Lean Pickings

Lean pickings today.   More haste less speed.  I met a girl who uses the dark as her backdrop, she shoots at night using a very slow shutter speed of 20 seconds, allowing her to add and remove elements creating magical scenes.   I didn’t try that today, but tried the very opposite in afternoon light to capture the essence of her theory by using a very fast shutter speed where the light is captured clearly and the rest of the elements fade away against my trusty black cloth.  She also uses glass domes which I found interesting as the light captured on the glass makes an interesting visual display.

I used the Fibonacci Ratio for cropping with the orchid, hoping the viewers’ eye will travel from dark into the light.  I’m not a mathematician (36% in Grd 8) so if I got it wrong too bad I love it reminds me a little of Tretchikoff too!

Fibonacci Ratio is a powerful tool for composing your photographs, and it shouldn’t be dismissed as a minor difference from the rule of thirds. While the grids look similar, using Phi can sometimes mean the difference between a photo that just clicks, and one that doesn’t quite feel right.

That’s it from me for today.  Last but not least here’s a nice quote:  “The photographer has almost as much control over his subject matter as a painter. He can control light and shade, form and space, pattern and texture, motion and mood, everything except composition.

- Andreas Feininger, The Best of Popular Photography by Harvey V. Fondiller

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