I mentioned a while back about my weekly photography project to try and improve my image-making. The start of the list is “Elements of an Image: Shape”. So that was my brief for today: look for clearly-defined shapes and make them the focal point of the image. This can either be in the form of silhouettes for back-lit subjects, or with a strong contrast between subject and background with a front-lit setup.

The sun this afternoon was glorious, but I hadn’t really prepared to go out away from the house; it was more a spur-of-the-moment thing, so I was left in the back garden. Unfortunately, there’s very little in our back garden where there is a clear, uncluttered background. The best background I could have is the clear blue sky, but I live in a housing estate, and roof lines or flue pipes are not the best subjects.

Having pretty much abandoned the project before starting it today, I decided that one good candidate for photography styles in these conditions is macro work: the bright light allows a small aperture, while still retaining reasonably short shutter speeds. So armed with my wonderful Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens, I started hunting out small details in things.

First to catch my eye was a dandelion. There’s plenty of weeds scattered about the garden and the grassy bit is no exception. After a couple of “nearly” pictures, I ended up with this one (all photos are clickable for their large versions).

I then spotted something which is relatively new around our house – next door’s netball hoop, which was put up on their wall last weekend. After a quick bit of impromptu hedge-trimming, I managed to pick out this shot, which I think nearly matches the brief of “shape”. A fairly simple, uncluttered image with the triangular-shaped net and the oval of the hoop.

I then shifted my attention to some of the ants which were frantically scurrying around the patio area. Unfortunately, these are a pain to photograph, simply because they’re extremely small and also because they move so quickly. I tried and rattled-off about a dozen shots before turning my attention elsewhere: I’d spotted a ladybird!

Ladybirds are slightly more sedate creatures, and arguably much more interesting to look at. From over 30 shots taken, the best one seemed to be this:

The large version clearly shows a range of features I’ve never seen before on a ladybird. There’s the hairs on the end of the front legs and the antennae, the texture of the shell (which folds together much more tightly than I’d imagined), plus the way the ladybird’s “spots” are really badly-defined smudges dotted on its back.

Staying with the insect theme, I managed to capture this spider sitting on the nylon barbeque cover, which was pretty good going. He obligingly stayed still for quite a while as I got the tripod positioned correctly.

The final bit of the afternoon ended up being a bit of “reading ahead” to the texture workshop which will be arriving in a few weeks time. I started looking closely at the patterns, textures and saw-marks of the fence panel timber.

Overall, this afternoon hasn’t been a great success for “shape”, so next week will be more of the same.

Like all photographers (should be), I am constantly trying to improve my picture-taking. As expected, however, the introduction of Lucy has made time with the camera more a matter of point-and-shoot at friends and family, rather than an exercise in good image composition.

As light reading material, I bought John Hedgecoe’s The Art of Digital Photography a while back and have decided to try and spend one afternoon or evening a week on a photo project of my own. The main difficulty in starting out taking pictures is “what should I take a picture of?”. I’m going to follow the various sections in the book and keep working on each one until I have at least one image that I’m really proud of, before moving on to the next.

The book is broken down into sections as follows:

1. Elements of an Image (shape, form and tone, pattern, texture)
2. Colour (impact and power of colour, colour harmony, colour temperature, shooting in black and white)
3. Depth (using perspective, aerial perspective, depth of field, scale, high and low viewpoints)
4. Organising the Frame (simplifying the scene, leading the eye, exploring angle of view, balance and proportion, framing, choosing backgrounds)
5. Direction of Light (direct and indirect light, frontal lighting, sidelighting, backlighting)
6. Changing Light (dawn to dusk, the impact of silhouettes, seasonal changes, photographing in low light, dramatic light, using shadows, snow and ice, high and low key)
7. People (striking a pose, isolating faces, people in their environment, candid camera, children and babies, group portraits, studio portraits, human form)
8. Still Life (simple setups, abstracts all around)
9. Architecture (gallery of doors, buildings in their surroundings, night lights in the city, abstracts and patterns, tackling interiors)
10. Landscapes (capturing the seasons, skyscapes, panoramas, monochromatic moods, parks and gardens)
11. Nature (plants, birds, bugs, pets, animals)
12. Sport (freezing the action, prefocusing, burst rates, capturing the spirit)

In total, that’s about 60 different topics to cover and even at a phenomenally-fast learning success rate of one great image every week, that’s well-over a year to cover.

I’ll post both my successes and failures here as a blog entry, which should make for a good history trail, if nothing else.

For those that aren’t aware, tonight will be a total eclipse of the moon, so get your cameras ready – there’s not another one happening for nearly 3 years. The slight downside to tonight’s antics is that for the UK, the totality will only occur around 3am on Thursday morning. So unless Katrina’s in labour and feeling very generous, I’m unlikely to be photographing this one.

I wonder if there’s any old-wives tales about being born under a total eclipse? Time to consult my nearest mother-in-law…

You can go to their website for NASA’s view on the proceedings – for reference, the UK is 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time (EST). They’ve also produced this spangly diagram for those who are interested (click for full-size version).

I went out just before sunset today and had a play around with my newest lens. Here’s a pick of what I ended up with (all now on Flickr):

This was a branch, which I think had been shredded by one of those mechanical hedge-cutters that’s like a giant cylindrical lawnmower.

An old security camera on a remote Southern Water building near Hedge End station.

The sunlight across an electricity supply pole.

The texture of barbed-wire against a steel post.

The texture of barbed-wire against a wooden post.

Pushing manual focus abilities to the limit (and it shows!) trying to catch midges backlit in the sunset.

Some ivy on a gatepost.

A nicely-textured steel gate, with some welding detail.

More textures of chains around wooden posts.

Gratuitous shot of a sunset-lit moon.

A buzzing thing!

That was the exclamation from Baldrick in Blackadder the Third: Ink and Incapability. They’d accidentally destroyed Samuel Johnson’s first-ever copy of the dictionary and they needed to rewrite it in 48 hours.

Edmund Blackadder: Very well, sir, as you wish. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? First: ‘A’. How would you define ‘a’?

Baldrick: Ohh…’a’ (continues this in background)

Prince George: Oh, I love this! I love this: quizzies… Errmmm, hang on, it’s coming… ooohh, crikey, errmm, oh yes, I’ve got it!

E: What?

G: Well, it doesn’t really mean anything, does it?

E: Good. So we’re well on the way, then.” ‘a’; impersonal pronoun; doesn’t really mean anything.” Right! Next: `A’… `A-B’.

(Baldrick and Prince ponder over this)

B: Well, it’s a buzzing thing, isn’t it. “A buzzing thing.”

E: Baldrick, I mean something that starts with ‘A-B’.

B: Honey? Honey starts with a bee.

(taken from Phil Taylor’s website that I just found on the web)

Anyway, thought I would post a picture of a bee which has been wandering v…e…r…y… s…l…o…w…l…y… round the garden for the past few days. It’s still far too cold for bees and he’s struggling to move with the lack of his own central heating system. It was taken tonight and despite focusing in almost pitch-black conditions and using a shutter of 1/10s at a focal length of 100mm (35mm effective of 160mm), it’s not a bad effort.