Tag: Clubs

Photo Club Update – Hail the Conquering Newbie

Yesterday was my first photo club meeting as an official member (for background see this previous post) and it was a great one.

In addition to getting some great feedback on my own pictures, I’m learning critical eye skills by looking closely at lots of pictures other people have taken

One of the key points I took away this time was to be more aware of the “main character” of any picture and really commit to it. I guess I have a tendency to try to add lots of context in both writing and photography, which in the latter case leads to too much extraneous background.

Of course, this is all a matter of taste, which is always up for argument, but I can definitely see the teacher’s point.

For example, he liked the muted color, gloomy lighting, and overall subject of this starflower picture:

Muted picture of a white, six-petaled flower. There are brown leaves and pine needles barely recognizable in the blurred background.

But said I should really have just tightened in on it, like this:

He’s right, of course.

At the same time, he liked and had good things to say about most of my pictures, and I even got the “best shot of the month” with this one I have posted before:

A piece of driftwood against a blurred background of dead pine needles and pinecones.
龍木

Everyone loved it, and the teacher had no notes.

So, I’m off to a good start!

Never Too Old to Polish

As I get older, the more I find that simply learning things is perhaps my favorite hobby. Trying new things and getting better at them. Adding and polishing to the skills I use to interact with the world.

To that end, I’ve been trying to get better at photography. This is not a new thing, as anyone who remembers my aborted attempts to post photos here might know, but it is also not something I’ve felt was making any progress. But that might have been too critical.

I recently joined a local photography club. The first meeting was quite eye opening, because they run it essentially as a monthly photo contest. Members each print out ten or so of what they consider their best pictures. The teacher, a professional photographer with something like 50 years’ experience, goes through each one and makes comments on technique or recommendations for improvement where he sees fit, then chooses the best couple of each person’s shots.

Then, he decides one overall winner for the day and gives them a little prize.

In just over an hour and a half I got a good half-dozen new ideas to bring into my own photography. So worth it for 500 yen a month. For example, the teacher really emphasized what he called sei to do, or stillness and motion. This means trying to show movement, say, in a landscape photograph by slowing down the shutter speed and catching water blurring as it rushes past or the blur of weeds blowing in the breeze. It’s not a universal, of course, but one way to make a photograph stand apart.

And although I didn’t know to bring any printouts, I showed a few of my camera pics through my smartphone and got some excellent compliments.

This one, for example, he loved due to the depth of field and the overall ambience:

A piece of driftwood that looks something like a dragon's skull on a bed of dead pine needles.

I look forward to learning more, and maybe even taking home one of those monthly prizes!