Using Balance in Your Landscape Photography Composition~By Gavin Hardcastle

If you want to take your landscape photography to the next level, it’s time to start thinking about how you balance your subjects. The most powerful compositional tools that you have at your disposal are your knees, and your feet.
Simply stepping to the side a couple of feet can change your landscape compositions drastically. Take things one step further (weak pun intended) and bend those old knees to get a lower point of view. Now things might start to look more interesting.
The reason why I say this is because horizontal and vertical movement will allow you to achieve the ideal balance of subjects in your landscape images. If you’ve got a camera with one of those flippable LCD screens, you’ll be able to get right down on the ground or way up high on your tripod. Nice.

So what do I mean by ‘balance’?

Something Wicked

I’m referring to how you balance subjects in your image on the horizontal and vertical planes. Simply plonking your interesting subject slap bang in the centre of your image might work, but there are times when you might get a better composition by placing it to one side of your image, and counter balancing that with something on the opposing side.
With my image above ‘ Something Wicked’, I wanted the moody storm clouds to be the main subject but it was essential to capture it bearing down on the mesa. By devoting the lower third of the frame to the mesa and the upper two thirds to the menacing clouds above, I balanced the subjects to my liking.

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Gavin Hardcastle is a professional landscape photographer from Vancouver Island, BC Canada. He teaches photography workshops all over the world and writes extensively about his experiences on location. You can read his photo guides and tutorials at his photo adventure blog FotoTripper His fine art prints can be purchased from www.gavinhardcastle.com.

Photography and the growing mobile movement ~By JD Lasica

     

Photography and the growing mobile movement

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Richard Gray’s photo of Alice Cooper, taken with a DSLR and processed with an iPhone editing app.

Even the pros are increasingly using smartphones & mobile editing tools

Will smartphones not only influence but dominate the next generation of photography?
I’ve come around to the conclusion that answer has to be a qualified yes. And although I documented last week’s Macworld | iWorld Expo 2013 with a Canon 5D — here’s my 35-photo Flickr set — I was very much in the minority among the waves of iPhone-wielding attendees.
If there’s any doubt about mobile devices’ impact on the world of professional photography, I refer you to Friday’s session at the conference titled “iPhoneography: iPhone In Education & The Mobile Movement in Photography” by British photographer Richard Gray. Gray tweets at @rugfoot, writes the iPhoneography blog iphoggy, and he shared his presentation Lessons learnt teaching iPhoneography on Google Drive.
Sessions on iPhoneography — defined as “a purely digital photographic process using Apple’s iPhone camera as the primary tool” — often focus on some of the cool if gimmicky apps (some of which I use) such as Percolator, WordFoto, TinyPlanets, ArtRage, Color Splash, Decim8, Slow Shutter Cam, AppAlchemy, ToonPaint and others.
But Gray, who teaches iPhoneography to students in Great Britain, brings a professional photographer’s eye to this fascinating emerging landscape. On a recent trip to Corsica, he supplemented his big camera with his iPhone and came away with some stunning images.

Mobile photography offers a journey down riveting side roads

Richard Gray captured his image with his iPhone on a subway ride.

“The arrival of iPhoneography shows that people don’t always want to take a journey of perfection. Sometimes they want to take side roads and find imperfection and distortion and dirt.”

“With traditional photography, using a DSRL (digital single lens reflex camera), it’s a linear journey toward perfection,” Gray said. “The arrival of iPhoneography shows that people don’t always want to take a journey of perfection. Sometimes they want to take side roads and find imperfection and distortion and dirt.”
As has happened with music and video, with photography once again technology is disrupting cultural norms that had persisted for generations. While a great photographer still needs that ineffable quality — a good eye, a sense of how to capture movement at just the right moment — mobile technology is democratizing photography in a big way.
“I think tomorrow’s professional photos will come from those who are taking photos with the iPhone,” Gray said. “Today they’ve begun to hone their skills and sharpen their eyes, and I’m sure that’ll translate into making money with photos in the future.”
The marketplace is beginning to reflect that. On a recent magazine assignment, Gray said, 85 percent of the photos he sold were taken with an iPhone.

Mobile photography, journalism & art: A revolution in the making

A winner at the Mobile Photo Awards.

Gray mentioned three resources for photographers who want to monetize their mobile photos:
• FOAP, a mobile photo agency with a straightforward business model: You and agency get $5 each on each $10 sale.  Scoopshot, a photojournalist agency that lets you sell photos and video to local news outlets from your smartphone.
• RooM, a rights-managed mobile content agency.
Last April I was drawn into iPhone and iPad art at ArtHaus Gallery in San Francisco, which featured a stunning exhibit of Mobile Photography Awards from photographers, including my friend Shane Robinson. And last week’s Macworld Expo featured an iPhone Film Festival and an art gallery filled with images created on the iPad or iPhone.
If you know of other mobile photography exhibits or awards, please share in the comments. With more than a billion smartphones in the world — a number expected to double in just a few years — it’s a trend worth keeping an eye on.

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How to Photograph Pets

How to Photograph Pets
by Darren Rowse

Photo by mommamia

Here’s my top ten tips on taking great photographs of your pet:

1. Start with Your Pet’s Personality

Before you start photographing your pet ask yourself ‘what sets it apart from other animals?’ Think about what type of personality it has and then attempt to capture some of that in your shots. For example if everyone knows your pet as a sleepy, lazy or placid little thing set up your photo shoot around it’s bed or where it goes after a meal to lie in the sun and you’ll have every chance of capturing a shot that sums your pet right up. Alternatively if your pet is hyperactive, inquisitive and always on the move it might be better to do your shoot at a local park where it’s racing around, jumping for balls or playing with other animals.

Photo by annia316

      2. Think about Context
In choosing the location to photograph your pet you might want to consider a variety of other factors also. For starters choose a place where your pet will be comfortable and at ease. Also consider the familiarity of the location and the emotions that it will evoke in you as the pets owner. For example you might have a place that you and your pet have had some special moments together that will mean a lot in the future as you look back over your shots. Lastly consider the background of your shots. Ultimately you don’t want your backgrounds to be distracting from your photo – sometimes the best locations are the plainest ones – a large patch of green grass, a well lit room with white walls and plain carpet etc can be ideal. Of course this can also be tool plain and sterile – my motto is that if the different elements in the background of the shot don’t add to it avoid them
I hope you have enjoyed this article  as much as I have, if so check out Darrens site for more fantastic tips.

Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-photograph-pets#ixzz1zslZ7jrx

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Suzanne Scholl
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5 Tips to Shake Up Your Travel Photography

 by James Maher

I love to look at travel photography, but man, sometimes it can all just seem mind-numbingly similar.

Put a cabin, some rocks, grass, or sand in the foreground, a lake or ocean in the middle ground, and a sunset or mountain in the background, preferably during a slightly cloudy day.

Shake. Rinse. Repeat.

I do this frequently; everyone does.  But that’s the problem.  Sometimes we need to break away from the formulas of what we think photographs should look like.  We need to think outside of the box and try to do things a little differently.

So here are a few tips and thoughts to help you create unique travel photos.
When we’re in a new place, sometimes all we can think about is taking photos of the beautiful architecture, the monuments, and the wonders that we travelled to see.  We have these thoughts from the countless guide books we’ve read and from the imagery we’ve seen over the web.  We want to take those same pictures to have for ourselves (and we should take these photos.)  But these things are not necessarily what gives a place its essence and its soul.

Stop and think about how you feel.  What is it that is creating that feeling?  Is it that tiny, bustling restaurant, lit up at night and filled with regulars?  Is it the well dressed men in expensive suits and shoes riding their bicycles to work?  Is it the chaos and constant traffic on the streets?  Is it the food vendors on the side of the road?  Is it the fresh bread and cheese?

For instance, what describes Italy better?  Is it your typical capture of the Duomo or the Ponte Vecchio, or is it a detail shot of an older man in a well-made suit walking on wet cobblestones and bringing home fresh bread at the end of the day?

Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/5-tips-to-shake-up-your-travel-photography-ready#ixzz1zmlcURwh
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Suznanne Scholl
empowernetwork1967@gmail.com
 http://www.sunrisedata1.net

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What Happened in Atlanta? The POWER of a Dream

A little over six months ago... ...30 some odd people gathered in a smelly lil' hotel room in Orlando Florida, and signed Non-Disclosure Agreements to take a look at something a little bit 'off' from the rest of the world. 45 days later, that group of 30 people had grown into an army of more than 10,000 customers. Six months later, it was over 30,000. (yes, that's PAID customers) What started as a 'lil' internet dream turned into a small city... ...an Army - marching out into the world with a vision. We got together again about 10 days ago, and this happened.

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5 Elements of Composition in Photography

I Came across a great article on digital photography today written by Darrin Rowse. Now you ask..What does this have to do with this marketing program, well a whole lot. When you start making those large commissions and see your business grow {A} You will have more money to devote to your hobby what ever that may be, I am into photography, {B} Your time will be all yours to do what you want when you want so watch the video and come and join me and start Building a Business While Having a Life. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain...START TODAY and START TO ENJOY YOUR LIFE !!!!
 
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5 Elements of Composition in Photography
Good Composition is a key element of good photographs yet is something that is hard to define.
Instead of looking at composition as a set of ‘rules’ to follow – I view it as a set of ingredients that can be taken out of the pantry at any point and used to make a great ‘meal’ (photograph). Alternatively I’ve often described it as a set of ‘tools’ that can be taken out of one’s compositional tool belt at any given time in the construction of a great image.
The key is to remember that in the same way as a chef rarely uses all the ingredients at their disposal in any dish – that a photographer rarely uses all of the ingredients of composition in the making of an image.
Today I’d like to look at five of the ingredients (or tools, or elements) of composition that I draw on in my photography. They’re not ‘rules’ – just things that I consider when setting up a shot.

Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/5-elements-of-composition-in-photography#ixzz1xgAqp1lo