2nd Exposure: The Prodigal Photographer

… but I only have a point-and-shoot!

How often have you heard that? How often have you said that?

What you need to know is that you can do really good, even great photography with “just a point-and-shoot.”  It’s a truism that it’s the photographer, and not the camera, makes the image. Creativity, composition, color, shapes are all much more important than technology and megapixels and dollars. Ken Rockwell wrote a famous article on just this matter, and for the most part, I agree with him.

So don’t put yourself down just because you aren’t carrying around the latest 32-Megapixel Acmeflex Super DSLR. Just go out there and shoot… and shoot… and shoot. With memory cards costing next to nothing for 4 and even 8 gigabytes, you can shoot all day, every day, and the more you shoot, the more you’ll learn from your mistakes and your winners.

Just to prove that you can make good photos without a DSLR, here are some I took with my 10-year-old Canon A40 Powershot, with all of two (yes, 2!) megapixels. Click on any of the thumbnails below to see a larger image.

Rows of seats, concrete steps, and shadows at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis form a repeating pattern. Patterns like this, whether in nature or man-made, are potentially good photographic subjects.

The bold neon of the Double-T Diner in Annapolis is mirrored in the windshield and hood of a nearby parked car. Diners are great places to go hunting for dramatic lighting and reflections. In daytime, look for shiny, Art-Deco-like surfaces and get close.  Also, try going a little before sunset and keep shooting as the sun goes down and the sky darkens.

I’ve got a thing about marine rope… every time I’m at any waterfront, I’ll be on the lookout for interesting shapes and patterns that may have been formed when someone casually dropped some rope onto the pier. I found this “dockside ampersand” just the way you see it here.

Here’s the tail end of a small plane at a local airfield. To get a near-abstract look, I moved in close and took a lot of photos from various angles, eventually getting this design of radiating wedges of yellow and white.

Would you believe, I’ve sold more copies of this one photo than any of my others. Now, coming from a 2-megapixel camera, I can’t blow it up to 16×20, but it does print very nicely up to about 6×9, and with a nice mat and frame, looks pretty good.

Quite a few of my Photo Safari customers have asked me to recommend photo websites that I find useful and interesting. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Photographer’s Websites

Dave Beckerman: New York Photography

'New York Subway Turnstiles' by Dave Beckerman

Dave Beckerman is, in my opinion, the premier photographic interpreter of New York City in the new millennium. Dave’s online journal was quite an inspiration to me back in late 2001 as I was considering getting back into photography. His journal was The Mother Of All PhotoBlogs; it was in essence a blog before the term was in common use.

As talented as he is, that’s how generous Dave is with his time and advice. In addition to writing about photo techniques like infrared photography and Photoshop plugins, Dave has maintained a running commentary on aspects of his photo business… what works and what doesn’t.

Besides learning from Dave’s blog, you can also buy his extraordinary images from his online photo store. Also, I suggest doing as I do, and starting from Dave’s Amazon.com and B&H Photo partner links whenever you buy from those two sources – each purchase done that way sends a few bucks Dave’s way and doesn’t cost you a cent.

Gordon Lewis: Shutterfinger

'Precipitation' by Gordon Lewis

Here’s a very good photo-blog by Philadelphia photographer Gordon Lewis. I stumbled across Gordon’s website about two years ago, and I find  his mini-essays thought-provoking and his photos compelling and inspiring.

Ken Rockwell

'Tidepool' by Ken Rockwell

This is Ken’s ongoing  photo blog – actually the whole site contains a lot of useful information. Ken has an unusual style and interesting tastes and opinions, and he’s very up-front about that. Here’s an excerpt from his “About” page:

“I have the energy and sense of humor of a three-year old, so remember, this is a personal website, and never presented as fact. I enjoy making things up for fun…”

Most people seem to either love or hate Ken’s site – I’m solidly in the former group, and I highly recommend that you give him a try.

Luminous Landscape

'White Sands' by Michael Reichmann

This is a photo blog by Torontonian Michael Reichmann, and includes guest articles by a number of prominent photographers and equipment experts. A lot of their articles are about subjects that are too advanced, and more importantly, too expensive for me– but there are also good general articles on photography – you just have to check in from time to time to see if anything looks interesting for you. Try exploring older articles via the menu on the left edge – for example, “Tutorials,” “Techniques,” etc.

Photo Equipment Reviews

dpReview.com

The Mother of All Camera Review Sites – very in-depth reviews – great to get up-to-date before buying a new camera, lens, or accessory.

Steve’s Digicams

Another very good review site for cameras.

Imaging Resources

Yet another very good review site for cameras, printers, etc. I bought a 13″x19″ printer after reading the review here, and it was spot on.

Photozone

This is a website from Germany – but don’t worry, the link leads to a well-written English site. Photozone is especially useful for driving yourself nuts over whether to purchase a Canon 10-22mm zoom or the equivalent Tamron or Sigma. Seriously, they have very clear writeups with in-depth analysis of  most lenses you may be interested in. I definitely recommend that you check this one out next time you’re in the market.