A Group Photo-Shoot

My Introduction to Digital Photography Class is underway at Keene Community Education. This is my second try at this basic course and again I am pleased to be blessed with an enthusiastic and energetic group. I have been impressed with the number of people, even in our small community, who are struggling to grasp the challenges and great capability of digital photography. There level of interest is such that they seem willing to sit through my two hour classes of endlessly, mind numbing PowerPoint slides, but I am a strong believer that repeated practice is the only way to firmly embed the often abstract principals behind the faithful capture of the visual image. My essential rule is:


Practice, Practice, Practice
And Then
Throw Out Your First 10,000 Images

Five Minutes

Accordingly, in addition to my eight hours of lecture, I supplement the class with two group photo-shoots The shoots give me the opportunity to help the students work through the basic principals in practical situations. It is my experience that I can contribute more with five minutes looking over a student's shoulder than I can with an hour of lecture and the result of these sessions is a pile of images that I can ruthlessly (and constructively) critique in class.





 

Shooting What Nature Provides

Ashuelot River Falls
Scouted before the Shoot

Last Tuesday evening, nine of my 15 students were able to come out for my first group shoot at Ashuelot River Park in Keene New Hampshire. We escaped the rain, but the sky was mostly overcast. I welcomed the conditions, since it allowed me to point out the importance of using the weather to help dictate the best photographic opportunities. The clouds robbed us of the chance to shoot the glorious sunset color, but it did facilitate the capture of the soft, cotton candy appearance of the Ashuelot River Falls and made it possible to record the rich, saturated colors of the parks exploding spring foliage.





I started by gathering the class for a group photo and then answering a few of the many questions that my first formal class had created. After a quick review of equipment, which included admonitions to bring a tripod, I let everyone go to find their muse. We split up into two groups. One heading to the dramatic environs of the waterfall, which was rendered more dramatic by the recent rain, and the other following a more contemplative stroll along the path which follows the Ashuelot River up-stream.





A Little Help from a Friend

Steve Hooper Guidance

The most frustrating part of these shoots is that I can never help everyone at once. Happily I was able to share the support with
another excellent photographer and teacher. Again this year Steve Hooper generously offered to help coach my students. Steve is retired from many years as a photographer for the Keene Sentinel newspaper and continues to share his love of photography by teaching in at "Class", Keene State College's senior continuing education program. Steve and I enjoy sharing each others class shoots and on this occasion he shepherded the waterfall group while I ambled up the river.



Introduction
 These shoots provide the opportunity to cover a broad range of topics, reinforcing information already discussed in class and also introducing material that will be covered in future sessions. In about 90 minutes, I reviewed shooting techniques for maximum stability, the pros and cons of jpg and RAW image formats, automatic and manual focus techniques, and the use of the histogram to establish optimal exposure. We cover aspects of strong composition, including the importance of including foreground elements and the avoidance of distractions around the edges of the frame.



 

Ashuelot Reflection

The time went quickly. On these shoots I always concentrate on the needs of the students and don't leave with many of my own images. What I did come away with was a better sense of my classes level of understanding, their needs and a file filled with their images, ready for my gentle critique during the next class session. As I review the pictures I am always looking for images that will help demonstrate important points about digital photography, but it is amazing how many times the students come up with remarkably fresh and interesting perspectives that I had never noticed. I love praising all these efforts, and love even more my plans to go back to the location to feed off of their inspiration.

 



I have two more classes to come, one on composition and the final session on photography in different kinds of light, and we will have one more group shoot after the composition class.







Over the years I have prepared many short talks on aspects of photography, but it is amazing how much more time it takes to organize a full course with eight hours of fresh material. But the work is amply rewarded by the opportunity to share my passion for photography with so many people who are just discovering the incredible possibilities of photography in the digital world.

Squirreling Away the Kids,  Ashuelot River Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry I could only show a few of great images that came from our shoot, but I'm sure there will be much more to come.


Coming up later this year I plan to repeat my Introduction to Digital Photography Course along with my Adobe Lightroom for Digital Photographers class. In the fall I am planning an Autumn Foliage workshop and who knows what else in the new year - I'm hooked - The only challenge is to find time to actually get out to shoot.

Jeffrey Newcomer
Partridgebrookreflections.com

Road Tunes for Photography

 
Hitting the Road
I am a great fan of the photographic road trip. Of course, It is interesting to carefully plan a shoot and settle in to the ideal spot awaiting the perfect moment when the light is at its dramatic best. The results can be spectacular, but for pure photographic adventure, I still prefer to hop into the car with no specific itinerary in mind and head off on a scenic exploration to who knows were. It helps that I live in a corner of New England which is rich with visual opportunities stretching to every possible point on the compass. When I feel the urge to escape all I need to do is grab my camera bag, attach my GPS to the windshield, stick Nellie in the passenger seat and pick a direction. I'm ready to go. Well, almost ready, only one decision remains. What music will I que up?


I wasn't sure how to illustrate a blog about road tunes, so what you're getting is, what else, pictures of roads. 

A discussion of road tunes may seem out of place in a photography blog, but I have found that the choice of music for a photo shoot can be as important as any decision regarding equipment, route or lighting. On routine, non-photographic, driving trips I enjoy listening to the spoken word. Whether it is "Books on Tape", podcasts or "All Things Considered", I find that the conversation works wonderfully to make the driving time slip away, but it all changes when I add the demands of a rolling photo shoot. On driving photo tours I am constantly scanning between the road ahead to the landscape flowing by. I'm looking for anything of interest and beauty as well as following foreground and background element as they continually shift in relation to one another. Of course, my primary focus has to be on safety along the road, but It is a complicated visual dance and the added distraction of trying to follow an involved verbal narrative is just too much to manage.I quickly learned that background music was a much better accompaniment, but what kind of music. The choice of road music will be a very individual matter, and it is worth the effort to assemble your own personal playlist. Selections will undoubtedly range across the broad range of musical genre, although I just can't imagine that anyone would pick gangster rap as an accompaniment for a cruise through New England's bucolic landscapes. Personally, I enjoy listening to rock and jazz, but these musical styles don't seem to work when I am scanning for photographic opportunities.  Perhaps they would be better if I was capturing gritty urban landscapes, but, in the country, I find that I do better with music that floats in the background and doesn't demand my active attention. At best the music should feel like a movie sound track written to match the beauty of my surroundings. The right music blends audio and visual perception to create, all around me, a strong sense of the beauty and drama. Remarkably, I have found that the sounds have a profound effect on how I am able to recognize the way aspects of the natural world interact to create special visual moments.


It never ceases to amaze my old brain that I can store most of my musical library on my iPhone, a device smaller than a pack of cards. With thousands of tracks available, the only struggle is to choose the playlist. I have found that what works best for my photography trips falls into two broad categories.


Classical
Not all classical pieces are supportive of a sense of peaceful observation of the passing splendor, but It is easy to find classical tracks that work well. Bombastic selections, such as the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony don't leave much cognitive space for subtle visual input, but the second movement of the fifth has a perfect pastoral feel. Aaron Copland is one of my favorite "road" composers, especially his Appalachian Spring and the Theme and Variations on Simple Gifts. Other favorites include Mozart, Handel, Vivaldi and Corelli. For some reason the simple, but sweatily evocative adagio from Corelli's "Christmas Concerto" is a special love of mine.



Movie Sound TracksPerhaps because they were written specifically to augment visual presentations, I find many film scores to work well as road accompaniment. Again it is the purely instrumental pieces that allow me to concentrate on the landscapes. Of course John Williams is the acclaimed master of this genre, including his scores for Lincoln and Warhorse. Other favorites include Howard Shore's music for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Randy Edelman's heroic score for Gettysburg. There are many others I could mention, but I'm always looking for more scores to add to my list. Whenever I watch a new movie, I try to notice the background music in search for more road music to add.

 



What I DON'T Play
Once again it is all a matter of individual taste but, even though I may love certain music in other situations, my road playlist does not include jazz, rock, country, most folk and of course rap. Rap is almost as bad as new age, seriously? I want to stay awake on the road.




I have included a short slide show with just a few brief snippets of some of my favorite road tunes. The key is to understand how the right music can augment your ability to make the visual connections that will allow you to recognize and appreciate the beauty that is flowing by. So get your playlist together, saddle up and hit the road.


Jeffrey Newcomer
Partridgebrookreflections.com