the rule of thirds

this past weekend I took a short photography class (thanks to Chris). it was just a brief 3-hour session, but it was pretty fun! We spent the entire class period walking around Georgetown trying to apply the rule of thirds. After the class was over, Chris and I hopped a train to New York to spend the rest of the weekend seeing friends and eating ourselves sick.

It was fun to try and apply the little bit I learned in this photo class to the photos I took in New York -- usually, I'm just snapping away, not really paying attention, but this time I tried to be a little more intentional with my framing. Obviously, I'm far from pro-status, but here are some of my best photos from the class and the weekend.

our photography class met a random artist in georgetown

he was a little eccentric, but he let us into his studio

he had a lot of random knick knacks

the artist at work

i realize this is a recycling bin, but the shot is not bad, right?

madame geneva's in new york, LES

chris and his two good friends elliot and dan

some serious besties: joanna, niloo, me

fifth ave. at dusk

nonchalant cyclists

the gang

me! taken by Chris

heading back to DC

I've never really considered myself an artistic person, but it's fun to learn a new form of narrative expression. I'm learning that a photo is really about getting a story across in one image. Just like a written story, each photo has a protagonist -- the subject of the photo. And your job as a photographer is to frame that protagonist in some way that gets a story across. It can be a sad story, a joyous story, a complicated story. But that's your job -- to get the viewer to have a sense of the story in one glance.

With that in mind, I'm starting to think I could really get into this form of artistry.