This is a silhouette of an oak tree off of McBean Parkway in Santa Clarita created by Mel Carll of the SCV Center for Photography.  The image is currently hanging in the Century Room of the Santa Clarita City Hall.  You too, can create an awesome silhouette of your own.

In looking at some photos on the web today, I noticed a lot of silhouetted photos on the beach that really made me think about how little I have seen this in our local photography.  So after doing some looking into my own images, I realized that I have done some of this, but really not enough lately, so I thought I would post some basic thoughts in creating a nice silhouette.

• The basic idea is to place a strong subject in front of the bright light, which can be a person, tree, building, animal, whatever it is that interest you.
• Make sure you great light behind your subject, and that light needs to be brighter than the light hitting your subject from the front, or foreground light.
• It helps it you have a nice plain background, no clutter, nothing that could distract your viewers eye from leaving the main subject in your image.
• Do not use any flash from your camera.  You are trying to make your subject go black in the image, although you will want some detail, but just enough so that you know what the subject is.
• The most difficult part is the exposure.  Use spot metering, and point it at the brightest part of the image, as this will under-expose your subject.  If your subject is too bright still, either speed up the shutter speed or change the aperture.  So if your aperture is currently at f8, adjust to f11.  And then just continue to adjust to you get the image you are looking for.

Making a silhouette can lead to a great image, both in bright daylight, or even at sunrise or sunset.  So get out there and make some images, and if you need additional inspiration or assistance, check out our workshop schedule at the SCV Center for Photography via our website www.scvphotocenter.com.

There are times when your photographic creative juices fail you, and you just can not come up with any ideas of what to photograph, but you want to photograph.  Here are a few ideas for you to consider:

1. Your Yard:  You may think this is funny, but your  yard is a target rich environment.  Most of you are likely to have flowers, roses, herbs or plants.  These items always make great macro subjects.  And don’t forget the grass, which first thing in the morning with dew and sunlight can be pretty pleasing.
2. Your House:  To be more specific, the kitchen.  Consider those hanging pots, or the many utensils you have laying around.  If you just look around, you may be surprised what you see.
3. Park:  Most us have a park fairly close to home.  The kids play area always has some interesting objects, that might be interesting macro shots.  The kids playing, laughing and running are great photos to send the grandparents.  You may even be lucky to have a water fountain or other textures to consider.
4. Industrial Park:  Take a drive though the local business park.  Check out the textures on the building, as they can make for some interesting abstracts.  A lot of businesses have some pretty nice landscaping, so again, flowers, plants and even water treatments can make for great photos.
5. Farmers Market:  Most towns today have a local farmers market, and this can be an awesome place for photographs.  You should always ask the vendors if they mind having the produce photographed, but generally, most have no problems.

Hopefully these tips can you help you jump start your creative juices on those slow days.  Enjoy, and keep shooting.  If you are interested in other ideas, please log onto our website at  www.scvphotocenter.com and check out our many workshops each month at the SCV Center for Photography.

It is really a very simple idea.  Create a piece of art each day for a full year.  Yes, create 365 separate pieces of art.  Depending on the type of artist that you are, this can be a photograph, watercolor, painting, drawing, poem, musical recording, and scrapbook, whatever you are into at the time.   But the goal is to create something each and every day.  Yes, it will be difficult at times, because it will require you to be creative on a day that maybe you are not feeling it.  But the goal is to push yourself to further your creative juices.

By creating a body of work with Project 365, you will see your creative and artist skills improve and most likely change from month to month.   You will find yourself always thinking about the next day, and what motivates you to be creative.  You will find excitement as you share your experience.

So now you ask, what do I do with this body of work?  Well, for one, you can create a book and publish it for yourself.  This is a great way to display your body of work and show everyone your incredible work of art.  It is always better if your art is shared, thus a book works very well.

So give it a try and create that awesome body of work.  You will be happy you did.

Mel Carll, Photographer

SCV Center for Photography

Santa Clarita, CA

Just to keep with the photography theme, here’s another opportunity for you local SCV photographers to get your stuff out there!

On May 22nd, from 10am-1pm, the Santa Clarita Valley Photography Association will be hosting their 2010 Spring Print Competition. You can enter up to five (5) pieces for just $20 if you’re a member, $30 if you’re a non-member, and $5 if you’re a student.

If you’d like to download the competition rules, please click here.

The City of Santa Clarita is developing the Fall SEASONS Magazine, and we would like a photograph from one of you to be on the cover.  The photo must be color.  The theme of the photograph should be Family. Please submit 2 images for consideration to me by May 17.  The photographs can be past work or new pieces.

The photographer who’s image is chosen will receive $500.

Right.

I knew you’d like that.

Please email those two (2) beautiful submissions to Jeff Barber (jbarber@santa-clarita.com), and, if you’d like, please send them to us as well (661arts@gmail.com)! Even if your image isn’t picked, we’d love to check it out!

Now get to it!

661Arts.com hosted the photo booth at the City’s Concert in the Park on Saturday.  As the Skinny Little Twits rocked the stage, the kids in the crowd rocked the booth.  You can see the full set by clicking here, or to see a selection of the madness, click through by following the link below: