Making Zoom Abstracts

Given the comments made to the blog about my image "The Road Less Traveled", I thought that it might be worthwhile to talk about how one can think about and plan these types of images.

'The Road Less Traveled'
Copyright Howard Grill

Once a scene has been chosen on which this effect is to be tried, I think there are two very important initial steps to consider. The first is how much to zoom. I start by framing the image with the shortest focal length that I want to use as a starting 'size' for the shot. I then zoom out and choose the longest focal length I want for the shot. In the example above, I wanted the road to approach the left side of the image without 'spilling' out of the frame. By organizing the image this way, I can determine the starting and finishing focal lengths for the zoom. I don't just zoom the entire available focal length of the lens.

The second issue is to decide where you want the zoom to seem to emanate from. The lens should be centered at this location. Said another way, the center of the image in the viewfinder is where the zoom will seem to emanate from and so this should be carefully placed while the lens is set to the shortest focal length that is going to be used for the shot. If you ultimately don't want that point to be located in the very center of the image, the photograph can be cropped later.

In "The Road Less Traveled", I wanted the zoom to appear to emanate from the trees and not the road. Here is an example of the zoom emanating from the road (there are also some inevitable differences in the speed of the zooming), which I don't think is as pleasing as when it comes from the trees. The effect is more apparent in larger images. Clicking on the image will show a larger version.

Zoom Emanating From Roadway
Copyright Howard Grill

Once the range of focal length to be used for the image has been determined and the image is properly centered you are ready to go.

The camera should be on a tripod so that the zoom lines are straight. The shutter speed can be varied by changing the aperture. The actual aperture isn't overly important as nothing is truly sharp, though I have not experimented very much with different apertures. Various effects can be had by changing the zoom speed and whether you start zooming from the immediate initiation of the exposure or not. Things also look a bit different when you zoom from longer focal lengths to shorter ones, though I prefer the look when going from shorter to longer.

The key thing is that there are no real rules. The suggestions above are just how I do it. Experiment. Break these guidelines and see what you get. Part of the fun of these sort of techniques, particularly when shooting digitally, is to try lots of different variations. Generally, you might only like a small percentage of the shots you try, but when it works it really can be very appealing.

Away In The Smokies

No, the blog is not dead! I haven’t posted in over a week because I have been away and didn’t think it prudent to broadcast that fact over the internet.

I have been off on a photographic journey to the Smoky Mountains on my second workshop with Nancy Rotenberg. Since my first workshop with her, she has been joined by Don McGowan and Les Saucier to form ‘Photography With Heart’. I could talk on and on trying to describe what a workshop with Nancy, Les, and Don is like, but I am sure that I would not be able do the experience justice. Let’s just say that their workshops embody all the emotional and spiritual journey that photography can and should be. It simply doesn't get any better.

I will certainly post more images and thoughts from the trip, but for the moment, and until I unpack, I offer just an image or two:

'Balance'

Copyright Howard Grill

'The Road Less Traveled'
Copyright Howard Grill

Placement In The Frame II

In yesterdays post entitled "Placement In The Frame" , I discussed an image from the standpoint of the 'correct' placement of a single object in the frame as it relates to languauge. Kal commented that, based on that discussion, I should try placing the stalk of grass at the lower left instead of the lower right and see how that made the image 'feel'. DUH! Why didn't I think of that!!!

So I gave it a try based on the idea that, for people whose language reads left to right, it would be the most natural (unless one wants to generate a feeling of tension) to place a single object to the left, where the eye wants to naturally fall first. To my eye it makes a difference. I like it better. Instead of having the eye fall on blank white space first, it falls on the grass, whose bend then leads the viewer into the white space.

Surviving Winter
Copyright Howard Grill

At first I thought I was just trying to convince myself of something....but, no, I think it does look more pleasing.

What do you think?

Placement In The Frame

In a prior post entitled "Linguistics And Emotion", I wrote about the placement of a single isolated subject within the frame and how one's native language can influence that placement. In that post I had presented an image and stated that:

"In cultures where language is read from left to right, images that ‘flow’ from left to right (or have an isolated subject placed on the left) are said to feel more peaceful than those which have a flow in the opposite, or right to left direction. The theory is that eye movement from right to left goes against the natural tendency for people to ‘read’ an image from left to right, thereby causing a sense of tension. In cultures where written language is read from right to left, the opposite is said to be true."

Well, I have been working on an image in which I feel the exact opposite is true, and thought that it might be interesting to present it. The image, which I entitled 'Surviving Winter', is of a minimalist nature, bit it seemed to express to me the idea of the brutal solitary existence needed to survive the winter season.

My first version of the image was this one:

Surviving Winter
Copyright Howard Grill

However, as I began experimenting with different variations I felt that this final version, with the stalk of grass placed at the lower right, was the one that just 'felt right':

Surviving Winter
Copyright Howard Grill

Perhaps it is not only the placement of the grass in the frame that is playing a role here.....maybe it also has to do with the direction that the grass stalk seems to be pointing or blowing towards. Perhaps the grass 'wants' room in the frame to blow into, which it gets in the final version, instead of blowing out of the frame as it does in the initial version. Again, I am not certain why, but it seemed to me that the lower right of the frame was the best location to place the single stalk of grass, as opposed to the upper left.

Do you agree?

It makes me wonder if the supposed explanation I gave in my earlier post really 'holds water'.

The Print As Gold Standard

Today’s e-world has opened a multitude of ways for artists and photographers to make their work accessible for viewing. No longer must one have a gallery exhibition or a published book under their belt to garner an audience. With only a computer, one can open their own website, post images to collaborative websites, send images via e-mail, generate downloadable pdf portfolios, and publish e-books.

These are all marvelous and, for the most part, relatively new ways to share, market, and even sell images. But, for me, the most important end product is still the print…..the tangible, mountable, frameable, and ‘hangable’ hard copy print. There is still something special about being able to experience, examine and even pick up an image that carries with it the unwritten statement that it is the final common expression of an idea; that it is the best output that the artist was able to achieve. Simply put, there can be no question that the print is the way the artist meant for the image to be seen, as even with monitor calibration there still ends up being, at least in my experience, some variation in the way an image appears on different computers. Once printed, it has been set free by the artist and is now part of the viewers experience .

Interestingly, it doesn’t usually take me very long to bring a photograph from a RAW file to a low-resolution, internet ready image. However, to turn that RAW image into a ‘perfected’ large print that I am ready to ‘set free’ can take quite a bit of time indeed. I think that is interesting. I think that perhaps there is a message in that.

Cole Thompson

One of the things that I like best about subscribing to and reading a wide variety of photography magazines is discovering artists/photographers whose work I enjoy, but had not previously known about. I recently, via Camera Arts Maragzine, discovered Cole Thompson. His black and white images are hauntingly beautiful and luminescent; they really strike a chord with me.

Rather than my trying to describe them, why not take a trip down to his website and see if they have the same effect on you.

His work can be viewed here.

Warming Up

I often find, when starting to take photographs in a specific area, that there is one idea for an image that fairly quickly comes to mind. I may well know that there are likely better approaches to creating the image, but I don't fight that initial urge, even though I know that it is not likely to yield the best shot that I can get at a specific location. Instead, I give in to the urge and take the shot. After all, it is not as if I am using 8 x 10 inch sheet film. I consider fulfilling that initial urge akin to 'warming up'.

Once I take that initial shot, which inevitably is a fairly standard view, the fun begins. I try to force myself to see the area differently. Often, the best way for me to do this is to force myself to look at things from a different perspective even though I might not have pre-visualized the photo from that viewpoint. Nonetheless, it helps to move around and actually get down...or climb up....and look through the viewfinder to see how changing perspective, position and orientation makes the scene look.

I was taking some photographs of a waterfall for the Twin Jewels Project and, after taking a few of what I would call 'standard' shots, decided to try some different angles to see what I could come up with. My favorite image of the falls was this one, from almost directly underneath it. I took several photos, each with different shutter speeds, but ended up liking this one, as it is different from the type of waterfall images I typically make. For this photograph, I chose to use an intermediate shutter speed in order to partially freeze the moving water instead of the long shutter opening I would typically use to get silky water. This final image is significantly different, both in appearance and perspective, from my original 'warming up' shot.

'Over The Top'
Copyright Howard Grill