Thank You 7,000 Times

Compose for balance. Click here to order this print.

Hi All,

My latest Kelby Training Class, "Composition: the strongest way of seeing," has been watched almost 7,000 times. So many, many thanks to those photographers!

In the one-hour-plus class, I talk about the important rules of composition – rule of odds, rule of thirds, leading lines and so on . . . and why it's important to break those time-proven rules - and to follow your heart. I talk about that in the "Composition and You" segments of the class.

Rule of odds. Photograph © Rick Sammon

Speaking of breaking the rules of composition, as Andreas Feininger said when I interviewed him in 1979, "It's important to know the rules of composition before you break them."

And speaking of rules, Ansel Adams said, "The so-called rules of composition are, in my mind, invalid, irrelevant and immaterial." So there! :-)

Dead center is deadly. Photograph © Rick Sammon

In addition to talking about composing a picture technically, I discuss the importance of composing a picture emotionally, as I did when I photographed by dad in his study with his walker . . . shortly before he died.

Compose emotionally. Photograph © Rick Sammon

You might think that my dad's hands are too big in this picture. I composed emotionally, with the hands large in the photograph, because my dad's hands were important to me. When I was a kid, he used to lean over my shoulders with his large hands and help me with my homework during my "formative years."

Here is what a reader of my blog wrote about this picture when it was first published:
- it's full of symbolic, emotional content
- looking into the distance, contemplating the edge (the end) is near, time (watch), space
- life is behind him, yet he is still connected to this world (watch again)
- going through the daily cycle (circular movement in his arms, leading to his aged face)
- growing older by the day
- drawing ever nearer to the edge of darkness
- still grounded to the earth by the cold metal of the walker
- walker keeps him in the photo and connects him to the photographer, his son, his future
-   carry on, carry on my son
- but I am not long for this world
- long have I watched and guided you, but now I am content
- my gaze is directed elsewhere.

Composing emotionally works.

Compose artistically. Photograph © Rick Sammon

I also discuss composing artistically - and much, much more.

As you will see in this video, I like to make learning fun!

Explore the light,
Rick