Photography Field Trip

click to enlarge flyer
On Saturday morning, March 7, we will have an photo field trip to the Jardim Zoologico de Maputo from 8:00 a.m. until 12 noon. We will photograph from 8:00 a.m. until 10 and will return to edit and critique some of our photographs and a pot luck brunch.

Please bring: 1 metical entrance fee plus 5 meticais for parking; a camera; a card reader or cords to download pictures from your camera to a computer; a dish, snack or drink to share.


The Maputo Zoo is located on Avenida de Moçambique (EN1) just past the overpass. An easy way to get there from the Sommerschield area is to take Av. Kenneth Kaunda past Av. Accordos de Lusaka (that's the street that takes you to the airport and Shoprite) going straight in the direction of Machava for approximately three kilometers. Take the offramp and make a right at the top on Av. de Moçambique. The Jardim Zoologico is to the immediate left past the overpass with a blue Vodacom wall. It is before a pair of petrol stations (Petromac and a BP) neighboring the Centro Hipico.

I will arrive at the zoo when it opens at 7:30 a.m. If you would like a ride or to follow me, please meet at my house by 7:00. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Links:
Google Map of the Jardim Zoologico de Maputo
Maputo Zoo Article
Maputo Zoo Photo Gallery

Week Six Review: Picture Packages

"I am convinced that the only way we ever really learn anything is by doing it." - David McCullough

Photo by W. Eugene Smith' Minamata

We wrapped up this week looking at picture stories and photo essays and how to make photographs that work better together as a group than individually. In the case of a picture story, it is a narrative group of photographs that has a distinctive beginning, middle and conclusion. On the other hand, a photo essay is one or more photos where the sum is greater than its individual parts.

The primary examples I used were my personal photographs: for a picture story, I showed the birth of my first child, and as an essay, I used a group of photographs that I made of my son at various locations around the United States. Although I showed a few of my photography projects that I did in my newspaper years, the point was that picture packages are something that can be done for personal photography whether a birth, birthday party, or vacation.

The final photographer we looked at was the storied W. Eugene Smith who is the godfather of the modern photo essay. We looked at some of his most famous stories including: Spanish Village; Country Doctor; Nurse Midwife, Pittsburgh and his powerful Minamata project.

In a parting note, I used the example of American historian David McCullough who, aside from being an author and television personality, is a talented watercolor painter. Speaking about his painting he said that painters like other artists, dancers and musicians improve by doing. You become a better pianist by playing. You become a better painter by painting. The key to becoming a better photographer is by taking many pictures.

Diane Arbus Biography

Part One

Diane Arbus: Part Two
Diane Arbus: Part Three
Diane Arbus: Part Four

James Nachtwey: War Photographer

Trailer (1 min: 10 seconds)

Film Clip:

Sebastião Salgado Documentary (In Spanish)

Sebastião Salgado: Workers (part 1)

Sebastião Salgado: Workers (part 2)

Sebastião Salgado: Workers (part 3)

Sebastião Salgado: Workers (part 4)

Sebastião Salgado: Workers (part 5)

Week Five: Moments and Portraits

"Penny Pictures" by Walker Evans
This week we discussed portraiture going back to one of the early and most popular uses of photography (look at your passport photo). In photo history portraiture in photography highlighted one of the distinct advantages of photography over painting. We talked about some ways to improve our portraits such as watching our background. Some ways that is done is by choosing a simple, non-distracting background such as that used by Steve McCurry in his Afghan Girl or Sebastião Salgado in many of his pictures we looked at. More than anything building a relationship with subjects and putting them at ease is the biggest factor to having a good portrait.

With most of they people we photograph, it is likely that we already know them and have a tremendous advantage as opposed to going up to a perfect stranger and gaining their trust. In the case of famed photographer Annie Liebovitz who has become as much as a celebrity as many of her star subjects, we talked about the debate about her work being overproduced with her assistants doing much of the labor. However, she has built strong friendships with many of these people over decades in some cases, and as is evident from many of her photographs with no studio lighting from her very early days at Rolling Stone magazine, her photographs of her family and particularly her famous photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono before Lennon was killed, it is more about relationships, trust and how comfortable the person you are photograph is with you.




We also looked at "moments," taking a step back to Henri Cartier-Bresson's Decisive Moment where the peak of action is captured in a fraction of a second. As is the case with many of the types of portraits discussed, these candid situations are often best captured when your subject is comfortable, then they will be relaxed and able go on with their activity making it easier to photograph special moments in life. Finally we discussed the importance of watching the sidelines and paying attention to what is going on around. Looking for action and reaction away from the main subject is often make for more interesting pictures.

Some of the photographers we looked at this week were Diane Arbus, Sebastião Salgado, Mary Ellen Mark, Annie Leibovitz, James Nachtwey.

Annie Leibovitz Interview

(12 minutes 24 seconds)

Week Four: Light

"Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography." –George Eastman, Eastman Kodak founder

We talked about the essence of photography this week: light. We looked at a number of examples of some of the various uses of available light, that is natural light, and had a short introduction into direct flash like the ones attached permanently to most point-and-shoot cameras and those that are affixed to the cameras of paparazzi shooters.

Some of the photographers that we looked at this week were Trent Parke, Paulo Peleigrin, Weegee, and Andy Warhol. We did a more in-depth study of David Alan Harvey, Steve McCurry and Alex Webb.

illustration by luminous-landscape.com

Links:
picturecorrect.com
fodors.com
photo.net

David Alan Harvey (in Portuguese)

Alex Webb

Alex Webb discusses his Istanbul project but look at his work and pay attention to his powerful composition and command of light.

Sam Abell: Composition and Layering

Photographic Composition

Photographic Composition

View more presentations from Alaa Sadik. (tags: photographic composition)

Week Three: Composition

This week we discussed photographic composition and looked at work from Henri Cartier-Bresson, the godfather of photojournalism who applied the lessons that he learned in his life as a painter to photography. Please refer to this comprehensive web post that I listed last October 8 on composition with a number of good tips and links.

Week Two Review

Photo by Eugene Richards from book Fat Baby
We started off this week reviewing apertures/F-stops and shutter speeds and how they along with film speed (or ISO setting) affect your exposure as well as depth of field. Depth of field means “the amount in focus.” The smaller the f-stop number is, the bigger the hole is. This simply means you let in more light. So and F 2.8 aperture setting lets in more light, however you have less depth of field or less in focus in this case.

Conversely, if you have a bigger number such as f 22 the hole or aperture is much smaller letting in much less light. But in this case, you will get much more depth of field, or more in focus. Remember Alfred Steiglitz’s F-64 Club. Film speeds or ISO settings on you digital cameras also affect your exposure.

We talked about the “Sunny 16 rule” which means that at an ISO of 100 at mid-day sun, an aperture of f16 will require a shutter speed of 125. So if you open up to f11, your shutter speed will become 250. I mentioned it sort of being like a scale and balancing out.

Our main focus for this class was lenses. We talked about fisheye lenses (8-20mm), wide-angle lenses(20-28 mm) , regular focal length lenses (35-50mm), telephoto lenses from 70 mm and up, and micro and macro lenses for those incredible close-ups.

Photographers that we mentioned were Steve McCurry who photographed the Afghan Girl, Mary Ellen Mark, W. Eugene Smith and talked extensively about Eugene Richards and his use of wide angle lenses to gain intimacy with his subjects. Famous photographs by Dorthea Lange, Joe Rosenthal, and Alfred Eisenstadt were shown.