mercredi 27 octobre 2004

Photo Theme... Numbers Ordinary things look different in groups As with photo essays photo themes are a series of related pictures exploring subjects over a period of time. However, there is a noticeable difference. With photo essays you are usually trying to tell a story about someone or something with a human interest angle - with photo themes you can treat your subjects in a totally inanimate and generic way by seeking out and photographing anything which is linked in one way or another. The link may be tenuous at first glance but there will be a common element binding the images together thus forming a photo theme. Subject themes are wide and varied, as I shall no doubt show from time to time in the coming months. For example some not too difficult themes for you to take and assemble could be... Tri-Colours - Look for juxtapositions of objects showing Blue, White and Red... the flags of la France, the UK and the USA for starters. Round Things - assembling a collection of Wheels will be easy... as man's most important invention they're everywhere. Car Number Plates - of which there are plenty of opportunities in the UK and USA where Personalised Plates are a trend amongst those wanting to display to all and sundry a certain exclusivity or individuality to their lives. Ah well, whatever turns you on! Take a Break - Need a rest? Look for somewhere to park your backside... Never noticed how many Seats and Chairs there are everywhere? Click away at leisure Send e-mails? - But there are still many Mail Boxes on street coners... erected in the UK during the six reigns from Queens Victoria to Elizabeth II. Up in Smoke? - Look up and photograph Chimneys... they come in thousands of shapes and styles. For photo themes no fancy technique or special equipment is required - a digital SLR with a standard zoom lens will cover most opportunities - it's more important that a keen eye is used to spot the good from the bad and the really interesting from the plainly very ordinary. It's quite easy to start on this new angle to your photography. If you shoot film, then rather than rewinding partly unused rolls of film after doing a particular job or session with your children... use the last few frames on whatever eye-catching subjects you can easily find around your home or locality. You will be surprised how rapidly these shots are set aside into groups or themes on your light box. Iy you are now totally digital you can look for themed shots at any time. The secret is to practice and practice at looking for something different, something you've never bothered looking at before through the camera viewfinder. When you group these incidental images they start to become themed collections. The themed examples on this page were numbers seen on a house in London, a Welsh narrow-gauge railway coach, a shop in Paris, a warehouse in London and a French car registration plate. All taken quite casually in passing... and there are thousands of others to search out. But some forethought is advisable... notice all these examples have the same orientation - horizontal. Repetitions or sequences of a themed subject look more balanced this way... and if you make a slide show of them they flow better from one to the other... or maybe from one to one hundred in this case. Photo themes in all their variety are visually interesting because they can surprise the eye and mind. A common response from viewers is, "I never knew there were so many different types of this... or that... or such-and-such!" Photography, or rather a photographer with a sharp eye and mind, can be a great educator by opening up the visual world to so many people who have never really looked at things properly before. 8:57:22 PM    comment []