Yesterday we were shooting an iPhone app commercial all afternoon out in Point Grey. It was a supremely gorgeous day and we wrapped at about 5pm. The light was so golden and yummy that I had to shoot some photos of our actor, Derek Pante.
I have always wanted to do a spontaneous photo shoot with bubbles, so I keep a bottle of bubble mix in my car.
Derek was awesome and blew a bunch of bubbles even though the mix was about a year old and the soap tasted super gross. I crouched down and waited for the perfect POP and voila! Bubble magic hour POP!
I was on my way back to San Francisco from recording a rather silly TWiT episode at the cottage in Petaluma and I spotted a field of cows bathed in the most glorious golden magic hour light I had ever seen. It was similar to the light in that scene in Transformers where minxy Megan Fox is slinking down a dirt highway and Shia is looking perplexed, anxious & slightly constipated. Like that only cows instead of beads of sweat on Megan Fox's sweaty cleavage. < -- I'm going to get so many google search hits for that. Stats score!
Anyway, I jumped out of the old gelapi of a rental van I was in and ran towards the field to catch the beautiful light. This was my first mistake. You see there was a new & very protective mother cow with her new baby calves. And as you might imagine, Mama Cow was not too happy at me for charging towards her kin with a huge sniper lens. Maybe she was shy about her post pregnancy baby weight or something? So I slowed down, pretended to shoot some flower macros on the side of the road and sneakily approached from the side.
Well, I guess Mama was no fool because as soon as I was close enough to take a shot, she let out the most horrific 'Moo' I have ever heard. This was no Fisher Price barn opening moo, but a "I will bore out your eye sockets for fun" sort of Moo. I saw death in that mama cow's eyes. Skull n' cross-bones death, I tell you.
This is when I realized there was a large barbed wire fence between me and Mean Mama, so I snapped the shot of her boyfriend, stuck out my tongue, and skipped away.
This Rainbow Lorikeet let Front Page Explore go straight to it's little head.
Explore is Flickr's Daily Artist Showcase. Every day Flickr admins choose 500 of the most interesting images determined by "interestingness".
Being chosen as one of these elite few can mean a huge increase in your photo's views and the number of comments and favourites you receive. Land on the front page of Explore, Flickr's home page, and magical things happen, all of which having to do with increasing your ego, none of which actually leads to earning money as a photographer. But who cares, when you are royalty on Flickr for a day. :P
I'll admit to feeling proud like a peacock when my mum first spotted my photo on the Explore home page. Within minutes, the comments and praise flooded in from the Flickratic. I began to pump out more quality shots and I continued getting Explored. I felt like my photography was finally reaching people. It was a great feeling, like a really perfect high-five or winning cookies. It also pushed me to try new techniques and really perfect my images before putting them up on Flickr.
A lot of people have asked me if there is any secret to getting Explored. The most obvious thing is take a great photo. But, beyond a great shot, there seems to be a definite pattern in which photos get Explored. After all, photography is art and the personal taste of the Flickr admins does impact the photos that are chosen. Using my keen intellect and the power of the internet, I have compiled a list of power tips on how to get your photos Explored and because I've been a lazy, good-for-nuthin' blogger as of late, I'm going to share these with you.
Here are my top secret tips for getting your photos Explored on Flickr:
By far the most popular type of bokeh photos on Flickr is that derived from taking out of focus pictures of small clusters lights, like on a Christmas tree. If you haven't heard, the phrase Bokeh, "a photographic term referring to the appearance of point of light sources in an out-of-focus area of an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field", then you probably haven't been on Flickr for very long - because people are nuts about bokeh. Those little out-of-focus orbs of goodness can give a photo a magical, almost surreal quality. And the hip Flickratti are pumping it out faster than you can say, "Ashton killed twitter". I mean... ahem. What?
How to get this shot:
Crossing your eyes is the easiest way to find cool bokeh. Snicker as you may, but seriously try it the next time you are out at night on a street with street lamps, stop lights, restaurant twinkle lights. Practice this technique in moderation and definitely not in combination with making a funny face because that would seem unprofessional and may weird people out.
Once you've found a cool bokeh source like a row of street lights, set your camera's aperture wide open (>f/3.0) or >f/3.0, >f/5.6 if it's a telephoto focal length (ie. 200mm at f/5.6) and set your lens to manual. Now pull it almost completely out-of-focus until you see nice fuzzy bits. That the good stuff. Now snap!
Lens Flare of sunlight streaming through Brisbane Eye Ferris Wheel.
I love lens flare, Michael Bay loves lens flare & so does Flickr. Go ahead. Break all the rules and point your camera at the sun. Within reason of course. Like don't burn your eyes out or anything. Aim to head out during magic hour (1 hour before sunset) when the sun is low and golden and play with different angles of flares. Also, make sure you've got a UV filter so you aren't damaging your camera's lens.
3. Hot Chicks
Hot Chick & Musician, Kylee Epp. See behind the scenes shots here.
Like most people, Flickr love pictures of hot chicks. Pretty much any photograph looks better with a hot chick in it. Think about it. A nice still life shot of a bowl of fruit? Boring! A nice still life shot of a bowl of fruit with a hot chick holding a banana? Shizzam! A breathtaking image of a white sand beach? Meh. A breathtaking chick in bikini on a white sand beach? Explored!
It probably won't surprise you that one of the most commonly explored content is pictures of hot chicks.
More often than not, they are beautiful young photographer/models AKA "modelographers" who have taken their exploration of narcissism to the next level with daily self-portraits called Flickr 365. They are blessed with looks, talent, and a passion for photography, and they are the new power elite on Flickr.
I have to give these young modelographers credit, because they produce near professional quality fashion-esque images of themselves nearly everyday and they are not afraid to try new and creative methods to light, take, and process their images, including film, toy cameras (lomo), strobe. Their photos are edgy, trendy, painful, naked, and oh so indie. They will often get a friend to do makeup or approach young designers whose clothes they or their other young hot chick friends can model. I am constantly amazed and bemused by the sheer number of beautiful images they create and the community wide adoration and respect they receive on Flickr.
How to get this shot:
If you happen to be a young hot chick with a camera, perfect your photography skills by snapping photos of your self and your friends, because the world has never been more open to the idea of a 16-year-old female fashion photographer.
If not, then take a lesson from these young photographers, go out and find someone to model for you, someone hot that looks like they could be in a fashion magazine and all of a sudden your photos go from 2 views to 2, 000 views. Need some tips on finding models I have a post on that :D
4. Cute animals
Lovely Koala taken at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in QLD, Australia.
If you can't get a hot chick, a cute animal is your next best bet. Everyone loves a cute animal, especially when it's displaying seemly human characteristics. Ooh, that's one angry squirrel! Aww look at those fuzzy ducklings. Ooh, a rare hummingbird!
How to get this shot:
Find cute animals. Pets are a good place to start. Zoos are great. Check your backyard, or the park. Go out and find cuteness. I suggest you take shots of animals at eye-level. Take different angles, use different lenses, get creative with these shots. Take a shot of your pooch's nose close up with a wide angle. That always looks funny. Flickr loves animals in action, animals with personality, and whimsical cat/dog photos.
5. Soft Flower & Plant life Macros
Leaf found in Queen Elizabeth Park on a damp Vancouver afternoon.
Flickr loves soft flower & other plant life macros like leaves and stuff. It's as simple as that.
How to get this shot:
Find some blossom, blooms, pedals, leaves or flowery things. I am quite the botanist, can't you tell? Choose an interesting angle, probably one where you are lying in mud. Bring a water sprayer and lightly mist the flowers do they are all dewy. Open your aperture up to f/3.5 and lower so you get some nice background bokeh and you are money.
6. Photos with interesting and tragically bohemian titles
I call this, "Oh love you have bewildered me with your absence".
You won't just get explored simply for a title. But, it definitely takes the artistic merit of your shot up an notch and will increase your chances of getting noticed. Even if you are not exploding with photo titling talent, anything is better than IMG_9807. Here are some tragically bohemian titles to get you started:
Simple
*broken flight*
insomnia
humble
where's my freedom?
love is a trap
my peace is gone, my heart is heavy
Ahh, I poke fun, but you get the idea. The point is, there are types of photos that are more likely to be Explored than others, but there is no easy way in. You have to take great shots. And to take a great shot, you have to be out in the world taking shots. Take risks. If you always go on a photo walk to the beach at sunset, go in the opposite direction and take some urban landscapes. If you always snap pictures of your cat Mookie, turn the camera on yourself and do some self-portraits. Keep your work fresh and keep posting your best shots on Flickr and one of these days maybe it will be your shot on the front page of Explore!
Got any tips and tricks or great photos you've taken that you'd like to share? Add them in the comments!
I shot this a week or so ago just outside Vancouver on a ranch.
You can't tell from this picture, but it is actually snowing here. I froze my buns of waiting for this beautiful light. I wanted to use a strobe in this shot, but my batteries died so I had to shoot au natural. I also couldn’t manage to put the lens hood on because my fingers were frozen solid. Hence the crazy lens flare. I like it though. I might try to PS it out, see if it looks better without.
I loved being out in this beautiful landscape with these majestic animals & rugged Barry the cowboy of course!
