Where there is no vision, the pictures perish.

In the town where I grew up there was an auto parts store that had a quote from Proverbs painted in large letters on the side of the building:  Where there is no vision, the people cherish.

Well, as you can tell from the title, I am going to paraphrase that just a little:  Where there is no vision, the pictures perish.

When I went outside with my camera to take a picture of this flower, I took my tripod.  I knew I wanted to take a picture of the flower, but I didn't have a vision of what I wanted.  So I just snapped away, trying various compositions.  I didn't even use the tripod.

Now if I had a vision, I would have used the tripod so that I could have closed down the aperture and achieved more depth of field.  But I didn't find this out until I looked at the image on the computer screen.

I don't think my vision would have included a patch of sky peeking through to draw attention away from the flower.  Nor would it have included the light colored rock in the lower left.

And what's up with that tip of a flower petal poking in on the lower right?

Oh well, every experience is a learning opportunity!

Sunset Shadows on Sculpture

It's great to have family and to enjoy their company.  Unfortunately, we don't get to see the ones we love often and long enough.  But last Monday evening, Annette and I went to Gettysburg to see Clayt and Ashley.  We enjoyed it tremendously.

I had my camera and took it out to shoot a tree.  I felt bad about taking time away from Annette, Clayt and Ashley.  So I only took two pictures; neither one quite right.

Then we went over to the Peace Memorial with the "Eternal" flame. On the front of the memorial was this sculpture.  I loved the light on it so I took the time to take three shots of it and then returned to the conversation.

I liked this picture for a couple of reasons.  I like the way the light washes across the sculpture from camera left to camera right.  It shows the "folds" in the dresses.  It makes the birds chest/breast stronger.  It gives dimension to the faces.  Actually it gives dimension to almost every part of the sculpture.

So many photographers when shooting at sunset want that beautiful sky picture, so they face the sun and shoot into the sun. 

And there are some fantastic pictures of sunsets out there!

However, I enjoy looking for the shadows to see how they "inform" the image.  What do the shadows enhance?  What do the shadows hide?

 In the picture above where the man is photographing the sunset (camera left), look at how the main trunk of the tree is darker on the right than on the left.  Look how some of the ridges in the far background are lit and some are not.  And though it is not as obvious, notice how the left side of the tower is brighter than the right.


To do that I look at right angles to the sun light.  Try it.  You might like it!

And now a picture to totally go against what I have been saying.