Black "Backdrops" via EXPOSURE!

Mrs. Bryant's Science classroom at GFMS, with the lights on, and one student holding the FLASH off to the side! MINUS, MINUS, MINUS! Hey! They were LEARNING, right? Something! Hey, it's SCIENCE! And MATH, all in one. I did what I could, where I could, and when I could ... They LOVED it! And so did Mrs. Bryant, and I! We loved our jobs!

One morning, while walking along a waterway, down there in The Everglades (my "other classroom"!), I waited for that bank on the other side of the waterway to go into shadow!

RED, WHITE, and BLUE! Oh! And that BLACK shadow thingy!

MINUS, MINUS, MINUS!

On a walkway railing, with the shadow way behind him, one morning, down in The Everglades. Oh! And yes, that GREEN eye! And that BLACK, "MINUS" MAGIC! Perfect!

In my classroom at GFMS, while reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Take a guess which one he was trying to look like? Yes, he was holding the flash in his hand, below his neck! Hey! It's WORK, right? LEARNING? Worked for me! You know, a class project! They loved it! Yes, they all took turns! Small EC class ...WORK, WORK, WORK, PLAY, PLAY, PLAY! !

Perfect!

My "other classroom"! At the college! Flash photography, ahh, like right there on the table, with the flashes (two) laying right behind, and above, that slice of Kiwi I picked up before class!

Group project!

See? MINUS FIVE! I told you! Somewhere South of here, while on my first trip down to Antarctica, during the DAY! ... SHOOT, ADJUST, SHOOT, ADJUST, ahh, REPEAT, like, FIVE times!

MINUS, MINUS, MINUS, MINUS, MINUS!

Over and over again, like a mad-man! NOT what it actually "looked like" of course, but how I, as the ARTIST, wanted it to look!

MAKE your art, don't just TAKE it!

"THAT CHURCH", ahh, over there in REYKJAVIK, Iceland, at night!

MINUS. MINUS, MINUS.

And no, I didn't ask those people to pose for me! Like me, they were just tourists, and by the look of that pack, yeah, photographers (I think)! Or maybe just him! Or her ... Maybe?

Worked for me!

The Galapagos Islands, with a Sally Lightfoot Crap, yes! Stepping into the, ahh, LIGHT, while on one of those BLACK, volcanic rock things that are scattered all along the shores!

Rome, Italy, at night, back in my early 35mm film days! Like mid-eighties, while we were living in Bremerhaven, Germany.

The California Coast ... Really. With a storm a brewin'! I couldn't believe it either! My brother Mark loved it! His first, and only, wild elk! He grew up in Florida ...

South Mountain State Park, ahh, shot along the trail. SUN, and SHADOW. Oh! And that whole MINUS thing I have going on about for years! Try it, you will like it!

Inside a store, ahh, while photographing this WILD fish thingy, in an aquarium, somewhere, with my flash held off in one hand! And yes! MINUS, MINUS, MINUS!

Granite Falls, NC. You know, Lake Hickory, or "THE TATER HOLE"! I just LOVE that whole MINUS, MINUS, MINUS THINGY I have going on here!

And yes! I swear, as I'm typing this the Rolling Stones are playing, ahh, "PAINT IT BLACK" on my Music Channel ...

Really.

Rome, at NIGHT! With cars zippin' all around me! Ahh, rather quickly, I might add! Shot with old 35mm slide film! MINUS, MINUS, MINUS!

Under an overpass out in ... Western Canada, I believe it was! Yeah! He was under a bridge, where I stopped for a construction site, or something. He was just standing up there staring down at me, in GREAT light! The overpass caused the shadow behind him! Really. I just "Pushed the Button"! And added the whole MINUS thing! Over and over again! While trying not to giggle too much! Until I was done. It worked!

I know! It's a European thing (France, I believe) ... In an old, Salt Mine. Yeah ... Really. True story.

An "OLD SALEM" cemetery thing! Yeah, my FAVORITE TREE, like, EVER! THE GINKO TREE, right there in "God's Acre", over in Old Salem, ahh, which yeah, is actually within the city of Winston-Salem, right here in North Carolina ... Really. It is the name of the cemetery ... "God's Acre". Just saying ...

OK, ready? Here's THE SECERT!

Ahh ...

"EXPOSE FOR THE HIGHLIGHTS". Period.

Let the "shadows" fall where they may! Afterall, shadows are what color?

BLACK!

So yeah, let them turn, you know, BLACK!

Then the "REAL" shadows, will be even BLACKER!

Our brain (mind) can deal with, you know, BLACK, but washed-out, ahh, lighter colors, yeah, not so much!

I LOVE my BLACK backdrops, you know, just like I had up in the STUDIO, at the college! Or in my dining room ... And everywhere I set up my lights!

Or any other type of one, that I can find out there in THE FIELD, when the SUN helps me out, with all those GREAT shadows!

Yeah, look for well lit subjects, with a SHADOW as a "Backdrop", and just MINUS, MINUS, MINUS until the HIGHLIGHTS are "under control", and let the black, shadows go, you know, even BLACKER!

You can do it! MINUS, MINUS, MINUS!

WORK at it, and yeah, see if you can come up with SHADOWS as a BACKGROUND, and then have a "little fun", you know, with your EXPOSURE!

WORK, WORK, WORK.

MINUS, MINUS, MINUS.

PLAY, PLAY, PLAY.

You know, the real, "SECRET" to better photography!

Which, yeah, I just wrote about here on this BLOG, so yeah, so much for that whole, ahh, "SECRET" thing!

But that is what LEARNING is all about!

READ, READ, READ.

REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT.

LEARN, LEARN, LEARN.

Just like in middle school, all over again!

I can't help myself!

And yes, you wonder why I bring up that whole MINUS, MINUS, MINUS thingy, like ALL THE TIME!

Go ahead and guess "what I did" to get the EXPOSURE for every single one of these images?

From what?

Say, ahh, -0.3, my "NORM", all the way "down" to -5.0 ...

Really.

But, if I was to actually mention the "truth" here, yeah! I have even been know to "catch myself", at least once, or twice over the YEARS (that I can remember!), you know, finding 0.0, when checking the data after the fact.

Really!

Like, in my whole LIFE!

I swear!

I know.

Who would of "thunk" it?

Not me!

But it has happened, I promise!

Well, say, from 1984, or 1985 on, depending on what chapter it was in that whole NYI of Photography Course thingy I took through the mail ...

I'm going with 1984, final answer!

Yeah, it was right there in the beginning, I'm sure.

I can almost remember it, now that I'm really getting into this whole BLOG thingy!

See, to really mess me up even more, yeah, there was a period in my shooting where I actually set all my cameras to 1/2 "STOP" increments, instead of my NORMAL MINUS 1/3 settings!

Silly me!

But yeah, I learned MINUS 1/3 "Stops" back in the old, 35mm slide film days (FUJI 100, Baby!), but yeah, I checked, and all (well, OK, "most") of my remaining digital cameras that I have left, yeah, looks like -0.7 seems to be my "NORM" now, if you think anything I tell you is, ahh, NORMAL!

I'll leave that one up to you!

Just get out there, and see what YOU feel is, ahh, the "CORRECT" exposure for YOU to "START AT"!

It is, after all, YOUR art, so yeah!

Make it so!

I just like my DARK, RICH, SATURATED, "KOLORS", yes! With a "K"!

That's all!

Like I said, it "goes back to shooting all those 35mm color slides, where there was a more technical need to really "FINE TUNE" your camera meter, to get the EXPOSURE you were looking for!

Again, I blame it all on those NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, 35mm color slide, film shooters back in the day!

Their "secret" was shooting at 80 ASA, when shooting their film of choice (or the magazines!) back in the day, say it with me!

The "classic", Kodak Kodachrome 64.

Rolls, and rolls, and rolls, and ROLLS of it, every day, every assignment! All the time!

Or so I was told ... And read.

Yeah, a couple of them even came to Columbia College, right there in Chicago, when I was there, and yeah, they LOVED their Kodak, KODACHROME 64, 35mm slide film!

I was there, say, back, in like 1990 -1993 ... Yeah, I think that was it! After living in Korea, and before moving to Fort Knox, KY.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

From there, we (I was married once!) moved HERE, yeah!

Well, first Lenoir, North Carolina, then Hudson!

Because of the BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY, and my love of motorcycles ...

And all that snow up there in Northern New York every winter! Like clockwork! Lots and LOTS of snow!

COLD weather coming down from Canada (The Arctic!), and me living right next to Lake Ontario, in New York, across the border ...

It's called, ahh ... "LAKE EFFECT SNOWFALL".

COLD, and WATER, yeah! Who knew?

Makes for a LOT of SNOW!

That was where I grew up!

And why I live here.

Funny how all that worked out!

But hey! That is me!

Get out there, and find your STORY, your IMAGES, your VISION!

With your EXPOSURE!

You know, the PHOTOGRAPHY kind!

Enjoy.

I have over the years!

Just remember:

MINUS, MINUS, MINUS!

SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT!

ADJUST, ADJUST, ADJUST!

Then, yeah, just do what I always seem to do!

GIGGLE, GIGGLE, GIGGLE.

Good luck with that one too!

Works for me!