Photography

After nearly a year of taking pictures, I found that the level of sophistication and complexity in my photographs have been steadily increasing, but I still have to work hard to make them even better. They're not nearly as good as I want them to be. I see many other pictures on Flickr that are much better composed. I wonder how people take such good pictures with just a point and shoot. One of my inspirations is this one photographer Kris Van de Vijver. He has such great visions and understandings of how to use a camera. He doesn't need a D700 to take pictures (though those pictures are noteworthy). He understands the whole point of composition. Unlike most photographers, he simply amazes me. There are a bunch of other photographers that use the camera to its fullest potential, such as one of my best friends Prasanth Veerina, but Van de Vijver takes it to an entirely new level. It's as if the parts of the pictures are posing for him begging him to take their pictures. It's amazing.

My next study of photography and art is more of the integration of music, photography, and computers. Essentially, I really love music, so I will try to listen to music when I take pictures to draw in some kind of inspiration. Photography and computers nearly go hand in hand nowadays. Anywhere from editing to putting up online galleries. Therefore I have to understand both in order to master but a portion of photography.

I have been learning Adobe Photoshop since January, and so far, I use just the very basics of the immense power it has. I know how to simply put a border around the picture, how to create an frame that holds three pictures, how to brighten pictures and individual parts using curves, how to turn things into black and white, how to save things as a JPEG, and how to put them onto Flickr. That is the basis of my knowledge. I don't understand what other file formats are and what they're good for. I still don't understand why RAW formatting is better than the regular Large/Fine setting on the camera. I don't know how to use a gaussian blur tool. I don't know how to edit pictures into pictures successfully. I don't even know what I don't know. But my goal for now is simple.

I'm going to understand the power of borders. I know how to use borders a bit as of now, but after seeing some of Van de Vijver's pictures, I understand that borders don't have to just be a black line capturing the entire picture. It can be two black strips on two sides. It can be almost anything. I want to learn what works for what, and what doesn't work for others.

Another ongoing project is photoshoots with a great clothing company "Simply ANTI". A clothing company founded by two guys sitting in their dorm room, one of which is on the swim team. After seeing that I had a camera and I loved to take pictures, Andy DiPietro asked me to take some shots of his clothing line so he could put them on his website. That was my very first photoshoot ever. It wasn't very good, but I got some experience with personal photography. Taking portrait shots because I had to. It was a very interesting experience in that none of us had any idea what to do. There's a shipment of newly designed shirts coming in this week and there should be a photoshoot going on later. I'm pretty excited.

One thing I am mildly turned off by in photography is portrait pictures that are way too photoshopped. To the point where it is unnatural. A major boost in saturation, a nearly cartoonish look, I don't understand the appeal in that. It may be just me, but I love the natural feel of photography. I don't mind little changes here and there, maybe a slight color boost to make to subject much more clear, but that's about it. Distorted images are interesting using a fisheye or a super wide angle lens, but when it's overdone, I am not impressed no matter how technically difficult it is on photoshop. I feel as though most of the work should be using the camera itself. It's the same for playing guitar. There are many guitarists that rely on their footwork and being able to use a lot of expensive pedals to create their sound. But most of the greatest guitarists start from their fingers rather than their feet. Same rules apply in that one should understand the camera before photoshop. Just an opinion.

Hopefully, my photography will get better through a lot of practice and hard work. I'm looking forward to seeing my progress.

Here's to the Crazy Ones