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Wednesday 28 November 2012

Karjat - the photo failures

Getting out of the city can be a bit of a pain in the nethers but it's worth it to put the smog and smells behind you for a bit.

I went on my annual trip to Karjat to help build houses for a Habitat for Humanity project - I can call it annual because it's the second year I've done it. Here's the proof from last year. To be absolutely honest the students did the building and I did the wandering around with the camera capturing them mixing concrete and slapping on paint.

I broke off from the arduous task of taking pictures of students to take a few pictures of other things.  I've recently been reading various "how to be an awesome photographer" articles and sites and thought it would be a good chance to put some of the lessons into practice.

"Look for colour contrasts and textural interest to create stunning abstracts"
I interpreted this as "watch paint dry". This didn't really work but the paint dried very quickly so I wandered off to see other things.

  Every "guide to great photography" will tell you that you should always try to frame your subjects.

 A good piece of advice but also try to keep them in focus, above and below look ok in this small format but if  you saw the originals in full size  - not so good.  Really not so good at all! 


The "guide to being a kickass photographer"  tells you to look for textural interest and repeating patterns to create interesting images.
    So long as you think a sack with a hole in it covering a window counts as an "interesting image".

Always crop off the head of the bullock to create an interesting shot and don't forget to include a great big white arrow pointing at the bullock in case anyone missed it. Or as "how to click better clicks" says. Pay attention to the background!

Despite the bodged photographs it was a good day and I learned a lot about picture taking, mostly that I have to do a lot more of it.  



 

5 comments:

Arun Prakash said...

Good photos.
I particularly like the sack photo. I love it's texture! I think it would be more impressive if rule of thirds is followed.

amasc aka Anne said...

The rule of thirds! I forgot about that one, I'll add it to my list to explore on my next camera outing. Life was simpler when I just pointed and shot but a lot less interesting. Thanks for stopping by,

rupam sarma said...

Nice to saw your post. Nice clicks.

thisgoodink said...

Ha. I just showed your post to my boyfriend and he said, "It's you!" I, too, teach in Mumbai. I, too, went on the Karjat Habitat trip last weekend with a group of my students. I, too, wandered around taking photos most of the time. Yours are far better:) Nice to meet you Anne Hurray!

amasc aka Anne said...

... and you also lived in Vietnam, as did I. Hello blog twin!