War For Peace with Technology

I am back in the states now and I am working frantically on landscapes. At the moment though, every time I open a photo my entire system freezes and then crashes. Does anyone who has a Mac been experiencing this problem since the system update a few days ago? If so, if you've found a solution I'd love to hear it!

~beth

Natural Framing

Framing a photograph doesn't always mean preparing it to hang on a wall. Rather, one can frame within the image itself. This can be done with elements of the focal point, physical barriers within the image, color, or using the fore, middle, and backgrounds. Here is a 3 minute slideshow of examples of framing. I apologize for the graininess. I put it in the highest resolution and it still was fuzzy. I may remake it using a different program.

All Images ©Elisabeth Grace Wilhjelm. All Rights reserved.

~beth

Rules Schmules

Maybe it's because of my personality to challenge all norms in order to find my own place in this chaotic world. Maybe it's because I just don't have the best visual differentiation abilities (ask my partner who likes to tease me about it all the time) and so I seem to see things a little differently than most. Maybe it's because of what my psychologist calls ADHD and I loving refer to as monkey mind, which keeps me from focusing on anything for more than 30 seconds at most. No matter what the reason, I don't think about rules of composition now and never have. Camera in hand, I give myself over to my mind's eye to capture things as I see them. I simply shoot and shoot and shoot, rarely even checking the images as I go. At the end of the day, it's all one big surprise.


Some of my favorite quotes on this matter are by Ansel Adams, who is a photographer I have learned many lessons from. Though I didn't know his position on composition until years after revering his work, it was a pleasant discovery to find that one of my heros thought as I do.

"The so-called rules of photographic composition are, in my opinion, invalid, irrelevant and immaterial."

"A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.” 

My other favorite quote is by Edward Weston. "Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk."

To me, a photograph is about visualization. A few posts back I shared a link to rare footage of Ansel Adams discussing his own visualization techniques. I encourage you to check it out! Here is an interview conducted by BBC in 1983 with Adams. Enjoy!

~beth