Change seems to breed upon complication. Artistically, and personally, I try very hard to simplify things. When you Photograph a landscape, what is the hero? Where do I wish you to look? What do I wish you to feel? How do I wish you to become so enthralled with the scene, that you MUST keep staring at my image?
To be perfectly honest, the way to do the things above is to simplify the scene in some way, so that I might inspire you to be connected with my composition, that connects with you. I must use simplicity, light, and focus, in order to have you spend the time.
The more people that are impacted by your image, the more popular your work becomes!
If I’m Photographing a person the same is still true. It is said, that if you photograph a person in color you Photograph their clothes, but if you Photograph that person in Black and White you Photograph their soul. Part of this is because Black and White simplifies what you might be seeing…
These past weeks the powers that be, have complicated Photography a bit more, in order to simplify it. If you read on I’ll try to explain…
Your Mood Enters Into Your Work
In every single live seminar I’ve ever taught I have stated this. If you are fighting with anything at all, it will affect your image artistically. Your camera settings, your shoes, your spouse, current politics… anything! Even the simplest of things or events. If your mind and soul are elsewhere, you will not like the images you compose.
Many Photographers now a days wish to improve their images. Those Photographers look to anything; and for anything to accomplish this. A new Camera. A new lens. New software. Yup! Damn skippy! That new gear is going to change my work tomorrow!
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself” ~ Leo Tolstoy
Today, that last word in Tolstoys wisdom would need to be changed to themselves. Yet this quote still rings true. It’s the perfect analogy for my point Photographically. That new gear might change the “world”… but it will not change the soul of your Photography. You must do that.
Making Mistakes
In every seminar I’ve ever taught I’ve also answered many questions for how to fix mistakes in images. The short funny answer is not to make those mistakes. However reality is making those mistakes is how we learn.
Recently I’ve made the mistake of not heeding my own advice. I was driving the Coast of Oregon looking for scenes to compose images. My goals in doing so are always to somehow make my work different. Almost anything out there has been shot to death.
The only way to set yourself apart from the bazillions of images we see every day, is to somehow be both different and compelling. With a lot of my work, I personally feel I’ve failed at that, but if I keep trying. If I make enough mistakes, maybe someday, I’ll accomplish my goal.
The iPhone And Photography
A lot of the time I use my iPhone to take notes… In the case of location hunting I’ll use it to take a snap shot of something that I might wish to return and shoot more seriously. The image below is one of those iPhone snapshots.
Now the iPhone has an awesome algorithm that displays your images pretty good on your iPhone, but not elsewhere. However, that’s an entirely different subject. (actually all phones do this, not just iPhones)
Your phone takes great notes! So this is the scene I saw. However It is not the scene I had in my mind, nor is it displayed here the way it is displayed on my phone. Also at low tide this scene is entirely different.
The same location is displayed below from a different direction, at low tide. This image depicts people digging for clams.
Taking Your Time In The Creation Of Your Art
“Sixteen Countries in seven days.”…”The Utah Mighty Five in five days” I see statements like this ALL the time. You will too in Facebook Groups like “the American SouthWest Group”…
A lot of people wish to cram the most into the time they have, instead of immersing themselves into one location, and getting the most out of their time.
Great artists past and present, are usually not about speed. Ansel Adams is used as an example a lot. I’ll do so again. He’s pretty famous for busting his butt up the side of a mountain with heavy gear, only to take less than five images.
Part of my personal needs are to immense myself in a location. So for me, my summer sojourn’s are also about that, not just getting out of the heat. If you will think about that, you might understand that the great Photographic artists don’t just go click!
They take their time for the entire image, from concept, to capture, to edit, and then the finial piece de la resistance, the print. I am personally totally ok with spending a LOT of time on one image. This summer I’m spending two months on the Oregon Coast.
I Have A LOT Of Images In My Mind
With the two months on the Oregon Coast I had goals. I now realize many of those goals might not be met simply due to time, weather, and tides. Also people. In the Summer Months between Memorial Day and Labor Day, many people are trying to accomplish their goal of sixteen locations in ten minutes.
I’m actually ok with creating only one or two astounding images for my two months. The image below is one of my favorites of all time. It took me over a weeks worth of time to capture this image alone.
So where am I going with all of this? The images I showed you above at the start of this post were notes. I had a definite idea of the image I wanted to create. I have not created that one yet. However I took my time shooting the location.
I Photographed it from many angles. From high, to low. Horizontally, and vertically. I focus stacked it, and I shot brackets at each of those orientations. I think I have over 100 shots of this one location at the one spot I was at.
Through my experience shooting these images I saw things on the back of my camera I had not seen before. Both on location and in my mind. I was shooting a lot of images, in order to make sure I had exactly what I needed for the edit, I had in my pea brain.
Then all of a sudden, I saw the image below. I saw it first on my camera, with an edit in my mind at the time. Then I kept shooting for my original concept. When I got back to my RV and downloaded the images, my goal was to create my original concept. The title of the image below is “Moonlit Bay”
The image is not even close to what I had in my mind when I first spied the scene. Yet it still stood out to me for some reason. I was compelled to work it up. I did two or three different edits on this image. Each one of those edits taking considerable time.
The image you see here on your screen, or in my newsletter, are not great representations of the actual composition. However the test print is awesome. I will now go through my process of testing papers and working up the final print.
The Moral Of The Story…
Remember that I personally, like the image above. You might not, and that is perfectly ok. Ultimately I am a Photographer for me first. If others like my work, yes, that’s very cool. If others buy my art… also totally cool and I thank you very much.
If others take my seminars, join my Campfire Group, or go on my PhotoSafaris… this is also totally cool and I thank you most of all! I thank you because hopefully through those seminars, the campfire group, and on my PhotoSafaris, you will also learn from me the total meaning, and experience of what Photography is to me.
Photography for me is not totally about the gear, or the software, or the many mistakes I’ve made. Every single one of those mistakes, including the mistakes in gear I bought, created my entire experience. Artificial Intelligence can not do that for me. Only my intelligence can accomplish that.
I have still not composed the original image in my pea brain. Honestly now? I might not. The total experience of the idea, to capture, to composition, and finally to editing, created the image above. I really like that image above for many reasons, those being the entire experience.
It’s mine. I was there. I created the entire composition. Yes a computer assisted me in the digital darkroom, and will assist me to print it. A computer even assisted in the capture of the notes, and the original raw image. Yet I was involved in every aspect of “controlling” that computer.
Two weeks from when I post this online, I’ll be leading my Oregon Coast PhotoSafari for seven totally awesome people. I will be giving up all of the secrets to composing the image above. I’m certain they will be astounded.
A short public service announcement…
This past week my debit card was hacked. Not from entering it online but elsewhere. My bank fraud department told me that lately they have encountered a lot of this. They also informed me that they have traced the theft back to hacking your phone in oder to obtain the information from your “digital wallet”…
This sent me totally for a loop! I’ve always known that our Phones have far less security than our home computers. The banking apps for our individual banks using the phone are pretty secure. However that digital wallet is not as secure. This is because of the many ways we use the phone to conveniently pay on location.
Luckily my bank refunded my money, cancelled that card, issued me a new one, and informed me of the threat. So I took all of my cards out of my digital wallet, including Apple pay and Google Pay!
I’ve always advocated NOT using anything to remember your passwords. Now? I’ll be digging out my cards to pay. Even better yet? I’ll use good old fashioned cash.
