While the weather covers everything in a sheet of monochrome and like standard white balance registers everything as 18% grey there isn’t much hope photographing vibrant colors outside. So it’s time for some research.
When you think of powerful colors all sorts of possibilities spring to mind, flowers, green trees, the blue ocean and sky. But what about even more unique things…like lava.
Bryan Lowry is a lava photographer, risking his life to capture the most breathtaking images of lava you could see.
Here are some of his incredible photos that truly capture the unharnessed power of the volcano
http://lavapix.com/#/gallery/volcano/1-fire-and-ice/
The reason I’m studying his work is because of the intense colour he captures in every shot. While I can’t exactly go and photograph a volcano for this exercise, I can study his work to see how the colour is so powerful and dominating.
Placing the colorful element against a dark background automatically concentrates the attention on the colour. For a set up this I could use a black sheet of card or following the inverse square law ‘any object twice the distance from the light source will receive a quarter of the amount of illumination.’ which will hopefully produce a black background as in these photos
ChloeClik Photography 
Reblogged this on My Photography Adventure and commented:
This fellow students blog entry resonated with me – I like her thinking and am reblogging her entry in order to keep the images of Bryan Lowry
I have reblogged this entry Chloe – so that I can keep a track of Bryan Lowry’s amazing photos. I am in despair with regard to the course! Colour is so missing from the world right now!
Aw thanks, I’m glad you like it. Yeah I adore his photography, volcanoes are incredible and he just captures the sheer awesomeness of it.
Ah I know, I’m just waiting for the rain to stop. We should discuss ideas to get some inspiration, we’re exactly at the same point on the course which is great.
For the next thing I have to do – colour relationships – the only thing I can think of is to go t the flower shop and find the right combination of colours. Flowers though are a bit obvious. Fabrics might work. Do you have any other ideas?
Going to a flower shop is a great idea, especially as there aren’t that many flowers around at the moment. Or to save money a garden centre? Mum bought some daffodils today so I’m going to use them. I know rain makes everything grey but afterwards everything seems to be even more vibrant than before. (a vibrant grey :P) and I’m going to photograph some sunsets soon. I’d recommend getting Tom Ang: ‘Digital Photography Month by Month.’ It’s fantastic for inspiration and ideas and the photos are so gorgeous it’s hard not to want to dash outside and photograph everything. http://www.dk.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781409373667,00.html
Hi both!
I too am finding colour hard to find at this difficult time of year! It is hard when the seasons are against you. I liked the link to the Tom Ang book I think I will try and get a copy asap. Another resource I used was http://services.tineye.com/MulticolorEngine another great ideas place for images.
Cheers
Annette
p.s. shame we can’t get images like the beautiful violet and yellow picture I saw on Mr. Lowry’s page. Perfect fro colour accent!
Hi Annette!
Nice to meet you.
It’s been such a challenge trying to capture these colours but finally I have. I was determined to get it finished today so went to the garden centre and took about seventy photos of three plants 😛 Plus it was outside and I got serious cramp in my hand 😛 I’m looking forward to starting the next exercise tomorrow.
Aw I’m really pleased you like the Tom Ang book, I have to say it’s fantastic. Another one I’d recommend is Ian Farell The Complete Guide to Photography http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Guide-Digital-Photography/dp/0857385488 It’s fantastic and I love the photos. Let me know what you think about the Tom Ang one. I’ll have a look at that link it looks great.
Oh I know Lowry’s photos are incredible. I’d love to witness something like that though I’m not sure I’d want my camera too near the lava. I freak if it so much as starts spitting. When I first got it I didn’t even want to take it to the seafront 😛
Hope you’ve had a nice day
Chloe
I just looked at that link it’s fantastic, thanks for sharing.
Yes, same here, way up north here in the Outer Hebrides we’re still in the full grip of winter and I look out of my window and everything is looking brown and dead, especially on a day like today when the sky is grey and leaden. I’m due to start the exercises for the Colour section in two days time and am also looking for inspiration. I lurked around the flower section in the Co-op yesterday (one bucket of worn looking flowers), no florist or garden centre here on the island. Will have to put thinking cap on! Good luck everyone! 🙂
Hi YvonneB & Chloe,
Have a look at one of m favourite photographers, Ævar Guðmundsson, (Icelandic Photographer) I have done a small review of his work on my blog, his site is ; http://www.aevarg.com/forsida, he also manages to squeeze colour out of seemingly plain landscapes.
No shame in doing flowers, I bought some purple and yellow tulips for a shoot for the colour accents section as Violet and yellow are more difficult to find. Well they were for me.Try looking around your home or even other peoples(friends), its interesting how we miss the colour in other environments. Good luck girls and I shall look to see how you got on.
Cheers
Annette
Wow his work is beautiful. I love photography like that, thank you for sending it 😀
That’s a great idea, I hope the shoot went well and thank you for the advice. Good luck to you as well 😀
Chloe
Thanks for the link to the Icelandic photographer Annette! Some superb images on there 🙂