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The good, the bad, and the al dente

 

In the mid 60’s Sergio Leone’s vision of the American Old West redefined an American film genre. Though the stories themselves were nothing new, Fist Full of Dollars was based on Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, the cinematographic approach taken by Leone portrayed a vision of the west that was cynical, raw, explosively violent, and far more visually stunning then had previously been seen. What can we as photographers learn from these films, and can pasta help us to embrace new perspectives? 

“Force never moves in a straight line, but always in a curve vast as the universe, and therefore eventually returns whence it issued forth, but upon a higher arc, for the universe has progressed since it started.” From the Kabala

Lines can play an important part in a composition and the perspective from which we view these lines can drastically alter the message our composition delivers. Brian Peterson, author of Understanding Exposure, and comp recommends a pasta-based exercise in learning to see creatively that can help us understand the power of the line.

“It is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art, as strong as it is true.” (Piet Mondrian)

I first heard of this exercise in an interview with Brian on the 7 Photography Questions podcast. I’ll quickly break the exercise down here, but if you would rather hear it in Brain’s own words listen to episodes 20 and 21 of the podcast.

The Spaghetti Principal

 Part 1

Get a box of spaghetti and a 2×3 or so piece of poster board. The purpose of the poster board is to help you frame your shot so pick any size you are comfortable working with. I didn’t have any poster board around so I just used a white bath towel.

Imagine that we will be drawing straight lines on a page of paper where the lines extend off the edge of the page. In other words none off our lines will come to an end on the page. Our poster board will be our paper, and we will draw our lines with the spaghetti. I find that mixing white and whole wheat pasta adds an intriguing degree of contrast.

Pull the past from the box, stand it up in the middle of your frame, and let go.

Compose your shot so you are looking directly down onto the pasta. Adjust your field of view so that none of the ends of the spaghetti can be seen. The spaghetti should form lines that run off the edges of the frame.

After taking the first shot move a bit to the left our right and take another shot, again pointing straight down onto the pasta ensuring that our lines run out of the frame. The idea is that we will shoot as we move around the frame. We will need at least 3 shots, one in which the lines are horizontal, one in which they are vertical, and one where they are diagonal.

To paraphrase Brian, horizontal lines convey calm and tranquil picture, vertical lines show strength and dignity, while diagonal lines imply motion and speed. Changing perspective changes the message the photograph conevys, this Brian says is The Power of the Line. I can’t say that these are the feelings that hit me when I look at these shots, but then that may be why Brians suggesting the exersise, so we can learn to see. Look not with your eyes, but with your heart Grasshopper, and you will discover the power of the line.

Horizontal lines - Nikkor 24-70 f2.8, 56 mm at 1/160 f 11

Vertical lines - Nikkor 24-70 f2.8, 70 mm at 1/25 f 11 ISO 400

Diagonal lines - Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8, 70mm at 1/25 f11

  

 

Part 2

This part of the exercise focuses on incorporating elements of shape and color; Brian suggests a small red cherry tomato, into our pasta pictures. My artistic vision does not include small red cherry tomatoes; I don’t even like them in my salad. Taking a far more daring approach to photography I chose to incorporate a small yellowish-orange Scotch Bonnet pepper.

“No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.” Ansel Adams

Place your vegetable of choice, be it the unadventurous and conservative small red cherry tomato, or the daring and audacious small yellowish-orange Scotch Bonnet pepper within the frame where you feel it best adds weight to your vision.

This pepper is calm and tranquil - Nikkor 24-70 f2.8, 70 mm at 1/100 f 11 (-1EV) ISO 800

Strong yes, but hardly dignified - Nikkor 24-70 f2.8, 70 mm at 1/320 f 11 (-1EV) ISO 800

I call this one "Pepper racing towards oblivion" - Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8, 70mm at .5s f16 ISO800

Brian presents a number of other exercises on learning to see creatively in the 7 Questions for Photographers podcast. If you’ve never listed to this podcast before I highly suggest you give it a try. Audri Lanford, host of the podcast, has already interviewed photographers such as Jim Zuckerman, Jennifer Wu, and Tony Sweet.

Land of Waterfalls – r2

The Land of Waterfalls known by some as Transylvania County lies in the western corner of North Carolina forming the crossroads of the Pisgah National Forest, Dupont State Park, Gorges State Park, Nantahala National Forest, and a good stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Last November I spent a week wandering back roads and trails of this region on a determined if somewhat naive mission of capturing the power and beauty of the local waterfalls. I returned home to Charlotte with nearly 8GB’s of RAW images and a new found respect for just how elusive the perfect waterfall picture can be. Needless to say I had underestimated the challenges of waterfall photography and compounded the difficulties of my task by using this as the first field test of my new Nikon D700 and two new lenses. Why would I do it this way you ask. For the same reason that Superman crashes through the wall when there was a perfectly good door he could have used; because Superheroes like to do things the hard way.

OK back to the central tenant of my delusion of shooting the next National Geographic cover, the concept of shooting waterfalls just seemed so simple. Hike into the woods, set up your tripod, find an exposure that lets you close down the lens for greater depth of field and gives you a slow enough shutter speed to create a white water effect implying motion. If there’s too much light to get the right exposure just throw a 3 stop ND or a polarizing filter on the from of the lens, lock up the mirror, and trip the shutter with a cable release. A bit more involved then point and shoot but it’s not like were trying to split an atom either. Like many a rocket scientists I learned that …in theory practice and theory are the same, in practice they are not.

My grand theory of harnessing the raw power of nature through digital capture had a fatal flaw (well actually more then one, but we will get to that in a bit), it had failed to consider the extremes of dynamic range between a dark forest valley and a bright sunny sky. Graduated Neutral Density filter you say? Three stops or two, hard or soft? While I’ll take three soft if you please. Now if I had thought of this before my expedition I just might be hanging out with Scott Bourne on the next Aperture Nature Photo workshop (he shoot’s Nikon now you know), but alas I ventured into the great outdoors GNDless.

Oh my, a burned out sky. High Falls - The Triple Falls, Dupont State Forest

To be honest there were other technical issues (by technical issues I do mean operator error). I shot in either manual or Aperture Priority the entire week, which would have been the perfect option if I had only selected the right apertures. Stopping down the lens increases depth of field so why not stop down all the way to f22? I mean I knew that a lens needs to be stopped down from wide open to ensure sharpness, I just never fully reasoned out that stopping up to f16 or f18 might be a good idea.

Triple Falls close up, just before the bag for my RSS ball head started floating down stream

Triple Falls, another close up, ball head bag safely recovered.

Now our tale of photographic misadventure turns to composition. “How can I frame my shot with all these bushes in the way, come on, it’s November why are there still leaves in the trees!” Why is Mother Nature is dissing with me? Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of Phoshop. Then again how much can you really crop out of the foreground? Seriously though composition can present some challenges, in many cases isolating the waterfall from distractive elements may be tough, in others the realities of the surrounding landscape may mean simply being able to get into position for a good shot is not possible.

Pond Near Cove Creek Falls

My best shots probably came on my first day shooting the Triple Falls in Dupont State Forrest. The Triple drops about 100 feet over three closely spaced falls, which can be shot individually or together. A large watershed and plenty of flat rock make it relatively easy to get some good shots, particularly if you have a couple of GND’s to help keep the sky from blowing out. The falls are somewhat famous, having starred in Last of the Mohicans, and are fairly easy to get too so go early if you enjoy solitude.

Triple Falls, Dupont State Forest

 Cove Creek Falls in the Pisgah National Forest, which I shot on the second day, are a good example of how overgrowth can make getting a good shot difficult. The hike to the falls is significantly more difficult then the hike to the Triple Falls. That and its much smaller watershed mean there is a good chance you’ll have the falls to your self. I shot Cove Creek for about four hours and never ran into anyone else.

Cove Creek Falls.

As Kevin Adams states in his book North Carolina Waterfalls if you can only see one waterfall in NC then Whitewater Falls, part of the Nantahala State Forest, is the one. It is truly spectacular with two levels of shear drops and cascades plummeting over 400 feet. The falls can be viewed from two observation platforms with the lower one offering the best opportunities for photography. And there’s good reason not to stray from the observation platforms. These falls have claimed more lives than any other in the state.

Whitewater Falls

All in all I shot about 600 or so images of six of the areas waterfalls and while the results were far from perfect the insight I gained in what went wrong should prove valuable the next time around. With at least 90 something waterfalls to go in Transylvania Count, out of the 1,500 or so in NC, I’ll sure to be out that way again soon (packin Graduated ND filters to be sure).

I swear the rock was like that when I got there. Pool near Cove Creek Falls, Pisgah National Forest

Addendum – Don’t bother looking for rev 1 of this post. I originally wrote the post on Dec 25, on Dec 26 I went in to make a few changes and ended up rewriting the entire post.