Winter time can be a very tough time for landscape photography, especially in the midwest. Nearly everything is some tone of brown. The grass is brown the trees are brown, and the leaves are brown. One must often look carefully for any color. Even if you’re converting to black and white it is all about tones and when everything has a similar tone it is difficult to get much separation. It can be found, just keep looking. This is the time of year to challenge your creative eye.
I used to be able to just point my camera at something and snap a picture and be satisfied. Now, I go out and may take several pictures and get back and think eh! I do believe that it is for the best, sometimes. The reason I say so is because of the photograph above. I was just browsing my catalog of “assets” (as many call their catalog of photographs) and my wife asked me, “when did you take that one?” The photograph above I took just over a month ago. When I took it I thought it was decent. I converted it to black and white, I believed the color was distracting, and the more I looked at it the more I thought eh, it’s okay but. What I found interesting was that someone else saw the photograph and it caught their eye. Now that got me thinking maybe I’ve become too selective. Maybe I am looking too hard for a wow factor and not finding it, the proverbial can’t see the forest for the trees. Maybe it is time for a reset, you know, “have you tried turning it off and back on again?
I’ll be back tomorrow, I’m restarting my system.
Something I talked about a few days ago was keeping too many photographs from the past that thus far have never been shared or viewed past the initial time they were taken. Are we concentrating too much on the past and not enough on the present or future work? Maybe, I have found that I go through previous work far more than I consider new work. There is a small percentage of photographs that I cannot re-create and most of those are family trips and members of my family. Most everything else I can retake and likely do a better job if I were to concentrate on the present and the future. I don’t believe we should forget the past or rid ourselves of previous work because it is often important to remember.
I am beginning to believe that this mindset is holding me back because I can just go back through my photographs and “find” something rather than create new and improved images. It is time to move onward and create new.
I take a lot of sunrise photographs and I’m sure many of you may wonder why? I’m an early riser, most of the time I’m awake and up before the sun rises. I find each sunrise unique. Taking a photograph of the sunrise also gets me out and thinking about photography and creating art. Sometimes, like today, I grab my “real” camera and set up the shot. Other times I use my cell phone. It doesn’t matter which camera what matters is to start the process for the day.
While there are many days I may not take many other photographs taking a photograph of the sunrise starts my new day, getting me thinking about art and photography. It generates the mental flow of developing concepts and techniques.
What stimulates your thoughts of creativity and art, I’d love to know.
Something I have been noticing a lot lately is there appears to be a trend toward the mundane with photography. It hasn’t been just one source, but rather many. Every day, I browse through a variety of websites looking at photography. I do this just to see what others may be doing, looking for things that will inspire me to be more creative. My intent is not to copy but rather develop my own concepts by viewing the creativity of others.
What really brought this to the forefront for me was there were a few of the so-called go-to sites that have always inspired me. For the past few weeks though, I have found myself scrolling and scrolling through these sites finding nothing but boring, un-interesting photographs. I mean photographs that I can’t move to the next fast enough. It is estimated that we spend between 15 and 30 seconds viewing a piece of art in a museum. I conducted a rough estimate of the time I spent viewing new photographs submitted to one of my go-to photography-sharing websites which previously was chocked full of wonderful pieces of work. I was spending, roughly, 1 to 2 seconds viewing images. Not just a handful of images but pages and pages. Even if I go to the popular photographs as voted by the visitors I see a significant percentage that appears to be popular merely because they include a scantly dressed or nude woman.
Is creativity dying? Is it because we are in the instant gratification of digital photography surrounded by one-click presets? Is it because we wish to follow what appears to be the popular trends set by others? Is it because we have become used to being told what to think and believe? I am not sure of the reasons behind this but I do believe we, as artists, need to go back to creating and inspiring the world around us. We need to get back to innovating rather than merely regurgitating what is popular and trendy. If not I fear that we will move back to the realm of boring and unimaginative photography.
I was doing what I often do to come up with a topic to discuss today, just browsing through my catalog of photographs when I noticed a common issue. Why do we usually take so many photographs? In the session where the photograph above came from I found I still have 652 files. Ninety-plus percent of them will never likely see the light of day. A friend of mine also recently commented about people “bragging” about how many photographs they took during a session. Are we doing this because we can? Are we afraid of missing out? Would we be better off planning and taking two or three photos rather than 10 of a similar pose.
For me, a similar issue is just pointing the camera at something and snapping a photograph. What is the purpose? Why this scene or subject matter? What, if anything, am I attempting to say or relate to the viewer? Is it interesting?
Let’s talk about the photograph of the bird above. It is horrible. It reminds me of nothing. No adventure, no family memory. It was a trip to the zoo. I’ve kept this photograph for 15 years. Why? For fear of deleting history? For fear of missing out?
Over the course of a week, I discovered and deleted nearly 4,000 files. Many were duplicates, some were just bad poorly executed photographs, some were attempts to learn or perfect techniques, and others were just photographs that were never going to be used for anything.
I am starting a new plan. I need to ask myself before I take a photograph, what is the purpose, and what am I trying to say or convey to my viewers even if it is just myself. Photograph with purpose not just push the button because I can. Join me, don’t fear missing out. Let’s show the world what we enjoy, and convey the message we want to convey, express ourselves with purpose.
What makes one a professional photographer? Many would say one that makes their living by doing photography. I’d like to offer a different definition. I believe a professional photographer can be one that desires quality over quantity. I see so many photographers who earn a living, or at least supplement their income, with photography but depend on the old “spray and pray” mindset. You know, if I take 2,000 shots I’ll get a few good ones, rather than planning and setting up to ensure success beforehand. It is often said that the difference between a professional photographer and an amateur photographer is that a professional photographer works until they can’t get it wrong, while an amateur photographer works to get it right.
My goal is to work until I can’t get it wrong. I prefer quality over quantity. Creativity over snaps of the shutter. As in the photograph above, the cup was selected to send a specific message. The lighting was intentionally set up as well as the pose. I didn’t take 10 or 15 shots of the same setup, I did take a couple just to ensure that I captured what I intended. My goal is to become a professional photographer in the sense that I can achieve quality results without worrying about getting it wrong.
This morning I walked out to my patio to look out on the world and see what was happening in an attempt to inspire me on what to write about. This was the scene before me. Heavy overcast skies with fog and the sun peering through the clouds and the trees. I immediately grabbed a camera to take this photograph knowing it would be one of the few that would require absolutely zero post-processing work. For me, it was a nearly perfect silhouette of the trees with hazy details in the distance due to the fog. This shot was taken at 8:30 AM and was completely different within a few minutes.
Sometimes, nature provides a near-perfect moment to create art. This was, for me, one of those moments. I hope to be able to capture many more of these moments in the coming years since I can now dedicate my time to art and creating.
When I go out to take photographs I always strive to create art, not just take pictures. It doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes I come back home and look at my bounty of photographs and think, eh. Other times I come back home and I am amazed at my ability to find artistic photographs, or at least I’m able to bring the art out.
I haven’t always done this when I include people. I often get too distracted by the people I forget to set up something artistically. One of my goals is to fix that and think more creatively and artistically when photographing people.
While the photograph above may be a decent portrait, I don’t think it is all that creative or artistic. There was significant thought and planning put into setting up the lighting, props, and pose it just doesn’t strike me as art.
My challenge to myself is to obtain a better feel for creating artist photographs with people. So onward to study more about artistic portraits.
Two weeks ago yesterday, was my last day of work. I retired, again. I say I retired again because I retired the first time on November 1, 2011. I didn’t have a job for a while the first time, but then I returned to work. This time around, I don’t plan on ever getting another job; this time, it has proved to be much more of a challenge to adjust. I’m not sure why, but for the past two weeks, I’ve been sitting around doing nothing. Yesterday, was one of the few times I got out with a camera and did much photography. While I didn’t get anything super special, it felt good. I also discovered a place that I have driven past so many times I can’t count and for bonus points, there are pubs and a couple of wine bars nearby.
The reason I mentioned all of this is that changes in our lives sometimes affect our motivation and creativity. After yesterday, I have found what works for me to move along is to just grab a camera and find stuff to take pictures of. It doesn’t have to lead to award winners it just has to get you out and thinking, moving, and creating.
Photographer Clay 