Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Check Out The View From Here

If you've been checking this blog for a while, you've seen some of M's photography on here, because I can't resist posting the good pictures he sends me. If you read this post, you'd know that M got me a nice photography book a few months ago explaining techniques for how to take better pictures than the ones I take now… I started reading the book and then got distracted by a whole bunch of things (work, the fact that I needed to dig up my camera's user manual to figure out how to apply the techniques listed in the book, but my user manual was packed away since we were moving, playing with my niece, etc). Inspired by more of M's pics, I picked up the book again yesterday, and this time, I really DO plan on digging up my user manual and figuring out how to do some of this stuff…
In the mean time, M doesn't have a book for photography techniques, but it really doesn't matter, because he's somehow figured out how to take the amazing pics all by himself. And I think that my thievery of his pics (here and here) is what drove him to start his own blog. Now, M posts his pics at The View From Here and I can no longer take all the credit.

There are people (read "me") who love to look at beautiful things, but who are what I like to call "Creatively Challenged" visually. For example, it doesn't help my attempts to draw and paint (or play tennis, for that matter) that I don't have the greatest hand-eye coordination. Word processors have vastly improved my quality of life, because without them, others would still be struggling to make out my handwriting instead of focusing on the content of what I have to say. And let's just say that calligraphy has never been my strong point. That's why I like photography so much; I can just point at beautiful things that are already in front of me, try to capture them and that somehow makes me part of the art.
Then there are people who have a natural knack for drawing, and photography, and interior decoration; they just have a sense for what looks good, and they're able to take that sense and make it into something that's aesthetically pleasing. That's M.
Oh, and hand-eye coordination helps too ;)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I checked out M's pictures - you're right he does have a really good aesthetic sense. Do you guys use regular point and shoot cameras or the ones with the lens sticking out (forgive my inexperience with this topic - I don't even know what those types of cameras are called, just know that photographers with a capital P use them).

noha said...

Haha Sajda... you're totally forgiven. I don't remember all the names either. We both use digital cameras with lenses that only "stick out" when we're zooming. I guess they're regular point and shoot. Except the fact is that you can turn off the automatic setting and adjust everything (aperture, shutter speed, focus) manually... mind you, I'm still not very good at this at all. I usually still take most of my pics in some automatic mode or another...
M tries out more settings I think.

Anonymous said...

Noha, I’m flattered. I’m actually only posting the cool ones, you should also check out my not-so-cool pics sometime :) Oh and as for your creative side, well I guess your pics (especially the ones from Dec 13th, my favourites so far by the way) testify to the talent.

noha said...

Heheh, I measure the photographer's talent by how cool the cool ones are, and your cool ones are cooler than most of my cool ones...
Gotta go back and look at my Dec 13th; can't remember what they are...