[MUSIC] That's me, Peter Glendinning, on the stern of a cruise ship exiting the Corinth Canal, sailing into the Aegean Sea, when I was leading a photography project for General Motors a few years ago. A fellow photographer made the picture, and he did a good job of composing the image so that it's well balanced. Notice how there are different areas to which your eye moves as you first view the picture. Maybe your attention rests on my face first or maybe my camera as you enter the picture from the left. And then you might be drawn to the canal as it extends toward the horizon and the bridge in the background. Rather than wondering why the photographer put me off center in his composition, you probably finished looking at the picture with a sense that there was a balance of elements that had individually interesting aspects. You probably also had a sense that those interesting elements were integrated into a complete picture, one that seemed balanced. A successful composition is often referred to as one that creates a rhythm, which is a word derived from the Latin word [FOREIGN], meaning to flow, like the water flowing through the Corinth Canal. A key goal in most compositions is to arrange the visual elements in such a way that the viewer's eye flows through the picture. When I see that photograph it reminds me of the real world I was in at that time, and the experience of passing through that canal. While it's well composed it's not an artistic representation. But it is more than just a snapshot. It has content elements that are carefully composed, each playing an important role. You, too, will want to make photographs that are as good a record of the people and places as this one was from wherever in the world you're creatively responding during this course. How you define that world of yours, what you feel it means to you as a real place that you may want to document as part of your work or as a place of imagination that holds messages you feel the urge to express. Making pictures rather than taking them is the key. This photograph shows me also, this time reflected in the small, vertical, rectangular mirror in the center of the photograph, in the stairway landing of my hotel in Athens. Notice how your eye moves through this picture? Is there a difference compared to the first picture of me on the ship, where did you start looking at this one? Did you start at the center? Many viewers would because in this picture the patterns in the door on the right are echoed in the patterns of the window on the left. Creating a space in the center that is different and thus attractive to most people. Another attractive element in the picture is me, not that I'm attractive but as a human being my image is attractive to other human beings. People are interested in people. And thus any person appearing in your photographs will be an element that attracts the viewer's attention. We say that such things have visual weight. I'm sure you can understand how the purpose of the second picture is quite different from that of the first, of my portrait on the ship. The first one serves more of a documentary purpose, while the second is more of an expression about time and place. More of an interpretation of my world, the new world I had begun to explore in Greece. It could also be seen as a picture that is an exploration of me, both literally and symbolically. You'll want to make both types of creative photographs. Ones that are based more in reality, and ones that are based in the world of imagination. One thing that all of your photographs should have in common is solid composition. A goal of composition is to create well organized visual elements that give the viewer a path to follow through the picture to help them understand the expression you intended. Composition's critical job is to serve as the means by which content is conveyed. Whatever type of photograph you make, pure document, pure abstract expression, or a mix of the two, you will want to know about composition and make it a priority. Whether it's here at home, or in Greece, or in any other country I visited. One of my main goals is to make photographs that will convey my responses to the special places, people, and things that I encounter. Sometimes those things are iconic symbols of a place like the Acropolis in Athens. I made this picture from a distance, so I could include all the modern buildings that surround that hilltop of ancient temples. To give a different interpretation of a place that has been photograph so often from a much closer vantage point. Sometimes my photographs are equally personal responses to things that others might find insignificant. Like this arrangement of potted plants with a strange sign painted on the wall above them, and strange painted triangles on the pavement below. Again, whatever the purpose of my pictures, I strive to find a place to put my camera that will result in a clear organization of the visual elements to convey a clear content. With the lessons in this course, you will have the tools to do it too. Whatever and whomever and wherever you are interested in photographing, your pictures will be more successful when you express a response that is uniquely your own. And apply the principles of design and composition so that the pictures express that response, even in a simple shot such as this one. In the first two modules of this course, I'll be describing some of the ways you'll be able to organize the visual elements of your pictures. And what those visual elements are so that viewers will better understand the purpose of your pictures. With these principles of good composition in mind, you will be able to create a picture that is built, not simply recorded. Your pictures will lead the viewer through the image to discover the meaning you want to convey. As a learner in this course number three, I know that while a few of you might be new here, most of you have gained in knowledge about control of your camera and gained confidence in picture content that is appealing to you through your work in courses one and two. You're from all over this great world of ours and you're excited about sharing the creative responses that you will have to even the most ordinary of locations in the places you call your own in the world. The important thing is to look at the world around you and make creative use of it. Whether it's familiar or an unfamiliar place that you find yourself in. This creative response is a purposeful thing, something that you do intentionally. And something that you'll want to construct intentionally also. We make pictures, we don't just take them. We're able to do that because we understand the principles of camera control, but also the principles of picture organization, what we call composition. And we understand the vocabulary terms such as visual weight. If you're participating in the peer review opportunities to share pictures with fellow learners and to make comments and receive comments too, you'll learn even more about composition. Whatever your situation, I think it's critically important for learners in photography, and I include myself in that group, to test their opinions against those of others. We do this every time we use the professional vocabulary of artists to analyze the work of others, and to analyze our own pictures. And we surely gain from the reviews by others of our own pictures. As you explore your world, whether it is here in East Lansing or in a well-known tourist city that is often photographed, like Venice, Italy, you'll be doing more than clicking snapshots as you respond creatively to places like the Piazza San Marco. Or to the people you find there, or to the things that are there for everyone else to see, but only your creative eye and mine can respond to in the ways that make you a special and unique human being, and make your pictures special too. As you put it all together, through your growing understanding of the camera and understanding of composition and the visual elements, you'll be able to organize the pictures you create in such a way that they convey your insights. So that the average viewer can make sense of them. Let's get a move on to the next lesson, and get started. [MUSIC]
