Through the Gadling Lens: the most overrated photography-related items take on a trip

by Karen Walrond on

Every now and then, while I’m out in public, I’ll see someone who clearly was seduced by the “coolness” of a camera-related item or gadget, but who clearly has no idea what it does. (A most recent case in point: at my daughter’s Christmas recital, a man with an expensive SLR camera, a 300mm lens and a flash that was worth more than my car. Umm, excuse me, sir? You’re focusing on something that is about a GYMNASIUM LENGTH AWAY. Your flash is doing absolutely nothing to help you with that shot. Really. It’s not.) Similarly, while on a trip, I’ll occasionally notice fellow tourists traveling with items that seem … well, let’s just say … overkill for the purposes of a leisurely family vacation. So lest you get seduced by all the bells and whistles of various photography gadgets out there, I thought I’d share with you some of the items which, in my opinion, are completely useless when coming to photography when traveling on leisure (although, admittedly, there might be some uses for them in other photography applications. MIGHT be.)
1. A photographer’s vest. I know, I know — when you watch a television adventure reality show, and you see the intrepid traveler on safari wearing his elaborate photographer’s vest, there is just something about him that looks tragically hip and incredibly cool, right? And perhaps, if you happen to be a photographer for National Geographic, you’ll be able to pull it off that look with aplomb. The thing is? Very few of us are National Geographic photographers. Furthermore, if you’re walking around the beach at the resort in your laden photographer’s vest, while the rest of us are sitting in our swimsuits drinking fruity drinks with little paper umbrellas floating in them, no one is going to believe you’re a National Geographic photographer. Besides, those vests are heavy and sweaty. And often unintentionally broadcast the message “Mug me — I’m carrying expensive camera gear, and God knows what else.” Go ahead and leave them at home.

“But, Karen!” I hear some of you protesting, “I have to carry … things! I need those pockets!”

Really, you don’t. You can take a daypack like the rest of us. Or better still, just stick the lens cap in your swimsuit, shorts or cover-up pocket while you shoot. It’ll be fine. Trust me.

2. A full-size tripod. I know I’ve mentioned in the past that there are some great uses for a tripod: particularly if you’re shooting in low light, and don’t want to pull out a flash. But have you ever looked at the size of a tripod? They’re big. And they’re somewhat heavy. And while they might actually fit under the seat in front of you (or in the overhead bin above your seat), they may not actually fit in your carry-on, and then you’ll be over the carry-on-bag-number limit, and then where would you be? They’re bulky, and annoying, and really, best left at home. You’re not going to want to pull it out when you’re on site, trust me.

Still, I will admit that there may be an occasion or two where you’d like to have the support of a tripod — like, for example, if you’re taking a photograph in a cave. In this case, I would strongly recommend grabbing a Gorillapod and throwing it into your carry-on bag. They’re light, flexible, and can be used pretty much anywhere. It will definitely be all you need.

3. A GPS adapter for your camera. I’d never actually heard of these little gadgets until my husband clued me in: apparently these handy little systems allow you to “to ‘geotag’ your images with valuable information such as latitude, longitude, altitude and time information.” Which, you know, sounds kind of cool until you look at the price: anywhere from US$ 150-220.

Um… excuse me?

Okay, pardon me for asking, but why would I possibly want to spend this kind of money on a gadget that, in theory, tells me exactly where I was and what time it was when I took the photograph? Wouldn’t I already know that? And besides, most cameras — both SLRs and point-and-shoots — will already time stamp images. All I’d need to do when I got back in front of my computer is pull up Google Earth and input my location, and the application will spit out the associated latitude and longitude … for free.

Again, I suppose it is possible that there are some professional photographers which will find this little tool invaluable — the photographer assistant to Indiana Jones or some other archeologist or geologist, say — but for those of us who are just taking beautiful pictures of picturesque places or stunning faces to remember, I’d say we should just save our money for a cool new lens, instead.

4. A removable flash. An admission before I begin: I am not particularly big on flash photography. I find that, in general, using a flash creates a clearly artificial light effect on the resulting image (undesirable unless you’re sitting in a studio, or shooting a wedding); in addition, in most instances, a comfortable knowledge of ISO, shutter speed and aperture setting obviates the need for a flash altogether, anyway. I own quite a fancy flash, thanks to a generous husband who gave it to me as a Christmas gift several years ago, but the truth is that I can count the number of times on one hand that I ever actually used the thing. And I have never, ever taken it with me on a trip. Ever.

That is not to say, of course, that I haven’t used the flash that is built-in on my camera — in a pinch, I have resorted to popping that baby out. But I’m far more likely to just adjust the settings of my camera. The final result, in my opinion, is far more authentic.

So, there you have it. This of course, is not to say that there aren’t valid reasons why certain specialized photographers wouldn’t find the above gadgets and items useful — or even invaluable — but I do maintain that for the serious amateur who simply likes to take photographs when they travel, all of the above are rather ineffective, or, at the very least, noncritical. Greater minds may differ; and in fact, if you do, I’d love to hear it in the comments below. And as always, if you have any questions, you can always contact me directly at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom – and I’m happy to address them in upcoming Through the Gadling Lens posts.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadli
ng Lens, click here.

Through the Gadling Lens: taking photographs of strangers

by Karen Walrond on

Yesterday afternoon, I received a message from my friend, Jennifer:

“Okay, this may be way off base, but what about the etiquette of photographing interesting looking strangers while traveling? Do you ask permission first? (What if you don’t speak the language?) Do you take stealth photos? Only shoot strangers from behind?”

I have to say that this is quite possibly one of the most common questions I get as a photographer — usually from people who are planning their own vacations, and are concerned about stranger-portrait-taking protocol. So this week, I thought we would talk about some of the issues to take into consideration when taking photographs of total strangers (however, when it comes to taking photographs of uncooperative travel companions, you’re on your own).

1. Consider privacy laws.

Usually, the primary concern when taking photographs of strangers is whether consent is required in order to take the photograph. If you’re in the United States, the current laws are generally simple: if you’re in public, and the subject of your photograph doesn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy, then you can legally shoot away without getting their consent.

In other words, say you’re at a park. Or at the beach. Or the farmer’s market. Or just on a busy street. In these cases, the people that you encounter (and who end up getting captured by your camera) have no reasonable expectation of privacy, and there is therefore no legal reason you need to get their consent to take their picture.

If, however, you’re in the restroom of a public park, all bets are off: even though it might be argued that a public restroom in a public park is public property, the fact is that people who are going to the bathroom have a reasonable expectation of privacy — therefore, you need to put your camera away.

Keep in mind, of course, there are certain public places where you are expressly prohibited from taking photographs — some museums, for example, request that you do not take photographs; similarly, military establishments may ask, for the purpose of security, that you do not take photographs. In these cases, it’s always a good idea to go ahead and stow your camera.

For a great quick summary of the rules when taking photographs in public places in America, check out this article printed last year on USAToday.com. It’s a pretty good cheat sheet of the general rules on public photography as they exist today — however, keep in mind that laws are liable to change at any time.

And finally, a word of caution on taking photographs outside of the United States: please note that privacy laws vary from country to country; furthermore, new laws are being enacted all the time. For example, in the United Kingdom, a new law was recently enacted which prohibits the taking of any photographs of police officers or military personnel, even accidentally. Therefore, before going overseas, it’s a good idea to research the laws affecting the taking of public photographs, lest you find yourself in more trouble than you bargained for.

All of this said, say, however, you’ve found yourself on vacation, and you’ve forgotten to do any research on the local laws regarding photography. How do you make sure that you get proper consent to take any photographs?


2. You can feel relatively comfortable taking photographs of street performers.

Since street performers or buskers are, after all, performing their craft ostensibly for the tourist trade, you can feel pretty comfortable that you have their implied consent to take their photographs. Even so, it is always a good idea to have some spare change to tip them for the privilege of taking their photographs. Often, busking is a large percentage of the performer’s income, and so if you’ve enjoyed his performance, it’s polite to offer him a bit of cash.

Even if they clearly posed for your photograph.


3. Smile, and ask politely for consent.

Of course, the safest thing to do is to simply ask the person if you can take his or her picture. I’ve found saying something like the following works best for me:

“Hi, I’m Karen, and I’m on vacation from Houston/Texas/America. Would you mind if I took your photograph? I’m a photographer, and you have a great face. I hope that would be okay?”

In my experience, if I’m warm, sincere, and I pay a compliment (generally made to avoid the misconception that I’m asking for a photograph because I think the subject is a freak show), people are more than happy to allow you to take their photograph.

The trick is, however (a) to be friendly and sincere, and (b) don’t leer, no matter how completely hot you think the person is. In addition, I generally show the person the image I’ve taken on the screen on the back of my camera — it’s a simple gesture that generally allows them to see that the photograph doesn’t look weird or inappropriate. If the person seems to really like the photograph, I will sometimes offer to email the image to them (because really, how often do we get a photograph we’re happy with taken of us?), but I’ll only do so if I don’t think the person will be weirded out by the offer (I recently took a photograph of a man with his infant son on a deserted beach one early morning, and he was thrilled to have a copy of the photo e-mailed to him. We never spoke again.) And then I thank the person again for allowing me to take the photograph.

Furthermore, if you’re visiting a country where you don’t speak the language (but you know that you’re going to want to take photographs of the locals), I would strongly recommend that you at least learn the phrase, “Would mind if I take your photograph?” in the local language. It is my experience that any attempt to connect through learning the local language is always greatly appreciated — and while smiling and pointing to your camera may convey what you’re trying to accomplish, any additional (and sincere) attempt to connect is a good thing.

Finally, it should be noted that in some cultures, it will be expected that you pay for the privilege of snapping a photograph, regardless of whether the subject of your photo is a street performer, busker, or not. For this reason, it’s never a bad idea to have the equivalent of a couple of dollars in your pocket, if asked.

I’m sure there are lots of other tips and tricks to taking photographs of strangers, and I’d love if you’d share them in the comments, below. In the meantime, happy snapping.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.

Through the Gadling Lens: what’s in my day pack?

by Karen Walrond on

Reader Nancy e-mailed me this week:

Hi Karen!

I was just looking at the ‘in my camera bag‘ sidebar on Chookooloonks, and wondered how you go about things when you‘re out taking photos…particularly when you‘re traveling. Say you‘re in a new city and decide to walk about and shoot for a while. Do you take your bag with ALL your lenses, etc? Assuming you don‘t, lol, how do you decide what to take with you? I thought that might be something you could cover on the Gadling Lens, but if not I‘d love to hear about it…the physicality of toting your camera gear. Thanks!

Nancy

As you might remember, late last year, I wrote a post about what I pack with me to go on a trip — and even then, commenters were stunned at the amount of stuff I took with me (and generally crammed into my carry-on roller bag, or on shorter trips, my Crumpler backpack). This week, I thought I’d share everything that I take in my daypack on a particular trip. Feel free to adjust for personal comfort and need.
1. My day-pack.

First of all, it might surprise you that while I’m a fan of large, roomy padded camera bags, I tend not to use them on day trips. Why? Because, in general, they’re heavy. And if I’m going to be out all day carrying a large single-lens-reflex camera with associated lenses, the last thing I want to do is carry a bag that’s going to add to the weight.

So, for day trips, I tend to forego the Crumpler backpack (and certainly the roller bag) for a Kipling bag. I am embarrassed to admit that I have a considerable number of Kipling bags — and none of the girly ones you see on their website, either. When I’m out for the day, depending on the number of lenses I’m going to take with me, I either take my Kipling Lancelot shoulder bag (worn across my chest) or my Kipling Firefly backpack (which, in an abundance of clarity, I own in black). The reason I love Kipling? I love the fabric they’re made from, which I’m not entirely sure is of this planet. Because of the way Kipling makes their bags:

  • since the fabric’s so thin, it allows me to fold each of those bags to surprisingly small dimensions, which can be easily stowed in tight corners in my suitcase;
  • the fabric is astoundingly lightweight, so they don’t add to the weight of what I’m carrying. And when I’m out for 8 hours or more, every ounce counts;
  • the bags don’t look like camera bags, so they don’t advertise that I’m carrying expensive equipment;
  • the fabric is somewhat water-resistant, so the contents of my bag stay relatively dry — at least until I can make it into the nearest wine bar in the event of sudden inclement weather.

Just sayin’.

Anyway, the upshot is that I would recommend you take into account the weight of your daypack prior to purchasing, especially if you’re going to be out for hours at a time. Your back will thank you for it. And as far as the lack of padding — I honestly don’t worry about it. I’m just careful not to swing my bag into any hard walls, or drop it on concrete. I haven’t lost a camera yet.

Then, once I pull out my Kipling bag for the day, I fill it with the following (all fully-charged, as applicable):

2. My camera body.

These days, this means my Nikon D300, although I also own an older Nikon D200. If I’m traveling to a location which (a) is known for pick-pockets, or (b) is likely to be somewhat dirty (like, say, the beach, or the desert), I take the D200. But otherwise, I always default to the D200.

3. My camera lens(es).

I do own a variety of lenses, but one lens that always accompanies me, no matter the trip, is my 24-85mm automatic zoom lens. I love this lens because it is wide enough that I can get a pretty decent scenery shot, but telephoto enough that I can get a decent portrait as well. It’s a very good, all-purpose lens.

In addition to the 24-85mm, and depending on where I’ll be spending my day, I might add my 60mm micro lens. This lens is really beautiful if I want to take extreme up-close detail shots — so if I’m going to be spending the day in a place with really beautiful foliage and flowers, or any other place where there are small details, I’m sure to take this with me.

In the alternative, if I’m going somewhere where I’m going to want to take some intimate portraits of people in a crowded place — say, for example, some sort of festival, like Trinidad Carnival or La Tomatina — the only lens I might take with me that day (even to the exclusion of the 24-85mm) is my 70-200mm lens. This sucker is huge and SO heavy (which is why I don’t take any other lenses), but it takes beautifully intimate shots from relatively far away. And trust me, when you’re taking photographs of people hurling tomatoes at each other, you want to be far away.


4. A small point-and-shoot.

Chances are I won’t ever pull out my Nikon Coolpix, but I throw it in the bottom of the bag as a spare camera, just in case.

As far as camera equipment, that’s pretty much it! The rest of my bag likely has:


5. A Popout map

I discovered these awesome little maps when I lived in London — and there’s one available for almost every major city. They’re great for the major streets of the central part of the city, and they fold very small and tiny — so you don’t scream “TOURIST!” every time you’re looking up an address.

6. A small wallet with cash, one credit card and a cash card. ‘Nuff said.

7. My passport. I’m always torn whether to carry this around with me, or leave it in the safe. Sometimes I leave it in the safe, and take my driver’s license. Either way, I always have a copy in my suitcase.

8. My cellphone. Just in case. Also handy when I’m supposed to meet someone, and I’m running late (or he is).

9. Lip balm or gloss, and powder brush. Because, after all, I am a girl.

And that’s about it — and despite what it might look like, since I usually only have one lens (at most, two), it’s not as much stuff as you might think. Obviously, as I plan my itinerary for each day’s travel, the choice of lens changes, but must of the rest of the daypack stays the same.

Any questions? As always, please feel free to email them to me directly at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom, and I’m happy to address them in upcoming posts!

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.

Through the Gadling Lens: adding some oomph to your landscape shots

by Karen Walrond on

I was recently talking to a friend of mine, and he was lamenting the fact that his landscape photographs seemed a bit “boring.” “I look at all these other landscapes in the Gadling flickr pool,” he said, “and they’re so much more exciting than mine. What can I do to make my shots more compelling?”

To be honest, of all my photography, I struggle with making my landscapes interesting more than any other — shooting people is easy, I think. It’s really good scenery that’s difficult. And so I thought I’d go through some of the amazing landscape photographs in our Flickr pool, and point out some of their aspects that make them compelling. With some luck, some of the observations will help catapult us all into become the Ansel Adams-quality photographers we all can be.
1. Shoot with a relatively wide angle lens.

First things first: make sure that you’re using the right lens. As you probably remember, we discussed the various types of lens for various types of photography before — and the upshot is that if you’re shooting a landscape, you need a lens with a smaller focal length, rather than one with a larger focal length. For most landscape photography, I would choose a lens of, say 50mm or less. If you choose one much larger — say 100 mm — you’ll likely be disappointed how much of the scenery the lens crops out of the resulting image (although that type of lens is fabulous for portrait photography).

2. Consider focusing on the foreground.

Like many of you, I’m sure, when I’m taking a photograph of a landscape, I tend to focus on the horizon, figuring that it makes the most sense: “looking out there,” after all, tends to be what we do when we take in beautiful scenery.

However.

In looking through the Gadling photo pool, I’ve noticed that there are some photographers who, when taking their amazing shots, focus instead on the foreground, rather than the horizon. And as I think about it, this seems completely logical: after all, when we look out at a vista, our eyes naturally see all of the details closer to us, and what’s farther away isn’t as detailed. Why didn’t I think of this?

The following are some great examples of what I mean:

The two photographs, above, were shared by arex and shot in the San Francisco Bay area (as is likely obvious by the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in the background of the second image). Notice how, in addition to using a wide angle lens, arex focused on the details in the foreground: the foam of the advancing wave in the first picture, and the bubbles of the retreating wave in the second? By focusing in the foreground, arex added a wonderful depth to the image, which conveys how beautifully vast the vista was. If, instead, arex had focused on the horizon, I don’t think the image would’ve been nearly as impactful.

3. Add people to the foreground, to help emphasize scale.

Sometimes, when you take a shot of a beautiful vista, it can be difficult to really communicate how vast the scenery is, or how massive the mountain, or how expansive the ocean. One great way to express the impressive nature of your shot is to place someone in the foreground for the purpose of scale.

Here’s what I mean:

See how the figures in the foregrounds of each of the images shared by jlaceda and Buck Forester, above, show the scale of the scenery behind them? I love how huge the view looks behind the person in the first image, and I really love how the figure in the second image has his back to the camera, and indicates toward the view: this sort of stance helps direct your focus, rather than compete with your attention as it would have had he faced forward. Beautiful work, both.

4. Consider using a novelty lens.

Novelty lenses can be considered more of an extravagance than a necessity; however, they can add wonderful dimension to a landscape shop. I’m a fan of the Lensbaby, a series of lenses designed for SLR cameras that can help you “selectively focus” on certain aspects of your image, leaving the remaining images deliciously out-of-focus. Here’s are a couple of great examples:

Both of the above images were shot and shared by ashcrowe, using a Lensbaby lens. Notice how there is a portion of each image that is in sharp focus (known as the “sweet spot”), while the rest of the surrounding portions of the image increasingly blur? The result is a lovely nostalgic effect, which plays beautifully to the antique subjects of the photographs, and makes for a compelling landscape photograph. Great work.

4. And finally, don’t underestimate the power of Photoshop.

Or, for that matter, any post-camera processing software. I’ve discussed before how I believe that post-camera processing is a tool for conveying exactly what the photographer was experiencing at the time of the shot, and I really believe that this sentiment is never more true as in the realm of landscape photography. In fact, when it comes to landscapes, I’m far more likely to really go to town in using photoshop, because it helps convey exactly the type of mood I was in, or the emotions I was feeling at the time of the shot. And the following are wonderful examples of exactly what I’m talking about:

The really fabulous shot shared by crafterm in Tasmania, Australia is made only more stunning by his processing treatment post-camera. The boat sitting on the still water is quite old, and as crafterm says, “I’m sure it could tell quite a few stories judging its age and use.” He further makes his point by treating the photograph in a sepia tone — as a viewer, the image looks very vintage and classic, as well.

And finally, I really love the image above shared by B
ryn Tassell of the coastline on Vancouver Island. The photoshop treatment makes the entire scene other-worldly, not to mention conveys the absolute stillness of the water at the time of sunset. An absolutely amazing image.

Hopefully you find the handful of tips above useful in keeping at the back of your mind next time you’re out on your intrepid travels, and are capturing images of the stunning scenery. If you have any additional tips or images to share, please do so in the comments below. And as always, if you have any questions, feel free to send them directly to me at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom. I’m always happy to answer them here on Through the Gadling Lens.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more, click here.

Through the Gadling Lens: colour!

by Karen Walrond on

I mentioned before that when I was a new photographer, a photographer friend made me shoot only in black and white for my first few rolls of film. His reasoning, rightly or wrongly, was that “colour film hides a multitude of sins,” and only by shooting in black and white would I learn the important lessons of contrast and texture. And I couldn’t help but believe part of his motivation was his belief that black-and-white photographer was just cooler. You know, Ansel Adams-like. More … pure.

Fifteen years later, and I’m now bold enough to confess: I like colour.

I can’t help it — there’s just something about a beautifully saturated, richly-coloured image that excites me. Of course, like most photographers, I can appreciate a really good black and white image, but given the choice, I’ll shoot in colour every time. And like with most aspects of photography, there are certain tricks to composing a great colour shot — so this week, we’ll do a little colour theory and explain our colour composure works.
1. Monochromatic colour

One of the easiest ways, of course, to take an impactful colour photograph is to simply saturate the frame with one specific colour — either fill the frame of your viewfinder with your subject so that its colour dominates the frame, or “layer” the same colour: make sure that several subjects in your shot are the same colour, so that the effect is, again, a full frame with one colour. Here are some great examples:

In the above shot shared by il lele and taken in Japan, the red of this “tunnel” is the predominant colour — and so il lele ensured that the frame was filled by the strong hue. The result is an incredibly striking shot.

Similarly, in this beautiful image shared by crafterm, the strong colour green of these leaves in Australia were layered, so that green of the leaves in the foreground are layered against the green of the foliage behind. The result, even though the image is not panoramic, leaves you with a strong impression of the verdant scenery around the photographer.


When I shot the image of the London Eye in November of last year, above, the sky was blue with dusk, it was raining, and the blue Christmas lights in the barren trees were reflecting on the blue pavement, below. I therefore set my shutter speed and aperture to ensure that I capture the entire blue scene without the distortion of a flash, resulting in blue-saturated and moody image, above.

Finally, just to make the point that these types of shots can be captured even with human subjects, take a look at the image of my friend, Josh, above. Josh was walking through a shopping center on the island of Grenada, when he noticed that his shirt was the identical colour of an adjacent wall. He handed his camera over to his wife, and affected the pose above — resulting in a really funny shot; however, because of the striking colour, it’s an intriguing image as well.


The Colour Wheel

For photographs which feature more than one colour, a great way to ensure that your images communicate the emotion behind the image is frame the shot with the colour wheel (shown at left) at the back of your mind. A great summary of the basics of colour theory can be found at this site. Put simply, the colour wheel is basically the entire colour spectrum in circular form. Colours which are next to each other (like red and orange, say, or blue and green) are called “analogous colours” — they’re generally similar and harmonious. Colours which are directly opposite each other, like orange and blue, or purple and yellow, are called “complementary colours.”

Let’s take a look at some examples at how using analogous colours and complementary colours can affect the mood of a photograph.

1. Analogous Colours.

As I mentioned above, analogous colours are colours that are found adjacent to each other on the colour wheel. Because the colours are so close in colour range to each other, they tend to evoke a feeling of harmony, and any related emotions that might come to mind: like peace, or tranquility, or balance. What’s interesting is that these communicated feelings tend to occur no matter which colours along the wheel make up the majority of the photograph, they just have to be colours adjacent to each other.

Here are some great examples:

The image above, shared by ohad*, is particularly pleasing and soothing because the predominant colours in the image are blue and green, which are adjacent to each other on the colour wheel. These harmonious colours (together with the softly undulating horizontal lines in the photo) tend to exude a feeling of peace and tranquility — which is perfectly congruous with what ohad* named the image himself: “Magical Mystery Doors.” It’s a beautiful shot which conveys the idea of calm because it focuses on the actual colours of the image — not just the building or the doors. Beautifully shot.

I love this image shared by Willy Volk, primarily because it makes the point of analogous colours by featuring three adjacent colours on the colour wheel: green, blue and purple. This image, captured in Colorado, definitely conveys a calming, restful mood. Really well done.

And finally, just to show that these emotions can be conveyed by analogous colours, even if they’re not the stereotypical “peaceful” colours of blue and green, take a look at the following, shared by fiznatty:

Even though this photograph features the generally exciting colours of red and orange, because they fall next to each other on the colour wheel, the image also evokes a feeling of harmony — the colours don’t clash, they work together. If this image had been shot so that the harmonious colours didn’t fill the frame, the emotion and feelings conveyed by the shot would likely be totally different.

3. Complementary colours

Despite how it sounds, complementary co
lours don’t really “complement” each other. Since they fall on opposite sides of the colour wheel, they actual create stark contrasts to each other — and therefore, they tend to create an aura of excitement, or related emotions: celebration, for example, or exuberance.

Here are a few examples:

This great shot shared by thnkfast is a beautiful example about how using complementary colours — in this case, the vibrant red of the fruit against the green background — helps convey a mood of exuberance with this shot, captured in the Vancouver Aquarium. This isn’t an image that calms you. This is one that makes you happy: excited about catching this moment in nature, perhaps even excited for the butterfly in finding the nectar.

And finally, I love this shot shared by nabil.s of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. While the nabil.s says that he capture this image at 6 p.m. one evening, the shot hardly conveys a feeling of peace now that the day is ending. Rather, the startling complementary colours of orange and blue (opposites on the colour wheel) communicate that the night is just beginning — exciting things are about to start happening. A beautiful image.

Now, as always, the tips I’ve shared in this post are merely guidelines — there’s nothing that says that all of your shots must contain only analogous colours, or complementary colours … or, for that matter, any colour … they’re just thoughts to keep in the back of your mind and as part of your arsenal when composing your next great travel shots. As always, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them below, or send me an email directly at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom — I’ll be happy to address them in upcoming posts of Through the Gadling Lens.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.