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Month: January 2011 (Page 1 of 5)

A Shortcut for Winning Composition

January 31, 2011 /

Light at City Hall

Rule of Thirds: focus on any of the four places the lines overlap. Photo by Mary Gow


It was at the Maine Photographic Workshops that I “got” it about composition. My vision got a tune-up there.

I had written about The Rule of Three in writing. Well, in composition there’s The Rule of Thirds (explained quite well at betterphoto.com. It works in painting as well as photography. Think of a grid of three across and three down, creating nine rectangles. Place your subject where any of the lines cross. See the grid.

The Main Thing I Learned at The Maine Photographic Workshops

January 25, 2011 /

Callas

Callas, photo by Mary Gow

In the middle of an intensely hot August when I was living in Austin, Texas, I treated myself to a week long workshop on “Creativity in Photography” at The Maine Photographic Workshops in Rockport, Maine.

Of note, in 2007 The Maine Photographic Workshops and the International Film and Video Workshops merged to form the Maine Media College.

Rockport reminded me of Louisiana (where I grew up) – big trees and very green, with the added pluses of more hills, ocean and not needing an air conditioner. I rented a bike for the week, and food, room and board was included in the package. I stayed in an old rickety Victorian house and to my surprise, my roommate was a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist for the San Jose Mercury News.

Through the week we had various assignments. One was to use plastic Holga cameras and think of new ways to take pictures. The teacher encouraged us to smear the camera lens with Vaseline.

The main thing that I learned from the workshop was something simple yet changed the way I composed my photographs. It wasn’t the first time I had heard of the Golden Meanwhich is the ratio 1:1.618034. At the workshop I saw it in practice more than ever before. There is a dynamism in the almost 5/8ths (roughly 8:13 ratio), in framing slightly off-center.

A New Playground for the Innovatively Inclined

January 23, 2011 /

If you have visions dancing in your head of new products that don’t yet exist, the new Tech Shop in San Francisco, at 926 Howard Street (near 7th Street) is where you can make your new idjit a reality.

On Friday, January 14th, the Tech Shop had a grand opening. The new facility’s parent is the original Tech Shop in Menlo Park, founded by Jim Newton, which opened October 1, 2006. A candy store for the innovatively inclined, the tech shop is a membership based, open-access do-it-yourself workshop.

The Tech Shop has grown outside the Bay Area as well, with locations in Raleigh, NC and Portland, OR. This year new shops will also open in San Jose, CA and Detroit, MI.

Classes cover the gamut if you want to create something. Before you use a specific tool you have to have proficiency of it and it may require that you first take an “SBU” class which covers safety and basic usage. Among the many tools at the Tech Shop you’ll find laser cutters, TIG welding, plasma cutters, vinyl cutters, industrial sewing machines, mold makers and more. There’s even a class on patenting your invention.

It’s couldn’t be more appropriate that the tag line for the Tech Shop is “Build Your Dreams Here.” But you don’t have to have a new product in mind to enjoy what the Tech Shop has to offer. There’s also classes like basic woodworking (I signed up for this one). In this class you learn to make a small bench that you can sit on while you put your shoes on.

This class will complete the WoodWorking Safety and Basic Usage requirements at the Tech Shop. Plus, you’ll learn to use a circular saw, jig saw, drill press, power screwdriver, radial arm saw and table saw to create a bench. Then, you can use the scroll saw or jig saw or CNC ShopBot to decorate the bench. Do you know what CNC ShopBot is?

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