INTERNSHIPS: SHOOT YOUR BLOG

How to Bring Your Blog to Life with Pictures

Today, when everybody with a cell-phone is a shutterbug and more serious souls have digital cameras that do all the work, you’d think we’d have reduced the number of words we need to tell a story. After all, Confuscius says "a picture says a thousand words". Unfortunately, most photos are mute.

Scan the Facebook pages of your friends. What do the photos really tell you? For example, what does this one of graduation tell you? Do you think you can do a better job than the average blogger? You betcha!

Years ago, I took a class at UCLA Extension taught by Albert Moldavy who worked for National Geographic. Collaborating with Erika Fabian, he published beautiful coffee-table travel books that told evocative stories about the world, primarily in photos.

I looked around the web for some images that might help me illustrate the best tips I learned from him, and I borrowed a few from Getty Images. They're watermarked, but I think you’ll get the idea from the compositions. Because uploading onto blogger is a little tricky - use Wordpress if you're photo-happy - I'll be posting tips on photography in multiple blogs. Here's the first one - on the most important aspect of photography: light.

LIGHT: One thing Moldavy said that stuck with me was the derivation of the word, photography: it's Greek for "drawing with light". Too often, when we shoot a photo, we take light for granted; there’s either enough or there's not. But paying attention to light makes all the difference in the emotions evoked by your picture.

What’s your light source? Is it behind, in front, or beside you? What’s its quality? Bright, fading or artificial? Each creates a different feeling in the viewer.

Front light, where the light is over your shoulder, produces the brightest colors, but the least depth. It can make for a very dull image, but it will help you tell a straight-forward story.

Check out this candid photo from Israel of an Arab woman walking past T-shirts proclaiming the celebration of 40 years of peace. It needs no interesting angles or tricks of the light to make an impact - to tell the story. Note that the woman is walking off the frame – that’s an intentional part of what the photographer chose to say.

Side light is different, it brings out the texture and form. That’s why many of the most beautiful photos are filmed early in the morning or late in the day.

This Indonesian child looks all the more poignant for the shadows falling over his shoulder and obscuring his home – a refugee tent.

Backlight yields silhouettes – it’s dramatic! If you want to identify people in the foreground, you’ll need to supplement with artificial lighting in front of them. Use fill-flash or ambient artificial light (as below).

This photo shows a demonstration bonfire in a Geneva street protesting the G8 conference. The story is effectively told by silhouetting the young protestor and centering him in the frame.

[Note for you in the tropics: noon produces a bright, harsh light – wait until later in the day if you can or find shade.]

Artificial light. When you're indoors, your pictures can be as flat as though you were using front-light - since often, you are: flash. Most point-and-shoot cameras have flashes with a short throw range – the light is bright, but only for a few feet. Usually, you’ll need to fill with ambient side light to get a decent photo.

In this photo of Queen Rania of Jordan, there is flash bouncing off the front of the table and the side of her face, but plenty of light in the room so the story is clear.

There are --

FIVE RULES FOR BETTER PICTURES:

1. THINK ALIVE. Things that are alive draw the eye – people and animals. If you have a big mass like a building or a landscape, try to have something living in the foreground to create a more interesting composition.

2. THINK IN THIRDS. The center of interest shouldn’t be the center of your composition

3. PLAN AHEAD. To shoot a moving subject, focus on a spot ahead of it (making sure the focal point is correct; for example, focus on the pavement right in front of where your subject will be) and wait until the subject enters the frame – click.

4. SHOOT A LOT. Shoot the HECK out of every scene – shoot from multiple angles; go high; go low; zoom in; zoom out. Never settle for one shot and walk away. What do you think “Delete” is for?

5. REMEMBER - PEOPLE RULE. No matter what, people pictures are your most important travel photos – and the hardest to take well. The most boring – and least evocative – are the stiff, smiling, mid-frame at the camera. You have to make a conscious effort to take good shots of people – and, in foreign countries especially – they may be loathe to cooperate. Watch for the blogs telling you how to do this well.

And a sixth - DON’T WORRY – BE HAPPY!

FOR MORE TIPS, go to National Geographic: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-tips/travel-photography-quick-tips/

You, too, can takes photos like this – Mount Sahyinyo in Rwanda