Beauty lies in the smallest of places and can disappear in the blink of an eye. Capturing this beauty takes a trained eye, quick fingers, and little bit of luck. While not every picture can capture the perfection of a moment, the ones that can should be cherished forever.
Visual Literacy enhances one's ability to lok at a photograph critically. It should never be forgotten how important it is to let the subject of the photograph be captured because this allows the photographic moment to be captured naturally.
In the east, yellow and orange light began to creep above the rooftops of brightly colored Bermudan houses, dots of sunshine dance across the serene, sparkling beaches. As the sun rises further, the sea foam green and deep blue waters of the North Atlantic ocean draw tourists to beaches, the vibrant magenta, pure white, and canary yellow of Bermudan flora stand out amongst the green and sandy area.
Georgia O’Keefe’s expert use of color and close ups of flowers are an inspiration for this photo story. Her abstract artwork in the early 1900s is incredibly innovative and creative and one of the most groundbreaking American works produced at the time. By enlarging and creating close-ups of pieces of flowers in her paintings, she revolutionized traditional flower paintings. In this photo project, close-ups are used as a tribute to her progressive ideas along with a tribute to her expert use of color and love of the artistic beauty of flowers.
In the pre-production of creating the photographs in the prior post, capturing the warm tropical atmosphere, the vibrancy of the landscape, and the beauty of the wildlife in Bermuda were of utmost importance. In order to do this, color was a crucial component. The bright morning light in these images brings out the intense hues in the sky, flowers, water, and leaves. Color enlightens, inspires, entices, and compels the viewer visually and emotionally. In this way, it was incredibly important that each picture utilizes the colors of Bermuda proficiently.
Another vital factor in the process is knowing how to compose a photograph. When a photograph is composed efficiently, the viewer will feel comfortable exploring the photograph easily and without misleading or unneeded pieces. Avoiding bad tangents, varying the empty space between the object and the image edges, and finding a point of view that gives the overall composition a feeling of unity.
Constantly snapping pictures of every little thing, hoping to capture the true beauty of Bermudan paradise with a silver Nikon Coolpix 5600 is quite a feat. This was one of the main difficulties in the production stage. The old, scratched up, dented, drawn on camera from 2005 is extremely light and, due to the imbalance of duct tape repairs, reacts to every bump and too heavy button clicks, making most pictures come out tilted or blurry. Luckily, many pictures were taken so there were enough pictures that were in focus for there to be enough variation and interest in the photographs.
One risk taken during the production was interacting with the environment. Shifting a flower or throwing a petal in the air sometimes added visual interest added to the images. Other times, these interactions did not work out. The one thing that always worked out in these pictures is color. During the editing process, the color didn’t need to be altered or enhanced much at all because of the richness of the flowers, water, and leaves.
Finally, finding a set of pictures that are connected without being the exact same photograph was the hardest part of the production process. While there were many beautiful pictures of lighthouses, sunken ships, and colorful houses, they did not connect to the other images used in the photo story. Eliminating these beautiful images was an incredibly difficult, but necessary aspect of production.
Looking back on this project, another difficulty was the missing camera. A few weeks before the actually shooting of this photo story, someone stole the Kodak camera that was to be used for this project. Luckily, a replacement was found quickly and production could commence.
Thanks to this project, the importance of lighting, color, and every aspect of the background were exposed as vital for an effective photograph. Also, a fence or any sort of artificial interruption can ruin the serenity of a photograph. This was a repeated problem in many of the photographs as, although Bermuda prides itself on its natural beauty, people do live there and there are man-made objects in the tropical area. Also, several photographs of the same objects may be needed to capture the subject perfectly. By taking only one photograph, one might run into the problem with blurry, tilted, or just not quite right photographs, rendering it ineffective and expendable. If more pictures were taken of some objects, maybe this photo story would have been more effective.
After three days of shooting in beautiful Bermuda from sunrise to sunset, hours of editing and choosing photographs and attempting to fine-tune my focus, the tropical vivacity of Bermudan wildlife was captured and communicated. This photo story was successful, but could have been more focused. The color, lighting, and compositional creativity worked together seamlessly in these photographs.
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