Find Your Bright Red X

I'm not trying to steal David DuChemin's thunder by posting yet another link to his blog. I love his blog. I read it every day. I recommend you read it every day if you want to be a better photographer and person. When I started this blog, I promised to post pieces of the world I found on the net that I was motivated and inspired by. It just so happens that I'm motivated and inspired by DuChemin's blog often. Today was no exception.

Read Me

David suggests we find our brightest Red X. What he means by the Red X is, where in the grand scheme of the photographic world do you stand? Which niche do you claim? What shaft of light do you passion for, wish to master? What vision and style is all yours to share with others? We are individuals as unique as raindrops and yet many of us in photography would rather master someone else's style, someone else's vision and call that a success.

I see it on all of the forums for photographers and even amongst my friends, people are constantly comparing their work to others and castigating their competition. They come off as petty whiners. If they can out Annie Liebowitz, Annie Liebowitz then they must be great photographers, right? The truth is that there is no real competition between photogs. As David talks about in his blog, nobody can fill your niche (Red X) like you. Every one of us brings a unique vision to our photography. Line 10 of us up and shoot a robin in a tree and you'll get ten hugely different shots of a bird, a tree, a leaf, the sky, a branch or a shoe. Why do so many photographers grrr at Ansel Adams out of jealousy and frustration? You couldn't fill his shoes. Admit to yourself, NO, you could not take his shots better. You know why? They're his shots, his vision, his style. Go find your own damn vision and shoot the hell out of it. The only person you need to be better than is yourself!

David makes another point in that post that I'm guilty of. If you're reading this blog then you've seen our website. According to our website, Shaun and I aren't out there as portrait photographers. We're not out there as travel photographers. We're not landscape artists. Our big red X is awefully diluded, by anyones standards. My dream is to be a portrait photographer. I believe I excel at portraiture. I love faces. I always have. I see something beautiful in every face. I hope my passion comes acrossed in my photography. But who could tell by looking at my site? The portrait gallery is one amongst many. For me, it's a quandry. Our site is a union between my husband and I. And we have two hugely varying visions, passions and pursuits when it comes to photography. To be a bigger success as a portrait artist does that mean I need my own site dedicated solely to portraiture? I think David Duchemin would say "absolutely!". Something for me to think about, and you!

Shoot Something Every Day

I'm a writer as well as a photographer. I've done some work for pay, mostly I write for my own entertainment. Why is this pertinent? When I sit down at the page I allow myself some time to "write out the brown water" before I expect myself to create anything worth reading. By brown water what I mean is, imagine an old pipe. If it sits there long enough unused, it'll fill with sediment and gunk and turn brown. If you want to drink water from that pipe you have to drain and cleanse out the brown water before anything good comes down the chute.

It's the same thing with creative juices. And yes, photography (and absolutely writing) are both creative functions. If those juices are allowed to sit and firment then it's unreasonable to expect the first shots or pages to be of any quality. That's why I suggest you shoot something, anything, every day. I don't care if it's a flower, duck or dog poop. Get out there and keep the juices flowing. If you can't, don't expect to shoot gold on your first roll. You'll have to get the brown water out first. And if you're any good the money shots will roll down the chute next.

Get out and shoot!

Fun With Vignettes

Photographers will often use vignettes to make a 2D image seem more 3D (the goal of any good photographer, regardless of technique). Vignettes can be in the form of filters you put on the end of your lens while shooting. They can be added in during photoshopping. Or for the most fun, they can be found spontaneously while shooting and improvised with. These two shots were taken down the 6" wide barrel of a white lined plexiglass tube. I thought they were a lot of fun, the boys enjoyed it, and the color fade from white to blue/grey was an interesting pop to the composition.

A Stellar Black and White Conversion

I've been practicing my color to grey scale conversions based on what I learned from the Katrin Eismann tutorial. I'm attaching an image I converted that I thought turned out really well. I started with an amazing shot, f/1.2 at 50mm ISO 200. I worked the color channels, selecting the green channel because it gave me the most tone and least amount of noise. I converted to grey scale mode and did a levels layer to add a bit more black. Nothing else was done, any haloing was a natural light phenomena. I had a lot of fun and am enjoying continuing learning from the Black and White Artistry tutorial.

Denver Darkroom, Portrait and Lighting

It doesn't matter how good you may think you are, you can always get better. There's always someone better than you, taller, faster, more creative. Don't worry about other people. But don't let yourself get barn blind either. By that I mean, don't stop looking and comparing other people's work. Not to be critical of them, but of yourself. Being barn blind means that you think you have the best looking and conformed animals around. But you never step outside of your barn, so you're blind to reality. Along that same vane, I signed up for a Portraiture and Lighting seminar at the Denver Darkroom. Located on Tejon St. in Denver, more information about this school can be found here. The seminar is affordable and meets in 3 sessions. Yesterday was the first and was a very fun time.


We met at the Darkroom studio at 10am. For the first hour and a half Standish Lawder (founder of the Darkroom) showed us a slide show and discussed portrait photography and lighting. His presentation was interesting and informative. Following that discussion we moved two models into the room, Curtis was in front of a black background and Renee was in front of a white backgroud. My six classmates and I were split into two groups. Within our groups we spent 20 minutes directing the shoot and model and then switched to let another of our group members direct. Afterwards we switched to a new model and teacher. Standish directed the group shooting Curtis and Jeffrey Rupp directed the group shooting Renee. This week we worked with Halogen (hot lights - APTLY named). Next week our class will shoot outside and also work with strobe lighting, using two new models. Then on May 9th we'll have a wine and dine and critique session. I've enjoyed the group immensly and am looking forward to next weekend. I've attached some shots I got from yesterday.