Day Eight - She Made Her Mark

Aurora Horribilis, © Nancy Erickson.

Well, I think the phrase is "hoist on her own petard." My living room is twenty two feet long but due to cabinetry I can't get more than nineteen feet focal length. I was in a big hurry this morning. Cold, grey, bleak, shooting in ambient light, I thought I had this image famed properly. It's easier to fudge as it is not rectangular. Notice the tell tale of the line between the wall and the ceiling. I screwed it up.

This is the exact same image dropped into photoshop and custom rotated 1º right. See how it is not even with the text. If I had cropped out the ceiling line I could have gotten away with this one. Yes, the bottom is uneven; it is built that way.

This is the first one I took from about twenty five feet back and maybe ten feet to the left. Are you beginnng to see how important it is that your camera and the work are square with each other?

This one was taken from about ten feet back and maybe twelve feet to the left. See the keystoning that is looking like visual perspective?

All this to show you that good photography is not easy. If you do not own a tripod, the least expensive is about $30 retail. Look for the levels. There should be a leveling bubble on the tripod body. There should be another leveling bubble on the head that actually holds the camera. Use them; they are there for good reason.

One of the problems a tripod solves when it comes to keystoning is the winder that makes the camera higher. I am the shortest person. Without a tripod I am looking up at everything. There is no way I can get a square image without standing on a ladder. Frankly, $30 is the cheapest emergency room insurance for me.

Learn to use your tripod and your camera. I am very fortunate that the Spider tutors me. It's an ongoing process. I'm honored to have his help.

However, for exhibitions that require slides there is no way, no matter how good the tutor, that I can replicate Jack Kulawik's studio. Tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and decades of photographing art put Jack in a class by himself. He regularly puts my slides in the accepted column in national exhibitions.

I don't have the time or the fuel to take a photography class at the local community college. It may be an option for you. However, don't fool yourself into thinking that the best digital camera can replace a professional. I proved it myself this morning.

So here I sit, with my head stuck up like a turtle looking through my trifocals. I've worked seven hours today. Four hours of that is PhotoShop time. The other three hours is in photography, color printing, and computer and phone communications. All these things take time. I am waiting on two images.

Tomorrow I begin the mock-ups in earnest. I've avoided them as long as I can. However, working with the images, sizing, going through things again and again, I'm beginning to get the names, the works, and the sizes comfortable in my brain. Without that nothing happens.