Light, Shadow, and Texture.

Hand by Alleah

There are  few simple truths to photography- photography  literarily means "writing with light," so without it or with poor light, the images will be poor as well.  That light produces shadow, which in many cases becomes the secondary point of interest in a photograph.  That same light also accentuates texture, another element of art that is so crucial in photography.

In this image by high school photographer Alleah, all three of those photographic elements are demonstrated to a successful degree.  The subject matter, whether one decides is the hand, the light, the shadow....is up to the viewer.  The interpretation of the image is also up to each individual-loneliness? Darkness? A touch, a loss?  We all approach a photograph from our own past, our own experiences, which is why photography can be so powerful.

When I first saw this image, I looked at it from a technical perspective-perfect light, shadow, texture and composition.  It was only later when re-visiting it that I started to look deeper into it-what does it mean to me?  What did it mean to the photographer?  The test for me is can I go back to a picture over and over and still like it...a lot.  I do.

Hundreds and hundreds of photographs are made in this class......it's refreshing to come across a few that really stand out-and touch our visual being.

Nice Suprises

Haley's Water

With a Fall semester class and a Spring on that follows, we get a chance to photograph completely different subjects at times.  Each semester I like to get the students down to the Listeman Arboretum just on the edge of town.  It's just a 3 or 4 minute ride and contains enough variety to give the students ample opportunities to make pictures.  The fall of course presents bright colors and in the spring the new growth carpets the forest floor.  When we make this outing, I try to instill in the students they need to try and "see" things differently-sometimes that's accomplished by changing the camera's (and our) perspective-moving in, getting down, shooting from above, backing off....whatever it takes.  Also, don't hesitate to press the shutter-out of hundreds of images, maybe there are really only a few that will make the cut.

One that really did was the photograph above-Haley had spend a good deal of time along the Black River, which runs along the arboretum.  Fall color reflected in the water so the obligatory wide landscape shots were taken (by maybe all of us) and some of the rapids that flow through here.  Haley took those, but I think one of the best pictures was this close up of the water-with color above and below the surface.    The variety of color, of shape and a near perfect composition set this image apart from so many others on this day.  I know for me-it just presents a feeling of what fall is-pretty hard to describe in words, but sometimes photographs do a much better job.  Sometimes editing hundreds of photographs and viewing more, one comes across a nice surprise-this surely is one of the best.

Past student-High Key

High Key-Abby

Atypical class day is looking through recent blog posts to see who put up new words and pictures.  Frustratingly lately, there have been few.  When work is posted, I'm excited to see what photographs have been shot, what manipulations have been applied and if assignments have been fulfilled. Again, that fulfillment has been lukewarm at best lately and I try to get across that the shutter has to be pressed....a lot in order to have successful images to share.

When students venture outside of classwork, and experiment with their camera, or in editing software, it can be really rewarding for me to see what they see.  A past student, Alyssa, was (is?) someone like that.  In class one day we ran across a high key photo and talked about how to shoot them or edit images to get that effect.  It wasn't long and she fired off 50 or 100 frames of her favorite subjects (brother and sisters) and posted up the best.  This one was my favorite-the composition, reflection in the eyes and the slight smile.  A great photograph in my opinion.  Just reinforces the thought that experimentation can pay off.