Project 365: all about colour and shapes

I’ve been swallowing photography books whole lately. Conveniently, Beloved will be teaching digital photography and already teaches Photoshop at a local college, so we have a steady stream of current textbook samples coming into the house. One of the first really great books I read was by Photoshop guru Scott Kelby. His Digital Book of Photography and Digital Book of Photography 2 are great books filled with simple instructions on how to get your camera to do what you want it to do, and gives explicit directions on how to get the shot you want in a range of photographic situations: portraits, landscape photography, sports shots, weddings, etc. Full of explicit “set your camera like this, ensure you do A, B and C, and click” type of advice.

Once I’d read every other book on digital photography techniques I could get from Beloved or the library, I moved on to some of Bryan F. Peterson’s books. I was a little surprised at how, um, outdated they were — OMG, soooo 1998 — but you know what? The techniques of photography that I’m now most concerned about are rather timeless, and it doesn’t matter if you’re shooting film or pixels. In particular, his People in Focus was great for thinking about the psychology of taking portraits, both of people you know and people you don’t. I’m still waiting for my turn in the library queue for his highly recommended Learning to See Creatively: Design, Color & Composition in Photography. I’ve also discovered and highly recommend the books of John Hedgecoe. His photography is a little, um, odd sometimes, but I’ve learned a lot about shape and texture and space from his books.

By chance, I stumbled upon a recommendation for Freeman Patterson’s books, and now I have a new photographic idol. And he’s Canadian! I’m about half way through his Photography and the Art of Seeing — an ancient mid-1970s edition from the library. It’s the first photography book I’ve read that doesn’t contain a single reference to the aperture and shutter speed used to achieve each image — instead, it’s like a workshop on how see led by your philosophical and tragically verbose favourite uncle. In googling it just now, I stumbled across his website, and am *so* ordering my own updated copy personalized and signed by the author.

As I’m reading Patterson’s book, I find myself wandering around and seeing the shapes of things — it’s very distracting! Did you know there are primary shapes just like there are primary colours? Circles, squares and triangles. And — finally, to the point — you can see the influence of my new infatuation with the shapes of things in this week’s pictures.

These eggs, for instance. See how the oval shape of the egg is repeated in each egg and in the bowl? I really liked the tones in this picture too. (Another lesson this week: if you’re shooting something with a lot of white, your camera’s light meter will be tricked into trying to underexpose the image. You have to use your exposure compensation to overexpose a bit over what the camera is trying to record.)

And these canisters, found inside Watson’s Mill in Manotick, where Lucas and I took refuge from the pouring rain when I was looking for something, anything to shoot one day while coming back from an extended nap drive. See how the circle pattern is repeated in each canister, in the way they’re grouped and in the cutting board they’re standing on?

The repetition of the shoes, and of the colours in them, and in the deck rails underneath is a little more subtle in this shot. I loved how the early-morning light fell on the shoes, left up to dry after a day of messy fun with the new sand and water table. This picture makes me very happy for some reason — it captures something about the bliss of my family life in this tiny point in time.

Speaking of the sand and water table, here’s the shot from the day before. (I know you’ve seen it already, but isn’t it precious enough to show off twice?) They played together for hours with that thing. Who knew?

This fellow was busking in the Market when I was out wandering on my lunch hour one day this week. I was fascinated by the intricate design on his accordion and by his jaunty little hat, and even the pattern on his shirt. I dropped a loonie into his case to say thanks for letting me snap a few portrait shots of him, but wasn’t brave enough to actually say anything. He did favour me with a nice smile, though!

These pretty flowers aren’t flowers at all, they’re weeds growing against a fence in a parking lot! See how the flowers are circular, and the four of them together make a semi-circle, and the bits of swirly stems in the blurred background echo that curve? That’s what I was going for, anyway!

Some things just cry out to be photographed. I was driving down Gladstone near Booth when I did a double-take while passing this house. Is this not the yellowest house you have ever seen? Luckily, I had enough time to double back and stop to take a couple of snaps of this outrageously yellow house. I have no idea why someone would do this, but I kind of like it! (We once painted our tiny Glebe attic apartment’s living room with this exact shade of yellow. We called it “homicidal yellow.”) The sign on the wall says the building is slated to be torn down, and an application has been received to build seven (!) townhouses in its place. Sigh.

From homicidal yellow to righteous red — I’m on a primary colour streak! (apparently, I’m going to have to find something in deepest blue to photograph today!) This is what fresh, local strawberries are supposed to look like, not those anemic things they truck in from California.

And, as I said above, some things just beg to be photographed. I had a chest x-ray done yesterday for the double-pneumonia that will not quit. How often do you get to take a photograph (of the photograph) of your own lungs?

And finally, an out-take from earlier in the week. I was trying to take the egg picture above, and was trying the eggs in various combinations of bowls, when Lucas crawled up onto the table to see what was so interesting. Lookit those fat crocodile tears running down his cheeks, just after I’d scolded him with a firm, “No!” I call this one “The egg thief.”

And that’s why doing a 365 project is especially challenging for a busy mother of three: you try to take a picture of eggs, and end up with a picture of eggs being taken!