Tag: <span>31 Days</span>

Published October 6, 2017 by

Film Used to Cost a Lot

film
Toronto, 2003          © Avard Woolaver

Film Used to Cost a Lot (Day 6 of 31)

Are you a digital native with photography, or do you remember film? I was a film diehard for a long time, making the switch only around 2006. Film was getting harder to buy, harder to have developed, and just generally more of a hassle. I was pretty sure I’d dislike shooting digital, though, so I’d held out for a long time.

Well, this was another lesson learned about the fallacy of predictions. I loved my digital camera. The difference in the tones of the print, which I was sure would bother me, didn’t seem like an issue. There were slight differences, but they were minimal.

And the cost per shot! These things were basically free! Sure, printing was still an expense, but you could take photos and view them for nothing. I felt I’d been set loose on the world with unlimited resources. The first eight months I had my first digital camera, I took 10,000 photos—around 40 per day. A few years later, I was up to 100 per day, or more.

But in the past year or two something has changed for me. I’m not tired of taking pictures; far from it. But I remember how much more thoughtful I had to be when every single shot represented an expense that was coming out of my wallet. (For those of you who don’t remember the days of film, it used to cost around $4 a roll, with developing and contact sheets or proofs on top of that.) Paying for it had kept me careful. Back in the 1980s, I always had to weigh my priorities, use my judgement, consider the shot before I pressed the shutter.

Do I think the extravagance of the past few years has been somehow bad for me? Like a moral failing, a photographic gluttony? No. I feel that I sharpened a lot of my skills during these years of easy photos, of taking hundreds of photos a day. It’s been great for me. I just find that I’ve moved into a different phase.

These things come upon us without our planning them. An interest or compulsion ebbs, or something inside you shifts. I’m reaching a point where what feels right for me now is to take fewer photos, more judiciously. It’s quite possible I might even return to shooting film.

Don’t you love the ways we surprise ourselves? You can think you know yourself so well, and then you learn something new.

(For the month of October 2017, I’m participating in the 31 Days bloggers’ challenge. You can find out about it here, and check out the interesting work other bloggers are posting.)

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31 Days Avard Woolaver film

Published October 5, 2017 by

The Light of Autumn

light, fall, autumn,
© Avard Woolaver

The Light of Autumn (Day 5 of 31)

Fall light is magic. More people claim fall as their favourite time of year than any other season, and the way the world looks is a big part of that. The vivid colours and changing leaves we associate with this time of year give us a jolt of energy, and the freshness in the air makes us eager to start new projects.

Meteorologists tell us there are two reasons fall light is so special. One is that the sun is hitting the earth at a lower angle, which changes the quality of the light we see. The other reason is that, in most places, fall is a time of lower humidity than summer. The air looks so crisp and the sky so achingly blue because an invisible haze has been stripped from the world around us. You are, literally, seeing everything more clearly at this time of year.

The opportunities offered for photography are generous. In most areas you can still dash outside with just a jacket; you don’t have to deal yet with boots and hats and bundling your kids up in snow pants. If you need an incentive to get outside and snap a few shots, remind yourself that this is, for most of us, a brief season.

It’s a good time to get landscape photos—leaves, dew on grass, afternoon shadows. Tree branches, too, tend to show up well in the crisp light of these days. Even if you can fit it in only once or twice, strolling around and taking some photos in the autumn air is guaranteed to be rewarding.

(For the month of October 2017, I’m participating in the 31 Days bloggers’ challenge. You can find out about it here, and check out the interesting work other bloggers are posting.)

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31 Days autumn Avard Woolaver light

Published October 4, 2017 by

Use a Window as a Frame

window, frame,
© Avard Woolaver

Use a Window as a Frame (Day 4 of 31)

The views from your windows are the transitions between your home and the outside world. Whatever you see when you look out—green grass, rooftops, laundry, beach, leaves—those are the boundaries that demarcate and separate your private life from public life. Inside your walls are privacy, autonomy, and (one would hope) safety. Outside that lies the rest of the world, with all its demands and scrutiny.

It’s interesting to document this transitional zone. Doing so captures, and can later remind you about, all those details of the outside world that are most familiar to you. The hours spent idly staring out the window while washing dishes or musing or waiting for a ride to arrive—all these are moments worth photographing. Children play in the yard, learning to ride bikes, or running through sprinklers on hot days. Dogs lie around in the yard, switching from very busy to stupendously lazy in that charming way they have of going between extremes. If you’re a homeowner and have a house, your yard is your property, the little patch of earth that’s yours. (And if you live in an apartment or similar setup, you have that same relationship: the piece of land may not be yours, but the view is.)

Using a window as a frame underlines the idea that this is your view from inside. It hints at so many aspects of your daily life: leaving and coming home again; greeting your family, or sighing with relief while you slip your coat off; locking the door at night and feeling reassured that you’re safe until morning.

Photographically, a frame creates a dynamic composition. (A doorway can be used the same way in composing your photo.) Because the light is different in all seasons and at various times of day, the view that initially seems static is in fact constantly changing. It’s a helpful way to remember to observe what’s going on around you.

So, a window of your home in your photo operates on many levels: as a metaphor, as an important graphic element that can make your picture stronger, and as a reminder to stay alert.

window, frame, winter,
© Avard Woolaver

(For the month of October 2017, I’m participating in the 31 Days bloggers’ challenge. You can find out about it here, and check out the interesting work other bloggers are posting.)

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31 Days Avard Woolaver

Published October 2, 2017 by

Family Milestones

family, milestones, tradition, portrait,
© Avard Woolaver

Family Milestones (Day 2 of 31 Days)

Family traditions don’t have to happen every year. “Usually” and “sometimes” are just as legitimate. When you miss getting a photo of an important event, let it go. The purpose of our family photos is to hold and reflect some of the love we feel for our dear ones. In other words, the people are what matters. Don’t waste even a thought on the photos you missed; the love is inside you. Self-compassion makes you a better parent and a happier person.

If you have children and you missed getting a good first-day-of-school photo, you can take a “first band practice of the new year” picture instead. If you don’t get a picture of your teenager holding the newly issued driver’s license, catch a photo of her first trip through a drive-through, or first time driving to school, or first time backing into a parking space. After all, those are all small victories that are worthy of notice.

Remember, too, that spontaneity adds its own charm to a shot. After all, a lot of the appeal of those “first day of school” shots lies in the ambivalent nature of the situation. Some kids are beaming wholeheartedly, all big grins and shiny new shoes; plenty of other children, though, face the first days (or weeks) of a new school year with a heart-tugging mix of excitement, nervousness, and terror. Capturing that mix of emotions is part of what it interesting to snap a photo just before the bus arrives on that first morning of the new year. Any situation that has a similar mix of strong emotions is going to be one that’s memorable and is rich with photo opportunities.

And, of course, you want to be sensitive. As a dad, I’ve often been guilty of wielding my camera at times when my kids just want to be left alone. It’s so tempting to try to memorialize all those big moments. “Come on,” I hear myself pleading with them. “Just one shot.” To give you a piece of advice that I don’t always follow myself—let it go. Someday, some photo you take will be your last. But it’s not likely to be the particular one you’re taking at the moment.

(For the month of October 2017, I’m participating in the 31 Days bloggers’ challenge. You can find out about it here, and check out the interesting work other bloggers are posting.)

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31 Days Avard Woolaver

Published October 2, 2017 by

Photographing Fall

2017/10/01, October 1
© Avard Woolaver

Photographing Fall (Day 1 of 31 Days)

In North America, it’s full-on fall now. I live in eastern Canada, which is so beautiful at this time of year. That’s nothing special, though; most places are amazing at this time of year. And if you’re in the southern hemisphere, watching spring arrive, you’re right in the middle of all that beauty.

It’s the transitions, I think. Transitions give us incredible opportunities to focus on what’s changing, what’s just coming into its fullest form, what’s on the way out and you’d better get one more quick look in, while you can. Transitions remind us, viscerally, that change is all around us, all the time; it’s with us every moment.

So photographing the changing seasons is a way of both stopping time and acknowledging its continuous motion. When you’re taking photos this month, you might try to let that awareness guide your focus. (And, coming up for the rest of this month: less philosophy; more concrete examples and suggestions!)

(For the month of October 2017, I’m participating in the 31 Days bloggers’ challenge. You can read all about it here, and check out the interesting work other bloggers are posting.)

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31 Days Avard Woolaver October 1