Green Spaces

Green space photography is a way to embrace the beauty of natural environments, from lush parks to tranquil forests, and even the smallest urban gardens. Parks, of all types, have a special allure as they are havens of life for both flora, fauna and offer humans a respite from the bustling tempo of modern living.

 

Photographing nature can be a vehicle for artistic expression and act to promote environmental awareness.  Meandering through wooded trails, observing the interplay of light filtering though the leaf canopy, listening to the gurgle of water in a stream or hearing the melodic songs of birds tends to engender a sense of peaceful mindfulness.  Successfully capturing images that visually convey such existential moments relies on a combination of aesthetic sensitivity and technical know-how.

 

Verdant spaces offer endless possibilities for the perceptive photographer.  This Theme Assignment should be both a literal and figurative walk in the park.  Visit your local park or travel to some far away jungle, it doesn’t matter.  Strive to connect with nature and capture images that tell a story about the green world around us in a manner that helps the viewer appreciate the natural splendor and relate to your experience. 

 

Street Photography

Street photography is a broad genre of photography that captures candid moments in public spaces, reflecting the activities of everyday life.   A good street photograph transcends the visual; it conveys emotion, provokes thought, and sparks curiosity. It asks the viewer to pause, look closer, and wonder about the unseen stories inherent in a captured moment.  The storytelling potential can transform a static moment into a timeless narrative. 

 

Some purists insist that the documented moment take place in an urban setting, is captured with a wide-angle lens, and that the subject is unaware that he/she is being photographed.  Others find it acceptable to capture images in any public setting, use a tele-photo lens, and the subject may be aware that they are being photographed, as in the form of candid street portraits.  Be aware that issues about the invasion of personal space and privacy have been woven into the discussion of street photography.

 

Successful street photographers are observant, patient and be able to anticipate the occurrence of dynamic moments. The spontaneity of the genre allows the photographer to capture moments that may otherwise go unnoticed such as a fleeting expression, an unusual juxtaposition, or a serendipitous alignment of light and shadow.

For this TA, employ respectful strategies to capture human behavior that conveys an emotional/thought provoking statement about the human condition in contemporary life.

 

Long Exposure

As one of the components of the exposure triangle, shutter speed exerts a significant impact on the overall appearance of your image.  Fast shutter speed can literally stop the movement of even the speediest moving subject.

 

In contrast, long exposure photography is a captivating technique that allows photographers to visually manipulate time, creating breathtaking images that transcend the ordinary. By using extended shutter speeds, long exposure photography captures the passage of time, often producing effects such as silky-smooth water, streaking lights, or dramatic cloud trails. This genre of photography combines technical expertise with artistic vision, allowing photographers to tell stories that static looking images cannot.

 

Extending the image capture time beyond that of our estimated normal perception ( 1/50 – 1/60th of a second ) can be achieved through the adjustment of camera settings such as lowering your ISO, increasing your f-stop or employing a neutral density filter.  A tripod or other stabilizing device is useful.

Use your artist vision to incorporate the dimension of time into your capture.  Study your subject to envision how lengthening the exposure time will transform your image into something distinct from what everyone else normally perceives.    Turn a fleeting moment into a timeless work of art by offering the viewer a fresh perspective through the lens of time and motion. 

 

Reflections

Photographing reflections provides an opportunity to creatively reimagine your selected scene.    You can find interesting reflections on the surface of water, shiny buildings, in store front windows or on polished objects.  Mirrored representations convey balance through visual repetition.  Crouch, bend, adjust your PoV to align the subject and its reflection in an artistic composition.   Sometimes the reflective counterpart can be more interesting than the primary subject.  Use reflections to create visual depth. Don’t be afraid to create an unconventional aesthetic.   Break away from the standard mirror symmetrical appearance.  You may shatter negative expectations and realize a lucky composition.

Reflect on the world around you.  Look for subjects that have surfaces that echo themselves in a way that tells a thought-provoking theme of duality. Grist for this photographic mill can be found in all types of weather, indoors or out, during all times of the day and with any subject matter.  Consider using a polarizing lens to reduce unwanted distracting glare.

 

This is one theme assignment where you will not likely want to employ the new reflection removal tool in Lightroom.

 

Capture the Sound

Photography is a visual medium.  Still photographs, by their nature, are static and silent.  Action is frozen and no sound is emitted by the viewed image.  Yet, successful images can illicit memories, evoke emotions or prompt the imagined perception of other physical senses, including sound.  Sometimes, you can imagine hearing the rustle of the wind, the roar of the crowd, the explosion of fireworks, the cacophony on a busy street or even the sounds of silence inherent in a contemplative scene. 

 

This theme assignment is about peaking both the visual sense and the imagined auditory sense.  Harness visual cues that will lead the viewer to intuit the sound associated with your capture.  As photographers, we can sometimes be so single minded on the visual that we lose awareness of the concurring auditory stimuli.  By employing thoughtful imagery and dynamic capture techniques we can invite the viewer to appreciate our image with all their senses.

 

Your task calls for awareness and creative reflection, before pressing the shutter.  In the moment, stive to not just see but to also hear.  Listen to the ambient backdrop.  Attend to the subject and the sound it is making.  Then imagine ways to capture the image as to provide the viewer with sufficient cues so that he/she will not just see what you saw but will be able to hear what you heard.

 

Bokeh

The term "bokeh" refers to the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image. Derived from the Japanese word "boke", meaning "blur" or "haze," bokeh is a concept that has appreciative photographic artistic appeal.  The effect helps draw attention to the subject through the presentation of a visually pleasing, non-distracting, background.  Note that bokeh can also appear in front of the subject.

 

Try to appreciate that bokeh is not merely about blurring parts of the image.  It is about how that blur interacts with light, shapes, and colors. As a photographic technique, bokeh helps elevate the artistic appeal of all genres of photography.

Various styles and characteristics of bokeh are produced by different combinations of lens design, f-stops, sensor size, and the distances between the photographer and subject and between the subject and background and more.  Several popular presentations are “creamy”, “swirly”, “cat’s eye” and “bubble bokeh”.

 

Historically, bokeh was favored by those with specific lenses.  Now, more lenses and lens accessories are made that help simulate a bokeh effect.  Many smart phones emulate a bokeh appearance in the portrait mode and/or art modes.  Various softwares present algorithms that simulate bokeh via post-production manipulations.  This is an opportunity to acquire and/or experiment with this imaginative technique.  Do your homework and then capture images incorporating bokeh.  You will be grateful for adding this technique to your toolbox.

 

Theme Assignment Notes:

1. Theme Assignments (TA) are independent competitions meaning that you can submit an image into one TA competition as well as using that same image in one Regular (Color, Open Mind, or Black & White) competition.

2. Judges are asked to weight their scores – 60% for perceived reflection of the theme and 40% for general technical/aesthetic characteristics.

3. Any type of man-made processing is allowed in TA competitions.