Candles

I didn't feel like taking pictures while the sun was still out, but I didn't want to resort to another shot of my computer so I had Mark light a bunch of candles. Kind of boring, maybe, but better than my computer. I think I'm in another lull and I need to find a good book to learn some new technique or something. I never finished reading the Freeman Patterson book I bought a few months ago--maybe I'll pull that one out.

I think I have a knack for making interesting pictures out of every day things (my dad had very kind things to say about that on yesterday's post--thanks Dad!), but those happen mostly by accident. I mean, I see something interesting, and think "Hmm, that might make a good picture." So I snap a few shots, but don't necessarily pay attention to the details. Later when I see them on the screen I sometimes find some really good stuff--but in the moment I took the picture I had no idea what it would really look like as a photograph.

I want to get better at having in mind what I want a picture to look like before I take it. On a night like tonight when I haven't taken time for picture-making, I sometimes get a vague notion of what I want to do. Tonight I was thinking back to my After Dinner picture (from September 8) and thinking that I liked the lamplight shining off the glasses. I wanted to try and reconstruct something like that, but I just get kind of tired of trying to contrive a picture, because I don't know what I want it to look like exactly. I usually need to see something and then want to take the picture, rather than create a scene so I can photograph it. Maybe this is OK--maybe creating a scene to photograph isn't a skill worth working on. But I want to be more expressive with my pictures, and I think this might help. Perhaps not actually creating a scene to shoot, but more having in mind what kinds of images, colors, lighting, etc. will convey what I want to express and being on the look out for it.