LESSON#2 THE BIOGRAPHY OF COLOR

Do you recall the first time that a color in a given photograph had a memorable impact on you? Did you or someone else take that particular photograph? Do you remember what color it was? Do you often respond favorably or unfavorably first to a photograph’s content, its composition or to the color(s) that make-up the overall image? Most of us have at least one if not several favorite colors. As you may have discovered last week discover your favorite color or colors do say not only a lot about what kind of subjects you like to photograph, but also, (and arguably), the colors you choose, or not choose, to photograph, says a lot about you psychologically. We are all perhaps familiar with the saying, "we are what we eat" but did you know “you are what you photograph”? In my many years of experience I have come to the conclusion that what we choose ​ ​ to shoot is often times a representation of our inner-self. A different kind of selfie to be sure, but a selfie that is just as revealing about you, including your use of (or limited use of color). Obviously if I look at a body of your work i.e. 20 images, and I see that you love to shoot pictures of people, it would be a very easy assumption to conclude that you are a ‘people photographer’; yeah, I know a real no-brainer! But to be really clear, I am not actually looking at your people pictures per say, but rather I am looking at HOW you compose and expose these pictures. Do you use mostly the horizontal frame or the vertical frame? Do you cut into the person’s forehead or leave lots of space around the head? Do you cut off arms and legs and if so, where, at the elbow or wrist, the hips or knee? Do you favor backgrounds of our of focused shapes and tones of colors or do most of your backgrounds render a great deal of sharpness and thus are more informative? Do you like shooting men more than woman, children more than seniors? Do you prefer individual portraits or group shots; people at work, or people at play; candids or posed; local people or people in foreign lands? And of course when it comes to your use of color in these compositions, I would be looking to see what colors you are drawn too as well as what colors you seem to recommend to people when you find yourself doing an actual portrait session. Your color choices in your compositions are your choices, even when you insist that ​ ​ the person you are photographing was a stranger to you and therefore his/her color “was what it was” and you had no say in the matter. But you did have a say in the ​ ​ matter, which is indicated by your willingness to invest the time, no matter how short, into the creation of that image. You could have walked away and NOT taken ​ ​ the shot, but instead, you did and what I am suggesting is that many times, consciously or sub-consciously we are all making very quick decisions of what we choose to photograph in large measure because of the subjects color, whether that subject be animate or inanimate. If in your work I see a lot of green you are revealing to me that you are young at heart. If I see a lot of orange in your work you are revealing to me that you are both a cheerful sort as well as a bit flamboyant and if I see a lot of purples and violets in your work, you might be of a royal family lineage and perhaps even feel that you are a wee better than most of us. Of course this course is not going to suggest that in the upcoming pages a lengthy and potentially controversial analysis of your inner psychological will be revealed, but in the interest of having fun I do want to share with you some of the psychological meanings that those who are in the business of studying and understanding our reaction to color have concluded. As you learn about the psychological meanings of color in the following pages, please keep in mind that I feel you should embrace this information with the same seriousness and enthusiasm as you might when reading your Astrological profile as well as your daily horoscope. I promise you will discover yourself in all of the colors being discussed, and to be certain, your ‘true colors’ will show up under one color more than others, but as a cautionary note, how serious you should take these definitions of the ‘inner you’ is be left up to those who know you best, and that starts first and foremost with you.

And keep in mind that if in your work you see a lot of one or maybe two colors over and over, you should not conclude that your inner self is defined in large measure by the psychological meanings of that one or two colors, but rather it is an psychological indication perhaps of where you are and/or have been over the last few years. Assuming you are like most of us, your love of color(s) is in a constant state of transition. You might be on a GREEN/YELLOW color kick for several years and then gradually or suddenly, you notice, you are drawn to RED/ORANGE. All of us are in a constant state of maturing, hopefully, and that also means that our likes and dislikes about color are changing also. Nowhere is this ‘need’ for change greater than in the natural world where there are distinctly four seasons. Although your ‘seasons’ are far greater than three months, more like years in fact, it is expected that given enough time, it is or will be evident, that like most of us, you too like all colors, including your favorite color from yesterday, your current favorite today, as well as tomorrows undiscovered favorite color. So with that in mind let's go have some fun and explore the psychological meanings of color and their impact on our reasons for choosing to shoot them.

RED Throughout history, no color has played a more important role than RED. A red tie against a freshly pressed white shirt, was often referred to as the “power tie!” Worn by the rich and powerful working in the white-collar world, a red power tie commanded respect and of course this was due in large part because the color red, in and of itself symbolizes leadership, decisiveness, determination and a very tight and focused vision. These are but a few of the positive characteristics of the color red. Even if until recently, you had spent your first 30 years living alone on a rock in the tropics with no internet and no access to ships and planes, you would soon be associating the color red with more then just your very tanned skin as you would discover all of the love and attention the world would be showering upon you. Love is the color red and it is celebrated in the most vivid and colorful way every th February 14 ,​ the world over. Orders for red roses and/or a box of chocolates in a ​ bright red heart-shaped box are symbolic ways to express our love and not at all surprising, the color of love, is also closely tied to sexual energy and intimacy. Love and sex have been partners since the beginning of time and red has been and still is the color that has been used to describe this often intense and passionate expression of both our hearts and desires. Likewise, when love is threatened, one will often feel a ‘short’ in that highly charged electrical connection called sex. That once passionate and safe feeling of love is now replaced with anger and rage; the face becomes red and the blood-pressure rise. Blood, danger, threat, war, love, passion, sex, leadership, determination, decisiveness and rage are all qualities of RED. Red is a safe color in Chinese culture, considered by many to keep the demons away and thus the mighty powerful red dragon and those red firecrackers have been a part of the Chinese New Year celebration for centuries. It is also a god luck color for many in the Far East. Although red has been replaced in large part by white, a red wedding dress was the color choice of Chinese brides for years. In India, a red wedding dress is still the favored color of most Indian brides and as a symbol of one’s commitment to another, a red dot is seen on the forehead of married woman from India, no matter where in the world they might be living. (A black dot on the forehead of an Indian woman is an indication that she is a widow.) , Some people report getting an appetite when seeing red. I must confess that if I am in a room with red walls my appetite is not affected, but if I see a pizza or pasta or Butter Chicken in its customary red sauce in that same red room, I will surely develop an appetite. Red is also assertive and aggressive and this can be attributed, in part, to the fact that red is the second most advancing of all colors. (Surprising to some, and as we’ll discuss in a little bit, yellow is the most advancing of all colors if only because on the visible spectrum it is 2 ½ times brighter on average than all other colors, including red. And yes, I am fully aware that red is at the top of the rainbow, but we’re not taking about rainbows here.) Red is also considered a dominant color. Line up six men wearing black suits, white shirts and each man wearing a different colored tie, and your eyes will land on the man with the red tie first. Red is also quick-tempered and but also as obstinate as a Chow or Pekingnese dog. And as history has shown, the canvas of our world has no doubt been painted with countless bloody RED battlefields, battlefields where the RED CROSS is often found nearby! Idioms abound where red is used; a red herring, a redneck, caught red-handed, paint the town red and of course the red carpet and lots of red tape are just a few expressions were red is called upon to emphasize a positive or negative connotation. A red hearing was and still is about the color of a what herring becomes when it is placed in a smoker, but as an idiom, it is used to describe someone who is trying to distract your attention away from what at that moment is a truly and vitally important matter. It has been reported that when British fugitives were on the run ‘back then’, they would rub smoked herring across the trails which would cause a great distraction for the bloodhounds that were hot on their trail. (Not sure how they were able to find the time to buy or steal some smoked herring as they made their get away, but somehow they managed to do so.) And speaking of the bloodhounds that were chasing them, these dogs got their nickname Bloodhounds, (oringally called Weimers) because that’s what they did; follow the trail of dripping blood being left by the wounded animals that were shot by guns or arrows of hungry men and women. As you no doubt know, red is the color of blood, and as such it can also indicate health problems such as an inflammatory condition. Cochineal red is a really ‘old’ color! It was originally discovered by the Aztecs and here's where it gets interesting; it was a color that was derived from crushing the female cochineal bug, (mistakenly called by many as the Cochineal Beetle). If you wanted to create a pound of water soluble extract of this red color you needed to crush 1 million insects just to get to that one pound!!! The good news is that today it only takes 70,000 Cochineal to make a pound of this red dye and I learned that Peru produces more than 200 tons of this dye each year and here is the part that will freak out some; the dye shows up still today, not only in clothes but in many foods, from sausage to fish, in soft drinks and powdered drinks, even alcohol. Chewing gum, candy and syrups as well as jams and jellies. And what was perhaps the highest profiled use of this ‘crushed bug juice’ was by Starbucks. Yep, they were using the dye to color their Frappuccinos, until a bunch of vegan’s managed to get hold of the news and now that practice has been suspended. If you are fond of red, you are a survivor, a leader, and very much an extrovert. You always see the glass half-full and for sure the glass is never empty. Your optimism would never let that happen. You are practical, ambitious, and of course everyone will agree, you are very competitive and you can become enraged when you lose. You love being in love, so much so that you are prone to being in love with more than one person at a time. You love to workout, you are physically active, love sex but you drive a black car. You are decisive but sometimes you confuse your ​ decisiveness with being impulsive and sometimes that impulsiveness has got you in trouble; hitting the ‘send’ button to quickly! You do live in the moment but you are just as quick to find ways to escape the moment when it gets to ‘hot’. Patience is not your thing. Life is for the living! Seize the moment! These seem to be your two favorite mantras. Your energy and quick wit draws many people to you and that is just as well since you also crave attention and as far as birth order, you are either the oldest or in the middle, but seldom if ever the youngest child. Historically, those who favor red have a history of being adventurous, (Christopher Columbus) and blazing new trails, (Lewis and Clark). Yes you can be a know-it-all and put people off with your arrogance, especially after your first if not second glass of red wine. But then again, your constant need to be at the center of attention also keeps you just humble enough to hang onto your audience instead of letting your arrogance drive them away. And let’s score one for all the women of the world! Researchers at the University of ​ Arizona have found a gene that allows women to see the color red and that gene sits on the X Chromosome and in the tradition of “the more the merrier”, you ladies have two X chromosomes and we mortal men only have one X chromosome. As a result you not only see RED at twice the ‘volume’, but also the variations of red, like crimson clover and burgundy red wine, where as we men, for the most part, only ​ ​ ​ ​ see RED clover and RED wine. Having a higher sensitivity to red just might explain why you ladies often respond so favorably to Valentine’s Day when you receive your RED roses along with the RED heart shaped box of RED strawberries that were hand-dipped in chocolate, or perhaps it explains why you are so drawn to the handsome man in the suit wearing the bright red power tie, or perhaps even explain why you could not resist picking that red apple depicted in the Garden of Eden. And while we are on the subject of temptation, you do know that the devil is often depicted in RED right? Perhaps this explains why, when your man surprise’s you with ‘toys’ for the bedroom you are heard to say, “Oh, aren’t you the little devil!” So much for thinking that I was going to limit your understanding of the color red to photography! And finally, green is the color compliment to red.

PHOTO Every time I visit Singapore, I make it a point to visit the butterfly and insect gardens on Sentosa Island. On this particular day, I had the opportunity to photograph one of two McCaw parrots now living at the park. I wanted to record an extreme close-up of the parrot’s eye—but without being bitten by its very large and very sharp beak. When trying to get extreme close-ups of live and unpredictable subjects, one solution is to combine your telephoto zoom lens with an extension tube or two, which turns your zoom into a very close focusing macro lens. You’re then able to record an extreme close-up magnification, but from a distance of three or four inches—much safer than the half inch necessary with a 50 or 60mm macro lens.

(Yes, I am aware that one can purchase macro lenses in the 150mm, 180mm, and 200mm ranges, but given the fifteen hundred dollar price tag, this is a much cheaper alternative.) The good news is that the parrot did not manage to make a single scratch on my lens, though he definitely left his mark on the lens barrel. Nikon D7200, Nikkor 18–300mm lens with 36mm extension tube, f/16 for 1/160 sec., ISO 400

PHOTO Just this past week, I was reminded once again why I usually set my alarm to wake me at or near sunrise. It was a Sunday morning, and by 6 a.m. I was en route to Times Square with my students as part of a New York City workshop. I felt confident that Times Square would be relatively empty at this hour, left to only my students and perhaps a handful of other people.

Much to our delight, this set of red stairs was getting an early morning cleaning by a young man in similarly colored clothes, with a nearby yellow neon billboard for The Lion King reflected in the water. Nikon D810, Nikkor 24–120mm lens at 120mm, f/22 for 1/125 sec., ISO 800

PHOTO Every time I go to the fish market in the Deira neighborhood of Old Dubai, I see the green and blue wheelbarrows used by workers to deliver fish to the cars of waiting patrons. Needless to say, when I saw this red wheelbarrow—the first red one I had ever seen there—I stopped the young man pushing it and politely (though, I must be honest, also forcefully) asked if I could borrow it for five minutes. He was initially reluctant, so I offered to buy him a brand-new wheelbarrow (which cost twelve dollars) and he quickly took my offer. I now had all the time I needed to shoot numerous compositions of a basket of fish against this remarkably textured whee lbarrow with its contrasting colors of red and green.

Note that when shooting a subject in open shade under a blue sky, as I was here, I normally recommend changing your white balance to Shade, to reduce the bluish cast. In this instance, however, I did not want to reduce the bluish cast on the fish, because I wanted it to serve as a color complement to the surrounding red and green. As a result, I left my white balance on the Direct Sunlight WB setting (called “Sunny” on Canon cameras). Nikon D800, Nikkor 24–120mm lens, f/11 for 1/100 sec., ISO 400

The streets of St. Louis were wet and quiet on this early Sunday morning, so the sight of this pretty young woman with bright red “locks” was a welcome sight. How to take advantage of this opportunity? Keep it simple.

Find a clean background and move in close to fill the frame. In this case, that clean background turned out to be the blue inside lining of her jacket, which, after asking her to remove it, was held behind her by one of my students. The contrast between the always advancing, vibrant red and the shy, receding blue—combined with soft light from the overcast day—made for a simple yet vibrant portrait. Nikon D810, Nikkor 70–300mm lens at 300mm, f/6.3 for 1/320 sec., ISO 200

PHOTO Perhaps the greatest demonstration of the power of red can be seen in this photograph, a predominantly white, almost monochromatic composition taken on Chicago’s Lake Michigan shoreline in sub-zero temperatures. Try as you might to ignore it, that small dab of red changes the entire image. Red’s aggressive nature means that you cannot ignore its presence.

It is the noise heard in an otherwise quiet room when a large glass vase falls from a high shelf, smashing onto the tile floor. Note that if you venture out into extremely cold weather, the good news is that your camera and lenses will not suffer damage. Your primary concern should be the camera’s battery, which can drain quickly in severe cold. It’s best to take several fully charged batteries, keeping them tucked securely inside your warm winter coat. Nikon D800E, Nikkor 24–85mm lens, f/11 for 1/320 sec., ISO 200

ORANGE I remember returning to France, Paris to be exact, on the same day when the global authority on Color, the Pantone Institute, announced that Tangerine Tango (orange) would be its color for the year 2012. Soon fashion designers, famous and not so famous were making both casual and sophisticated clothing with the emphasis on orange along with numerous orange accessories too. Why was it that this color was greeted with such a tepid enthusiasm? Because orange is one of those, divisive colors, perhaps the most divisive of all. You either love it or you hate it. Seldom is there room for a middle ground with orange. If you're from Holland or Denver or Baltimore, your love of orange is motivated in part by the orange uniforms of the Dutch National Soccer Team or the Denver Bronco’s football team or the baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles. Having lived in Holland for several years, I can also attest to that countries passionate relationship with the color orange that goes beyond the soccer team. It is the national color that is seen everywhere in the country on the Queens birthday at the end of April. And speaking of countries, orange is also meant to symbolize happiness and love by both the Japanese and Chinese cultures. Warm is of course a warm color and well it should be since its ‘parents’, red and yellow are both considered warm too. It is symbolic of a suntan and despite the warnings, many of us still associate ‘orange’ or tanned skin with health and vitality. Due to the healthful benefits of Vitamin C, we drink orange juice to stay healthy and we drink it to return to health when suffering a cold. Orange is also known to be flamboyant, loud and even cocky, yet unlike red, orange is not taken seriously that often. It's considered to be far too playful, to immature to be able to lead. Yet, speaking of leadership, no one will argue that the Home Depot and its pronounced orange corporate color is arguably, the leader in the business of hardware and home improvement. Orange is symbolic of fire. Primitive man was able to do things that was otherwise unthinkable thanks to the firey orange. And nothing is photographed more than a firey orange sunset. Although orange blossoms are white, they smell like oranges. Not surprising, that orange smell is one of the most popular choices in aromatherapy. Most of us say that the scent of oranges makes us feel rejuvenated, happy. Some of the more high-profile insects and birds are orange; the Ladybug, Monarch Butterfly and of course the very vivid orange Baltimore Oriole. If you love the color orange, you are a free spirit for sure. You hate the feeling of being tied down and when and if you hear the words rope or leash, you experience a subtle case of fight or flight syndrome. Of course you love to travel. In fact, your instagram account almost always includes the word #wanderlust and #adventuretravel. You follow your gut, more than your head, more then your heart. In matters of love, you are all about taking. You give love, but only when pressed or when you feel the one you ‘love’ may be leaving. Love and commitment are two words you have difficulty connecting due to your indecisive, inconsistent and highly unpredictable nature. You are highly energized and seldom think to look behind you and ask if the one following you needs to stop and rest even if for just a moment. You would rather race to the top and wait for their arrival rather than go at their slower pace, which speaks to your impatient nature. You regard yourself as being very tolerant of others, of accepting of others-as long as they don’t place demands on you, as long as these others do not slow you down. Your friends describe you as a loner, kind, light-hearted and a practical joker. You are the social butterfly of all the colors. You can never go to enough parties, to enough art openings, to enough grand openings. You have to be where the action is and preferably, be at the forefront of that action if not the action itself. You are always planning your next move and due to your highly organized and energized self, you have at least six projects going on, all at the same time. You are a great and loyal employee and will easily be the Salesperson of the Month repeatedly, but you make a really bad boss since you think first and foremost of yourself. Motivating others is not your thing since everyone else falls short of your idea of what it means to be motivated. You are hard on yourself, always pushing yourself to try something new. Life is a race, and at the end of the day, whoever has the most toys wins. th Before the 16 ​ century, the color orange was actually called by the old English word, ​ geoluhread. The word geoluhread is actually pronounced ‘yellow-red, (geolu=yellow) and read=red). The word geoluread was used to call objects that th were orange in color up until the early 16 ​ century. ​ At no time was the fruit called geoluhread. In fact let’s now clear up a few misconceptions about the origin of the word orange. In a kind of chicken or the egg question, we can say with certainty, that the word orange came from the Spanish word, ‘naranja’ and that word came from the Sanskrit word nārañga. And guess what nārañga means? If you guessed ‘orange tree’ you are either a grower of oranges or your neighbor is! And speaking of orange trees, at last count, 25 billion oranges are grown in the USA alone, and based on current population numbers, that’s roughly 83 oranges per person per year. If you love orange juice, be thankful not everyone shares your tastes! Why? Well, let’s do the math. How many oranges does it take to make an 8-ounce glass of orange juice? At least four if not five medium oranges, but let’s go with five for the sake of argument. So, based on the calculation above, that means the 83 oranges you have been allotted for the year will allow you to drink only sixteen, 8-ounce glasses of orange juice a year, one 8-ounce ​ ​ glass roughly every three weeks! And before leaving this most interesting topic about oranges, Naval Oranges are not called Naval because they are eaten by the ​ ​ Navy. They are called Navel oranges because of their belly-button like formations, found on the opposite end of the stem. I can’t tell you which is better, an ‘innie’ or ‘outie’ naval but word has is that the bigger the navel, the sweeter it will be. And finally, the word ‘orange’ has the distinction of not having a single English word that it can rhyme with. Maybe for the sake of poets everywhere, we begin to call the orange fruit, ‘geoluread’ instead. Finally we can make a poem with the word ‘orange’!

Waking up every morning, Always foggy in my head! It matters not, it will soon clear up, Once I drink my geoluread!

The color compliment to orange is blue.

PHOTO One warm February day, I sat on the deck of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Muscat, Oman, chatting with one of my students as we watched the sun sink toward the horizon. From this viewpoint, there wasn’t much to shoot, other than a lone palm tree with the sun setting behind it, something I can easily shoot in Florida or Hawaii. However, ten minutes after the sun set, the sky began to turn a vibrant orange-magenta-blue color and I spotted a lone individual walking along the distant shoreline.

I leaped up, grabbed my Nikon D7200 and Nikkor 18–300mm lens, and went further out onto the balcony to get a clean shot of incoming waves and the contrasting shape of the person—all bathed in the warm power of the color orange. Nikon D7100, Nikkor 18–300mm lens at 300mm (with an effective focal length of 450mm), f/16 for 1/200 sec., ISO 400

PHOTO It is easy to imagine this airplane is taking off toward some exotic vacation destination, thanks to the warm orange resonating around the deep yellow sun. Almost all of our perceptions about orange are rooted in feelings of warmth, both in our primitive relationship to fire and the warmth of the summer sun. Not surprisingly, most of us respond warmly to the many sunset photographs posted on Facebook and Instagram.

Want a tip for taking more creative photos? Simply spend more time out and about with your camera gear—at least once a week. Granted, for this shot, I had no control over the runways, the weather, or the planes and their directions, but I was there—and being there was key! Nikon D800E, Nikkor 800mm lens with a TC1.4 teleconverter (in effect making the lens a 1200mm), f/16 for 1/250 sec., ISO 200, tripod

PHOTO Most sunrises are not vivid orange like sunsets. Do you know why? The air in the evening has more dust particles, pollutants, and such from all of the activity during the day. Overnight, much of that activity comes to a halt and the dust settles, so by sunrise the early morning light is not piercing through nearly as much atmospheric haze and you are more likely to get a simple orange than the complex orange-reds of sunset.

For this image, taken on a warm evening in Muscat, Oman, my primary concern was to freeze the splashing water. Freezing the motion of water requires a shutter speed of at least 1/1000 sec., if not 1/500 sec., so I first set my shutter speed to 1/1000 sec. and, with the camera in manual metering mode, adjusted my aperture until f/16 indicated a correct exposure. I then asked a student to start kicking up some water. This is one of the nineteen images I shot as the sun set. Nikon D800E, Nikkor 24–120mm lens at 35mm with magenta filter, f/16 for 1/1000 sec., ISO 640

PHOTO Lying on my back while hand-holding my camera and lens, I was intent on recording a “starburst” on this California poppy against the strong backlight of the midday sun. To record a starburst when shooting backlit scenes with a wide-angle lens or, as in this case, a full-frame fish-eye lens, you must set a small aperture of f/16 or f/22. For a backlit scene like this, first set your exposure manually with the sun hidden behind the flower. With my aperture set to f/22, I hid the sun behind the flower and adjusted the shutter speed until 1/250 sec. indicated a correct exposure. I then shifted my point of view slightly to allow a small piece of the sun’s light to peer out from the edge of the flower and fired the shutter.

If you are using a wide-angle, rather than a fish-eye, lens remove any UV or skylight filters as this may cause unwelcome lens flare. And always make sure your lens is clean, as a dirty lens can also cause lens flare. Nikon D810, Nikkor 15mm full-frame fisheye lens, f/22 for 1/250 sec., ISO 200

PHOTO Orange, the color of fire! What better way to say hello to orange than with a single match and a macro lens? With my camera and 105mm Micro-Nikkor lens mounted on a tripod, I stuck a match into a small mound of putty. At a time like this, a ring flash really comes in handy. With the ring flash mounted on the front of my macro lens and set to TTL mode, I merely had to set an exposure for the flame of the match.

After lighting a sample match in my darkened room, I set my aperture to f/22 for a deep depth of field and adjusted the shutter speed for the bright flame of my first match, my ‘test’ match, until 1/60 sec. indicated a correct exposure. (Keep in mind that this was the exposure for the flame, not for the wood of the match itself.) I was now ready to take the shot. I turned on the ring flash and, just before pressing the shutter release, lit the next match. As you see here, I recorded not only the flame but also the color of the non-burnt portion of the match. (The match is ‘mounted’ onto a piece of putty on a small table.) Nikon D3X, Nikkor 105mm micro lens with three Kenko extension tubes, f/22 for 1/60 sec., ISO 200, tripod, Sigma ring flash

PHOTO The next time it rains, consider hanging out around bus stops. Rain-soaked bus windows offer welcome texture and, when combined with the often preoccupied passengers inside, make for fascinating exposures.

If you use high ISOs in the 1000–1600 range, you should be able to use fast enough shutter speeds to hand-hold your camera while still using apertures of f/11 to f/13 for extra depth of field. In this image, the overall orange tone conveys the cozy warmth inside the dry bus. Nikon D800E, Nikkor 24–120mm lens, f/11 for 1/100 sec., ISO 1600

Silver Falls State Park in Oregon continues to see larger and larger crowds every October. And no wonder: at almost every turn, and throughout its eighteen miles of hiking trails and eleven waterfalls, yellow, red, and orange colors abound.

This composition of the South Falls certainly has no shortage of color as the final remnants of summer green give way to yellow, red and of course geoluh-read, too! Note that I used a polarizing filter to eliminate gray glare from the overcast sky, which is normally seen on wet leaves when it rains. Nikon D810, Nikkor 24–120mm lens at 50mm with a polarizing filter, f/22 for 1/4 sec., ISO 100

YELLOW Of course yellow is cheerful and boy is it ever bright. Yellow is the most visible color in the spectrum and, surprise, surprise, it is the first wavelength of light seen by all of us. In fact yellow is roughly 2 1/2 times brighter then red. However, yellow is not nearly as dense as red and as a result, we experience red to be just a wee bit closer to us than does yellow. Culturally, yellow has not done well in the USA, but in China, yellow is considered by many to be the most beautiful and prestigious color in the world. If you have ever traveled to Hong Kong or Southeast Asia you can see ample evidence of the color yellows influence displayed in Gold shops on every other street corner. Here you will find solid twenty-two karat gold animals and birds, cars and stars and of course Buddha’s, available in all shapes, sizes and weights. ‘Yellow’ brings balance to life. The Chinese feel that yellow generates Yen and Yang with yellow at its center and thus yellow is also seen as being neutral. Have you ever visited a Buddhist temple? Not only is yellow in evidenced by all the gold, but also you will see its use in the robes of the Buddhists priests. You are no doubt familiar with yellow being associated with cowardice in western culture? In Asian cultures yellow is seen as being heroic. Any idea why bright yellow pencils are the standard in school classrooms throughout North America? The first to manufacture a yellow pencil was a Hungarian company going back to the 1880’s. It was their intent to manufacture a pencil that was equated with luxury, much like the Mont Blanc pens of today. This Hungarian company chose to paint their pencils yellow, and name their pencil, the Kohinoor, which was also the name of a famous yellow diamond in Europe. How a pencil company got away with calling their pencil the Kohinoor, and succeeded at selling so many pencils is beyond my scope of common ‘marketing sense’! I say that because the Kohinoor diamond, all 105 carats of it, has a long history of negativity! Anyone who has owned this diamond is guaranteed to “own the world and all of its ills and the only one’s who will not be cursed is God and the woman who wears it. For several hundred years, the diamond has been sitting in the British Collection of Crown Jewels since Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877. It can be argued that sense Britain came into possession of the diamond, they have been cursed and among there greatest losses, the American colonies would be ranked high no doubt. None the less, and despite the association of a yellow painted pencil being called the Kohinoor, pencil manufacturers in North America also adopted this same yellow color and now you know not only why pencils are yellow but why some of those who use them just might be cursed because, after all, these “elegant writing instruments” were once called the Kohinoor. Amongst Christians yellow is also very spiritual as it calls attention to the glory of God. Yellow is seen many times in paintings that depict the Resurrection where rays of golden sunshine are streaming behind Jesus as he ascends into heaven. Yellow releases spiritual energy and yellow gives spiritual energy. However, when the human body is yellow, it is a far cry of being energized by the spirit. A yellow body is jaundice, yellow teeth are an indication of poor hygiene and of course yellow fever took many lives in the 1800’s and how many picnic’s have been made less than desirable and memorable for the wrong reasons because of those determined yellow-jackets. While working on this book, I learned from one of my student had shared it with me that the comic book character Green Lantern was afraid of the color yellow. Yellow signifies courage in Japan, sadness in Greece, jealousy in France and food, corn, for the Aztecs. NASCAR pulls out the yellow flag when there is a need for caution and football referee’s throw the yellow flag when a penalty has been committed. Driving down many a state highway, it is the double yellow line that insists it is not safe to pass. Yellow is also the Golden Arches of McDonald's and the color of most everyman’s Stanley tape measure. People who prefer to buy a yellow car are said to be people with tremendous optimism and regardless of age, they are considered to be young at heart. Elton John preferred to stay on land and tell us about the Yellow Brick Road but the Beatles wanted us to get wet and climb on board the Yellow Submarine and Donovan chose to remain neutral and share with us a life of Mellow Yellow. In looking at the color wheel the complementary color of yellow is purple. Van Gogh was crazy about the color yellow. He and Gauging both spoke with great enthusiasm about painting with this vibrant color. Of course the area around Arles, France where VanGogh spent much of his adult life was an area of both yellow sunflowers and purple lavender. One of the negative stigma’s of the color yellow is that it is equated with mental illness and some use VanGogh as an example of how is love of yellow in his later years was an outward expression of his slow decline into mental illness. Yet many art historians believe that much of VanGoghs ‘carziness’ was the result of him ingesting a great deal of lead base paint as he had a nervous habit of chewing the wooden shafts of his paintbrushes which of course were often covered in lead based paint. Overtime the ingestion of the this lead based paint affected his brain to the point where it drove him mad. Einstein was also was a great lover of the color yellow giving added testament to the belief that yellow stimulates mental processes, activates the memory and encourages communication. If yellow is your favorite color, you are able to hide your emotions really well behind your often cheerful and ‘blinding’ persona. No one doubts that you are fun to be with so seldom if ever, are you forgotten when the party invitations are sent out and as expected, the bright spotlight that defines you makes you easy to find no matter how big the crowd. You are not prone to be a leader. As you like to say, “I have a hard enough time taking care of me, let alone an entire office”. You recognize how impulsive you can be and how quick you are to make decisions, often without thinking things through. You cannot seem to let go of your drive to be perfect but fortunately, you do not demand the same perfection of others, unless it is someone you are intimate with. You have an uncanny ability to make money, lots of it, but you also spend it just as quickly and it shows with your car, your furnishings and fashion sense. Vacations are spent on sandy beaches, soaking up the bright sunshine, dipping only your toes in the water, and returning to your lounge chair where you continue working on your mentally stimulating crossword puzzle book. Your creativity is often off the charts. You are visually creative even far more creative with the written word. You can easily write memorable advertising copy as well as feature stories for magazines and newspapers but you lack the discipline to write novels. That lack of discipline speaks again to your independent nature.

Have you been to New York City? If so, you obviously saw the many yellow taxi’s. The New York City yellow taxi is truly iconic. One can buy posters of New York where the taxi’s are prominently shown, as well as any number of souvenir’s, from key chains to bracelets from t-shirts to refrigerator magnets. So why are the taxi’s yellow and not green or red or blue? Seems that distinction of choosing yellow goes to a woman, Mrs. Albert Rockwell. In 1907 her husband Albert’s company, New Departure Manufacturing, built what some considered a truly luxurious taxi, and several years later these taxi’s were seen all over New York with their innovative 15-horsepower engine. It’s been said that his wife suggested the cars be painted yellow and as the saying goes, the rest is history. The complimentary color to yellow is purple.

PHOTO After a few seconds of observing this man, whose name is Troy, I approached him and asked if I could make several quick portraits. With my camera in manual mode and my “who cares” aperture of f/11, I simply adjusted the shutter speed until 1/160 sec. indicated a correct exposure. Then I fired off three shots as Troy sat on this small bench awaiting his order of Cuban coffee. I then wrote down his cell phone number and sent him a copy of the photo you see here.

Whether you know a subject or are approaching a complete stranger, tell your potential subject why you want to photograph him or her and what it is you have in mind. Be honest about your intentions. I can’t overstate the importance of this. Most subjects will be happy to help, especially when you promise to send digital copies of the photos you just took before the end of the day (which you won’t forget to send, right?). Nikon D810, Nikkor 24–120mm lens at 85mm, f/8 for 1/200 sec., ISO 100

PHOTO I will never forget my joy at discovering this sunflower field atop the Valensole Plain in Provence, France, on a very hot summer day in late June 2016.

With my camera in manual focus mode, I pre-set my focus to one meter, which rendered a maximum depth of field from fourteen inches to infinity. I’m already looking forward to returning next summer so I may once again see and photograph the always-youthful fields of sunflowers. Nikon D810, Nikkor 18–35mm lens at 18mm, f/22 for 1/125 sec., ISO 200

PHOTO While on assignment for a coal mining company in Montana, I awoke the second morning to welcome clear skies and, in anticipation of the sunrise, positioned myself to photograph the large dragline and its seventy-five-yard shovel against the strong backlight of early morning.

The orange light of sunrise has been replaced by a yellow-golden light—still warm light, to be sure, but one that does not imply that the workday is just getting started or is about to end. I asked the safety inspector to stand out on the deck of the machine to add a sense of scale, showing us the enormity of this large machine at work. Nikon F-3, Nikkor 400mm lens, f/16 for 1/500 sec., ISO 100 In February 2016, I was in Capetown, South Africa, when I met Kaye, an employee of Nikon South Africa. Within seconds, I knew I wanted to photograph her. Shortly after our photo walk ended, I found a yellow wall nearby that was the perfect color complement to Kaye’s beautiful face and blue eyes. In typical fashion, the yellow brings a youthful, energized feel to the overall composition. Nikon D810, Nikkor 24–120mm lens at 120mm, f/6.3 for 1/320 sec., ISO 200

PHOTO During my first visit to the Yukon, a fellow photographer I was with came upon a lone dragonfly amongst a fresh crop of yellow dandelions. It didn’t take long for us to make quick work of this composition, since the dragonfly was not going anywhere anytime soon. (Considering the number of mosquitos in the air, we surmised there was an equal number of mosquitos inside its belly. And when a dragonfly’s belly is full, it can’t go anywhere.)

I have purposely shared two compositions here: one with a background of out-of-focus green grass and yellow dandelions, the other with only green grass. The green and yellow background best conveys the late spring season that was well on its way to summer. You might be surprised to learn that these images were shot with with my Nikkor 200–500mm lens—the only one on me at the time—and a 36mm Kenko extension tube. As you may recall from an earlier photograph, when you place an extension tube between the camera body and lens, the lens is able to focus much closer. The Nikkor 200–500mm is one fine piece of glass that can focus to almost seven feet, but with the aid of the extension tube, I was able to focus to within two feet of the dragonfly. And with the lens fully zoomed out to 500mm, I could easily fill the frame. Nikon D810, Nikkor 200–500mm lens with 36mm extension tube, f/11 for 1/200 sec., ISO 1000

PHOTO One spring, while in Holland for a workshop, my students and I were photographing a wonderful dandelion explosion when I asked Olga, a student with bright red hair, to get on the small country road and skip.

The other students and I lay down near the edge of the road, using the yellow dandelions as a foreground. In manual focus mode, I pre-sent my focus to one meter, directly aligning it with the distance mark on the lens to allow a depth of field of approximately 11 inches to infinity. Olga’s playful skipping, coupled with her red hair and the cheerful yellow dandelions—all under the watchful eye of the wise, all-powerful blue sky—exudes a multitude of youthful feelings, announcing that spring had finally arrived. Nikon D800E, Nikkor 17–35mm lens at 21mm, f/22 for 1/200 sec., ISO 400

GREEN Green is forever young! It can never be wise because it never grows up. Although it is often associated with an inexperienced cowboy who has never roped cattle before, a greenhorn is a term used to describe anyone with no experience and/or someone who is quite naïve about a given subject. Green is in a constant state of youthfulness. Green is always about hope, fresh starts and new beginnings. During the Elizabethian era, brides wore green wedding dresses as a symbol of their hopeful fertility. Not surprising, green is also the symbol that spring has arrived. It is the first color of most plants and trees and gives birth to the kaleidoscope of colors that follow its arrival. And in case you haven’t heard, the ‘Army green’ uniform has been replaced with a much more welcomed and favored blue uniform to be worn by both PFC’s and Four-Star Generals, yet the I Green Berets will remain green; not because of their green uniforms but because of the symbolism of their green beret. It was then President John F Kennedy, who called attention to the green beret, worn by these special forces of the US ARMY and he called their beret, "a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom". Green of course is the color of the United States currency and contrary to popular opinion green was not necessarily chosen because of the symbol of hope and new beginnings, but rather because at the time there was a very large supply of green inks available as opposed to other colored inks that were in short supply. Idioms where green is used include; the grass is always greener on the other side, in search of greener pastures, green with envy, greenbacks, given the green light and green thumb. Again we see hope demonstrated by the phrase, ‘in search of greener pastures’. Greener pastures hold the promise of a more relaxing time. It's not uncommon for the television networks to have a green room where guest and contestants can relax before coming on the show. Green can also signify a healthy diet such as the consumption of kale, chard and broccoli, but it can also symbolize ill health. The color of phlegm can be green and the color of rancid meat can also be green. Greens is the color of Christmas trees around the world, unless they are flocked in white, pink or blue snow and not surprising, these same green trees are best complimented by the Christmas color of jolly ol St. Nick, red. And speaking of holidays, no holiday is more green than St. Patricks Day, the ultimate Irish holiday were you must wear green so you can become invisible to the leprechauns, who would otherwise pinch you. St. Patrick’s day is associated with the color green, in part, because of the Emerald Isle that Ireland is but also it is due to the green cloverleaf that was used quite often by St. Patrick himself to teach Catholicism. This is also the only day of the year, when, perhaps reluctantly for some, drinking green beer is the norm and when the Chicago river is turned in to a river of green thanks to a harmless dye. And while we are on the topic of religion the color green is also the international color of the Islamic faith, which is attributed to the prophet Mohammed who wore a green cloak and a green turban. On the international stage, green is the color choice of Starbucks who are well known for their safe and responsible environmental practices as well as giving back to the communities they operate in. And green is also the color for another internationally known company, BP Oil and Gas, who had to pay out billions following an oil spill back in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. If green is your favorite color, chances are good that love is paramount in your life. You need to be loved, constantly, and you love to love, constantly. You are forever youthful, childlike, and understandably, there is a innocence to the love you seek and an innocence to the love you give, so freely. Like most children you are so eager to learn and so quick to grasp what you learn. You are kind and generous and seldom judgmental and although you are lean in the area of wisdom, you continue to be sought out by others who just need someone to listen to their woes. You are the go to guy or gal that we all lean on in times of crisis, even at the expense of your own emotions. Kindness is your middle name. You are every car insurer’s dream client as you have the lowest rate of accidents and tickets. You have one of the best credit scores too. You are seldom rich, but far from poor too. You are too much of a saver to be poor and not nearly enough of a risk taker to be rich. Of all of the personalities of colors, you are the most dependable and the most predictable. You are the perfect employee, seldom complaining and never for long. Your mood can best be described as a flat line. You are not prone to be over stimulated or fall victim to depression. You are forever young and forever hopeful. The color compliment to green is red. In reading this book and putting into practice some of the suggestions that I am making on how to see color, you may discover, as I did, that your current body of work will clearly show what colors you currently favor and which colors need a bit more of your attention. It quickly became apparent to me, in my editing and selection process, that I did not have an extensive collection of images that were predominantly green in their color. This really was not all that surprising. In looking at my own wardrobe, including dress shirts, T-shirts and pants, not a single color of green will be found. So it should come as no surprise to the readers of this book that if there is a weakness in my color vision, it would certainly be the color green. And how ironic is that, when one considers that I now find myself living in the Pacific Northwest wear evergreen trees and shrubs abound at most every turn, at least on the west side of the Cascade Mountain Range. It’s fair to say in the coming months I will be, at times unwillingly, be adding a bit more green to my photographic collection. The color compliment to green is red.

PHOTO Curiosity? I can’t imagine my photographic life without it. In this instance, a simple stirring from the ground below caught my attention. Was it a mouse? And if so, was it looking up at me? How would the world look, anyway, through the eyes of a mouse? It was then that I noticed a large fern growing out of the ground nearby.

Did this fern provide cover for the mouse during the frequent rain here in Washington’s Hoh rainforest? I soon found myself lying on the forest floor looking straight up to the fern and beyond. A mouse’s point of view, perhaps? I chose a composition that allowed a piece of the sun’s light to “starburst” through the backlit fern. Curiosity can sometimes be rewarding. Nikon D810, Nikkor 18–35mm lens, f/22 for 1/60 sec., ISO 200

PHOTO One lazy Friday afternoon, I found myself parked on the side of the road at a place called Fish Lake, just outside the town of Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory of Canada. A belted Kingfisher with a small fish in its mouth flew up from the stream below, landing in a tree. Fortunately, I had my Nikon D810 camera, Nikkor 200–500mm lens, and Nikkor TC1.7 teleconverter with me, all attached to my monopod. The 1.7 teleconverter turned my 200–500mm lens into a 340–850mm lens. I hurriedly framed up the Kingfisher and fired off five shots, but noticed that a branch was merging with the bird’s beak. As I waited for the Kingfisher to turn its head and eliminate the merge, it flew to an even closer tree, with a more vibrant green background. I was now able to capture cleaner compositions of the gray-blue bird against the safe, youthful green background.

In my excitement, I took more than twenty shots, one of which you see here, shot around the 700mm focal length at f/13 for 1/640 sec. Since it was late in the day and I was in open shade, I used an ISO of 3200, which on the D810 is still clean of major “noise.” Nikon D810, Nikkor 200–500mm lens with a TC1.7 teleconverter, f/13 for 1/640 sec., ISO 3200

PHOTO When great light is absent, an alternative can often be found covered in dust inside many photographers’ camera bags: the portable electronic flash. As we walked around Toronto on a heavily overcast morning, I was looking for a block of color to use as a background, much as one might use a seamless background in the studio. As soon as I came upon this green wall, I knew I had found it. As you can see in the first photograph, I used a portable flash, held here by a student named Andrew. With the aid of Nikon’s Commander mode, I was able to fire the flash remotely by pressing the shutter release. I directed my student-turned-model, Emily, to turn away from the flash and, on the count of three, quickly turn back toward it, making her hair “fly.” With any luck, the flash would not only illuminate her face but also freeze her hair in midflight. It’s important to note that when using your flash, you operate your camera in manual exposure mode. This way, you always have full control over the ambient light. More specifically, you can choose to either include the ambient light with the flash exposure, or “kill” it by setting a 3- to 4-stop underexposure for the ambient light. In this case, I wanted to “kill” the ambient light, so all light would come from the flash. I set the camera to my “who cares” aperture of f/11, then adjusted my shutter speed until 1/8 sec. indicated a correct exposure for the ambient light on this cloudy morning. But remember, I want to kill the ambient light, something that requires a minimum of four stops of underexposure. A general rule of thumb is to start by setting your shutter speed to 1/200 sec.

This is often enough to kill the ambient light, and also stays inside the fastest “flash sync shutter speed” permissible with both Nikon and Canon. (“Flash sync” means that the flash is able to illuminate a given subject while the first shutter curtain is fully opened and before the second shutter curtain begins to close.) In this case, starting with my correct 1/8 sec. exposure, 1/200 sec. is 4-2/3rds stops underexposed (1/8 sec. to 1/15 sec., to 1/30 sec., to 1/60 sec.,, to 1/125 sec., to 1/200 sec.), enough to kill the ambient light. With my flash set in TTL mode, it will fire a flash exposure based on my aperture choice of f/11. (A correct flash exposure has and will always be solely determined by the aperture and the subsequent flash-to-subject distance. Your flash doesn’t care what shutter speed you use, in so far as recording a correct flash exposure.) Because I’m at f/11 at 1/200 sec., the only light recorded by the sensor is the light from the flash. That green wall was perfect, allowing Emily to be the star of the show. Green is a soothing color, the symbol of new beginnings and youth. It is also important to note that I used an amber-colored gel on the flash. This accounts for the warm light on the wall and on Emily. Nikon D800E, Nikkor 24–120mm lens at 50mm, f/11 for 1/200 sec., ISO 100, Nikon SB-900 flash in TTL mode (To learn more about flash, I recommend reading my book, Understanding Flash Photography and/or taking our Mastering Canon OR Mastering Nikon Flash classes.)

PHOTO The once-sleepy region of Northeastern Washington State, known as the “Palouse” region, has become a hotbed of tours and photography workshops. Thanks to its wide-open spaces, rolling hills of farmland, deep blue skies, and white puffy clouds, it is easy to understand why photographers arrive every spring and keep coming through the fall harvest. It is also a great location to shoot stars at night and unobstructed full moon rises. It was back in 1989 when I recorded this image of rolling fields of wheat interrupted by the occasional farmhouse or grain elevator. I returned to the Palouse in 2015, and this same view still exists today.

Almost everyone I show this image to describes it as soothing, not only because of the color green, but also the curvilinear lines . A curvilinear line is often associated with the hand of God, wind, or even a massage, and of course the human body is full of curvilinear lines. Curvilinear lines are also associated with passivity because of their meandering, somewhat slow yet deliberate nature. To capture this shot, I pulled over near the top of Steptoe Butte and mounted my camera and 400mm lens. With my aperture set to f/22 for a deep depth of field, I adjusted my shutter speed until 1/125 sec. indicated a -2/3rds underexposure to record an accurate green. Nikon D800E, Nikkor 200–400mm lens at 400mm, f/22 for 1/80 sec., ISO 200

PHOTO When you combine a macro lens with a focal length of 40–80mm and a 25mm or 36mm extension tube, you will be able to compose closeups that are larger then life-sized. This is important to note because now when you focus on a single dew-laden blade of grass, you’ll discover that each dewdrop is like a tiny fish-eye lens, recording the surrounding landscape.

You’ll also notice the “jewels”—diamonds, if you will—created by out-of-focus dewdrops in front of and behind the blade you are focusing on. I took this image early one morning in the front lawn of my wife’s aunt and uncle’s home in Iowa. Resting my camera firmly on a small beanbag for support, I scooted inch by inch, left and right, from one blade of grass to the next. To get maximum sharpness, I used an a perture ranging from f/11 and f/16 and kept the camera and lens parallel to each blade. The image’s mood of “newness” and “new beginnings” is all due to the power of green. Nikon D800E, Micro Nikkor lens, f/13 for 1/80 sec., ISO 200

BLUE More then two-thirds of the earth and 100% of the sky is covered with it so it is really that surprising that most of like blue? The color blue is considered by many to be the most stable as well as the most sincere. Blue is also considered a color that does more listening than expressing If we were to equate blue with work, it becomes quickly obvious that blue is both reliable and predictable which is why we have a blue collar work force, the blue suits of Wall Street and of course blue uniforms worn by Police, Air Force and now the Army. (What if any of these groups wore bright yellow uniforms or suits, would you feel safe, would you take them serious?) Blue was also the color of millions of blue clad communists in China during the reign of Mao. And the largest mammal on earth is also blue, the Blue Whale. If blue, instead of a three-digit number, was used to indicate your credit rating you would have very high marks, because of blue’s known reliability as well as it's taking personal responsibility. On the other hand, a red credit rating would serve to alert creditors that you are risky, that you are dangerous. Having a red credit rating would probably make you feel blue. Blue is also decisive. Blue is also restful. It promotes both peace and tranquility. Lying on your back atop the warm sand or green grass and looking up at the blue sky is relaxing no matter the season. Even in the cold of winter looking up and seeing a blue sky has a calming effect on all of us. For some blue is a spiritual color. If blue were a politician, it would be a republican today, but before the year 2000, blue was a democrat. In the election year of 2000, Tim Russert, a journalist at the time working for the TODAY show, coined the phrase, Blue States (those voting Democrat) and Red States, (those voting Republican). Up until the year 2000, the color blue was used to define those areas on a map where most of the Republican and their related conservative movements throughout United States history took place and the color red was used to depict where the much more liberal thinking of the Democrats and their revolutions took place. Blue is often associated with wisdom and of course we often associate wisdom with experience. What greater experience is there then to be the vast blue sky as well as the vast blue ocean for millions of years? What secrets is blue holding onto ‘up there’? What secrets is blue hiding ‘down there’? Blue is recessive, it is in the background, it does not crowd us, it does not suffocate us. It gives us the space to feel free, to run, to dance, to jump in a field of yellow dandelions under the vastness of its outstretched arms and watchful and protective eye. The color compliment to blue is orange. There are no doubt, many shades of blue; there is an Air Force blue, steel blue, Royal blue, sky blue, True blue, Dodger blue, and baby blue just to name a few. From dark to light, blue can be calming, (lying on your back on a warm summer day under clear blue skies) while at other times it can serve as a warning as the dark steely blue skies foretell of an incoming storm or the dusky blue sky will soon be followed by the dark, black of night. As of this writing, August of 2016, the color blue is again, the most favorite color worldwide, followed by purple, than red and green. And which color do you suppose was the least favorite? I was shocked to see that white was the least favorite, which immediately raised a red flag for me! Why? Because the most popular car color choice, worldwide, is white! Perhaps when doing color surveys its best to ask the question in the context of “What is your favored color for your car, clothing, interior, dishes, eye-makeup, hair, golf bag, running shoes etc. None the less, if by chance you notice a lot of blue in your work, it just might be because you too, favor blue the most. The color compliment to blue is orange.

PHOTO Just like the migratory birds who fly south for the winter, I, too, have an annual migration that finds me flying south to Cancun every August. I seldom get much shooting done there, as my ideal vacation includes a break from my camera, but on one such trip, the Caribbean put on such a show of color that I could no longer resist.

The tones and shades of blue were quite distinct from foreground to background. But it wasn’t until thirty minutes later that I spotted a large sailboat coming in from the right. As you can see, the contrast of the white boat against all that blue is what makes the image. Nikon D300S, Nikkor 70–300mm lens at 300mm, f/22 for 1/100 sec., ISO 200

PHOTO Here, a lone Mallard takes a relaxing dip in the small reflecting pool at the Korean War Memorial in Washington, DC. Because it’s a recessive color, the blue gives the image a great sense of depth.

Notice also how the tones of blue, from dark to light, create a sense of distance, the darker blue conveying a farther deepness while the lighter blue brings a closer, more playful note. Nikon D800E, Nikkor 24–120mm lens at 80mm, f/16 for 1/125 sec., ISO 200

PHOTO Have you ever run through a field under a vast blue sky on a warm summer day, or flown a kite from atop a hill under the deep blue of an autumn sky? In West Friesland, Holland, tulip fields abound during the month of April.

If you hang around for two or three days, you can record countless compositions of the tulips beneath these famous Flemish blue skies filled with varying shapes of white clouds. Nikon D810, Nikkor 16–35mm lens at 16mm, f/11 for 1/200 sec., ISO 100

PHOTO It wasn’t until fall 2015 that I visited Vancouver Island in British Columbia for the first time. I know, I know, what took me so long? On this particular late afternoon, the tide was on its way out, leaving behind large puddles of salt water—puddles that serve as “mirroring opportunities” if one is willing to lie down at their edge with a wide-angle lens. By doing so, you will always increase the volume of your photograph, like going from AM radio to FM stereo.

I took up my position at the edge of this large pool and waited for things to unfold, shooting at will over the next ten minutes. In the exposure you see here, a lone surfer had just thrown a small ball out ahead of his dog. The steely blue that makes up so much of this photograph is in part due to my “daylight” white balance choice, which is right around 4800 K. When it’s late in the day and the sky is filled with clouds, you can deliberately underexpose the clouds to record these gun-metal, steely blue tones. Nikon D810, Nikkor 17–35mm lens, f/22 for 1/160 sec., ISO 200

PHOTO Santorini is considered one of the most beautiful of the Greek islands, and no wonder. You’ve got to love those cliff-side towns with their narrow alleyways and donkeys carrying goods up and down the steep cliffs. And where would these islands be without their cats? I followed this cat for some five minutes until he finally found a resting place at the top of some colorful steps. I moved to a short wall to the left, getting into position to shoot down and at an angle to the stairs.

All that remained was for the cat to run down the steps, but he seemed rather content to sit. He was just lying down to take a nap when a barking dog was heard coming our way—and off he went. Hand-holding my camera and 17–55mm lens, with the ISO set to 100 and my shutter speed to 1/500 sec., and since I had already adjusted the aperture in anticipation of the shot, I was ready. Nikon D300, Nikkor 17–55mm lens, f/8 for 1/500 sec., ISO 100

PHOTO I’m continually amazed by the lack of noise when shooting at 3200 ISO in low light with my Nikon D800E. After spending the afternoon atop the hill in the center of San Miguel, Mexico, I began the short walk down to my hotel when I came upon this father and his two sons enjoying dinner in a small restaurant. I stood across the street, hand-holding my camera and Nikkor 24–120mm lens as a woman passed by, waiting for `her to clear the window before pressing the shutter.

The 1/20 sec. exposure rendered her brisk stride as a ghosted blur, adding welcome contrast to the sharply defined family through the window. As an added bonus, the color of her purse mimics that of the art hanging in the restaurant: pure luck. Nikon D800E, Nikkor 24–120mm lens, f16 for 1/20 sec., ISO 3200, Tungsten/Incandescent white balance

PHOTO Like many photographers, I love the “blue hour,” that time just before dawn or after sunset, particularly when shooting in cities. The mood of the blue hour, not surprisingly, is a bit soulful, like a final good-bye after an enjoyable day, but it is also one of mystery and suspense, since the final colorful light will soon be replaced with darkness. To capture this blue-hour shot of Amsterdam, I deliberately began my fifteen-second exposure knowing that an oncoming dinner-cruise boat would pass through.

I wanted the boat’s lights to record as mysterious streaks through the composition. Why don’t we see the boat, other than its lights; because the boat was a bit too dark and was moving far too quickly to record an exposure. Nikon D810, 24–120mm lens at 24mm, f/22 for 15 seconds, ISO 100

PHOTO The Eiffel Tower is one of the most photographed monuments in the world; it is nearly impossible to come up with a fresh approach or never-before-seen perspective. In this case, Bryan and I found ourselves on an avenue near the base of the Eiffel Tower during the blue hour, and since we did not see any other photographers, we could at least pretend we were doing something original and unique.

With my camera and lens mounted on a tripod, I set the aperture to f/22 to take advantage of the “starburst” phenomena, which is created by using this smallest of apertures with a long exposure and a composition of city lights, such as the streetlights you see here. I centered the tripod in the avenue to capture a sweeping yet symmetrical composition with the wide angle of my full-frame fish-eye lens. Nikon D7100, Nikkor 14mm fish-eye lens, f/22 for 15 seconds, ISO 100

VIOLET/PURPLE As is true with other secondary colors, purple, which is derived from a mixture of red and blue, speaks much of the same language as red with mostly whispers from blue. Purple’s message is often equated with spiritual meanings but perhaps more notably the color purple is highly associated with royalty, wealth and riches during the Byzantine era. If a King and Queen wore purple, it was a clear statement of their wealth. One ounce of the color purple resulted from harvesting upwards of 250,000 species of a particular snail by the Phoenicians. After cracking open the shell of each snail, a deep purple phlegm like material was extracted and left out in the sun to dry. Let’s do the math. How many snails were needed to create one pound of purple dye? It’s a staggering number; at least four million snails, give or take a thousand I suppose. (You may recall a similar process was used by the Aztecs in the making of their red dye which was harvested by crushing millions of red Cochineal bugs and letting their red juices dry in the sun, leaving a powdery residue). It has been estimated that a pound of dyed purple wool cost MORE to make than the annual salary of a common laborer. Needless to say, anyone wearing any clothing that was made of this vibrant and deeply rich color purple were assumed to members of the Royal family. Is it any wonder that this purple dye was high on the list of thieves, even more so than gold during this time period. Having access to this purple dye and the clothes one could now wear, opened up many doors as well as the occasional castle gate I’m sure. Purple continued its long reign as the calling card of the rich until synthetic purple dyes came along in the mid 1800’s. Although the impact of cubic zirconia diamonds has not been the same on the real diamond market, these synthetic dyes did in fact replace the more expensive purple dyes rather quickly since it was next to impossible to tell the two apart. Because of purple’s strong association with Kings and Queens the color purple is of course symbolic of leadership for some, as well as individuality for others. For some cultures purple is symbolic of reaching a higher level of consciousness. While some report finding the color purple soothing others report that when exposed to large amounts, (an entire room, walls and ceiling) the color purple creates anxiety. Purple is also considered to be magical and mysterious but interestingly enough it is not a color choice of automobile manufacturers. Here again if we were to think of purple as a personality we have not surprisingly a mixed bag of emotions, something that is a constant of all three secondary colors due to the lineage of their ‘parents’; in the case of purple, that of course means red and blue. If you love purple, chances are good you are a free spirit, much like orange, but whatever you do, do not marry orange! Sensitive? You bet. You are known to wear your deep purple easily wounded heart on your sleeve. Good thing you like mediation and yoga as they both serve you well and give you pause to re-group and once again, reaffirm your great love of people and your belief that almost everyone at their core is a truly wonderful human being. You are the color of the rich, and despite being highly motivated and ambitious having countless dreams of being rich, you always get side-tracked by your humanitarian nature and end up volunteering your time at soup kitchens or senior centers or you fly halfway around the world building shelter for the less fortunate. Public speaking? Hardly. You are much to shy, much happier to be off on your own, living in an imaginary world where happiness abounds and everyone gets along. At times, you are the poster child of one who looks at life through rose colored glasses, or in your case, grape colored glasses. "... For Purple mountains majesties, above the fruited plain." Imagine if that fruited plain was a plum orchard or purple cabbage or a widlflower plain of the purple cosmos flower! Now that would be quite a frame filling composition of purple for sure! Have you noticed how purple is one of the most elusive colors in nature? Yes purple/magenta hues are often seen following sunset or in the pre-dawn light of the sky, but purple flowers and especially purple fruit and purple vegetables are in short supply. A line from the movie, The Color Purple, "I think it pisses God off when you walk past a field of purple flowers and you don't notice", suggests that PURPLE flowers are to be revered more than any other colorful field of flowers. Considering the color purple’s history, (its scarcity and subsequent value) and it's later associations with Kings and Queens, the above quote regarding reverence makes even more sense. The color compliment to purple is yellow. PHOTO Inside the greenhouses of the Kuekenhoff, Holland’s large national park, you can find hundreds of tulips in all shades and colors on display for public enjoyment.

I hung around an area where various shades of purple tulips were growing and asked visitors which of the following words best described what they saw: “beautiful,” “elegant,” “rich,” “pretty,” “vibrant,” “regal,” or “gorgeous.” Sure enough, “regal” was the top answer, with “rich” at number two. Here, I’ve combined four macro shots of different purple tulips for a “regal” composition. All images: Nikon D810, Nikkor 105mm micro lens, f/16 for 1/100 sec., ISO 400

PHOTO One late afternoon atop the Valensole plateau in southern France, the white puffy clouds were engaged in a game of tag with the sun. This can be a landscape photographer’s dream; if one is patient, the coming-and-going of shadow and light across the landscape can create truly compelling pockets of light. Although it was brief, this is exactly what took place.

I hollered to the students to get ready, and within seconds the dance of light and dark unfolded before us. I fired off ten to fifteen frames in rapid succession—and then it was over. Nikon D810, Nikkor 200–500mm lens with polarizing filter, f/13 for 1/320 sec., ISO 640, monopod

PHOTO I seldom have difficulty finding photographers who are willing to venture out at sunset and then keep shooting for another thirty minutes afterward. But if I suggest they head out to shoot an hour before sunrise instead, I am met with loud groans. Regardless, this is exactly what my students and I did one October morning at Beverley Beach, along the Oregon coast.

And as my students remarked over breakfast afterward, they had no idea the pre-dawn light could be so colorful. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: sleep is overrated! Nikon D-810, Nikkor 24–120mm lens at 50mm, f/22 for 1/8 sec., ISO 100, tripod

PHOTO It was about twenty minutes after sunset when the sky over the Sheik Zayed Mosque in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi began serving up a vivid dose of purple and magenta.

Because I was set up at the base of a nearby reflecting pond, I was able to turn up the volume of this colorful composition by shooting its reflection, a helpful technique when shooting landscapes near wet sand, large puddles, or lakes. Nikon D800E, Nikkor 17–35mm lens at 19mm, f/22 for 4 seconds, ISO 100, tripod

PHOTO Located near the base of the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington, is Paul Allen’s EMP (Experience Music Project) Museum. Designed by architect Frank Gehry, the outer shell of the museum is made up of twenty-one thousand sheets of stainless steel and painted aluminum. Depending on the light, this metal reflects shades of both purple and magenta.

On this day, the varying shades of purple created a regal backdrop to my leaping student-turned-model, a linguistics major from Purdue University named Aya Ikoda. Nikon D800E, Nikkor 24–120mm lens, f/8 for 1/1000 sec., ISO 200

PHOTO The United Arab Emirate is no stranger to royalty and riches, and Dubai is a magical, elegant, opulent, stylish city. Fortunately for me, a passing afternoon storm of rain and wind was clearing out just as the sun was setting. By about twenty minutes following sunset, the colors of this amazing light show had reached its peak. With my camera and 24–120mm lens mounted on a tripod, I shot several eight-second exposures of the Dubai skyline from the rooftop pool area of the Park Regis Kris Kin Hotel.

Nikon D810, Nikkor 24–120mm lens, f/11 for 8 seconds, ISO 200

PHOTO Sunsets, as most of us know, are often unpredictable, and this one at Rialto Beach in Washington State was no exception. The skies were clear when we arrived, hours before sunset, but over the course of that last hour clouds started rolling in.

Lucky us, as the clouds offered welcome color and contrast against the blue sky. Nikon D810, Nikkor 18–35mm lens at 18mm, f/22 for 1/30 sec., ISO 200

WHITE Green may be the symbol of hope, but if you are looking for the ultimate of all hopes, you will find it in the color white. Not only hope, but new beginnings too and of course profound faith. Such is the color white. Christian paintings almost without fail show Jesus in a white robe or they depict the white robed hand of God coming through white clouds and baby Jesus is depicted in a small white gown while lying in the manger. White is all about faith, hope and of course purity throughout most of the world. I might add as well that the white canvas of these painters was the ultimate object of hope when they began their paintings of the white robed Jesus. White is clean, it is pure it is the white light that some people report in near death experiences. A fresh snowfall makes everything look clean but can also be a ‘blinding snowstorm’. And the white walls, floors, ceilings and counter tops speak loudly about the cleanliness of medical facilities around the world. So they are easy to see and follow, white is the color of soccer balls, baseballs and golf balls. Adorned with varying colors of headdress, the daily wearing of a white robe is also the color of choice among men, young and old in the Islamic Faith and still the white wedding dress continues to be the color choice of brides throughout the world. (Some cultures also wear white during periods of mourning and at funerals.) I distinctly remember as a child, growing up on black and white TV. Every Saturday the Lone Ranger, dressed in white, was always fighting the bad guys who were dressed in black and thus I was beginning to associate the color white with justice and righteousness, even purity, and black was of course to be feared, it was evil, it was bad. White is food; white rice, yogurt, milk and the color of the most asked for flavor in ice cream worldwide, vanilla. Like all of the other colors white does affect our mood. Arguably, the most relaxing location in the world would be sitting on a white sandy beach, looking out at the blue ocean with white puffy clouds and blue-sky overhead. This sounds like I’m describing Florida, Hawaii, Cancun, the Mediterranean, Thailand, Seychelles or Belize to name just a few. And while we’re at, let’s build a home in any of these locations above, paint it white and finally surround it with the safety and happiness that only a white picket fence can provide. White is known for its healing properties to. Television commercials suggest we use particular laundry soaps to obtain “whiter whites” and as the woman in this television commercial takes a deep breath through her nostrils, we see the facial expression that is normally associated with one who has taken Ecstasy at a rave party. And speaking of pills, Aspirin and its many healing properties, has been white from the beginning and as a side note, pink aspirin, the youthful color of white, is intended for children. And yet another example of the healing power of white and its promise of a fresh start; following the discovery of his infidelity, the wealthy husband returns to his wife, on bended knee, begging for forgiveness, and with arms extended, he presents a small black box that holds a three carat Brilliant cut diamond solitaire. And for the not so rich, the poorest of husbands, on bended knee, begging for forgiveness, and with arms extended, offers up his credit card, with the promise that his wife can spend $200 at the department store white sale.

PHOTO In the area around Hood River, Oregon, snow white apple blossoms are the order of the day for about two weeks every April. I had been invited by a local farmer to come onto his property, and he loaned me a ladder so I could set up to get the composition you see here. It could not have been better: early morning light, clear skies, and a wonderful view of distant Mt. Hood.

The purity of this photograph—described by many as “heavenly”—is one hundred percent the result of the dominating color white. Nikon FE, Nikkor 105mm lens, f/32 for 1/30 sec., ISO 50

While walking along the streets of Savannah, Georgia, my eyes caught sight of these two white wooden chairs. I immediately imagined two wise elderly people sitting in them, sharing their wisdom with whoever stopped by, and strong in their belief of a final resting place “up there.” Such is the power of white. Nikon F-5, Nikkor 35–70mm lens, f/22 for 1/60 sec., ISO 100

PHOTO Heavenly! That’s what one person said when seeing this image. That person was elderly, in great health, but also had a strong spiritual conviction about the after-life. That person was my Dad, a Lutheran minister, who passed away two years ago at the wonderful age of 96 years young.

I haven’t heard from him since he left this earth so I cannot report if in fact there are white rocking chairs in heaven but I can offer that my Dad’s reaction to this video had much to do with the ‘purity’ of white which this image has in large measure. Nikon D3, Nikkor 20-35mm F/22@1/60 sec, 100 ISO

PHOTO Not surprisingly the equally spiritual Zheik Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi is predominately white. Again, the purity of white, felt by most, is directly related to a spiritual pure existence. What makes this image work is the dark shape and stark contrast of that shape against to all that white; a lone figure in black, that of a woman passing through the corridor of the west side of the Mosque. Yes it helps that the gold leaf creates a leading line as well as if to point to the woman, but IF that line of gold were not there the shift in contrast would still be just as evident.

Nikon D810, Nikkor 24-120mm, F/14@1/320 sec 400 ISO

BLACK The color black is thought to be a slimming color, by both women and men. When you wear black you will lose ten pounds, immediately. The illusion of losing ten pounds is 100% attributable to black’s inability to be seen. Black is the most recessive of all ‘colors’. I have to be careful here of course since black is the absence of colors and without color it is hard to see detail and since black absorbs about 90% of light, it is further difficult to see both form and texture, both elements of design that give clues to a subjects volume. So, when black is worn, most of do look a wee bit thinner. I would be remiss in my exploration of fashion and color if I did not tell you what colors make you look fat; red and yellow, particular if this were a horizontally striped sport shirt or dress. Red and yellow both are the two most advancing of colors by far and perceived at the greatest of distances. They reach out beyond themselves and as a result, you look wider and heavier than you actually are. Black is mysterious, serious, authoritarian, (black nuns and priests) and black is powerful and dangerous and evil too. Black is depicted in the movies as the color of the Mafia, synomonous with black suits, black cars and the black market. It is the color of mourning when attending funerals of most western cultures. Black is also elegant. You receive your invitation to the party and learn that it is a black tie event. One survey of 1,000 men found that the majority preferred that their wives and/or girlfriends wear black lingerie as they found it to be the most mysterious and dangerous and of course this was welcomed news by women since they ‘secretly’ knew that black was also the most slimming of colors. If you are interested in a bit of automobile trivia, black cars are the second most popular color choice while white cars remain number one and sales of grey cars continue come in at number three. Black is loss and depression, it is Black Friday, it is grief, it is death, it is final. And yet no one will argue that it is great news for a company to be in the black and of course its horrible news to learn a company is hemorrhaging red ink. An airplanes black box is actually in a bright orange metal box. Black’s color compliment is ANY COLOR and it adds contrast to every color. Black is the audience that gives applause to the color(s) upon the stage.

PHOTO This image of the Kuekennhof Flower Park in Lisse, Holland, shot in late April 2016, succeeds due to the color black. If you are asking yourself, “What black?,” note the position of the swan. When it entered the scene, I deliberately waited for its neck and head to move in front of the black reflection of trees on the surface of the water. This created the necessary contrast for the swan’s white neck and head to stand out from the otherwise white-gray water. Compare this to the other example, taken just before the swan reached the black reflections. Subtle as it might be, the white head and neck get lost in the white-gray of the water. Nikon D810, Nikkor 24–120mm lens at 70mm, f/22 for 1/100 sec., ISO 1000

PHOTO Black plays such an important in role in the realm of contrast. Ever notice how jewelry stores display diamonds on black velvet cloths? The diamonds look brighter and even bigger against black. Black is deep space, depth, and as a result it elevates all other colors that sit on top of it. Here is an example of what happens when you place pure white on top of black. This large daisy is in full sun, but is against a background of open shade. I set my exposure for the sunlit daisy, not the much darker open shade, to record a black “velvet” background.

Nikon D7200, Nikkor 18–300mm lens, f/11 for 1/400 sec., ISO 200 Black ‘seamless’ backgrounds like this are readily available if you know were to look. Watch the video to learn when and where this effect is possible:

PHOTO Another technique that makes the most of black is to shoot backlit scenes and expose for the brighter backgrounds, turning the darker foreground shapes into silhouettes. For this image—shot on a July evening in Provence, France—I exposed for the brighter sunset, recording the darker tree in front as a graceful silhouette, all the while standing at the base of the tree—a “selfie” of sorts. Afterwards, I sat on the ground between rows of scented lavender, reminiscing about a similarly lone tree from forty years prior, when I’d first dreamed of becoming a professional photographer. I’d pulled off the road to photograph the tree, which stood in a farmer’s field in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and the farmer had spotted me and waved me over. In our subsequent chat, I asked why he had left the one large oak tree in his field, and his response has stayed with me ever since. He said that it served as a daily reminder: when hardships come along, you must stand your ground, never give up, always give it your all. Suddenly I realized that over time, I had become that oak. So to all of you aspiring photographers, give it your all and never give up!

Nikon D810, Nikkor 24–120mm lens at 35mm, f/16 for 1 second, ISO 1000

PHOTO Most Americans are familiar with Zorro and the Lone Ranger. Although the masks they wore were black, a color normally associated with evil, they were actually the good guys. Likewise, in my world travels I have come across my share of “masked” women, primarily in the Middle East. And just like Zorro and the Lone Ranger, they, too, are “the good guys.”

This misconception that masked women are all somehow evil and sinister is of course not true. If there is one piece of non-photographic advice I would love to share, it is to reach across the fence before assuming that strangers are “evil” and should be feared. Chances are extremely good that they share many of the same desires, hopes, fears and concerns as well as many of the same dreams that you do. Nikon D300S, Nikkor 105 Micro Nikkor lens, f/8 for 1/125 sec., ISO 200

ASSIGNMENT-WOW!!! Hey this was a long lesson, but hopefully you enjoyed it! This weeks assignment is an easy one: Shoot two images that make it obvious that they are first and foremost about COLOR and these two images must be of ​ your favorite color(s) and the third image must be also an obvious color image but it must be a composition of your least favorite color. Also when uploading ​ please comment to all of us what your favorite and least favorite color is.