Slowly Moving AlongPosted by drfl on June 15th, 2010

It’s now less than a month away from when I exhibit at the Governor’s residence in Lincoln, Nebraska. When I initially got the invitation, it was over a year before I had to have everything prepared so I procrastinated. Of course, throughout that time I have had various things crop up, and of course, I have captured more images! Realizing my deadline, I just put in an order for 25 new Nebraska images so that I could rotate out some older (and non-Nebraska) stuff for the show.

Additionally, Nebraska Life magazine is doing a small piece on my exhibition, so if you are a subscriber, be sure to look for the information and an image or two in the next issue!

While this photograph will not be in the show as it is not an image from Nebraska, I felt it reflected the theme of the post – slow, but steady.   A little story about the image. My eldest daughter and I hiked a nature trail Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri in early May and had come across this snail moving slowly and deliberately across a fallen log.  We watched him for a good ten minutes, all the while my daughter managed to accumulate four ticks which proved difficult to find.  After finding three, I called it good, loaded her in the car and proceeded to drive away.  When I was on the on-ramp to the Interstate I heard a shriek from the back of the car, “There’s a bug on me!”.  I immediately pulled over and ran to her to find a huge tick crawling up her arm.  Not sure how I missed that one.

Technical Details
Canon 5D Mark II, 50 CM lens, f/5.6, 1/50 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri

Snail SpiralPosted by admin on March 17th, 2008

Today I took a short walk through Platte River State Park in eastern Nebraska. It was fairly overcast and still a bit muddy, but there were bits of green appearing so it was a good day to focus on macro. After walking for a bit, I entered a small clearing of trees that I explored carefully looking for interesting items. I came across a snail shell whose owner had vacated and I spent the next hour focused on working on this shot.

I composed this shot using the golden ratio which is similar to the rule of thirds. If you are not familar with composition, the rule of thirds states that the primary subject should be placed at a third horizontally and vertically in the frame for maximum effectiveness. The rule of thirds is actually a simplified version of the golden ratio which is 1:1.618. This means that items of importance should be placed at .388 or a little more than a third from each side vertically and horizontally.

Additionally, this photograph follows the golden spiral which encourages the eye to spiral into the most important subject, here it follows the spiral pattern of the shell. This is one of the most blatant examples of the golden spiral I have ever taken, simply because the shell itself is a spiral pattern.

The golden ratio and the golden spiral can be found throughout nature and the more one is aware of this, the most impact your photographs generally have. Of course, like everything these are simply guidelines, which like everything creative, should be broken. I find I follow these rules, but also break them quite often. For more information about both of these compositional guidelines visit: Golden Section and Photography.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d, 50 CM + extension tube, f/10, .4 sec
Platte River State Park, Nebraska

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.