Sphericality.org

A friend of mine told me something once about why he loves golf.

What he said was something along the lines of “every so often you hit the ball, and just know that you’ve hit it as well as a professional would.  That is a good feeling”.

Ok, that version isn’t even close, but it captures the spirit of the quote.

In that light, I would like to describe photography as the “Golf of the Art World”.  Even a total beginner can pick up a camera, get a lucky shot, and have it be one of the best images you have ever seen.  This is an exciting thought.  At any time, there is a chance that anyone might make a photograph that will just take your breath away.

My photography professor would have a slightly different take.  He described photography as a democratic art form.  It really is open to everyone to enjoy as they wish.  Taking a good photograph is not hard, but painting and drawing can be somewhat difficult and require skill and talent that not everyone will have.

Case in point:

(click on image for full size)

While looking through my very old photos, I came across this one.  Yes, that is me, but this is from my 1997 trip to France.  I hardly even look like that guy anymore.

I remember setting up the framing on this image, but at the same time, I obviously did not take it.  And it came out fantastic, even if it was a disposable Kodak panoramic camera (I long ago lost the original image and the negative is who knows where, but this old scan was sitting on the hard drive of my college laptop).  Even still, it is one of my favorite pictures I have of myself.  As you can probably assume, I an more often the one behind the camera than in front of it.  It means I end up as the group archivist, and the one who rarely appears in the images.  A role I personally prefer, but I digress.

Anyone has the chance, at any point, to take an image that is as good or better than a pro would take.  But a pro will be more consistent.

-sdo

I have some expensive camera toys.  There is no reason to deny this.  But some of my favorite images have come from my cheapest equipment.  Today, we will look at one of those images (and discuss a habit of most people I find disgusting).

A long, long time ago in April 2008, I went to the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC.  While I was there, I took this photo.

(click for larger version)

This was not taken with my dSLR.  It was actually taken with a digital Point and Shoot camera – a Canon SD800.  When I purchased the camera the previous summer, it was around $250.  Far from the price of a starter dSLR.

When I buy a camera, I look at the feature list and find what I really want.  With this particular camera, I bought it before my trip to Europe in which I knew I would be in small areas (as many of the older areas of Europe can be).  So, I picked this camera because it has a wider angle lens (and thus has less zoom, making it less ideal for other uses) and because it had macro.  This image was taken using the macro mode, which is why it turned out as it did.

Knowing your camera is key to having an image turn out.  Knowing how it works, what is available, and just as important, how it takes a picture in the various modes.

Which leads me into a horrible practice I see people doing all the time – stealing a shot.  Because I like taking pictures, I start to see things and how to frame them when I walk by.  This is referred to as your ‘eye’.  It is an acquired skill, and the only way to really acquire it is to take a lot of pictures and see what turns out and what does not (I have more bad images than I care to think about, but I learn a little with each one).  With the advent of digital photography, everyone suddenly thinks they are an amazing photographer because they dropped $2000-$3000 on a camera.

Nobody was stopping at this particular cherry blossom, but when I walked past, I saw the shot and told my group to stop.  I lined up and took this shot in about 10 seconds, then showed it to my friends, who all said ‘wow’.  Others nearby saw the resulting image on my camera’s LCD screen and a line soon formed to get the same image.  This drives me nuts, although in large crowd situations, I just accept it.  Personally, if I see someone take a shot I didn’t see, I ask them if they mind if I try for the same shot.  If any of them had asked me, I would have told them ‘go for it’ and helped them line the shot up.  None of them said anything.

None of them were able to get what I got.  They all looked at their screens, shook their heads, and walked away (some using what was at the time a very nice Nikon or Canon dSLR).  The line went away fairly quickly.

A friend of mine said that her camera could never get the same picture.  She was using a Canon SD700 or 750.  I took her camera, and got an image that was about as good (I vaguely recall liking the one on her camera a little better than the one on my own).

But that brings me to my point.  I can get a better image on what would be a ‘lesser’ quality camera.  Anyone can.  95-99% of getting a shot is framing the image.  The last 1-5% is the camera, and for the shot I posted above, almost any camera should be able to get something equally as good.  This is a fairly simple shot.  For more complex shots, a better camera will probably help get a better image – but only if you know how to use it.

As to why I was using my Canon Point and Shoot on the day in question, that’s a simple one.  I had a Nikon D70 as my dSLR.  But the weight of the D70 can hurt my back, and my back was already hurting on this particular day.  The Canon SD800, even with a spare memory card and battery, weights very little.  Had I not brought the SD800, I would have nothing.  The image you don’t take is worthless.  The macro lens I have for the D70 costs more than double the price of the SD800.  And it would probably take an image about this good.

In the right hands, a disposable camera will take a great shot.  In the wrong hands, the very expensive dSLR will not magically make a great photograph.

-sdo

Woops, I sort of got distracted for a while.  But since I don’t have any traffic, it is all good.

The purpose of this site is to display my photographs.  Yes, it really is that self centered.

But I also will talk about how I made the photo, what I was thinking, where I was, etc.  I won’t discuss much technique beyond the how I took the shot (most of this information can be gathered from the EXIF anyway).  I also won’t talk about equipment or brands other than what I personally use and why I like it.  Most of the shots I will show can be taken on any similarly capable camera, and probably lots on much less capable (and expensive) cameras.

I’ll also discuss things people don’t normally think about.  And I’ll try to use plain English.  I don’t even remember the names of specific things half the time.  Lets call this “Photography in Plain English”.

You can see my older pictures below, and there is a link to a gallery I set up a while ago at the top.  This will get updated over the next few weeks and months.

Lets begin.

Much of what makes a photo good is that which is not obvious.

(click for larger version)

What makes this a good photo (or at the very least, why do I like it enough to make it my first example)?

The reason I like it so much is that it was unexpected.  The person shown here was not often caught just sitting and smiling for a picture.  He would normally make a face.  That I was able to get an image of him making a normal face was just shy of a miracle, and more impressive than just about anything I could otherwise take.

None of this would be known to anyone reading this, aside from those who know us both.

Beyond that, the image has the full range from white to black and all various shades of grey which produces what most would consider pleasing.  If the image were all grey, or had too much black or too much white, it would be ugly.

-sdo