Weir Farm – Yellow Squash

April showers bring May flowers…and vegetables. Movies have scenes that end up, as they say, on the cutting room floor and don’t get included in the final film. Likewise, there are photographs that I intended to include in my book Weir Farm National Historic Site (Arcadia Publishing), but had to be cut due to space

One Shot Challenge: Photographing Shapes

© 2019 Xiomaro.com For these one-shot images, I was drawn more to the shapes within a scene than the subject itself though, of course, they are inextricably intertwined. Under some circumstances, as I will show in a future post, light is the added ingredient that can showcase forms to the point of abstraction especially when

One Shot Challenge: The “Best” Camera

© 2019 Xiomaro.com These days I usually photograph with a small camera having dedicated knobs – rather than software menus – for aperture, shutter speed, exposure compensation, and aspect ratio. But the lens could not focus close enough to the moth resting on the translucent paper that covers the sliding lattice doors of a tea house.

One Shot Challenge: Another Attempt

© 2019 Xiomaro.com In my last blog post I explored reasons for limiting oneself to taking only one shot. Although I was satisfied with the first shot of the rain chain, I went on to take a few additional photographs that did not measure up as well to the first. Although I did not adhere

One Shot Challenge: Japanese Rain Chain

© 2019 Xiomaro.com In the days of film, it might have been appropriate to alter the sound of the shutter to the ka-ching of a cash register. Intentionality was required as the film and its development cost money. And you were limited to 24 or 36 shots after which the film had to be unloaded

Should flowers always be photographed in color?

© 2019 Xiomaro.com One of my workshop attendees recently asked me why I sometimes choose to photograph plants in black and white. In part, it’s because I like the challenge. As with a sunset, for example, the colors are striking enough to make even a poorly executed photograph still look pretty good. So can I