Showing posts with label Composition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Composition. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Photography Tip: Evaluate the Scene Before Shooting


This is a photo of Hira Taki, a waterfall in Okinawa, Japan taken back in July.

Just going through old files of undeveloped shots, I wondered why I even composed it that way.

Then, I remembered.

I got the bright idea to start doing some DOs and DON'Ts in my Photo Tips.

DO: Evaluate the scene before you click the shutter.


DON'T: Allow distractions to take the viewer's eye away from the subject.

By changing my position for the second photo, I made a more interesting composition.

The vegetation in the foreground of photo #1 is gone.

The shoreline and one branch of the plant, now point the viewer's eyes towards the subject.















Monday, June 11, 2012

Photo Essay: What Sort of Beach, is a Pretty Beach, to You ?


Recent comments on Mike's Ryukyu Gallery Facebook Page inspired today's post.

And, reminded me that I'm not done developing last month's photos from Tsuken-jima.


 The truth is, all beaches are pretty, to me.

Sometimes, though, it pays to hop on a ferry and go look for an island in the sun.

May 24, 2012 was one of those days here. Okinawa was under some dark clouds at 7AM.

The sun was shining on Tsuken-jima, though.


At 9AM on a sunny day, even a rocky beach has appeal, to me.

That's a woman, fishing, way out there. She added character to the scene.


 And this guy, let's just say, he was a character, too.


This beach had some development done to it and it made an interesting composition.

The sole, adult female on the beach was friendly and gladly gave us some directions.


Looking over the heads of those school girls, she's traveling with, way back under the clouds

and barely visible, is the island of Okinawa.

Past 10AM, usually, outdoor photography should be put on hold, until after 3PM but,

when the light is like this, I'll break some rules for a pretty beach.

Probably, not the ideal spot for suntanning, volleyball or snorkeling, this beach is OK, by me.

Using an 18-250 lens at 35mm, I snapped a shot (dead center) of the Kin Cho Power Plant.

 Rocks, shrubs, driftwood and shallow pools of seawater in the sharp coral, make a beach scene 

attractive, to some folks.

Look !  There's the Map It Okinawa Dude (lower left of the scene) doing his thing.

 By 3PM we were headed back to Okinawa.

Taking a parting shot from the ferry, I captured some of Tsuken-jima's white sand in the 
afternoon sun.  We walked all the way around the island and had seen every beach in one day.

They were all pretty, to me.

What sort of beach is pretty, to you ?











Wednesday, November 30, 2011

November Editor's Picks with RyukyuMike's Photo Contest Tips

A Sacred Grove in Okinawa, Japan


Among the Mangroves in Okinawa


Among the Weeds


Orange-tip Butterfly


Plus, one photo from October's Contest, an Editor's Pick, which moved on to become a Finalist.


Entering Photo Contests is a great way to have your photography recognized and I would encourage any aspiring photographer to enter as many as possible.

The competition is stiff and every contest you enter has it's own set of rules.

Following the rules, every little detail of them, is the first step.  So, read them carefully.

Tens of thousands of contest entries are submitted every month.

The simplest way for judges to lighten their workload is eliminate anyone who didn't follow the rules.


HERE ARE MY FIVE TIPS FOR PHOTO CONTEST ENTRIES:


1.  Make sure the photo is sharp.  That means the subject is clear and the focus is not on something else in the picture's frame.  Judges have a good eyes for this.  You can't fool them.

2.  Exposure has to be perfect.  Underexposed and overexposed photos are eliminated, always.

3.  Composition.  Learn the basic rules of composition and apply them.  The Rule of Thirds, Leading Lines, Framing, Curves, Symmetry, Patterns and Background are just a few of the terms used in basic photographic composition.  If you don't understand them, you are just experimenting.  That's fine, and I encourage experimentation.  But, it rarely gets you anywhere in a photo contest.

After using 1-3 above, in taking a photo, the next two tips come in handy when you submit a contest entry.

4.  Title:  Give your photo a title that gets the judges attention.  I get away with just putting a critter's name on a wildlife photo, sometimes, just because it's something a judge has never seen before.  

But, if I shot a picture of a cat, I wouldn't title it "Cat".  Let someone else do that.

5.  Caption:  Try to come up with something interesting to say in your description of the photo.

Many contests base their scores on the five tips given above.  Some grade the photos entered by awarding a possible 20% of the total score for each of those five steps.

That means, if you took a perfect picture, as far as focus, exposure and composition go, you could lose out to the folks who had the best titles and captions.  Forty percent of your score may not even depend on what came out of your camera.  Another photographer can beat me with their choice of words.  

That means I have to use my brain, too.  OUCH !


Time permitting, I will add more about entering photo contests to my PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS.





Sunday, September 12, 2010

Miss Uruma City

MISS URUMA LAST NIGHT

IT WAS HOT ENOUGH TO MELT FLIP-FLOPS YESTERDAY

ABOUT 6:30 THE SUN WAS SLIDING DOWN BEHIND THE HILLS

IT WAS TIME TO SWITCH BATTERIES, SD CARDS AND ISO'S

BUT, WAIT

SNEAK A SHOT OF A PRETTY GIRL IN WESTERN ATTIRE

I ZOOMED IN

I COMPOSED A SHOT WITHOUT ASKING PERMISSION

NO PRETTY GIRL IN HER RIGHT MIND

WOULD LET A SWEATY OLD MAN WITH A CAMERA

TAKE HER PICTURE IF HE ASKED

SO, I DIDN'T ASK

I WAITED FOR HER TO TURN HER EYES

TO JUST THE RIGHT POSITION

CLICK

GOT HER

SHE HEARD THE CLICK

SHE TOLD THE BOSS

SOME SWEATY OLD MAN

SNAPPED A PHOTO

WITHOUT ASKING FOR PERMISSION


To be continued.....