In my previous In-Depth blog post, my mentor and I discussed the challenge of taking images of snow as well as capturing each image at multiple focal lengths allowing there to be a variety of which we can choose our favourite. Sadly, the weekend of the snowfall went by too fast, resulting in me failing to take the photos I would have hoped to have taken. However, I did follow up on my mentor’s previous challenge, from a couple blog posts ago, to capture the morning frost on different plants in my front yard.
We commenced our meeting with my father asking me a question about this shot, which was a bit different since I’m usually the one asking the questions. He wondered, “why did you make the decision to put the subject in-between the other two branches to frame it?” I responded honestly, by telling him how it was not a conscious effort to do so, however, I knew of my preference in images with foreground elements, so I suggested it could have been a more subconscious decision. In addition, I showed my mentor why this was probably my favourite image from this week. For example, the incredibly sharp focus, the minute vignetting that draws your attention to the subject, the vibrant colour profiles, as well as the complementary light blue background with the deep greens in the subject which have yellow and orange throughout. Furthermore, he asked me “what other focus points I used or tried out throughout the process of capturing this?” I told him how I attempted to take photos of this plant from the front. However, the result was that the tips of each branch that weren’t my subject were extremely out of focus. Moreover, there wasn’t as much detail as there was when I captured this image from the side profile.
While reviewing this image, my mentor, surprisingly, had nothing critique. He absolutely loved the image. I believe that this is where we differ, because although it is technically stunning, I find it lacks a certain level of that “WOW” factor that I look for in an image. I’m finding it quite difficult to put it in words, but I think it’s almost just a bit too monochromatic for my taste. However, I still like the picture just not as much as my mentor. When I asked him to further describe why he enjoyed the image, he responds “I think that this is such an effective use of focal length because of that entire line that is in focus. I think that line makes the entire picture unified, so nothing gets lost.” He continued, “I really like how the focused line is cutting across the thirds on the righthand side which draws your attention to the center of focus, the water droplet, and carries your eyes beyond it, eventually leading you back to the droplet.”
Although we didn’t discuss this image for too long, my father briefly introduced me to the new point of view of geometry in photography. The first thing that stood out to him was how the highlights of the triangular shape in the bottom left corner were really brought out through my composition. Since this was completely by accident on my part, he really encouraged me to pursue those sorts of shapes through my photography. He summarized the geometry with how certain shapes satisfy people, such as circles, whereas rigid and sharp shapes, like squares, can be used to put the viewer in an uneasy state. All of this was brand new to me so asking him to go a bit further in-depth on this geometry was quite helpful for me to be able to replicate it in the future.
While critiquing this image, my mentor immediately pointed out the beautiful hues of purple along the tips of the stem. He liked them so much that he wondered if I had edited to image to bring out those purple colours. I told him that I only ever adjust the exposure a little bit but other than that, I leave it alone. I brought up another image of a different focal length for him to see. I pointed out that in the second photo, the purples were even more vibrant. This made me wonder if I had possibly altered the image a bit too much. However, my mentor reassured me that both look great, but in their own way. I also pointed out how in the second picture, the tips of the plant were cut off. My mentor remarked that it made the image feel almost incomplete, which I totally agreed. Furthermore, my mentor mentioned how much detail there was in the frost along the plant’s surface which added a nice bit of extra texture.
For this last image, my father and I began discussing how nice the repetition was throughout the background with the flower bud appearing more than once. He asked, “did you do this intentionally?” I responded by letting him now that I specifically chose small patch of flowers because I had thought it could be much more interesting if there isn’t a flat background of just one colour. From there, he also asked, “was focussing on the green base of the bud on purpose?” I also responded by clarifying how I thought the base of the bud had the most water droplets and detail which usually makes a nice image. It was a lucky that I got much of the bud in focus as well. Furthermore, my father wondered what it could have looked like if I had focused on the edge of the bud because he pointed how the edge looked bumpy and rigid due to the frost melting.
As a fun question for my mentor this week, I asked him which image he most preferred compared to the others this week? He immediately responded, “the blue one.” I had to ask him “why” because as I stated before, the blue picture was not my favourite from this week so for him to say that photograph was his favourite was quite shocking to me. He answered, “it’s probably the colour and composition because of the dynamic line of focal length cutting across the image making it almost a bit abstract.” For his second favourite, he responded, “the flower photo” I was also in shock as to why he would choose this image over the others. He answered, “definitely the composition, I love the repetition of the snow drops and I also like how it’s framed.” Overall, I would think that a multiple-choice question in theory would be a good idea, however, in practice, I found that it was quite useless and didn’t really help me learn anything.
In conclusion, I believed that we had great discussions and critiques this week about the images that I took throughout the past two weeks. I learned about how geometry can play an aspect in photography, especially when attempting to convey a specific emotion. However, my mentor subverted my expectations this week by choosing two of his favourite images that I didn’t like as much. I can’t wait until my next meeting with my mentor where I can share my newest images I’ve taken with his challenge. The challenge he has given to me this week is to try and capture some snow, if it ends up snowing, and/or take a few images of people’s eyes close.