insights into photography
I was sent some flyers about this and was drawn to the image of the person holding a dslr camera so badly, then I read a bit about it and thought the play sounded really interesting. I can’t make either date in Oxford for which I am disappointed, it is on October 1st and 2nd at the Burton Taylor Theatre.
Three women separated by a hundred years start a conversation across time. Their parallel experiences reveal shared imaginings of identity and escape, as menacing undercurrents steal into their solitary and reflective lives. Their letters, diaries, drawings and photographs expose a series of threatening episodes and unsettling occurrences. As the landscape presses in on them, they draw upon the threads that connect them to survive.
Landscape II is a compelling solo work by Melanie Wilson. This bold hybrid of performance, film and sound art creates a highly contemporary and minutely observed piece of new theatre.
“Wilson’s lyrical imagery is deeply affecting… this is powerful and rewarding theatre”
Irish Examiner on Autobiographer
“Wilson’s language is dazzling…and the crisp immersive sound design is astonishing.” Time Out on Autobiographer ****
One thing that has become clear from the years of teaching photography is that many, many people want to take pictures of flowers. They are beautiful, colourful, delicate and last only a short time and do not answer back, be difficult, require extensive walking and can be readily available. That said it got to a point on one of our more advanced courses when I realised that half the class were only photographing flowers that I had to ban them as a subject. It was not that I dislike pictures of flowers but just that once the techniques have been mastered the main challenge is finding beautiful blooms to photograph. The impact on the class was initially concern, what were they going to photograph but once they started looking they found many things that captured their interest.
This article on Lightstalking by Izabela Korwel explains some of the basics of flower photography. Check out Iza’s amazing macro photography on her blog,.
All of this article is useful, I would add that most zoom lenses that come as a basic kit with a dslr camera can close focus to about 8 inches and are great for macro/close focus work. If you want to explore this with your zoom lens put it in manual focus and set the focus ring to it’s minimum focus distance (usually when the ring is extended furthest out) then put the camera to your eye and move the camera backwards and forwards until something close comes in focus, this will be about 6 – 8 inches. Using manual focus with macro flower photography is a better way to work that auto focus because you get to decide what is in sharpest focus rather than the camera.
Here is the start of the article:
Flowers are the easy subjects to come by and to photograph, even close to home. You can go to local park or find a flower bed downtown or at the mall. You can visit a botanical garden, there is one in every major city. You can ask the neighbours if you can photograph in their garden. You can also just go the flower shop and buy potted or cut flowers, and set them up in your living room.
The easiest way, as I discovered this year, is to plant small flower garden in front of your house. Even for the sole purpose of having a photographic subject handy, they do not require that much work, especially if you choose the local wild flowers. The diversity in types and colors will help keeping you interested and returning often to add to the collection of images. Each day, the flowers will looks different, some will be already dying, and some will just start to bloom. There are new and different photos to be taken each and every day.
Click Here: How to Take Incredible Photographs of Flowers
Oxford School of Photography 