Once upon a time, way back when I was a real person, I had a 35mm camera body and a bunch of half-decent lenses and a casual, half-assed desire to learn landscape photography.
This was way before digital photography meant cameras got so expensive you needed to be a lot more than casual to pursue such things. And anyway I was never any good. There’s quite an art to it…
Not just composition but in juggling technicalities: How do you capture depth? I never came close to getting it right. And anyway, “casual half-assed desire” isn’t the same as talent or even ambition – both of which I completely lacked. If there’s an artistic “type,” I ain’t it.
But on lovely crystalline mornings like this I can picture myself trying to climb peaks with a tripod and a big-ass view camera and a trunkful of glass slides like Ansel frickin’ Adams, looking for that perfect angle and that one perfect moment of light…
Yeah, no. I ain’t got it. 🙂 And it’s for sure there’s only so much you can do taking snapshots with a telephone…
Methinks thou dost protest too much. You do a good job with what you have. My photography professor said you have to take a lot of pictures to get that one or two. The beauty of digital is you don’t have to spend a fortune on film and developing to see that one or two.
As a kid in college I had a work-study job in the school dark room processing a bunch of 35MM film for all sorts of projects (about 1971). One time we had to print off ‘proof sheets’ of a bunch of negatives that the school had given to them by the estate of a Life Magazine photographer. Now those people were pros! Here is the uptake: We saw a really remarkable picture and about 40 to 50 shots that looked just like the same thing Grandma took with her Browine.
The reality was you had to burn a lot of film to get the really great, wonderful shots. You are doing great with what you’ve got and if you shoot enough, you will start to see some really nice ones show up! Keep clicking!
The big point here is that you continue to show us the magnificent scenery in your desert hideaway. Please keep it up!
When I was younger, I seemed to have a modicum of talent. I took some shots here & there, like when visiting national parks & such, that wound up looking better than the postcards the gift shops were selling. I just seemed to grasp the right shutter speeds & apertures, etc. Of course, back then, I was too broke for really good equipment; I had a decent Nikon body, which was stolen in Spain on a port visit, and a halfway-good Minolta, but no bread for the gear I lusted after.
Now I’m old enough that I don’t take many pictures. I have the pics in my head, & when I die, they’re gone. Nowadays, I figure not many people give a shit what I’m looking at anyway.
Joel I think you’re being a little hard on yourself. You have posted some very nice photos.
Taking landscape photos isn’t that hard.The big secret that nobody will tell you, is where to aim the camera/cellphone. When you’re using the cell phone to take photos, look at the image on the screen in the same way you would look at a finished photograph and if you like what you see, take the snap. Just remember one thing when using a camera or cell phone always aim at the center of the subject, not the top. For example, many folks when taking shots of people, will center the photo on the face. Or, when taking a landscape shot of a mountain, they will center on the top of the mountain. What happens is the top of the subject will be in the middle of the photo where it should be near the top. So remember, the answer is to aim at the center of the person or subject, not at the top.
Also, don’t be afraid after you have taken the shot to take several more from slightly different angles, it’s not like you’re wasting film. And, after you’ve taken the shot don’t be afraid to use the auto adjust feature on the phone. You will be surprised at what you can do.
I almost forgot…
One other thing you can do to make the landscape shots a little more interesting is to place the subject slightly off center to one side. Take the road photo at the top of today’s blog entry. If the road was more to the right, it would generate interest because it would seem a little out of place in the scrub.
I don’t have glaucoma yet so don’t know how your glasses affect what you “see” but your prescription may be affecting your photos. A polarizer either when you take the photos or as part of a processing application might give you photos you like better, and if your glasses are polarized you are seeing a different landscape from the one I would suppose your camera sees. Does any cell phone photo function include a polarizer? My cell phone is hopelessly primitive, have no idea what is possible with a modern phone.
“taking snapshots with a telephone”
We are living in the future!