I commuted by bus today, feeling still a bit tired from yesterday. Now our middle daughter also got fever, it seems to be going around in the family. Not so nice to have several children sick at the same time.
Posting title is from the poem She Considers the Dimensions of Her Soul by Young Smith. This poem fits rather well my preferred aspect ratio for photographs.
We had some discussion about the look of the photographs, and about using the square format, at Mark Hobson's blog. I quote myself (slightly edited):
I followed Mark's blog for some time until I grow into appreciation of the square format. He is definitely my inspiration.
But it wasn't until the Panasonic LX3 got the ability to take square photographs (and see them on the LCD) when I started to experiment with it.
Slowly I realized that the square fits my way of looking at the world. Maybe I always have been a bit squarish.
My mother had a 6x6/120 film camera, and was quite skilled with it. It may be that I learned to appreciate square photographs when looking at the family photographs when I was young.
I don't know of any particular recipe. I shoot straight jpegs (no RAW) and usually I don't do post-processing. I often underexpose a bit, but that is the way I see the world.
I'm wondering whether going for black-and-white is appropriate today, as we have the longest day of the year, at 18 ours 59 minutes. But on the other hand, I don't quite feel convenient in color today.
Colin suggested trying out black-and-white version of one of my images. I'm no longer (except in very rare cases such as wrong color balance) doing post-processing for my images, so I didn't go back and tweak the image.
Instead, I thought of a new experiment: using the square format (1:1 aspect ratio) together with the "dynamic b&w" setting of the LX3. And I must admit that there are interesting possibilities here to explore. I have found both b&w and the square difficult to understand, so why not to combine the two difficult things?
Coming back to the LX3, Tsarli suggested that 'instead of getting another LX3, why not save it (i.e., baby it) and get a "beater" camera'.
Getting a different camera doesn't tempt, although I admit having some curiousity towards the Samsung TL500/EX1. Getting it would mean learning new ways of operating the camera, and that would take a couple of months. I very much prefer taking photographs with a well-known tool. But I guess there is no hurry to make a decision about getting another LX3 as it seems to be very much in demand still.
But I'm getting some competition, as the youngest daughter wants to use the LX3 as well, shooting a hundred images in one go. Have to watch her.
As you can see, I'm continuing with the square format when taking photographs. I have a feeling I'm starting to do a little bit better than previously, but can't be sure. But looking at the world using a square has some freshness, so this seems to be a worthwhile experiment. Perhaps even a SoFoBoMo project, but I hesitate to commit fully yet.
I have been complaining about how difficult the square format is, so perhaps it is time to do something about it. I decided to try taking photographs for one month using squares, and if all goes well, perhaps even making a SoFoBoMo project out of it. It is very different to crop afterwards that to compose directly in the square format. Or so I think.
I did some further exploration of the square format today, trying to learn what works and what doesn't. I'm not sure whether I made any progress, but here are some samples. Thanks to the format being built-in to the LX3, it should be easy to compose in this format. But it isn't.
Only some days ago I wrote that I'm not interested in black-and-white photography, and here are two of them. For some reason I decided to try out my "other" custom settings on the LX3: the other meant for black-and-white, and the other for square aspect ratio.
Of the two black-and-white images, I like the second one best, because I overcome my impulse to shoot only color (nice hues of yellow), and turned on black-and-white. A discovery, I feel.
On the other hand, sometimes the photograph is all about color, such as in the image of water here. And for me the biggest motivation for taking photographs is usually color, not texture, form or light/shadows.
Once in a while, I try the square aspect ratio. But it is difficult to get something good out of it. Have to keep trying.
Here are two more photographs from today in the square format. I guess there are some possibilities with the format, but it is indeed challenging.
Some time ago I took part in a nature photography competition organized by the staff of our company. This week I learned that an image of mine had won. It was a photograph of icicles taken at the Ahvenkoski hydroelectric power plant.
I was surprised, as I'm not really into nature photography. Of course, landscape and nature are interesting for me, but I'm not taking "nature photographs", just photographs. In fact, some of the published nature photography is so "industrially made" that it doesn't interest me at all.
I posted the images here in January, the winning image is the last one. We went to visit the city of Kotka and there was plenty to see. In fact, some of the photographs from the visit look even nicer than I remembered.
Firmware version 2.1 for the Panasonic LX3 allows composing and shooting in the 1:1 aspect ratio. I saved this setting as one of the custom modes. This works really well, making it possible to compose on screen using the square format.
My other custom settings are variations of the same theme. One has adaptive sensitivity up to ISO 400 instead of fixed ISO 100. Another uses dynamic b&w film mode.
Today I used mostly the setting for 1:1 aspect ratio, to see whether it makes it easier to "see in square". And it may help, at least it was a novelty and interesting to try out. The images are smaller of course, about 7.5 megapixels, and you could get the same result by using the 4:3 ratio and cropping afterwards. But then it would be harder to learn seeing in this format.
Here are two examples of the square format. It does have some problems, not having a "natural" orientation. I think I'll do some experiments to see whether I can learn to use it more naturally.
I'm really learning to like the new firmware version, especially the ability to remember the zoom range and manual focus distance. Now the camera is even more easy to use, it works as a camera should.
Once again, I have been experimenting with the square image format. Here are three such photographs, all taken yesterday at Siikajärvi, west of the Nuuksio national park.
I'll make a pause of several days or perhaps a week in posting here at Light Scrape. So, to compensate, I'll make another posting later today.
I have been re-reading books on photography, first Tom Ang's "Digital Photography Masterclass" and currently Michael Freeman's "The Photographers Eye". Both are good books, focusing on different topics and different ways of presenting the material. Ang's book is packed with examples, self-study exercises and hints on a multitude of subjects. It is well worth reading, but a bit disconnected sometimes. Freeman's book is more coherent, focusing on the composition aspect of photography, and doing it very well indeed. Some of the topics seems trivial at first reading, but now I'm starting to grasp what is being discussed at a deeper level.
One topic in Freeman's book is the image proportions. I have been using mostly 4:3 and 3:2 proportions, sometimes also 16:9 - and occasionally the square, 1:1. (On the LX3, 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9 are all native formats.) Freeman writes (on page 16) that "[the square] is the most difficult format to work with".
I couldn't help thinking about Mark Hobson's images. He makes the square format seem effortless, the most natural thing in the world. But for me it is not so. I sometimes try the square - as in this image - but I don't usually succeed.
Some time ago I finished my SoFoBoMo book, but there were a couple of loose ends. I discovered a way of generating a small and good-quality PDF file from a Pages-generated output file. A related hint discussed the output of each pages as a separate jpeg file. Both solutions were based on the GhostScript software, which is preinstalled on Mac OX X.
I managed to make a Blurb book of my SoFoBoMo PDF file with these images files, importing the images to the BookSmart software (version 2.0) using the full-bleed layout and the 25 x 20 cm book size. I have ordered one printed copy of the book (the softcover version). I hope the book turns out well.
Also, I uploaded the PDF file to Issuu (see here) for easier browsing and viewing.
The image here was taken today, a hasty roadside snapshot.
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