After looking at Sam Abell's excellent book Seeing Gardens I was inspired. I felt that the book opened my eyes, and I saw opporturnities for taking photographs everywhere.
But the problem was I couldn't make those "seen" photographs to result in photographs that were any good. Something went wrong, and the result was not at all what I was aiming at.
As a demonstration of this, the three photographs shown here were all taken late yesterday afternoon. While taking them I thought I was "seeing", but later realized I couldn't capture what I was aiming for. So, these are just a reflection of what might have been.
I got a bit worried about this, and even blamed the camera for the failure. But I don't think the LX3 is so bad that it can't produce a photograph when there is one to be taken.
Then I realized that, once again, the problem was in the photographer, not in the camera. So, the only way forward is to try to see better. And I guess taking a lot of failed photographs is not bad either. From each failure you learn something.
I also started to think about the feeling you get when you have taken a few dozen photographs and things start to feel like "flowing". You get inspired and use the camera with confidence. In my case, perhaps there is a natural explanation for this: I usually take photographs while walking, and thus the natural endorphins start to act. So, the feeling of "flow" may be just the "endorphin rush", similar to "runner's high". But I'm not sure of this either.
Perhaps I'm taking photographs the wrong way. Instead of walking around, perhaps I should spend hours in one spot, exploring the possibilities. On the other hand, I enjoy walking a lot. In fact, sometimes it is hard to tell whether I like walking more than taking photographs.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Seeing - and "photographs that never were"
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4 comments:
Having personally experienced an "endorphin rush" many times whilst in a physically competitive situation, I can say that you are right and that it is a very similar feeling. With respect to photographically exploring a particular subject, one photographer who I admired greatly once told me that he "worked" a scene until he felt that he couldn't make a better image than the last one. He would then move on and whether that took minutes or hours wasn't really relevant. It's a technique that I consciously try to employ, I often feel "the flow" and usually become so engrossed with the task that I loose all track of time.
When you are out there in nature, perhaps only your family members to witness, this is quite ok. (Provided that you stop at some point...)
But a photography blogger mentioned that he felt his family got a bit embarrassed when he got engrossed in photography in public places such as streets.
I take most of my photos when out walking as well (the other main scenario is attending a social event / public outing of some description).
I seem to have two modes of working. A "photojournalist" mode to record an event / people; sometimes this requires anticipation of what might happen. The second mode is "this looks cool" then I pause for a moment to work out why I like it then arrange myself to take a shot of the essential element (colour, light. texture, angles etc).
In both modes, deciding what is in the frame and what is out is critical, but I make a quick decision and don't stress about it. I'm generally happy with the result.
My photojournalist mode seems to be innate whereas the "artistic" or "aesthetic" mode is something I work on - reading books & blogs has helped. I also try to avoid the obvious "pretty" shot.
@Sven: Interesting approach, a bit like street photography perhaps?
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