Thank GOD Fireworks Don't Happen Every Day!

"Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference."

~Robert Frank

 

I like the quote I chose for today's post. I think it fits my life as a progressive, and my life as a photographer. It fits a lot of decisions I make when it comes to actually clicking the shutter. Most of the time I prefer pure instinct, but in order to get better at what I try to accomplish with the camera, I have to schedule myself to practice with settings and light. Light! Oy... light can be your best friend, and just when you think you understand each other, the odd natural filter like a cloud or a flock of geese soaring over can change how you think about everything. Photographing fireworks is a lot like constantly trying to make a good impression. You have to get it right the first time, because there is NO forgiveness available.

 

Photographing anything in San Francisco, especially outdoors, comes with a unique challenge. In a word... angles. San Francisco is a love story, built on a million or so earthquakes. I swear, there are NO even angles remaining in the city. Nothing seems to really line up. My meter can read that I, and my camera, are perched equally straight on a hill, STRAIGHT, or even on a perfectly mostly flat surface and yet nope, some off angle is hiding somewhere, waiting for me to come along. Invariably there will be something out of whack! To the right. To the left. Something. I want and need to do more work with hills this year. Hills facing up and hills facing looking down. Stairs to. There are so many stairs in San Francisco... all of them present some challenges for the amateur photographer.

But challenges are good! I am thankful that I continue to be challenged by something I love so much!

I have not, and will not cease growing as a person, as long as I have photography to challenge me. And what's great about that is that as I adjust how I feel about lighting, I think I remain a little more open minded about the other challenges that haunt my brain. The ones that don't have much to do with photography. It all works out at the end of the day, and if for some reason I can't find the correct angle or lighting moment, or manage to screw in the right light bulb, there is always new opportunities the next day to get it all right!

My two great loves. Photography and Progressive Politics. 

Thank GOD fireworks don't happen every day!

Mood: Happy... but the head cold continues.

And Now... Boston with "More Than A Feeling"



~Me :)

Your Monday Photo Shoot: At an Angle

"While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see."

-Dorothea Lange

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Snap a picture of something at an angle. Don't tilt your camera, take a picture of something at an angle to your camera. Tilts, slopes, inclines, downgrades - they're all up for a picture.

-John Scalzi (By The Way)

I had to do a little hunting in my archives, to come up with some photos of angles, that I hadn't used too often or too recent. I need to get out with the camera more often. Lately it has been just one or two days a week, but I am hoping to get a little more time in soon. :) Anyway, here are a few I found interesting, beginning with the large picture above. I don't know, I just really liked the angle of the awnings in front of this beach side restaurant, and if you look really close to the left side of the picture you will see a steep downgrade of a street which meets at that corner. The scene just caught my eye for some reason.

Roller Coaster in Santa Cruz

Street Sign Gone Wild

Devil's Slide In San Mateo County (It's steeper then it looks)

-OndineMonet
"Nifty Awning"
Santa Cruz, California
August 9, 2007
Late Afternoon