The agenda is a great resource for what the club has done and plans for future activities and workshops. Three new members have joined so the club continues to grow. This month two activities were featured on the Facebook page. We are coming into the hot months of summer so planned outdoor activities are limited. I have an activity in August to photograph the full moon over the City of Houston on August 19th if the weather cooperates! If you are interested in the June 21st Ship Channel Cruise, there are only 10 tickets available online. For questions please contact Jim Schepens at jlskep@aol.com.
The Cove Craft Beer and Wine was flooded but they saved our photos from the flood. We’ll have an in-person speaker next month, David Valdez. His program will recount his years as The President’s Photographer! Should be interesting. The next meeting will be June 18th, the assignment is “Landscapes with People” and a thank you to the members who shared photos in May.
The May meeting included a fantastic program by our speaker Bryan Hansel. Zooming in from northern Minnesota his presentation included examples of Composition, Additive, and Subtractive. Starting with the simplest scene at your location add one or more compositional elements to bring more interest to the scene. His photos show the process that he follows by walking around and finding additional elements to enhance the photo. Subtractive is just the opposite. You photograph the entire scene then you begin to subtract elements until the composition is the strongest.
Simplicity – Flow – Relationships, how do these all relate in a photo? The first rule of composition: There are no rules, dito for the second rule and the third rule is refer back to rules #1 and #2. He read a quote from Edward Weston “To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.” Three things are needed for a good photo: Simplicity of subject matter; Visual Flow and balance to create direction for your viewer and Relationships between all elements.
Simplicity incorporates shapes, forms, lines, patterns, textures, and colors. Straight lines add energy compared to curved lines that slow the viewer’s eyes and are more calming. Looking for repeating patterns and textures can be regarded as very strong compositional elements. Color can be very impactful. Whether it is a bold single color or a combination of colors. The color wheel can be of great help when dealing with colors
These are some of the color combinations that he talked about with examples of his photography to add emphasis to the subject matter.
Flow is another element to consider. How do you balance a photo, is the visual weight balanced on the left and right sides of the photo? Visual weight will draw your eye like a bright area, a contrasty area, people are weighty and motion. Dark areas hold little weight. As an exercise, take a photo and draw an imaginary line down the middle. Does it feel balanced? A well-balanced photo will help move the eyes of the viewer around the photo.
Relationships include three points in a landscape – foreground, middle, and background. Foreground, what is in front of you, is the introduction to your photograph and the first item that grabs your viewer’s interest. It can help direct the eye to the subject of the photo, the middle, or the background. The height of your tripod can modify the relationship between the foreground and the background. If the background is uninteresting moving closer to the foreground can be more impactful. Focal length can also modify the relationship between foreground and background. Take photos at different focal lengths by zooming in but keeping your foreground in focus to see the effect.
Finally, he talked about Style. Style includes photographing subjects that we like and how we visualize them. As we develop our skills we’ll see repeating patterns in our images and realize that is part of our style. He mentioned that he likes photographing in natural areas and he likes putting a canoe as a foreground element in them. He showed a very early photo that was totally unlike any of his current photos but was a good example of how he has developed his style.
Mike and I attended a Milky Way photo tour with Bryan and he was an excellent teacher, he has lived in MN for decades and knows all the best spots. We were very lucky that the skies cleared so we had beautiful night skies on the shores of Lake Michigan. Below is his information for anyone interested in one of his workshops or signing up for his blog that he e-mails out. He said teaching is a way to give back to his teachers and it motivates him as a photographer. A very nice person and an excellent teacher in a workshop.
Hope to see you all next month! Stay safe and hopefully, we’ll dry out in a few days.
We are now upstairs with plenty of room for members!
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