More than Eleven Years on Flickr! I still live near San Francisco and work in the city and I still drive across the Golden Gate Bridge every day. (If you want to know more about me, try looking at my gallery of photographs that have inspired me.) I joined Flickr in December, 2006 and it is still very humbling to look at the excellent work on Flickr and it is still an honor to learn from such fine photographers. The experience of these years has been like learning how to write, except in photographs. Here's a list that I've put down here mainly so I won't forget these hard-won lessons!

A few lessons learned the hard (and slow) way on Flickr:

(I started writing these down as I learned them from the first week on Flickr. Its just like me to have a lot of rules(!) so forgive me if I sound didactic. Some of this is good stuff, especially if you are starting out like I was. In the end I have learned that a good photograph touches on something that matters to people -- maybe a myth, maybe an oil spill -- and there's something free and unbounded about it, conditions that often come upon you in a moment and then are gone. Enjoy!)

 

Steve McCurry said, "I like to photograph from the dark side of the street," which pretty much says it all. However:

I learned to Get a subject

that focusing the camera helps

and to get rid of distracting stuff.

 

light matters

Background matters

Framing matters.

 

The great puzzle is how to draw the viewer's eye to a subject

I came to realize that light is the subject (whether you like it or not)

The eye goes to the light

Subjects like to be the brightest thing

Or, even better, like the brightness thing to be behind them

(two points up there with "fochttps://www.flickr.com/photos/portalealba/us your camera")

Seek islands of lightness in the background

 

Depth of field can be your friend (or enemy). A narrow depth of field is just the thing to Zero in on your subject (but it is easy to just miss the focus) Or a macro lens.

a Broad depth of field allows other things to carry your subject -- Color, or perspective or composition, or (of course) light.

 

Crops Matter

Calibrate your monitor

Shoot as low an ISO as possible

Use a Tripod

 

Relax, its just a photograph

 

Compose to tell a story

don't crop out the context

Crop in the camera

Take a moment to scan your entire image

 

A blown out spot has no data -- so shoot a little dark

Get a variable density filter

After thousands of JPEGs it is better to ... Shoot in RAW

Shoot low (Annie Leibovitz shooting Arnold Schwarzenegger at Sun Valley, Idaho, for example where she is actually lying on her stomach in the snow to photograph him).

 

Keep your filter clean

 

I used to think that the foreground was unimportant - (its important)

 

Color matters

And since it matters, shoot at a bit depth of 14, not 12

And use Adobe RGB, not sRGB.

Figure out the usual way -- then do it differently.

Checking those settings before shooting helps (letsee, its noon and the ASA is 2400...and auto date stamp is "on").

I once loved a narrow depth of field: Then I became older and wiser..... and then at 9 years of Flickr I'm buying used 1.4f fast lenses to get a NARROW DEPTH OF FIELD (who knew I'd come back to it).

 

You can get great deals on used lenses.

Like a Nikon 24-70 2.8 lens for $500.

 

Reset the ISO back to 200 after you're done (or 100).

In fact -- take a moment to reset everything.

 

Composition matters.

If you have two subjects -- maybe you have two photographs

 

I've come to think in elements

Each element should have an area of un-element -- the frame.

And there should be no element dangling without an area to set it off.

If a photograph has a purpose, then you know what elements fit

and what elements don't fit.

 

The purpose can be, "there is no purpose."

 

Arno's Rules (Arno Meintjes that is)

With regard to animals, include everything from head to tail

If you can't see the feet because of tall grasses, include area for the feet

Unless its a closeup

Try to convey movement

I think Arno's rules apply to people too!

www.flickr.com/photos/arnolouise/8571777590/in/faves-gcqu...

 

Keep your lens clean

 

There's something about silhouettes

And reflections

The eye loves patches of intricate detail

I like the line where light meets dark.

The eye needs a place to go

(Someone pointed that out too).

 

If someone tells you they know all about composition, they don't.

 

They say the following:

It is VERY helpful to know about the rule of thirds

Interesting to know about the Golden Ratio

And occasionally good to know about Rabatment of the Rectangle.

Here's a link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

 

They say you need to avoid putting important things at dead center.

The eyes are the most important things.

 

Therefore the eyes should be at one of the intersections of the Rule of Thirds (or of the Golden Ratio)

 

And then there's spirals, radials, diagonals, squiggles and that layering thing Escher did.

Perspective is important

 

Sometimes a photograph is just right and breaks all the rules.

 

Every Flickr photograph was posted for a good reason, even if I don't think so.

I have learned a lot by learning to like an "ugly" photograph.

Learning about color theory is a good idea.

Forget about Explore -- it will ruin you!,,,

...But get a good thumbnail if you still want it..

Shooting for the thumbnail will ruin you!

 

I used to believe in a "natural" self-taught understanding of composition...

-- but it helps to know the rules.

I have become comfortable with Photoshop layers.

I nearly fainted when I found Photoshop "noise reduction" (that was on June 26, 2008 -- note the difference).

Photoshop is great, but good light and composition trumps it.

And using a tripod, And selecting a low ISO And stopping down the lens.

 

I obsess about Light like Aubrey did wind.

Some people just know things.

Some things can't be planned.

Portraits are hard to do.

 

Know where the sun is -- Remember Steve McCurry, "I like to photograph from the dark side of the street." In other words, he likes to have a low sun behind him.

 

Take two people -- don't let them look at the camera -- photograph them and magic can happen.

And tell them not to smile

You can't force a photograph to have something it doesn't

Relationships matter more than beauty

Counterpoint is good

 

Sometimes the slightest crop makes all the difference

 

A critical comment is right on if you start arguing with it.

A critical comment is far, far more important than a laudatory one (the ego will survive).

 

The art of black and white is picking out the right colors

Ansel Adams did that by picking out a filter

Ansel Adams knew which filter to pick.

So did Paul Strand

 

Theme matters

Boldness is good

A "style" develops despite yourself: One day its there.

Some Photographs Touch us with their humanity

Which is the goal.

 

I never had time to think about any of this for my best shots.

Portraits are still my goal... I find them intimidating and I have much to learn, but my favorite, so far are of Freda Koblick:

 

(I am sorry to say that my dear friends Freda and David passed away this summer (2011). There's a nice tribute you can download from Austria's Menza: on their site.

 

People seem to like my action shots. This is my favorite:

I went a little crazy with the Golden Gate Bridge -- finally I made a calendar of my shots (You can click on it)

Ansel Adams has inspired me from boyhood -- I appreciate him more as the years go by: that sense that we humans are small and delicate and tolerated by an awsome huge universe: That little town in the high country with its crosses set out in the graveyard; oblivious to the massive mountains and the moon and that huge black sky looking down on it and letting it be.

 

Here's my favorite Pelican (note his jaunty leg tag)

The series --

 

Here's a panorama of My Half Dome shots:

 

More photos of mine: flickr.com/photos/gcquinn/sets/72157602513573303/

Favorite Shots From my Contacts

Here's one of THE BEST portraits I've ever seen -- Lusitano69 published it on his photostream to honor the unknown photographer form the 1960s in Portugal:

www.flickr.com/photos/23690324@N02/2436926130/?addedcomme...

Here's a favorite shot (this one's from ehpien)

www.flickr.com/photos/91499534@N00/2365294918/

Here's another one (its beautiful and because I spent some childhood time at a lighthouse like this one):

www.flickr.com/photos/bradleya/744500560/#comment72157602...

And here's another one (also a great shot and because my infant son and I found this train by accident in Houston):

www.flickr.com/photos/wizards_stone/1280619677/#comment72...

 

Some thoughts on Neutral, Variable Density filters They solve the eternal problem of the sky being too light and the subject too dark: These magical devices come as either round filters, or (BETTER) a rectangle that you either hold by hand or place in the manufacturer's filter holder, the idea being that exposure of the sky will be brought down to the f stop of the subject. The results have been extraordinary for me.

 

There are several manufacturers, I'm using HiTech

Make sure it says neutral density (otherwise things might turn a little pinkish)

They have ranges of exposure differential from one to four F stops:

one F stop is listed as 0.3 (as in "ND Grad 0.3")

Two F stops, 0.6

Three, 0.9

Four 1.2

They come as "Hard," which is a quick transition, and "Soft," a slow transition, and "reverse," Which starts dark and becomes light for low horizon sunset shots. (as in "ND Grad Soft 1.2).