Monthly Archives: May 2010

Improve your Skills: I Heart Faces

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As newbie photographers, we should be looking out for opportunities to take more photos. We need to brave new avenues to learn more about the craft and improve our own skills. The Internet has definitely done wonders for the arts. I say this because I have seen so many online communities that foster art, and educate more and more people, photography included.

Photography enthusiasts can find a good number of communities all over the ‘Net that helps newbies and pros alike to connect with each other. These groups serve up inspiration and a good dose of tips, to keep the passion burning. More importantly, they provide newbies like us with the information and encouragement we need to keep on capturing moments through our cameras.

Apart from engaging in Project 365, you may want to join in the weekly challenge at I Heart Faces.

If you’re like me who spend countless hours blog hopping, you’ve probably seen this logo before. I’ve always enjoyed looking at beautiful photography, but I’m not one to really participate consistently. Being exposed to so many beautiful works of art can be intimidating, and sometimes I may feel inferior, but that totally misses the point of these challenges.

What is I Heart Faces?

…a photography site focused on the art of capturing faces and their various emotions. Each week, people from across the world have the opportunity to enter their favorite face photos into a themed photo challenge. A “Guest Photographer Judge” will choose ten of their favorite photos that will then be displayed on our home page. 

That’s how the founders of the I Heart Faces Photography site describe their community. Having faces on each photo entry is a theme in itself, but adding another on top of that theme makes this challenge even more interesting. Photographers of all levels are welcome to participate. To be honest, I’m not even looking at the challenge as a competition. Simply being able to submit an entry is triumph on its own. :) The awesome thing about joining challenges like is that you gain a targeted audience. Other participants, though not required, will visit your photos and leave comments on your entry. It will totally help you receive much needed feedback on your work. Of course, you can increase the likelihood of this happening by visiting their entries too and giving meaningful comments yourself.

There are also participants who write about the process of taking their photos. There’s a lot to be learned there. Definitely.

Apart from the weekly challenges, site owners and contributors publish tips, tutorials, and other photography related news. To know more about IHF, checkout their FAQ page.

This week, I missed the deadline (opens on Mondays, closes on Tuesdays) for entries. The theme is Yellow, and there are 619 entries. Wow. Check them out!

If I wasn’t late, I would have joined with either one of these:

What is Photography?

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I think Ken Rockwell said it best:

Call it vision, imagination, or seeing; it all comes down to the same thing: the ability to envision a final result in your mind’s eye, and then to make it so with your tools at hand.

It really isn’t with the gear. I recently acquired a new baby, Deena, a Nikon D90. I definitely see the difference in her shots when compared to my year-old Maxine, a D60. But you know what? I don’t really see a marked improvement in my photography. In fact, there were photos I took two years ago using our Kodak Easyshare point and shoot that looked more WOW than most of my recent photos. It really isn’t in the gear.

Six months after I had the idea for this blog, it is now just really starting to take off. And let me begin with defining the most common photography terms around. First up, photography.

The word photograph was coined from two Greek words: photos meaning “light,” and graphe meaning “to draw” or ”render in lines.” Together, a photograph is meant to be a drawing with light, and the process (and art) by which it is created is what we know as photography.

Indeed, if there is only one thing that I have learned about photography it’s that it is all about light. Light and how much – or little – passes through your device. Light, or the absence of it, determines how the final result is going to be. I think, echoing Ken Rockwell’s thoughts on the subject, that capturing scenes and events starts with your vision. We see it first, and then we capture it. In my case, it doesn’t always come out the way I pictured it. And that’s why I embark on this continuing adventure of learning the ins and outs of photography.

I hope that you join me in this journey. I won’t have all the answers, but I guarantee that I will try my very best to find them. I also encourage you to leave comments and share your understanding of photography concepts, or tell me what your very own questions are. That way, we can build a true knowledge base on the subject for newbies like us. We’ll continue with understanding the basics and we’ll go through those terms that other photography websites throw at you. :) I’ll also be linking you up to other helpful and fun resources :)

Thanks for tuning in, and hope to hear from you!