When I was in college, like 100 years ago, my photography teacher told me that all of my photographs looked the same. I was annoyed at the time, because I really liked photography, but over the years I've come to understand that she was right. My pictures do tend to all have the same composition, no matter what I'm shooting. For me, the person in the picture (because I like pictures of people more than scenery or objects most of the time) and their expression is what's most important, and my composition tends to be an afterthought. As a bad photographer, I'm ok with that.
But, as a writer, I'm all about composition. It's not just about expression or emotion or plot or whatever, it's about how all of those things combine into the perfect whole. So why is my photography so limited?
I want to open this up to you guys. What do you think about when composing a photo, whether in SL or RL? What are you trying to capture? What's your intention and do you feel satisfied that the finished product reflects that?
At the top, my latest photo, just to share.
Details:
Skin: Nylon Outfitters
Hair: Armidi
Coat: Refuge
Shirt: Armidi
Skirt: Armidi
Socks: Maitreya
Shoes: Pornstars
Nails: Bijou
Necklace: Shiny Things
Monday, June 23, 2008
The Art of SL Photography
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3 comments:
Interesting question! I'm not sure how to answer. I too probably take the same shot over and over again in most cases, however I've sometimes tried using a 'straighten' tool to upset the horizon when a photo feels bland, or have tried for placing the subject at the edge of the frame so long as there's a strong line of focus to guide the eye to them. Most of the time, hoever, my photo treatment comes down to sticking a practical box around the bits I want to keep, shunning the rest. It's often not much more than that.
I suppose it depends on my purpose. For the most part, my photographs tend to illustrate what I'm wearing so when I'm using my photo studio the photographs will look the same--there are certain poses which don't cause parts of me to disappear, show clothing best, etc. On the other hand, in the earlier days of the blog I spent a lot more time on composition: the swan dive photo is a good example of this http://xrl.in/7ih as are the shots taken on top of a crane http://xrl.in/7ii
I want to do more location work in the future but that requires thinking up a story line--why am I on top of a crane? why am I falling off a bridge? so in the end it is sometimes easier just to use the static poses in the photo studio.
Interesting question. When I take pictures, the answer varies as much as it does when I write. Sometimes I'm writing a grocery list, jotting down some inspiration, trying to express an idea, trying to find an idea through writing, or generating writing that will be refined later into something more polished. My writing tends to happen in stages of going deeper and my focus changes depending on where I am in the process---more spiral staircase than straight line. With photography, the pictures I like most are ones where I'm playing with the medium to just see what it can do. Where I have some kind of question or curiousity about the tool or what I'm looking at. I end up taking a lot of photos and then going back to see if any of them are interesting enough to redo or refine. Thanks for inspiring thinking about this!
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