A Thoughtful Examination
What road did we take to put us here. Some paths we choose ,others we are dragged down. While we like to have the illusion that these are easy to discern differences I cannot say I always believe that. Anyhow what does all this navel gazing mean,,,,,
It has been a time of taking deliberate new steps. Its been a time of starting over. Stripping away the things that no longer seem purposeful. Asking what is of real value. Rediscovering how I will achieve the things that I really want. Things that seemed real were really just an illusion and without real value. A mirage of life that leaves the traveler more parched than when the trip began. And the knowing you believed it was more makes it harder to bear. Its time to move forward one step at a time in the right direction.
Well it has been an interesting time. I have gotten a chance to really take a deeper look at the type of stories pictorially that inspire me and those that are just a quick smile and try to understand what made the difference. Too often I think it was the easy path to go for the likes, to go for the most popular picture. I am starting to ask a more pertinent question. What picture make me happy. And where does that joy come from, Perhaps because you can see photography as just a "frozen moment" which is how most people choose to view it. Or you can see it as slice of a much larger pie.
To illustrate there is a picture of two friends standing together in front of a large waterfall. Its very easy to see how this could be a way of showing "We were here on this day". On many levels that works. It shows the waterfall and the friends. But can we do more? Because the moment was artificial, they only stood there for the moment of the picture and never again. Now take those two friends put them by the waterfall, feet in the water and you capture a moment when they are sharing a real laugh. Because the moment is authentic. When you look back at that picture it will conjure up the feeling of that day, that joke, that place in time and space. Its so much more. Is it harder? absolutely. But that is the picture you dig for hours to show your friends. That is the picture that you relive again and again.
The forum that the image is presented in matters, is this an Instagram post or in a family album. Context means quite a bit, pictures of funerals might not make good imagery for a children's magazine.
I think the difference is that there are things that make us smile because the nature of the
subject is such that it produces a reaction emotionally. Then there are others that offer a deeper recognition in additional to that emotional connection. As people who want to create art or create pictures that we will return to over the test of time we have discern how can we hit those touch points of recognition. There are photos that we see that good photographers seem to "hit" the numbers consistently and we may feels ours do not. On a certain level I feel they are just more aware of the things that we share in common. In other words the silly smile on a child's face after spilling their food all over themselves, they see it as something that is a shared experience and so may know "instinctively" to push the button and capture the exposure. On the other hand we may be working very hard to architect a moment through los of effort that feels contrived and untrue even though we feel intellectually it should be moving.
Then there is something else. The ability to create an eduring interest over the course of time. In a world where fantastic art can be flicked through with the slight flick of the thumb, No one can know the fickle desires of the audience of tomorrow or even how we will feel tomorrow. However there are levels of quality that tend toward longer and more meaningful connections.
Life is not truly captured in a picture at best it is a dim reflection. Part of this recognition is coming from behind the camera and spilling the food on ourselves and then learning to completely feel the emotion in the gut. We need to laugh with our friends to know how it makes us feel. You need to cry with those in despair to know what its like to feel the water welling in our eyes. We need to live. We need to be aware we are on a journey and this needs to not be an intellectual curiosity but a visceral companion in our lives. And then most of all have the courage to capture it and clean it up and present those feelings as clearly as possible in our photographs.
I am deliberate when I do not discuss technique or composition in this piece. Why so? Because if we don't understand what we are trying to do then we cannot begin to understand the steps we need to do to capture it. A key part of any journey is understanding what it will take to arrive at our destination and then making plans accordingly. No less can be said of the photographic effort. However if we don't know where we are going then really how can we get the right tool set or even understand how to use the tools correctly.
Knowing F Stops and Point of View (POV) are critical in the how of laying out the picture but they pale in comparison to knowing what or even the why we are taking the picture. This photographic sojourn we are on may be because we bought a nice camera and want to take pretty pictures. It maybe because we feel the need to preserve a memory for prosperity. and usually its a mix of many different reasons, (sometimes you choose or sometimes its chosen), But for us to be successful we need to not lose focus.
This means not being content with maybe the first snap, it means be willing to move to get another POV that is clearer, It means spending a little time in the evening getting rid of dust spots in our picture. Because we are not just documenting the world, we are showing the world and a great deal about us. That is a journey of our own choosing an adventure to see clearly our own soul relentlessly.
Well it has been an interesting time. I have gotten a chance to really take a deeper look at the type of stories pictorially that inspire me and those that are just a quick smile and try to understand what made the difference. Too often I think it was the easy path to go for the likes, to go for the most popular picture. I am starting to ask a more pertinent question. What picture make me happy. And where does that joy come from, Perhaps because you can see photography as just a "frozen moment" which is how most people choose to view it. Or you can see it as slice of a much larger pie.
To illustrate there is a picture of two friends standing together in front of a large waterfall. Its very easy to see how this could be a way of showing "We were here on this day". On many levels that works. It shows the waterfall and the friends. But can we do more? Because the moment was artificial, they only stood there for the moment of the picture and never again. Now take those two friends put them by the waterfall, feet in the water and you capture a moment when they are sharing a real laugh. Because the moment is authentic. When you look back at that picture it will conjure up the feeling of that day, that joke, that place in time and space. Its so much more. Is it harder? absolutely. But that is the picture you dig for hours to show your friends. That is the picture that you relive again and again.The forum that the image is presented in matters, is this an Instagram post or in a family album. Context means quite a bit, pictures of funerals might not make good imagery for a children's magazine.
I think the difference is that there are things that make us smile because the nature of the
subject is such that it produces a reaction emotionally. Then there are others that offer a deeper recognition in additional to that emotional connection. As people who want to create art or create pictures that we will return to over the test of time we have discern how can we hit those touch points of recognition. There are photos that we see that good photographers seem to "hit" the numbers consistently and we may feels ours do not. On a certain level I feel they are just more aware of the things that we share in common. In other words the silly smile on a child's face after spilling their food all over themselves, they see it as something that is a shared experience and so may know "instinctively" to push the button and capture the exposure. On the other hand we may be working very hard to architect a moment through los of effort that feels contrived and untrue even though we feel intellectually it should be moving.Then there is something else. The ability to create an eduring interest over the course of time. In a world where fantastic art can be flicked through with the slight flick of the thumb, No one can know the fickle desires of the audience of tomorrow or even how we will feel tomorrow. However there are levels of quality that tend toward longer and more meaningful connections.
Life is not truly captured in a picture at best it is a dim reflection. Part of this recognition is coming from behind the camera and spilling the food on ourselves and then learning to completely feel the emotion in the gut. We need to laugh with our friends to know how it makes us feel. You need to cry with those in despair to know what its like to feel the water welling in our eyes. We need to live. We need to be aware we are on a journey and this needs to not be an intellectual curiosity but a visceral companion in our lives. And then most of all have the courage to capture it and clean it up and present those feelings as clearly as possible in our photographs.
I am deliberate when I do not discuss technique or composition in this piece. Why so? Because if we don't understand what we are trying to do then we cannot begin to understand the steps we need to do to capture it. A key part of any journey is understanding what it will take to arrive at our destination and then making plans accordingly. No less can be said of the photographic effort. However if we don't know where we are going then really how can we get the right tool set or even understand how to use the tools correctly.Knowing F Stops and Point of View (POV) are critical in the how of laying out the picture but they pale in comparison to knowing what or even the why we are taking the picture. This photographic sojourn we are on may be because we bought a nice camera and want to take pretty pictures. It maybe because we feel the need to preserve a memory for prosperity. and usually its a mix of many different reasons, (sometimes you choose or sometimes its chosen), But for us to be successful we need to not lose focus.
This means not being content with maybe the first snap, it means be willing to move to get another POV that is clearer, It means spending a little time in the evening getting rid of dust spots in our picture. Because we are not just documenting the world, we are showing the world and a great deal about us. That is a journey of our own choosing an adventure to see clearly our own soul relentlessly.
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