Wednesday 27 March 2013

Art of Composition - blog hop


Black and White - Lines, light and shadows


The last 12-weeks have given me a new perspective to my daily surroundings. I've discovered that our home, workplace, the city and the nature is filled with interesting lines, curves and textures  ... Wherever I look, there's something that captures my eye. Tracey Clarck's Art of Composition-online class has given a new and fresh insight in viewing the world!

We started with "the canvas": Paying attention to the things we find appealing in different images. From there the focus shifted to our own canvases, that is, what we are seeing through the camera lenses.

I have taken a whole bunch of photos, working with depth of field and negative space, to name a few of our themes. I've admired the captures of my classmates in the class gallery and learned a lot from them.


Contrast, lines, componental elements

The first picture in the beginning of this post is from the Black and White theme. Taking Black and White pictures is new to me - I have avoided it a bit, since I haven't really tried it before. Doing the class assignments showed me that Black and White photos have a  special way of conveying feelings and atmospheres. B & W pictures have an alert focus since they "denoise" some things creatíng harmony when the colors are gone - giving place to different shades, light and shadow.


Depth of Field
 
Depth of field is all about being attentive - where do you decide to focus in your photo. In the upper picture I've chosen to focus in the lower right part of the photo, that is, the silver earrings.
I found this assignment a bit challenging, since I do not have a SLR camera, but I found my way of capturing the depth of field. I've learned a whole lot of composing pictures, and about photography in general, in this course. I'm happy that everybody can join the course - also me with my little point and shoot camera :)


Negative space

The lesson on Negative space made an impression on me. Negative space refers to the place in your photo, where your eyes can rest, the positive space is there, where your subject matter is situated.


Negative space

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The assignments of the 12th week includes a series of 6 photos, where we could focus on the themes, that in special ways have taught us something (I'll post mine next week). The other assigment was to take 3 portraits.

Well, I have a thing with portraits. That goes way back to elementary school. We all have issues, and one of my issues was to be born with "thick lips" and high cheek bones. A nick name as "kiss lips" wasn't admiring when you were 8 -10 years old. I was assigned often to play the role of a doll in school theater plays - well, in short, I've learned to prefer portraits of my profil. One of the portrait is tough not a total profil ... trying to take a portrait was actually quite fun - as I wrote in the class gallery, my next class could be about how to shoot self portraits (smiling :)


Portrait


The other portrait is of my ear. Before this class I wouldn't have focused on just one part of the person when taking a portrait - or chopping / cropping a head of the subject - but I've learned that everything is possible!



This Art of Composition -blog hop is about cherishing the good time we've had in the class -
learning, shooting and sharing.
 
This blog hop works in a way that in the end of each post there's a link to the next post.

So, please visit Liz at Belles Belonging to see
her captures and thoughts about our 12-weeks adventure with Tracey Clark:


Thank you Tracey and all my fantastic classmates for the enriching 12-weeks!
And last but not least, I'm grateful to Rebecca and Kristi from Nurture Photography,
I won this course from a giveaway in the Nurture Photography Fall Challenge 2012!

Nina
 
 
Big Picture Classes
 
 
The participants in the Art of Composition - blog hop:
 
Margie Nihao, Cupcake
Diana    The Studio 56
Nina     Thoughts and Images Along the Way
Liz      Belles Belongings

16 comments:

  1. Great photos and self portrait! Glad you are having such a great time with your class.

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    1. Thank you Debbie, the class and the weekly assignments were really great!

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  2. Oh, this makes me so happy! I'm glad that you enjoyed the class! Your work is so lovely. I hope you'll join us again the spring photo challenge so we can see even more of your photography. :)

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    1. Hi Kristi, I look forward of joining your Spring Photo Challenge :)

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  3. Fantastic images and so inspiring. You've done a wonderful job only working with a P&S. Impressive. I love that yellow flower and your self-portraits too. I did not do enough work on my self portraits. I would love a class just doing self-portraits. Great idea!

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    1. Hi Margie, This course has been a great inspiration - let's keep in touch and work on the idea of photo prompts :)

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  4. Beautiful post! Adore the earrings hanging. Great DOF! So happy we met. Will visit again soon!

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    1. Thank you Diana, let's keep in touch - Happy Easter to you!

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  5. I have taken every class Tracey Clark taught, loved them all. She is such a good teacher and thru these classes I have met many photography on-line friends. I got a kick out of your "big lips"....and I thought how many movie-stars pay to get big lips? Enjoy your God given beauty. And keep up the good work!!

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    1. Hi Deanna, Tracey is a great teacher, I was so inspired by all the assignments. Thanks for the "lip kick" - didn't think it that way ... All the different photo-promts are a nice way of keep taking pictures, learning by doing :)

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  6. Nina, I am so impressed with all you learned in this class and thank you for sharing it with us...I have been thinking about taking a class and you have certainly encouraged me to do so...

    You are a beautiful woman and I hope you will never doubt yourself again when it comes to photographing a self portrait.....

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    1. Hi Nancy, I've learned so much by taking this class - The assignments have taken some exstra time, but making them has been fun :) Thank you for your sweet Words!

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  7. You have given some excellent examples of some photographic elements. Your self portraits are wonderful (I totally suck in this department and have failed miserably in trying to improve).

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    1. Thak you Nicki! I enjoyed your Pictures today - Ike peeking in to the bag with your comment on it made my day :)

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  8. Nina...I would have never guessed you use a Point & Shoot camera! The DOF you achieve is amazing and your compositions are marvelous!

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    1. Thank you so much! I look forward of trying a DSL camera some day :)

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Thank you so much for taking time to leave a comment! I read and enjoy them all and I'll do my best to to hop on over to your blog for a visit.

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