tried and true

[Jan Faul <jan@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Through the last 30-odd years, I have suggested and used the LIFE photography series as guides for myself and other photographers. I worked on the series back in the 1970’s when most of the photography was being done by John Neubauer, and talk about competition! John lives in Florida now and I hope he is well.

Now that the LIFE series is cheap from places like Amazon, I recommend you read them all. I think there are about 30 volumes in the set. A couple of years ago when I began riding a wheelchair full-time, I bought a set of 17 from Amazon for $93 including shipping. They cover the waterfront and if you are looking for an all-round foundation for better photography, this is it. The books go over various trends, other photographers, styles, and so forth.

Another book I still use as a reference is Perweiler’s "Secrets of Studio Still Life” as it takes one through the process of setting up and lighting a still life shot. Your petrified tree is a still life.

For your tree shot, I would have used a wider lens at something of an angle to give the viewer a sense of the length of the tree and lest we forget, if you’re not using a tripod, you’re not taking sharp pictures. If your tree shot had been with a wide lens on anybody’s camera on a tripod you could have shot at f22 at 1/30th with the ISO set to 80 and had a great start. If you’re serious about taking better pictures, you need to learn to work on a tripod and to use wide lenses to achieve great DOF and with that, great detail and a foreground. Petrified trees have an advantage over real trees: the wind will not move them.

Jan

On Jun 9, 2013, at 2:33 PM, Paladin wrote:

Jan,

 

Thanks for your feedback on the photo. I was conflicted in my choice of photos to submit. My other choice, the one that I did not submit, was shot for you “foreground guy” type of people. Ultimately it came down to what I considered more important: context or detail. For me, the detail showing how well the architecture of the original tree was preserved during the petrification process won out. I felt that was the more interesting aspect of the subject.

 

Let’s assume for a few minutes that you were shooting something like this and your primary goal was to demonstrate the detail. How would have shot this? I want to improve my photographic skills and any help you could give would be appreciated.

 

Thank you my friend.

 

rand

 

 

                 Rand Flory - Petrified Tree Stump

 

            This shot is cropped too tightly to give the viewer any idea of its surroundings. Some like the lack of context, but I do not. I am a ‘foreground guy’ and this hot has none.

 

Art Faul

The Artist Formerly Known as Prints

------

Stills That Move: http://www.artfaul.com

Greens: http://www.inkjetprince.com

Camera Works - The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/battlefieldparks/front_qt.htm

ArtNet: http://www.artnet.com/artists/jan+w.-faul/

art for cars: panowraps.com

.