Create your own luck...

It's Busy Being Girls, originally uploaded by FormanPhoto.

Upon finding their mother's old wedding party dresses from the 1980's, my daughter and her friends decided to have some fun with a photo shoot. We took dozens of portraits, solo and group. But this unplanned, un-posed (sneaky) shot was easily my favorite.

At first I considered it serendipitous. But Merriam Webster says of Serendipity - "the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for". Not sought for? Well, if I wasn't hoping to get something fun, I never would have pushed the shutter. But I did find "agreeable things", and it wasn't planned. Maybe it was just luck?

I've long believed that luck comes to those who leave room for it to step into their lives. You can't win a raffle if you don't buy a ticket. Golfers can't get a hole-in-one if they are not hitting for the green. And photographers will never stumble on seemingly random photos that both please and move them, if they only shoot the fully posed model.

I began seeing the world differently when I first dove into photography. From small objects with intricate detail to sweeping landscapes that perfectly captured the evening light. I became intensely more aware of moments in time that I desired to capture on film. Eventually, I began to anticipate these moments, and developed a sense of awareness that things of note were coalescing, "a moment" was coming.

That's how it was with the above photo. Watching the girls movements as they talked, laughed and danced I saw as well as sensed a moment of interest was developing. I only took one un-posed photo, and this was it. Lucky? Absolutely. But I made my own luck.

You can too. Feel the moment, and give it a try.

The 2 Step Rule

Florence, Italy, originally uploaded by FormanPhoto.

I recently took a class on giving presentations, and had to come up with a 15 minute slide deck. To a group of about 8 peers at work, I presented '5 Tips to Better Photos'. One of those tips was the old 2-step rule... if a picture doesn't feel right, try taking 2 steps to the left or right and see if it improves!

Having forgotten my own rule, I was getting frustrated on a recent short trip to Italy. I stood there composing an 'okay' photo of the countryside when one of my co-workers walked past me and said "Hey, I'm trying this new 2-step rule I just learned about". Stuck between feelings of pride and embarrassment, I proceeded to do the same thing. And kept doing it for the duration of the trip.

For this photo, I initially stood in the middle of the hallway and composed the old standby with walls disappearing into the center distance. But with a bare wall (and a few doors) on the right, I knew it could be better. Taking a few steps to the right, it completely opened up the photo and gave new importance to the columns on the left. I still think I can improve it in Photoshop, and may yet do so with an improved crop, but it still gives a fine sense of depth to the marble floored walkway of this Italian government building in Florence. Having a wall to prop against (without a tripod) was an additional benefit for the long exposure that was required.

Thanks Chris for the simple yet powerful reminder that many times we know the fixes to our own problems, we just need to open ourselves up to them.

Herding Cats...

Kittens, originally uploaded by kforman.

Ok, taking photos of cute little kittens may seem like a slam dunk in the 'how can I go wrong?' category. But have you tried it lately? I first photographed kittens about 20 years ago. My friend's cat had a litter of adorable kittens and needed photos to adopt them out. Not realizing it at the time, the kittens were the perfect age (about 1-2 weeks older than the little guys seen here). I know I did well, as using this exact same background I had several of the resulting photos published in a wall version of the "365 Cats a Year" calendar, as well as the desktop version (1 photo per day).

Not remembering the events too well after 20 years, I recently had the opportunity to try again. Well, the experience came flooding back as kitty after kitty took a dive off the platform and wouldn't sit still. Yes, my kids and friends were helping, but with 7 kittens and 8 hands, we still seemed outnumbered. If you look at the entire photo set, you'll notice that we were 1-2 weeks early, as a few kitties couldn't focus their eyes, and it's almost spooky in a few of the photos.

If you decide to try, get a decent background, have lights ready to go, lots of helping hands, and go for the magic minute where the kittens are too tired to run off, but still have their eyes open. And have fun, you're photographing kittens! : )