“You know how to operate your camera properly but now you need to practice a little restraint.” -Brandon Partridge
© Tom Gavin. Long Branch, NJ. Gear:Nikon D300 with a Nikkor AF S 24-70mm f/2.8 G ED lens taken at 60mm, f/10, handheld. 1/100 sec at ISO 400. Aperture Priority, Matrix Metering.
Photographer’s statement:
“What caught my eye was the contrast of the blue shutters on this white washed, weathered wall. It was after I took a shot straight on, I stepped back, looked at the scene again and decided to get lower and shot the building from the corner to include the flowers. The photograph was taken at a seaside fishing village in Greece while on vacation.”
Our critics say…
Mason Resnick: This shot is perfectly exposed, perfectly composed…and pefectly boring! Yes, you used the rule of thirds; this is a perfect example of why it may be important to know the rules, it’s also important to know when to break them. Start with the flowers: If you really wanted to include them, don’t treat them as an afterthought and put them in the bottom sliver of the image. Get on your stomach, shoot up at the flowers, let them fill most of the frame with the building in the background. Maybe even use a wider focal length to maximize your depth. Don’t want to get your shirt dirty? Don’t include the flowers. Just concentrate on the building and look for a composition with impact! A close-up study of the window shade’s patterns and textures, or a detail of the worn side of the building with the red paint showing through the white are just two more interesting possibilities here.
Jena Ardell: I found this composition to be a luckluster. I would have rather seen your first shot: a right-weighted shot of the bright blue shutters against the worn, monotone shed exterior. There are a lot of a great opportunities in this scene for a macro lens: the peeling paint, the weathered beams, the symmetry of the shutters, etc. Your problem was that you tried to include ALL of these elements in one shot. As composed, the hint of flowers at the bottom of this image is not adding anything worthwhile to this image. If anything, their positioning is a bit distracting. As Mason mentioned, your exposure is spot on, but as Andreas Feininger has said: “A technically perfect photograph can be the world’s most boring picture.” You just need to find more interesting angles and POVs. You made sure to get somewhat low, but make use of all of your focal lengths. Or add a person. This image is a great background, but it can not stand alone, as is. Try to find the extraordinary amongst the ordinary by examining your subject more strategically next time.
Brandon Partridge: I too find this image to be exposed quite well. I like the contrast of red and blue on either side. The inclusion of the flowers and the step were unnecessary. I’m not sure the portrait-orientation was a good choice for this image as I kept wondering what was off to the sides. I say this without knowing what’s off to the sides; perhaps there is something distracting that led you away from landscape-orientation. Instead of defaulting to Mason & Jena’s “boring/lackluster” descriptors I thought about whether or not this capture is balanced as it is—to me, it appears that way—if you cropped out the step and flowers the balance, shape, and colour study would be more apparent. You know how to operate your camera properly but now you need to practice a little restraint. With the crop in place I believe this image would serve as an excellent addition to a photographic manual in the area listed positively as something you should do.
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