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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
On Photographing The Beautiful
Luminous Landscape has an article I wrote on the problems of photographing things that are already spectacular, and how one might deal with this problem. In the forum discussion there is an interesting thread in the site section at the top following up on the article that once you get past the nice things said starts to get interesting.
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5 comments:
Looks like your fine article started a fascinating discussion (of unusual lucidity, actually, comparing to other forums I've frequented;-) For me, debates about the "vision thing" are - philosophically speaking - funny and moot. Trying to "decide" how best to proceed to further one's "vision" is sort'a like trying to decide how best to move to catch one's shadow. Help it or not (but only if - in good Zen fashion - you actually try to minimize or remove any "helping" at all!) after a period of time, you will "discover" your vision by merely looking back at what you've done (over a month, a year, a decade, and so forth). The real trick, of course, is to just be true to yourself. In the final analysis, Ansel was Ansel because he did the one important thing in photography (in all art) the best: take pictures of what he liked to take pictures of. There's a lesson there for all of us, amateur and pro, neophyte and seasoned artist. (Great essay, BTWS, on LL)
George, great article on LL, and interesting discussion about your article, Keep up trhe good work !
Andrew makes some fine points in his comments above too.
Interesting article George. As I am planning a 3week visit to Yosemite see the wonders that Ansel saw your article made me stop and think. Is this the right thing to do and not to come away very unhappy with not been able to take a photo that captures the beauty. What do you think ?
Regards Neil
George,
Enjoyed your article and you certainly enumerate commonly found problems and concerns.
I was struck by your picture Marrant's Curve and reminded of a shot I'd taken a few months after getting my first ever camera:
http://www.pbase.com/gordonmcgregor/image/1397987
I probably have some more with the train further along the track - I remember the driver blew his horn and waved to us (something hard to express in an image, too!)
Looking at them, I was slightly amused by how similar the framing is between the two shots. Focal length looks a bit different, but I guess there's a real standard framing out there, if I hit it with a few months experience to such a similar degree to yours.
This was a brilliant article and so very true. I have had the same experience. When I started taking pictures I would take pictures of beautiful scenes everywhere I went. Eventually I learned to pre-visualize and that what I see on the surface with my own eyes likely won't make me happy in picture form. There is the odd time when the weather is in your favour and you capture a great shot but it's much more efficient to change your way of thinking and composing. I noticed in the forum people discussing the difference between an art and a craft. My view is that art makes you 'FEEL' while a craft can be 100x more complicated but might be hollow and emotionless.
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