Art is Life is Art: Susan Reep Photo Art

Last time I used animal photos as examples; today I’m going to use people in photos of China.  But first, let’s recap: we talked about considering color, texture, contrast, perspective, light, movement and placement of the main subject as you look at photos you have taken.  And we talked about looking for the unexpected.

When we take family portraits or school pictures, we’re just capturing an image – a slice of time – this is how we looked on this date in this place.  But mostly, when all else is equal, we want to tell a story.

I can’t stress enough that no matter why you are taking photos, you have to always look around you.  It’s like hiking – when I was in Arches National Park with my youngest grandkids and we walked up trails, I told them always stop and look behind and to the sides.  You can always see from a different perspective.  The story changes depending upon how you view it.

So let’s tell stories.  Again, these are photos that I think are good and you may have a completely different opinion.

We were waiting for members of our group in our tour bus in Chongqing and I looked out the door, saw this little girl squatting at a bus stop,  grabbed my camera and shot without even thinking.  As it turned out, she stayed in that position for at least five minutes, but with people you often have to move quickly to capture the moment.  I took ten plus photos of her, and that’s what you have to do – take LOTS, and if you are lucky, one will be good.  I love this picture because I want to know what the little girl is thinking.  Is she in a bad mood, bored, contemplative, sad?  I would have missed this girl if I hadn’t been alert and looking around me.  So if you see something that looks interesting, shoot!  You can always delete.

This is one of my absolute favorite photos.  It was taken on May 1st – Mayday – an auspicious day for weddings.  We did see quite a few that day, but this one was very different.  My husband and I were walking down a street in Shanghai – don’t know which neighborhood because we were just blindly walking around to see what was out there.  I glanced into this alley, saw this forlorn-looking bride, and took a picture – again, without thinking.  It was instinct. No one noticed.  I wonder why she was so unhappy? This photo tells a cultural story also.  In China, white is the color for funerals, the color of death.  Red is the traditional wedding color.  Many people are adopting Western traditions, however, and wear white wedding dresses.  Often the bride changes into a red dress for the reception.  This bride, however, has solved that problem by pinning a red flower on her white dress.

In Xian, we watched a young man making noodles at a restaurant.  I assume he does this every day and crowds of tourists watch.  This photo shows a somewhat dreamy expression on his face and I wonder – is he shutting out the crowds? Is he in a state of noodle-making bliss? Is it a Zen moment? Is he falling asleep?  I choose to interpret this as a dreamy expression – why I don’t know.  But I think it’s an excellent photo.  His head is cut off, and noodles are moving so fast that the dough is blurred, but that’s ok.  Don’t be afraid to take a photo that breaks what most of us think of as the “right” way – you don’t have to show the entire head or body.  I had a boss once who said to never take a photo of a person without taking the entire person head to toe.  Frankly, that’s nuts.  The whole essence of this photo would be lost if I’d stepped back to include the total person.  When you’re telling a story, it’s like art – the interpretation can be in the eyes of the viewer.

We had the good fortune to walk into a restaurant in Guilin – in fact, it was called the Good Luck Restaurant.  Turns out the entire restaurant was being decorated for a wedding reception but they let us in and we stayed for the whole thing! There were entertainers – some beautiful women singing and folk dancing.  This photo I took on purpose – it wasn’t a case of getting the unexpected.  I was so tickled by these boys intently staring at the cell phone – playing a game? – while a really gorgeous and sexy belly dancer was right behind them.  I didn’t need the full image of the dancer to tell the story.  It speaks for itself.  There’s a temptation sometimes to look at a photo and say, “Oops, I didn’t get the whole person,” and toss the photo.  Don’t.  You don’t always need the whole person.

Last, for today, this photo:

We were walking along a street in Yangshao, China – hot, sweaty, and tired, when we came across this woman.  Look in the basket on the left – it’s a baby!   The woman must have a hard life – and no child care – so the baby just comes along.  Why do I say she probably has a hard life?  Although she is smiling, her teeth look like they could use dental care or at least orthodontia, and she looks a little bent from her load.  It’s a tough way to carry things – and on foot besides.  In the background is a shiny new tourist bus – obviously for people who have the money to travel and most certainly don’t carry loads across their shoulders like the  “stick-stick men.”  A real contrast of life styles emerges if we look deeper into this photo – look behind the smile.

So that’s it for this post.  It’s a lot to think of at once – how is the light, is there any texture or color that’s interesting?  Do I have a good perspective? What about movement – is the photo static or does it suggest life – either interior (contemplation) or exterior? Is the subject placed well?  Not always in the middle.  And – does the photo tell a story?

Yesterday I talked about Before the Basics. Today, the Basics.  And by the basics I don’t mean depth of field, f-stops, lens speed, or anything technical.  Lets talk about developing your eye – learning to see the picture and what’s interesting.  Because, remember, you can take outstanding photos with a point-and-shoot digital on automatic settings.

1.    Most of us want to take pretty pictures, especially when we’re traveling.  Pretty can be exciting or boring – it all depends on how you see. (And for Harry Potter fans, I’m not talking about Professor Trelawny.) So first, start looking at pictures in the newspaper, magazines, books – and when you see something that catches your eye, look at it carefully.  Why do you like it?  Consider color, texture, contrast, perspective, movement and placement of the main subject as you look.  And always consider light.

I saw this photo in the newspaper and it caught my eye immediately because of the perspective, shape, and how it drew my eye into the photo.  Then I noticed it is people – people all over a train.  So the shape drew me in before I even comprehended the subject of the photo.

2.    Go out and take lots of pictures – photograph your kids at play, walk around the neighborhood, walk around your downtown, take a drive.  Remember – it’s digital – you can take as many photos as you want. Then look at your photos carefully.  When you start realizing why you are attracted to a certain picture, it’ll make it easier to line up your shots that way.

3.    Don’t automatically reject shots that aren’t what you thought you were taking, or that seem “not pretty.”  Look carefully for the unexpected.  In this photo of the Temple of Heaven in China, I was interested in symmetry and didn’t notice the person in the lower right corner. I didn’t used to like pictures of people in photos when my objective was something else.

However, in my opinion, it’s a much better photo for having him in it.  For one thing, it gives scale to the building.  It’s always interesting to have something identifiable in a photo to judge the size of the main focus.

4.    Always look around you – don’t just look forward.  When you are walking look to the sides and turn around and look back.  I wouldn’t have seen these busses and the car in Chongqing, China if I wasn’t looking around me constantly.

And what a fabulous photo I got – what contrast! This photo tells a story.  I could have just taken a snap of a small car to show what people drove, but that would have been static.  This photo is anything but static – and has some drama, besides.

5.   Little by little I’m going to go over some of the photos in my galleries on susanreep.com and explain why I think they are good photos.  You may disagree and that’s fine.  I will say, however, that over the years, as my eye has become more trained, I find interest and beauty in subjects I would not have previously considered.

Let’s start with this one.  I was in Cambria and saw this starfish.

I just took a quick photo because I’m always interested in pattern.  I didn’t realize until I uploaded it to the computer that the texture and pattern of the water showed on the starfish also.  And I hadn’t noticed that the starfish had “attitude!” I like his pose.

These two pelicans I think are particularly good because they draw your eye from slightly off center to the edge of the photo.

You don’t have to always center your subject.  It’s usually more interesting if you don’t unless you are going for symmetry.

And in this photo, symmetry was exactly what I was after.

The pattern of the water really caught my eye as well as the duck.  We know it’s a duck, but there’s a little bit of mystery about it.  It’s a smooth, rounded head in a round circle of water.

Here’s a photo of an anhinga in Costa Rica.

I was taking photos from a very unsteady boat and was unsure if I could capture the bird or not.  But not only did I get the anhinga, there is a Northern Jacana in the foliage.  At one time I would have thought, dang, there’s a black spot in the photo and I wouldn’t have liked it.  In fact, this is a good example of getting more than you bargained for!

Finally, light.  Talking about light fills volumes in itself.  When I was in Lugano, Switzerland, I took so many photos of swans.  In this particular photo, I was interested in the way the swan was holding his feathers.

I had no idea that the light would be such that the feathers would be almost transparent.  I suspect that almost any photographer would tell you even if you think you know why you are taking a photo of a particular subject, you’ll get more than you bargained for.