Shutter Mike Photography

Northern Arizona University (NAU) is in Flagstaff and is one of three state universities in Arizona.  It is the smaller of the three and the only one in the snowy North.  In winter, Northern Arizona can get a good amount of snow.  That has certainly been the case over the past few weeks as storm after storm dumped snow and rain on Arizona.

This was only my second attempt at photographing snow.  Living in the Phoenix area the opportunity does not present itself too often.  It is not an easy task.  For one, as you can see in this image, the color pallet is rather monochromatic.  In addition, as you can imagine, snow is very reflective.  It takes a lot of practice and trial and error to get the exposure correct on so much bright white.  But when done right a snowy landscape or snow covered anything can make a beautiful image.

I have done a few posts on the rules of photography such as how various composition methods from leading lines to framing an image are designed to make a more visually pleasing image.  One key point I believe is important with all the rules of photography is that you have to know how and when to break them.

I am participating in a 365 Photo Project hosted by Faded and Blurred.  One of my recent images was taken under tungsten lighting and I did not adjust the white balance settings in the camera to compensate for the yellowish/orange glow that is omitted by normal household bulbs.  Nor did I do any post processing work to make it “right.”  This elicited some comments that the white balance was “not right.”  From a purely technical standpoint I totally agree with the commenter.  This image is not “correct” according to the rules of white balance.  However, as photographers, amateur or professional, we have the benefit of “artistic license.”

Artistic License – the freedom to create an artwork, musical work, or piece of writing based on the artist’s interpretation and mainly for effect.

I intentionally left the orange glow given off by the tungsten lighting of the room because I felt it resulted in the image that I was looking to create.  It sets a mood and more accurately reflects the true setting of the scene.

The constructive criticism that you get from fellow photographers when sharing your photographs on sites such as Flickr is a huge benefit.  So I do not object to one of my images being interpreted as being “not right.”  But I stand behind my  belief that as long as I know and can follow the rules of photography I am free to break those rules to interpret a scene or subject and create an image with my creativity added.  But you do have to have a base understanding of what you are doing before you are free to deviate.

This image was taken with my point-and-shoot camera as I was out walking around.  You don’t always need the DSLR to get a good shot.  When it is not practical to have your full size camera in hand having a compact point-and-shoot in your pocket will prevent you from missing an opportunity.

In our post-9/11 world photography news has been filled with stories of the rights of photographers, amateur and professional alike, being questioned and tested.  Security guards and police officers stopping photographers everywhere from shopping malls to train stations claiming photography is banned is nothing new.  If you know your rights as a photographer and have the ability to remain calm and polite these incidents are usually no more than an uninformed “officer” and an inconvenience.

However, there are some legitimate bans on photography.  The latest comes from Washington DC and the National Archives.  Effective February 24th tourists will no longer be able to take photographs inside the National Archives, the home of the US Constitution and other historically and politically priceless documents.

This has some photographers up in arms as their right to photograph and even document these documents is being squashed.  But according to the National Archives, the reasons for the ban are not “terrorist” related as is often cited by as the reason for stopping photographers in other public places.  Being hundreds of years old, the documents housed in the Archives are obviously in a fragile state to say the least.  Up until recently they were housed behind filtered glass to protect them from the building lights and the unknowing or delinquent tourist who ignored the “no flash photography” signs.  But the filters made the documents have a greenish hue which, again according to the Archives, diminished the tourist experience.  So they removed the filtered glass, placed the filters on the lights themselves and banned all photography.  Easier than policing the few tourists who could not or would not comply with the rules I suppose.

In the case of this photography ban, we have the point-and-shoot, sock-and-sandal tourist who does not understand they are part of the bigger world and their actions impact others to blame.  I understand that the National Archives are doing their job to protect America’s priceless historical documents.  Unfortunately the amateur photography is a casualty.  For professionals and the media arrangements can still be made to photograph within the Archives.  The rest of us can grab one of the free pre-printed photos of the constitution and make mental pictures.