2011: Art Project 10--Photography

I have a part-time family photography business that I do just to give me a creative outlet and something that is mine away from the kids and the house. I decided one of our projects this summer should be learning about photography.

I showed the girls the following images by Ansel Adams:

Rose and Driftwood, 1932
Saguaros, Saguaro National Monument, 1933-1942

Church, Taos Pueblo, 1942

Oak Tree Sunrise, 1966

And the very famous image below:

by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 8/14/1945

And these Henri Cartier-Bresson images:

I didn't get into anything technical with photography. I just mentioned it had a lot to do with lighting. And that it was really important to pay attention to what is in your camera frame. Don't just walk up and take a photo of anything. Really see how it looks in your camera and make it look visually interesting. We also talked about how photography is catching a moment in time (just like in Henri Cartier-Bresson's photos).

We went to visit the MN Landscape Arboretum and just walked around. It has been a long time since I've been there just to enjoy the area. I'm usually there focused on taking photographs of someone. It was nice to just walk around with no purpose in mind. Here are a few of the photos I took of the girls taking photos:


And here are some of Ella's photos:

The photo above and below are favorites for me. I like that she didn't center the flowers,
but they are off to one side of the photograph.

And Lily's....it's interesting because a good deal of photography is all technical. The girls were just using little point and shoot cameras. But Lily's wasn't focusing properly. The flowers were out of focus while the background was in focus. Kind of bummed about that. Not sure if it was operator error or if maybe the camera was dropped in the past and the focus mechanism isn't working well anymore. At any rate, here are Lily's:

This last one is my favorite of Lily's!