In art angle of view can be as important as the subject itself. I am on my back shooting from the floor of a tent. Everyday subject are more interesting at angle that are lower or higher than eye level. I will be teaching a photography class at Pellissippi State in September. It is not too late to sign up. LynnFreeny.com
Most of the time when I am shooting clouds motion is not a factor. In this particular situation the clouds were moving quickly. I used a wide angle lens to include most of the sky. LynnFreeny.com
I used to think I had to be at a special location to get an interesting image. Now I believe you can find great subjects anywhere. I no longer worry where I am with a camera. I just keep an eye out for things in everyday life to photograph. LynnFreeny.com
Here is another image I took the other night at Shakespeare in the Park in Knoxville. This is actually backstage in the open air of Market Square. I used a wide angle lens to get a wide view of the subject. LynnFreeny.com
I went to Shakespeare in The Park last night. Wonderful outdoor performance in great weather. This image was shot just as it started to get dark. There was still just enough light in the sky to make a nice backdrop for the play.LynnFreeny.com
Long shadows with a wide angle lens is a perfect combination. I used a low angle with the camera pointed downward to get the right angle to best show this very elongated shadow cast on the floor. LynnFreeny.com
This image was shot through a window of a moth hanging upside down on the outside. I was glad this large moth was outside because he could eat through several wool sweaters. Cropping close and exposing so the moth would go black were the most effective way to simplify this subject. LynnFreeny.com
This strange abstract images was taken next to a swimming pool in low light. As I was shooting this subject I thought of a photography in Maine that I had taken a workshop with, John Paul Caponigro. LynnFreeny.com
I can not resist shadows that make a boring subject come to life. This siding on a house can be such an uninteresting subject. With the shadow it becomes this dynamic composition worth shooting. Remember do not underrate shadows. Give them a second look when you see them. LynnFreeny.com
Some one told me to go down to Black Mountain North Carolina to find the best bright colors one fall. When I arrived in Black Mountain the fall colors were muted. I was just heading out of town toward the Blue Ridge Parkway when I saw this old building on the side of the road. I set up my tripod and composed the image then at the last minute I decided something was missing. I reached above my camera to cast my own shadow on the door. The shadow added direction to the image. LynnFreeny.com
I got some other images of Norris Dam State Park yesterday. This image of an old mill had to be black and white. The reason I say that was because the subject had more tone and less color to it. LynnFreeny.com
I was in Norris Dam State Park in Tennessee this evening. As I worked on a portrait job I saw this amazing reflection under a bridge. The light was perfected for just that moment. I am always looking with my camera even when I am on an assignment. LynnFreeny.com
Fog can cause some very strange looks. In this image I pointed the camera directly toward the sun. The fog helps to cause some directional lines. It can look very weird but different in foggy conditions. LynnFreeny.com
Cats are funny creatures that like hiding in small spaces ready at any moment to jump out at you. In this image I liked where the shadow falls causing the eyes to be the main element in the composition. LynnFreeny.com
I am still taking swim pictures because it is hot and it is summer time. I alway like capturing a start to a race because you can see some of the most intense motions of the athletes. Here I freeze the swimmers as they push off the side of the pool into what looks like a great wall of water.LynnFreeny.com
In photography the most important element is light. Without it nothing can be recorded. In this image the sun light is going through the leaves of the trees. This causes the trees to become light sources. They are kind of like a nature lamp shade for the sun. LynnFreeny.com
In early spring the trees start to come alive with bright shades. I decided the best way to show this was by simplifying the subject to tones with a black and white image. LynnFreeny.com
Cades Cove, the best place to shoot and also the worst place to shoot. The reason this is true because the area is loved to death by people. It is almost like being in a city park. Too many photographers. So many that you have to watch out or they will be in your shoot or will follow you around with their camera trying to get the same image. But I still enjoy Cades Cove so I guess I will have to live with it. LynnFreeny.com
The interesting thing about this image is the pond is actual a low place that gathers water after a very heavy rain. In order to get in the right position I had to wade through mud almost to my knees. I was so muddy I walked home. It was only a five minute walk. This was shot in the evening. I forgot, yes I even had to clean the mud off my tripod. LynnFreeny.com
There is this beautiful peaceful place in the Smoky Mountains call Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. The only catch is you have to go through busy Gatlinburg to get there. This image was taken just off the side of the road where one of the old mills is located. LynnFreeny.com
A rainbow formed over the swimming pool in Maryville Tennessee after a swim meet was called off because of thunder storms. The Flying Dolphin ended up having a swim party after the other team went home.LynnFreeny.com
I was walking around Maryville College when I saw this dismantled door against a building. I like the sign on the door "Please Keep Door Closed" and the reflection on the door's glass. LynnFreeny.com
When taking pictures of people the closer you get the more is revealed to the viewer. In this image of a swimmer using a telephoto lens and a fast shutter speed a lot is revealed. You know that he is giving all he has to win. Again this is one of the reasons why still photography will never be replaced by motion pictures. Still photography captures that moment in time that is gone with the bleak of an eye. LynnFreeny.com
I was at a swim meet last night. This image of the swimmers in stop action is another good example of what high speed photography can capture. When I am shooting swim meets I do not use auto focus. In fact I really do not like auto anything on a camera. The reason for my distaste for auto is my inability to control what I want the camera to do. I like to think I am more intelligent than a camera. Most people are. So get out of the auto world of photography and start really living.LynnFreeny.com
I found this scene on the Maryville College Campus and thought it looked odd. As I reflected on the image I started thinking how God was trying to tell me something with this old dead tree. Most of the time we as humans think we are so smart and we do not need God in our life. We can go to the top quickly by the use of shortcuts that may step on other people. But in the end we arrive on top ugly just like this tree. The ones below us, the ones that followed God's will are more beautiful and glorious just like the Mimosa trees below this old dead tree. LynnFreeny.com
This morning on my way to work there it was, some interesting fog. I found a safe place to pull over then started shooting. We had some heavy rain over night which created some very low lining fog that the sunrise helped give a nice warm tone to. LynnFreeny.com
Fog is one of those elements that grows on you. I remember the first time I shot in the fog I was very disappointed. I thought I should be getting very sharp images even in fog. It is hard to focus the camera with these ground level clouds. When using a very long lens the layers become more dense than what the naked eye sees. Remember telephotos lens compact information they also compact the fog making it more difficult to get sharp edges. LynnFreeny.com
This image reminds me of the classic Alfred Hitchcock Movie "The Birds". It was taken at a stop sign at one of the intersection I come to on my commute to work. The colors were enhanced to give the image that mysterious feeling you might get as the birds circle after watching "The Birds". LynnFreeny.com
Freezing action in swimming can be much more dramatic than what the viewer sees normally. In this image the fast shutter speed along with some low angle light helped show more detail of the water being moved by the swimmer. LynnFreeny.com
I am keeping on the theme of unnatural color effects. This image was taken in color so I could capture the interesting reflection on the windows. In one of the windows you can see part of the Blount County Court House clock tower. I decided to desaturated the building but keep the colorful reflective windows. All this work was accomplished using Adobe Photoshop. LynnFreeny.com
Last night I took pictures at a swim meet. After seeing this image in true color I decided to give the water a different look to help isolate the swimmer more. I desaturated the blue color of the water to reveal lots of bright reflections that the swimmer helped to create. Be brave try different ways to change the original colors without destroying the photography.LynnFreeny.com
Clouds are so big and beautiful it is only natural to include them in photographs. In this image I watched as the clouds move in to the right position so that I could have the bell tower and clouds in the same composition. I used the red channel to help produce the dramatic sky turning the blue part into a almost black tone.LynnFreeny.com
My favorite color is red. It is one of those colors that screams for your attention. It is considered a warm color. Warm colors always bring more attention than cool colors. In this image I wanted to lock into the red barn so I moved in close causing the barn to bleed off the page. As you can see the red barn dominates over the blue sky getting all of the visual attention. LynnFreeny.com
Swim photography has that added element of water that can give you interesting reflections. In this image I broke the rule by holding my camera at an odd angle forgetting about the word level. Why? Because I wanted to isolate the swimmer with the reflective water which simplified the composition. I used black and white to keep the the image more about tone than color. This too is a way to simplify things. LynnFreeny.com
Sports lends itself to still photography. The reason why is because of the ability of the freeze frame to capture something that the normal vision never sees. Even when you compare motion picture photography to still the still photograph is the only way to see that slit second in the action. Stop action images of swimmers can be one of the most interesting sports to photograph because of the close interaction the swimmer has with the water.LynnFreeny.com
Old barns seem to lend them self to infrared photography. This barn has since fallen in and been replaced by a metal building that lacks the character of the original structure. I used the same method as I did in the other two infrared images posted before this one. LynnFreeny.com
In small towns some of the most interesting architecture are churches. This is Chestnut Street Baptist Church in the small harbor town of Camden Maine. This church has been serving the Camden community for 200 years. I choose black and white film because I wanted to show the white church standing out against the dark sky. The sky was actually deep blue but with a number 25 red filter I was able to capture a sky that actually go from a light gray to an almost absolute black tone. I use a wide angle lens to show the steep upward shape of the building. LynnFreeny.com
Here is another interesting place in Mississippi. It is called the Ruins of Windsor. When I first saw this subject I knew I had to shoot it with infrared film. I used the same method as I did in Natchez Mississippi. See details from the image before this one posted yesterday. One of the great things about shooting infrared is that high noon light is OK light. This image was shot while the sun was high in the sky. Normal film at this time of day usually preforms badly because of the high contrast of the light. LynnFreeny.com
I enjoy old historical buildings and Natchez Mississippi is one of the best places for that very thing. In this image I used infrared film with a number 25 red filter over a wide angle lens. The characteristic of this type of film is to be very grainy. The effect kind of helps turn the clock back to the days of this type of house. I developed the film in D-76 developer which gives most black and white films a boost in contrast. LynnFreeny.com
The contrasting differences between the two subjects makes this image interesting. Both have made eye contact with each other. Remember in still photography you capture what amounts to a blink of an eye. So these two did not have a stare down contest but had a quick glance. The reflection of the girl helps to add an additional interesting element to the composition. This is at the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee. LynnFreeny.com
Any time you include your light source in your image you will capture some dynamic light. In the case of this image of the cross I positioned myself so the sun would be touching the cross. I set my f/stop at 16 to cause a star like effect. LynnFreeny.com
I am kind of like a kid when it comes to clouds. They continually fascinate me because of their size. Clouds seem to dwarf everything else you see outside. The biggest building can not compete with their size. In this image I was shooting the clouds when suddenly a jet flew through the middle of my composition. LynnFreeny.com
I love rural areas where you see farm land and the open spaces. Growing up I was always close to where cows were. I could here see and smell them if you know what I mean. In this image I decided I want to convey that feeling as a boy when I would get up every in the morning only to see cows moving through the fields as the fog began to lift. I used the sandwich method to get the effect I wanted. This is something that can be done with film or digitally. I took two images and put them together. One a foggy morning and the other cows walking through a field.LynnFreeny.com
As I was headed to work this morning I was at a stop sign when I saw the power lines glowing. Using a 200mm telephoto lens I was able to isolate a lone car passing under power lines that are normally very boring in the beautiful warm morning light. After the shot I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a big truck behind me ending this photo moment.LynnFreeny.com
When I see an interesting building I like to look at all the different angles. I tell my students to work a subject. This means take images at a lot of different angle. In the case of this church in Maine I ended up with an image of the back of the church where the grave yard was located. This was shot with film. LynnFreeny.com
Taking pictures out a car windows can be fun and dangerous! This image was shot as I was heading to work on Pellissippi Parkway. The effects of shooting through the glass of the car window can be unpredictable. In this image I have a combination motion blur and reflections which I know I could never repeat. That is what makes it so fun.LynnFreeny.com
When I first saw this tree all I could think was "creepy". The strong contrast between the sky and the tree causes the viewer to climb the hill visually toward the tree. Black and white was best for this subject mainly because of the lack of color. LynnFreeny.com
When I am shooting I always have the thought, is this a black and white subject or is it more suited for color. This subject was more about tone than it was about color. I converted the image to a black and white by changing to lab colors then saving only the lightness channel. This is one of the many ways you can convert a color digital file to black and white using Adobe Photoshop. LynnFreeny.com
Last nights swim meet was still going strong after the sun went down. The meet was at a small neighborhood pool. This means I get better angles and closer to the action. In fact when I was taking this image I got a little wet. Getting in close helps draw the viewer into this high energy sport. I was shooting in low light with a long lens. The motion of the water and swimmer takes on an almost painterly quality. LynnFreeny.com
During a ballet most of the dance has an overall feeling of gracefulness. I noticed the dancers shadows as they came close to the background. The shadows simplified the dancers to tones.LynnFreeny.com
