John Lennon Memorial, Central Park, NYC

What’s your most essential tool as an artist?  While the right equipment can be an enormous aide to your success, we’ve all seen artists who can create with very little. And who runs all that fancy gear and tells it what to do?

Imagination is what gets the creative process started and keeps it rolling. It’s what drives your whole creative flow, as you can see from Picasso, “I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.”

Michelangelo said,   ”I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”  He removed the marble until his vision appeared to others the way he had imagined it.

But if this is such a major tool, why has it been battered down since we were kids? You can remember being hit by zingers like, “that’s just your imagination” or “nice pipe-dream”  Yep, there seems to be those who would just as soon send you to camp bummer as see you as create your next piece of art.

So, if it’s the key to the whole game, then what? Are we all born with a certain amount of it and have to just watch it diminish as we grow up?

How about exercising your imagination? I mean like a regular exercise program.  Yes, you can develop this creative skill, like any other skill that you practice.

Here’s a few ways to do so.

1. Practice pre-visualization of your art. Ansel Adams taught photographers to do this in this short video, but this applies to any artist.
2. Get a notebook-sketchbook and note down your ideas, put your imagination and vision down on paper, and just that simple action helps it comes to life.
3. You can also use your iPhone camera like a sketch pad and shoot patterns, colors, images of all sorts for later use.  That’s how I got the shot above while wandering through Central Park with friends.
4. Look at other artists’ work and imagine how they did it.  Find the parts you love and try it yourself. If you’re shy about this remember one of Steve Jobs’ mantras was what Picasso supposedly uttered, “Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.”
5. Push yourself to try new ways of expressing your art. If you are always shooting landscapes, make yourself go out on the street and capture people, up close.

Try this out and let’s see what happens. You can post any of the above in our Critique Group (even if you’re not a photographer, go ahead.)

Imagine…

For our first Photo-Dojo assignment of the year, we have 2 tasks for you.

The first one is to let us know what your photography goals are for 2012, whether it’s to shoot more, or post more photos in the Photo critiques group, it really is up to you. The second part of the assignment is to share a photo that illustrates “a new year”.

Good luck!

Award winning Korean photo studio Indylab shot this award winning advertisement without the aid of computer generated imagery. Instead, they manually tossed and photographed phones one at a time, and then composited all the images afterward.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes photos that gives a glimpse into how it was done:

Indylab photography BTS from indylab on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/25760056

(Via PetaPixel via ISO 2000)

Have you been brainwashed about photography?  What me? How absurd!

I’ll bet you have been, and it’s so deep you don’t even know it. Just like the Matrix, it’s all around and so “real” that we think this is “reality.”

Right about now you’re thinking, “come on Marc, what the hell are you talking about?”

Ok, alright, let’s jump right in, are you going to take the blue pill and forget, or the red,  and find out  just how deep the matrix goes down the rabbit hole? (or is it the other way around?)

Here’s the first thing you’ve been to lied about: To take a great photograph you need the newest, fastest, highest- ISO, multi-media camera out there.

To that I say, as my friend Guy Kawasaki is fond of saying, Bull Shitake!

Look at all the great photos that were taken pre-digital with fixed, low ISO, no-trick cameras.

But before you miss my point and think I’m just some old geezer who’s stuck in the glories of film and can’t go with the flow of digital, that ain’t what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about what’s really important in photography, versus what we’re being brainwashed into believing to fuel the consumer-driven industrial-photo-complex, that needs you to discard your “old” equipment that you bought just 3 years ago and shell out big bucks for the new version. That’s crap and I bet you’re starting to see just how deep this rabbit hole is (hint: this is much more than about photography, but we’ll leave the rest for another day.)

Let’s start with the basis of it all. Who makes the picture, you or the camera?

Hint: Bambi Cantrell said, “people take pictures, cameras don’t!”

How often do you need to be able to  jump to 25K ISO or shoot at 8 frames per second?  Show me your great photographs where this really mattered.

Now look, I love new cool stuff as much as anyone, and shoot a lot of photos on my iPhone, but I don’t kid myself into believing these will ever be great. Just because it’s been proven that you can do a fashion shoot with one, doesn’t mean you should.

I believe in using the right tool for the job.  Learn your camera so well that using it becomes instinctive and get out and focus on what really matters: You, your camera, your subject and how to put them together in a frame that tells a story.  Do you have this simple equation mastered?

If not, let’s get out of the Matrix for just a moment and do this for yourself, and no bull shitake about how you’re too good already to need this exercise.

1. Go over to your nearest drugstore and buy a disposable camera. You know the ones that you take back and they develop the pictures?

2. Now visualize the photos you want to make with it.

3. Then go out and make them. You only have the 12 or so exposures it comes with, no cheating

4. Post your best in our Photo-Dojo.

I will pick the best over the next 2 weeks and I’ll announce the winner August 1st. The winner will win a 38mm Diana F+ Super Wide Lens, cool eh?

And stay tuned for further installments on the Maxtrx, and how to get out.

(and I can’t wait for  wisecracks from those deep in the Matrix!)

When we interviewed Bob Holmes, one of the biggest things that he wanted to share was to always be prepared. Preparation is key to getting the shot that you desire, because if you’re not prepared, you’ll miss it. Read an excerpt from our interview with him to learn more.

You can watch the video here

“One of the biggest lessons I learned was, when I first started shooting professionally…it was in 1980…I was shooting for National Geographic in Pakistan, and it was the first time I felt as if I were a real photographer, I felt really good.  I’d got National Geographic film, things to send it back to Washington, and I had three cameras, all with motor-drives. I felt like a real professional.  And I was shooting in a little village in a very remote part of Pakistan, and there was a shaman predicting the future for the next year.  And this was a unique experience, I was the only Westerner there. I started shooting, and there’s a lot of exciting things happening…

The shaman is getting high, smelling…they’d been drinking a local brew, which was awful…it was dreadful stuff.  If you served it at Betty Ford Clinic, you wouldn’t have got any takers.  And it was some fermented grain from this village, and he’s getting really high on that, and smelling juniper smoke.  And then they dragged a goat to the front of this group of villagers, got a machete, chopped the goats head off, and the shaman picked the goat’s head up and started drinking the blood from the goat’s head…and it was very dramatic, obviously, and I ran out of film in all three cameras.

I didn’t have a single frame left in any camera, and it’s not the sort of situation where you’re just, “Could you do that just one more time please?” And it’s a huge lesson, you know, I’ll never let that happen again.  I always made sure, even if I was…and I think, coming from an amateur background, I was very careful about costs, and I would always try to get 37 frames off a 36 exposure roll, and I hadn’t got out of that mindset.  After that, if I got to frame 30, I’d take the film out…and Geographic was paying for the film, but it was habit.  And I learned that you always have to be prepared, because you never know what’s going to happen, and that was a very, very valuable lesson for me.”

You can find more of Bob’s work here and you can watch his video here

Bob Dylan, a radical in his time for going electric.   All rights reserved by beastandbean

It takes courage to be great, to break away from the crowd and develop your own voice and put yourself out there.

If you’re doing what’s safe and  what everyone else is, you may get a lot of “likes” and “favs,” but at the end of day are you making photographs that you love?

With our AYP Club, what I really love is to see those of you who have the courage to put your work out there and ask for critiques; that’s a good first step.

I made a pass through last night and left some comments. My basic feedback is this: Courage.

Don’t stop at the easy, the good photo that might even win a local contest. Push yourself!  Have the courage to find YOUR VOICE as a photographer.

Go beyond what has been easy for you and explore your limits. In most cases this means being able to really engage your subject. But it might mean getting up at 5AM to get the best light. Or taking your camera to a rough part of town.

It’s about pushing your limits, learning what you can do and see, and help others feel what you felt.

Let’s look at an artist in another art form–Bob Dylan. He broke away from acoustic folk music, the convention at the time. He turned his music “on its head” and came out at the Newport Folk festival with his electric band and was booed at— that’s right. It’s hard to believe that an electric guitar was considered so radical, that it would shake up the status quo of what’s good music, but he did. He went on to tour the UK, again to boos, but he had the courage to push through.

Guess what, a year or two later, those same booers were buying records of the ”cutting edge” rockers. Then a few years later Dylan did it again by going back to acoustic, recording a counrty-flavored album with Jonny Cash.

Nobody could quite figure him out. He didn’t care about being successful, he just wanted to create his music and  put it out there.

Ansel Adams got flack for “manipulating images” – what the hell he said, of course I am, do you see the world as a two dimensional black and white rectangle, with a black sky?

I could go on and on giving you example after example of those artists who were willing to turn their craft on its head. You can think of your own heros who did so.

So how about you? Are you putting out photos that are “safe,” in your comfort zone? Or for that matter, are you afraid of even putting your work out there for fear of criticism?

Honestly, I don’t care if  our AYP Club is the biggest or the smallest. If we can help make a few more really great photographers, we’ll have accomplished our mission.

Push yourself. If you back away from shooting portraits of strangers on the street, make yourself do it. If the idea of shooting nudes makes you squirm, find someone who will pose and shoot them, in the raw.

Name out to yourself one area of photography you back away from and then make yourself shoot it.

This is our assignment for this week’s Photo Dojo.  BTW, there are way more members of the Dojo than are participating. Photography is not a spectator sport! Decide if you’re there to make photographs that you love or you’re an on-looker— and if so go to a museum and look!

I believe in you and that YOU can do it. Let me see what you’ve got.

7th Grade Geometry © Marc Silber 1964

Framing is the most basic of tools for composing a photograph, or for that matter in any visual art.  You are looking at life through your camera and select out the rectangle (or square) that you want your viewer to see.

Remember that framing can include the angle you choose in order to tell your story, this includes the angle from which you shoot and the angle you hold your camera, as in the shot above (taken of my 7th grade classroom.)

A great little book called How to Shoot a Movie Story, by Arthur L Gaskill and David A. Englander, discusses the power of angles, something I’ve never seen in a still photography book. Here’s a bit from the book:

“Camera angles can control an audience’s attention and reactions to a remarkable degree. They can emphasize what what you want your audience to see and how you want them to see it”

The four basic angles are:

1. High angles reduces height of the subject and slows down motion. Creates superiority for viewer. Example: If you want the viewer to have the feeling of towering over a large object shoot looking down.
2. Low angles exaggerate height and speed up motion, subject commands attention.  This works well in sports for example, get down low and you’ll  capture the action.
3. Side angles give depth and perspectiveto people and objects. For example, If you want to emphasize the depth of a building, shoot it from the side.
4. Flat angles are just that, taken front on and can be pretty dull.

A photographer’s best friend are his/her feet! Move around, climb up high, crouch down low. Turn your camera. See what happens!

In our AYP Club, we have weekly assignments in our Photo-Dojo group.  This week’s is to go out and shoot and try each of the angles noted above. Especially force yourself to shoot from an angle or hight that you never use.  Post your best in the Dojo and tell us what you learned.

Hey guys, I first tossed this post out months ago and we immediately recieved requests from all over the world  to join this pilot project. We quickly found that we needed to have a  web-infrastructure to support it and so went to work to build the AYP Club, Now that we have, I’m updating and newly extending our offer –MS

What would you think of an idea that offered some or all of the following:

1. A chance to have your photography regularly critiqued both by pros and respected peers?
2. Regular workshops from pros, both in-person and maybe even exclusive broadcasts just for you?
3. A way to get together with other photographers in your area?
4. Contests?
5. Some other surprises to Advance Your Photography?
6. Regular PhotoWalks with some pros.
7. And have a ton of fun while doing it?
   

Well believe it or not, there is an easy way to pull this off: But I need a few volunteers who can help us start chapters of Advancing Your Photography Club, yep you heard me, let’s start AYP Clubs– hey all over. Just like starting a fire we need two sticks to generate some heat and fire! And for now that can be you and me!

I’m pretty stoked about this but I need to know if you’re interested? First Join the AYP Club it’s free!  Then send me a message (go to “My account”>messages>compose> marc silber) letting me know if you’re game!  Oh there’s a lot more that I haven’t mentioned but give me shout and I’ll give you the basic tools you need to get started and we can grow fast and have fun and really AYP!

BTW, for now, let’s keep this secret–the best way possible–by having it right out in the open!

Click the Lens to join AYP Club

How about and easy and fun way to take your photography to the next level this summer?

One way is to shoot things that you probably wouldn’t on your own, making you reach as a photographer.  On our own, many of us have found that we’ve taken just to dang many of the same type of shots, you might know someone like that?

So let’s break out, break loose and push ourselves.

Another point is to be part of a group of photographers, no just on your own. This is another way of  pushing yourself. Annie Leibovitz talked about how we pushed ourselves in our old days at the San Francisco Art Institute:

“You know, your work would be in a general wash, outside the darkrooms and, it was really…It had to be good if it was going to wash in that general wash, next to anyone else’s, because everyone’s work was really amazing. “

Well, we might not have a wash area outside of our darkroom, but we can at least post our work, have our fellows have a look and give us feedback.  This is a bit different than our Photo Critique Group, which has become very popular. In that group you can post any photo you want, no matter when you took it and get feedback.

A Dojo is a place to workout and challenge yourself physically, well let’s extend that to photography and stretch our photo-muscles and advance to the next level in our new group Photo-Dojo Group.

I’ll post assignments, you guys go out and shoot, process and post post your best. (Keep it to one unless the assignment calls for a series.)  Tell us what you learned and leave feedback on your fellows’ work.

And hey, if you find that you live near each other, it would really be fun to meet up and go out and do your workouts together.

Are you with me? Check out the first assignment in the Photo-Dojo. See you around the darkroom wash, join here.

Ansel Adams Conducting A Critique Session, Courtesy the Ansel Adams Gallery

With our new AYP Club, we’re going to be seeing a lot of photo critiquing as vital way to advance. One of the key components of photography school was frequent critiquing. When I attended the San Francisco Art Institute, each week we’d meet with our instructors in one of the studios, three of the walls of which were covered with white push-pin boards.

Those blank walls would stare back at you as you’d post your week’s work. Then the instructor, with the class trailing, would go to each photographer’s work and comment upon it.

I won’t say that this was always easy and fun, nor was it always constructive.  But in the worst case it taught me that I really didn’t have to listen to other’s opinions of my work.  In the best case I learned something from the feedback.

When I was first seriously learning photography in the 7th grade, I was critiqued by a minister, was one of my father’s patients, he was also a serious amateur photographer. When “Father Vintner” offered to take some of my negatives, print them and make comments on the back, of course I was delighted.  They came back to me a manilla envelope, 8x10s well printed, each print with a short typed critique on the back. Comments were to the point such as, “What would have happened if you’d taken a few more steps closer?”  ”Slightly out of focus or camera shake. Use a tripod, or up shutter speed and hold steady.” and of course the occasional “Superb, I only wish I had taken it!”

This feedback was to the point and caused me to look at my skills and how I could improve. The other point about both my early critiques from the Father, and the much tougher ones later, is that they began a conversation. Up to that point, they had only been viewed by myself, and I had no real feedback. Art needs to be released to the world as vital and living form of communication, which then sparks conversation.

It’s also important in the process to learn to critique another’s work. Tell them what you see, as their audience.  But make it clear when you are stating a fact like “it’s a bit out of focus,” or “my eye  is taken in two different directions”  versus an opinion– which composition and framing often are. Opinions are fine, if stated as such, and as you know we all have them…

So let’s look at the steps to take to critique.  Here’s a mental checklist to go through and see how the photograph holds up.

1. How is the technical quality? Let’s start here before we get to the more subjective issues of composition and emotion.

• In focus? (or if not,  was that intended?)
• Exposure: Is it too light or dark? Are there blown out or underexposed areas?
• Use of depth of field to control the viewer’s eye.
• Use of contrast? Too muddy or too much contrast.
• How was lighting handled?
• How do the colors look?

2. How’s the composition?

• Framing?
• What should and shouldn’t be in the frame?
• Where is your eye drawn to?

3. How is the emotional appeal?

• What emotion do you feel when you look at the photo? Or lack of?
• Did the photographer connect with his subjects or do they look tense, posed or stilted?
• Does the photograph tell a story, or part of one?  (It could be as simple as, “here are my kids who I adore” or “here’s my dog catching a frisbee.” Or a very deep one such as, “this is what poverty looks like, right in my hometown.”)

I’m sure we’ll add to this checklist, but hopefully it won’t become long and cumbersome.  I find that in looking at other’s work (or my own) I can see very fast and get this information and give feedback.

And of course, we do want all critiquing to be constructive, which means state what you see and give a possible solution, like “take another step closer” or “your subjects look a bit tense, relax. Annie Leibovitz plays music on the set, try it.”

Remember you’ll  get as much out of this process as you put in. I expect to see you in our critique group on a regular basis, both giving and getting.

Remember, as we’ve paraphrased from the Beatles,  and in the end, the photo you love to take, is equal to the photo you help others make…