f/8.0 | S: 1/125 | Focal Length: 50 mm | ISO: 200 | Flash: Off | Exposure Mode: Manual | Max Aperture Value: 1.7 | White Balance: Auto | Make: Nikon D60 DSLR | Trevor Loken
I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.”
– Diane Arbus
Purpose: To practice the art of seeing
Equipment: For this exercise, use a normal focal-length lens – no zoom, wide-angle or telephoto lens is to be employed in the exercise.
Scout a location you find interesting. The location can be indoor or outdoor: an lobby, an alley, a building, a garden, hotel room, or the counter at a local diner. Stop and observe. Take careful measure of setting: building, plant, pond, objects, people alone, sitting, walking, etc. Pre-visulize your photos through an imaginary viewfinder.
Image Capture
- Take 5 photographs. Each release of the shutter counts as one image towards your collection of five.
- Compose full-frame – the image you frame and record is exactly as you intend your final photograph, ie, no post-production cropping and resizing.
- Each image differs significantly from other four.
- Explore photographic possibilities by stretching, turning, bending, stooping, shrinking, twisting, and straining your body. Change your point of view: bird’s eye; worm’s eye, side, long, close; etc.
- Photography is a medium of your observation, and the art of elimination. Please think about which element is most important to you when you compose an image.
- Any visual element that does not advance audience understanding of your subject, must be eliminated from your frame.