I hate internet arguments

I fucking hate politics forums. Especially those that cater to the radical left. This is what these internet people look like to me.

(from the white house fence today)

The wishing tree

In DC last summer, was an interesting installation in the hirshhorn sculpture garden. It was a tree, with a box of small paper notes and string. Anyone walking by could write a wish on a blank note, and stick it on the tree.

There were hundreds of these notes around the entire tree. From what I remember, after some time they would all be taken down and sent to the artist in Iceland.

This one said “A world in peace and able to something”

But then I kept walking around, and saw a very sad wish. One from a very peculiar man.

My water is proselytizing me

I am in downtown DC usually every other weekend. A few months back I made my way through the city and walked around 4 miles without drinking anything. While walking past the Washington monument on 17th street, a woman out of fucking nowhere asks “Would you like some free ice water?” Holy fucking yes. I was a point where I could barely walk, and this was like a gift from god. After drinking the entire bottle, I noticed that I had never seen this brand around. Turns out it wasn’t your typical aquafina.

I saw something weird in New York

I was in New York City last week. I didn’t even stay for 24 hours- just a quick overnight trip to go the MOMA.

After a morning of looking at them picassos and them chagalls, I was walking down 54th street when I noticed something strange in the lobby of the Lever House.

I look in the window but cannot quite make out what’s inside. So, I made the choice to walk inside. I was greeted with this sight:

What was it? Well after asking the internet, I found this article:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aLDOe1TUsI74&refer=muse

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — Let others count turtledoves and French hens this yuletide season. Damien Hirst is counting sheep — 30, to be exact, all of them dead.

Beheaded, preserved in formaldehyde and sealed in glass tanks placed on rows of stainless-steel autopsy tables, the wooly slaughter represents Hirst’s most vapid foray into mortality yet.

Titled “School: The Archeology of Lost Desires, Comprehending Infinity, and the Search for Knowledge,” his installation in the lobby of New York’s Lever House is also a display of corporate ego that mars the most serenely designed, glass-walled skyscraper in town.

The difference between amateur and professional Photographers

Amateurs shoot like this:

Professionals shoot like this:

What 9/11 truthers really look like

Back in September I did some photography work on the big march on the 15th down 17th street and penn ave. to the capitol. I was looking back through the shots today and noticed very funny things.

Most notably were the 9/11 conspiracy people. You have more likely than not heard their opinions on the attacks and the president throughout forums, youtube, etc. It is no surprise that they look like idiots in real life.

If it’s not obvious, his shirt says “Investigate 9/11″

And hey a bonus shot from the same day:

What terrorism looks like

Taking pictures of planes is terrorism. But taking pictures of people taking pictures of planes? That’s double terrorism.

Greatest misses

Very rarely do my photos come out perfect. One day I was walking down embassy row when a Lamborghini came over a hill in front of me. I had my Nikon, so I turned it on and took 5 photos. One of which, was at the perfect angle. I had framed the car right, and exposure, shutter speed, everything was perfect, except for one little thing.

Fucking Poles.

How to make better photos

Being a photographer, I have the good fortune of looking through my friend’s sucky vacation photos. The fact of the matter is that most people do not have the skills or the camera to pull off amazing photos. Since I do, I get to write blogs like this telling people why their wrong (I also get a great excuse to whore out my photos). Anyway, I was in Iceland last November and took around 500 photos over 5 days in Reykjavik and the surrounding area. While there, I visited the famous Blue Lagoon. I took alot of photos of the lagoon, but most notably these two. I decided to write this blog based on them, because of the major difference between the photos. This is the first:

Technically, it’s not a bad photo. Unfortunately, it looks much like many uninspired snapshot of touristy places that I see the world over. In this photo, I excluded almost all of the rules and guidelines that I know and take into consideration when taking a photo. After looking at the scene again, I walked around, and took this:

I got alot of praise for the second photo. I have sold it a few times on a stock photo site. It’s also a good exercise in how to make a great photo. Both were taken with the same camera and the same settings. Let’s compare and contrast:

#1 – Composition

Why photo #1 sucked:

The biggest difference between both photos is the composition. In the first, I centered the bridge. That was a major mistake on my part. The bridge is major subject, but by centering it, I lost all emphasis on that surreal landscape of mountains and fog behind it. Come on-who is going to care about that wooden bridge when you have that lagoon in the background.

Why photo #2 was great:

In the second photo, I fixed the problem of de-emphasizing the lagoon. by moving off to the side and lowering the bridge to the very bottom of the frame. That way, it isn’t blocking the mountains, and instead of making the lagoon itself a background, the lagoon becomes part of the subject. The bridge is no longer isolated but now contributes to the scene as a whole. Also, It just looks a tad more interesting from the side.

On top of that, I added more emphasis on the big gradient visible in the sky. The problem in this scene was that I could not find a ‘perfect’ way of showing the lagoon as a whole with making the photo look like a snapshot. The sun was low (actually the sun is like that the whole day in November) and everyone knows how damn pretty sunsets are, so what better way to improve a photo than to combine a sunset and a surreal landscape?

What you should do:

Experiment. If you have a subject, play around with composition. Take several photos, from close up, far away, to the left, from below, etc. If you don’t know about the rule of thirds yet, educate yourself about it.

Tip:

In alot of instances, the best thing you can do is move out of a standing position to something else to get a shot. A person is usually around 5 1/2 to 6 feet tall. Since most of the time you would hold a camera up to your face, this is the range where a vast majority of photos are taken. To make things really interesting, you can move away from this natural POV of a person to something one wouldn’t normally see. If you are photographing children or pets, this is essential. Get down to their level and shoot from there.

#2 – Framing

Why photo #1 sucked:

The scene just did not work from the normal framing of the camera. Something was always in the way, or I couldn’t get the subject right without introducing something distracting in the background, like the lagoon’s facilities or people. I have the bridge, and I tried to capture the steam and rocky hills way back, but small man made island in the front blocked it from view on the left side of the frame.
Why photo #2 was great:

I tilted the camera to eliminate everything except the bridge and sky. I did have to sacrifice having the lagoon as the main subject, but hey, the photo turned out a whole lot better by including the sky and excluding just about everything else. A little bit of that same island is still in frame, but it’s way off to the side, and is compressed between the edge of the photo and the details of the bridge, almost as if it’s not there at all.
What you should do:

Do what I do and look at the scene both with the camera in normal position and tilted 90 degrees. Many times, the composition and cropping is pulled off very well in vertical mode.

Tip:

Don’t ever cut off part of your subject. When you are framing your subject, your first priority is to take a shot of whole damn subject. For example, don’t do this:

(Interestingly enough this was in the United States)

We can see it’s a smart car, but I made a mistake in not moving off to get the whole car in frame (or even the rest of that guy’s face). It just makes for a poor photo. Don’t do it. Ever.

#3 – Lighting

Why photo #1 sucked:

Even though the sun was low and providing a high contrast scene, I decided to ignore that and go for the low contrast mid tones in the lagoon. This was a mistake. I tried to go for a surreal scene, but it came off as rather dull.

Why photo #2 was great:

I was able to take advantage of the ambient lighting of the atmosphere to not only light the bottom half of the photo, but to also produce a big gradient of blue over the top half of the photo. It made for a great effect, and the high contrast between the light and dark values of the shot add dynamic tension to the scene.

What you should do:

Remember that lighting changes throughout the sky, and your scene. On top of that, lighting is dynamic and will change throughout the day. Early morning lighting is very different from noon lighting, as is mid-afternoon light. Your subject will always look different depending on the time of day, and your position relative to the sun.

Tip:

Unless you are going for a very specific shot or effect, try to avoid shooting into the sun at all costs. Not only are you going to have the sky as a large blown-out white area of the photo, but your scene will be backlit. If it is a portrait, you should use flash on your subject when the sky is infront of you. If it is a landscape however, then try at another time of the day to get the photo.

#4 - Post Production

Why photo #1 sucked:

It was straight from the camera. I didn’t do anything to it after pressing the shutter.

Why photo #2 was great:

It’s not obvious but I put alot of work into the photo in adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. I’m not going to go into detail, because I’m piss poor at describing photoshop techniques. But anyway, here is what the photo looked like straight out of the camera:

What you should do:

Get some editing software, and learn how to use it. Photoshop is by far the best. If you can’t afford it, go for adobe photoshop elements. It’s the same software with the professional tools removed. It’s also 1/6th the price of photoshop. Many photos can look much, much better with a little bit of added saturation, contrast, etc.

Tip:

I know photoshop comes with alot of very cool looking filters. Don’t use them. I don’t care if you like using them. They are horrible in every way imaginable. Also, don’t ever fucking use lens flare. It’s cliche and you will look like an idiot next to someone who knows what they are doing. If you want a photo to look great, just use the levels, curves, saturation, crop, color filters (sparingly) and shadow/highlight tools. The clone/healing tools should only be used to remove dust spots and small, annoying things in photos.

Also:

I don’t care if you consider photoshop as ‘cheating’. Very rarely do photos come out perfect directly from the camera. My photos look better than most others because along with learning photographic techniques, I also learned how to use professional software to create masterpieces.

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What I have covered however, is very little compared to what I can say about both. I would cover color balance, form, reflections, etc. but these are poor examples for those subjects.

Side note:

I like photos that lie. That’s why I love my blue lagoon photo. Whenever I tell people I went to Iceland, I usually end up showing them this photo and I tell them that is what iceland is like. In reality that was no other place in Iceland looks like the blue lagoon (actually no other place in the world does). The truth is that Iceland in the winter is a cold, desolate wasteland that no one should ever go to, ever. The blue lagoon itself is located in an old lava flow – which means that to get from Reykjavik to the blue lagoon, this is what you have to first drive through for 45 minutes before you reach it: