Photographer Coach

What the heck is this a photo of? Some sort of Photoshop digital montage? Actually, no, it’s a straight image I shot out my car window one morning last week! Ever consider keeping your camera at the ready on the front seat of your car? Read on to learn more about drive-by shooting!

What are the compositional elements of this photograph?

I made this image out the side window of my car while waiting for a light to change. The horizontal legs are part of a stationary statue, and these occupy the upper third of the frame. This helps us meet our compositional goal of the “Rule of Thirds.” The ladder truck and pedestrians helped balance the composition by placing themselves in the lower two-thirds of the frame! I happen to like the way the more distant pedestrian is slightly blurred—this gives a bit of depth to the image. Was there luck involved here? Of course. But you have to be well-practiced in the art of drive-by photography in order to take advantage of such situations. Read the rest

Is it ok to post your photos of strangers on your blog or on Flickr. Wired Magazine says go ahead. As long as there’s no “reasonable expectation of privacy” - meaning, they aren’t somewhere they’d never expect a camera to be - you should be ok in regards to privacy issues in most cases. Read the rest