gcquinn's photostream Pro User

More than FOUR Years on Flickr! I still live near San Francisco and work in the city and I still drive across the Golden Gate Bridge every day. (If you want to know more about me, try looking at my gallery of photographs that have inspired me.) I joined Flickr in December, 2006 and it is still very humbling to look at the excellent work on Flickr and it is still an honor to learn from such fine photographers. The experience of these months has been like learning how to write, except in photographs. Here's a list that I've put down here mainly so I won't forget these hard-won lessons!

A few lessons learned the hard (and slow) way on Flickr:
(I started writing these down as I learned them from the first week on Flickr. Its just like me to have a lot of rules(!) so forgive me if I sound didactic. Some of this is good stuff, especially if you are starting out like I was. In the end I have learned that a good photograph touches on something that matters to people -- maybe a myth, maybe an oil spill -- and there's something free and unbounded about it, conditions that often come upon you in a moment and then are gone. Enjoy!)

Focusing the camera helps
Get rid of distracting stuff.
Get a subject
light matters
Background matters

Light is the subject (whether you like it or not)
The eye goes to the light
Subjects like to be the brightest thing
Or, even better, like the brightness thing to be behind them
(two points up there with "focus your camera")
Seek islands of lightness in the background

Crops Matter
Calibrate your monitor
Shoot as low an ISO as possible
Use a Tripod

Relax, its just a photograph

Compose to tell a story
don't crop out the context

A blown out spot has no data
Get a variable density filter
After thousands of JPEGs it is better to ... Shoot in RAW
Shoot low (Annie Leibovitz shooting Arnold Schwarzenegger at Sun Valley, Idaho -- www.iphotocentral.com/andrewsmith/search/detail.php/256/A...

Keep your filter clean

I used to think that the foreground was unimportant - (its important)

Color matters
And since it matters, shoot at a bit depth of 14, not 12
And use Adobe RGB, not sRGB.
Figure out the usual way -- then do it differently.
Checking those settings before shooting helps (letsee, its noon and the ASA is 2400...and auto date stamp is "on").
I once loved a narrow depth of field: I'm older and wiser now.
Stop down the lens
Reset the iso back to 200 after you're done
Composition matters.
If you have two subjects -- maybe you have two photographs

Arno's Rules (Arno Meintjes that is)
With regard to animals, include everything from head to tail
If you can't see the feet because of tall grasses, include area for the feet
Unless its a closeup
Try to convey movement
I think Arno's rules apply to people too!
www.flickr.com/photos/arnolouise/8571777590/in/faves-gcqu...

Keep your lens clean

There's something about silhouettes
And reflections
The eye loves patches of intricate detail
I like the line where light meets dark.
The eye needs a place to go
(Someone pointed that out too).

If someone tells you they know all about composition, they don't.
They say the following:
It is VERY helpful to know about the rule of thirds
Interesting to know about the Golden Ratio
And occasionally good to know about Rabatment of the Rectangle.
Here's a link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

They say you need to avoid putting important things at dead center.
The eyes are the most important things.

Therefore the eyes should be at one of the intersections of the Rule of Thirds (or of the Golden Ratio)

And then there's spirals, radials, diagonals, squiggles and that layering thing Escher did.
Perspective is important

Sometimes a photograph is just right and breaks all the rules.

Every Flickr photograph was posted for a good reason, even if I don't think so.
I have learned a lot by learning to like an "ugly" photograph.
Learning about color theory is a good idea.
Forget about Explore -- it will ruin you!,,,
...But get a good thumbnail if you still want it..
Shooting for the thumbnail will ruin you!

I used to believe in a "natural" self-taught understanding of composition...
-- but it helps to know the rules.
I have become comfortable with Photoshop layers.
I nearly fainted when I found Photoshop "noise reduction" (that was on June 26, 2008 -- note the difference).
Photoshop is great, but good light and composition trumps it.
And using a tripod, And selecting a low ISO And stopping down the lens.

I obsess about Light like Aubrey did wind.
Some people just know things.
Some things can't be planned.
Portraits are hard to do.

Know where the sun is

Take two people -- don't let them look at the camera -- photograph them and magic can happen.
And tell them not to smile
You can't force a photograph to have something it doesn't
Relationships matter more than beauty
Counterpoint is good

Sometimes the slightest crop makes all the difference

A critical comment is right on if you start arguing with it.
A critical comment is far, far more important than a laudatory one (the ego will survive).

The art of black and white is picking out the right colors
Ansel Adams did that by picking out a filter
Ansel Adams knew which filter to pick.
So did Paul Strand

Theme matters
Boldness is good
A "style" develops despite yourself: One day its there.
Some Photographs Touch us with their humanity
Which is the goal.



I never had time to think about any of this for my best shots.

Portraits are still my goal... I find them intimidating and I have much to learn, but my favorite, so far are of Freda Koblick:

(I am sorry to say that my dear friends Freda and David passed away this summer (2011). Here's a nice tribute you can download from Austria's Menza: www.mensa.at/index.php?menuid=30 )

People seem to like my action shots. This is my favorite:

I went a little crazy with the Golden Gate Bridge -- finally I made a calendar of my shots (You can click on it)

Ansel Adams has inspired me from boyhood -- I appreciate him more as the years go by: that sense that we humans are small and delicate and tolerated by an awsome huge universe: That little town in the high country with its crosses set out in the graveyard; oblivious to the massive mountains and the moon and that huge black sky looking down on it and letting it be.

Here's my favorite Pelican (note his jaunty leg tag)
The series --


Here's a panorama of My Half Dome shots:


More photos of mine: flickr.com/photos/gcquinn/sets/72157602513573303/
Favorite Shots From my Contacts
Here's one of THE BEST portraits I've ever seen -- Lusitano69 published it on his photostream to honor the unknown photographer form the 1960s in Portugal:
www.flickr.com/photos/23690324@N02/2436926130/?addedcomme...
Here's a favorite shot (this one's from ehpien)
www.flickr.com/photos/91499534@N00/2365294918/
Here's another one (its beautiful and because I spent some childhood time at a lighthouse like this one):
www.flickr.com/photos/bradleya/744500560/#comment72157602...
And here's another one (also a great shot and because my infant son and I found this train by accident in Houston):
www.flickr.com/photos/wizards_stone/1280619677/#comment72...

Some thoughts on Neutral, Variable Density filters They solve the eternal problem of the sky being too light and the subject too dark: These magical devices come as either round filters, or (BETTER) a rectangle that you either hold by hand or place in the manufacturer's filter holder, the idea being that exposure of the sky will be brought down to the f stop of the subject. The results have been extraordinary for me.

There are several manufacturers, I'm using HiTech
Make sure it says neutral density (otherwise things might turn a little pinkish)
They have ranges of exposure differential from one to four F stops:
one F stop is listed as 0.3 (as in "ND Grad 0.3")
Two F stops, 0.6
Three, 0.9
Four 1.2
They come as "Hard," which is a quick transition, and "Soft," a slow transition, and "reverse," Which starts dark and becomes light for low horizon sunset shots. (as in "ND Grad Soft 1.2).