This week’s photography challenge is to get out and do some landscape
photography. Specifically hills, valleys and mountains – get out into
some natural landscape.
Some ideas to get started:
By Centurion
By rachel_thecat
By Justin Brown
By Earthwatcher
By arbyreed
By *Light Painting*
By Daniel Peckham
By Mark Wassell
Show us your mountain and hill images
Simply upload your shot into the comment field and
they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to
your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them.
Okay, ready to impress us?
Share this article.
5 Good Reasons to Add People into Your Landscape Photography
Are you looking for a way to spice up your landscape photography?
Many times when we think of making great landscapes image,s we try not
to include people. Sometimes we even wait for long periods of time for
other sightseers (or other photographers) to exit our view. There are
many times this is the best technique for shooting a landscape photo,
but adding the human element to a scene can be just the extra touch
needed to create a great image. Let’s take a look at 5 reasons to add people to your landscape images.
This surfer is done for the day. Normally it is preferable that a person faces into the photo, but
exceptions may work too.
#1 Tell a Story
Adding a person to your landscape can help your image tell a story.
People, or even a single individual, may add mystery and adventure to
your landscape, causing your viewers to wonder who, what, and why about
the person in your image. When your viewers ask these questions, their
eyes will stay engaged with your image, adding entertainment value to
the photo. An image of a person standing in front of a grand mountain
range may cause the viewer to wonder what that individual is doing
there. If the person has a backpack and a walking stick, the viewer may
imagine a hike in the mountains is about to commence. Or maybe the
person in your shot is carrying a rifle and wearing camouflage, leading
the viewer to imagine a hunter heading into the woods in search of
adventure. A person can be the subject of the image or interact with the
landscape of the image; but either way, if the person fits into the
image’s story, your landscape will draw the viewer in and the photo will
tell a successful tale.
This image tells the story of a man thinking about his former career working on a river boat.
#2 Composition
Placing a person or persons in an image in negative space can add
balance to your landscape. A person in the foreground, or mid-way into
your scene, will help create a sense of depth in the image. When you
have the opportunity to position the person, take care to place them in
the image in a way that draws the viewer into the image. Place your
subject off to the side, preferably on a rule of thirds point,
with them facing into the open space. It is almost never a good idea to
have a person looking or facing out of your image, as this will cause a
viewer’s eye to leave the image rather than explore the image fully.
Nevertheless, with every rule of composition there are exceptions that
will work. Knowing the rules of composition, when to use them, and when to break them, will help you when adding a person to your image.
This couple taking a selfie is placed in a rule of thirds position, and fills a negative space on the beach.
#3 Scale of Size
Adding a human to an image is a great way to reveal the size and
scale of objects in your image. Without the person in many images,
objects like trees and rocks may lack a scene of scale. The addition of a
person immediately gives your viewer a point of reference and scale to
the landscape.
Adding the silhouetted figure at the end of the cave gives a sense of scale and also adds a focal
point to the image.
#4 Drama and Excitement
Silhouetting someone against a sunset or other backlit view, is a
perfect example of how a person can help create a more dramatic image.
Even the simplest of landscapes can become more interesting and exciting
by adding people within the image. Photographing a couple holding hands
as they interact with the landscape can add the drama of romance to
your image.
A
silhouetted father and son playing in the surf at sunset add drama to
an image that would otherwise
be just another sunset along the shore.
#5 Focal Point
A successful photo needs a focal point that gives the viewer’s eye a
place to land to hold their attention, and adding people can achieve
that. It is important to add a point of interest that will change a
boring landscape into a striking one. Most landscapes have natural
features or buildings as a point of focus, but adding a person can
sometimes make for a much more interesting image. As mentioned earlier,
at times you may have negative space in the foreground of your
landscape, and by adding a person into your scene that negative space is
filled, and your image will benefit from the balance. As a focal point,
the person in your image can be the subject of the scene, or a
complement to your landscape.
This couple sitting on a rock enjoying the fall colors, placed on the rule of thirds, creates romantic
drama.
Tip:When adding a person or persons to your
landscape, try to keep their face (s) obscure. This will allow the
viewer to imagine themselves as the participant in the image.
Many times adding a person to your landscape image can be as
serendipitous as people just wandering into your viewfinder, especially
if you are visiting a park or popular scenic area. But if you are out
alone in an interesting area, use yourself as the person in the scene.
Place your camera on a tripod, set the timer, then add yourself into the
image. Next time you are engaged in a landscape photo shoot, look for
opportunities to add one or more persons to one of your images, and see
if you like the results. You may be surprised at the difference you see.
Many landscape locations are powerful enough to stand on their own,
but if your image needs a little spice, try adding a human. What other
kinds of landscape scenarios do you think could benefit from adding a
person to create a more interesting image? Leave your ideas in the
comments below.
Jagged peaks, precipitous drops, deep and sweeping valleys:
mountainous landscapes are unquestionably some of the most photogenic
places on the planet. It shows too – take a look at any photo magazine
or website, and you are likely to find not just one or two, but dozens
of images of mountains.
Mountains are a landscape torn apart by the steady pressure of plate
tectonics and erosion, and in that drama is the potential for
spectacular photography. Why then are so many images of
mountains boring? Because landscape drama does not always translate well
into photographic drama, without the right combination of factors.
Though there are really too many of these to name, I think five are
particularly important: foreground, light, color (or lack of it),
juxtaposition, and perspective.
Before we dive in, I want to make it very clear that there are as
many different methods for making successful images of mountains as
there are mountains themselves. Not every image has to have a compelling
foreground, nor does of every image have to contain dramatic color or
light. These five points are suggestions and starting places, not a
formula. That noted, let’s get started:
1. Foreground
Foreground serves a number of purposes in a landscape; among these
are depth and scale, setting details, and to provide a starting point
for the path through the image. Foregrounds are tricky, done wrong they
can make an image confusing, misleading, or unbalanced.
I’m a sucker for a good foreground. I love the way a well placed
element can echo and balance features in the background, provide detail
to a larger scene, and lead the viewer’s eye neatly into the photograph.
The
autumn colors in the close foreground provide a good starting place for
this image, guiding the eye to the winding river and then onto the
stormy mountains beyond.
Water
is a great foreground subject, and in this image of a wind-tossed lake,
the water plays double
duty, providing color and interest, while the
texture is reminiscent of the mountains in the background.
2. Light
Lighting may be the single most important aspect of a successful
image. While backlight, and front light can work under some
circumstances, mountains thrive in side-light. Light from the side
brings out the shadows, and detail in the ridges, cliffs, and rolling
slopes. It provides contrast and drama.
Images of big landscapes, like mountains, rely on natural light to
for illumination, so you are really at the whim of the weather. Cloudy
days can flatten the light, while midday sun will drown out shadows and
turn pleasing contrast into an eye-squinting mass off whites and blacks.
Successful images can arise from these challenging scenarios, but
low-angle side-light makes our lives as photographers so much easier.
This
detail shot of a mountainside in Alaska’s Brooks Range, despite being
front-lit, retains some
drama thanks to the patchy sunlight.
A
case where backlight worked to my advantage was when the mountains,
darkened to silhouette, appeared to cradle this ring around the sun
(caused by high elevation clouds).
Classic side light on Denali peaks of the Alaska Range, from Reflection Pond in Denali
National Park, Alaska.
3. Color (or lack of it)
Bright colors (not artificially saturated) attract the eye. This is
particularly true in images of mountains. Sunset and sunrise, colorful
foregrounds, and bright blue alpine skies, will help catch and hold the
gaze of a viewer.
As I think about it, this goes very tidily with #2 (Light). Good light very often equates to good color. The better the light quality, the more vivid the colors of the scene become. Get one, and you often get the other.
None of this is to say that an image has to have bright colors to be
successful. Low-saturation images can be moody and brooding. Storms and
winter images are two examples where colors may not be rich, but do not
hurt the final image. These photos thrive on the drama of the scene,
rather than their colors.
In black and white images, color is absent, and yet can result in a
rich portrayal of the mountains. In such images, contrast and mood play
an even more important role.
A note on Black and White: when factors like light and color are not in your favor, a black and white conversion
can often be a great tool. I’ve made numerous images on flat-light days
that converted well to black and white, when a true-color image would
have been dull and muted.
I
made this image of peaks in the Bolivian Altiplano at mid-morning when
the near-equitorial sunlight
was hot and bright. It doesn’t look
particularly good in color.
Convert the above image to black and white, however, and the photo comes alive in a way it wouldn’t
otherwise be able.
4. Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is defined as: “two things placed together with
contrasting effect”. In photography, that contrast can be literal; light
versus dark contrast, colors (bright versus subtle), tonality (hot or
cool), or, perhaps most effectively, the subject matter.
All of these are important parts of mountain photography. Contrast, I
noted earlier in this article, but tonality and subject matter both
warrant some attention.
Juxtaposed color tones combine in interesting ways. Mountain scenes,
particularly from places like the Rockies, Cascades, or Alaska, tend to
be dominated by cool tones; blue skies, green tundra and forest, glacial
streams, or clear blue lakes. These cool-colored scenes often benefit
when warm tones, like yellow, red, or pink, are integrated into the
scene. Often that warm tone is best presented as a flash of color, a
setting sun, a wildflower, the bright jacket of a hiker, rather than as
an equal to the cool tones. When the two are equivalent, your brain has a
hard time sorting out which to pay attention to, and the pleasing
juxtaposition becomes a tangle of clashing color.
Subject juxtaposition is where a landscape images comes alive. When
it comes to mountains, the potential for such contrasts are many. So
many in fact, that it’s hard to mention just a few. Some, like the image
below of the rainbow over the desert mountains of Big Bend National
Park, have obvious subject juxtaposition (rain and dry desert rock). But
the same image also has contrasts in shapes and texture (the jagged
rocks and and smooth curve of the rainbow for example). All of these
combine nicely to provide interest.
Snow
and flowers is an obvious juxtaposition in this image of the aftermath
of a June snowstorm in
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.
5. Perspective
The final aspect of mountain photography I want to discuss is
perspective. Which is to say, the perspective from which you make the
image. For simplicity sake, I’ll break this down into three divisions:
bottom, middle, and top. Each of these greatly impacts not just the
appearance of the final image, but also its mood and feel.
Photographs of mountains made from a valley bottom looking up, make
the mountains appear large and imposing. These low shots provide space
for an interesting foreground, and many classic landscapes have been
made from this perspective. Though effective, there are drawbacks to
shooting from the valley bottom. The low perspective means that the view
is limited; there are no seas of mountain peaks spreading to the
horizon. Light too is often difficult. The bottom of the valley is the
last place to gain sunlight in the morning, and the first to lose it in
the evening, so balancing light makes exposure tricky, and by the time
the landscape is evenly lit, the sweet light of dawn or dusk is long
past.
Exposure
was tricky as I tried to capture the storm light on the Red Wall of the
Grand Canyon high above my camp along the Colorado River.
Mid-mountain shots can be spectacular, providing views both below and
above. This perspective is one of my favorites, allowing for a lot of
depth in the landscape, while maintaining the size and drama of the
mountains.
Mountaintops are tricky. Images made from the summit of peaks tend to
make the surrounding landscape look small. I’ve taken photographs from
peaks in which all the mountains look like rocky waves, rather than the
towering summits they are. You can make up for this by adding a human to the shot,
which provides scale. You remove the focus from the mountains, and
place it on the human experience within them. It changes the image,
making it less of a landscape, and more of a portrait or action shot,
but the results can be effective.
A hiker atop a mountaintop in Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska becomes the subject in this
image.
Without the climbers nearing the top of this peak in Antarctica, there wouldn’t be much to look at in
this image.
One of the great joys of photographing mountains, is simply being in
the mountains. A camera is great excuse to go for a hike, or float a
mountain river. But, the camera can also be a tool for experiencing the
place more deeply. It can make you appreciate how the mountains look in
various light and seasons, and from different angles. In turn that
appreciation can lead to better images. Now go out and explore. This week we are doing a series of articles to help you do better nature photography. See previous articles here:
Ready for some controversy? Well, here it goes: One of the most
useless things I see a lot of photographers doing with their time is
trying to get popular on social media. There, I said it! Now, please let
me explain.
There are certainly benefits of having a strong social media
presence. I would be an idiot not to realize that. Just look up people
like Colby Brown, Chris Burkhard, Nicole S. Young, Trey Ratcliff,
Hilary Fox, etc. These people get flown around the world by large and
small companies because of their social reach. The fact is, most of
them either have unheard of work ethics or had some big breaks along the
way to help kickstart their social media presence. And guess what…a lot
of them have very successful and large newsletter (email) lists.
So, how much time do you spend every week posting your images to
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, 500px, etc? For a lot of you, it’s countless
hours. Do you ever feel like you’re spinning your wheels? How much of
your income have you earned from doing so?
I started offering workshops through my photography business in
January of 2014. I had done a couple local ones before, but never out of
state. I started my (email) newsletter in January of 2013 and was
fortunate enough to build it up to around 10,000 by the time I announced
the first workshop.
So here’s the rundown: At the time I probably had around 40-50,000
followers on Google+, 5-6,000 on Twitter, 1-2,000 on Facebook and of
course the 10,000 on my newsletter. When I announced the first workshop I
was pretty nervous (stepping out like that and going for something I
hadn’t done before on this scale). To my absolute surprise, the workshop
sold out in less than 17 hours!
Here’s the crazy part; every single person that purchased a spot on
my workshop came from my newsletter. I ran the workshop with my buddy
Mike and he didn’t even have a chance to announce the workshop to his
followers before it sold out! Not a single spot sold from my social
media following, which outnumbered my newsletter numbers almost
six-fold.
You
can find plenty of stats out there that say newsletter subscribers
convert into sales at a rate of around 250% more than social media. In
my case it’s much much higher.
Where to Start
As
Lao Tzu said so eloquently, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a
single step”. I highly suggest making that first step by heading over
to MailChimp(note from dPS use this link to get a $30 credit when you sign up, disclaimer: yes we get a credit also) and
getting your first newsletter set up. Their account is 100% free up to
your first 2,000 subscribers, which is quite insane if you ask me!
That’s a LOT of free subscribers! After you exceed that 2,000 mark you
will have to start paying. In fact, my newsletter is currently pushing
well past the $160/month mark. That’s fine though, because it forces me
to make sure I send out a newsletter on a regular basis to make sure I’m
not throwing that money away. And trust me, that $160 monthly fee is
well taken covered.
MailChimp is, at least in my opinion, the absolute best newsletter
engine out there. The design is fantastic, it’s easy and intuitive to
use, and they recently updating their pricing methods which is saving me
a ton of money. That isn’t an affiliate link to their website either, I
just truly believe they are the best.
How to Make Your Newsletter Successful
This section is a bit difficult to address considering it’s a bit
personal, but I’ll do my best. My experience has been that simply being
open, honest, and transparent is what people want. I don’t have anything
to hide, I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I think people appreciate
that (at least the ones on my newsletter list do). If every newsletter
you send out is selling something then you are going to start losing the
trust of your subscribers. I don’t sell something through my newsletter
unless I know it’s going to benefit my subscribers in some way. Instead
of selling stuff at every chance I get, I fill my newsletters with free
photo tips, free presets, updates on my life, my travels, my family,
etc. I want to make sure that when they see my newsletter in their
inbox, it will bring a smile to their faces.
Don’t be irresponsible with it
Another way to make your newsletter successful is by not doing
anything irresponsible with it. Everything kind of black hat tactic to
getting a bigger list in a faster manner, is shooting yourself in the
foot. Subscribers cost you every month, so it would be really dumb to
start trying to buy up lists of email addresses from folks who didn’t
actually subscribe to your list. These will not be targeted subscribers,
and your list’s health will reflect that. Even if the email addresses
are industry specific, they won’t be people who actually wanted to be on
your list.
Your subscribers are not for sale
Another thing you should never do is sell your subscriber list. You
will get caught. There are plenty of people out there smart enough to
use unique email address for your newsletter so they can track whether
or not you sell their information (check this article out for more info).
Be cautious with affiliate sales
There were rumours going around a few years ago saying that including
affiliate links in your newsletters (specifically with MailChimp) would
get you banned. This ultimately was not true (here’s MailChimp’s response)
but they suggest using caution with affiliate links. Some companies are
very clear about doing this when people sign up for their newsletter
(think Snapndeals, PhotoWhoa,
PictureCorrect) but the basic premise is that when someone signs up for
your newsletter, they are signing up to hear about you and potentially
purchase things from you, not someone else. If this sort of thing gets
abused and your list stats reflect spam, you could easily get your
newsletter yanked. All that work, gone.
Give your followers a reason to subscribe
I’m very, very picky about which newsletters I subscribe to. I get
enough email as it is already. I also read articles on plenty of
websites, and have a tons of things to do for my photography business
each and every day. So if I’m going to allow a person or business into
my inbox, it had better be worth it. I keep that in mind every time I
send out a newsletter. I ask myself, is this worth sending out for the
people receiving it? I have deleted three or four entire newsletters
when the answer was no.
That being said, how do you make your newsletter worth subscribing
to? Well, the best way to entice subscribers is by giving away something
free. I put together an entire ebook just for my newsletter subscribers
called: 10 Tips For Improving Your Photography Today, and it
has consistently gotten great feedback. It’s short, to the point, and
each tip is truly something useful that they can put into practice
immediately if they so desire.
Another method is to use auto-responders (now called Automation
inside MailChimp) to send out a multi-email campaign when someone
subscribes. This could be a three part series, or three different
ebooks, that get sent out at specific times after a successful
subscription. For example, your first free gift could go out immediately
after they subscribe. The second could go out a few days later and the
third a few days after that. This gets the subscribers pumped up and
happy to be part of your list. Just don’t set them up for a newsletter
that is non-existent or not worth reading afterwards.
Acknowledge that your subscribers are your #1 fans, and act accordingly
When I click Like on a photographers Facebook page, I’m not
really any more committed to them than I was before. I just want to keep
up with them more. When I start reading their blog on a regular basis
they have really struck a chord somewhere, and I am very interested in
what they have to say. For me, to subscribe to their newsletter means
that I am a huge fan of whatever they are doing. Be sure to remember
that when you conduct your business!
My newsletter subscribers are first in line for everything. They get
access to workshops before I announce them publicly. They get exclusive
discounts that nobody else gets. They get random free stuff like presets
and video tutorials. They get a deeper look into my personal life and
what drives me. Essentially, I make sure they are taken care of because I
truly, honestly, appreciate and value their time and their willingness
to follow what I do.
So What Would You Use a Newsletter for?
I sell products (ebooks, presets, textures, video courses, etc.) and
workshops through my newsletter. I realize not everyone does that. But
if you are in business (making anywhere from 1-100% of your income
through photography) then you have something to sell. Use your
newsletter to primarily keep in touch with your clients and keep them
updated on the happenings of your photography business. This keeps you
in their sights and makes sure they don’t forget about you. Clients love
connecting with the people they do business with, and a newsletter is
perfect for this. From time to time you can send discounts for photo
sessions or on print orders, do giveaways where you send a winner a free
print, and so on.
Share this article.
Sunday, February 2, 2020
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Lessons you can learn from master photographers – Minor White, Ansel Adams, and Syl Arena
The reason I have put pen to paper (fingers to keys) is to share with
you some simple tips and knowledge that can be gained from taking a
look at some notable photographers. Some would even argue that these
people are among some of the most creative and artistically idolized
craftsmen who have ever captured light with a box. If you’re just
starting out on your photographic journey these tips from some of the
masters will hopefully help you along.
Minor White
Portrait of Minor White by Imogen Cunningham
Born during the summer of 1908 in Minneapolis, Minor White held jobs
as a waiter, bartender, and even worked in military intelligence during
World War II. He was a very spiritual man and his beliefs spilled over
into his photography. Co-founder of Aperture magazine
along with Ansel Adams and other notable photographers, Minor was also
an early advocate of the Zone System pioneered by Adams and Fred Archer.
An early practitioner of infrared photography, White ventured into an
array of subject matter but his work with the small, and often
overlooked scenes and objects, such as frost on glass and dilapidated
structures remain some of his most acclaimed.
Lessons you can learn from Minor White:
Make photographs all the time, even if you don’t have a camera.
Minor said that he was “always mentally photographing everything as
practice”. This is solid wisdom for any photographer of any skill level.
Unfortunately, the realities of most of our lives limit the time we get
to spend with a camera in hand. The good news is that our artistic mind
is never absent. Think about which exposure would blur that passing
train just right. What aperture would give me enough depth of field to
put that entire table into focus? You’ll be more prepared next time when
you have your camera handy.
Don’t overlook small objects and details.
Some of Minors’ most celebrated works were of seemingly mundane or
otherwise less than notable subjects. Be on the lookout for details and
textures of things that you see every day. This is especially useful if
you have an interest in abstract photos.
Drops of rain on my back door glass. Easily overlooked.
Simple occurrences made more interesting with a little creative thinking.
The early morning blue hour made this frost and ice on the cover of my fire pit look otherworldly.
Ansel Adams
The portrait of Ansel Adams taken by J. Malcolm Greany around 1947
Chances are, you have heard at least something about Ansel Adams,
even if that something is that he was a famous early photographer. It’s
true, he is considered by more than a few to be one of the best
photographers of the twentieth century. There have been volumes filled
with the ins and outs of this photographic master. Born on February
20th, 1908 into a well established family in San Francisco, Ansel Adams
discovery of photography was unplanned. Ansel was a gifted piano player.
An exceptional piano player in fact, so exceptional that he was set to
become a professional concert pianist until he decided to commit himself
fully to photography. Honestly, the next sections could be titled “What
can Ansel Adams NOT teach you?”. The man was such a force in the early
days of modern photography that it almost seems unfair to point out only
a few practices that will help you improve your own work. However, I
have managed to list some basic tips from Ansel Adams that you can put
into action in order to make you a better photographer right now.
Lessons you can learn from Ansel Adams:
Slow down
I’m sure you’ve heard this before and possibly have read about the importance of slowing down and making your photographs
with more deliberate intentions. Our crushingly convenient modern era
of virtually unlimited and relatively low cost film (i.e. digital
photography) has lent itself to making us potentially sloppy in our
shooting. We sometimes press the shutter button entirely too often in
order to get a suitable image for processing. I will shamefully raise my
hand and admit that I too am guilty of this spray and pray method of
shooting, more so in my earlier photography days right after I made the
leap from analog to digital.
I did myself a favor, that I also encourage you to do for yourself,
and decided to take things more seriously. Ansel would consider all
aspects of his composition: from the elevation and tilt of his camera,
the perspective of his lenses, the cast of shadows, even the future
effects of the wind on the clouds. There will be times when you are
racing against a sunset or you will be trying to catch some specific or
fleeting moment and at those times you must shoot quickly and
intuitively. Usually, however, we rush for no perceivable reason and
often overlook or forget small changes that can make or break an image.
So the next time the muse slaps you across the face to make an image,
calm yourself down and work the problem. Think about what it is you are
trying to do. Put yourself into the correct mindset to make better
images and you might find, strangely enough, that your images become
better also.
Teach yourself to see the finished product before you make the exposure.
The act of seeing or visualizing is another subject that has been
touted by the photographic community many times. Visualization is one of
those things that really can’t be brought about by technical
instruction in the traditional sense; meaning there are no classes on
visualization. Ansel Adams himself remarked that visualization cannot be
taught, it is be learned. Think about that concept.
It’s undeniably true that some people learn faster than others when
it comes to visualizing finished prints. However, it is equally true
that no one started out being able to see in their mind’s eye the final
result of a photo. Like most things, it takes practice, as well as
patience, and more than a healthy helping of sheer determination. When
you begin to see the print before it is made, then really all that
stands between you and your vision is the selection of techniques which,
similarly, require just as much determination and commitment to master.
Use a tripod
To reiterate, please, use a tripod whenever and wherever possible.
A tripod is one of the single most important tools you can use to
increase the focal clarity and sharpness of a photograph. Minimizing
camera shake and vibration is key to making crisp images, period.
By using a tripod I eliminated the need to worry about vertical
camera movement in the macro shot above. Ansel tells us that the ideal
tripod is “a cubic yard of solid concrete with a 1/4″ X #20 bolt head
sticking out of the top”. If you don’t have a huge block of cement lying
around to attach your beloved camera to, then the next best thing is to
obtain a quality tripod and use it.
Having some way to keep your camera absolutely still is essential when working with long exposures like the image below.
Exposure time: approximately forty seven minutes. This long exposure time would not have been possible without the use of a tripod.
Using a tripod (correctly) also forces you to, again, slow down and
think about the photograph you are intending to make. dPS has a superb article on tripod employment that can be found here.
Syl Arena
Photo by Vera Franceschi
Syl Arena, is a uniquely humble and genuine person, author, teacher,
lecturer, and a speedlite Jedi. He is a magician of sorts when it comes
to creating and moulding light. Syl currently resides on the west coast
around San Luis Obispo, California. His biography is brief and barely
mentions any notable achievements of which there are many. The lessons I
learned from him actually lean more towards the philosophical than the
technical. That being said, you will find this section contains no real
insight from Mr. Arena concerning artificial light manipulation or
photographic technique in general. For that I would highly suggest you check out his blog or his new Q&A site for loads of information.
My first introduction to Syl was through the gift of one of his books (thanks Mr. Veneman), “LIDLIPS: Lessons I didn’t learn in photo school“.
In that book, this highly educated, highly skilled, highly successful,
highly haired photographer simply and truthfully listed page by page the
things he was never taught. They ranged from personal revelations on
the photographic process to small background stories of some of his
location shoots. He mentioned nothing about technique or gear really,
just lessons from his life as a picture maker, unpretentious and
sincere.
Lessons you can learn from Syl Arena:
Don’t be afraid.
Your limited gear, your perceived skill level, your lack of obvious
subject matter, your lack of confidence, fear of trying something new;
don’t be afraid of any of these things, or anything else for that
matter. You will never have the all of the best gear so don’t let it
worry you. Instead, learn to make the best use of what gear you have.
You will never learn all there is to know about making photographs so
learn what you can, where you can. Feeling like you’ll never get an
image just right? You are your own worst critic, so don’t hide your work
from the world.
Be inspired, not intimidated.
This is one of the hardest things to overcome, especially if you are
just beginning to learn about photography. It’s easy to feel envious or
even jealous of other photographers work. This can sometimes lead to
convincing yourself that your work has no merit. Chances are, that image
you’re envying and ogling over is a product of hard work, patience,
diligence, determination, perseverance, and many other great words that
the thesaurus can produce.
Viewing other artists work is one of the best ways to grow your own creativity.
Take the work as seriously as you want, but not yourself.
As you grow and learn as a photographer, remember that we all started
out understanding absolutely nothing about photography; so keep that in
mind the next time someone asks you a question about one of your
photographs in a less than learned way. Most likely, you have learned
something from someone who was nice enough to teach you. Please pay it
forward.
Have you learned any lessons from other master photographers? Who is your mentor? Please share in the comments below.
