Composition & "Telling a Story" with Your Photography
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- CHAPTERS:
- Intro: 00:00
- Photo #1 & Composition is Movement: 1:08
- Photo #2 & “Telling a Story” in Photos: 6:13
- Photo #3 (The cutest Taco Bell on Earth): 11:00
- Photo #4 & Getting Things Where You Want Them: 14:07
- Photo #5 & Fostering Creativity: 17:06
- Photo #6 & Filling the Frame: 18:56
- Photo #7 & The Quality of the Light: 21:03
HOW TO SUPPORT:
If you benefited from this video and want to buy me a beer, check out either of the following links:
- nickcarverphoto.com/beer_me
- nickcarverphoto.com/contribute
ONLINE COURSES:
- Master Manual Metering for Film Photography: www.nickcarverphoto.com/metering
- Large Format Photography: www.nickcarverphoto.com/lf
PLUGS:
- Follow my new project “Previously Taco Bell” at www.previouslytacobell.com and on Instagram @previouslytacobell
VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
I took some more photos on my “Previously Taco Bell” project and I want to share them with you. But you know what? I’m not a selfish guy. I don’t expect you to just sit politely while I make you gaze upon all the splendor and glory that is my photography. I’m not a PSYCHOPATH. I want to give you something in exchange for looking at my photos. Something precious, something priceless, something more valuable than all the gold in Fort Knox: MY KNOWLEDGE and THOUGHTS and OPINIONS.
I know, I’m a generous guy. So here are my images shoved in your face disguised amongst some compositional tips and musings.
I got 7 of ‘em here along with 6 polaroids. Of the 7, I got a few 4x5 large format compositions and some 6x17 shots - all on Kodak Portra 160 and Kodak Portra 400. I’m trying to keep up a decent level of variety and creativity with this project, which is difficult at times due to the unvarying nature of my subject. After all, the same 3-arch building can only look so different one location to another. And that’s something we’re going to talk about in this video - how to keep creativity alive in your photography and how to nitpick your compositions until you’re pulling your hair out. That’s how I like to roll. Get obsessive over every single mind-numbing detail in a photo so that I only end up taking about a dozen photos a year and spend the moments in between wondering how I’ll ever create a robust portfolio at this snail’s pace.
But hey I’m just out here takin’ it one day at a time, you know? Just tryin’ to get by. It’s a crazy rat race, this thing we call life. We’re all flyin’ through space on this big blue marble wondering about our place in all of it. It’ll really make your head spin if you don’t stop and slow down once in awhile to smell your blessings and count the roses, amirite guys? Yeah alright there buddy you have a good one.
Thanks for watching!
Website: www.nickcarverphoto.com
Instagram: / nickcarver - Zábava
He even has a 6x17 clock on the desk... 🤣
I think that may actually be a "weather station": thermometer, barometer, hygrometer. Looks like a nice vintage unit.
Speaking of telling a story, one of the reasons I follow you is that not just your photos do so, but _you_ do a great job of that, too. 🙂
Nick could literally talk about anything and it would be interesting.
Yep, he's a natural born teacher.
I have a habit of noticing shops located in previous pizza hut buildings. Here in Australia all the previous pizza huts from the 1970’s & 80s had a particular architectural style and you can still find them since the dine-in all you can eat pizza died.
The photo #6 at 19:01:00 is awesome. It is impossible to believe anyone said that has too much dead space. On, man… That palm lines street leading down to the ocean is everything in this shot. 🙏
The best photography teacher on the internet by far!
you clearly have not seen Alec Soth's channel
Hello Nick,
I’ll finish writing this at 0617 - in your honour 😊. This is a marvellous teaching, with virtually no time-wasting. This attribute will bring me back for more. Your niche of Large Format is enthralling, and it seems to me that this labour intensive, slow process has helped you to develop a superb photographic eye - head and shoulders above the crowd (another reason to come back). Your high level of expertise positions you amongst the best instructors.
I believe that investing in tuition from an instructor/teacher of your calibre is a better investment than buying the next piece of kit. I’ll be looking closely at what you have to offer.
(Only two minutes to go…)
Thank you for making this excellent video, it has opened up a new world of image making.
I hope you will always love your craft.
Best regards from British Columbia, at 0617
My favourite film Photography teacher, I'll never shoot film but you are my teacher
Hey Nick...this attention to detail was extremely evident in your recent train image where you placed the distant mountains under the rail car and between the wheels. Your attention to detail and composition is always top-notch.
So many videos recently. We’re living in a Nick Carver Golden Age!
Thanks Nick for another enthralling tour of your processes and thinking behind make great images. Watching your videos is better than Netflix!
Your images make me feel nostalgic and i'm not even american, great mood all arround!
Super interesting! Especially like how you explained what it means to "tell a story" in a photo, because that's an expression I always found hard to grasp.
Open 24/7, closed on Sundays. lol. Great images. Love the red building one.
How interesting and thoughtful your videos are… You can be sure that you made thousands of people being better photographers with your great work and videos!
Great video thanks 👍. The light you get at dusk when it’s still warm and you have that American look thats kind of baked and soft dusty brings the feeling you get from a Hollywood film from the 60s/70s. We obviously get a lot of that in cinema and on the TV in the uk and it’s all very distant and appealing. When I visit it feels like I’m walking around in a film set. I’ve often wondered if people from other countries would see pictures of a typical rainy or overcast day in the UK and feel anything for it other than pleased they’re not there.
On your red building, I LOVE those two trees on the left and how they out then back in.
Absolutely love that last image with the red wall! The light and colors are amazing! BRAVO Monsieur!!
I look most of these images and all I can think of is Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks". That same feeling of quiet, perhaps reflective, solitude. Thank you for a very pleasant few moments well spent.
The bible of 6x17 and 6x7 and 4x5 and 6x6 analog photography, Mr. Nick.
I love all your episodes, but this one was particularly good. I really enjoy hearing you dissect each shot. The painstaking effort and the perfectionism for even tiny details. I try to replicate it in my own (far less impressive) photography.
Nick, I just sent the link to this video to an inactive pro photographer friend of mine who shot 4x5 and has been trying to get back into the groove again. I told him to watch your videos for HOW and more importantly WHY we take photographers in the first place. I follow a half a dozen or so photographers whom I respect and learn from. You just shot up to the top of the list! I cannot think of a better example of a photographer explaining his craft and his Raison d'Être better than you. Bravo and thank you.
I love how there is always something refreshing about how you make a vid, even tho its a subject that everybody else have done before you.
Babe wake up, a new nick Carver video just dropped
The best tutorial on composition I have ever heard. Thanks Nick. And thanks for explaining “story”. It all makes sense now. 👍🙏
Ditto. Always interesting to hear your approach. Because we share the urban architecture gene, your methodology (nearly) always applies! Always look forward to the next - thanks, Nick!
I so enjoyed this video. It was informative and the pics were great. My favorite is the building, and the palm trees lining both sides leading down the alley way.
Thank you Nick. Great video. Now I know why we need to slow down and think before we press the shutter button and move on. Love the lighting on the red building. You are right it looks like you had a giant soft box. The next image with the sun peaking through looks great too but the first one is something else.
What I like about your style and framing is that a part of the story is the atmosphere in which the subject exists. Cropped in a conventional manner would lose most of the atmosphere, which is the delicious element in the work.
Love it !!
I see Nick Carver becoming one of the greater artists able to capture the 2nd American Malaise period. The first being of the late 1970's to early 1980's where much of America fell into disrepair and stagnation. This current period Nick seems to capture so well, is still undefined for most of us, but you know it when you see it. And I see a lot of that here.
01:48 Solid shot. The lighting of this building creates subtext for me. The front is very bright 5-6000K, but it tapers around the sides, giving off a more decayed/disrepair feel. Inside appears to be warmer and older with 2700K lighting probably there in its original state. The billboard is slightly damaged, but dystopian feeling that a personal injury attorney has gained official Dodger sponsorship. The single car in the drive-thru and the person in the front window are just enough to not make this fully liminal, but it feels like it will be soon. Finally, the Strode in the foreground. This does a lot for me in terms of subtext. Its that horrible highway/street design of the car centric 1960's. For me this adds further to the dystopian feel, almost explaining how we got here in society. It further isolates the building too, making me feel like its much further away knowing I can't easily cross to access it. The outside feels cold and dead, but the inside still shows a small element of warmth.
06:17 My favorite of this set. Again with the landscape chosen and the twilight timing there's so much subtext. Timing wise, the end of the day spent at a location such as this really taps into that lonely isolating feel of current society. The woman on her phone really drives that to the next level and adds much more in terms of societal comment. The older vehicles, the graffiti coverup on the side of the buildings, the decaying apartment building peaking out from behind, the yellowing lawn all perfectly paint this seen for me. Of all shots in the group, this one speaks Malaise the most. Its a more subtle 1985 Hill Valley downtown. The stores are far from the glory they once were, but oddly still have a degree of warmth. Finally, a touch Nick always gets well...the lighting. I love the high pressure sodium lamp in the foreground that's ever so slightly bent. That pink spill on the sidewalk is great.
14:13 The subtle elements here like the bent handrail, faded bathroom door and dead palm fronds and nicely juxtaposed on freshly painted walls, new signs and retrofitted A/C. Its more honest than most decay-porn photographers. Some things are tended too, but never everything. Capturing this period correctly needs to show both. It shows were still here trying, but losing ground and picking our battles. The well worn curb with years of tire rub also do a lot for me. And there's something about the trash can, open and just left there. Like someone was doing something but then not. Subtext of our current labor shortages and economy overflow here.
18:53 I wish there was more to this one, but Nick chose to show us what he did. This one's less subtle than the others and maybe why I don't like it as much. The cone, the antenna, above ground power lines and bent lamp...all very nice elements, the old Prius is interesting for me. Seeing this once too-futuristic car for the American pallet now common and boring adds to the Malaise. Decay is best shown, when it reminds you of what the future was supposed to look like. Yes on 27 is sobering...and maybe too on the nose.
19:03 You didn't even need to say San Diego. Its obvious to me in many ways. The sky, the palms, the apartment complex and the weird street parking. But most of all, is the early 20th century street lamp. And I love that its off too, because this photo to me is all about the lighting. The fluorescents of the front, warm interior menu, the neon and the apartment lights all give an authentic feel. But then there's a couple strays I love...the single light bulb on the side of the restaurant and the warm inviting porch light at the apartment. Again like many of the others, there's the classic details: the bent sign, the open street-side receptacle reveals an old metal trash can (so much subtext). And traffic cones...love them Nick C traffic cones. Final note and something distinctly SoCal: palm fronds, purple sky and powerlines.
21:27 Great details in this shot that I love: the graffiti, blackened curb in the drive-thru, ranch house neighbor and the old mountain bike. The stickers on the drive thru window make me feel like the younger crowd frequents here. The broken lamp and the removed trees in the front again highlight that pick your battles aspect of decay that I love. And lastly, that thing we see in all of these...the bent lamp post by the drive-thru.
I know many won't agree with me...but Nick is a master of this modern Malaise period.
I am European, but I married an American so I've been there many times, and let me tell you, your photos are the best depiction of California I can think of. When I look at your pictures, I can smell them, I can hear the personal injury lawyer ads on the radio while I'm drinking a ridiculously large coffee, I catch myself thinking "dang, I should really learn Spanish". Once we were driving from LA to Death Valley and in the middle of the desert I had to stop and take pictures of the trains. Because long freight trains in the middle of the desert are the most Californian thing. Is there a local equivalent of the word Americana? Like, Californiana? That's what you should call your style.
Californication. There's even a song about it.
Great as always Nick.
Talk about telling a story. Great job mate! This video needs to be part of the book in some way ;-)
Great stuff, Nick!
Tell a story with your images: I FINALLY UNDERSTAND!!!! THANK YOU NICK!!!!
Nick, this is such a great episode. Loved hearing your thought process on these compositions. Also really looking forward to your future dawn/dusk metering video.
All great additions for your book, especially loving the red one.
Another great video, sir. Especially the storytelling part.
I've been a photojournalist for nearly 35 years (first still, now almost exclusively video) and it never occurred to me to think of framing a shot that *didn't* tell a story of some kind. This was a nice reminder that not everyone starts out thinking that way.
Thanks for the content
great instruction on composition!
Always look forward to these videos. Learning stuff and loving the photography at the same time. A two-fer!!
Fascinating, informative and concise. You're awesome, Nick.
Thank you Nick, this is an amazing video thank so much!!!
Great job Nick. So much of you comments to agree with.
Lookin extra fit man! Also I adore this video format, I love hearing you talk about your philosophy and prices more in depth like this. Good stuff!
I live near one of the previously taco bells you showed in a recent video, have driven past it for years, and can confirm it's a mexican restaurant. It's a really good one too. Also glad you took a moment to talk about what a story in a photo is. Almost everyone that mentions photo storytelling never goes into detail so it's nice that you took the time.
Another great video Nick! Love them, so much interesting points.
Great learning experience!
Another great video! Both my wife and I always look forward to your videos! Love your work! 😊👍
Thanks so much, very useful video.
Love this video on telling a story, my fave image is the red building, love the the umbrellas to the right too, and your right about story telling doesn’t have to have the subject filling the frame , sometimes you need to give the image context as well and when telling the larger story in book form all these images will come together so well with all the elements light, scale , etc
Great video! Thank you for walking through composition. It really helps other photographers to know what to think about in order to help themselves make better photographs.
Another fine video Nick, thank You. I thoroughly enjoy your content, and this one was really insightful. There is a certain look to a film photograph that I find appealing, and your style of photography really suits the format.
Those were great, I particularly liked the dusk photo with the silhouette of the street to the left.
Thank you for the free lesson.
Great exercise!
A great lesson of composition
The best channel dedicated for
Panoramic photos.
Absolutely my favorite CZcams photography channel. I think you could sell some “Nick Carver” yellow safety vests. Bring in the merch!
appreciate this video!!
Love it
24/7, but closed on Sunday? This does not compute. 😉
Thanks for the great images and discussion.
Very nice and entertaining, Happy Thanksgiving
Great video. An interesting project. It will take awhile, but I’m saving up for my Shen Hao 617! I am fully drawn into panoramic photography. Thank you!
This part about storytelling in a photo was absolutely great! Never had it explained this way, makes total sense to me. I always struggled with this aspect of photography and ignored to think about it (because I'm not a "storyteller"), but now I have a better idea of what it entails. I transcribed this part of your video to have it as an easy to access snippet of wisdom in my notes. Many thanks for telling us this story … 😁
Good composition tips from Nick Carver.....there you have bros.
Hello Nick. Very informative video of describing the story of your photos. And i loved the red building. Great work!
Almost to 100k baby!!!
Nick!!! Love your work and thanks so much for sharing your insight. What an experience it must be to photograph large format film. I need to learn how to 'see' upside-down. ;)
Thanks Nick. I found that expose on story-telling/composition very interesting. The insights of a professional like yourself are invariably fascinating.
Glad to hear the rant about the scene. I am in a FB group for aviation photography, me and the admin take photos of the sky with planes in it, most guys are like you say..."fill the frame dude" and we're like "no man, context"
the 'too much negative space' comment is wild to me. Absolutely love the way you frame your panorama's - as you said, photographing the *scene* as the subject, rather than just the *subject*. Artfully documentarian.
Like the idea and your images. Also the composition tips. Looking forward to checking out your channel.
I absolutely love your content. Taking something seemingly mundane like an old Taco Bell and makes it interesting.
Congrats on the 100k subs. Nick
I'm going to have this one playing in my ear next time I got out for a shoot. Great, great stuff as always!
Amazing how much you can learn in one vid, class as usual.
You were talking about Europeans loving the obviously “American” story in your pictures. Roland Barth called the knowledge that the viewer brings to a picture, “the studium”, (just like London is immediately recognisable, Americana is immediately recognisable, etc)… and, something that draws the viewers eye in a picture, he called “the Punctum”.
I’m not sure whether Roland Barth actually coined those words, but he speaks about them.
Anyway, I really enjoy your videos.
Of the photos you showed, I liked the Mini Taco Bell, I think using a polarising filter definitely paid off; but I particularly liked the red building under God’s soft box.
And, the lonely lit building…. yes, I really appreciate your work.
But, don’t forget your Hi Vis vest next time.
I'm with you Nick! It makes me crazy when someone says, "too much whitespace". I'm a fine artist, trying to learn photography. Interesting and unique composition really matters to me. One of my favorite artist is Colorado, landscape artist, Len Chmiel. He produced a book of his work called, An Authentic Nature. I love the way he composes a painting and this book has been really inspirational to me. Keep doing what you are doing! I love your compositions!
This is the insight that we will miss now that you have decided not to show your urban stories on your youtube channel anymore. Like you I always thought, and still think, that story doesn't make sense vis a vis a photo. I understand what is might and you have definitely explained that well but I'm not sure that I see that as a story. Nevertheless, this was a great video, with lots of really great information to setting up urban art photos and very inspirational on top of it all. A really shame that we will not be able to share that anymore. But, thanks for all the insight and inspiration to date!!!!
Super interesting and informative.
The use of shift reminds me how lucky i am to have bought a tilt/shift lens for my Canon (even had it converted to EF mount), and thinking about the shift lens for my good old P67... it surprises a lot of photographers how often one can use either, or both, movements to good effecf in all kinds of locations.
I love the 24/7 sign AND closed!
Hi Nick, I absolutely love love this series. We used to have a Taco Bell here in Jackson Hole but I don't remember if its an original building. I will have to drive to the other side of town one of these days and check it out. I don't usually go to that side of town often because that is where the giant hordes of tourists usually are.
Thanks for the video. Very helpful. I am not particularly drawn to buildings like that but appreciate your appreciation of them. I might even buy the book. Noticed your Mac Studio. I’ve been considering getting one. How do you like it? Keep the videos coming.
Apart from doing great photographs, you sir know how to tell about it 💪
This is great. I think that's a better way to explain "Tell a story". I usually know I like a shot if a caption pops to mind (and I do like to dig into my creative writing past for captioning). So if a photo gets me thinking about a scenario a photo suggests, it probably will for others.
theres one on washington blvd and redwood in culver city. pretty cool I think its an asian resturant now.
I live in Guadalajara, it was funny to see that first image.
Thx from Paris France
That old alarm clock below your monitor... I'm jealous.... 😻
Yes man… close to 100k follower. Go for it
Storytelling is ever evolving. For me the best story is the one of the photographer him/herself. Seeing photos evolve from simple to complex. For me the next step in the series would be the human factor. Finding a person who works there and get their portrait plus a short story. Would add a whole new level to the evolution of the project. Just my 2 cents.
Have you tried any long exposures yet? On a day with big giant clouds (not overcast) the motion blur could add another creative way to capture them
Never thought of using horizontal shift on a landscape format image in that way. Something new to try.
Man, I just love your channel. Thanks for all the tips. I too was lost on the story aspect. Simple minds think alike I guess
I’m a filthy European, and am going to speak in favour of the midday shots; the dusk shots are undoubtedly more aesthetically pleasing, and (perhaps) more ‘arty’. But the midday shots feel more ‘real’ - for a foreigner, they give more a sense of being there, of getting a sense of a place. They really add to the palette of the series, and I value them as much as the dusk shots (which I love too). Great series.
Top notch. I really enjoy your videos, and the things I learn on the way, great!. By the way - what 4x5 do you use?
Great video, and beautiful shots, this is stuff people/photographers don't talk about but very important.
Do you have shots (of other Photographers) of these buildings when they were Taco Bells ?
Thank you. You’re such a generous guy 😂
Nick, THANKS FOR sharing your new photographs with us. Lovely work. It’s nice to see someone being so passionate about the protest. I know this feeling of hunting for new locations and pursuing your subjects… so much fun! 🤔 I wonder if this passion for hunting comes from millions years ago when we were hunter-gatherers? 🦴
Knowledge bombs as always good sir! Hope all is well 👍😊