stretching myself simpler

Over the weekend, I headed out to a familiar wooded area to stretch myself.  I took a lens that I usually love to hate, and decided on pushing myself into a creative corner of simpler compositions.  I walked into the woods at a very slow and contemplative pace for 45 minutes, but when I ran out it only took 3. It was an interesting exercise that surprised me in the results.

camera button friday - the 'black box' of the bosnia video/photo shoot

As an InterVarsity student 10 years ago, I participated in the Bosnia Global Project; a twinning relationship between the IFES movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Surf and Turf Region in California.  This was a monumental summer in my development as a person, leader, and global Christian.  Finally being able to return to document this now 13 year partnership has been one of my goals as a 2100 story teller.  Amy and I were there for 14 days, one of the longest shoots I have been on, but in the end we realized why we needed so much time.

The term "Black Box" is often used to explain an unknown process, like a business or decision making.  Some have devoted entire blogs to the process of explaining this Black Box of photography and video. In my own experiences, I have found that it is more of a mindset than a set of steps or parameters.   That mindset is more of a "do the best you can with what you have" attitude, pared with a "willingness to roll with what is thrown at you". Every shoot I have been on has required me to forget almost 1/2 of my plans and make up new ones.  No matter how much I know this, it still catches my off guard.  

But the new lesson I learned in Bosnia was in the "how to gain access to your subject" category.  I would have never thought that this would required us to participate so much instead of observing with our cameras.  We were forced to take coffee, eat food, walk, talk, and participate in "culture" for hours before breaking out the camera. Yes, poor us.  At first this worried me because of how expensive (time wise) it was to get only a couple shots.  But once we realized this, it made total sense, Bosnian students thrive on just being together for long periods of time.  We "knew" this, but it is a little ironic that we were trying to capture a part of the culture that we fell pray to.  In the end it yielded great shots that were more authentic and true to the project.

Almost half the time we were planning on shooting was devoted to "gaining access" by interacting with our subjects; by the end of the shoot I was glad had to had the 14 days to spend.

It is interesting that most of what we experienced ourselves has nothing to do with the final video, but it is necessary to capture the footage required for that video:  

After 2 pickpocket attempts, facing changed plans that don’t allow us to shoot video, being locked INSIDE an apartment for 12 hours, sleeping on lumpy beds, filming in the rain several days strait, and getting car sick…our project is only 25% done.  Now we need to edit.

Of course, I can reword our experience with another list too: 

After consuming 2-3 freshly baked croissants or krofna per day, drinking the strongest coffee known to man, eating amazing fresh cevapi smothered in kajmak, refreshing ourselves with $.75 gelato (but worth $3), walking the streets of a historically and religiously charged city, exploring the ruins of an ancient castle that predated the Ottoman Empire, and meeting extremely friendly and hospitable students...our project is only 25% done.  Now we get to edit.

An intro/part 1 to this project can be found here.

balcony garden

Sometimes, you just have to get out and shoot...with or without an excuse.  I found myself "itching" to shoot this weekend so I took the opportunity to try out a new toy tool by shooting Sarah planting her balcony garden, one of two she is working on this year.

"The hard part about gardens, is that you never know if they will turn out." - Sarah

Photo lesson: I kept trying to remind myself not to chase moments. Something I have been teaching others this past year, but still needed to practice.  If you are not going to direct every movement your subject makes, you have to be ready before they do the action that you want to capture. For example; if I wanted to get Sarah pouring dirt into the pot I would need to be at the pot (focused and have my composition) before she got there.  This sounds easy but the temptation is to chase the action: while I was getting ready for my shot she was doing something else interesting (gathering soil) and if I would have been distracted by that I would not have been getting ready for the next shot.  If you find yourself saying, "Wait, wait, do that again" they you are chasing moments.

the first shot

The past 3 times I have gone for photo walks, my favorite images has been the first (or second) shot I take.  (Disclosure: I mean subject really, because I will "work a subject" with many photos to get the right shot.)  Not sure why my favorite has been so early because usually it is later when I get into a grove, but I find it interesting.

This was just supposed to be an example of compression to the people that were with me:

This was found in the parking lot as I waited for others to arrive.

Second shot (or second subject) and the reason I pulled over and parked here anyway.

the fog I wanted

Yesterday (see that post here) I ventured out with a photo group to try B&W photography in the dreary and rainy weather.  I was hoping for fog and didn't get it.  But this morning was amazing! It even decided to hang around until after church for me to play in.  So I tried the same thing we did yesterday, only a different area of the UW Arboretum.

Fog is lovely because it shows depth.  The farther elements are from your camera, the softer they seam.  In B&W you can't rely on color to separate elements in your photo because there similar tones blend together, but here fog is doing that for me by creating different tones.

B&W on a grey day

To be honest, I have been shooting a lot of photos recently...just all of my 8 month old daughter, so it was good to get out with the Black Hawk Church Photo Group and make some images.  (Granted as soon as I got home I took more photos of her, I just can't help myself.)  Our challenge was to create some B&W's on this dreary and slightly rainy day.  I was hoping for more rain actually, the more drastic the weather, the more dramatic the photos.  Oh well, still fun.

The UW Arboretum (where we want to hike) can feel a little messy....visually messy.  There are a lot of branches going all over the place that can cause photos to look very disorganized.  I tried to focus on shape, form, lines, and contrast.  With black and white you need to rely on the shape of your subject (pattern or form too) and not color to know what you are looking at, and having a good black and white point will contain your subject.  Too much of any of these elements and you get to disorganized.  Having too much was easy with so many branches and trees (all the same tone in B&W by the way) going in all different directions.  So I tried to simplify, and look for simple contrast.