DKG Art Gallery Spotlight: “Backgrounds can make or break a photograph.”

Margaret Meehan

Michigan State Organization, Beta Rho

“The best advice I received early on was to pay attention to the background. Stepping to the side, zooming in tighter, photographing from the other side, changing the angle, shooting higher or lower are all good strategies to eliminate distracting backgrounds.”

Margaret Meehan is a naturalist at heart.  Her love of travel, nature, sunrises and sunsets all encompass her eye for that perfect photograph. With nature as her background for many of her photographs, it’s only fitting that she places an emphasis on strategies to enhance a background setting.  Margaret gives us several important tips and advice that she has received throughout her career.  We encourage our readers to take a walk on the wild side with Margaret as she shares her photographic journey.

Tell us about yourself as an educator and an artist.

I was an elementary teacher for my whole career.  I never saw myself as creative but rather as interactive until I began photographing. I can’t draw, but I am very visual. As a photographer you decide what to put in the photo, but just as important what to leave out of the photo. The human eye can “see” more shades of lights and darks than a camera. Since photography is all about light, seeing the light is integral to taking good photographs. I am primarily a nature photographer which means getting up early to capture the best light. I use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to process my photos. Joining a camera club was the single most important thing I did to advance my photography. My club holds competitions through which my work gets critiqued. It is nice to hear what worked but so important to hear what could be made better.

Tell us what inspired you and how you developed the art you entered in the gallery.

My photography has given me the opportunity to travel and photograph. The fox photo was captured in Newfoundland where I went to photograph gannets and puffins. The foxes I captured were a happy find. While I am primarily a nature photographer, I compete in all the areas open for competition in my camera club. Each division (nature, general, monochrome, creative and prints) has an assignment and non-assignment category for each competition. The Midnight Musings came about as an assignment for the Monochrome Division – Low Key Photo. When I saw that assignment, I knew exactly how I wanted to photograph the typewriter.

 What is the best artist advice you have been given?

In photography, backgrounds can make or break a photograph. The best advice I received early on was to pay attention to the background. Stepping to the side, zooming in tighter, photographing from the other side, changing the angle, shooting higher or lower are all good strategies to eliminate distracting backgrounds.

What does the value of the Creative Arts in Education mean to you?

As a child I took piano lessons and I made sure my son had music lessons as well. When he went to college orientation, he was astounded by the number of students who were selected to his college who had a music background. The Arts develop the brain in wonderful ways. There are many ways of knowing and in a world driven by standardized testing it is important to develop the whole person.  The Arts provide positive social outlets, convey confidence, exercise the creativity “muscle” so needed to help solve daily challenges because there are many ways to look at problems. And arts of any kind are just JOYFUL.

Just one more thing....do you have anything else you want to add?

I do wish the DKG Gallery would add a Creative Photography division where the creative composition must be completely the work of the maker – no clip art or purchased content. To be “creative” it must look like it was manipulated in the computer not a straight shot out of the camera. The best example would be a composite where several photographs are combined into a new composition such as an image of a house sitting on a cloud. This art form makes for very compelling images.

 

The Arts and Humanities Jury Committee encourages suggestions from our readers and fellow artists!  Special thanks to Margaret and her extremely insightful responses to our inquiring minds.  The committee is committed to continuing to listen to our members and take suggestions.  We want our Art Gallery to grow and improve as the interest grows through our international membership.  More categories, improved rubrics and technology are all on the forefront of the committee’s efforts in the near future.  Be sure to stay tuned…….

Let’s keep the conversation going, please use the comment section below to suggest new topics, ask questions, or give us your input. We love hearing from our readers and gaining new ones.  Spread the word!