Hold The Eye Images

New adventure and Photo gig!

As many folks know, Hold the Eye Images has a new gig which involves 22 third world countries and Brian departed yesterday for the latest assignment in Uganda and Rwanda. He will be gone for two weeks but before he left, we talked about leaving in the latest podcast recorded on Friday.

  

  

It's Not Always About the Music

I was at a Jam last evening with some great musicians. However, I decided not to spend all my time photographing the musicians, but the ambient scene. So let's begin with food. 

 

Some folks are just thinking, which is an under rated past time.  

Or as Bob Dylan says, "we all gotta serve"

Some like to "peak"

Sometimes, folks just stop by and look in and listen

At every event there is always tons going on. There is the obvious, but often just as interesting the ambient action can add texture if you are open to seeing. 

Leica M 50mm lens

Indian Canyon Story Telling

Yesterday I attended the Indian Canyon Story Telling event. So you might ask, what is Indian Canyon? Here's the website opening for which I have a link below.

      "Indian Canyon is the only land continuously held by the Ohlone people, the first inhabitants of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas. Indian Canyon is the only federally recognized "Indian Country" along coastal Northern California From Santa Barbara to Sonoma. 
In order to provide a place for Indigenous people who need land for ceremony, Indian Canyon hosts over five sweat lodges, beautiful arbor area for gatherings, and offers a round house area (site for our future traditional Village House) for special events. In addition to offering 30-40 areas for individual prayer and ceremony. Indian Canyon provides research and exchange opportunities for students and interns from throughout Northern California." This is the opening paragraph of their website found here. Here is more insight into the Ohlone Indians."

 

The even I attended has hospitality(food and warm greetings), music, dance, and story telling. The setting is beautiful with large oak trees, wonderful shade from the direct sun and much to explore if you had the time. 

I arrived early and I must confess, the idea came from fellow photographer Nancy Mirabella who has attended the event several times. After driving around fields tended by farmers, this seemed like a real oasis. At the time I didn't realize this has been a special place for thousands of years. 

We arrived early, and people were busy getting the event set up and as folks arrived they just seemed to relax. An no Sharkey didn't come but maybe next time.

Everyone was dressed for the occassion from hats to headdresses. 

Here's a beautiful mother and daughter ready for the festival. 

Another mother daughter Tamara and Shyla posed for me. The tatoo on her shoulder is off her daughter, at a younger age.

Shyla has aspirations for modeling, so I took a single image for her.  She is a lovely young woman.

I did snap more images of some of the musicians, all of which were quite good. 

The storytelling was very interesting and really kept the attention of everyone. A single image of someone standing at a mic doesn't give enough of an picture since storytelling is all about listening and your mind's eye. While the storytelling was taking place, this woman gives you an image of concentration on what's being said. Want to learn more, come to one of these events.

And there was dancing! And as you can see, there's a special place for this event that allows you to watch everything up close.

It was great just to sit back and watch these dancers. But...............................................................

Sitting back didn't last long before the dancers came into the audience and invited folks to dance with them! I hid behind my camera, but Nancy didn't!

It was a very interesting day for a photographer even if the light was mostly bright sunlight. I learned a lot, bought a drum for myself, and learned a great deal about the indigenous Indians of Northern California. I was very impressed with the warmth, passion, and dedication of the people who have maintained this site and it's traditions. Here's an image of another attendee who brought a wee one to the event. They sat in front of me part of the time and I couldn't help photographing this beautiful baby and Dad. 

All images shot with a Leica M/50mm lens and .9 neutral density filter or Nikon D800E/55mm lens with a variable neutral density lens 6 stops.

Resources for learning about photography and techniques?

This is a short blog on resources for photography but to answer the question directly; You must shoot a ton to learn photography, and you must  learn everything about whatever photo instrument you use to capture your images. There is no short cut! I have personally learned more from shooting than all the books I have read or videos I have watched. And the best way to maximize the shooting experience, is to take on a project and stick to it. Shooting randomly is good but not near as good as a project where you have to think, finding different ways to shoot, using different techniques, etc. Projects force you to grow, take advantage of getting bored shooting the same way, forcing you to really think differently. In the process you become a better photographer.

Now as a supplement to your intense shooting, my favorite ready resource is Lynda.com. For $25/month, you can get an education on all sorts of topics beyond photography. The videos are good, and you can watch them from any device with an internet connection. My suggestion here is to take their free trial period and see how it works for you. For some people it sounds like a good deal, then they don't take the time to watch..........not good. The same is said for books, folks buy them but never read them.

So you are short on cash, don't have $25 to spend each month, try Creative Live(creativelive.com). If you have the time, the videos are free on the broadcast dates, but if you can't watch on the broadcast dates or want to get a copy of the broadcast for watching again, you can buy the video. Many of the broadcasts are multiday so even if you can"t watch every moment , you have some idea of the content. Here's the way it works, subscribe to creativelive.com and they will announce the programs, timing and length. It's an innovative idea where they are betting the content will be so good, you will want a personal copy. They allow questions during the live broadcast, so you get the benefit of audience questions from other photographers, a great resource. They also cover programs not associated with photography which also may be of interest. Founder Chase Jarvis, a sports and adventure photographer is behind the new startup. 

Another option is Kelby Training, which is heavily weighted to Adobe products but is also very good. Scott Kelby has a number of programs you can watch, podcasts, video programs as well as tutorials on all aspects of Photoshop and Lightroom. Here's the link. 

 All of the major manufacturers of photography equipment provide training online covering a variety of subjects all in part designed to sell you something but nonetheless provide good information. A number of photographers provide free blogs and Youtube video's, some of my favorites are David Hobby(Strobist.com), Zack Arias. If you go to Youtube and type in a subject in photography, changes are you will find some information. You can buy videos like " The Best of Dean Collins on lighting" which is a terrific resource on lighting. Zack Arias has a great video "One Light Workshop" which is very good. David Hobby also has "Lighting in Layers" which is excellent. These videos can be purchased directly from their websites. 

Books are another great source of information. The two books I'm currently reading are; "The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery" by Sarah Lewis and "A Beautiful Anarchy: When the Life Creative Becomes the Life Created" by David duChemin. Gregory Heisler's "50 Portraits: Stories and Techniques..." is another great one. All of Michael Freeman's books are excellent. One of my absolute favorite authors is Chris Orwig and espeically loved "Visual Poetry: A Creative Guide for Making Engaging Digital Photographs". Art Wolfe is an excellent author, Frans Lanting and Steve Simon are terrific. These people inspire me but most of all make me think, then I go out and shoot. The last part is critical, if you don't shoot, you will not improve. 

Finally but certainly not exhaustive are the forums on the web like DPReview.com where you can ask a question or just look through various subject matter for what interests you. There are tons of Meetup's you can join and attend, as well as camera clubs where photographers gather normally on a monthly basis. I have at one time or another participated in all of these types of things and learned from each one. 

I buy most of my books from Amazon, most of which I read digitally. Some like Gregory Heisler's book I bought in hard copy. I read the reviews, listen to other photographers on what they like, and select from what I hear and read about. 

A final thought about improving your photography, studying the images of the historical masters of photography is not only interesting but helpful. Now you don't have to go out and buy these books, they can be rather expensive, but libraries and bookstores carry them where you can go in and see them first hand. I know there are less and less bookstores, but independent bookstores seem to be on the comeback. Anyway I have collected a number of these and look through them frequently. One of my favorite old books which is hard to find but worth the effort to look, "The Daybooks of Edward Weston". This book is a treasure. I keep these books in my studio and look at them for inspiration and ideas. As any photographer, I love looking at pictures, getting composition ideas, subject ideas, lighting ideas, ..............you get the picture!

Now for a final, final comment, Community Colleges are a great way to learn at a price most can afford. You get classroom instructions, field trips, meet other photographers and many are in the evening or in some cases online. Check out your local community college. That's All Folks