Book News

After many a late night, the whole book has been edited and layout is almost finished. Tentative shipping from the printer is December 7 though when it will hit the stores I don't know. The book includes 180 photographs, 50,000 words of essays and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself once it's finished.

Upper Falls Maligne Canyon

From our trip to Jasper a couple of weeks ago. In winter the climbers love to make their way up the frozen falls - they can have it, but I wouldn't mind coming back to Jasper to photograph the ice.

Over The Top?

Ed suggested that the original presentation of this image looked overly manipulated. I don't always succumb to the first suggestion that I am wrong but in this case I had the same reservations. I decided tonight to work on the image again and you see the result in the top position, the original result below. The new version has only local curves adjustments and dodging and burning. I suspect that I will continue to work on it, darkening the lower pieces of metal but not increasing contrast further.

Creativity

Ted Byrne offered the following comment to my last entry on finding inspiration.

I've often wondered if, or why we might have more than one very good, even great, idea within us? How many one-hit-wonders have there been in script writing, song writing, architecture, or novels? And even among great artists, most are particularly acclaimed for a small part of their work.

Friends lament that the seem to continually retake the same photograph. When I look at their work I tend to agree, however in most cases it is a very good photograph... definately an artistic contribution.

Is it heresy to suggest that we may only have a few inspirations within us? Isn't it wonderful if we have only one? And once our masterpiece has been born, what's wrong with using everything we learned during that process of creation to better enjoy what others do?

Friends who were in their youth very good baseball players seem to enjoy the game at a level I can never approach.

It's not that people should give up photography after the birth of their greatest work, but rather embrace photography as a passive as well as an active experience.

Or ... or is it possible that we may have a continuing stream of greatness within us and merely need to sink new wells to tap different pools?

Dunno... but it intrigues me to wonder.

I started to write a response but thought both Ted's comment and my response deserve greater exposure.

Ted raises an interesting if somewhat scary question. Is it possible that we have only a limited number of creative ideas, that can be used up, like a cat's nine lives?

I suspect that those who are "one hit wonders" either got lucky, or the very idea of success blocked them from coming up with other ideas. Certainly writers often describe the second novel as being much harder to write than the first.

People like Edward Weston weren't famous for creatively inventing the idea of photographing nudes - people had been doing that since the invention of photography and long before that in paintings. He did on the other hand know a thing or two about lighting and how to make the human body photograph well. His poses are nothing especially unique but his technique exquisite and few have equaled it. He didn't create that skill while meditating on the toilet, it was earned with some very hard work poorly rewarded over many years.

I think this means that there is hope for anyone who feels they have only a finite number (possibly very limited) of truly original and creative ideas.

Craig Richards, a fine large format landscape photographer and Photography Curator of the Whyte Museum in Banff, has an ongoing project to teach junior high school students photography. Many of the kids are off reserves and none have previous experience. They are given used donated film cameras and sent out to create. They seem to have absolutely no trouble doing so and in fact each year Craig puts on a gallery show of the work of his students. These shows are technically quite good and creatively superb with fresh original ways of looking at the world from a large variety of students, in fact the vast majority of each class. These kids seem to have no difficulty saying important things and offering new insights into the world.

In fact, it's been suggested in the past that creativity is stifled by education, that we train our kids to behave and follow rules and look at things the same way as everyone else and thus drain thier creativity.

Craig's work with these kids suggests that creativity is not limited to a lucky few but that for some it takes more work to get it out and to "unsmother" it than in others.

People with ADD have no trouble being creative while having huge trouble with following rules and being linear in their thinking and being organized - so much so that it's nigh on impossible to beat the creativity out of them.

Perhaps the creativity is in all of us and those who are better organized and more linear thinkers merely have to unlearn the linear habits of many years of education and upbringing and following rules.

There are people and books and courses and workshops to help them do this and in the end I think that Ted is likely wrong, that all of use have an unlimited potential for creative ideas, but that accessing that creativity can be more difficult for some, and more difficult at some times of our lives than others.

Where Do We Go For Inspiration?

It's all very well to talk of a muse, but my wife for one, would likely be less than thrilled. So on a more practical vein, where do we go to get inspiration for projects?
The answer depends a bit on what your goal is. If you are a hobbyist photographer who simply wants to be the best you can, and the need to blaze new trails isn't important to you, then the following can be of value.

- check out photo.net for recommended photos - I'd take a recommendation over a high rating every time since high ratings tend to be awarded to nudes and erotica and bright colours and freak weather and great postcards. You start by finding one photographer who you like and go to the people they recommend and so on. In this case you are looking for ideas.

- How To photography books often contain a variety of subject matter and may provide ideas.

- spending a few hours at the library or at a good bookstore looking through the available books is time well spent (hey, you might even buy one)

- magazines - how about getting some back issues of Lenswork or even buying the CD of all the old issues for ideas of subject matter.

- workshops are an awesome source of inspiration, rubbing elbows with artists and fellow photographers is almost a guarantee to stir the juices.

- art - don't limit inspiration to photography - visit art galleries and museums, take art appreciation courses and attend lectures - not only may this stimulate you to be more creative, you may actually get an idea for your next project too.

Now, if you do have ambitions to blaze new trails, then simply copying the ideas of others may not appeal. In previous blog entries I have suggested though that even if you saw for example, a portfolio of lovely images of cathedrals, when you go to visit even the same buildings, there's a really good chance you will see things differently and come up with your own unique vision. Sometimes this can be challenging - for example the Gugenheim Bilbao and Walt Disney theatre, it's the reflective properties of the metal tiles which everone is attracted to and a really different style or message could be difficult. For most more complex subjects though, you are likely to find your own interests being different from those who have visited before.

In fact, all of the above ideas could still be useful, if only to point you to the general idea of subject matter. Ryujie had almost certainly seen lots of flower photographs before - but he thought of freezing them in water, so taking off on an idea already out there is perfectly respectable.

- perhaps you could read about art and creativity, starting with "Art And Fear".
- reading some of the old essays by David Vestal and Jim Hughes or Bill Jay could be helpful.

- you have looked at the images in Lenswork but did you read the essays and particularly the editorials of Brooks Jensen?

- it may be necessary to put aside your stresses and strains and do some thinking - perhaps on a retreat or via mediation or even when out for a hike. What do you care about? What moves you? How could you photograph those things?

- I haven't asked Ryujie where the idea came from to freeze the flowers in a block of ice. Perhaps the idea came spontaneously, or maybe he was hiking and noticed something frozen in the ice. Either way, there was a leap to the idea of freezing flowers. It was not likely a linear progression of thoughts - thus is the nature of creativity. In that case, perhaps you have been ignoring silly ideas and little impractical or useless impulses. Just maybe you need to follow some of those ideas up and see what comes of them. Perhaps you need to do some exercises to free up your creativity and spontineity. There are books and courses which can help.

- if nothing else, simply becoming a better observer of the world when not photographing will help you come up with projects.

- sometimes you just have to go out with a camera and see what happens - the best shots are often the ones you hadn't planned on.

As I am anything but an expert on inspiration, the above is simply the best I could come up with for myself. Perhaps you have suggestions.

Quality Improvement

I have written in the past about the various aspects of becoming a better photographer, and my upcoming book is geared specifically to that task, but becoming a better photographer takes time and effort and study while quality improvement is about using the skills you have now to make sure that the prints you make (or the images you present on the web) are the absolutely best you can do, now.

So, I'm not talking about coming up with better compositions or doing a better job capturing peak action or more skill posing a model, I'm talking the technical aspects of the image which at most might require more care focussing or paying attention to depth of field or exposure, and many of the things simply require more care making the prints or processing the images.

With that in mind, here's a checklist of quality issues to watch for.

1) Have you made the print on a paper which doesn't detract from the image, neither overly textured or too glossy to even see the image without reflections interfering?

2) On careful but not nose on print inspection can you see the sharpening?

3) Is focus spot on?

4) Is depth of field adequate? It's not necessary to have infinite depth of field but the focus should be on the important part and adequate sharpness elsewhere not to be distracting.

5) Is image manipulation obvious? You should probably ask someone else since you already know what you did and probably can't unbiasedly judge whether over the top.

6) Are the tones in the image rich, deep, subtle and most importantly, as good as the images of photographers you admire? Were the highlights blocked in the original file or negative or slide? Was there ever enough detail in the shadows? Have you overused shadow rescue to the point of "straining" the image? Check Lenswork for black and white or Phot'art for colour. Frankly if your prints are as good as their mechanical reproduction, you're doing pretty well.

7) Is there too much clutter - things which don't add to the image? To be fair, this would require a reshoot or a rejection.

8) Is the overall level of brightness/darkness of the print too much? You may not need outside advice but you certainly need to walk away from the print and come back the next day before you decide.

9) Have you asked yourself what is the one thing you could do in editing the image (or dodging/burning if in the darkroom) to make this image better? Sometimes you change one thing, then you see half a dozen other things that could be improved - never leave a print knowing that it could be better if you did X to it. It's one thing to have doubts later, but to walk away already knowing what you'd do to improve it, well that just isn't ok.

10) Well, if you have fixed all of the above, you have done most of what can be achieved quickly. If none applied, then you were ready for some harder, more long term study and work.

And In Colour...

Rings and loops and Rods

Originally part of a three image stitch, I found not only that in the rest of the image, one part sticks out so far it is significantly out of focus, but also I quite liked this simpler composition.

Arguably those two steel rods on the right aren't balanced by any on the left, but there are the loops on the left...

Finding Great Work By Others

Ever had the experience of discovering the work of a previously unknown to you photographer and you see some really awesome images. This can be a bit of a mixed blessing. It's always great to look at really good photographs, but it does come at a price.

First, there's the thought that perhaps this person is better than we are.

Second, they take photographs like I take so what does that say about the work I'm doing - am I wasting my time?

Third, now that I have seen their work, does that mean I can't go out and take similar photographs for fear I'm plagiarizing?

and Fourth, what if they have been more successful than me - more shows - more publications - perhaps a book or two?

Perhaps you are an amateur photographer of not a lot of experience and have yet to get into print. You are reading my blog and looking at my images, thinking some of the above about me and my work. Well guess what, I'm doing the same thing when I look at the work of others. It's not that I'm jealous of the success of others, just insecure about my own place in the scheme of things, and no matter how many nice comments I receive, no matter how much success comes my way, there's still that nagging doubt. No matter how high we climb, there's another ridge above us.

Now, it may not necessarily be entirely or even mostly a bad thing. Insecurity can drive us to try harder, though the risk is we may give up in despair.

I would like to address each of the above issues.

One - They are better.

Well, do you really want to look at the work of photographers who are worse than you? If we are to improve, from whom are we to learn? The idea that we can improve in a vacuum is pretty far fetched, we improve because we see that there is more to be achieved. We need goals and who better to suggest those goals than the people who have gone before us, even if it was yesterday afternoon at 3:30?

Two They're already doing the work I want to do.

I could decide to give up. For example I have put a lot of energy into my Independent Machinery project. Viewing the latest Lenswork Extended I saw for the first time a much larger selection of Brook's images from "Made Of Steel" and frankly, there is coniderable overlap between his images and mine, and I did think for a little while, "Gee, he's already done this stuff so is there really a need for more of same?" Fortunately several things came to mind.

a) absolutely no subjects are new in photography - they have all been done before, so we might as well relax and simply do the best we can.
b) unless we have done all our learning from a single photographer, it's almost impossible for us to see the world exactly the same way as any other photographer - rather like fingerprints - our eye is unique.
c) the odds are that even if we saw someone else's work and decided to copy it, the odds are excellent that we'd be distracted on the way by other things. Certainly that was my experience with each visit to Independent Machinery. Based on the previous trip, there would be something I'd plan to do this time, only to be distracted by far more interesting things and more often than not, the original plan is forgotten - so if I get distracted from my own plans, odds are darn good anyone is likely to be distracted from the work of another.

Three - Am I plagiarizing?

It's true that if we see a good idea that we haven't previously thought of, it's a little awkward then running out and copying them. Using Lenswork again, the most recent issue has albumin prints of fruit. Perhaps I shouldn't photograph fruit - but people have been photographing fruit since cameras were invented, and using albumin may be unusual these days but certainly in the history of things is most definitely not unique. There are images of the new Disney Theatre. Do we really believe that there are no more images to be taken of this building, that there's nothing more to be said, that adding our vision to the project won't add anything? I doubt we could be that unimaginative. There are images from New Orleans, but we have seen lots of essays of New Orleans since Katrina and frankly, they all looked quite different from each other, and keeping New Orleans in the national mind is a good thing so hopefully there will be many more to come.

and Four - They appear to be more successful.

There are several points to be made here.

a) Success and excellence are not synonymous.
b) If they are more successful, then perhaps there is something to be learned?
c) Success often comes at a price - schlepping your work round dozens of galleries, dealing with multiple rejections, making, packaging and shipping your work (and getting it back damaged (if at all). It might mean sacrificing career or family, exercise or other measures of quality of living - do you really want to be a "starving artist"?
d) If their success is well deserved, well isn't that wonderful it's nice to see good work rewarded and perhaps our turn will come some day.

And that's my thoughts on discovering some really good work. Great, terrific, glad to see it. I will continue to point out impressive work as and when I discover it.

Rust

I have always thought of myself as a black and white photographer. Yet, when you see rust, you just have to be tempted to record it in colour. In the old days, if I didn't set out with some colour film, it was a moot point, but now that the images are recorded digitally, I can't really force myself into black and white and in fact wouldn't if I could. I'm quite happy to do a shoot and then decide after the fact which would work better.

In the case of the Independent Machinery project, some of the initial images I did in colour only but later more images seemed best suited to black and white and so I converted some of the colour images (most did well in black and white but not all).

Still, when you see great rust or other interesting colours, it sure is tempting to make the occasional image a colour one.

These days I'd hate to have to commit ahead of time to only making all black and white or all colour.

Near and Far

Independent Again

Back At Independent Machinery

Finally, an overcast afternoon so I could photograph some of the steel sitting outside the machine shop. Just as well as everything was locked up. I was able to make a series of images, this being just the beginning.

Bengt Ekelberg

Another great find of the people over at Photo.net, have a look at the work of Bengt Ekelberg.

Surprise Result

Jasper train station has an old steam engine on display. During the day, the background is distracting so I photographed it at night. In fact it probably wouldn't have mattered for this image since I moved in so close and then cropped as well, still the dramatic almost drawing like quality wouldn't have happened during the day.

I didn't like having to crop off the spokes on the right (the original shows quite a bit more) but distracting elements at the bottom right made the price too much so trim it I did.

Athabasca Falls

The first image was shot by extending my tripod, closing the legs together then holding the camera a good 5 feet out past the railing to eliminate foreground and expose the pool.

Nothing tricky about the second image but the bright green grass really stuck out in colour but of course in black and white, it fits right in.

John Crosley

Photo.net has featured the work of John Crosley and his black and white work in particular is very strong and I wasn't surprised to find out afterwards that he has worked as a photojournalist. Looking through his colour work, it's a bit of a hodge podge, but this guy sure is having fun with his photography and some of his work is superb.

Placing The Centre Of Interest

I have a new article about where to place the centre of interest over at Outback Photo.

Jasper Cont.

Compromises and Perfection

Life is full of them, photography too. We compromise on camera equipment - what we'd like vs. what we can afford or even size and weight - sure I'd like to use medium format digital, but they don't make the equivalent of a 70-200 lens, never mind a 17-40 or 24-105. I'd lose my 90 Ts-e and I'd need a sherpa for hauling it around if it were available.

We compromise in making compositions - we frame in the strongest way possible - not necessarily the perfect way - as we compromise on what is included - more of this comes with more of that, the latter being something I didn't want in the picture - so just where to I call it quits?

When recording the image, I'd ideally like to use multi row stitching, but that would slow me down and I'd have less time to find better pictures - so I compromise and use either single images or at most a single row for stitching.

I guess the point of this rant is that if we wait for things to be perfect, we are on a 'fools' errand' and could be missing some good images while waiting for perfection. Further, previsualization not withstanding, we can't know everything about an image before we work on it and giving ourselves a series of images, each as good as we can make it under the circumstances, instead of waiting for a single image which we think is perfect (but might not turn out to be) is a better strategy.