Tag: learn

I went for a short outing yesterday to try and get some photographs. It was reasonably nice weather, not too cool and it finally wasn’t raining and muddy. I went to a nearby lake. This lake I haven’t been to in years. During the outing, I only took 19 photographs. There isn’t really anything wrong with the 19 pictures except they just don’t seem very interesting, at least to me. The plus side is that I did get out and get some practice. I even used a circular polarizing filter that I had not used in a couple of years.

As far as the photographs it didn’t work out but as far as the outing and the practice it was fine.

A few years ago, I had a photographer say to me that anyone can take a good photograph of a flower. His thought was that a flower, in and of itself, was beautiful and therefore, it was impossible to take a bad photograph of a beautiful subject. At the time, I really didn’t believe this but I didn’t debate him about the topic. Over the years, I have seen terrible photographs of flowers. I’ve seen horrible photographs of beautiful or handsome people. I have seen fantastic photographs of subjects that were less than beautiful or handsome. On top of that, modern equipment and software, especially with “built-in” filters and presets, it is easier to create “artistic” styles, but does that mean the result is beautiful?

I love modern gear. I love modern software and filters, presets, and such. I have nothing against altering reality. I have nothing against attempting to copy reality, although that is often not my style. Those things don’t pose a challenge to me.

My greatest photographic challenge is not a genre. It is not a location or session. My greatest photographic challenge is not software or editing. My greatest photographic challenge is not a time of day, weather, or season of the year. My greatest photographic challenge is me. I pose the greatest photographic challenge to myself. How? I pose the greatest photographic challenge by my not clearing my mind of preconceived notions and ideas. Often I find I have already decided in my mind what I want to do at a session before I even arrive at the location. I don’t think it is bad to have concepts in mind but do not open your mind to what is possible once you arrive at the location is a horrible mistake. Even if I have been to a location hundreds of times, I haven’t been there today. The weather may be different, the sky may be different, and I may be different. Over the next steps of my photographic journey, one of my goals is to open my mind and eyes to what is possible and work to not miss an opportunity that may never present itself again. Likewise, I challenge you all, don’t get locked into a style, genre, or preconceptions of what you want to photograph and how. Open your mind to the possibility of something you didn’t think about. Look at subjects and the environment in ways you haven’t thought about before.

Yesterday I participated in a photo session dedicated to dealing with grief and while I took a lot of equipment I foolishly didn’t use what I should have to ensure quality photographs. I had intended to do some double exposures and multiple exposures to combine in Photoshop to resemble ghostly apparitions so I brought a tripod. What I forgot, was the tripod collar for my heavy 70-200 f/2.8 lens, so mounting the camera with that lens to the tripod was out of the question. Even at that, I didn’t mount the camera to the tripod even when I used another lens. Needless to say, this rendered most of those images unusable. The couple I was able to save required a significant amount of post-processing work.

Lessons learned:

1. Slow down. I’ve talked about this concept in the past but I still fail to do this frequently. Why? I haven’t a clue. I get distracted and start to hurry along even when there isn’t a need. Often it may be that I feel like I’m in competition with others at the photo session (there were three of us as photographers with one model).
2. Use your gear. I have a decent amount of equipment. Things like neutral density filters, tripods, light meters, gray cards, remote triggers, speedlights, etc. I bring these things but rarely use them in recent times.
3. Think! Along with all the equipment I have I’ve been trained through an actual school in addition to the school of “hard knocks” and yet I still make mistakes.

All that being said, the outing wasn’t a failure. I was able to get multiple photographs that were quite usable. The outing also served as an important reminder to use my knowledge and gear more effectively. I reminded myself to slow down and plan the shots. Sometimes we have to re-learn the basics. Yesterday was a day to remind me of the basics.

Normally, I write my blog entry first thing in the morning. Today, I had a photo session that was set up for a couple of weeks. A photographer friend recently lost a dear friend and wanted a way to deal with the loss. We all discussed a “grief” photo session. We met at a cemetery that has some very old graves and some elaborate mausoleums and crypts. The weather even somewhat cooperated. It was overcast and a bit cool but it provided good soft light.

As you may have learned if you’ve followed my blog for a while, I’m not typically one that renders photographs to reality and will expose and process my images to fit a particular mood or concept.

While many may find the style I chose to be dark and depressing I believe they are more than that. While they are dark they express the sense of loss most of us feel at the death of a friend, family member, or loved one. This is something I intend to make a longer-term project. It’s always better late than never.

I’ve written about this before, but I believe it bears repeating. My goal is to create art not a carbon copy of my subject.

After listening to a podcast, I started to think about this topic again today. The podcaster talked about William Mortenson and the “war waged against him” by members of Group f/64. If you’re not familiar with Group f/64 click here. The exciting thing is that even the “straight photography” of the members of Group f/64 were not true depictions of their subjects.

Let’s face it, as photographers we alter reality through the equipment we choose. We alter reality through the aperture we choose, through the lens, and through the media we choose.

For me, the greater challenge is to create art, not a carbon copy. I can create a carbon copy by using my cell phone. The art I create can even change from day to day, maybe even in a matter of hours, and is influenced by my mindset. For me, creating art is giving others a view into my soul and thoughts. I believe once you set yourself free to create art rather than a carbon copy you may never go back. Give it a try, experiment, play, test, and try new things. Creating art, for me, is much more rewarding.

Why did I choose photography over many other hobbies and artistic pursuits? It is often a question that I don’t have much of an answer to. Like many others, we took photographs of trips and special events (birthdays, Christmas, etc.). Then in the early 1980’s I received a camera, a Canon AE-1, as a gift. At first, I bought the film, and once the roll was completed I took it to one of the 1-hour photo stores. Eventually, I got into developing my own black-and-white film. It was a bit technical and a bit artistic, and being somewhat of a geek and nerd I liked the technology of it all. As a kid and into early adulthood, I was a huge fan of sci-fi and drawing. I enjoyed technology, yeah I was one of those kids who had a “scientific” calculator I carried around the school.

I watched Star Trek (I’ve still got my Star Fleet Manual somewhere) and learned to use a slide rule along with the calculator. I somehow changed paths and went into a completely different field of work and spent most of my adult life in a field that was far from geeky nerdy. It seemed like the photography thing was going to get me back into that lifestyle since most of the people I knew who had cameras and darkrooms were nerds.

In the early 2000’s I switched to digital cameras but was still pretty much a “reality” based photographer. I mean I did experiment with post-processing but worked to “keep it real”.

I then retired for the first time. I began a real photography school. That changed things for me. The coursework forced me into different genres of photography. I had assignments to produce work that I would have never tried otherwise. It opened my eyes and mind to becoming more creative and not necessarily attempting to replicate reality.

For me, photography gives me the freedom to go from reality to surrealism. It allows me to explore the world around me and then create new visions if I so choose. I can create artwork at home or on the road. I can set up a scene inside or wander the city and countryside. I’m not limited to producing my work at a table or easel. Photography can be instantaneous or a longer process. Photography is both magic and science which as a geek and nerd fulfills that need and also feeds my artistic side of me by allowing me to create whatever I can imagine.

Why did you choose photography, I would love to hear your story.

I spend a lot of time studying photographs. Not just the photographs I take but also photographs from others. Some of the others I know, and some of them I don’t know. I say studying because I don’t merely look at the photographs. By studying the work of others I find styles and techniques I like, things I had not really considered before, and things I don’t like.

It is said the average person spends about 15 to 30 seconds looking at a piece of artwork in a museum. 15 to 30 seconds! I suspect that may be much lower when we’re talking about viewing images on social media or a website and yet there are lots of people willing to give a critique or opinion on a photograph on social media after spending a few seconds viewing it.

Studying the photographs and artwork of others is a way I have found helps me become more creative. I don’t attempt to copy what others have done but use their work as a springboard for my own work, especially if I see something I find compelling. Try it, browse through the work of others, and spend more than a few seconds looking at each photograph. You may be surprised at what you see.

It is often said that we should never stop learning. With that being said what was the last thing you learned pertaining to your art and photography? When did you learn it? I would like to offer a thought. If you haven’t learned anything new about photography and your art creation, you may not be progressing as a photographer or artist.

The last thing I learned about my photography and art was a few days ago. I learned more about the AI masking features in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. I knew the existence of the tools but I was not using their full potential. In fact, there were a couple of options I was not aware of. Prior to that, I learned what is important to me in my photographic art journey which was something I had struggled with for the past couple of years.

If you haven’t learned anything new, or for that matter, relearned something you have forgotten, make that a goal for the next 30 days. Learn something new, and continue learning and progressing. Remember we have at the tip of our fingers access to a whole wide world of knowledge.

I mentioned yesterday that I watched a webinar given by a well-known photographer. During the webinar a question was asked, “is that a composite or in-camera shot” pertaining to a photograph he showed. His first response was, why does that matter? This is exactly what I say about such photographs when people ask, is that Photoshopped?

With film, you don’t hear people asking how the image was processed in the darkroom. Questions such as, what chemicals did you use? Did you dodge and burn? How long did you process the film in the chemical wash? What were your settings on the enlarger?

I’m not sure about others but I work to create art not a copy of reality. As good as my camera is, it still cannot create the art I envision. Sometimes, I underexpose a shot to preserve highlights and then bring up the exposure of the subject in post-processing. Sometimes, there are elements that cannot be cleaned up that get included in a shot that distracts from my vision and those elements are removed in post-processing. Sometimes, the lens is too sharply focused and I envision a softer focus which is achieved in post-processing.

In the end, you either like a photograph or you don’t. If you like it does it matter how it was processed? Likewise, if you don’t like a photograph it also doesn’t matter. It’s all subjective and about the art, not the process of creating the art.