I decided to try making a few macro images with my Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay short scale bass. I used the Olympus OM-D E-M1 MK III body with the 60mm macro. This is a very lightweight combo that is easy to work with.
Category Archive: Insights
I know that not everyone is as dedicated to photography as I am. But I am still convinced that even a modest amateur/beginner can benefit by keeping a practice log.
The way you get better at anything is to practice. This is well-known for things like playing a musical instrument or sports, or languages, etc. But I rarely heard it talked about in the photography realm and it should be.
(They want to know WHY you photograph…)
I’ve written about the WHY of things before. And most of my inspiration for those posts is from Simon Sinek’s book “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action” (https://amzn.to/32pU0sr) It’s one of the most important books I’ve read in terms of moving both the financial and the creative side of my life.
Today I want to talk about the simplest application I can think of for Simon’s book.
All-star wedding photographer, Roberto Valenzuela says “Perfect Practice Makes Perfect” instead of the more common “Practice Makes Perfect.” I have thought a lot about that since I heard his talk at WPPI many years ago. As I grow older, I realize that there are times when I was “practicing” my photography but practicing the wrong things. Not everything you do with a camera in your hand will necessarily drive you to your end goal.
Today’s photo is designed to illustrate the value of using symmetry in your compositions.
It’s also a good illustration of repeating objects.
The subject is my Danelectro Longhorn bass guitar. The composition tightly frames only a small portion of the instrument. This particular guitar has a very unique shape.
I am hoping to provide some insight for those of you who want to level up your photography and have come to realize that buying a new camera or lens won’t (by themselves) make that happen. You need to be deliberate in your photography.
An old-time, professional photographer once told me that we don’t get paid to take pictures. We get paid to see things that “normal” people do not.
I once led a photo workshop to the Green Mountains of Vermont. Our group was there to photograph fall color and we had a cornucopia of opportunity everywhere we looked.
If you look up the word Sepia, and do a little research, you may be surprised that the word is originally Greek for the common cuttlefish.
But that is indeed relevant to photography because sepia tone is NOT black and white images that were made 120 years ago and have faded, it started as a process. You are probably more familiar with gray scale (black and white) but there is also brown scale (sepia.)
