PHOTO OF THE MONTH - MAY 2003

POPPIES AND LUPINES, SALT RIVER CANYON, ARIZONA

Nikon F4s, Sigma 70-300mm Lens, Bogen Tripod, Kodak E100SW Film

In celebration of spring, I felt it only appropriate to choose a wildflower image to represent the May "Photo of the Month". But I chose this particular image of Mexican Gold Poppies and Silvery Lupines not only because of it's subject matter, but because it includes not one, but two key lessons in photographic technique.

The first lesson offers a perfect illustration in color theory as it pertains to the art of color photography. As photographers, it is our job to seek out beautiful and colorful subjects to record on film. Once we locate that subject though, there are many other factors to consider before tripping the shutter. These include such key elements as composition, lighting, exposure, and lens choice. However the arrangement of colors within our composition, though often as critical to the success of the overall image as the composition itself, is in many cases overlooked.

This usually stems from the fact that few people, especially those just staring out, realize that there are patterns in the way we as humans perceive color, whether we are consciously aware of them or not. One of these patterns is referred to as complimentary colors. In definition, complimentary colors are those which lay opposite one another on a color wheel (i.e. yellow/blue, magenta/green, and red/cyan). In photography, our eyes and minds distinguish these combinations to be high in color contrast and therefore vibrant in their renditions. And though we cannot normally arrange these colors in nature, we can seek them out. This photo is a prime example of complimentary colors, with the brilliant yellow of the poppies' petals set against the deep blue-purple of the lupines' pods. It was for this reason that I chose to concentrate my attention on this specific grouping of flowers, despite being surrounded by entire hillsides thick in flower.

The second lesson involves in-camera manipulation. The dream-like quality of this image was achieved by double-exposing the same frame of film. By doing this I was able to focus on a different plane in each exposure, and using a shallow depth-of-field of F4 in each exposure a "halo" effect was cast around both flower types. Most new cameras have a multiple-exposure feature built in, but if not the technique can be done by holding the rewind knob immobile, depressing the rewind button, and advancing the film between each exposure.

When shooting multiple-exposures, it is important to remember that you need to change your exposure so that the sum of total exposures equals one normal exposure. If this is not observed overexposure will occur. The easiest way to calculate the new exposure is to multiply the number of exposures intended by the ISO rating of the film. In other words, two exposures using ISO 100 film will mean shooting both frames at ISO 200, three exposures using ISO 100 will mean shooting all frames at ISO 300, and so on.

So the next time you head out with your camera don't forget to pay attention to the colors surrounding you and don't be afraid to play around and experiment a little. The worst that can happen is that you wasted a frame of film, the best that can happen is limitless!