I was recently asked to volunteer for the Youth Art Team during spring break, as several of their regular volunteers were gone. This is a joint community group sponsored by several local churches in town to inspire and teach kids about art. The current year long project is a photography project. I was excited about helping out, but what I found was more than an enjoyable afternoon with some fantastic kids, I also found inspiration and a perspective change on how to take great photos...
Maybe this was because of the current topic they were studying or because they had invited Tim Dodd, a fantastic photographer, to speak to the kids, or a combination of both... but what I learned was two things...
- First you can find beauty through the viewfinder in everything. [ Check out the Youth Art Team's lesson & photo's from that day ]. The kids (ages 5-18) took amazing photos and it is interesting to see how they found beauty in so many things we would pass by as uninteresting.
- Secondly, it is okay to take the time to find the photo you want before taking the picture. They encouraged the kids to take the time to set up the picture, aligning it in their viewfinder first before taking the picture. They were asked to only take 24 pictures of a variety of things; spending the time first to get the picture they wanted.
However, I decided that I would start practicing these simple things so that I could develop and grow as a photographer. I decided to start with a photo essay with images from our property while walking my dogs. I borrow one of the themes from week one of the Youth Art Team's curriculum and took photos of the things that were ugly in order to find beautiful images through the viewfinder. I wanted capture them through the lens of my camera with minimal adjustments (besides color correction of course) in my photo programs...
Here Are The Results!
What do you think of my photos?
Am I successful in finding beauty from ugly things? Any suggestions to make them better?
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