Bastian, you have been doing street photography in Switzerland for a while. Can you tell me what it is like? What has your experience been? It has been great so far. Honestly. But I haven’t been doing it for long and I wouldn’t call myself experienced or even very good at it. But the negative experiences were very little and … Read More
Photoshoots, podcast, album cover art and other creative updates
Here are some updates of what has been going on creatively in the past several weeks.
Let’s break the rule of thirds and other photography rules
Do you like to break rules? I do. Especially the ones that don’t make a lot of sense like the “rule of thirds”. This rule and others are some aesthetic rules in photography that are commonly encountered and taught. And the myths continue to live on and perpetuate (also by mindless copying) as online content ranging from youtube to forums … Read More
Composition in photography: negative space
About fog Let’s start with a brief science dispatch about fog. Fog is basically a cloud that touches the ground. In clouds, water vapor (=water in gas form) condenses. And tiny water droplets then hang in the air, and this is what becomes visible as fog. Interestingly, in order for fog to form, dust needs to be in the air. … Read More
Composition in photography: approaching the subject
Composition in photography: definition In photography composition is the way in which something (a photograph) is put together or arranged. It is the combination of parts or elements that make up something. It is what we put in the frame and where we put it. In other words, it is the design, arrangement, layout of (compositional) elements in a photography … Read More
The intersection of creative art forms: music and photography
Many art forms appear to intersect at times. For me personally, the intersection of music and photography is particularly interesting. As an active musician and photographer, I am always surrounded by my tools: cameras and musical instruments. Naturally, I have been taking many pictures of my instruments. How can such connections / intersections help with creativity, beyond the obvious? For … Read More
Shooting 20 year expired Agfa Optima film
I was lucky enough to recently get my hands on some rare, medium format Agfa film which was well beyond its expiry date of 1999. It was handed down to me by my friend Paul, who was also a colleague at a previous camera-related job of ours for a couple of years. After decades of religiously shooting film, Paul made … Read More
Emotion and Creativity
Emotion and creativity: do you “feel” creative? What does emotion have to do with creativity. Well, probably a whole lot. “Experiencing sadness and anger can make you feel more creative, and by being creative you can get beyond your pain or negativity.”– Yoko Ono Yoko Ono is right. I have been going through a lot of sadness … Read More
Bokeh and creativity
Bokeh and creativity What the hell is bokeh? The term Bokeh /bōˈkā/ describes how lenses render out of focus areas of images (stills or video/cinema). The aesthetic quality of the out of focus (blurred) areas in the images shared below can be called “Bokeh”. Wikipedia defines Bokeh as the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of … Read More
Monochromatic series continued: yellow, red and white
Monochromatic explorations continued Over 300 days ago, I decided to start project 365, to create a picture a day for 365 days. This is a fun project that has been challenging me creatively. One of the things I started to realize is how much I love to work in series. In my initial monochromatic series (blue series), I started working … Read More
Sharps: a mini-series
Sharps: a mini-series photographing sharp objects As mentioned in my previous post, Music: a series, series are fun way to create as well as to share images. I called this series “sharps”. A term that is often used in healthcare in conjunction with sharp objects such as needles and blades used for medical procedures. Sharps used to be an important … Read More
Macro in motion
Macro Photography I love macro photography because it allows us to see the beauty of small things (see previous post on that topic). In an earlier post, I shared an animation of a 89 still images of an old rusty screw on a piece of wood (an old cutting board). Specifically, I wanted to illustrate how the focus plane (=areas of … Read More
89 images of an old screw (macro photography)
I love macro photography as it enables us to see things we don’t normally see (see also previous post about the beauty of small things where I talk about macro photography and share some macro shots).
Mindfulness in photography
One of the readers of my newsletter commented that she loved the mindfulness my photography encourages. While we all love compliments and I specifically loved this one, I was particularly intrigued by the connection of mindfulness and photography, a connection I have not explored until now.
The beauty of small things
In commercial product photography including macro photography, one has to pay a lot of attention to detail with regards to creating an overall image that is hopefully artistic, unique, technically proficient, and overall compelling. Details of composition, lighting, exposure, highlights, shadows, reflections, surfaces, textures, colors balance, saturation, luminosity, gradients, backgrounds, foregrounds, sharpness, edges, negative space, contrast all matter, and of … Read More