So here we have a number of different things to think about, the first and foremost being the story. Location is huge for storytelling, isn't it? Depending on where a person is, you could think so many different things about that person. And I've chosen images here that have very definite locations that, in my opinion, or at least in my attempt, aid the believability of the image, give us a time period in some cases, and provide atmosphere. And if your location can do all those things, well then half of your storytelling is done. I mean, a good location is everything for an image. So here we have this old room, I don't know exactly when it was built, I'm not sure. It was in Spain and I took an illegal picture of it and now here it is in this photo. And there we have it. So, it looks old. You could say that that room is 50 years old, who knows? Maybe it was just a cement building that's been aging over time. Maybe it's 500 years old. We really can't say, unless you're an archeologist. M...
y sister is an archeologist, I'll ask her. Okay, and then I have these two images that were taken in Iceland. Pretty obvious which two, I would say. Not that one, yeah. And both of these images taken in Iceland give a very specific feeling to the work. In fact, it's a completely recognizable feeling. So we have this one where I'm in the water with the icebergs, and, of course, color comes into play here, matching the color of the ice to the dress. Of course, lighting comes into play, things like that. But really the location is key here. I couldn't have just been in any lagoon (laughs) you know, swimmin' around. It wouldn't have been the same image. What happens here is that the location tells the story of the image. Some more examples again in Iceland, just matching the shape of the body to the location, and then in a lot of these we have props that were in the location to begin with that completely tell the story. I felt when I saw this room with this bed in it that I could have done anything in there and it would have had a story. And this is my exact problem with locations. I hate locations that already tell me a story. They're super exciting, right? Like you go to a place and maybe you're in a French chateau and it's amazing and you're just like, "Oh my gosh, I could take a picture of anything and it would be great." Except, is that great? If you could take a picture of anything and it looks good? Because then every other person who goes to that place is gonna take a picture and think, "Oh this is great, I have a picture that looks great." And then everyone has the same picture. And I think that this is kind of an issue with photography is that we see something that looks so cool and it already looks good and it already has a story in it, but it's what we do with that story that makes it ours. And locations can be really deceptive sometimes, 'cause you think it's already great, so what am I gonna do? But there is something that has to be done, and that is whatever you wanna say in that space. Just again, these examples of images that I created recently where I made my own space. So there was blank nothingness, there was literally nothing, and then I had to fill it with something. And it's a really good exercise to just ask yourself. If I had nothing, if I had one blank room, what would I do with that? What would I fill it with? If I could fill it with anything in the world, what a fun idea to think of. Like what pops into your mind right now if you just think, I have a blank room, a blank white room with whatever lighting you like coming in that room, and you could put anything in it, anything. Would it be a dinosaur? No, no dinosaur fans? I did that. Balloons, very interesting. I would not do that, see? This is great. A forest in a room, why not? You have all of space and time at your disposal. What would you do? Clouds in the room. Super interesting. Greenland. (laughs) The whole country in your room. I love it. 'Cause I didn't say how big your room was, you guys, see? See? She got you on that one.