Here is the place where yesterday’s photo was taken. Gaviidae is a shopping center in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. Greg and I were there last week taking pictures. The word Gaviidae is the Latin name for Loons — the Minnesota State Bird.

This was taken with the new lens, the Tamron 11-18mm Ultra-wide. Still loving it. When I’m out shooting and switching between the lenses, it reminds me of the way movies are shot. The Ultra-wide is great for “Establishing Shots” and the telephoto shows the details. Next time you are out shooting at a location, try taking a wide shot that will give an overview of the area. The Wikipedia article that I linked to above gives a great example: the show Seinfeld gives a quick shot of the outside of the restaurant before the scene inside. You know right away where they are.

It’s good to look to other mediums to learn techniques. While studing landscape oil painting with Joe Paquet, I’ve learned a lot about how light behaves as it travels through the air. It has helped me see what is really going on and how to show depth in an image.

Currently I am working with a filmmaker who I will talk about in the future as our project finishes and is no longer classified. Working with these two artists is a great experience — they both see the world very differently. Photography, painting and filmmaking are very different art forms, but they are still about how we perceive our world. And if we’re really lucky, tell a story.

Stay tuned, the medium of blogging continues, same bat time, same bat URL.

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