Photographing a famous landmark

The common advice when photographing a famous landmark is to make sure you frame it in a pleasing way and of course make sure to find a new and a different angle.
Ok, right. I’m not sure what kind of a “different angle” you can come up with for a photograph that was taken by millions before you. Yeah, good luck with that.

So in order to avoid getting stuck with yet another cliché you can
A) avoid shooting well-known, shot-to-death landmarks or
B) Be creative, adapt a new approach and create something original.

Ok, sounds great you say, but how do I adapt a new approach, what does it even mean?
Well, when creating your famous landmark image you can create something new either when shooting the photo or at the post process/printing stage.
You can completely change the final appearance of the photo by selecting a camera that utilizes your vision best such as the Holga, polaroid, classic camera such as the kodak brownie, large format, pinhole or even a modified digital camera. Each one of these cameras will provide you with a unique image that can help depicting your insight.
If you like abstracts why not shoot an abstract of that landmark? If you are a street photographer you can make a picture where people are the subject and the landmark is the supporting cast in the background. If you like to make panoramas or time-lapse photos, you can certainly put a new spin on any overshot landmark.

Now, improving an average (not to say boring) shot of a famous landmark at the post processing or printing stage can be a bit tricky as it is very easy to overdo it and further add to the cliché.
But, as long as you have an idea and a general direction, and you’re not just playing around with the filters in your photo editor, you can absolutely make something original and imaginative.

I usually, not only avoid shooting landmarks, but I also keep away from visiting them. (I just get quite uncomfortable in big crowds)
But on this particular day in San Francisco, the colors, the sky, the crisp air, just seemed so perfect to photograph the Golden Gate, So I did.

When printing this photo I knew I need a different approach or I’ll get stuck with yet another boring image of the Golden Gate. So I decided on taking it to the 70′s and make it look just the way I’ve imagined it back then.

Mixed media collage and inkjet image transfer using Mod Podge

 

 

Mixed media collages and photo transfers are fun and quite simple to do .
Here are the basic steps to create your own master piece:
1) Cover a canvas panel with old newspaper and pieces of textured paper (or any other found objects such as tickets or stamps)
2) Add a thin layer of acrylic or watercolor paints. I like to paint the center with brighter colors and use darker colors toward the adges.
3) Next, Convert the photo of your choice (in this case, a picture of an alley in Chinatown in San Francisco) to black and white. pictures with greater contrast are likely to work better as they tend to stand out off the background.
4) Print out a mirror version of your image into a standard printer paper.
5) Spread a nice amount of mod podge on your image and press it face down into the canvas over the collage (make sure the collage is already dry).
6) Wait until the mod podge is completely dry (this may take a few hours). Rub your transfer with wet fingers and gently remove the excess paper to reveal the transfer. If you are using a photocopy instead of inkjet printout you will need to repeat this step a few times until all the paper is completely removed.
7) Preserve your work of art with a protective finish such as “preserve it!” by Krylon.

 

 

No Rules photography

Whenever I visit the bookstore, I find every photography book out there talks about rules, guidelines and recommendations for better photography. There’s really no motivation behind these books other than teaching you how to make better photos, and they suggest doing so by shooting “correctly” or using Photoshop, or more often a combination of the two. Follow their teachings and in no time, you will command photography like a real pro.
Really?
So what do we have? We have books about the “basic rules for better photography”, “tips for sharp photos”, “composition for better digital photos” and “understanding exposure”. These books will even teach you how “to see creatively”.
Just buy the book and you will see things you haven’t seen before.

But don’t be surprised, there are in fact many people who insist art doesn’t have any rules (I guess I must have just imagined all these books, articles, websites and lectures about “good photography”), however, after claiming there are no rules in photography, they will immediately say something like “anyway, great photographers make their own rules” and if they are really confused they will state that “good photographers just break the rules”.
When people talk about “no rules” in photography they often talk about breaking the rules. If you search Google for “no rules photography” other than getting links to my sites and books, the only other result you see is “no rules= breaking the rules”.
Breaking the rules of course demands that you actually learn the rules, and you’d better learn them well. Or else you might not break them correctly.
Give me a break! (pun intended)

By the way, just so we are clear, Rules are not always called Rules, in fact very often they are hiding behind lovely and less provoking words such as: guidelines, tips, instructions, fundamentals, principles, recommendations and so on.
So keep that in mind.
OK, rules or not, the question still stands: why shouldn’t you follow the rules? We all want to make better photos, right?
So why not learn the conventions to good composition?
In fact it seems the common theory is that beginners need a set of rules or at least some kind of uniformity and structure in order to learn the basics of photography and help them achieve that greatness in photography.
And just then, once they rank Master Photographers they can set out to the wonderful road of breaking the rules…
I tell you; sometimes I think I live in the twilight zone.

And I promise you I heard it so many times “good photographers make their own rules” that I will surely cry if I hear it once again.
Good photographers don’t make any rules, they just make good photos.

And let me say this: if one is going to learn photography from a book or from a teacher with an objective to follow someone else’s idea of what is good photography, they are less likely to take chances, dare or
come up with their own style and approach.

So yes, we all want to make great photos but we are more likely to find them if we trust
our own drive and creative intuition.

Cyanotype sun printing

Sun printing is a method of printing onto a surface using (yep, you guessed it) UV rays from the sun. Most people use sun printing to print various arrangements on paper by creating a design on a sun print paper, such as leaves and flowers, and exposing it to the sun.
But you can also sun print your negatives.
First thing to do is choose a negative with a good contrast, place it on the sun printing paper, set a piece of glass over it to hold it down and keep it flat (make sure your glass is not coated with a UV blocker!) , and expose it to direct sun.
The exposure time depends on your location, season and time of day, so you’ll have to experiment with it a little. The sun printing paper recommends exposure time of 10-15 minutes, but if you are printing in late afternoon you’ll need around 30 minuets and even more.
The print below was exposed around 1PM for less than 4 minutes.
When the sun exposure is complete, you will need to rinse the print under running water until the water runs clear.
For a final touch you can use a blunt object to distress the edges while the print is still wet.
Now if you don’t shoot film and have no negatives, don’t despair.
Create a negative version of your favorite digital photo and print it out on an inkjet transparency. It will work just like a real negative and even better because you can make it any size you want.

I got my watercolor sun printing paper from Freestyle but most art supply stores have some type of sun prints paper as well.

Where do you get your film?

In my last post I mentioned I prefer traveling with a digital camera rather than film, but this is not entirely true; I do in fact always make sure to pack at least one film camera.
Tomorrow, as I’m traveling to the East Coast, along with my D60 I’m taking my Holga as well.
I think for some places the Holga will simply be a better choice.
Now the question is where to get the film? Usually I buy my film in small quantities from Samy’s Camera or get it online if I come across an attractive deal.
But now as I needed a somewhat larger quantity of a variety 120 film, trying to save some money so I can actually eat while I travel, I decided to go out of my way, wrestle the L.A traffic and go visit Freestyle on Sunset.
What I like about Freestyle photo store is that they have a greater selection of film from around the world, some very attractive prices and they are also really big on Holgas and other toy cameras.
I mean they have a “wide angle pinhole panoramic Holga” a “twin lens Holga” and even a “3D stereo Holga”, whatever that is.
Btw, you can find Freestyle online at: www.freestylephoto.biz/

So I got myself a bunch of mostly black & white film, but also a couple of color and a couple of slide film just for fun.

I think I’m ready.