Taking photos around the home

by Dave Shafer

I will try to reach everyone here today, like this

patriarch is trying to do, and not leave anyone out -

by covering lighting, subjects, composition, color,

and photo impact.

Although some day I would like to try a

large format camera, what I have right now

is a Pentax K10D SLR. All my close up

photos that you will see were taken with a

100 mm Macro lens from Vivatar. The rest

are with my Pentax 18-250 mm zoom lens.

The material I will be covering is not that difficult. It’s not like

shoe inspection at the Shaolin Temple or starting your own country.

Some people are quite attached to their

homes and do not venture out much when

taking photos. I have worked at home for the

last 32 years and am quite home-oriented.

By “home” photos I mean here your house

and its immediate surroundings—your yard,

driveway, the sidewalk in front, if you have

one, etc.

Of course there will be a range in the size and

style of people’s homes.

Some of us have homes that a real estate

agent would describe as having “charm”.

These can make for interesting photos from

the outside.

Some of us have homes with great views, and we

can take interesting photos of the outdoors without

even stepping outside.

Some homes have really superb views, with

great photo possibilities.

Some homes give the phrase “tree house” a new meaning

You may live in a development.

You may have a mobile home, in which case your

view out the window could be changing every day, or

you may live in a

jar at the circus. It

is hard to cover all

possible home situ-

ations in this talk,

but we will try.

Before we go inside your house or look at

the yard, let us linger for a moment on pho-

tos that might have the house itself as a sub-

ject, or sights you might see right outside.

We should never underestimate the potential

of our immediate surroundings.

Even an apartment dweller may find an interest-

ing sight just by looking out the window.

If your apartment complex has a pool there could

be an interesting

photo about that.

giraffe

A house under duress, in the winter, or after some

damage, may make for an interesting photo.

When you

take a photo

outdoors it is

usually a

good idea to

try to make

the horizon

exactly hori-

zontal.

But not al-

ways.

I could not resist including this image

from the internet. Free associating when you

view images is a good way to keep your mind

flexible. Whoever came up with this caption

was really inspired.

Here is one of my own photos from a few

years ago, in front of my house. The fence and

its shadows made an interesting pattern on the

snow. I boosted the contrast some and fiddled

with the photo to optimize its appearance.

A home can provide

more good sights out-

side than you might

think. You might be

able to catch animals

eating from your trash

cans, or living in a tree

outside.

You might see, in your yard, a deer eating a

snowman’s carrot nose, or some other photo-

worthy deer scene.

Here is one of my photos, of a cardinal in my back-

yard. The burst of color from the bird makes it stand

out prominently from the bland background. The

busy foreground at least is not immediately behind

the bird, which would be distracting.

Here is a closeup, with a telephoto lens, of another

cardinal in my backyard. I always cheat with pho-

tos like this and enhance the bird’s eye to make it

stand out more. It adds a lot of life to the photo.

I took this telephoto shot of a tiny chickadee

in my backyard because I liked its assertive

stance—sort of “here I am, world”

In any wildlife photo you want the back-

ground to be simple and not distracting.

This may require you to move around some

to get a better taking position. This tele-

photo shot of a hummingbird out of my

back window is simple and colorful.

Birds watching bird-watchers can also be

a good photo opportunity.

Animal photos can be interesting, like this

unexpected appearance of the Turtle Gods

in one’s driveway.

If some unusual wildlife turns up in your

backyard it can make for a good photo.

But for more mundane appearances you

need to have something novel, like a inter-

esting taking angle or a closeup or an im-

plied mini-story in the photo.

Here is a telephoto shot I took right outside

my kitchen window. The dynamic pose

gives impact to this photo, as the squirrel

peers right out of the picture frame towards

us. As usual, I enhanced the eye some to

give more of a highlight to the eye pupil.

The squirrels in my yard are very good

at getting at the seeds in my bird feeder.

You never know what will turn up just by

looking out your window.

Even someone walking their dog outside

your house might be a photo-op.

Looking out your window you might see

an interesting sight, like the arrival in your

neighborhood of termites. A vigilant eye

is always a plus in photography.

Unusual pet photos can be interesting, but

it is hard to do much with a typical dog or

cat, since that is such an overworked sub-

ject.

Maybe your cat hates music. It’s always better

to show a pet doing something instead of just a

static portrait.

Even if it is just a shot of your cat watching

the “Mouseketeers” on TV, that is better than a

simple portrait of the animal. Maybe you have

pet playdates with your friends, for a photo op.

Or you could be doing

something with your pet,

like giving it a bath.

Or grooming it. I assume you have a sep-

arate toothbrush for yourself.

A closeup of

your pet,

with some

cropping,

can make for

an interest-

ing image.

Maybe your pet is useful around the house.

With pet photos you want to avoid

distracting backgrounds, like here. It is

also too symmetrical a composition.

If you have a home aquarium that can pro-

vide some nice photos, but the lighting is criti-

cal. Your camera must take into account fluo-

rescent lighting, if that is what you are using,

to get the color balance to come out right.

Some Photoshop fiddling can also compensate

for lighting particulars. I took this with a mac-

ro lens.

If your pets have pets of their own, then that

can make for an unusual photo opportunity.

I don’t have any

pets so I try to find

wildlife right

around my own

yard, like bugs.

Extreme closeups of spiders can show some

beautiful colors and patterns. I only use day-

light for all of my photos, so it can be tricky to

get both good exposure and enough depth of

focus. Also the background should not be busy

or distracting.

Here the web anchor adds some interest

and makes it look like a circus acrobat is

about to start a high-wire act. I have en-

hanced the colors and contrast here to bring

out detail.

My “homeland security” photo was taken on

the side of my house.

Bees in your yard can make an interesting macro lens

shot, and also have the beauty of a flower for the back-

ground. This is actually a bee that I caught, put in my

freezer for about 10 minutes, to slow down its metabo-

lism to a crawl, and then I posed it on the flower. Af-

ter I took a few shots the bee warmed up and flew

away. This trick does not work as well for pets or

people.

Here is a photo that I set up with a dead

bee and some toy soldiers, in my backyard.

Wildlife photos grab your attention in a way that

shots of plants can never do. For botany photos

you need lots of great beauty or interesting design

elements.

A botany type of photo will never have the

impact of more animated life scenes, so we

have to try harder.

This mushroom complex has appealing design

elements and a nice combination of color and

shadows. I took this when the sun gave good

shadows, and time of day is always important.

Shadows can add drama to any picture.

Texture can provide interest even if there is

no color or other design elements to liven up

the composition. This old sawn tree stump

has patterns of grain and saw marks that give

it a geometrical kind of detail. I cropped my

photo to give a better composition.

If you poke around in your back yard you

might find some interesting odds and ends.

You might have some milkweed in your

backyard and that can make for nice autumn

photos. It is tricky to get the right kind of

lighting and background to give all of the fo-

cus on the foreground, as I did here.

Milkweed seeds make for very interesting

photos, if you have them in your yard. I took

this at just the right stage of the pod opening.

The seeds and their billowy “wings” can be

quite beautiful, as in my macro shot here..

This crabapple scene from my front yard

was tricky to set up so that the background

would not be distracting. A macro lens

gave the good depth of field.

Water on leaves can make for a nice pic-

ture and you only have to step outside your

house to find it. As usual, lighting and back-

ground control are key for a good photo.

At the right time of year frosty leaves in

your yard can provide for a beautiful com-

position. The frost may be from overnight

and quickly vanish once the sun comes up.

Hasta leaves

give geomet-

rical patterns

That can be

quite strik-

ing.

A morning glory in

my back yard gives

different images at

different times of

day, as the flower

opens up and then

closes.

Fuschia can provide dramatic shapes and colors.

Of course a flower garden is always a great

source of images, like my photo here.

You might have lots of roses, like this

Southport home, and then you can get a nice

composition with a fence and the large diag-

onal of the fence broken up by the narrow

verticals. Outdoor photos like this are quite

dependent on the time of day for the best

lighting.

Roses on latticework also make a nice picture

If you’ve had a tree taken down in your yard

it can make for a good photo opportunity.

You might live in a Neighborhood

Watch area and then can set up a humor-

ous shot like this one. Eternal vigilance

is the price of liberty and my duck here

is on duty 24/7

A holiday scene from your front porch might

make a good

home-based

photo, as well

as one of that

car you’ve been

meaning to

wash.

You could take photos of back yard picnics or

other family events.

Here is a photo of my triplet grandkids in

their backyard.

A foggy view of your backyard can be

transformed into an “art” image by hyping

the very weak colors in the fog over and

over again with your computer until you get

something like this.

Unusual clouds can be seen from your home on occasion.

Winter ice

on puddles,

with air

bubbles,

can be in-

teresting. I

took these

some years

ago.

You may be getting impatient for us to actu-

ally get inside the home, after all this outside

stuff. Fear not, it is coming up next.

And now, at last, we are ready to go inside the house and

see what we can find there. Before you make too much

noise you may be able to get some candid shots.

This charming painting by Toulouse-Lautrec

would have also made a charming candid

photo.

Your house might have more fun features than

most, giving some good candid shots.

Candid photos of guests, if you have them,

can be of interest. The best photos may pose

some sort of mystery—like how is he plan-

ning on eating that popcorn while his head

is all covered up?

Home photos of babies are always a winner

Your cleaning lady with a casual come

hither look, like this Renoir odalisque, gives

character and interest to a candid photo

What you don’t

want is to have

a boring photo.

A candid photo of a reaction to a gift can

make for a lot of human interest.

Family gatherings may make some good

photo opportunities, especially if people are

doing something interesting.

It can be hard to think of good ideas for home

photos when you have other things on your mind.

Your bedside reading

might inspire an idea

for a photo. I took

this damsel fly photo

some years ago. It is

a simple image with a

lot of impact.

My 100 mm

macro lens lets

me be pretty far

away from the

bug, so that it

doesn’t get

spooked by the

camera.

There can be humor in home photos.

Or weirdness, like this home bookcase.

If your business is based out of your home,

like this mohel (Jewish circumciser), you

could take a photo that is work-related.

You may have a home hobby that would lead

to an interesting photo.

Pets sometimes seem almost human, so maybe

you can catch something of that in a photo.

The potential for exciting photos is much less in-

door so we have to have different goals.

Indoor photography usually is just not all that

exciting so we have to work a little harder.

One source of good ideas for home photos is

to look for a perspective or taking position that

is different from how you normally see things.

Another possibility is to look for interest-

ing lighting effects, like these two of mine.

I took this photo because I liked the way that

the straight edges of the blinds became wavy

curves when their shadows and bands of light

fell onto the semi-transparent curtains. This

shot only lasted like this for a short time and

changed quickly as the sun moved in the sky.

I took this photo because of the simple shapes

and shadows and single color—my favorite, blue.

You can experiment with lighting to create a

mood, like my cozy bedroom photo.

Light itself can be your subject, like these

burner flames on my stove in a dark room.

You can try to be creative and make clever ar-

rangements of common items, like your daily dose

of your various pills. (these are not mine)

You can create pretty color combinations and shapes.

Sex always has impact so you can look for a

sexy arrangement of some objects, like fruit, or

find something like my sexy tomato here -

where I found a taking position and cropping to

emphasize the voluptuous curves and sexy

creases of this baby. It is almost an indecent

photo!

Fruit can make for interesting compositions,

Which orientation looks most phallic?

Of course if you have a nude painting in your home

that is sexier still, but you can still get some sexy images

from vegetables like my curvaceous tomato.

You can play with fruit and vegetables,

like this saxophone I made from a pineapple,

squash, pineapple slices, and tomatoes.

Then I added in the notes at the top with my

computer.

The internet has some interesting images

of fooling around with food.

You don’t have to get fancy—a simple

still life can make a good photo if the com-

position is pleasing and there are colors and

textures to give it interest. The apples here

are on a piece of black felt.

Squash come in an amazing variety of

shapes and colors. They can be shot sin-

gly, as I did with like this one or in inter-

esting groups.

Sometimes just part of a fruit or vegetable

makes for the best photo, like the way I

cropped my picture of this squash.

You can pair a still life with a painting,

as I did with these onions and a Renoir

print of onions.

Extreme closeups of food, with a macro-

lens, can give photos that you are not used

to seeing. I took this one of a cut tangerine

and really like all the detail and 3D depth

that you see here. The fruit was on a piece

of black felt.

You can play

with your food

and that might

lead to some

creative photos.

Humor and food can make a nice pair but it

takes a lot of creativity to pull off something

good.

Human/food interactions can get bizarre.

Try some playful experiments and see what

you can come up with.

A keen eye can spot “faces” in flowers or

even whole people, like my “Dancing Orchid

Ladies” here. They are quite tiny— less

than 1/2 inch—and you have to look closely

to notice something like this.

In addition to seeing imagined life where

there is none, you can set up situations where

you yourself create a suggestive scene—like

my “The Gossips” photo here. I carefully ar-

ranged the cactus flowers and camera angle so

that it looks like the two stamens are talking.

Of course

flowers

always

make for

good

home

photos.

I prefer extreme closeups of flowers, like

this center of an African Violet blossom.

It looks like a Georgia O’Keefe painting.

You may have an indoor fern. Always

keep an eye out for interesting geometrical

patterns, as I did here. Usually this will re-

quire cropping out much of the plant and

just featuring the best part.

A black background, like dark felt, provides

a lot of impact to a flower photo. Lighting

is still important. I took this photo with nat-

ural sunlight, falling on the flowers.

The artists among us can try getting creative

with some drawing, for a funny home photo.

My wife is an avid knitter. I took a photo

of some of her yarn and knitting needles,

then flipped one quadrant of the photo over

a few times (with the computer) to make

this symmetrical mirror-image arrangement.

Of course Photoshop can do wonders for your

photos, but you want to start out, at least, with

a good eye in order to get the best results. No

computer program can match a good eye for

producing great photos.

We all know how the human eye works. Paying

close attention to your surroundings, while looking

for good home photos, means reducing the amount

of time that the little man here leaves his post to

go to the refrigerator or the bathroom.

We just have 2 eyes so we need to use

them carefully when looking around for good

photo opportunities. Woody Allen once

wrote about a mythical beast with 40,000

eyes—20,000 for distance and 20,000 for

reading.

You may find yourself of empty of new ideas,

like this “Innovation” barge here, but often just

walking around in your home or yard with a

keen eye can prompt some new photo possibili-

ties. Look for geometric patterns, unusual tak-

ing positions, novel color combinations, etc.

You would be surprised how many good photo

opportunities there are right around the home.

Even stacked laundry can make an interesting photo

Right outside your front window you

might see cars having sex—a great photo

op. They usually only do this at night,

so this is a rare picture.

You could try to capture something in

motion. A fast shutter speed and flash

may still require many tries before you

are happy with the results.

It took me over 200 shots to get this precise moment.

Quite a challenge!

This photo catches water drops from my kitchen

sink spray, with a vase in the background.

You might want to try a photo in your home

that involves water in some way.

Or maybe you have water on your property

and want to use that for some shots.

Here is an exercise to try. Take some

home photos that involve one or more of

these themes.

Water or liquid in some form

Captured motion

Unusual perspective or taking position

Unusual lighting effects

Geometrical patterns

Still-life of flowers, fruit, or vegetables

Views from the home

Yard scenes

Portraits or candid shots

For the next

meeting take 6

photos around

the home or

your yard and

send them to

Bill Balch.