To which I started to reply, but then realized that the exchange was a great way to start the next Blog post.
"That's a great question, Wayne. Pride and vanity for starters. There's nothing to prevent me from posting "snapshots" on the Blog any more than there is a method to prevent me from running "junk" miles while training for a marathon. Damn, this is worth a Blog!"
I am not entirely sure that I agree wholeheartedly with Wayne's premise, that digital encourages sloppiness. The ease of digital does perhaps make it tempting to take hundreds of photos and hope that one is worth keeping, at least in theory. Once you've made the initial price hurdle and secured your equipment and a computer, the digital age has probably never made it easier to capture images inexpensively. Hell, I don't even make that many prints any more. I distribute and share my images online.
But in any endeavor in life you get out what you put in, usually in terms of commitment and effort. If you don't take the time to stop and think about the images you are trying to get, chances are you won't be rewarded with very many good images.
Case in point, yesterday I took approximately sixty images at twilight to capture the one I wanted. Today, I took about two hours to shoot seventy-five images. And the image I was most attracted to, was in the last half dozen.
In my case, my commitment to 'planning versus 'sloppiness' starts with the desire to learn more about what it takes to create great images, both technically and artistically. I appreciate the process that goes into learning a new skill, and in a way I think I'm fortunate that I have a 'learning mindset'. In plain English, I enjoy being a student. I enjoy taking classes. Running clinics, cooking classes, wine tasting, or going back to school to learn photography.
This Blog is a case in point. I wouldn't be writing Fifty in Photos if I was not enrolled in the Photography Certificate program at Langara College.
And now when I go out to take photos, my eye has had some formal training in regards to composition, light, exposure and the technical aspects of taking a good image. The purpose of Fifty in Photos is to sharpen and hone those new skills. I think I have a good eye. I think I always did. The best way to make it better is to use it a lot. Training means that I have -- at least in theory -- a better understanding of how to create with my camera the image I have in my mind's eye. And, after having taken a series of images, this Blog is a way to test my post-processing and editing skills. To be hard on myself.
Another way to take good images is to put yourself in a position to take good images. In the next four months I will be taking the following courses; Advanced Studio Lighting, Night Photography and Fashion Photography. Each of these courses will entail thirty hours of classroom instruction, about half of which is actual studio and shooting assignment time.
My second image was shot during the middle of the day. Usually a disaster in terms of light conditions. But it was pouring rain today and the cloud cover served to act as a giant soft-box, God's own light diffuser. I used a Lensbaby Composer and my Nikon D90. Two hours of shooting and at least an hour of post, editing and writing. Wow!, this project could eat up some serious time!
And Wayne, I really was going for arty...
- Vince Hemingson -
- Vince Hemingson -
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When photography becomes an obsession, it makes no difference whether it is in digital or film. The goal is the same - the perfect capture/communication of a feeling, an idea, an experience, a moment in time. Of course, perfection is an impossibility since a photograph is always a moment in the past. Thus photography is fundamentally faulty system. For me, the obsession to capture became painful as i watched moments become history. I had to put it down for my own sanity.
ReplyDeleteDo you prefer working in color or black and white? What exactly is a Lensbaby?
ReplyDeleteBob