Using Intentional Parameters...

"What Time Has Left Behind"

Today's image should speak for itself. Actually, every image should be able to speak for itself. When you read a photograph, you shouldn't need verbal help to tell you what theme, or story, or emotion has hopefully been woven through it. I'm not sure that I've considered that enough in the last year but am working to fix that. You can click on the deserted industrial shed to see a larger version. But I hope my intent for this image is clear whether you enlarge the image on your screen for better viewing or not.

The day I photographed this, I was feeling spent, mellow, I was far from the hustle and bustle of life... so I gave myself those exact emotional parameters to guide what I pointed the camera at, and all the creative decisions that followed. This was one of the photos that day that really came alive within the ideas I wanted to explore. In fact, anytime you give yourself a theme, a visual goal, or parameters of any kind, you make stronger photographs. These intentional parameters give you something to hone in on, to freely explore with the medium of photography. Consider it another tool to round out your "creative kit bag".  

Great composition is a must. A good exposure is necessary. The right light can be a bonus. But your images will always be lacking a little something if there aren't some intentional parameters to help guide your creative process. To tell the reader how to experience the photograph. 

That's my tip for the week.
Thanks for the ramble friends! Let's get out there and make purpose driven images, no matter what you raise your camera to!

In a Fog...

"An Inconvenient View"

Today's image is from last year's Doors Open Toronto. I've been mucking about in old files again and couldn't stop tweaking this one. If you click on the image you'll get a bit larger view and a bit more sharp (something about compressed files on this page...). The perspective you see here is one you can only get every couple of years when they decide to open the observatory at the top of Toronto's SunLife Building to the public. No tripod's allowed, and a thousand smudges on the glass from everyone trying to look down... but I got a shot of the CN Tower emerging from the fog that day along with it's fellow skyscrapers. My telephoto to the rescue.

I know I'm not the only one who'd confess to being in a creative fog at times. There are days the possibilities for really engaging photographs comes so easily, and then there are days I'm not sure I should be showing anybody much of anything for fear it'll be stale or misguided somehow. Worse yet, I have days where I still second guess where I want my photography to go, or what it should be accomplishing. What I, myself, should be accomplishing. If anything.

And in rolls the fog. I guess today's photograph reminds me to climb the unusually high, difficult to access places in life, and see above the fog to what could be on the other side. To spy whatever that is, for just a moment, means I can stay the course for just a little bit longer... till the next SunLife building comes along. Am I coming through loud and clear...? 

If yes, then the fog is lifting.

Thanks for the Ramble, looking forward to Doors Open TO 2013 in a few months time!

Where Have We Been...?

"Enter History"

Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario

2013 has arrived. My first image of the year is of the interior entrance of the ROM. (To see it in full view just click on the image.) An entrance leading to history. Moving into the past. Backwards and yet not.

Christine, what are you trying to say?

I'm not a huge resolutions person, have never done well on change for the sake of having something to do. I make changes when a lesson teaches me something, when a choice reveals itself to be good for me, or when someone inspires me to reach for something I never thought to reach for before.

I know I strengthened my perspective and spacial skills this past year, my architectural portfolio grew, and I got to experience a taste of traveling again with my camera, allowing my soul and my passion to be reignited. I learned new things about my personal style, and what's been missing from my work flow. 

But I also know after reviewing the year that I would love to do some reportage work, I want to include people inside the broad spaces I photograph, and that I would like to do some  very dramatic portraits just for the heck of it...  and that I still need to understand things as simple as knowing my computer programs better.

By looking back, you can see where you still need to go in future. So I've been compiling some personal projects and some goals I need to strive for that the past year has shown me I've been missing, in my photography, and in life in general. Many of them can't help but overlap. If you're an artist, you understand what I mean by that.

Let's ask ourselves where we've been. It'll assist in showing us where we're going next if we let it.

Thanks for the Ramble! Happy 2013 to you all!