Tony Belmont Photography: Eliminate the Variables and Stay Cool

I thought this would be a good title, but what does it mean? It would depend on what you're talking about. On this blog I talk about health and photography. Health, because it can and will affect how good your images will turn out - after all, if you or the photographer are feeling a bit under the weather, your pictures will probably not be as good as if you were feeling absolutely great. Your health is a variable (made up of hundreds of other variables, some of which I'll get into here and on other posts), and one variable that you can eliminate (or come close to eliminating) by eating right, exercising, taking the right supplements, and having the right attitude about life. These are things you can control. Another large variable related to your health is any drugs you take, as the side effects can affect your mood, energy, and your over-all health. For more information about drugs, please go to Mercola.com .

In photography, variables (and I know I won't list them all) include such things as exposure, composition, depth of field, posing, styling, make-up, lighting, post processing, and of course, your health. And let's not forget anticipation and timing in capturing that instant when you look your absolute best. As the saying goes, timing is everything.

Without making this post too long, I think you can see how, if you eliminate most of the above variables, you will get the images you wanted, and probably better. You probably never realized you could, or did, look so good, as when everything goes perfect. That is my goal.

I learned photography shooting film, and sometimes Polaroid (which was quite expensive) so every exposure needed to be perfect. I've learned to eliminate the variables with my photography, and also with my health.

In a prior post, I mentioned posting some ice pictures (many of these were shot years ago, on film which has since color shifted or faded - I did what I could in Photoshop and Lightroom, but too much information was missing from the original, but here they are) - These were taken in Ithaca, NY - it was somewhere around 15 degrees out, I was not able to shoot with my gloves on, so my poor fingers were like icicles! The branches covered in ice were a result of a nearby waterfall throwing out a mist that then froze on the branches. Makes me glad I live in Southern California now!

Below is a cloud of ice passing by - Brrrrrrrrrr. Actually, as in the photo above, the images are upside down, and are reflections in a stream, above, and a pond, below.