I know…I know…

I’m so sorry everyone - had a motherboard crash this week and been trying to sort through things so hang on - the lessons will start again next week, I promise!

Tell Me How You Really Feel!

Okay, okay…so you want a place to post your photos -

So tell me exactly what it is you want to do with them after we post them.  Do you want to send in pics to be critiqued (be careful what you wish for!) or do you just want to submit them to emphasize or illuminate a point on one of the posts? 

Let me know in the comments and I’ll figure out what our next move is.

Listen to me carefully, though - I’ve been involved in putting my work up to critiquing for a couple of months now and it can be hard, hard hard.  My feelings get squashed.  My work gets trampled.  I lose the will to live at times.  It has, however, made me a MUCH better photographer - but it has also led me to want to take out a hit on someone so - again - be careful what you ask for!

Now talk to me…

Lesson 16: Seeing In All Three Dimensions

It happens to all of us at one time or another…

(Never did see that fence shadow until I processed the image.)

I stand and compose a photo in my mind, move in with the camera, pop off a few shots of some extraordinary subject or object and then get home and download something totally different than what I originally saw. 

Why? 

Because the focus of my attention was all drawn to the object itself and I never bothered to check the foreground, the background or the surrounding center area for things that could detract a viewer’s focus in a final image.  I tend to become totally consumed with the object itself and, in the heat of the moment, miss the overall view. 

(Never saw the bird poop on the fence either!)

Man, it really burns my backside when that happens!

The more I practice the art of photography the more aware I become of just how little it takes to distract a viewer from your intended focus.  A bright streak of light in the background or a blade of grass right in front of the subject in the foreground and, suddenly, your award-winning photo is instantly in the recycle bin.  So how can we learn to see past that which draws our attention in the first place and make the image we really want to make?

First, stand back and really look at what it is that’s caught your interest.  Give it a moment to sink in.  What do you love about it?  Does it have one of “The Big Five” (color, pattern/texture, form, light, or movement)?   How is that knowledge going to change the way you photograph the image?  

Now, look at what’s behind it.  Again, move around the object as much as possible and look for the best possible background.  As you do this, consider different angles to shoot from.  Try squatting down and looking up or stand overhead and look straight down.  Should you back way out or move in close?  How do these angles change the background of the intended photograph and which is best? 

Next, look at what’s in the same focal plane as the intended image.  Is there anything distracting on or near it?  Specs of dirt?  Blades of grass?  Is it small enough that you can fix it in post-processing or do you need to try to fix it now?  Or, is it possible to work around it by changing your angle?

Now put the camera up to your eye.  First, look at the foreground.  Anything cutting off the image you wanted to create?  Anything standing in the way that needs to be moved or altered?  Does the object you are focusing on as the primary subject pull your attention to it?  If not, what’s changed?  Is there something in the foreground or background that is causing it to get washed out? 

 Now it’s time to take a test shot.  The best part about digital photography (to me!) is that you can instantly review what you just shot, letting you retake or remake your image before it’s too late.  Check your monitor display on the back of the camera and really look at what you just shot.  Is the image clear and crisp?  Is there anything distracting now that you see it all together on a flat image?  Is your depth of focus what you want it to be?  How’s the bokeh? 

Now check the histogram and see how your exposure is.  (Not sure how to do this?  Go here and read about it!)  If you’ve over -or underexposed it’s time to try another exposure combination now while you have the chance.  You might even want to try bracketing if you really want to make sure you have the shot you were hoping for.  I’ve found that when I am handholding my camera I almost always take a sharper photo on the second or third try.  ALWAYS make more than one image of a particular subject if you are in doubt that you captured a keeper!  You can throw the extras away if you got it right the first time but you can’t always go back and recreate that same scene over again later.  If in doubt – shoot it out!

Now, even though you think you’ve got the perfect photograph (as seen through your monitor screen) try something else.  Move a little to the left or right and see how the lighting changes.  Back up or move closer – better or worse than the original image?  If it’s worse, delete it.  If it’s a maybe…hang on to it.              

Lastly, turn away from your subject and let your eyes rest somewhere else for a moment.  Now, look back at the original image and see if you missed anything.  Nothing distracting in the foreground?  Background?  On the object itself?  Lighting was where you wanted it?  Shutter speed and aperture gave you the look you were going for?  Remember – you can always blur a background in post-processing but you can’t always correct too low of depth of field so try to get it right now while you’re there. 

Once you have a few images you like, time to move on. 

 

I know…I know…all THAT just for ONE LOUSY PHOTO???

 

No.  Well, technically, yes…

 

All that for one lovely, inspirational, thought-provoking image. 

See, anyone can walk up and click a shutter button at an object – I’ve known six year olds that can do that.  But MAKING a photograph and TAKING a photograph are two entirely different things.  The good news is that once you start using these different techniques to evaluate a scene they will become more and more automatic and what once took you five or ten minutes to compose will instinctively become a 60-second flyby on your way to a stunning photograph.

Lesson 15: Learning to “See” - Overview

Learning to “see” – it’s something every photographer has to undertake at some point in time if they ever wish to stop producing half-baked images.  I’ve heard it over and over again – “you’ve got the eye” or “You see what I don’t see” but don’t think that all comes naturally - at least not in my case.  I’ve never taken any art classes or had any formal training and my father used to shoot photos of pigs rooting around on farms so I doubt I picked up much on the finer points of composition from him.  What I have done is listened to good advice, learned from my mistakes and opened my work up to constructive criticism (which is a killer at times, let me tell you!) 

Over the past year or two I’ve probably taken around 20-25 thousand photographs - many of which were simply to get in a little practice on a near-daily basis.  All this practice has helped me to see things I never used to notice before.  I’ve learned to watch for many of my biggest blunders because of all that practice and that has now cut way back on how many of my images go straight into the recycle bin.  

I believe most people can learn to “see” these same things, too – despite whether they have an artistic bone in their body - so I am going to take the next couple of posts to share what I’ve learned so far.  In this new series we’re going to talk about:

• Seeing all three dimensions of your image – foreground, center, and background - before you snap that shutter closed
• How the size of an object and relates to its importance in an image
• The rule of thirds and how to compose an image for maximum impact
• Seeing light and shadows in your images - and how to correct them or when to skip the shot
• Learning to think “OOTB” (out of the box) when you’re creating the image instead of relying on post-processing to do it for you. 

Even if all you want to do is take photos of your family at the beach and no one but you will ever see them you STILL should care enough to want to make those photos enjoyable to view.   If, however, you want to get good enough to actually sell some of your images or you want to (one day) become a full-time professional photographer, you’ve got to learn to see what can make – or break – your images.

So, before we get into all the meaty stuff, here’s something easy you can try.  Get out a sheet of notebook, construction or printer paper, a ruler and a pen/pencil.  On the paper, draw a rectangle that is 5” wide and 7” high.  Now, cut out the rectangle leaving the 5×7 inch hole in the center of the paper – but do it so the sheet of paper stays in one piece.  

Now, walk outside and look around at things through that 5×7” hole.  That hole is the same size as a 5×7 print – how does looking at the world through that size and shape change how you see the objects around you?  Try turning the rectangle so the long side runs horizontally.  What objects fit in that size hole?  What objects don’t?  Now turn it on end so the tallest side runs vertically.  Now what looks good through that 5×7 rectangle?  What doesn’t? 

Choose one main object to view through your rectangle – a tree or structure, for instance.  Hold the paper close to your face (allowing for a wider field of vision through the hole) and then gradually move it further away from your face (decreasing the field of vision.)  See how that changes the way you see the object in relation to its surroundings?  Can you see how the focus of your attention changes towards that one object as it becomes the primary object in a scene?   

Walk around and do this over and over again - try it inside the house, inside the car, inside your closet if you want!  Move that sheet of paper back and forth within the different focal planes of vision and see which images look best in a horizontal frame and which look better in a vertical one.  Note how the object appears to be more important when it is seen in a full-frame view compared to how it looks when the rectangle is including more of the area around the object of focus. 

Learning to use your camera’s viewfinder to “frame” or “compose” a photo for maximum impact is just the beginning of how you can learn to “see” better  and we’ll be discussing this and other ways in the upcoming lessons. 

As always, if you have any questions about this or any previous lesson, feel free to email me at Heyjules.mwg@gmail.com.

 

New Series Coming!

I’m working on it now…

You really aren’t going to want to miss this one!

Lesson 14: The Big Five - Motion!

Time to discuss the last of “The Big Five” and that’s putting movement or motion into your images.  There are lots of ways to do this and we’re going to discuss a few of them here.

You can do one of three things with motion:

1.  Capture actual movement

2.  Insinuate movement

3.  Manufacture movement

Let’s start with the first option - capturing movement.  This is one of the easiest ways to draw interest to your images because who doesn’t like to see something moving when it’s static? 

Here we have an image I took of a cross on a hill - an image that would normally be considered a still (or static) photograph except I caught it during Lent when the purple sash caught light of the wind that was blowing by.  Suddenly, there is a drama that wouldn’t have been there if the photo has been taken at any other time of the year.  The movement of the sash, combined with the colors of the setting sun, are what makes this photo interesting.

 

Here’s another photo where I captured actual movement.  I took this of a bluejay coming in to steal a peanut in my backyard.  As soon as he landed he was right back up in the air again, spewing seed and corn behind him.  Because this was such a quick occurance, I didn’t have time to properly adjust my shutter speed to freeze the action of the bird, but that’s okay in this instance because part of the photo remained in focus, leaving enough to the viewer’s imagination to figure out what is going on in this scene.

 

Now, in this image we can see that motion is insinuated.  You don’t see the waves writhing back and forth in a foamy waterfall but the shadows and reflections show you that movement is, indeed, taking place.  Movement here is insinuated and most people viewing this image would find this implied movement more interesting that just your ordinary static water photo.   

 As for producing speed or motion in post-processing, that is something that can be achieved with various blur and motion filters.  In this image, I caught a Canada goose coming in for a landing on a frozen lake and, although he did skid a bit, my shutter speed was too fast to catch the motion.  (I did this on purpose to try to “freeze” the body and wings of the goose - but I lost the motion of his landing in the process.)  So, when I took this image into Photoshop, I added a radial blur around the animal and that gave the impression of movement that I failed to capture in the original photograph.

 

So whether you capture evidence of motion, insinuate motion or produce motion in post-processing, I think you’ll agree that motion brings a little something “extra” to an image.  It takes the onlooker’s imagination for a ride and draws them into your image in a way that static images can’t.  It’s a great way to evoke emotion in someone viewing your images because it often adds either a touch of humor or a touch of drama to your images. 

There are lots of techniques for freezing or blurring motion and we’ll talk about all those another day.  For now, though, think about featuring motion in your photographic images and see if that doesn’t get you looking at your subjects in a whole new way. 

Lesson 13: The Big Five - Light!

Sorry for the delay, folks…life suddenly got very busy!  Between the longer daily commute and the additional work, I’ve been a bit under the gun to get any blogging done.  Now that the weekend is here, it’s time to get back on track!

So…on to lighting.  What can I say?  Lighting can make or break a photographic image in the skip of a heartbeat.  I can’t tell you how many photos I’ve dumped in the recycle bin where the composition was nice and the depth of focus was good and the subject was interesting - but the light - it sucked. 

Bad lighting = bad photo - and there’s just no getting around it. 

How do we know if the lighting is good or not?  The answer is: we just know with practice.  As a photographer, you have to understand a few fundamental rules about light and then you have to know when you can get away with breaking those rules - and when you can’t.  Your final image will be the decision maker, though.  If you like the quality of light and the amount of contrast in an image, then the image “works.”  If you aren’t sure where to start with finding (or creating) good light then let’s start with some of the basics. 

Listen to me here, people because I know of what I speak.  One of the ”rules” for good lighting is when to shoot and when not to and it’s this: Shoot in the morning (1-3 hours after sunrise) and shoot in the evening (1-3 hours before sunset) and, in the middle of the day, go to lunch. 

WHY?

Because lighting is softer and more diffused in the earlier and later hours.  In the middle of the day it tends to be harsh and bright and leaves shadows in places you’ll never want to find them on your final image.  Want to undertake the mother of all Photoshop projects?  Try removing shadows from the faces of your entire family because you took their picture on the beach at 1 p.m. in the afternoon.  Oh the agony!!!

The first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset are what are known as “The Golden Hours.”  They produce the best light for photography because of the angle that the sun is in compared to the earth.  Now, if you have an indoor studio with tons of flashes and studio lighting, then, hey - go get ‘em, cowboy.  If, however, you are wondering why every photo you’ve ever taken outdoors has a funky tinge to it and is so harsh that everyone looks like their makeup was done by someone in their first semester of cosmetology school then guess what?  You’re probably shooting at the wrong time of day.  There are exceptions to this rule, of course, but if you plan to do most of your photography outdoors then you really should get used to rising early and being available in the late afternoon/early evening hours. 

You see, you can manipulate the white balance of your camera (we’ll talk more about that later on) and you can do all kinds of post-processing stuff to correct bad colors and funky skin tones but you’ll never see the magic “golden hour” light unless you shoot in the magic golden hour.  It’s really that simple.  So, whenever possible, get out there early-ish or late-ish and I guarantee you’ll see the difference in your photographs.

Now, as important as timing is, also important is where you stand in relation to that lighting.  The best place to put your body in relation to the sun is with it behind your head/shoulders and that’s called: 

Front Lighting

You almost always want to have the light behind you.  This is called front lighting because the sun is in front of your subject - not you!  This will keep your in-camera meter from giving you some very funky readings and will help you take the best advantage of that beautiful sunlight that is out there without deep shadows and harsh overtones (called “hot spots.) 

If you can’t quite get the photo you want with the sun behind you, the next best option is:

Side Lighting

Side lighting is your second choice and it can be a very nice, dramatic lighting if you get it just right.  With side lighting, you tend to get some shadows in the image but, if you are paying attention, you can get them to fall away from your subject instead of on them.  You can also use the shadows for dramatic effect depending on the subject you’re shooting.  Here’s a nice example of side lighting (and I took it in the evening “golden hour,” too.  See that gorgeous light bouncing off the tree branch on the left?  Mmm…yummy!) 

The last kind of lighting is:

Backlighting

Backlighting can be so wonderful or so dreadful - all at the same time.  Backlighting is an either/or proposition - either you’ll love the backlit image or you’ll throw them straight in the trashcan and go off to the corner to weep uncontrollably. 

Why? 

Because when you put the light behind your subject (and in front of you and the camera) you’re going to freak your camera’s sensors out in a big way.  Chances are, if you let your camera tell you how to expose the shot you’ll end up with a really cool silhouette photo like this one. 

If that wasn’t what you had in mind, though, then you need to do some fancy footwork to OVEREXPOSE the image in order to get it to the “normal” range on your camera’s meter.  The thing is, until you bump up the exposure and take a few test shots, you won’t really know how the camera will react.  Backlighting can be a wicked, wicked thing if you aren’t paying close attention.

*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

Does that mean you can never take a photograph in the middle of the day or under very bright circumstances?  No, it doesn’t…but it does mean you’re going to have to really work at it to get an image you’ll love.  Why?  Because bright sun produces two things: shadows and hot spots. 

On your in-camera meter, there are numbers to the left of zero and to the right of zero.  If the numbers are to the left of zero, they represent UNDEREXPOSURE (or less light) than your camera sensor thinks you need.  To the right of the zero they represent OVEREXPOSURE (or more sunlight) than your camera sensor thinks you need.  So, how do you know when to overexpose or underexpose?  Again, it’s a matter of practice because every camera is a little bit different.  Some tend to shoot “dark” and some tend to shoot “light” and you really need to figure this out.  (I’ll give you tips on how to do this in an upcoming lesson.)

As soon as we finish this series on “The Big Five” we’ll talk about “Average White Balance” and “Metering Options” and then all of this will make a lot more sense.  For now, remember this one rule that you never want to try to break:

In post-processing, it’s always easier to lighten a dark photograph than it is to darken an overly lit one. 

I often shoot my photos in what is known as “bracketing.” Many of today’s cameras have this option so the camera will do it for you automatically.  Basically, bracketing is where you shoot one shot dead on at “0″ on your meter and then one shot to the left of zero and one shot to the right of zero.  This is like taking out an insurance policy on your photographs and, when you’re first learning to use your camera, this can be a great option to turn on.  One of those three images is bound to be close to what you were hoping to achieve.  The only problem is it sure does use up a media card in no time at all!  Therefore, I do my own bracketing.  I take an image at the setting I think will produce the best outcome and then I look at it in the viewfinder to see if it looks too dark or too light.  From that image, I’ll adjust my exposure and take a second shot at the same scene.  If that one produces a better in-camera image then I’ll decide whether it’s safe to delete the first one or, at times, I’ll take both home with me to decide when I get the images open. 

Be sure to check out “bracketing” in your camera’s Owner’s Manual and see if your camera has that option.  If not, remember that you can do this manually by changing your exposure to move that arrow a stop or two down from zero and a stop or two up from zero. 

Okay, enough info for today!  We could (and will) talk about lighting further in upcoming lessons but I wanted to make sure you had the basics.  Those basics include KNOWING WHEN THE LIGHTING IS BEST to make a great image and KNOWING WHERE TO STAND in relation to that great light, the sun. 

Knowing those two things alone can greatly affect how your photos look SOOC (straight out of camera.)

Lesson 11: The Big Five - Form

Today let’s talk about form.  Sometimes, what can make an ordinary photograph into something extraordinary is form - the lines and curves that an image displays.  Finding an interesing form (or creating one with your choice of camera angles) can go a long way to adding interest to an image. 

For an example, take a look at this photo of my friend’s horse.  I could have shot the image straight on or from the side but I would not have ended up with something this interesting if I had.  I found a nice sweeping line by standing behind the horst that draws your eye in to the horse’s bridle and eye.  That long, curvy line of her back is what takes your eye on a roller coaster ride through the image and THAT makes an ordinary horse photo into something different than what you would normally see. 

Here’s another example where the form draws you in.  Your eye instinctively wants to follow the lines of this bridge around the corner to see what’s just past your eye’s view.  That draws you into the photograph and any time you can get converging lines into an image you should go for it! 

Architecture is a great place to learn about form.  Buildings tend to have a lot of intricate angles and shapes that can make for an interesting image.  Again, I could have shot this one straight on but I looked for an angle that would give me something different.  Those shapes help hold your eye in the photograph, making you spend more time in it’s presence.  That is ALWAYS a good thing!

Nature is another great place to look for unusual form.  Photographing your images to capture unusual form as it appears naturally will give added interest to your photographs.  Ask yourself how the item you’re looking at is different or unusual from all the other photos you’ve seen before and then try to capture that.  Anyone can take a photograph of a canna leaf…but coming up with one that looks different is where the artistry lies. 

Finally, start looking at things from a geometric point of view instead of what you know the item to be.  When i look at this leaf I don’t think of it as a leaf…I think of it as a series of waves and curves.  Train your eye to look for things like this - to find the form - angle - interest - in your images.  Remember, too, that YOUR angle makes a difference as well.  Bend down, look up, hang from a tree limb - do whatever it takes to find a new way of looking at something and that will automatically add interest to your photographs.   

Lesson 10: The Big Five - Texture/Pattern

So today we continue the lesson on what I call “The Big Five.”  One of the things that makes photographs really interesting is the way you can use it to display either a reoccurring pattern or highlight an interesting texture and make that the focus of your image.  Here are some examples:

This was a leaf image I made last fall.  I had just had a tree cut down in my backyard leaving this really interesting stump.  It had tons of texture and pattern to it but I decided to bump it up a notch and grabbed a torn and wrinkled autumn leaf and placed it on top of the stump.  There’s a ton of great stuff going on in this image - lots of interesting lines and patterns and then there is the texture of the wood and the leaf - wow!  This is still one of my favorite images of last year because it’s just so full of stuff to look at. 

 

Here’s another image that has both a repeating pattern (the chimneys across the roof and the boards running down the front) as well as the texture of the wooden barn itself.  Both the patterns and the textures work to draw your eye in in this image.

Here’s an image that shows some great patterns, too.  Even though each piece of pottery has a little bit of a different design, the matching color palette blends all the pieces together.

 

Here’s an example where the pattern of the image is very random but it still works well.  This is actually some foam that was floating on the surface of the Missouri River while the sun shone down on it.  The pattern is totally random but it still draws your eye in a sweeping direction towards the reflection of the sun. 

So when you’re out and about with your digital camera, don’t forget to think pattern and texture.  You can find it in almost anything but the key is to find one that adds to the image instead of detracting from it.  Learn to let your eye “see” where it wants to go to when looking at a pattern or texture.  If you find it has a place to “rest” then you’ve got a winner.  If, instead, your eye can’t find a place to really focus in on, best to let that one go (or use it as a textured background layer over another photograph!) 

We’ll talk more about texture later on - specifically how to gather images to use for textured layers in your photographs - but, for now, start looking for patterns and textures that really grab your interest and pull in your eye.  Remember…pattern and texture are an important part of THE BIG FIVE!

Lesson 9: The Big Five - Color

I thought it would be nice to take a short break from the mechanics of photography for just a bit and talk about the artistry of it.  Almost anyone can learn to produce the right combination of elements to make a correctly exposed photograph - it’s certainly no secret.  It’s why there are so many people taking photographs these days…it’s almost too easy not to. 

Of course, anyone can set their cameras on “auto” and take a relatively decent image but it takes more than moving your camera to the manual setting to make a good photograph become something really special.  All the skills in Photoshop won’t be able to change the fact that you simply didn’t “see” a good image in the first place so listen up and learn about what I call “The Big Five.” 

There are five things that I look for when I make an image: 

1.  Color 

2.  Pattern/Texture

3.  Form

4.  Light

5.  Action/Movement

Some images will have a combination of these five things and some will only have one of the five.  Without one of these five items being present, though, I pretty much know that what I’m shooting will probably never be anything more than “shooting practice.”  Why?  Because, to me, photography is about conveying emotion - about inviting another person into your version of the world and getting them to feel what you felt when you experienced the setting/object that is in your photograph.  It’s not about form, color or pattern - but it is through these different things that you can evoke emotion in an image.   

Since there are five different things I look for in a photograph let’s spend a day each looking at them.  Today, let’s start with the first one: color.

There are a lot of variables where color is concerned in photography.  There are photographs that display different tones of the same color, color opposites, saturated colors, desaturated colors and the use of no color at all (black & white!) 

First, stop over HERE and take a look at a color wheel.  This page does a great job of explaining why we like certain colors next to other colors and how a color wheel can help you take a better photograph.

Knowing which colors “set off” other colors is important but always remember this: if you think it’s a beautiful combination of colors, it is! 

 If you look on the color wheel you’ll see that red and green are color opposites on the color wheel.  They tend to set each other off and really make your mind do a happy dance when you see them together.  You will see color opposites all through nature…greens with reds, yellows with blues, purples with oranges…nature knows it’s color wheel!    

Here is a photo I took of the sky during a beautiful winter sunset.  (I added the waves in Photoshop but the color palette was what I actually saw in the sky that night with just a bump of added saturation.)  These are analgous colors because they are all close together on the color wheel.  This is another way to make your colors pop - by choosing colors that appear close together on the color wheel. 

Now here’s a good example of one color but in many different shades.  You can see everything from the lightest pink to the deepest magenta in those two tulips and that makes it really interesting to look at.  We would say that this photograph has a good tonal range.

But there’s more to color than just intense, saturated colors.  You can get beautiful results and evoke a whole different set of emotions by desaturating color. 

This is a photograph where I took the saturation down by about 2/3.  This was originally a very bright orangish-yellow flower with a crisp white around it’s base petals - and it looked very nice like that.  But daffodils evoke a different sensation in me than what bright yellow/orange brings to mind…they also remind me that the earth is slowly waking up to spring and so I “slowed” down (or desaturated) the colors to match the emotion that daffodils invokes in me…a quiet, gentle awakening. 

Even further down the color line is a photograph that mimics a sepia or vintage look.  This is basically a photograph where you’ve removed all the color and then added a tonal range of browns back in.  This gives a whole different feel to the image than its color or even it’s B&W copies.  For me, this effect totally fit this daffodil because it was at the end of its life cycle - starting to lose all its color and beauty but it still retained it’s form and detail.  I used a vintage sepia effect to bring that out - to show it’s delicacy and age. 

And, finally, let’s not forget the beloved black & white image!  This is a pale yellow and white tulip that I made an image of this past spring.  As a color photograph it was pretty enough but I could tell by looking at it that it would give me a nice range of black and white tones and so I converted it.  Sure enough, it turned out really lovely as a B&W image - even nicer than the color image it was originally.  Not every image will convert nicely to a desaturated, sepia/vintage or B&W image but many will and this can take your photography in a whole new direction for expressing the emotions of a particular image.   

I hope this gives you some new ideas as to what to look for when you’re looking at color in your photographs.  Any questions?  Email me at Heyjules.mwg@gmail.com!