The Grass is Always Greener ...

Photo Randy Vanderveen A horse in a pasture in the Webster area supports the saying "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" while his pasture mates are content with what they have.The old saying "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" is an easy one for photographers to lay claim to.

Whether it is thinking another piece of camera equipment will enable us to take better photos.

Or perhaps being overseas in a different country. If I was in (name a country) I would be able to take award-winning photos of landscape, nature, people and events. I could do this or I could do that.

But take a moment and look around.

Here we have the freedom to go out and photograph almost anything we want without being worried we will be arrested.

But it goes well beyond photography. It is to easy for us to lose sight of what we have here.

We have a country where most of us make enough money that we have a certain amount of discretionary income. (All of what we make is not just going to food and shelter).

We have the ability to travel freely within our country without having to check in with the police or military in every community and have our papers always at hand.

We can live and move about safely without the fear of explosives or being fired upon.

We have the freedom to congregate and worship freely.

Our children have the opportunity to go to school, and while we can complain about the cost of education taxes and even university tuition, it is far lower ratio than what those living hand to mouth in third world nations would pay.

When we have an election, like the one coming up this fall municipally, we can vote for who we want without being bullied, threatened or perhaps killed for expressing a contrary view to the front running candidates.

While we complain about the weather — too wet in Southern Alberta and too dry in the North — we are still able to have good homes to protect us no matter what.

And although farmers are hit hard by the weather resulting in huge losses —  none of us will starve to death as a result of no crops.

We have so much to be thankful for and yet we often like the horse in the photo above would rather look and reach longingly for something else.

Why not take some time today to write out a list of the many blessings we have.

After all for the majority of the world — North America still has the greenest grass anywhere.

Into the frame

Grovedale, Alberta 13/02/10 Dale Thompson walks behind a harnessed team of horses as he makes his way over to a sled with bunks on it to haul firewood. One of my biggest short comings as a photographer is shooting too tight.

When I was at SAIT, my photojournalism instructor emphasized filling the frame and I think I took that advice too much to heart.

Sometimes negative space — the area which doesn't contain your photo subject — can be as important as the subject itself in telling a story in a photo.

(Cropping portraits also makes you realize that shooting tight isn't always the answer. When you shoot a portrait, crop it to 8x10 and lose all the space around the person, you begin to realize you need to shoot a little looser. It also comes into play when shooting athletes like figure skaters, gymnasts and artists like dancers. They want to see their pointed toes and fingers so they can see how good their technique is. Shooting tight is better suited for newspapers so the viewer can get a quick read of the photo whether it is a full page or one column image.)

I still have a tendency to shoot too tight but I am trying and make a conscious effort to shoot a little looser. (With the resolution of today's digital cameras cropping into a photo is a little less invasive than doing so using a Nikon D1H).

This photo is a prime example of when shooting looser helps with the story.

I could have shot this tight on Dale, the man at the reins, and his team, (although shooting tight from behind would have been an ugly shot) but shooting looser allows the viewer to see where he is going, the country he is going into, the weather conditions etc.

It adds the adverbs and adjectives to the photo sentence of "A man drives a team of horses".

On a secondary note, usually when you shoot people getting their face in the photo is desireable, but in this case shooting Dale as he drives the team away adds depth. It also adds the leading lines of the trailing reins which wouldn't be visible if he was coming towards the camera.