Snow Leopard at Woodland Park Zoo

Helen calling her cubs to eat chicken.

The cubs are both girls, and both blind in one eye.  Their brother was euthanized because he had several heart defects and would not have survived much longer.

WHAT ABOUT CONTRAST?

Left: contrast flat Right: too contrasty

I've seen a lot of photos recently where the contrast has made what could have been a great photo, a bad photo.  

Contrast is the variation between the light and dark areas of your photo.  Every photo has a level of contrast, which can be changed in various photo shop type applications.  When a photo has too much contrast there is a greater disparity between the dark and light areas of your photo, hence "too contrasty."  The result might be that the details of the white areas of your photo fade away.  The details in the dark areas might be so dark that you can't see anything, just black.  Going in the other direction might be that there isn't enough contrast so that the photo feels dull, the details are not crisp and everything has a monotone or flat feel.

If you only have a little point and shoot digital camera then make sure you have as much light as possible before you take the photo.  No matter what the lighting source, turn it all on.  Even if part of the lighting is from birthday cake candles, you still need more light.  Fat candles work better than thin candles and don't turn the lights off before you blow out the candles (which is what my family always did when I was a kid).  Always use the built in flash when indoors.  Sometimes even during a sunny day outdoors, you might still need the flash.  I use a flash when my subject is in the shade of a tree and it is a sunny day.  Maybe the subject has his back to the sun, then use the flash.  

So, turn on the lights, use the flash and look for good subjects that have a balance of contrast.

Happy snapping!

It's All In The Framing

It's all in the framing.  A good photo is made by many things - lighting, composition, emotion and framing for example.  Some photographers are all about the framing and it's a good thing.  Don't know what I'm on about?  Then grab a piece of cardboard and cut a 1 inch by 2 inch hole in it, then find an interesting subject and frame it up with your holey cardboard.  You can play with what the photo would potentially look like by moving your cardboard around until you find the most pleasing frame for it.   Practice for a week and then go back to taking photos - I bet your photos will look so much the better for all your hard eye workouts.  

Deliberate Spontaneity

When does taking a photo stop being an abstract and start being a mirror of what the photographer is thinking at that moment?  

If it's just point and click then there's no forethought or premeditation behind what the final product looks like.  And, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this, it's kind of like catch what you can so that the photo is spontaneous.  Then there is the photographer with a keen eye and an awareness of what his, or her, subject might do next. The ability to plan ahead with a final product in mind can be the key to making a great photo.  

The next time you take out your camera give it a go - think of a shot you would like to get and plan for it.  Be ready for when it happens.  In the interim, warm up with being spontaneous but be ready for when that "moment" happens.  I call it "deliberate spontaneity".   You know it the moment it happens.  It's that perfect photo, the one that captures emotion, the essence of someone, their defining moment.

A long time ago there was a big rock... It's still there. Anyone seen it lately? I've entered a photography competition called "Name Your Dream Assignment" - my idea is "Outback to Ocean - The beauty and distress of Australia". It would be a photographic journey from the opal mines meandering past sheep farms through Port Lincoln back to the Barossa and then Adelaide. If you love this idea then log in and vote for my "Outback to Ocean" idea.

Name Your Dream Assignment