EXERCISE

Landscape
Assignment: Photograph a large
expanse of any "natural" environment. Depending on where you live,
"natural"
may mean virgin
wilderness, agricultural land, a
seashore or an inner city park. Do
your best, however, to avoid buildings, roads or other indications of
human influence.
Goal: Capture something of the
character of the landscape you photograph. Is it lush, wild, domesticated, barren, pleasant, forbidding,
calm, awesome? Take time to find
out, and then express your conclusions in your photographs.
Tips: Don't just go out and point
your camera at the view and call it a
landscape because it has land and
trees and sky in it. Make the composition work. Look for visual harmonies: recurring patterns in trees,
rocks, the contours of the land,
water, clouds.
Shoot in snow, rain, mist, bright
sunlight, any weather. Notice how atmospheric conditions change the environment: How does rain affect an
open field, a pond or river, a forest?
How does bright sunlight affect
them? Notice how clouds relate to the
shape of the land.
Patience is important. For example, once you decide what to photograph, you may have to wait until the
clouds do just the right thing.
Pay particular attention to technique. Landscapes are very demanding subjects. For example, you may
want to use a filter to make clouds
more distinct, to darken the sky or
otherwise achieve the effect you want

170 The Photographic Eye

(see Appendix). If it's raining, or the

sky is heavily overcast, you may want
to use a larger aperture (or slower
shutter speed) to brighten the photograph. If the whole scene seems too
bright, you may want to darken it by
using a smaller aperture (or faster
speed). Be aware of your position in
relation to the sun, and the effect that
has on your results. Experiment, and
take notes on what you're doing, so
you'll know what worked and what
didn't.

Student photograph
Peterson.

by Clark

Student photograph by Patrick Stout.

Student photograph by Al Webb.

Places

171

EXERCISE

Architecture
& Environment
Assignment: Photograph a building
(or buildings), showing how it relates
to its environment.
Goal: Before you start shooting,
ask yourself some questions about
the relation between the building (or
buildings) and environment. Are they
in harmony with each other? Do they
clash? Does one have a negative effect on the other? Do you like one
and dislike the other? Do you like or
dislike them both? Use your camera
to help you answer these questions.
Decide what you'd like to say about
what you see, and say it with your
photographs.
Tips: Pay attention to the surrounding natural environment, landscaping, streets, other buildings, etc.
Any kind of buildings are acceptable:
suburban homes, row houses, apartments, high-rise offices, barns and
silos, trailer homes, buildings shaped
to fit an odd piece of land, etc.
Don't restrict yourself to an eyelevel perspective. Get up high and
look down. Lie flat on the ground
and look up. Go off to one side or
another. Step back into an alley or
side street. Get in close. Move far
away. If you have more than one
lens, use them. Try a wide angle lens
up close, a telephoto from a distance.

172 The Photographic Eye

Student photograph by Jeffrey Richter.

Student photograph by Mark Crew.

Student photograph by Derek Leath.

Places 173

EXERCISE

Neighborhoods
Assignment: Photograph a neighborhoodany place where people
live.
Goal: Try to express a "sense of
place": What is it about this neighborhood that makes it special? Don't
just shoot a collection of buildings.
Tips: You may or may not want to
include people in your photographs.
Make that decision on the basis of
what you want to express about the
neighborhood. If it seems like a
friendly community, a place where
people are important, then you'll
probably want them included. If it
seems cold and empty, a bunch of
buildings where people just happen
to live, then you may want to express
that feeling by not showing any people in your photographs.
Notice how light affects the mood
of a neighborhood. Use the light to
help express your feelings: dark and
solemn, bright and cheerful, pale and
sad, etc.
Also notice that neighborhoods,
like people, tend to show their age.
Is the neighborhood itself young,
middle-aged, old? What about the
people in it? Are many of them
similar in age and character to their
neighborhood?
Look for clues about how people
live: tree-lined avenues, people watering lawns, trash cans in the morning,
similarities and differences among the
various houses or apartments. What
kind of cars are in the driveways or
parking lots? What kind of decorations do you see? Do people hang out
their wash on clotheslines? Do they

174 The Photographic Eye

spend time outside, or stay indoors?

Learn as much as you can by just
looking around. Then see how much
of what you've learned can be expressed in a single photograph.
Most of the rules that apply to architectural photography also apply to
this assignment. You may want to get
down low and look up, get up above
and look down for patterns, shoot
from a third story window, through
trees or gates, or from down an alley.

Student photograph by Bruce Wiles.

Student photograph by Gerald Allen Conway.

Places 175

EXERCISE

Zoo/Farm
Assignment: Go to a zoo or a farm
and photograph animals.
If you can't get to a zoo or farm,
find some pets to photograph.
Photograph only animals, not people
on horseback, for instance, or an
animal with a trainer.
Goal: Try to get more than just a
photograph of an elephant or cow or
dog. See if you can capture
something special about one particular animal.
Tips: Animals, like people, are
highly expressive and mobile. To
photograph them well, you'll have to
catch them in action or wait till one
stops in an interesting pose.
Experiment with perspective. Get
in close enough to crop out the
background completely. Step back
and show the animal in its environment. Show the whole animal, just a
part of it a n ear, eye, tail, footer several animals together. Look for
texture (such as an elephant's hide)
and pattern (a zebra's stripes).
In addition to zoos and farms, you
might find good subjects at a country fair, a cattle auction, a dog show,
or in a park. Even in the middle of
a city, you should be able to find dogs
and cats; you might find horses; and
you will certainly find pigeons.
If there is a cage between you and
your subject, get as close to the bars
or wire as possible (assuming you
can't shoot between them). The cage
will then just be a blur, especially if

176 The Photographic Eye

you use a large aperture. Try to open

up to about f/2.8, but remember that
you'll need to focus very carefully. If
your subject is also fairly far away,
the cage may disappear entirely.
Alternatively, if you're at a zoo, an
outdoor show may give you an opportunity to photograph animals outside of their cages.

Student photograph by Sam Tipton.

The placement of the cat, combined

with light spilling in through the
window, makes this photograph
more than a portrait of a particular
cat. It evokes a mood, conveys a
sense of place and time, artel si irs our
memories even though we have
never experienced this particular
scene. (Student photograph by Lynn
Miller.)

Student photograph
Krumlauf.

by David

Places

111

EXERCISE

Store Windows
Assignment: As you photograph
store windows, look for two things:
merchandise on display and reflections in the glass.
Be careful to keep yourself out of
the photograph as much as possible.
It is not acceptable for you to be
clcarlv visible.
Goal: Try to catch something
unusual, especially something humorous. Don't just show a window
with things in it. Make sure your
photographs say something about
those things.
Tips: Look for patterns and interesting juxtapositions (or combinations) of objects. Notice how the
reflection interacts with what's inside
the window. Watch for signs (inside
the window or reflected in it). Keep
an eye out for interesting mannequins, or displays being rearranged.
Consider getting two windows together in one photograph.
Be conscious of your cropping. As
a general rule, only the window
should in the photograph, not the rest
of the building. But if the building
relates to what's in the window, then
include both. Pay particular attention
to converging lines caused by perspective. Make sure they work with
the composition, not against it.
Several tricks will help keep you
out of the photograph. Stand at an
angle to the window so it isn't reflecting things from your direction. Or get
down low, so the reflection passes
over you. Position yourself so that
you line up with the frame of the window. Or stand so your reflection is
in a dark part of the window. This
can be achieved by standing so some178 The Photographic Eye

thing dark (a shadow, for example,

or a building) is behind you, or by
lining yourself up with some dark object inside the window. Experiment
with these techniques and they'll soon
become automatic. (Note: It is
acceptable, and often unavoidable,
for part of you to be visible. Just try
not to produce a photograph that
looks like a self-portrait in a window.) It is perfectly acceptable for
other people to be visible, either inside the window or reflected in it.

Student photograph
Pretty man.

by

John

EXERCISE

Construction
Sites
Assignment: Find any kind of
building under construction (from a
glass and steel skyscraper to a
wooden shed) and photograph it.
Goal: Look for more than posts
and beams-people; bulldozers;
machinery; tools; heaps of dirt, stone
and metal, etc. Make sure, however,
that you stick to the construction
theme (no portraits of people who
just happen to be near a building site,
for example).
Tips: Don't just stand back and
shoot a distant building project. If
you do shoot from a distance, make
the foreground and background
work together. Try to find visual harmonies between them. Make sure
that something ties them together.
For example, locate lines leading to
the point of interest, and emphasize
them.
Try a combination of overview and
detail shots: the silhouette of a
building's frame against the sky, a
bulldozer pushing a mound of earth,
a hand holding a hammer, a nail or
screw in a piece of wood or metal.
How do the construction workers (or
carpenters, etc.) relate to the building? How does the building relate to
them and to its environment?

Student photograph by Lynne Mattielli.

Student photograph.
Places 179

Several distinctive features make this image unusually compelling: juxtaposition of the leaf over the face (which is both
unexpected and slightly disturbing), interplay of the textures of leaf and skin, and the penetrating eye peering at us
through the shadows. (Student photograph by Mia Lobel.)

180

The Photographic Eye