Attempt at better photography.

I'm not very good at taking pictures. I think it's one of those things where I could be better at it, if only I'd invest some time into it. I'm not knocking photographers at all
- far from it. They're incredible artists who capture beauty through perspectives we either take for granted or never knew existed, handily presenting it in a format that our eyes and brains are conditioned to believe as truth.

My theory: good photographs don't happen because of expensive or fancy equipment, they happen because of patience, direction and knowledge of certain aesthetic rules. While painters can get away with creative license and editing certain elements out of their work, photographers are forced to work with what's present or what they can bring. So I started thinking about composition - how one frames their image and arranges their elements.

In an effort to improve my own work, I set out to take a couple of pictures today on the way home from an errand. I meandered through the streets in my neighborhood, hoping for something to jump out at me. I remembered a piece of advice a photographer had given me - to experiment with different points of view - and I tried getting a very low viewpoint to start.

At the park at the corner of 11th and Pine, I found these:



I have a couple more, but this was probably the best one for my little composition goal. I kind of just liked the way the leaves were catching the light and creating a lot of contrast. Tried to create passage through the image, but I was a little limited - I had to take this through a gap in the iron fencing.

I walked down 11th toward my house, finding one of those little horse-carriage streets. For all you non-Philadelphians - yes, we drive cars down these streets. They're narrow. Try turning left from Kater Street a little past 8th Street - it's how you know if you've made it here. Anyway, I found this cute little area. Not too happy with these.
















I had to fiddle with the color in iPhoto here. I'm coming to the conclusion that I don't keep the lens perpendicular to the ground, hence the perspective being a little off in the third image..

The final two are my favorites:

This is a little private courtyard on 11th. I really love how northern cities, particularly Philadelphia and Boston, have these really pretty green spaces in the middle of the oldest parts of the city. Considering the age of these homes - most are at least 100 years old, and a big portion date back to pre-1800 - I wonder how the neighbors have shared these green spaces for so long.










This was kind of a one-shot, couldn't-repeat-it thing. I was standing in the middle of the street, and I got a little startled by the bicycle when it came up behind it. When I took it, it didn't seem to come out at ALL because of the glare of the sun. I took it home and had to fiddle with it to at least make it visible. I might paint this soon, I like what I think I can do with the color, and I really like the old man (a professor? just a businessman going green?) on the bicycle.

He needs a helmet, though.

All in all, it was productive, I suppose. I'm trying to make the rules of composition a little more second-nature - right now, I have to actively think about things like the Golden Ratio, 5:3, etc. I'm pretty good at keeping the rule of thirds, creating a quiet place for the eye, making a value study, etc, but I'd like to translate a little bit of this into actual painting.