I thought it would be fun to start the New Year discussing what to do with all the photos we’ve accumulated over the years. While most of us probably put some of our images on a web site like Flickr, Smugmug or 500px, that’s not the only thing we can do with our photos. Most photographers like to hang their work on the walls of their home. We like looking at our work and we really like it when a guest in our home makes very favorable comments about our photos.

Instead of merely hanging some of your favorite photos on the wall here and there, what if you want to use them to decorate your home? This may be a subtle difference but it’s still a difference. The overall look of the room and not the individual images is the focal point of what you’re doing. Unless you’re a trained and experienced decorator this can be a difficult and somewhat daunting undertaking because it’s your home and they’re your photographs. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when approaching a project of this nature.

Decide on the Layout – How many photos do you want? Where do you want them? How do you want to arrange them? The answers to these and other questions are greatly dependent on the space you’re decorating. If it’s a foyer or hallway with a long, blank wall you will probably want a different layout than you would if it was for limited wall space above furniture. In the foyer or hallway you may want a number of photos of the same size arranged horizontally along the wall.

Select a Theme – If decorating is the objective, then it’s much better to use the same theme for all the photos instead of a hodge-podge of your work. It could be based on where you live, a hobby or something you would really like seeing on the walls of your home every day. For example, if you live in a large city you may want to use street photographs. If you live in a coastal area you might select photos of pleasure boats, commercial fishing vessels or beach scenes. If you live in an area that has distinctive flora and/or fauna you might follow a theme based on that. Tiffany lives in Arizona so she might want to use photos of cactus, especially saguaro cactus. A pilot might want to feature aircraft in flight.

Framing and Matting – For something like this, all the frames and mats should be identical. Yes, the framed images should include mats and the size and color of the mats is just as important and having the mats. The safest approach is either white mats or black mats. However, the next consideration is just as important in selecting the mats as is the aesthetic appeal of the mats.

Size of Frames, Mats and Images – If you have a wall that is 10 feet high and 15 feet long without windows or other adornments, using 8×10 inch images and 12×14 inch frames (2 inch mats) isn’t going to be nearly as dramatic as using larger images and frames. On a wall of this size, I would use images that were at least 11×14 and 3 inch mats. That means that the frames are going to be a minimum of 17×20 and probably larger. On the other hand, if the space is relatively small and you want to use more than one image in the space, the best image size might be 8×10. While it’s not an approach that I’m crazy about, the use of images that are relatively small (maybe 6×6) with a very wide mat can be very dramatic at times.

Orientation – In most applications when using multiple images, they should all have the same orientation; portrait, square or landscape. If the photographs are the focal point, as opposed to decorating your home, like a Photo Wall, a mixture of portrait, landscape and square can be made to work. Another consideration is the shape of the space. If you’re trying to decorate a space that is wide but not very high, in most instances a landscape orientation will work better than a portrait orientation and the converse is true as well.

Black & White or Color – Depending on the subject of the photos, printing them in black & white might provide more impact and be more artistic. That said, you should be very careful in selecting your theme if you want to use black & white. Using photos of flowers that are printed in black & white doesn’t work nearly as well as if they were in color. However, if you’re using street scenes for your theme, black & white may be preferred over color. While the theme you want may dictate the choice between color or black & white, if the decision between color or black & white is more important, then that decision will strongly influence the choice of theme.

Complementary Color Palate – Start with the photos. If you’re using color images, the colors should be complementary. You wouldn’t want to use a photo with bright deeply saturated colors next to a photograph where the colors are pastel and ephemeral or of a snow-covered scene. You can make an exception where your theme is the four seasons but to make that work it should be the same scene photographed from the same spot at different times of the year. For example, envision an idyllic scene of a barn-red covered bridge with a back drop of deciduous and coniferous trees located someplace like Vermont. Setting up your camera on a tri-pod in the exact same spot with the same focal length lens during each of the four seasons could produce a very dramatic display. As I indicated above, the mats and frames should all be identical but don’t forget that the color of the mats has to complement both the photos and the wall color. If the walls are white or beige you’ll have more freedom selecting the frames and mats, but if the walls are a bold color you’ll need to consider that when selecting the mat color.

Go Take the Photographs – If you put a lot of time into all the above, you might want to consider grabbing you gear and go out to capture a group of images that will fit all the decisions you’ve made in the steps above.

This is a project I have for 2012 that I didn’t include in my Goals article. We have the perfect spot in our new home in Texas and already have a good idea of the desired layout. However, selecting a theme is definitely a work in progress as we’re about 180 degrees apart right now. Wish me luck.

Photo Credits:
New Decorating by rossbelmont on Flickr Creative Commons
Photo Wall by ameotoko on Flickr Creative Commons

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The May 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine, on newsstands April 26th.

(Click on all photographs to enlarge and enjoy.)

There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when photography seemed like magic. Given what we know now, with concepts taught to us by our high-school science teachers, we understand the photographic process much better than our historical compatriots. That understanding has in no way removed the wonder of the process, and the sheer amazement that we feel for those inventors of the past who, through experimentation and imagination, created the fledgling tools that evolved into the photographic technology of today.

Duplicating the real thing, a ghostly upside-down image of a lightbulb appears inside a wine box converted to a pinhole camera. In his classic photograph, Morell demonstrates how a camera obscura (dark chamber) image forms.

In this excerpt of “Rooms With A View”, an article in the May 2011 issue of National Geographic, writer Tom O’Neill discusses the ancient phenomenon of “camera obscura” and the modern-day talents of photographer Abelardo Morell:

Something strange and wonderful happens when light enters a dark space through a tiny opening. Aristotle described the phenomenon back in the fourth century B.C. Leonardo in Renaissance Italy sketched the process. In Coney Island and other 19th-century seaside resorts, tourists lined up to see the magical results. Shift to a Boston classroom, the year 1988. Cuban-born Abelardo Morell, teaching an introductory photography course at an art college, was curious to step back in time. On a sunny day, he covered the classroom windows with black plastic, making the space as dark as a cave, cut a dime-size hole in the material, and told his students to watch. Almost instantly the back wall came alive like a movie screen, its surface covered with a fuzzy image of people and cars moving along Huntington Avenue outside. Then the double take: The image was upside down, sky on floor, ground on ceiling, the laws of gravity seemingly gone haywire.

Morell had turned his classroom into a camera obscura, a dark chamber, the Latin name for perhaps the earliest known imaging device and the ancestor of the photographic camera.

Colors, shapes, and perspectives run amok in a playful mind-bender devised by Morell in a Venice sitting room. "I want people to wonder, What belongs to what?" says Morell, who projected a view of the Grand Canal onto a wall painted in a jungle motif. The shadow of a chandelier adds to the image's hypnotic mayhem.

Camera obscura is one of the earliest imaging methods known to man. What was initially a teaching tool for Morell’s introductory photography course became a passion, and his pursuit of perfecting this method created some of the most visually-stunning contemporary photographs of the modern era. Morell went from using simple household materials to create the effect, to engineering the technique which allowed him to manipulate brightness, focus, and the use of digital sensors.

As vivid as a dream, a hyper-sharp image of the Brooklyn Bridge and lower Manhattan materializes above tousled sheets. To make the surreal picture, Morell essentially put his camera inside a room serving as a camera and kept his shutter open for five hours to expose on film the incoming image. He used a prism to flip the projection right-side up.

Morell’s fascinating combination of ancient technique and modern composition have created an incredibly unique body of work. His exhibitions have been featured in galleries and museums in New York, San Francisco, and Boston. Read Tom O’Neill’s excellent article in National Geographic’s May Issue, and click on the link to the left of the article to watch a fascinating video of the camera obscura process.

All photographs provided by National Geographic, copyright Abelardo Morell/National Geographic.

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A few readers over the past couple of weeks have e-mailed me, asking my advice on how to go about creating a photography blog of their own. I understand that website/blog creation can be intimidating for the uninitiated, but the process is extremely simple, and extremely flexible to every individual’s creative needs.

I have a couple of go-to weblog publishers that I recommend to friends – the best part is, they’re completely free.

• Personally, I use WordPress for all of my (many!) personal blogging needs – in fact, this site you’re reading right now is a WordPress blog. It’s a free hosted blog service which allows you to create your own domain name, suffixed by “wordpress.com”. If you’ve purchased a domain name you can use it as well, and get rid of the wordpress reference in the URL. There are many site templates to choose from, several of them specifically oriented toward photo blogging. My experience with their customer support has always been excellent, and the administration is pretty intuitive via their dashboard system. You can be up and running with your own blog in no time flat, and no programming or HTML experienced is required.
• Another popular and free hosted blog service is Blogger (also known as BlogSpot). After creating an account, Blogger will guide you through choosing a blog name (and URL suffixed by “blogger.com”), choosing a template, and publishing your first posts. Purchased domains can also be used to substitute the Blogger-generated URL.
• Photoblog is an extremely simple site to use, and offers bare-bones photo-dedicated blogging. The drawback to this site is that user pages contain distracting ads. Photoposts does a better job of this photo-only format, with no mandatory ads.

Now, I personally upload very few photos to my blog site – I tend to use the HTML code provided via Flickr to post my photos to my blog without having to occupy my blog’s memory availability. Most blogs have a limit to how much storage space is provided with their free service (many offer upgrades to give you more space). Linking the photos from Flickr saves space on my blog.

Another note to be aware of – once you publish something to the internet, it’s there FOREVER. Sites like the Internet Archive Wayback Machine hold cached copies of website pages even after the website itself has been discontinued. So if you’re at all concerned about your work being “out there”, think about that before you publish on your blog. Photo copyrights still apply, so be sure to add a copyright notice to your blog to cover your work (this is the one I use). It can be difficult to track down violations and pursue legal action. Watermarking your photographs helps, and reverse image search engines like TinEye help you find where your images are being used.

I hope you’ve found this information useful, if you have any questions about getting started you can shoot me an e-mail. Do any of you have any free photo blog sites to recommend, or positive/negative experiences with those that I’ve already mentioned? Feel free to let us know in the comments!

Photo credit: “Latte blog” by Filipe Ferreira on Flickr Creative Commons.

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The buzz and excitement surrounding the discovery of Vivian Maier’s vast collection of photographs has generated a renewed interest in, and curiosity about, street photography.

Street photography reveals a candid look at a city’s population, architecture, and events. It can also be used to deliver a personal, social, political, or environmental message. Photographs are taken on city streets, in parks, along sidewalks, in shops, and from buildings. It becomes a no-holds-barred documentary into the life and times of a specific locale during a specific time-frame, and can be incredibly revealing with respect to the “feel” or “personality” of a particular place. It can generate within the viewer a sense of happiness, outrage, sympathy, and awe. Moments are caught in time – for better or for worse, flattering or condemning. A good street photographer will shoot their chosen subject with a non-judgemental eye, searching for accuracy in representation. The result is a photograph that draws the viewer directly into that place, directly towards that person, or directly into that moment in time.

To become a good street photographer, you must be willing to shoot every day. Shoot often, shoot a lot. Shoot at all times of the day and night, in all kinds of weather. The best shots come from those fleeting moments that occur randomly and without warning, so walk the streets and view your surroundings with a long eye. Observe details and colors, movement and patterns. Look for emotion and the interaction between people. Find a story within the shot and be aware of that story as you are composing the photograph.

The chosen photographic format is a very personal decision for the photographer. Some swear by wide angle lenses that capture an overall scene, whereas others choose a telephoto lens which allows them to get into a person’s space without them even knowing they are being photographed. Many choose a black and white format to portray a sense of drama or isolation, where others treat the color of a city as its own subject.

Whatever your chosen format, the flexibility of street photography makes it one of the most popular genres throughout photographic history. To learn to become an excellent street photographer, observe other people’s work to gain inspiration (I encourage you to view Vivian Maier’s extraordinary work, linked above), and practice as much as you can to gain experience. You will soon find your own rhythm; one that flows with the city as you explore, and reveals a vibrancy unique to your own vision.

Photo credits (in order of appearance):
- “Street Photography in NYC” by Flickr 4 Jazz on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Another street photography” by Regel Zamora on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Street Photography Glasgow” by Maria Bowskill on Flickr Creative Commons.

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We all take family snapshots/photos and most of them get stuffed in a box and forgotten until we run across the box while cleaning out our closet or some other place that attracts stuff we’re not using.  The result of rediscovering the box is usually an hour or two of sitting in the middle of the floor rummaging through old photographs.  Sometimes the organized mother will put the photos in an album but the album frequently enjoys the same fate as the loose photos.  In today’s digital age, the family photos, organized or not, usually find their way to a CD or DVD and put in a cabinet or on a shelf and again forgetten for long periods of time.

The album I was shown that day was a series of pictures of the woman and her parents.  An uninteresting approach to all but the immediate family, at least on the surface.  But as I turned the pages of the album I realized that it was far more than just a bunch of family photos.  A single photo taken by itself was unremarkable — a mother and father with their daughter standing in front of their house, but because of what they did and how they did it the album had a flavor of family and social history.

What made the photos and the album special was that each photo had been taken on the daughter’s birthday, one for each year.  Looking through the album I could watch the infant become a toddler, then a pre-schooler, then a grade-schooler, a teenager and a young adult.  I could see the landscaping in the front of the house mature, the house change colors when they repainted, the new house when they moved.  The woman was born in the early 60′s so she grew up during some very interesting “fashion” times.  The changing appearance of her parents told much of the story - hairstyles, a period when her father had sideburns and a bushy moustache, the clothes changing from very conservative in the early to 60′s to nothing short of outrageous in the late 60′s and early 70′s and then back to a level of normalcy by the 80′s all talked to the changes through time.

Fortunately, the woman knew the value of the treasure she possessed and continued the tradition with her children.  Unfortunately, I’ve lost contact with the woman and have no pictures from her to include with the article.  However, imagine being able to look back through your life on the same day of each year.  Many of us would have at least one photo like this one.

And, in a different year, maybe one like this.

It doesn’t have to be professional level photography – the chronicle is what’s important. This photo was taken when my oldest son was 6 months old. While we took hundreds of photos over the years, I don’t think we ever took one just like this and we never did anything like this on the same day every year.

While it isn’t important that the photos be taken on a birthday, I encourage you to consider creating a family treasure of this sort in addition to your other photography pursuits.  And, although the title refers to young families, even if you’re not in that category, there’s nothing wrong with starting today and following the same protocol.

Photo Credits:
1970′s Family Picture by Thrift Store Addict on Creative Commons
Family Formal by patrick_q on Creative Commons
Germany by Steve Russell

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In considering these shots, and others that I’m fond of, it’s easy for me to see that I gravitate towards landscapes. I know precisely why that is – I live in suburbia, but I grew up in the country. I miss open spaces. I’m tired of crowds and houses built within inches of one another. I hate traffic. I long for a deep breath of fresh air.

The port bottle reveals that I enjoy unique tastes. It demonstrates that I view objects with an eye toward light and texture. It says something about me that the first thing I thought of when I found that bottle was, “How can I photograph it?” rather than, “What does it taste like?”

I’d like to think that my best shots reveal about me a sense of adventure, an appreciation of home and values, and enjoyment of good taste.

What do your best shots say about you? Leave comments, link to your photos, and tell us what you think your photography reveals about your innner person.

Photo credits (all): Tiffany Joyce.

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Looking to improve your photography portfolio? Take advantage of these tips:

One – If you’re directing folks to an on-line portfolio, try to provide a unique, personal site instead of a photo repository site like Flickr or Shutterfly. In that way you can really showcase your work, without all of the background distractions. It is incredibly easy to set up a personal portfolio website, with very little knowledge of website development. I personally use WordPress for my portfolio. They have free site templates specifically for displaying photographs. Similar capabilities are provided by Blogger as well.

Two – Keep adding content. Each time you download and post-process your shots, look at them with an eye toward adding to your portfolio. Some folks might argue that there is such a thing as having too many photos in your portfolio – I’m not one of them. Keep in mind, though, that quantity does NOT equal quality, so no matter how many photos you include, make sure they’re your best. You may just find as you add photos, and continue to improve upon your talents, that the pictures you included in the past no longer pass your own personal muster. So as you add, don’t be afraid to remove, either.

Three – Look for gaps. Do you have a ton of landscapes, but only a few portraits? Have you thoroughly explored your abilities in macro photography, but left action shots unexplored? Even if you are specializing in a certain type of photography, don’t be afraid to branch out and investigate other avenues and genres. It can only help in your professional efforts to demonstrate flexibility in your talents.

Four – Despite what I said in number three, if you do specialize in a certain area of photography, customize your portfolio to suit the type of clients you are trying to attract. There’s no law that says that you can only posses one portfolio! If you’re a wedding photographer, your client isn’t going to necessarily be interested in your fantastic shot of the Grand Canyon. Unless photographing the wedding at its edge is part of the services you provide. That just branches off into a discussion of how it’s important in a case like that to be good at photographing both people and places, which will cause me to digress, and so I won’t. Yet.

Five – Get feedback. Before providing your portfolio to potential clients, show it to friends and family. Show it to other photographers. Show it to people that you trust to be truthful and helpful. Solicit honest reactions and opinions, and accept any criticism with an attitude toward improving your portfolio.

For more information, read my previous article on portfolio tips. Do you have any tips of your own to share? Feel free to let us know in the comments!

Photo credits (all): Tiffany Joyce.

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Photo credits (in order of appearance):
- “Consul General Hosts Independence Day Reception – June 30, Montreal” by US Mission Canada on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Independence Day” by J. W. Photography on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Independence Day!” by Emzee on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Mini Seedless Watermelon” by Steven Depolo on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Corn on the Cob” by Emily Rides on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Holiday cookout” by Richiepooh on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “4th of July Fireworks” by Atbaker on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “USS Arizona Flag” by Edanley on Flickr Creative Commons.

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Photo Credits (in order of appearance):
- “Children welcome Georgia National Guardsmen home from deployment to Afghanistan” by The National Guard on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Always Faithful, Doberman, Military Working Dog, MWD, World War II Memorial, War Dog Cemetery located on Navel Base Guam” by Beverey & Pack on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Taps, Bugle, Army, Military Funeral, Arlington National Cemetery” by Beverly & Pack on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Formation III” by JoF on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Platoon 2149″ by Randy Son of Robert
- “North Dakota” by The U.S. Army on Flickr Creative Commons.

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The Acrobat Project:

What you’ll need: A D-SLR with a timer and/or a remote shutter release, a tripod, comfy clothes, and a suspension of self-consciousness.
The intent: To catch portraits of yourself in as many active positions and poses as you can manage.
Examples: Catch yourself jumping on the bed, the floor, or on a trampoline; photograph yourself running away from the camera with the shutter set on a ten-second timer (like this); find a park, set up your gear, grab the remote shutter release, and hang upside down from the monkey bars; practice your hand-stands in the back yard or your head-stands in the living room; get in-motion shots of yourself dancing (just put on some fun music and dance around while periodically hitting the shutter release). Basically, do anything you can think of that isn’t just standing or sitting there!
The point: Everybody has pictures of themselves standing or sitting quietly (sanely!) and smiling into the camera. Get some shots of yourself in motion, enjoy the ridiculous, have a sense of humor about yourself, and let your unique personality shine! Put all of the photos together in a series or collage.
Alternate gameplay: Of course, if you don’t want to take photos of yourself, you can always use someone else as your subject. This is a great one for kids of all ages to participate in.

Reverse Scavenger Hunt

What you’ll need: A D-SLR, a printer, envelopes.
What to do: Take pictures of, say, ten places or things (more or less to suit your needs). Place an envelope next to each thing or in each place. Print out each picture and make copies, enough to give each member of the hunt one copy of each picture. Put the person’s name on the back of each set of photographs (so, Cindy’s set of pictures would say “Cindy” on the back of each one).
How to play: Each scavenger hunt participant gets one set of photographs, and they have to go find the place or thing featured on the photograph. Once they find the envelope for that place or thing, they need to place their copy of the corresponding photograph into the envelope (and leave the envelope there for the other participants).
How to win: The person who finds all of the places/things and puts all of their pictures in the corresponding envelopes wins.
Alternate gameplay: If each scavenger participant has their own camera, you can also send them all out to take photos of a list of places/things, and the first person to return with photographic evidence of each item wins.

Do you have an idea for a photography-related game? Leave your suggestions in the comments!

Photo Credits (in order of appearance):
- “Self Portrait” by Zachd1_618 on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Monkey Bars” by DieselDemon on Flickr Creative Commons.

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