Photography course

Yesterday we started the photography course at Jacaranda, in Blantyre, Malawi. It was lovely, interested participants, and a good room. Jacaranda is nice. We started on the question: what is a good photo? There are some theories around it, and a lot of interesting things to talk about. And of course we did make photos, it is a practical course.
However a few people did not come over, so we have some space for more people. If you are interested, you can call me on 0994 815947.

photo course at Jacaranda, STILL SOME PLACES AVAILABLE!

 

PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE

Facilitator: Arjen Van de Merwe

Place: Jacaranda Cultural Center & Maison de la France, Top Mandala

Times: Ten-week course, starting Saturday 16th September. 2pm-5pm

Registration: jacarandaculturalcenter@gmail.com 

arjenvdm@dds.nl

0994 815947

Photography is a creative activity. It is fun, it gives pleasure to create beauty, to communicate. Photography is a language, with its own vocabulary and grammar. Learning how to use these is learning how to communicate through images.
In this course photographer and photography educator Arjen van de Merwe addresses the language of photography. How do I use the tools available to the photographer to make a strong image, an image that speaks? An image that tells the story I want to tell. Your grand children, your flowers, your dog, or fully abstract images, any subject is suitable.
-- Light, composition, content, timing, all these attributes can cooperate to make the photo communicate to the viewer. Arjen explains how to use them to create the image that you want to make, the image that says what you have to say. Your facilitator can not tell you which photo to make. But he can explain the language of photography, so you can tell your own story. Technical issues are addressed as and when needed, the emphasis is on the creative side of photography.
The course consists of ten sessions of three hours each. The participants use their own camera.
During the week, the participants make photographs. The photographs are discussed in the course.
By each week completing a cycle of
theory > practice > evaluation > back to theory
the participant grows his/her skills and artistry

camera angle

I was working for Girls Empowerment Network. The idea was to show the girls as empowered. I am tall, so if I stand up straight I will be looking down on the girls, which does not show them as empowered, quite the opposite: the viewer will be looking down on them. So I kneeled down, aiming upwards. I had my camera set, and waited for Yami to turn her face so the sun would light it nicely. I at the right moment I pushed the shutter.
With demonstrations and such I like to be close with a wide angle (in this case 17mm) so the viewer gets a feeling of being in the middle of it. The wide angle left space for the other girls and some of the banner, giving info on the event.

My photos in Daily Maverick

registration of refugees
Daily Maverick

My photos of the floods

Concern Universal shows the photos I made for them of the floods here in Malawi.
https://concern-universal.org/re-write/international-aid/malawi-flooding-pictures/

Slow sync flash

Sheckly, photo 1

photo 2

In dark situations, you need a slow shutter speed to get enough exposure. (You also will use a wide aperture and high ISO setting to increase exposure). Also you often add light with the flash. But when you turn on the flash with an automatic setting on your camera, usually the camera goes no slower than 1/60s. In many cases that is not enough to get exposure from the background. For this, many cameras have a ”night photo” setting. Usually it has an icon of a building with a moon and/or star above it. This setting combines flash with a slow shutter speed. What happens is: things close to the camera receive flash, but the flash falls off quickly as distance increases, so the background does not receive flash. But if there are lights in the background, they can get exposure, because of the slow shutter speed. I never use this automated setting, I prefer to set the shutter speed manually. Those parts of the subject that are in the dark receive only flash, so they will be lit only very short, which means they will not render motion blur or camera shake. But the lights will be exposing for the full duration of the open shutter.

photo 3

I photographed model Sheckly in the night club Mustang Sally here in Blantyre. Thank you for posing, Sheckly. They have nice laser lights that move and flash and change colour and all that, exactly what you need for crazy effects of this kind. When the shutter stays open for, say, 1 second, the moving lights record as streaks in the image.

photo 4

In photo 1 you see Sheckly sharp, she received flash. On her face you see streaks of light. These green lights are small dots in reality, but because the shutter was open for a second, and they moved during that second, they become lines. In the background you see lights with similar shapes, which is probably camera shake, they all get the same shape lines because that is how I moved the camera in the second the shutter was open.

Photo 2 is a variation on this. In this case the red lines are laser lights moving by themselves. The strong coloured lights on top and at shoulder height are stationary lights, their streaks are caused by camera shake.

In photo 3 and 4 I used a shutter speed of 5 seconds. Here you see Sheckly sharp because she was lit by the short duration of the flash, and during the five seconds I deliberately moved the camera in a weird way to creates streaks of light. You see the lights in weird lines. Different types of camera

photo 5

movement create different types of lines. This is a bit of a hit and miss affair, you see that in photo 5. This photo it went wrong, I misjudged what would happen, and the lights are covering up Sheckly’s face in a weird way. Only good for humour, and here it is not even that great of a joke. Just to show you that it can go awfully wrong. So make a lot of photos when you use this technique, and your chances of being lucky get better.

Wild life

This morning I found some wildlife in my hallway: a scorpion. Being a photographer, I rushed to get my close up equipment ready, while my wife watched the wild life, in case it would move around.

scorpion 1

The first thing you notice, technically, in a macro photo is the limited depth of field: shallow focus. The depth of field depends on two things: the aperture, and the size of depiction. The smaller the aperture (higher f number) the deeper the focus. That is a simple camera setting. The only restriction is that a small aperture needs a lot of light. In this case I used bounce flash, so I had light, but it is limited. I used f8.
The size of depiction is determined by the lens, in this case a tele lens of 200mm. That gives big depiction, so shallow focus. The other way to change the size of depiction is going closer to the subject. I used a close up attachment on the lens to go close,

scorpion 2

so I could show the small scorpion big in the photo. I was about 20 cm from the scorpion. This also gives shallow focus. Put together the focus becomes very shallow. I focussed on what I presume is the face of the scorpion, and the result is that the tail and fangs are out of focus. There are two possible solutions: smaller aperture, but there my flash could not cope. The other is to choose an angle that you do not need deep focus. In photo 2 I photographed straight down on the

scorpion 3

scorpion. Now most of it is at the same distance from the lens, and it is all in focus. You can see a lot of detail. But from so high up it does not look menacing, it looks like a small creature (which it actually is!). I want it to look dangerous so I should be at the same height as it. (Lower would be nice but there is the floor, so that does not go). For photo 3 the scorpion decided to move from the brown tiles to the green floor next to the cupboard. Now I photographed it from the side, so most of it is at more or less the same distance from the lens. I focussed where I presume the eyes are. You see the legs close to the camera out of focus, and the fangs are also not tack sharp. But the sting on the tail is, and that is where the danger is. I am only slightly above it, so this one looks dangerous. The first one has the advantage of facing me, But this one shows more detail, and looks also scary.
After the photo session I put a glass over it, and moved it to the garden where I set it free.