Through the Gadling Lens: 7 photography exercises for the brand-new photographer

by Karen Walrond on

I bought my very first SLR camera about 15 years ago. I knew nothing about photography at the time, so I enlisted the aid of a professional-photographer-friend to come with me to help me choose my camera, and, since I had his attention, teach me a few pointers about photography as well. “You’ll be buying second-hand,” he informed me, “and you will pay nothing less than $500.”

Gulp.

A few days later (and exactly $501 poorer), my friend and I walked out of my local camera store, a 10-year-old Nikon SLR in my shaking hands. “Now what?” I asked.

“Now,” he responded, “we shoot.”

For the next week or so, my friend took me to various sites in and around Houston, and had me burn roll after roll of film. In addition to teaching me the technical basics, he also gave me some exercises so I could learn about form, composition, contrast and colour. What he taught me was invaluable, and I’ve never felt the need to take a photography course as a result.

Recently, I’ve met a lot of people who have just bought their first digital SLR (or received one as a gift), and really don’t know where to begin. So if you happen to be in that boat, I thought I’d share some of my favourite exercises for a bit of inspiration, and practice. Since these days, most people aren’t putting rolls of film in their cameras, instead, I would suggest that you shoot 20 photographs for each exercise — and then, if you like the results, please share them with us in the comments section below.

And so, without further ado, the exercises:
1. Set your camera to black and white, and shoot away.

My photographer friend was adamant that the first roll of film I ran through my camera be black and white film. “That’s the way you’ll really become a photographer,” he said. “Colour can hide a multitude of sins. Once you’re comfortable in black and white, then you can move to colour.”

In many ways, he was right: shooting in black and white can teach your about form and texture and contrast in a way that colour photography really can’t. For example, in the second shot above, you don’t notice the sunset, but you do notice the “texture” of the rippling water, and the shadow created on the ocean’s surface as the sun sets. When you first take your camera out, go ahead and take several shots in black and white mode, and really study the results. You may never shoot in black and white again, but the lessons that you learn will be ones you’ll take with you when composing all of your shots in the future.

2. Once you’ve got black and white down, start focusing on colour.

Once you’re comfortable with shooting in black and white, go ahead and start shooting in colour. But what I would suggest is to choose a colour, and then go out on a photo shoot and try to capture that specific colour in all your shots. For example, if your chosen colour is yellow, shoot as much yellow in as many locations as you can — and notice the different tonal changes, how light can change the hues and how the colour “handles” translucence, or opacity. This exercise can help you to train your eye to really search out colour as the focal point of composition.

3. The 100 paces exercise

This exercise is one I actually read recently online (and for the life of me I can’t find the link, sorry!), but I think it’s a great exercise to inspire creativity when you don’t have a lot of time to travel somewhere fabulous to practice your photography. The premise is as follows: grab your camera, walk 100 paces in any direction, then stop. Take 20 shots of whatever you find at that spot.

The point of this exercise is to force you to look closely at your surroundings, consider various angles and find something unusual about your specific location. I’ve actually done this exercise (two results of which are shown above), and it was a great way to clear away the creativity cobwebs, and look at familiar places in a whole new way.

4. Play with the rule of thirds.

To refresh: the rule of thirds is a general rule of design and photography that states that if you were to divide each dimension of the frame, or viewfinder, into thirds, then to increase visual interest, your subject should line up along one of the lines or axes that you’ve drawn.

So to do this exercise, when you go out for a photoshoot, instead of placing your subject directly in the middle of the frame, offset it slightly, so that the subject roughly lines up along an axes drawn at a third of the frame. Note that this “rule” doesn’t mean that every shot should be taken on thirds (some shots just work better perfectly symmetrically), but it does force you to think about different angles and ways to shoot.

And also, when doing this exercise, don’t forget that you have axes both vertically and horizontally — for example, in the shot of my daughter above, her eyes and mouth line up pretty perfectly on the horizontal axes; conversely, in the bottom image, the tree lines up pretty well on a vertical axes.

5. Tap into your inner photojournalist.

This is a great exercise to do at local festivals or fairs in your town: grab your camera and head out to the site, and start snapping away. But instead of just taking photographs of your travel companions, or your travel companions next to some landmark or a particular street performer, actually compose shots using what you see around you. Notice things like forms and patterns — for example, in the shot of the artist suspended in silks, above, notice how the position of her body mimics the shape of the tree in the background. In the second photo, notice the angry message juxtaposed with the woman flashing the beautiful smile and the peace sign with her fingers. Really look for the story you can capture within the shot.

6. Get close.

In this case, the distance to your subject will be somewhat limited by the focal length of your lens (in both shots, above, I used a macro lens, which lets me get really, really close to the subject), but in my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes that new photographers make is failing to fill the frame with their subject. So I would suggest that a new photographer take her camera out, and for at least 20 shots, fill the entire frame with her subject. Get used to getting close, and really testing how close you can get to your subject without losing the ability to focus. Once you’ve developed that comfort, then you can start backing up, and playing with shots from farther away.

7. Schedule a photoshoot.

Who says photoshoots are just for professional photographers? One of the funnest, most educational things I did when I first started shooting was invite two friends of mine to drive down to the beach with me, so I could practice using my camera — and I was very careful to ensure that they understood that in addition to shooting the beach, I would be taking their photographs as well. We picked a beautiful day, drove down early, and made a day of it — we shot all morning on the beach, grabbed a bite to eat at a local restaurant, and drove back. The result was a beautiful day filled with great memories, coupled with some great shots that they cherish to this day.

Of course, one of the best ways to make sure that you get great shots is for your subjects to feel comfortable with you — and that’s what spending a morning shooting can do — your friends will eventually forget about the camera. But the other, biggest trick about taking a great portrait?

Don’t stop shooting.

Don’t just shoot the posed shots — shoot when one of your friends wanders off to feel the water on her bare feet (as shown in the first shot above). Don’t just shoot the image of your friends holding each other and smiling into the camera — capture the moment when they think the shot is over, and the pull back to smile at each other (as in the second shot). Just shoot, and shoot and shoot — I guarantee you you’ll be thrilled with one of the resulting shots.

With that, grab your cameras, go out there, and practice, practice, practice — and feel free to use the exercises above for inspiration. And please, if you love some of the results, don’t hesitate to upload your images onto the web (Flickr‘s great for that sort of thing), and then, please, share the links in the comments below. I’d love to see what you capture, and read any insights you may have discovered along the way.

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.

OK, in Latvia, do not speak Russian

by Jeffrey White on

Language is a funny thing: When you say something wrong, even in a foreign tongue, you don’t have to be told you made a mistake. The reaction says it all.

It comes in the form of a stony face, a pause, and an answer that in itself is a correction.

At least that’s what I was thinking about today. I’m writing this from Latvia, a country that has its own language – Latvian – and a de facto language, Russian, that was the lingua franca here throughout decades of communism.

Unfortunately, I don’t know a word of Latvian. Instead, approaching a shopkeeper a little while ago, I spoke to her in Russian. Zd`rravstvuite, I said, using the basic hello in Russian, and proceeded to ask her how much a scarf cost (it’s **bleeping** cold here!). I speak enough Russian to ask the very basics: how much, where to, what is good.

But I awakened her ire with my Russian greeting. She returned it with something I didn’t understand, and proceeded to answer all my questions decidedly not in Russian.It was a reminder that this is one of the fiercest battling grounds in the former Soviet Bloc for the sustainability of the Russian language.

Sure, you’ve got the countries that were members of the Warsaw Pact, places like the Czech Republic and Poland, who maintained their own language traditions. But the countries that were actually part of greater Russia during communist times spoke their own language merely as dialect, which bowed to the hegemony of Mother Russia’s tongue.

Now, Russia is complaining that its language is under fire in countries like Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Russia is making it a human right’s case: There is a sizable ethnic Russian majority spread throughout the Baltics, particularly in Latvia.

When Latvia achieved independence in the 1990s it quickly began to marginalize the ethnic Russian population that had settled here, giving citizenship to anyone who would claim purely Latvia ethnicity. Yet scores of Russians settled here during the Cold War era and gave birth to children here. Latvia’s position has eased in recent years, but it still will not grant citizenship (not an insignificant thing, given its EU membership) to you unless you can demonstrate a mastery of Latvian history and the Latvian language.

This has incensed Latvia’s ethnic Russian population, which stands at around 30 percent of the population. Latvians haven’t helped things: the government has moved to close ethnic Russian schools and for those that remain open the government has made it mandatory that classes are taught more than half of the time in Latvian.

Is there much of a difference between the two languages? Most Latvians, certainly of a specific age, understand Russians fluently, and a lot of ethnic-Russians living here understand Latvian, if only generally. I have a good background in Slavic languages and I can pick out understanding in both. [Update: Many readers have kindly corrected the erroneous assertion implied in this sentence, specifically that Latvian is a Slavic language. It is not. Still, despite it belonging to another linguistic family, I can still pull out the occasional word (especially spoken numbers) because they sound similar to the Slavic languages I am more familiar with.]

But it’s an illustration of what language means, even in today’s European Union, where you sometimes have to lay claim to a certain background or experience if it means your national identity.

Thinking about this, it certainly explains the cold reception I received, and serves as a reminder that in today’s Latvia, there might be a better way to say hello (Sveiki).

Undiscovered New York: lesser-known museums

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Undiscovered New York loves our museums. Who hasn’t come to the Museum of Modern Art and spent hours gazing at works like Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon? Or visited the the Met on a warm evening at dusk to take in one of New York’s best views from the rooftop sculpture garden? Or gazed in awe at the massive lifesize Blue Whale at the American Museum of Natural History?

But the truth is that whether you live here or you’re coming from out of town, a trip to New York’s “must see” museums can get old quickly. Don’t get me wrong – if you’ve never seen the Musuem of Modern Art or the Met, by all means go. But at the same time, the ridiculous weekend crowds and steep admission fees can conspire to spoil that ideal New York museum visit, especially at some of New York’s biggest and most popular spots. What’s a museum-loving visitor to do?

Lucky for you, New York is absolutely jam packed with amazing museums, covering just about any culture, subject, genre of art or period of history imaginable. Best of all, many of these museums are extremely cheap or free and you’ll avoid huge crowds and long waits that can spoil a visit at some of New York’s “biggies.” Want to have an awesome New York museum experience without all the fuss? Step inside Undiscovered New York’s favorite lesser-known New York museums, after the jump.
City Reliquary
On the outskirts of Brooklyn’s trendy Wiliamsburg neighborhood, sandwiched along a row of unassuming storefronts and steps from the noisy BQE Expressway lies one of the more unique museum collections in all of New York. It’s called the City Reliquary, and it’s a less a formal museum than a testament to the maniacal habits of obsessive-compulsive New Yorkers.

Rather than focus on collection curated by some academic “expert,” the City Reliquary started as a repository for the collections of ordinary New Yorkers ranging from “vintage thermoses” to Presidential Plates and antique pens. The organization supplements these resident collections with displays of interesting New York paraphenalia including architectural remnants of New York City buildings and Statue of Liberty mementos. It’s a small but often fun antidote to the stuffy, more established museums across the river in Manhattan. As another plus, the admission is “pay what you wish.”

Rubin Museum of Art
The Met has an amazing collection of artwork from the Far East – enough to put most major museums to shame. But there’s so much to see it get a bit overwhelming at times. That’s why a museum like Chelsea’s Rubin Museum of Art can be a great alternative for easily distracted visitors. Rather than try to cover a huge range of countries and cultures in Asia, the Rubin Museum focuses exclusively on Himalayas and surrounding regions on several manageable floors. It’s a decidedly more leisurely, manageable and less crowded way to check out some amazing culture in a cool setting.

Museum of Sex
We mentioned the the Museum of Sex this past Valentine’s Day, and it honestly deserves another mention here. OK, yes, I know – it’s a museum about sex. But before you break into nervous giggles and write it off as some place for perverts, did you ever think to consider it might be an interesting museum? The answer is a definite YES. In all honesty, the scope of the Museum of Sex goes well beyond celebrating flesh to take a deeper look at human sexuality. Honest-to-goodness academic questions are asked through exhibits about censorship, obscenity laws and the changing morals of different societies through the years. And yes, of course, there are images of some naked people here and there (shocking isn’t it?).

Into Zapatista territory: Exploring the Mexican state of Chiapas

by Aaron Hotfelder on

If you haven’t heard of the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, you’re not alone. An overnight bus ride away from major tourist hubs like Cancún and Mexico City, Chiapas might just be the country’s most diverse region– as well as its most underappreciated.

Visitors to Chiapas are rewarded with scores of things to see and do: from crocodile-spotting on a boat ride through a a gorgeous canyon, to strolling the cobblestone streets of the super-cool highland town of San Cristóbal de las Casas, to climbing the Mayan ruins at Palenque, some of Mexico’s most beautiful (yes, better than Chichen Itza).

Located right in the heart of Chiapas, the Spanish colonial town of San Cristóbal de las Casas (pop. 300,000) is rapidly becoming a big-time travel destination, and for good reason.

Although San Cristóbal is the headquarters for the well-known left-wing revolutionary group called the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (popularized and supported by, among others, the band Rage Against the Machine), outward signals of the group’s influence in the town are limited. The group’s initials in Spanish, the ubiquitous “EZLN”, are spray-painted all over town, and you’ll find countless vendors selling Zapatista-related memorabilia– take some time to dwell on that irony– with most items printed with the group’s famous logo of a red star on a black background.

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But San Cristóbal has overcome its tumultous past, including a brief Zapatista takeover in 1994 led by the (in)famous Subcomandante Marcos, to place itself firmly in the category of a bona fide travel destination. In fact, Matt Gross, the New York Times’ Frugal Traveler, recently praised the city in a dispatch writing, “San Cristóbal was a city that had me joyously roaming its streets from morning till night. In fact, these lanes, paved with hexagonal stones, may have been the most roamable I’ve seen.”

And when you’re done exploring the city’s churches and markets, San Cristóbal has no shortage of bars and cafes to keep you well-hydrated and in good spirits. Cafe-Bar Revolucion is recommended if you’re looking for scores of local hipsters shaking their money-makers to Cuban music. (And who isn’t?) The creatively-named Backpackers Hostel is highly recommended for its nightly campfire and daily excursions.

A final note about San Cristóbal: bring warm clothes. The town’s location in the highlands means it gets cold– not cool, not brisk, cold!– at night, and few hostels or hotels will have heat.

Speaking of heat, just four hours away from San Cristóbal is the steamy town of Palenque, famous for the awe-inspiring Mayan ruins located several miles away from the town proper. Though the town itself is run-of-the-mill, Palenque’s nearby ruins are anything but.

Surrounded by dense jungle, the ruins, which date back to at least the 600s, are some of Mexico’s most accessible and best-preserved. Within walking distance of the ruins is El Panchan, a popular collection of campgrounds and cabanas where many visitors to the ruins spend at least a couple nights.

If you’re looking for a daytrip from Palenque, hop in a colectivo (shared taxi) and head to the series of waterfalls known as Agua Azul. This place is breathtakingly beautiful (see photo below) and more fun to hang around than any theme park (except for you, Silver Dollar City!).

The town of San Juan Chamula, about six miles from San Cristóbal, also cries out for a day-trip. In its oft-visisted church, worshippers fuse ancient Mayan traditions with those of Christianity in a series of customs that must be seen to be believed. Pine needles are spread to cover the entire floor, hundreds of lit candles line the walls, and worshippers kneel on the ground while drinking Coca Cola in hopes of keeping evil spirits at bay. (You might want to read that sentence again.) Be sure to take a guide if you have any hopes of figuring out what’s going on.

For natural beauty and wildlife, head to the Cañon del Sumidero an hour away from San Cristóbal. Here you’ll take a boat ride on a river flanked by thousand-foot-high cliffs, all the while doing your best to avoid the crocodiles on the river’s banks and the vultures overhead. Avoid years of depression and regret by bringing your camera.

Zapatistas, ruins, crocodiles, waterfalls: Why don’t more adventure-seeking travelers look to Chiapas as an affordable, authentically Mexican destination?

Galley Gossip: The passenger seated in 11J

by Heather Poole on

“Did you see 11J?” asked Shirley as she walked into the galley in coach and chucked a wadded up bag of fast food into the trash. We were in the process of boarding and I had my eyes on the bins and bags, not 11J, and as usual the bins were filling up fast.

“No, why?” I said, not at all interested because celebrities sit in first class, not business class, and the day before we had Carol Burnett onboard so it was kind of hard to top that.

Shirley smiled ear to ear. “Go look. You’re not going to believe what you see.”

“It’s that bad?” I asked, before making my way up the aisle, closing a couple overhead bins, turning a few bags around so they were in wheels first, squeezing by passengers who were slowly trying to get to their seats.

Yes, it’s true, flight attendants really do talk about you in the galley. When you’re really nice, or do something interesting, or look and act a little strange, or freak out over something that’s not our fault, we talk. A lot. Then we all must go and take a look at what we’ve been talking about. In this case, 11J.

I didn’t want to look too obvious, so I briskly walked through business class without ever glancing over at the passenger seated in 11J, making my way up to the first class cabin, picking up a few empty wine glasses and collecting a fur coat along the way. I tossed the plastic glasses, hung up the coat, and then slowly made my way back to coach, eyeing each passenger and smiling until I came to row eleven. That’s when we locked eyes. Oh my. While I’ve pretty much seen it all in the last fourteen years of flying the unfriendly skies, I’d never seen anything like this before and I doubt I’ll ever see anything like her again!

Petite with dirty blonde hair, she looked at me with her sad brown eyes. I smiled at her, but she did not smile back. Instead she clicked her tongue and smacked her lips several times, and she did this very loudly. Startled, I looked at the gentleman sitting beside her who immediately began to run his fingers through her hair. The clicking (or was it smacking?) continued to get louder and faster.

“Why is she doing that?” I finally asked him, not her, because to be honest, she kind of scared me.

He laughed. “She’s just saying hello.”

Hello? Oh okay. I clicked back. I didn’t want to be rude. “What’s her name?”

“Lisa. She’s 49 years-old.”

I looked at him a little strangely. “Is that old?”

“It is for a monkey.”

That’s right, Lisa was a monkey, and not just any monkey, but a somewhat famous macaw, and she was sitting in a business class seat from Los Angeles to New York on her way to the Today Show. Apparently a couple of her friends, including an alligator, were in the belly of the aircraft while Lisa got to sit inside a large cage that had been strapped to the seat using a seat belt extension. Blue canvas covered the cage. I could see her eyes peeking out from behind the bars through a little window. But just one zip and Lisa was revealed.

“Go ahead and look. She won’t mind,” said the handler.

I peeked inside. “Hi Lisa.” Click, click, click, went her tongue as those sad brown eyes took me in.

The handler said, “She’s one of the oldest monkeys alive.” It turns out that 49 human years is equivalent to 108 in monkey years.

“Looking good, old girl,” I said, and then I click, click, clicked my tongue, which only caused Lisa to smack her lips back. We were becoming fast and furious friends.

Years ago I had Spuds Mackenzie on a flight. Remember him, the Bull Terrier from the Bud Light commercials? Did you know that Spuds was actually a girl, not a boy, and her real name was Honey Tree Evil Eye? Me, neither, at least not until I started writing this post. Spuds, like Lisa, also had her own seat in business class. Recently on a flight from New York to Los Angeles my husband sat near another famous dog, the descendant from the original famous dog, whose real name was Pal, not Lassie. To prove it, here’s the text message my husband sent just minutes before departure….

Don’t forget I arrive about 1-1:30. Lassie is on my flight and sitting in business class ! For real. She is in one seat and the handler in another. There is also a group of (7) 20 somethings sitting in business class. I think they’re in a band. Obnoxious as hell. Flight attendant isn’t going to have this for long.

While celebrity and service animals are allowed to sit in a seat, on a lap, or on the floor, as long as it’s not in an exit row, all other animals, also known as pets, must remain in their closed pet carriers underneath the seat in front of you. Yeah I know it’s not fair, but what I can I say, life ain’t fair, especially on the airplane. But you already knew that.

“Did Lisa wear a diaper?” my husband asked when I told him about my unusual passenger.

I don’t think she did, I told my husband, who could not believe I did not remember something as important as that. What I do remember is Lisa nibbled on a little fruit from the breakfast tray and she was one of the most well behaved passengers I’ve ever seen – as quiet as a mouse – er, monkey!

“Does Lisa stay in the hotel room with you?” I asked the handler. He nodded yes. “Does she sleep in the hotel bed?”

“Sometimes,” The handler laughed. “Most of the time she just sleeps on top of the TV.”

To see Lisa (and her friends) on the Today Show CLICK HERE. You better believe I’ll be writing more about Lisa, as well as traveling with pets, in an upcoming post so make sure to check back!