Quote of the day: “When you get to the end of all the light you know and it’s time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.”  ― Edward Teller

Caterpillar flipped

Photography Lessons

Each week as I plan to teach my Beginner’s Mind Photography For Kids class, I spend several hours preparing for class. I look for ideas on how to present basic concepts, photography that inspires and excites them, and activity ideas that let them practice what they’re learning. And often I find that my preparation work teaches me something new or gives me a new “Aha!” moment.

Caterpillar – original orientation

The Human Eye Reads Photos Left to Right

This week we talked about how the eye reads photographs from left to right. When I first heard this concept I thought that reading photos left to right might be dependent upon whether people in a culture write and read from left to right, or right to left. It turns out this is not so. Apparently people of all cultures look at photographs this way, but I have no idea why this is true.

Our eye is also drawn to contrast and visual mass but these are topics for another day.

I learned about reading photos left to right from some great teaching videos I’ve been watching (The Created Image Video Series) by David duChemin.   You can find the videos and other great photographic education materials at Craft & Vision for very reasonable prices. I am loving The Created Image Video Series and experiencing lots of “Aha!” moments as I watch them.

The two caterpillar photos above are the same photo—except that one of them is flipped horizontally. I made this flip because of what I learned about how the eye reads photographs. To me, the flipped version is subtly easier to look at and make sense of, because it appears that the caterpillar is headed in a left-to-right direction.

When I look at the photo displayed with the original orientation, my eye gets a little stuck. I feel as if there is a little stutter when I look at the photo.

Before learning about the way the eye reads photos, I wouldn’t have been able to verbalize why I liked the top photo version better. Now I’ve learned a principle I can apply as I compose photographs.

Photographing LEGO creation in homemade light tent

Photographing What You Love

I encourage kids (and adults) to photograph what they love. The joy that comes from doing something you love creates such a strong impetus for learning.

Last week, each of the kids in my class brought photos they had made of their LEGO creations. Clearly, LEGOS are a passion with these kids. I was so thrilled when I found a fun new book referenced in a Faded + Blurred blog post this week, called Beautiful LEGO.  The kids were thrilled too!

I showed them some of the photos from the book online during our class. When we looked at them, the kids 0oohed and aaahed like crazy!  Not only are the LEGO creations beautiful and unique, the photography of the creations is beautiful as well.

After we looked at Beautiful LEGO, I brought out our old bucket of fake LEGOS for the kids to make small creations and then photograph them in a homemade light tent.

We also photographed maple leaves, onions, and squash in and out of the light tent.

Photographing in light tent

Finally, we talked about composing photographs horizontally and vertically. Often, we get in a rut and make almost all of our photos with a horizontal orientation. I try to make both horizontal and vertical shots of most subjects, because I often learn something new or find that looking in a different way creates a stronger photograph.

Here are a few horizontal/vertical studies I made in our back yard early in the morning before class. I loved the color of the early morning light combined with the beginnings of fall colors.

Horizontal View 1

Vertical View 1

Horizontal View 2

Vertical view 2

Horizontal View 3

Vertical View 3

Which photos do you prefer—horizontal or vertical? With these photographs, I have a hard time picking either horizontal or vertical views. I like them both—but none of them are stunning-I-want-to-print-this photographs.

Here are a few more photos from Sunday’s photography class:

Light tent photo

Pond view through leaves

Light tent photo