want a better photograph? filter out the noise

Have you ever eagerly sat down with a batch of your photos, looked through them expectantly and then, with a sigh, wondered what happened to all those fantastic images you thought you took? The odds are good that one of your challenges was taking photos in which no single, clear subject was apparent.

When composing a photograph, be careful to include a clearly defined (read: obvious) subject and not much else. Easy to say, not as easy to do without thinking about your photo in advance.

As we look at a scene with the naked eye, we see what we want to see. Our brains automatically, unconsciously filter out everything else. The camera does no such filtering unless you instruct it to do so, either during or after the photo is taken. The trick, therefore, is to know how to use both your camera's settings and your photo editing software.

Focus on What's Important

One way to filter out the unimportant, distracting bits and emphasize your subject is to adjust the depth of field. This involves putting into focus only the objects in the scene which are all at the same distance from the camera. Everything else is blurred, filling the background with muted colors and vague shapes but nothing else that could detract attention from your subject. This will not work with most point-and-shoot cameras, since they typically don't come with the ability to adjust focal length. Using a camera with exchangeable lenses is your best bet for this method.

Dominate the Frame

Another way of filtering out everything that might take away from your subject is to get in very close. See what happens when the subject's size, shape and color completely dominate the image. Any objects scattered around the edges of the photo will hardly be noticed. Not a technique for the faint of heart, but certainly useful.

Fiddling with Color

Using photo editing software, you can modify the image in "post production" by manually reducing the color intensity and brightness of the background and/or increasing the color intensity and brightness of your subject. Imagine a complex city scene rendered entirely in black and white, with a woman walking down the sidewalk wearing a bright red hat. There will be no question as to the photo's subject.

These three techniques should get you well on your way to solving the "what happened to my photos?" dilemma. With today's inexpensive digital cameras (no more film to buy or process!), you can experiment to your heart's content with these ideas and come up with some truly stunning images.

Do your part to reduce noise pollution. Filter it out!

it can't be helped

So here I sit, surrounded by piles of paper. White paper, yellow paper, glossy paper with charts and illustrations, stiff dark blue paper encasing yet more white paper. Piles on my desks (I have 2-1/2 of them). Piles in and on top of the "organizer" units on top of my desks. Piles on the floor. More piles over there on that other 2 square feet of formerly empty floor. Bookshelves filled, not with books, but with piles of paper.

Houston, we have a problem.

Those of you who read my blog back in April 2008 (tinyurl.com/63jul8) will remember my initial excitement for David Allen's book, "Getting Things Done" and the (then free) software I found that implements his method. The book is still an excellent book, and the software, now available for a truly nominal fee, is still good and getting better with each new release. Here's the link: www.trgtd.com.au/

So where's the holdup? In a word, me. No plan works by itself. The best crafted methods are worth no more than the paper on which they're printed until someone (that would be me in this case) actually makes an effort to implement them.

David Allen's method obviously works. He's proven it hundreds of times with far more serious cases than mine. Following his GTD process empties your brain of everything you need to remember and lets you recall it at exactly the right time to get it done when it's supposed to be done. The catch is being consistent.

Just as with an exercise program or a diet or learning a language or a musical instrument or (fill in the blank with your long-term goal of choice), consistency is paramount. And with David's plan, you must get a roaring start. You must clear out EVERYTHING from ALL of your working areas (even the corner of your nightstand and the glove compartment of your car) and put them into the system. Then you must reference and use the system CONSTANTLY.

The key to success, then, is changing habits. I don't generally like changing my habits. Not too many folks do, I'll bet. But in order for this (or any similarly significant goal) to be achieved, habits have to change. Shikata ga nai (it can't be helped - there is no other way).

Tony Robbins reminds us that we respond best to the hope of pleasure and the fear of pain. Guess my next step will be to vividly imagine compelling examples of pleasure and pain.

"Honey, where did I put that tax rebate check we got last spring?" Oops - time to change habits …

We’ve Got to Get Out of This Place

In "From the Earth to the Moon,” the ground-breaking 1865 novel by Jules Verne, we read the story of a Frenchman and two well-to-do members of a post-American Civil War gun club who build an enormous sky-facing cannon and launch themselves in a projectile/spaceship from it to a Moon landing.

Ever since that novel was published, man’s dream of travelling to the planets and then to the stars has grown ever stronger. Science fiction novels and movies continue to spark the imagination of would-be astronauts, both the “real” variety and those who explore space from the comfort of their armchairs.

Such romantic visions of space exploration and conquest are slowly, quietly being supplanted by a more ominous motivation -- survival. Man’s chances of surviving as a species on this planet go down almost daily. Any elementary school student can give you the laundry list of reasons why this is so. (Read my thoughts on the subject here.)

Yes, Earth is home. It is where we were born, have lived and died for thousands of years. But given those reasons alluded to above, it’s likely the cycle will not continue too very much further into the future.

And now, the important part: if we’re going to establish a permanent human presence on another world, we must take action SOON. It may even be too late already.

Simply “exploring space” is not the same as colonizing other worlds – not by a long shot. Researching, planning, designing, funding, building and populating a viable colonization mission (preferably several simultaneous missions) could take many hundreds of years and thousands of trillions of today’s dollars. And for such a mind-bogglingly large undertaking, man’s resources may well be forever insufficient.

So why don’t we just forget about it and work harder on improving our chances of survival here on our home planet? Good question. Many people believe that’s the proper course of action, and those people have a good argument in their favor.

My argument is simple. What if those people are wrong?

(For a general discussion of this topic, start here with the Wikipedia article, "Space Colonization.")