Joe Baraban's Digital Photography Blog

Personal Pearl of Wisdom: Shoot to Live, Live to Shoot

When I talk to my students in my online class with the BPSOP and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, I’m reminded as to how short a time they’ve been photographers; certainly not all, but quite a few.

Most of these people have jobs and can’t devote as much time as they would like. However, there are those that do have the time but find themselves procrastinating when it comes to going out and taking pictures…making art; I have been guilty at times myself.

That said, I’ve been extremely fortunate as to have had photography my career as well as my passion going on fifty years; traveling on assignments two hundred and fifty days out of the year before retiring.

Even after all these years, I still get all warm and fuzzy when I have taken a photo that I knew even before clicking the shutter that I had one of those illusive ‘Keepers’.

The analogy I can draw is through the game of golf. I’m not very good and I never know who’s going to address the ball on the tee. The Tiger Woods that can hit the ball three hundred yards straight down the middle, or the duffer that hits the ball to the ladies tee; I’ve done both.

My point here is that if I can hit the ball once in a blue moon like Tiger, it’s what keeps me going even after hitting fifty in a row into the woods, people’s back yard…or lake!!

Taking a great shot, an illusive keeper, every once in a while is what I live to shoot for. For me, it’s the elixir that keeps me going; it keeps me living for the next one. It keeps me setting the alarm clock to be somewhere at least an hour before the sun comes up…whether I get something or not really doesn’t matter; perhaps it’s just the thrill of the hunt.

So, my fellow photographers, I’m here to help motivate you to go out whenever you can and enjoy the gift you have given yourself. Remember that a camera on a tripod is just like a blank canvas on an easle.

You and I are artists who have chosen a different medium other that a paintbrush. Go out and paint and if you’re lucky you can come home with a work of art, if not, then maybe next time.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come paint with me sometime.

JoeB

My Favorite Quote: Andre Gide

Losing sight of the shore.

Andre Gide was a French writer, and humanist who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1947. I was recently reading an article on him and one of his quotes really hit home with me and the way I approach teaching both online with the BPSOP, and in my personal workshops I conduct around the planet.

Specifically, a conversation or conversations I recently had with two of my students (over a period of four weeks) who both live and die by whatever the ‘powers that be’ say at their camera club meetings and competitions; after all, who knows better than the newly elected officers? Am I right?

Btw, if I had to pick one subject that I talk about the most is the question whether camera clubs, online information, or just friends tell you what to do and what not to do. I certainly don’t think what I profess is the Gospel according to Joe, but I will tell you that most of the material you read on the information highway is just not in your best interest; sometimes you just have to follow the roads less traveled.

This is where the quote comes in. Gide once said, “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

To me, taking chances and making mistakes in the process is the best way to take your photography what I commonly refer to as “up a notch”. I’m not implying that you should quit going to your local camera club meetings. After all, it’s a great place to eat free cookies,  nibble on celery and carrot sticks, drink Perrier sparkling water, or perhaps diet coke is your thing.

I’m not profiling here because I have seen it up close and personal. I have been asked to judge several local camera club annual competitions and I always had a hard time being asked to judge the title of the photograph and even how it was matted in my final decisions whether to  accept a piece into the show or worse…to give it a blue ribbon; I finally started turning down the honor.

The last camera club’s annual show I judged, I had set out a stack of self addressed post cards for people to take that talked about my online class and my workshops. Out of the entire club of a hundred plus people, only one woman picked one up.

I found out that she was the one that had placed first in three categories and second in the third. After seeing my presenation she decided that she wanted to learn more about seeing differently and growing more as a photographer.

If you feel that you’re not going anywhere as far as your photography is concerned, then maybe it’s time to discover new oceans; I like to call it “coloring outsides the lines”. If it means going out shooting by yourself, then just do it! One thing will be certain, you’ll be looking ahead and not behind you…where everyone else will be.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

San Miguel De Alende

Thanks for the great image Nick.

I recently returned from my amazing workshop in San Miguel, and it was everything I had read about.  I had seen beautiful images shot by other photographers that had been there before me, but it’s just not the same as seeing it with your own eyes.

Sponsored by The Santa Fe Workshops it was, as usual, professionally run and no attention to detail was spared.

Besides San Miguel, I have also participated in four workshops in Cuba with Santa Fe, and I always look forward to fully committing myself to working with my fellow photographers and not having to worry or think about anything else; they always have the students in mind…and my back!

I spent a week shooting alongside and working with a great group of people, looked forward to seeing their work in the daily reviews. I also enjoy putting together a post highlighting their art, and I’m confident you’ll be as impressed as I am at the level of work submitted by everyone.

These photographers either represent students that have taken my online classes with the BPSOP or have been with me in other “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops…or both.

Enjoy the show:

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my upcoming workshops at the top of this blog

 

 

Personal Pearls of Wisdom: “Pulling Out My Bag of Solutions”

Using my Bag of Solutions

When I’m online with my class with the BPSOP, or traveling with my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind“ workshop, I often refer to my “Pearls of Wisdom”. One of them is,  “My bag of solutions”.

What I mean is how do I solve a problem that’s come up unexpectedly? If I could only get a couple of feet higher, or have to stand out in the water, or pick up any trash, or how about fixing something that might be broken or needing a piece of tape to hold something while I shoot. Here’s what I often carry in my car when I’m going out. You just never know when you’ll need something!!!I don’t necessarily carry everything all at once, but I have before on personal long road trips and assignments. Although I consider this list equipment, I call this my “bag of solutions”:

  • Tripod
  • Bean bag
  • Small table tripod
  • Six foot ladder
  • Spray bottle with water/glycerin mixture
  • Photo stand with a sand bag to keep it steady
  • A-clamps (to secure the reflector and umbrella to the stand).
  • White reflector or white piece of foamboard.
  • Duct tape (very important)
  • Fifty feet of garden hose (for ‘wet downs’)
  • Mikita (or another brand) 14 or 18 volt rechargeable screw gun
  • Rubber boots
  • Chest waders
  • Knee pads
  • Blanket
  • Walki-Talki’s
  • Plastic tarp
  • Broom
  • Rake
  • Garbage bag
  • Golf Umbrella
  • Change of clothes
  • Small Red line tactical flashlight for light painting
  • https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=redline+flashlight&tbm=shop&spd=4139016517009177550
  • Model/minor/property releases (important if you plan to sell the photos)
  • Ice chest with water, soft drinks, beer, and Martini fixers’ (after the wonderful sunset)

Did I leave out anything?

In the photo above that I shot for the Coca Cola Bottling Annual Report, I used the broom and rake to clean up the area, the fifty feet of hose (every bit of it) to wet down the pavement,  the small mag light to light up the lettering on the truck’s door, the duct tape to secure the flashlight to the six foot ladder, and the garbage bag to clean up whatever trash I created.

Check out my website at: www.joebaraban.com and come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Personal Pearls Of Wisdom: Go With The Flow.

As the followers of my blog, my online students with the BPSOP, and the photographers who have attended my “Stretching your Frame of mind” workshop all know, I have a plethora of random thoughts gathered throughout my photographic and teaching career. I call these thoughts my “Personal Pearls of Wisdom“.

Dating back to the early eighties when I first started teaching, I’ve conjured up these expressions as situations called for them, either from my own experiences or those of my students. Although I love all my Pearls for one reason or another, there is none that brings a laugh to me faster than “Go With The Flow“.

If you’ve been shooting long enough, I’m sure at one time or another you’ve been faced with a situation that you either didn’t expect or didn’t want. You probably had a certain idea in your mind, or a pose, or a composition that come hell or high water you were going to shoot…no matter what!!!

If you were anything like I was in the old days, those days before Medicare, Social Security, and mellowing out, you got flustered or probably a little pissy because it wasn’t going your way. For me, it was usually the subject that wouldn’t cooperate or a lot of the times it had to do with animals.

I don’t remember exactly when it was, but at some point I decided to stop fighting it and joining it. I began to “go with the flow“. If someone wasn’t taking my direction, or for some reason really didn’t want to be photographed the way I envisioned, I would just let them do what they wanted and when I discovered that it usually resulted in a better photo, I started waiting and hoping it would happen again. It’s not something you can create yourself, it has to be spontaneous and coming from the subject. It’s also very important to anticipate the possibility because if something does happen, it’s a good chance that it won’t happen for long and won’t ever happen again.

The two photos you see above and below are perfect examples of “Going With the Flow“. I was working on a photo essay called “Back-road Businesses where I traveled the smaller roads throughout Texas looking for the entrepreneurs of these  weekend businesses. These are businesses that spring up all over Texas on the weekends, opening on Fridays and closing Sunday afternoons after all the travelers were back home.

In the photos taken of the owners of the sword and knife business, and the hubcaps, they didn’t want to show their faces. No matter how much I was willing to pay for a hubcap or a sword, they were just not interested. The sword man said that I could take his picture but it had to be his way. He told me to go out and get setup and he would think about what he was going to do (after buying a knife). When he finally came out wearing the helmet, I thought I would start crying in utter happiness!!! How could I have ever planned that?

When I asked the guy with the hubcap to take a picture of him in front of all his hubcaps, he said fine, but I couldn’t show his face (maybe something to do with his britches?). He leaned over and grabbed a hubcap and put it in front of him. He said that if I still wanted to take his picture it was OK.

OK!!!!!!!! Someone please pinch me, because I knew I had to be dreaming!!!! I shot as fast as I could before he could change his mind.

hubcap-man1_DM

So my friends, be prepared to forgo your initial idea and be ready to “Go With the Flow”. Just let it happen because it just might prove to be a better idea.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, check out my 2018-19 workshop schedule and come shoot with me sometime. Hear my “Pearls in Person”!!!

JoeB

My Favorite Quotes> W. Eugene Smith

 

If I followed the rules, I wouldn’t have taken this

One of my all time favorite photographers was W. Eugene Smith. I have several of his books (Minimata being the most powerful) and love going back and look at his work.

He once said in an interview, “I didn’t write the rules. Why would I follow them?”. This quote comes to mind as much as any in my category My Favorite Quotes. Why, you might ask?

I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I conduct workshops all around the planet. The reason why I think about this quote is because I’m constantly asked if I follow any rules pertaining to how I go about deciding on how I compose my final composition.

At that point I will invariably quote Eugene Smith. I also didn’t write these so called rules, that were written merely to take us down a one way path to mediocrity; so why should I also follow them?

A lot of people that have recently fallen in love with photography, seek out advice from others. I can understand since they are new and want to take the best photos they can. The problem is that they will listen to anyone and take what they hear as gospel; after all, they must know more since they are already photographers and have really nice cameras; don’t be fooled by that…it’s the ten inches behind the camera that really counts.

Here’s where I stand: I’m not going to follow rules that I didn’t write and especially ones that I don’t believe in; as long as the rules aren’t actually laws that could eventually wind up being a bad decision!!

🙂

I have one rule as it applies to my photography. I never crop my photos, and haven’t for the fifty years that I’ve been shooting profssionally.

So, my fellow photographers, while it’s important to have personal rules when it comes to your new found love, whatever you do don’t listed to those that think it’s important to follow rules just because someone, somewhere, wrote them.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Quick Photo Tip: Turn Your Photo Upside Down

A balanced composition

Closing in on fifty years of taking pictures, I can turn the composition I’ve created in the viewfinder upside-down in my mind, without having to physically rotate my  camera to see my photo inverted on the display. So, you’re probably asking yourself why in the world would I want to do this? To make sure my photograph has balance, either symmetrical (formal) or asymmetrical (informal).

Okay, have you ever looked at one of your images and for some reason it didn’t feel quite right to you; and you weren’t sure why? One potential reason is that it wasn’t a balanced composition.

In my “Stretching Your Frame of mind” workshop I conduct around the planet, and in my online class I teach with the BPSOP, students submit photos that (hopefully) represent the assignment or the discussion of the day. In my workshops, I teach photographers how to use the Elements of Visual Design to make their photos stronger. One of the basic elements is Balance. 

Images submitted to me will often have a strong subject or a point of interest on one side, leaving the other side empty, or areas of color or light that aren’t compatible with one another. A good photograph will have an equal amount of color, shapes and areas of light and dark. Each one needs to have a certain amount of value or visual weight (mass) in relation to all the other elements in your photo, and be placed accordingly to create a sense of balance.

In my classes, I deal specifically with the balance between Negative and Positive space. If a student submits a photo that is obviously out of balance, I’ll turn their photo upside down and show it to them. Why you ask again?

Still balanced

Because when the student views his or her photo upside down, they’re now using a different part of their brain to process information. When they’re looking at it right side up, they’re looking at it with the right side of their brain. It’s the creative and visual side. They’re looking at the parts that make up the whole. i.e., Shape, Pattern, Texture, Form, and Color.

When I turn their photo upside down, they’re using the left side of their brain, the analytical side. They’re now looking at the whole first then putting them into a logical order and drawing a conclusion.

In other words, their image is no longer a photo that has a subject, meaning, or tells a story. It’s simply shapes, colors and areas of light and dark; it now reads only as Negative and Positive space. The student immediately sees that their photo is out of balance.

Try it yourself sometime.

Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog, and my website at: www.joebaraban.com. Follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanbjoe. Come shoot with me and together we’ll look at your photos upside-down!!!

JoeB

Food For Digital Thought: Leading the Viewer Around the Frame

Moving the viewer around the frame

Creating memorable photos, as you probably know, is not an easy task. Keeping the viewer around as long as possible is a very important ingredient in doing just that. Unless you’re shooting strictly for yourself, the idea is to take control of how the viewer perceives and processes our images. Making him an active participant is the best way I know of to achieve this lofty goal.

In my part II online class with the BPSOP, we spend an entire lesson just working with Line; the most important of all the basic elements of visual design. I will also talk about this element in my workshops I conduct all over the planet.

One of the best ways to keep the viewer involved is to use Line to move the viewer around your composition. Leading him in and out of the frame using lines to do so will keep him interested. Another way to use Line effectively is to arrange the lines to leave an impression or make a statement that communicates a visual idea.

In the above photo, I came around the corner, looked down, and saw this happening right in front of my eyes. The first thing I thought about was the artist M.C. Escher. The second was what a great way to not only move the viewer around, but to keep him around by offering six to eight seconds of visual entertainment.

Communicating a visual idea

When you look at these images, you can’t help but to follow the lines, and steps from one side of the frame to another; letting the viewer enter and leave the frame at different points in the composition.

By using the right side of my brain, the creative side, I was able to see this subject not as a walkway and steps that I would see by only using the left side, but a series of patterns, lines, and shapes; all basic elements of visual design.

So, my fellow photographers, look for ways to move the viewer around your frame, and you’ll be taking your imagery what I refer to as”up a notch”.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Personal Pearls of Wisdom: Just say NO to the “Leading In Rule”

Wonder what she’s looking at?

I’ve been an advertising, corporate, and editorial for fifty-three years, and in that time I’ve enjoyed teaching and showing photographers how to use their eye in a different way than they have been.

This is my ninth year teaching an online class with the BPSOP, and my first workshop, “Stretching Your Frame of Mind”,  was in 1983. I have been told by students way too many times that they, in return, have been told to always have their subject walking, running, or facing into the frame.”Always leave more room in front of your subject than in the back”, is a direct quote (and one of their rules) from a site on the internet; whose name I will leave out. This is referred to as “leading in”.

It’s a ‘mind-bender’ for me! Why on earth would anyone tell you that?  I suppose the reason is that they want you to become good little photographers, and whoever keeps saying this is indeed a good photographer. If being a good photographer is your goal, then that’s great, and follow the path most traveled.

If you want your photos to consistently be “up a notch”, you might consider coloring outside of the lines. If you want to be more than just a good ‘shooter’, you might want to consider other points of view…like mine for one example.

If I put someone looking into the frame, then the viewer will know what that person is looking at. If I have someone walking or running into the frame (giving the subject room to run as they say), the viewer will know where they’re going. Where’s the mystery and drama in that? Sounds pretty boring to me. I want the viewer to wonder what the subject is looking at, and where he’s going NEXT. By placing the subject close to the edge of the frame facing out, two things will happen:

Placing the subject close to the edge of the frame, and minimizing the ‘Negative Space’ between the subject and the edge, you’ll generate Tension. The Tension comes from the anticipation of the subject leaving the frame. Second, you’ll imply content outside the frame.

All this is a big part of the Psychology of Gestalt I teach in my workshop. In short, we want the viewer to take an active part in our pictures.  The viewer will always react to that which is most different. In our reality, making the mind work harder is not necessarily a good thing, but in photography it is.  By leading the viewer’s eye in and out and around our composition, or having them complete an image, or have them consider the scene, they are taking an active role, and when we can accomplish that our images will definitely be stronger.`

Here are some examples of just what I mean:

JoeB

Check out my website at www.joebaraban.com and my 2012 workshop schedule then come shoot with me sometime.

Life Before Photoshop: Asics Tennis Shoes.

Look ma, no Photoshop!!!
Look ma, no Photoshop!!!

For those out there that have been following these posts, I hope you’re enjoying them as much as I did when I was taking them…way back when Adobe was a type of house in the southwest part of the country.

It was never in question whether I could solve the clients problem or not. If I took on the project, then there could be only one ending…a happy one where everyone lived happily ever after. If there wasn’t a happy ending, you never worked for that advertising agency again. you became persona non grata. If the art director, writer, or account executive went to another agency, and it happened all the time, your name went with him.

There wasn’t anything to help you in those days in the form of post processing. Hell, in the early days there weren’t even computers…just me and my Kodachrome 25.

I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I also conduct my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops around the planet. In both cases, I ask my fellow photographers to not use any post processing. Everything they submit has to be right out of the camera. I want people to become better photographers, not better computer artists or digital technicians. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some old guy that can’t change with the times; quite the contrary. I use CS5 to some degree on just about every image I take…why not? Having said that, I like the challenge of getting it in one exposure, one click, and in the camera. To me that’s what being a good shooter is all about.

The above photo was part of an advertising campaign for Asics Tennis Shoes. This particular shoe was worn by members of the Woman’s Olympic Volleyball team, and the client wanted a shot that was full of action while showing the shoe.

I created a way to make it look as if she was jumping for a ball by building a frame that could support her weight. In those days getting it without the use of electronic flash just wasn’t going to work. We built a harness that had a large bungee cord attached to the top. We could pull her down, let go, and it would spring back with her with it. I used a shutter speed that was slow enough to record the ambient light in the gym, and a synch delay that would fire the large strobe in the soft box at the end of the exposure instead of the beginning. This is what creates the slight blur and feeling of motion. When we pulled her down and let go she sprang back up we would click the shutter at that moment.

Right before I started to shoot, we wafted some fog juice to add to the drama.

The production photo.
The production photo.

Since it was before digital, I could only get an idea of what I was getting by taking a small 35mm polaroid before the actual shot. After that, I would bracket all over the reading my meter gave me. If it wasn’t right on the money, I had nothing to help make it right. Back then, it was just the way it was and if you didn’t think you could pull it off, you just didn’t do it.

I never turned these kinds of assignments down. I loved the challenge of solving the problem, and never thought I couldn’t do it.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and watch for my schedule at the top of this blog.

JoeB

 

Anecdotes: I Always Wanted to be a Clown.

I always wanted to be a clown

For those new to my blog, I was an advertising and corporate photographer for almost fifty years, and now being semi-retired I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I also conduct my personal “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops around our planet.

One of my favorite categories to write a post in is Anecdotes. It brings back great memories of the assignments and projects I used to shoot on a daily basis.

Back in my youth, as in my very early thirties, I shot a lot of assignments for a magazine called  Texas Monthly. When they called me to do a photo essay on the Ringland Bros. & Barnum and Baily Circus, I was all over it like a cheap fitting Lassie costume.

I decided to shoot a series of portraits featuring the clowns backstage and use a large softbox on a Bogen boom that had wheels, so I could just roll it around behind the large arena; from clown to clown; worked like a charm!!

I asked the boss clown if I could be made up and go out with the rest of the clowns on what they called a walk-around during the intermission. My assistant and I did two shticks:

We were in the group of seventeen clowns that were piled into a very small car, and when we all popped out there were “little “people” waiting with big, soft mallets to hit us on the heads. In the second shtick my assistant and I walked around with an oversized book that said, “The history of aviation” on the cover. We would walk up to the kids and open it revealing a large fly; why, I had no idea!!

I loved the idea of my true persona completely hidded, so much so that I would up shooting the portraits while still in my clown make-up.

Here’s a sampling of some of my portraits, and by the way, the photo at the top of the blog is me on the left, the boss clown in the middle, and my assistant on the right.

Enjoy:

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of my blog. Come shoot with me sometime and we’ll clown around together.

JoeB

BPSOP CLASS IMAGES

Bonnie’s image from my September part I class

For those of you new to my blog, I teach two online classes witht the BPSOP. I also conduct my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops around our planet.

I show my fellow photographers how to incorporate the elements of visual design into their imagery: Texture, Pattern, Form, Balance, Shape, Form, Line, and Color are the basic elements that we work on in this four week class.

In my part II class we continue working on these elements with more emphasis on Line; the most important of all the elements since none of the others would exist without Line.

We also work on ways to create Visual Tension, and in my part II class integrating a Vanishing Point into their composition, as well as spending an entire lesson on the silhouette, and shadows…which are your best friend!

Every so often I like to show the images from my part I and II classes, and I’m extremely proud and impressed with just some of the images from the last three months.

The methods we use to gain attention to our photography will vary, but what’s important is how we manage what the viewer perceives and processes when looking at the visual information we lay out to him in the form of a photograph.

Humans rely on perception of the environment that surrounds them. Visual input is a part of our everyday life, and as photographers it’s our prime objective to present this visual information in a way that takes control of what the viewer sees when looking at our imagery.

I hope you’ll agree that these photographs have done just that.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and chckout my upcoming workshops at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime, and I hope to work with you in one of my BPSOP classes.

JoeB

My Favorite Quotes: William Shakespeare

What does her eyes say?

William Shakespeare once said, “The eyes are the window to your soul”.

In both my online class with the BPSOP and my “Stretching your Frame of Mind” workshop I conduct around the planet, we work on the elements of visual design and composition. One of the most important elements if not the most important is LINE.

Briefly, a line is a mark made by a continuously moving point across a surface. There are horizontal, vertical, diagonal, round, curved, parallel, zigzag, and wavy lines…not to mention dotted lines and dashes. All these lines have the same thing in common: direction, length, and thickness.

All the above-mentioned lines are straightforward and easy to grasp, but what about ‘implied lines’? What about those lines that are more of an ambiguous nature? For example, all the edges around ‘Form’ are implied lines. A statue of Abraham Lincoln is Abraham Lincoln because his outLINE shows him to be. What about the ‘horizon’ line that people are always forgetting to straighten?

But that’s a whole other issue!!

There’s one more implied Line that most photographers usually don’t consider. It’s that line that runs from the subject’s eyes to the lens.  To my way of thinking, it’s a very important line that connects the photographer to the subject, creating an intimate bond of sorts that also generates a kind of energy field.

Personally, I love that bond and the majority of photos I’ve shot in my career has, for the most part, had my subject looking directly into the camera.

The hard part about having the subject look into the lens is keeping his or her look fresh. It’s very much like asking the subject to smile. If you don’t shoot immediately, the smile starts to lose the freshness.

Since I’ve been shooting people for fifty years, I can tell you that the eyes can talk to you and can portray emotions and feelings as quick as one blink to another.

If you have clicked on the link and read the post that I sent on one click, one smile, you can adapt that thought process to this current post on having eye contact. Remember that the eyes are indeed, the windows to the soul.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Food For Digital Thought: Dangling a Carrot

Who and why?

Besides being an advertising, corporate, and editorial photographer for the past fifty years, prior to that I had received a BA in Journalism and was writing even before I was taking pictures; soon after I became a Black Star photoographer and shot for UPI and AP.

I have always loved telling a story photographically as well, and especially getting the viewer to do some thinking when looking at my images. I call it…“dangling a carrot”.

I have written on similar subjects where I either implied the presence of humanity. or I have talked about every picture telling a story…don’t it? What I really love doing is creating some kind of mystery in my imagery so that I can keep the viewer around as long as possible.

The viewer will perceive and process information we lay out to him in the form of a photograph. It’s in our DNA to rely on the perception of the environment that surrounds us, and visual input is a part of everyday life.

If we can make him an active participant in out thought process as it relates to photography, he’ll stay around longer looking at our photos. For me, I want the viewer to do some thinking by asking a question or to form an opinion; a very good way to keep him involved.

In the above photo, I was conducting one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops Houston, my hometown. As usual, there were several people that had taken both my online classes with the BPSOP.

One of the locations we shot at was the Railroad Museum in Galveston, about an hour away. I was walking through one of the passenger cars and immediately though of a way to create a visual mystery.

I took off my fedora and set it on the seat. I stepped back and created just that with my 17-40mm lens. Now it was up to the viewer to figure out why some guy left it there, and why would he have.

So, my fellow photographers, the next time you goout shooting, take a prop or two with you. You just never know when there’s a story to be told.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

This coming July 29th will be my 30th anniversary teaching at the Maine Media Workshop. I’ve always picked this time as it’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. This ofers a unique set of photo ops, different from the Maine Coast, fishing villages and lighthouses. The Lobster Festival is all about color, design, light, energy, people watchng and environmental portraits everywhere you look; some people are there in costumes and loved to be photographed.

In conjunction with The Santa Fe Workshops, on October 2nd I’ll be leading a group in San Miguel de Allende. A beautiful oasis and artist colony, and the entire city is a UNESCO site.

Come join me for a week of fun and photography…what could be better?

JoeB