Day 43. Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski did “reverse critiques” of photos that people had sent to them in Google +. They showed pictures that didn’t work, compared them side by side with photos of similar subjects that did work, and explained why. In order to have a photo that works, you have to have an interesting subject, good composition, and good light. Many of the pictures that they felt didn’t work had uninteresting subjects, and bad light. According to them, the best light only happens 2 hours a day–the so called Golden Hour just before sunrise, and just before sunset. I hope you’ll check out this video if you have a chance, it is worthwhile!
One of the reasons why I’m writing this blog, and working through a photo a day project is to try to improve my photographic skills. So I Googled Golden Hour and actually found a Golden Hour calculator! Golden Hour time in Lexington, KY, hmmm, let’s see. Translate military time to time I understand, check. Starts at 7:38pm, sunset at 8:13pm, check. Find a subject, check. I think I know a barn at Keeneland that will work. Oops, no parking by that barn. What now? Another barn, and parking! Hike across the field in the wind and cold, check. Try to follow Scott and Matt’s advice to find leading lines, shoot from a lower vantage point, include foreground stuff, etc, check, check, check! (I wish I had written some of that down) Go home, process picture in Lightroom and Photoshop, check.
Long story short, it took some effort and planning to get to the barn, but I did make it during the Golden Hour. I visualized a shot, looked for a time when the light was nice, tried to frame it for impact and here’s the result. This photo shoot was a departure from my typical walk on my lunchbreak photos of convenience. What do you think?
DigitalPhotoBug 