Viewfinder

Spread apart your thumbs and index fingers; then join your index fingers to your thumbs. By so doing you make a rectangular frame through which you can look. This is the equivalent of a viewfinder on a camera. Close one eye and select views as if you were looking through a proper viewfinder. You can move your hands away from your eye to reduce the field of vision or move them towards your eye to increase what is included in the picture. When we take photos with a camera we select the field of vision by adjusting the focus or by moving closer to or further from the subject. We usually do this without giving too much thought to the process; it’s like a subconscious action or an automatic reflex.



Artists sometimes select their subjects by first looking at them through a small picture frame similar in proportion to the canvas or paper on which they will paint or draw their picture. The frame is a great help to them because the positions of objects, shapes and forms within the field of vision can be transferred to the canvas or paper. I have used this method when painting landscapes, still-life subjects and portraits.


When I am taking photos I am conscious of the positions of objects within the viewfinder. One thing I try to avoid is taking a photo of a person who is sitting or standing in front of an upright object such as a road sign or similar vertical object, because when the photo is developed one sees the object apparently growing out of the person’s head! It’s a bit like those irritating photos where the person being photographed is unaware that someone behind them is holding two fingers in such a way as to give the impression they protude from the person's head. The idea is to take-the-mickey out of the person being photographed by giving them bunny ears or cow horns.



Anyway, when I’m out and about with my camera and I come across something interesting, I’ll look at it through the viewfinder, make a selection and push the button. Today, I’ve posted four photos of selections that interested me. I like them because they record natural patterns, textures and forms, all found beside the water.




Text for the Day

Romans 1:18, 19 ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them.’