Janet Worne - Thoughtful Photography

Rhythm in Photography

Rhythm permeates our world. Music tempts us to move with the flow of notes and the pacing of words on a page encourages us to stay up late to finish a favorite book. Our bodies pulse with the constant rhythmic beating of our hearts, a comforting reminder that we live. Rhythm is alive in the visual arts as well.

Rhythm is “a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement and sound”, according to the Oxford American Dictionary. In his book, Photography & the Art of Seeing, Freeman Patterson says: “Rhythm is a way to use pattern. A pattern may be repeated at random, but if it is repeated at regular intervals, we speak of rhythm.”

If rhythm is movement within repeated patterns, then photography is fertile ground in which to harness that flow.  The patterns can be lines, shapes or color, and the positioning of the repetitions can lead the eye in the direction of the photographer’s choosing and influence the tone or feel of the image. In the examples shown here, black lines bending into progressively smaller and smaller triangles sweep us up the stairwell, and repeated colors and shapes of boats march the viewer diagonally across the page in rows. Notice how each rhythm may have a different pace, sometimes dynamic, sometimes plodding.

We can break it down to the step-by-step technique and use it consciously or we can let it flow without thought from that place deep inside us where inspiration is born. You know you have succeeded when you look at it and it feels right in your gut.

A First

I recently sold a print of this image. What was unusual about that was the size. It was the first request I've had for a 30" x 20" print. I wasn't sure sure how well the image would hold up, but I'm happy to say it looks great. I found a lab in Santa Fe, Visions Photo Lab, that was very patient with me and addressed all of my concerns. The details held up and there was very little noise in the sky. I took the image on a Canon 5D, shooting in raw.

This was the first extra large print I have ever had made in all my years of professional photography. The first of many, I hope.

Inspiring Blog

Need a good dose of inspiration? Look at as much work by other photographers as you can. When I started out, the only way I could do that was in the library since I hadn't heard of the internet yet. I started at the beginning of the photo section and took out every book one-by-one until I had gone through everything they had.

Now, you can do that from home with the internet. (I can't imagine life without it anymore) There are many sites out there to instruct and inspire and here's one I just discovered thanks to The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA):

It's a documentary photography blog by Geoffrey Hiller called Verve Photo. In it he profiles NPPA member photojournalists and their work. It's a great opportunity to see that there is still quality work being done in spite of the problems facing our industry today.

Keyword Inspiration

Our July/August monsoon season seems to have arrived ahead of schedule. Not that we have been getting a lot of rain--especially by my old Kentucky standards--but our typically blue, cloudless skies have seen small storms rolling past periodically each day. For us that translates into cooler afternoons and evening light shows. What rain there is to be dropped, is usually unleashed on the Sandia Mountains within sight of my camera.

I took these pictures during Mother Nature's after dinner entertainment while sitting on our patio. Looking at them I am still awed by what I see. My mind runs through the list of keywords I attached to the metadata. I start with the literal: mountains, weather, wind, clouds, sunset, sky, Southwest, Sandia, storm...

Somehow that seems inadequate. I move on to the more descriptive: alpen glow, pastel, orange, intense, scenic, strength, grandeur, big sky...

Then I unleash my feelings and add a few larger concepts for good measure: Enchantment, dreamy, faith, spirituality, passion, perfection, surreal, vitality, dreams, goals, Zen...

Can't you just see one of these photos on a poster with some inspirational message about reaching for your goals with passion? The point is, if they were languishing in some stock agency with only the literal keywords, the buyer looking for an image to illustrate a concept or inspirational message would never find them.

Awe-inspiring. I never tire of looking at that mountain. I need to come up with more words to describe it.

Playful Photography

My photos are a result of my relationship with the subject. Sometimes the relationship is fleeting and somewhat one-sided and sometimes protracted and mutual. At times it is contentious and other times, playful.

While in Milan, it was my intention to get back to the Duomo after dinner in time for the best light. But I could see the golden light fading as we approached. I felt deflated and stood in front of the ornate cathedral in frustration, wondering "what do I do now?" That's when a something red to the right of the Duomo caught my eye.

It was "Toy Building N. 1", a futuristic sculpture created by Italo Rota and temporarily installed in the piazza. Okay, this was cool. I love contrasts and this modern, red, odd shape will frame the centuries-old cathedral nicely.

But then the sky darkened and the sculpture lit up and glowed and became the subject.

Then I played with both shapes equally, playing off the contrasts...

That was when I noticed the mirrors in the sculpture and a soundscape surrounded me with indescribable noises that lent a weird sense of disorientation to the scene. At this point I found myself grinning broadly and probably laughed out loud a couple of times.

The night ended as I turned away from the Duomo entirely and took one last shot of the sculpture before tearing myself away.

I love it when I have a playful experience with photography. In those moments I find it very easy to slip into that Zen state where time doesn't exist.

How To Find Story Ideas

These ideas are not new and you probably have heard them before but sometimes we all reach a dry spell where we need a little nudge. Something to get the creative juices flowing again. This list will get you started and you can take it from there.

1.    Read—newspapers, want ads, phone books—everything and anything. Even the smallest item can trigger a big idea.

2.    Cruise—drive around town without agenda. Venture into unfamiliar areas and just look with an open mind and see what you see.

3.    Talk with people—take the time to chat everywhere you go, especially on routine assignments. You’ll be surprised what people will tell you if you take the time to listen.

4.    Eavesdrop—in restaurants, while standing in line, everywhere…

5.    Listen to the scanner—not everything will be exciting enough to run right out to immediately, but it may trigger an idea to follow up on later.

6.    Keep a notepad with you all the time—it’s a cliché, I know, but I get many great ideas in the middle of the night or when I’m driving.

7.    Get involved in the community—you hear of many things while at church or club meetings.

8.    Network—make friends with police, firefighters, jailers, doctors—anyone who will keep you plugged in to what is going on in their world. Hand out your card and encourage them to call you if they hear of anything photo or story worthy.

A police friend called me at home to tell me about this mentally ill woman. She had been arrested 3 times in the past month alone for wandering into neighbor's homes looking for milk. The police were frustrated by outdated laws that required them to arrest the mentally ill instead of taking them directly to a mental hospital. Here the officer was trying to find someone to help her before finally cuffing her and taking her to jail.

9.    Steal ideas from old contest and other papers—I'm not talking about plagiarism, academic style. Just peruse other papers and magazines for ideas that can be recycled and changed enough to make them your own.

10.    Localize a national news story—the obvious thing is to watch the national news but don’t overlook publications like the Wall Street Journal which is known for spotting upcoming trends.

11.    Check the calendar—you can find “on this day in history” calendars online. Look far enough ahead and find an idea to work on and have ready for publication at the appropriate time.

12.    Make a tree—by this I mean brainstorm. Start with a universal theme like Love as the trunk of the tree. One branch might be Romantic Love, another might be Parental Love, etc. Smaller branches would break it down further and further until you come up with a more specific, usable idea.

13.    Newsletters—get yourself on lots of mailing lists. The junk you have to wade through is a pain but worth it when you find a good idea.

14.    Piggyback—many stories you may be working on have another life or two or possibly more. Check in with past story subjects and see if there is anything worth following up on.

Happy Easter

Sometimes, just when you think you've covered Easter Egg Hunts so many years in a row that you couldn't possibly come back with something fresh and different, a fleeting moment passes before your camera and if you're ready for it, you grab it. It isn't the traditional hugging the bunny that you think it's going to be--THE picture. It's better.

It's the moment after. The reaction. The reflection of the sunset that I had alluded to in an earlier post.

New Website

After months of work with my brother's help, I finally finished my new website at www.janetworne.com Take a look:

I built it with Dreamweaver starting with a template that my brother had created. I learned a lot by fiddling with his creation and making my own changes. I even added a separate section for wedding and pet photography. (www.janetworne.com/events) It was my first experience with building a website and after this effort, I may even have the confidence to build one entirely on my own next time. Thanks Scott! You can see his site at www.scottwarrenphotography.com

Deeper Sense of Wonder

Remember when you first started out in photography? Maybe you’re there now. Everything is brand new. Exciting. You’re like a child seeing the world for the first time. And now, with a camera in your hand, you can capture that excitement in a way no one else can and hold it frozen forever in the magic of your photographs.

Fast-forward 27 years. You’ve been fortunate enough to have made your living out of that love of photography. It has been a wonderful, exciting time yet you realize that all those years of trying to please editors and molding your vision to someone else’s story has changed your perspective. Reading the Minor White quote in yesterday’s post you concede that maybe you’ve lost some of that youthful “innocence of eye”. Perhaps you dig through some of your work from your carefree early days. You see that you lacked the experience and skills you now possess but there is a playfulness and freshness that is currently missing from your work. What happened?

This is where I find myself now. As an adult, my viewpoint is not as fresh as that of a child because my eye is tainted by the lens of experience. I often wonder, can I recapture the magic and still retain what I have gained from experience and maturity? The real trick may be to let go of the voices in my head telling me to shoot what they (the editors) want and to rediscover what makes me happy. I think what most editors want is that freshness and sense of wonder anyway.

Perhaps now, with a renewed self-awareness about my work, I can come full circle and find within myself an even deeper sense of wonder.

Bosque del Apache

I do not consider myself a bird or wildlife photographer, although I do enjoy it when I get the chance. It is a specialized field requiring specialized and VERY expensive equipment that I do not have. Namely the long and fast lenses. It also requires lots of patience and knowledge of the species you are stalking.

During the same weekend that we went to the Very Large Array we also visited the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge just south of Socorro, New Mexico. I borrowed a longish, though not very fast lens from my brother to shoot these pictures. (It was a Canon 100-400mm, 4.5-5.6 lens with a 1.4 extender) The photo above was shot in the morning of sandhill cranes. The photos below are of snow geese in the late afternoon.

This final picture I took with a Canon 70-200, f 2.8 lens.