Now for something different … it turns out that our fingers can be used for more applications than you thought possible.  One of those has to do with photographic composition!

Extend your hands in front of your face. Take your two thumbs and forefingers and form the letter “L” while folding down your remaining fingers. Bring your thumbs together so they touch.  Now you have created three sides of a viewing frame (you can imagine where the top piece is). I think this is harder to describe than it is to do!

Hold your hands close to your face and look through them to compose your subject; now it’s a wide-angle view. Move them away; the further you go the more narrow the angle of view.

If you are only using one lens move forward or backwards, or just stand where you are depending on what you want to do. Using a 50mm like I do, a few steps forward is like having a short telephoto; a few steps back is a 35mm. Have a few lenses? Then you know which one to choose.

I demonstrate this to all me students and they marvel as to how useful this simple technique is. It costs nothing, it’s completely portable, you don’t have to carry anything extra in your camera bag, and you will never forget to bring it with you!  Of course you can always cut a window out of a piece of mat board that’s stored in your bag, but why bother? This wonderful little tool can be vitally important to proper framing of a subject, doing wonders for your composition. Funny how the simplest of things can contribute to great improvements in our work!

Try it!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the importance of setting goals, sticking to them and striving to complete theme-based projects. In particular I spoke about how this approach works out for my students taking my class, Planning and Creating a Photographic Project.  I’ve touched on this in other postings as well, so you can guess I think this is pretty important.

I’ve also mentioned Fred Picker a couple of times. I was an avid reader of his newsletters. From them I learned quite a bit about the craft of photography and about the man himself. So it only makes sense to quote from Fred. What he wrote is particularly instructive and one of the best pieces put together on the subject.  I read it to my students at the beginning of each semester because it’s as relevant today as when it was first written. This from his Newsletter #17, April 1978:

“At workshops we stress the importance of working towards a goal at all times… Design a project for yourself. You might assume that you have a show coming up. Choose a theme. Set a definite date. Decide that the show requires a specific number of prints (all to be new work) that you can realistically expect to complete in that period of time. Ten to twenty-five, I’d say but pick an achievable number and write and the date of the show on your darkroom wall.

“Go to work. If, on the projected date, you have the prints well made, toned, spotted, mounted, and sequenced, you will have accomplished and learned a great deal.”

“Edit ruthlessly. If a picture is weak, pull it. If a print can be improved in the slightest degree, remake it.”

“Now you have a representative portfolio.  Put it in a solon case with slip sheets between the prints, make an appointment, and visit a gallery. You just might get a date for a real show. If not, you at least have a nice portfolio and that’s a lot better than a Polycontrast box stuffed with wrinkled prints and surrounded by explanations. More importantly, you have created a coordinated body of work against the background of a deadline. You will have learned much in the process.”

“Don’t be upset by rejection. Considering some of the stuff accepted today, rejection could be a compliment. And it doesn’t matter; doing it is what matters.  Alexander Calder said, ‘I have developed an attitude of indifference to the reception of my work which allows me to go about my business.’”

“Follow through anyway. Hang the show in your living room, at the local High School, the ‘Y’, anywhere. My first one-man show was in a movie lobby and that was not a bad thing. Thousands of people saw it and I learned a lot and felt good about it. Seeing a body of your work together is a very worthwhile learning experience. Patterns can appear with embarrassing clarity or with indications of direction to explore. Single photographs can be turning points; three or four I’ve made have influenced all the work that followed.  Your pictures, if made with direction and seriousness of purpose, can teach you if you will assemble them and spend time with them.”

So there you have it. It’s springtime and a wonderful time to be making photographs. Think about what Fred said. If you’ve been sitting on the fence, now is the time to hop off it and do something you will forever be grateful for

I try to walk every day I can for four miles or so.  Probably the best thing I do as I think an awful lot during the hour I’m out there without the cell or other distractions. One of the things I thought about was an excursion to Riegelsville, one of the small towns in Bucks County along the Delaware River.  I hope to do a long-term project that looks at the towns that dot the shoreline of the Delaware River here in Bucks County and those across the many tiny bridges that cross over onto the New Jersey side.  While walking around town on a somewhat cold and increasingly dreary day this last fall, I a saw a sign for a guitar maker with an arrow pointing down the street. That’s like dangling a Bocce pizza from Buffalo (check it out … the best in the world in my humble opinion) under my nose!

Walked into the quaint shop and met the luthier who makes the beautiful stringed instruments. After chatting for a while about the electric and acoustic guitars he builds along with music, being an audiophile and the resurgence of vinyl I asked if I could make a few photographs of him. No problem, so I did!  All and all a pretty good time!  I’ve talked about this before, but one of the things I really enjoy about photography is the people you meet along the way and perhaps get to know.  I think its part of the journey and can be as rewarding as the pictures you create. Sometimes you come up dry, but when you have these experiences it’s time well spent.  That may turn out to be the case for that outing, as I’ve yet to make a print of a particular negative I am still ruminating over.

After I left the guitar shop I saw a woman standing on her front porch …  said hello and asked if I could make a photograph.  The response was “a picture of me smoking a cigarette … no thanks”. Some would have made the picture anyway. I didn’t and think that is the way it should be.

So one great encounter and one only so-so. That doesn’t discourage me at all. Because at least with one I had a wonderful time, learned something … and may end up yet having a photograph worth printing in the bargain.

I’m no expert on paintings and those who have painted them, but I love to go to exhibits.  I’m lucky enough to live a few minutes away from the Michener Museum of Art here in Doylestown and I go there often.  I also have an easy drive to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and have become a frequent visitor.  The reason for all the visits to these wonderful institutions and others to view the work of great painters is simple … as a photographer, I can learn a lot about light and composition from viewing great paintings.

The membership flyer I received in the mail stated “From jazz and the jitterbug to assembly lines and skylines: the early twentieth century was a time of great social, artistic, and technological change. Artists responded with a revolutionary language of shapes and colors. See how Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Jacob Lawrence, and others challenged convention and forged bold new styles to fit the times.”

As you can imagine I got pretty excited! So the first chance I could get I hopped into my car and zipped downtown to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the exhibit Modern Times: American Art 1910 – 1950.  Turned out to be on Friday … a great day to decide art is more important than making a living.  As I walked out of the museum several hours later I realized I had experienced so much more than I could have ever expected!

Many of the greats from this wonderful period of American art were on display. In addition to those mentioned above there were works by Man Ray, Charles Sheeler, Andrew Wyeth, Marcel Duchamp and John Marin to name a few. But there was more; so much more!  The show included 166 paintings, sculptures, design objects, items of clothing, and photographs. That’s right, photographs, and all of them in glorious black and white!  Yes, I know the period for the show was 1910 – 1950, but throw me a bone … OK?

Truly a great surprise!  What wasn’t surprising was how well the smaller photographs (the largest was no more than 11 x14) held their own alongside the large brilliantly colored and vibrant paintings … and how well they proudly took their rightful place as “art” along side the other works on display.

Back to the painters, a couple of things they had to say struck a cord with me and related well tothe best of the paintings … and the wonderful photographs in the show.  From Georgia O’Keeffe: “Nothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is why by selection, by elimination, by emphasis, that we get the real meaning of things”.  And this from Andrew Wyeth describing his paintingCooling Shed: “I was thrilled to find such abstraction in the everyday”.

Think about how these two important statements can impact our own photography. Drilling down to the essence of the subject to make the image as strong as possible.  Looking deep into what we normally pass by everyday to discover surprisingly strong images.

The photographs contained in the exhibit would have made a great show by themselves.  But here with the paintings a nice synergy was created between the two art forms. Some of the highlights included the incredibly important Wall Street, New Yorkby Paul Strand. Then there were a number of Alfred Stieglitz’s wonderful Equivalents, jewel-like in their small size.  Edward Weston’s Bed Panwas exquisite in its simplicity. Berenice Abbott’s New York at Night captured the black and white abstract beauty of high-rise buildings aglow at night. Man Ray’s George Biddle Painting a Portrait of Man Raywas a fascinating self-portrait that included Biddle painting his canvas with Man Ray’s likeness on it and the subject (Man Ray) sitting next to him!  A small photograph by Dorothy Norman called Alfred Stieglitz at an American Place, New Yorkwas a marvelous picture of the man at work. Finally, there were other beauties including urban landscapes and portraits by Weston, as well as some wonderful portraits by Arnold Newman.

I left the exhibit thinking how lucky I was to see these fine photographs together with so many wonderful paintings and other pieces of art … and how lucky to learn from all that I saw.

Modern Times: American Art 1910 – 1950 continues through September 3^rd.  If you are near Philadelphia or plan to visit the city during the next several months do make a stop at the Museum of Art. I’m pretty certain you will be happy you did!