Live action
People, places, things.
Through live action, that is photography and cinematography, I study them. All my other pursuits are solitary, but this is collaborative. Few things make me appreciate the world more than trying to capture it as beautifully as I can. Studying light, composition, colour and manipulating what you can control to work with what you can’t control is an exercise in many crucial skills not only for creativity and visual communication, but even life. Photographing people is a different game altogether. Unless you're shooting professional models, people are intimidated by a big lens staring at them. Then the real work involves pulling their natural self out while they are hiding from your lens, because only natural smiles look good on camera. It's hard, but seeing the joy on someone's face when they love how they look in a photo is absolutely worth it.
The thrill of the light through a big window, the glorious dance of dust particles as they make a scene come alive, or waiting for mother nature to give you the perfect cloud formations. The experience really is quite intimate and spiritual. Studying shapes created by shadows and the effects framing can have on the narrative of an image, or simply getting up at 3 am to be somewhere for a great photo at dawn, this is the pleasure, the joy, of live action.
I used to think naming photographs and writing a piece about them is silly and pretentious, but I've forced myself to do it, and it's remarkable in what way it makes you realise why you like a certain photo. I would say the process of studying the world through photography isn't complete without it.
In due time I'll create separate galleries for different topics, but for now they are all jumbled together. After all, a lovely image is a lovely image, regardless of the subject matter.
Stills first, and video below.
Cinematography is a new field I'm exploring, but it's a hard one to do without a crew. You also need some more advanced gear, which I'm still gathering. I only recently purchased a camera that takes good footage and continuous lights.
It's important to me that people enjoy the shoot and loosen up. Even with interviews, it makes the delivery so much better, which translates into more usable footage and better audio. This means fewer cuts in an attempt to fix problems, which translates into less work in edit, lower cost and of course, most importantly, a better product.
In the short time I've been exploring, I have filmed quite a few interviews and documented several initiatives and events so my learning is happening pretty quickly. I'm really enjoying it, so hopefully there will be much more to show soon.