My greatest photographic challenge

My greatest photographic challenge is to create something meaningful. When I first transitioned to digital photography I could snap off hundreds of photographs, most of which were pure garbage. A lot of that was a learning experience. What works, what doesn’t work. Nowadays, I can take a camera out, walk about and not take a single, or very few photographs. Once I get back and take a look at them on the computer screen I’m thoroughly unimpressed. Of course, I am probably my own worst critic. For example, after uploading the feature image above I noticed some stray strings ( or as a friend would say, ropes and one was a repelling rope). I admit it, I’m often a pixel peeper. There, I said it. Hi, my name is Clay and I’m a pixel peeper.

Why is this my greatest challenge? I figure if my photograph doesn’t create something meaningful to me it is not likely to be meaningful to others. The whole purpose of creating photographs and photographic art is to share them with the world. While I don’t ever expect to be regarded as a household name in photography I don’t want to be a Vivian Maier either. I also understand that my photographs may not be everyone’s “cup of tea”.

When I did the photographic session where the featured photo was taken my intent was to photograph the dancer in locations where you typically wouldn’t think to find her. After this session, I photographed a model in an elegant evening gown in various locations such as an alleyway and fire escapes. To me, it was meaningful. The sessions were meant to get me and the viewers to look for the extraordinary in ordinary or unusual locations. This is what we want to do, at least in my mind. We photograph the ordinary and make it meaningful.