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I challenge you to go to a local store and photograph shopping carts. You will find lines, areas, plastic, metal etc. When I started I thought it might get boring but I was surprised how many cool images you can get photographing shopping carts.

These carts were stacked together. There are many beautiful lines in this images and I decided that on the left hand side the lines go through the corners.

Enjoy and have fun and by the way don’t be surprised if people ask you what you are doing? Some people might be wondering why you are photographing shopping carts.

This is a totally different group of colors. It is too bad that I do not know about trees and shrubs to determine each and every plant. As a photographer I admire all the different colors in this image.

Enjoy and keep on photographing! 

On my photographic exercise walk I discovered this mug on the old Jeep. The lines and the circle create a beautiful contrast; so does the old jeep in comparisson to the new mug.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

By the way, since I am actively looking for circles, I see them everywhere!

In the park I saw this group of palm trees. It was an overcast day and still the shot was worth it. I basically shot from the ground up using a 15mm wide angle lens an a full frame camera.

Enjoy and happy exercising

The 2nd exercise deals with compositions. Developing your photographic eye means seeing and creating a composition in the viewfinder of your camera. This exercise will help you to to arrange different things together. I ask you to take three things that normally are not together and organize them in a way that they can be photographed. If you do so, you will have to start by looking for things that normally are not together. In my example I took a sweater, peas and pliers and put them together. I tried several arrangements and I tried different camera settings. I finally shot the picture with an 85mm portrait lens at f1.8 to create a very shallow depths of field because I wanted to put the emphasis on the tips of the pliers.  This exercise forces you to think and to try different options. Hopefully at the end of the week you will have created some beautiful and exiting compositions. Don’t forget to have fun with your camera!

Today I was pretty frustrated. I did not see anything new. I was just ready to move on to a new exercise, but I did not. It happened to me before that I thought everything I shot that day was “garbage.” Frustration is part of being a photographer and perseverance is too. When you shoot on a theme, don’t let frustration stop you. Take a break and get right on it again.

I shot this image showing the man made line where the wood was cut, the natural structure lines in the wood and the shadow line of a plant.

Happy shooting and remember regardless how you feel get the shot!

When you start looking for natural and man made lines you start seeing them everywhere. This is my experience after doing this exercise for a few days. I know that I would have never shot this image before I started my photographic exercises because I simply would have overlooked it. Photography starts with open eyes and ends with a great image. Keep up the exercise and be surprised what else shows up.

Happy exercising!

I saw this morning a few dandelions in my front yard. I added the water hose and I had the perfect composition for natural and man made lines. There is indeed a great deal of tension in this image as a result of the composition and of the color tension. The “green” hose does not match the “green” lawn while the “white” Dandelion perfectly fits into the dark background.

I created this blog to share exercises with and for photographers. These exercises are created to shape the photographic eye and skills. Most of them don’t require expensive equipment, however they require thoughts and determination. I do these exercises because I believe in lifelong learning as a photographer. I do my photographic exercises with the same passion I do my bodily exercises.

You are welcome to share with me your images and your ideas. If you know a photographic exercise, please, email me. frgolz@yahoo.com

 

First Exercise: Shoot a photograph with natural and man made lines!

There is a natural tension between natural and man made lines. Natural lines are basically never evenly shaped while man made lines can be straight or circular lines. When doing this exercise pay close attention to how the two type of lines relate to each other.

 

I went out tonight and shot my first round of images. In this images I have fence lines and natural intertwined. Camera setting: f5.6, 1.3sec., ISO 100