Selfies

I've never been one to take many selfies and whenever I did, they certainly did not turn out well. I wasn't sure why and figured I am just older than I feel and it just showed up when I pointed a lens in my direction.

Over the Christmas season, someone wanted to take a selfie with me and I cooperated. But before she pressed the button she gave a little instruction I wasn't expecting. "Look here," she said, tapping the corner of the screen. The picture turned out fine.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered a photographer on Facebook was about to give a 5-day free course on how to take good selfies using our phones. Well, mine has a crappy camera but I was not about to pass that up!

The instructor, Sab Will, is a well-known street photographer and writer currently working out of Paris. He started us off by having us express any emotion other than the usual happy smile or dreaded duck face where you purse your lips like you are about to give a kiss. He told us to locate the camera lens and look at that instead of our image on the screen. Ah, so that's what my friend was having me do to get the shot she wanted!

Lots of people took the course but not everyone posted the results. Some of them were hilarious though so we were already having fun. Right away I started liking the pictures more than others I had tried to take.  I don't feel you get as much out of a course unless you work it. Sure some likely did the exercises and just didn't post because they are too embarrassed or something, but really, the community atmosphere of any course is what makes them so much fun.

On other occasions Sab had us doing things with reflections and frames and words. He even had us change our point of view at one point.

There was no requirement to use a mirror for reflection ones. Some used windows or other shiny objects. That sometimes distorted the image but that just made it more interesting. I tried a few such surfaces but even he preferred this one with the three-way mirror and the actual image in the phone all at the same time.



 







The lesson about being framed by something gave us choices to be within the frame, have it in front of us, or behind us. A doorway can frame you, but there are lots of more interesting frames to be found if you just look for them or make them, as I did with a belt.

One of my favourite photos resulted from a lesson about looking somewhere other than the camera. I chose to look at one of my own paintings.

Another fun lesson had us include words. We were supposed to find something with words on it that seemed appropriate. Many used a book or a sign.  I had a bit of fun with this one. I'm a housewife so I couldn't resist taking a shot with this can of compressed air in hand.

I'm quite pleased with some of the selfies I have produced while working though this wee course. Oh, by the way, what started out to be a 5-day course stretched to about 2 weeks but still only had 5 separate lessons. Some of the participants said it was hard to fit the challenges in every day with their work schedule, etc. Sab was quick to cooperate.

At the end of the course, Sab honoured some people by posting his favourites and asked the rest of us to post the pictures of others that we liked too, and to tell him why.  Apparently, me peeking through my hoya plant was a big hit. That was one of my framing shots and I started using it as my Facebook profile picture practically as soon as I took it.

The whole experience was well worth the time.

A Creative Smartphone Photography Masterclass will be made available starting in late February.  More info in the link.

Picking Up An Old Hobby

There was a time when I was heavily into photography.  I took the course from the New York Institute of Photography back in the mid 80's and got involved in online photography forums.  The people there helped me along quite a bit, but I don't think I was progressing as quickly as they wanted me to, and I just felt that the time had come when they had basically given up on me.  It was a hobby for me, you see, while most of those folks took it very seriously. 

Still, I had some success without actually trying.  I joined The North Grenville Arts Guild and took part in some art shows and made a few sales right from the start.  I've had photos published both in local and national newspapers, and on the covers of two books. I currently have a long term contract with a developer so he can use my photos in his brochures and on his web page. I have framed photos for sale and hanging in a local business at the owners request.  Last year a lady from California tracked me down and asked me to take some pictures of something local for a book she was writing.  She seemed thrilled with the pictures I sent her.  Yet some how, like the pros on the forums, I never felt that I lived up to the title of Photographer, with a capital P and have drifted away from that pursuit.
Recently I made a new friend who has a strong interest in photography. He talks to me about it all the time, and convinced me to get a Flikr account, not only to share my own photos, but so I can more easily see his.  The two of us gather with another lady once a week for a sort of show and tell where we all tend to learn things from one another, not just about photography, but about painting as well. We seem to have inspired my new friend to take up painting again after so many years, and he has inspired and encouraged  me to pick up the camera again as well.

On Friday the three of us went on a little photo shoot.  We drove down some back roads to see what we could find.  Though we were all taking pictures in the same area, we naturally came up with different shots. It was great fun and I do hope we do it again soon.  It was a good reminder that I don't have to be one of the best in order to enjoy something.  I'm thankful to my friend for rekindling an interest in this particular hobby.

Nothing Natural About Art

In the old days, when I was in a photography forum for many years, the helpful people there would sometimes give me advise that was impossible to follow. They would try to tell me one of my photos would be better if such and such a thing wasn't in the picture, even if it was something that couldn't be avoided. Or they would suggest it might have been better if I had stepped a couple of feet to the left. In such cases I would have fallen off a cliff, or gone over some waterfall. One thing I like about painting is that I can solve some of these problems with a little artistic license.

Last month I mentioned that I was taking an online course to learn how to turn my photographs into paintings, since I had already learned that even the best photo didn't necessarily translate into a successful painting. We have just finished week 3 of 12 today.

Last week we had homework. We were supposed to post a photograph, both before and after cropping it to demonstrate that we have understood what had been taught so far. Now this was a difficult assignment for me since I generally crop in camera, so I had to really look for something that I had forced me to stand in the wrong place in order to take any picture at all.

I found one that fit the bill because there was water where I would likely have preferred to stand. Then I decided afterwards that it wasn't much of a picture anyway, and I certainly never considered painting it.

So I did the cropping, just to show that I understood the various principals that had been introduced the previous week.

I got rid of the excess sky, and anything else that wasn't necessary. This put the centre of interest in the upper left hand intersection of thirds, which is a good spot for a center of interest to be.

I also fixed it so the lead in grass didn't start in the corner, as that's not a good thing for it to do.

Saturday, during class, the instructor pulled up my photo from among those submitted, and after agreeing with the cropping, as far as I had taken it, proceeded to stick it in his Photoshop and use it to illustrate what would need to be done to the picture to make a decent painting out of it.


Firstly off, I know he doesn't like triangles, so I had already said I would deal with that while painting. He showed us all how, and did it for a totally different reason. My crop had the foreground grasses stopping in the wrong place, he said. They should stop at either 1/3 or 2/3 of the way across the bottom of the picture.

He pushed it back to the 1/3 position.

Oh hey, he told us to crop the picture, but never mentioned we could manipulate it.

He also pointed out that the background trees didn't have a very interesting line. I had already noticed that too, and would have stuck some taller ones in there if I had been inclined to paint it.

Then, of course, he didn't like the metal bridge, with all it's straight lines, and suggested I google for some stone bridge and stick that in the painting instead. Oh, and it would be good if I made it taller, so that it overlapped more of the background.

Oh hey wait, this useless photo might make a decent painting yet. It won't in any way resemble the original scene, but apparently it doesn't have to.

I've just learned that if you want to create art, it's best not to let nature get in the way.

What's Stopping You?

Once upon a time I belonged to an arts guild. I was the only photographer in the group, and several of the painters there kept saying I needed to learn to paint. Actually that mostly happened if I turned my camera towards them, which means they didn't like that much, I guess. Anyway, I never could draw and I told them that. They insisted, as artists always do, that you don't need to be able to draw to paint.

One day, when I was home alone, I decided to paint something, just to prove them wrong.  The problem was, I ended up surprising myself, and the resulting painting was more recognizable than I expected. So, I looked around for someone who could teach me how to work with brushes and I found a decorative artist within walking distance of my house.

I painted patterns from books with acrylics, and every once in a while I would bring in a photograph, and try to copy it.  The paintings never turned out the way I intended, so I'd say, "not yet" and go back to the patterns and the instructions in the books.  As time went on though, I did notice some improvement.

Then one day I was  introduced to watercolour and my world changed.  I still tried to trace around what I wanted to paint, but my paintings had more freedom. I was no longer trying to make the paintings look like the photographs. 

 Recently I decided to try painting without drawing any lines on the paper first.  Once again, I amazed myself.  You just never know what you can do until you quit worrying about failing and just try. 

I'm still no great artist, but I do love to paint, and I know I've come a long way.