Day Thirty - Street Photography Class

I love photographing people, but I'm way out of my comfort zone trying to photograph people on the street. So, I decided to use the money my co-workers at Northrop Grumman gave me as a retirement gift to take Jon Williams "Essentials of Street Photography" course. We had class in the morning. He told us about the "Great Masters" of street photography Henry Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Andre Kerteze, Alfred Eisenstadt, Paul Strand, Minor White, Gary Winogrand, Brassi, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, W. Eugene Smith, Robert Doisneau. He explained the essential of "Street Photography" elements, "It must deal primarily with social aspect of civilization, it must be honest in capture and visual presentation, it must rely on the photographers awareness of street society, the drama, order, disorder, beauty, ugliness,and poignancy. He then taught us where the power and perceived value of street photos come from, he said,"Emotive stimulus by pure visual impact, social relevance to the popular culter as a whole, relevance of the photograp to the individual viewer, prevailing morality, bias, perjudice, and perceptions of reality specific to the viewer, geographical relevance, and historical importance." I hope that some of these photos I took show some of these attributes. Today was a great photography day for me, took 243 photos in a little over three hours.

Quote of the Day: "My true program is summed up in one word: life. I expect to photograph anything suggested by that word which appeals to me." - Edward Weston

Day Thirteen - Our Little Angel & Learning to See More

I took a class from Carol Leigh (see sidebar for link) called "Parts is Parts", which helped me to slow down and to start to look more at what I photograph. You see I use Image stabilizer lenses, so I rarely use a tripod, and I got into the habit of photographing something fast, then I was ready to move on to the next item to photograph, without trying to see if there was more to photograph of the object. Her "Parts is Parts" class really slowed me down.

September the 9th she sent what she calls, "60-Second Photo Lesson from Carol Leigh" the title of the lesson was "20 Photos from One Location Can you Do It?". Todays photos are my answer to her question. This exercise really helps you to slow down and really look at the object you are photographing.