Index of posts for Patrick Malone's photo blog

  1. Doorways and Archways as Compositional Frames

    This is one of my favorite photos outside of my usual haunts in and around Monumental Washington.   You might recognize Venice’s San Marco cathedral basilica in the background. But that’s just backdrop. The subject is a mother leaning over her little girl, framed in an arched loggia of the Piazza…

  2. Composing with Pyramids and Triangles

    Pyramids and triangles are everywhere in great artistic compositions whether they be sculptures, paintings or photographs. Here is one that started as a photograph, then was turned into a giant sculpture: Joe Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima flag-raising photo, now the United States Marine Corps Memorial on a bluff in Arlington, Virginia…

  3. Leonardo and Linear Perspective

    What do photographers and Renaissance painters have in common? Both seek to portray the wonder of life in all its three-dimensional vastness, but on a stubbornly flat and decidedly two-dimensional surface. Studying Renaissance masters like Leonardo da Vinci can help focus photographers on the problem and its solution.  Leonardo did…

  4. Making a Good Photo Better

    It’s no accident that the word photographers use for what happens when the vision before their eyes gets turned into a digital file or a piece of celluloid film: It’s called “capturing” an image. The word conveys that this is an elusive, fleeting, often frustrating endeavor.  This blog post is…

  5. Combo: Go low and background first

    This is a photo from the Washington Post’s very talented Matt McClain. He’s inside the U.S. Capitol, at a news conference with Senator Schumer, the majority leader. It’s a daily, even hourly occurrence at the Capitol. A ho hum assignment for an ordinary photographer. He has to get Schumer into…

  6. Moon Over Memorial

    So how do you get a shot like this of the rising full moon, resting on the roof of the front portico of the Jefferson Memorial? (And looking like a big orange marble ready to roll down that sloping roof and – plunk! – into the Tidal Basin.) It’s actually…

  7. Reflections

    Let’s reflect a bit on reflections. They’ve been a storied part of the photographic portfolio for many years. Urban planners in Washington, D.C., and around the world have long incorporated shallow bodies of water into the city landscape for the express purpose of attracting photographers.  In our nation’s capital, we…

  8. Go Low

    Going low, for photographers, is not a metaphor for slinging unfair personal attacks against an adversary.  It’s about the physicality of taking an image, and it means getting your camera close to the ground. Interesting stuff happens down there Take a look at this shot of a pedestrian bridge I…

  9. Background First

    The great photographer Sam Abell (Nat Geo, Marlboro Man) used to quote his photographer dad “Sammy, start with the background.”  It’s a puzzling bit of advice, until you see it in action.  My own photography isn’t in the same galaxy of talent as Sam Abell, but I think I understand…

  10. Blue Hour

    Here are a few images from my Monumental DC collection that show you what Blue Hour is and why it’s so special for photographers. (Click on the thumbnails to scroll through the set.) Blue Hour happens twice a day: at dusk, when the last direct rays of sun have disappeared…
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