2017 Photographic Workshop

By: Michael Fox

On Assignment

The theme of this year’s annual Photographic Workshop was Line and Form. Participants learned to pre-visualise the most simple things in the bush as art … to capture as an image the feeling of being in the bush.

Alan Moore, Workshop Leader introduced participants to the Elements they could use to help them see the bush with new eyes.

As with past Workshops, Alan’s presentation covered the basics of camera operation and image composition before introducing the Elements of photographic art and how to put it together. The magic of Alan’s approach is summed up in comments like:

“I am a beginner and interested in learning the “technical stuff” in language I can understand.”
“Alan is very encouraging and this brings out the best in people.”

The effectiveness of his approach is best demonstrated by the extraordinary photos participants shared when they returned from “On Assignment in the Bush.” Alan’s comments (following) help us understand the concepts of Line and Form.

Photo by Fiona

Lovely image, well planned, well executed. Ticks so many boxes, has line and 3D form, texture and great use of space.

I did rotate and crop the image a little after a slight contrast and saturation emphasis on the berry.

Photo by Frank

A bold statement here of shape with the leaf, form and texture with the fungus and nice colour emphasis of the multicoloured leaf.

I have saturated the leaf and cropped the whole.

Photo by Rob

Great use of colour emphasis in this image. Background well blurred and focus firmly on the leaves.

I did drop the saturation of the background and upped the saturation and contrast on the leaves somewhat and did a minor crop.

Photo by Madonna

Here Madonna has captured the texture of the rock well.

I have cooled the image a little to bring out the whites and greys in the rock and cropped slightly.

Photo by Ange

Nice and tight capture encapsulating line and shape with texture.

In processing I’ve desaturated the background and cropped a little to emphasise the subject.

Photo by

Right on theme, a piece of art in itself. Kept simple with background totally out of focus and tight focus on the subject, shows pattern with the repeated shape, proportion and rhythm with the small leaves descending in size.

I did rotate slightly and desaturated the background to concentrate on the visual element.

Photo by Tricia

Lovely use spot on focus to capture this pattern and rhythm.

I have given the saturation and contrast a small upwards nudge and rotated the frond to the diagonal.

Photo by Fiona

Very nice artwork, right on topic. Spiral lines and texture in the fine hairs, you want to reach out and touch them.. Well isolated from the background by great depth of field control.

I rotated and increased saturation and contrast slightly.

Photo by Sue

This image is almost totally monochromatic green and works well to show the form of the fern fronds, nicely seeing the water droplets.

I cropped a fair bit off to emphasise the central in focus frond and did a slight contrast increase to highlight the water droplets.

Photo by Mee Wun

This shot has caught line so well and I have presented the image in black and white to complement the simplicity of the capture.

The background is a bit intrusive and I have dodged the dark shapes just a little.

Thank you and congratulations to all participants. Participants’ photos are used in production of our Photographic Calendar.

Funds raised from our Annual Photography Workshop and Calendar go towards equipment like infrared wildlife cameras that support our research.

See Alan’s work at:

www.freelargephotos.com

Click on The Photographers then scroll down

find Alan Moore and Click

Contact Alan: editoramcj@gmail.com

Mount Gravatt Environment Group