Your photos (137)


Hints and tips
by Philip Grosset



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with comments from Philip Grosset




"Thanks so much for all the effort you put into your website and the help you give to aspiring photographers like me. I know from experience how much work it is to maintain a site as large as yours! I've taken up photography again as a hobby after abandoning it and selling all my equipment some 25 years ago when my wife objected once too often to how long I took me to compose a picture. After years of point-and-shoot, last year at a church auction I spotted a "diamond in the rough", an old Minolta SR-T 202, and bought it. It had been in the back of a widow's closet for about 20 years, ever since her husband died, and only been in actual use for a couple years. I had it reconditioned (the camera, not the dead husband) and have been having the time of my life with it ever since.
I took the attached pictures last summar at a local Shriner's rodeo with a Minolta 35-80mm f3.5 zoom, the longest lens I had at the time. Since I couldn't get very close to the action, I've cropped the photos pretty extensively, and hopefully I've followed a few of your suggestions as to subject placement and composition. Please let me know what you think. I'd only had my camera back from the shop for a few weeks at the time, so was lucky the shots came out as good as they did. I believe this was about the second roll through it. Fortunately it was a bright day and I used ISO 400 B/W film so I could use a fast shutter and still get sufficient depth of field. The shots are all hand-held (I hadn't got a tripod yet). I just squatted down, braced against and shot through the rails of the fence surrounding the arena, except for the shot of the cowboy which was from the stands above.
The rear shot of the cowboy is of one of the bull riders, checking out his ride for the day. I believe he may be on one of the two bulls in the remaining photos. The one of the woman (cowgirl?) on the horse is of a barrel race. The object is to negotiate a course of three barrels set in a triangle, rounding all three barrels without knocking them down, in the fastest time. The object of the bull riding is to stay aboard for 7 seconds in good form and get off, hopefully, in one piece. The bulls are athletes in their own right and are bred to be big, strong and agressive. (I'm including these details since you may not be familiar with rodeos). Incidentally, though I'm an American I lived in Warboys, right next door to you at St. Ives, for almost ten years working on the American base at Alconbury. We returned to the States in 1985, but still have many friends there. You do, indeed live in a beautiful part of the world. I love the fens and the people who populate them." (Fred St. John, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Cowboy cropped
Cowboy
It's not too obvious what is happening in your photo on the left - it really needs your explanation that the rider is checking out his ride for the day. In my version on the right, I've tried altering the format and moving in closer, so as to concentrate more on him - but the horses are really too hidden by the rails for this to work very well.
Bull cropped
Bull
On the left: a really effective photo. You've managed to catch the action at just the right moment. Not surprisingly, you hadn't time to notice that there was a slightly sloping background. On the right, I've straightened this out, and moved just a little closer in so as to avoid the black smudge on the ground in the right foreground.
While I was at it, I also removed the slightly distracting pole behind the rider's hat - a lot easier to do this afterwards than at the time!
Bull 2 cropped
Bull 2
Again, you've caught just the right moment in your photo on the left, but here too I'd be inclined to move in closer, as on the right, where I've also tried to straighten out the background so that the vertical poles really are vertical.
Another dramatic picture. Altogether, a highly effective group of photos. You've got a fine sense of timing - it's a very good thing you rescued that camera!
Rider

Reply from Fred St John: "Thanks so much for your fast reply and very helpful critique. Your changes were spot on. I'll supply your site's URL to the other students in my photography night school. You have much more good information on your site than we'll get from a year of classroom. I need to get better graphics software that lets me do some of the things you do with pictures.. like eliminating spurious light poles and correcting verticals. The software supplied with the scanner is pretty crappy stuff."




"these are some pictures ive taken. plese give me tips!! i know theres 5 pics, not four...sorry but i sent them to someone else and i scanned them in 2's. thank you!" (Janelle Albert)
Plants
Plants cropped
I've selected 4 of your pictures. It's a pity they were so small, though, as this restricts what I can do with them. Your photo on the left here rather confused me as the eye is effectively led along the corridor - but then you can't really see what it is that is at the end of it - but, assuming it's the corridor itself and the plants that you want to feature, I've tried concentrating more on them in my version on the right.
Parrot
Parrot cropped
Why have the parrot on the left dead central with so much empty space on each side of it? On the right, I've not only moved closer in, but have moved to a vertical format that better matches the shape of the parrot. I've also moved the main subject to what I think is a more interesting position off-centre.
Sky framed
Sky
I prefer your photo on the right here, as the use of an arch as foreground framing adds to its appeal. You might have got a much more colorful sky, though, if you'd taken the picture just a little earlier when more of the sun could be seen. The photo on the left has fine dramatic clouds but lacks any foreground interest.
May I suggest you have a look at my Brief Summary and Sunsets, pages where there is more information that I hope you may find useful?




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