Yesterday, I wrote about photography as a metaphor. Not only do I believe photography is a metaphor but it is also a reflection of my perspective, my mood, my personality, and in fact me. I don’t believe any of us can be so dissociated from our art. This is why I believe it is important to accept both concepts of photography as a metaphor and a reflection of ourselves. Once we accept these concepts free expression of our intent in a photograph becomes easier. These are good things. It can be a bit frightening to knowingly let others see into our minds but doing so allows us to create fantastic art and isn’t that really what many of us want to do? Think about it, freedom to do your art as you want. Express our reality, our vision, our dreams, our hopes.
It’s time for some introspection and set your creativity free. I’ve done it and it has given me an entire new view of the world, my art, and my life.
A podcaster I listen to on a regular basis talked about a book by Minor White, Mirrors, Messages, Manifestations. His discussion led into photography may be a metaphor. Since listening to that podcast yesterdy, I have thought about this a bit. Merriam-Webster defines a metaphor as; an object, activity, or idea that is used as a symbol of something else. To me, that is essentially what photograph is, a symbol of something else. It isn’t the object represented. If that is the case then in most photography, realism doesn’t matter. The photograph is merely a symbol. Reality, or as close to it as we can get is only critical in documentary photography. Everything else becomes open to artistic creativity.
Having now come to this realization I finally have my arguement for creative expression of nearly all the photographs I will take. My work is a metaphor for this object represented in the image. I feel like I have been set free. Think about it. I believe it is hard to argue against photography as being a metaphor for the people, scenes, and objects we photograph.
Never work for free. Never work for cheap. Yes, I’ve done both and I’ve had some good and some bad experiences but I can tell you the negative experience has far outweighed the good. Here is an example of what I mean
There’s a lady who’s been wanting me to do a FREE newborn shoot (I’m new at it) for her daughter but my kids have been terribly sick and we’ve had to reschedule a few times and now my son got into a massive accident and she sent this really mean message tonight and I sent her a picture of the car just stating that you know I’ve been having a tough time and she’s being really rough on me about it and rescheduling on her a few times.. Just not sure what to do.. I told her I’d do it Wednesday but I’m in no condition to do it.. I know my work won’t be good and I’m just depressed and don’t know what to say to her.
From a recent Facebook post I read
I see these posts or their sister posts about doing a cheap photography session virtually every day and they are all very similar.
I know there are concepts of “trade for” where the photographer and the “client” work together with neither charging because they are exchanging services. I don’t consider that work for free. I also understand that some would consider the example above could be a trade for because the photographer may be able to use this as practice blah, blah, blah. But, you get into the problem of cheap customers will always be cheap customers, free customers will always be free customers. I tried the business of photography once in a half-assed way, but I wasn’t ready to be in business. I was horrible at collecting the money even though I always requested half upfront I rarely collected it and then had the experience of slow payers. The customers never got the product until the bill was paid but most of those I allowed to not pay upfront went months without an order of the finished product or payment.
The other concept I hear about where you work for free is to provide photography for a charity. Here is what I have learned about that. Charities, even those that are 501C3 charities have budgets to pay for some services such as printing, mailing, telephones, electricity, etc. I’ve researched some of the biggest name charities and all the big names pay huge sums of money to public relations and advertising agencies. To me, if I want to support a charity with photography I will donate money to the charity and request that to be used to pay a photographer.
I realize this post may irritate a few, it may even make some angry with me but think about the potential problems you can get before you work for free. For me, I’m not doing it anymore and I warn others to not work for free or for cheap.
Most days, I am in a photographic motivation lull, well I guess it’s more of a barren wasteland. Oh, I do things related to photography. I read articles, I browse the work of others, I talk about photography, I write about photography, and I even work with honing my editing skills but to actually get motivated to take new photographs I’m stuck. Part of it is its winter. I have grown to really not enjoy winter, hint I don’t like being cold. Some of the rest of it is somewhat due to an attempt to escape day-to-day reality through video games and mindless television.
There are 220 million Google hits on motivation and countless books exist on the topic. All of these have very similar tips and techniques of which I have found that few actually work at least with me. I suspect I’m not alone. So, how do we motivate ourselves? Maybe it is just to get camera gear out and tinker with it. Dust it off, wipe down your gear. Maybe it is just set aside a couple of hours a week. Maybe it is just writing down your ideas. Maybe it is a bit of all those. Whatever it is, let’s find a way to reenergize our creativity and do photography. Let me know your thoughts.
Digital photography has made photography easier today than in the past. White balance can be set to auto or a number of presets and it can be changed multiple times per session using the same card. Film speed can be adjusted from photograph to photograph. In the past, using film we had very limited choices of white balance and film speeds and they couldn’t be changed on the same roll typically. I know we could push a film speed and we could add different filters to the lens to affect color temperatures. When I began photography it was unthinkable that I would be able to take a photograph with an ISO setting of 12,800. In fact, it was very difficult for me to even find film faster than 800. I know we don’t really have film speeds or white balances in digital it is all a program that makes some adjustments. While that may be true, it functions the same way in practice as the old film speeds and white balance.
Today, we can also store hundreds or thousands of photographs on a single card rather than be limited to 36 or so exposures. We can also quickly see our work through a screen on the back of the camera rather than wait until we got the film developed and prints made. Modern digital cameras will even “develop” my photograph and the image be completely usable straight out of the camera. While I may not instantly have a physical print in hand I can have portable devices that could make a print at the click of a button.
I can also take my images and process them in ways that were well beyond most photographers in the past using programs such as Photoshop and the myriad of similar programs and applications available, some for free.
I suspect this is why some “old-timers” in photography or those who want to be like an “old-timer” thumb their noses at modern digital photography. I love the look of photographic film. It is different than digital. I love that there are those who want to keep film alive, albeit I believe film will eventually die except for a few very niche photographers. Because of all these things we can spend more time on composition, content, creativity, and people who may have never ventured into photography. I’ve come to a point where I don’t to discount anyone’s choice of medium to do their photography because I may just learn something new or be inspired by their creativity.
Photography workshops, do you really need one or do you just need a guide? It has started to appear as if the workshops being offered are really just guided photography trips. To me, a workshop is an event that provides training. Merriam-Webster defines a workshop as; “a usually brief intensive educational program for a relatively small group of people that focuses especially on techniques and skills in a particular field.”
Years ago, I went on a photography trip that was billed as a workshop. While the guys who were the workshop hosts were nice guys and had scouted the locations well I didn’t believe either one was a much better photographer than I. The problem I often found was there were about 12 of us who paid for the workshop and in many of the shots I wanted to take there often appeared to be a photographer standing somewhere in the frame. The other problem I found was there were so many of us that when we all, or at least several of us, found a composition we liked we lined up like we were at the firing line of a shooting range. When we traveled between locations it was a convoy of vehicles. I’m almost certain that most of us all came away with a number of nearly identical images.
A few months ago, a friend and I went on another photography trip. It was just two of us. We had, as best as we could, scouted out locations virtually. We could also decide on the fly to try a location. We still got a decent number of photographs and this time we weren’t in each other’s way. At one time I saw there was a service that you could sign up to be or hire a local photographer to be a guide. You could offer your services as a guide to your area and if you were traveling to another area you could search for a guide. Maybe we need more guides and fewer group trips billed as a workshop.
I’ve heard this so many times and it has been from people with cameras. You often hear this when the weather doesn’t meet their expectation. Too many clouds, flat grey clouds, no clouds, raining, snowing, etcetera. In reality, there is no bad day for photography. Just because the weather doesn’t meet my expectation or provide the conditions I wanted to photograph doesn’t mean it is a bad day for photography. The true sign of photographic artists is that they are able to adjust to the conditions. A photographic artist can visualize the art. Is the weather not doing what you hoped? Take a moment or two, study your scene and subject and adapt.
Some of the most compelling photographs I have been under what many of those “it’s a bad day for photography” people would say it’s a bad day. Under some weather conditions, it may be necessary to use precautions because it’s dangerous, and I may have to wait a bit but, to me, it’s still not a bad day. Embrace what nature gives us to photograph you may actually be surprised and able to get one of the best photographs you’ve ever taken.
Yesterday, I wrote about photography as an art. Today, I want to talk about photography as fine art. There are many genres of photography and of all those genres the vast majority can be fine art. Fine art is often defined as work that is purely created to be aesthetically pleasing. Wow! Based on that definition most of what I and likely you create is fine art! Isn’t that awesome!
I used to dislike the terms, art is subjective and my photography, my art. The more I have thought about it, these terms are true regardless of whether or not I like or dislike them. Have you ever walked around a museum of art? I have many times. There are all sorts of art inside. Have you ever had a small child draw a picture for you? Was that art? And many of these works were created purely to be aesthetically pleasing. Of course, it was. See where I’m going with this? Art is in the eye of the beholder.
We are many times fine artists. We create works to be pleasing to the eye. Don’t let others define you, we have already done so. Go create my friend, you are truly a fine artist.
It has been debated and it is still somewhat of a debate whether or not photography is an art form. To me, it is definitely an art form, but many others claim it is not the same as painting and sculpture. Those who claim photography isn’t art often cite things like it isn’t creative, it doesn’t take skill, anyone can do it, blah blah blah. Much the same could be said for any art form. Anyone can splash paint on a canvas, anyone can create a sculpture. Given the trends in the traditional art forms with abstract art forms, ready-mades, etc.
Those of us who are photographers know none of those comments are true. Photography done properly is creative and takes a lot of skill. Photography is different than painting just as painting is different from sculpting which is different than dance. Will this end the debate? I doubt it. It won’t end because there are those who believe their art form is above and beyond that of other forms of art. I don’t care what those naysayers believe, not in the least. All I can do is to do my photographic art and promote it as best as I can. Let’s get out there and create some photographic art.
Five simple tips to take great photographs. I see these types of headlines, or something very similar to the every single day. Then you get into the article and they say the same things every other article says about photography. Learn exposure, get closer, blah, blah blah. Simple right? Well maybe but maybe not. I’ve taught people just beginning photography. When I teach a beginner, I go out with them to help guide them. What sounds simple isn’t always so simple. I read a lot of these articles, or watch online videos that are similar, just to see if they have some “magic” technique. I haven’t found one yet. To me, this is becoming the problem I see with photography. This has become the way to learn photography and what we’re getting is everyone is taking the same photographs. They all look like everyone else’s photographs.
When I have taught beginner photography the first thing I mention is that I don’t want to make them a copy of me. I want them to find their own style(s). I’ll teach the concepts and let them explore. Online instruction is fine in some cases, but to depend upon a video to teach as the only source often leads to confusion and failure. What if you have a question? You don’t have an instructor, if you send an email or post a comment you may, eventually, get an answer.
If you really want to get better at photography find a real class or mentor that you can have real interactions with and help guide you personally. I feel like today we are losing personal interactions in hopes of fast and easy. Fast and easy is rarely good and far more often not even close the great.
Photographer Clay 