’t know what a producer does — basically I’m an off-camera reporter). Of course, the job comes with a great deal of responsibility for the people who depend on my accurate reporting of the facts. And since I work for a television network, that’s a lot of people.

What’s more, all those major news events are not always easy to cover. Sometimes they are logistically difficult. Sometimes emotionally. I spent the first week after 9/11 breathing in the smoke, fumes and sorrow surrounding the Pentagon. And I will never forget it. Other moments, like the recent shooting at Virginia Tech can prove just as difficult to cover.

I arrived on Monday, literally hours after Seung-hui Cho had done his terrible damage. The wounds in those who survived were literally raw, and the emotional wounds had only just begun to sink in. I met two impressive young men on the first day — both of whom had been in a classroom ravaged by Cho. It was my job to book them for a live interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, and I did.

In the first few days of working the story I had no time to take photographs, although I had brought my camera. But perhaps that’s just as well. Later, by the time the pacing of the events began to slow, I grabbed the camera for the first time and simply went off walking. The correspondent I was working with had some free time as well, so we drove to the drill field of the campus, parked, and got out. And that was where the first of several “Moments of Silence” had just begun.

It was, I think the largest gathering of people in “silence” that I have ever seen. A profound sea of purple and orange (Virginia Tech’s colors) that stretched all across the drill field. Some were dangling their legs off rooftops just to get a view. And no one was saying a word. It was awesome in it’s power.

I had my camera with me and of course, I wasn’t the only one. There were newspaper photographers snapping pictures and television photographers rolling tape on all of it. No one seemed to mind — or even notice. But what occurred to me while taking my photographs of the event is that it wasn’t about art, my usual motivation. No, this was something deeper and perhaps even more meaningful. I was taking pictures for my own memory. Snapshots, if you want to call them that.

Earlier in the day, when I didn’t have a camera with me, I was among the first reporters to get to the outside of Norris Hall — the building where Cho murdered most of the people. It was roped off with yellow tape, of course, but the same silent procession of students, faculty and family members was walking by. Many of them snapped pictures. At first, I wondered why a student would want to photograph such a terrible thing at their own school. But now I think I know. Photography can be a sort of validation of the moment. In a way, such tragedy is so difficult to accept in the human mind, taking pictures of it is a way to make it “real.” And to remember it, of course.

The photographs I made of the “Moment of Silence” are far from my best artistically. But I am glad I took them. Because when I look at them, I remember those two young guys I met on the first day. When I see a community of purple and orange jerseys in my pictures, it makes me think that those guys will be okay. Clearly, they, and all those unfortunate souls who died, are very loved.

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I stumbled onto the images of a professional photographer by the name of Jehad Nga. It’s extraordinary.

I’ve always been a sucker for powerful photojournalism. Images that tell a story, with human characters, always seem more powerful to me than virtually any other kind of photography. And believe me, I love abstracts, portraits, landscapes — you name it. Of course, this bias probably reflects my background as a journalist, since I’ve been a reporter and network television news producer for nearly 15 years now (local television before that).

I think what strikes me most about Nga’s powerful gallery is his amazing use of light. Light is to photography what water is to life. And it is very rare to find a photographer whose mastery of light is so compelling. Ansel Adams was famous for his understanding of light, of course, in the landscape setting. And his images are powerful to this day because he understood that the right light made all the difference in the world. It can take a great deal of patience when doing landscape photography waiting for the right light. But when it comes… it’s worth it.

Rarer, I think is the artist who does not do landscape photographs who is such a complete master of light. And to me, Nga stands out for this reason, among others. He has photographed for the New York Times and other major news organizations and his images always seem to capture a certain poignancy of thought. When I look at his photographs, I see humble souls fighting against the indignities of life. The message — to me — is not degrading or depressing. It is uplifting. In a way, a glimpse at the human spirit. And the light puts the focus right where it should be: on those human souls.

We don’t all have to be photojournalists to learn something from his photography.

Please check out some of his images. I think you will agree it is quite amazing.

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