The Rule of Thirds

Photography is art. How can there be rules for art? A friend and fellow photographer says "rules are made to be broken". I'm pretty sure he's talking about photography rules, or at least I hope so.

There are several rules of composition that can help a photographer compose a photograph that is more interesting to the viewer. I have to agree with my friend and think of these as guidelines more than rules.

Perhaps the most useful photographic composition guideline is called The Rule of Thirds. Many photographers compose their shot to put the subject in the center of the photo like in the first photo to the right, which often produces a photo that's more of a snapshot. It has a static documentary feel to it.

The Rule of Thirds involves dividing the photo up into 9 equal parts by drawing two equally spaced vertical and horizontal lines, like a tic-tac-toe board. You want to place the subject or dominant element of your photo near one of the four points where the lines intersect, like in the second photo on the left.

This photo could have been more interesting if I had placed the flower at one of the intersection points on the left instead of the right so that the flower is facing into the photo instead of out of it. This is one of those cases where I wish I could go back and try this shot again.

Sometimes your photo may have more than one main subject, in which case you might want to compose to use more than one intersection.

If your photo has a natural line that divides it you might want to arrange the photo to place that line along one of the horizontal or vertical lines. If you're taking a landscape shot, place the subject you want to emphasize either above the bottom line or below the top line. For example, in the third photo on the right, I composed the shot to place the far lake shore along the top line and emphasize the lake and the rocks in the foreground rather than the sky.

Many of today's camera have the rule of thirds grid displayed in the viewfinder or on the LCD display (some of you are saying to yourself "so that's what that's for!"). You may have to change the camera settings to turn it on.

If we all followed the "rules of photography" all our photos would look the same. Don't be constrained by this rule. Some of the most interesting photos out there break all the rules.

Climate Change and National Park Wildlife. A Survival Guide for a Warming World

One of the organizations we support is the National Parks Conservation Association or NPCA. They have just issued a report on climate change and National Park wildlife. According to Thomas Kiernan, President of NPCA

What's happening in the parks is symptomatic of changes unfolding across the
larger landscapes to which they are inseperably connected, the same landscapes
that contain our communities. Changes that harm wildlife - depriving them
of food, water, or shelter - will ultimately harm us.

The report is available free online at http://www.npca.org/climatechange/wildlife_survival/ It's 60 pages long, but much of those pages are filled with beautiful wildlife photography. Take a look, read the report, and consider supporting NPCA.

Battle of Zollicoffer

Zollicoffer is what Bluff City TN was called during the Civil War. There is a reenactement held just outside Bluff City each year. This is the second year I've gone and this was even better than the first time. Great weather, lots of action, and plenty of characters around.

Check out a few of the photos from that day at Battle of Zollicoffer

What does a landscape photographer do on a foggy morning?

On an early fall morning I got up way before sunrise to go down to Warriors Path State Park to get some sunrise shots. You never know what you will find after you get up and head out. Sometimes your rewarded with a beautiful sunrise (I've been blessed with several) but sometimes you get clouds or even worse - fog. The hard part of getting up and driving out there is past so I might as well make the best of it.

A foggy morning can result in some erie pictures and some that are very interesting. You wont get a brilliant sky, or beautiful warm colors of the early morning sun, but sometimes you get rewarded with something like the photo here. You can browse to a large image by clicking here.

The soft lighting of overcast days can eliminate unwanted shadows, cut down on nasty glare, and make the colors really pop. Cloudy and rainy days are some of the best times to shoot landscapes. Just avoid the ugly sky and focus on the intimate details. Watch for those opportunites to get that picture that's different from the ones everyone else shoots on the pretty days.

The End of Fall

I've been out on more trips to more places this fall than any other year. I've been blessed with some beautiful fall colors. The leaves are pretty much down now and the color gone here in the Tri-Cities but I did capture some pictures over the past two weeks and posted them at Fall Colors 2009

I hope you enjoy this and the other pictures from this fall.

Dupont State Forest

The Eastman Camera Club took a day trip to Dupont State Forest in Oct. for the fall color and waterfalls. The fall colors were not as bright as we had hoped but the waterfalls were very full! It was overcast all day, which is good for taking waterfall pictures in the middle of the day. The pictures are available in the Dupont State Forest 2009 album.

The Friends of Dupont provided shuttle bus rides between the falls and a lake. They also do this for spring wildflowers on Mother's Day Weekend. We're already planning on going back.

Blue Ridge Parkway Fall Colors

June and I spent three days on the parkway in October, one of which was a nice sunny day. The other two were pretty much washouts. We stayed at an excellent B&B in Black Mountain, NC called The Arbor House. The first few pictures are taken from the back of the B&B looking out over Lake Tomahawk with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background. The rest of the photos were taken between Black Mountain and Blowing Rock.

The fall colors varied from brilliant to just about gone. There had been an unusual amount of rain leading up to that time, which knocked down many of the leaves. You'll see from the photos that there were still a lot left.

The photos are in the Blue Ridge Parkway 2009 album. I hope you enjoy.