Just Words
March 19, 2008 — HeyJulesSorry, no photo today. I’m sure I could pull something out of my archives but I am kind of in a weird place today so hang with me for a moment if you don’t mind words instead of pictures.
Last night I was having trouble staying asleep. I finally gave up around 2 a.m. and flipped on the television thinking that would lull me back into never-never land. What I didn’t count on was the PBS special chronciling Ansel Adams photography career being on. I probably only watched about 30 minutes of it before my eyelids dropped back into their fully closed nighttime position but that 30 minutes stoked a big old fire in my soul.
A few weeks ago I read (somewhere) that it was time for all of us wannabe digital photographers to stop TAKING photos and start MAKING photos. I’ve been a “shoot from the hip” kinda gal for the past year or two, really catching whatever walked across my path and I think there’s something to be said for that kind of roaming “street” photography. It gives us unique opportunities to capture a moment that will probably never be in front of us again - a “grab it and go” kind of situation that happens and that does tend to produce dramatic photographs. However, I kept thinking about that sentence - about the distinction between TAKING and MAKING and then, last night, I fully understood it as I listened to the narrator of the Ansel Adams biography speak about the photographer that everyone on God’s green earth can relate to.
The man said (and I paraphrase), “The thing about Ansel’s photographs is that he wanted to convey not what he saw but what he felt as he saw it.” That tilted my world a notch or two. Then hewent on, “The thing about Ansel’s prints is that you can look at one and tell where it was taken, the time of day it was taken, the time of year it was taken, the weather conditions of the day it was taken, the temperature of the day at the time it was taken - right down to the level of the humidity on that day.”
And he was right.
Although I would like to think that some of my photographs convey or inspire an emotional response; many, I know, do not. I’ve been viewing dozens of photoblogs over the course of the past six months on a daily basis in order to compare what I “see” out in the world with what others tend to capture. It’s a never-ending process of learning and growing as I study not just how the masters do it but how the every day Joe does it as well. I want, someday, to look back on the body of my art and think that’s where it was…that’s when I started MAKING photographs. I think now that I’ve finally made that distinction, along with the snippet of Ansel’s life that I got a glimpse of last night, I might be nearing that edge and I just wondered…anyone else ready to take the leap with me?
How do you feel? Are you TAKING photographs or MAKING photographs?
March 19, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Is that like the diff between writing about writing and writing.
The picture distinction makes sense, but I think there’s been a lot of feeling in your pictures…and I think your Easter walk is really making pictures.
March 20, 2008 at 2:01 am
Aaaarrrrghhhh Jules - why did you have to write this just today??? Yeah, I’m having a rough day… Anyway.
This was just what I was trying to say in my “Originality” -post. Ansel Adams is one of my great heroes (if not the only one!) and I’ve seen his biography in TV, too. Amazing. Ok, I really respect Henri Cartier-Bresson as well, but not the same way. Ansel Adams is The Guy!
One of the big things that make me not value my photos is that they’re just quick snaps. They come so easy - and easy can’t be worth much, can it? “CLICK! and that’s it - let’s see if anything came out of it.” And usually it didn’t. For my best photos - like the one of the blue bell flowers - I’ve really taken the effort of… yeah, MAKING them. Really carefully planning and checking the composition and the backround, taken several shots to find the right light settings and the proper dof (which is by far the most difficult thing!) etc. But I feel I fall short with my non-existent skills.
During the film-era I never did any “photographing”. I had a small pocket camera, but didn’t use it much. And when I did, it was just some everyday snaps - without one sigle thought for light of composition or anything to that direction. So I don’t have those skills and I’m not good at learning by myself - I’d seriously like to have a teacher! Someone to teach me both the techniques and composition etc. I’ve thought of a school, but you know - my day-time job, my kids, hubby, the pooches… It won’t happen without some serious miracles!
So I’m on my own, kinda, struggling to find what’s being given to me from above.
I want to take photos that make people wonder “how did she do THAT?” Because I think that’s what God’s world is all about: We should be constantly wondering: “HOW did He do THAT?!!!”
Sorry to take so much space here… (blush) just that this hits the nerve for me, and I think you know that
March 20, 2008 at 5:01 am
Ok. I’m still thinking about this one. I didn’t like the answer I previously posted. I’ve been formulating and reformulating it since yesterday.
Yesterday I worked with a gal on her resume. I told her it needed some wow. I explained what I meant. I thought she got it. She mailed me the resume. It was the same thing only worse.
This morning I stopped at Circle K to get my coffee. As I pulled onto the street where our building is…wow factor to the nth degree. The moon was sitting at the end of my street. Hugeness visited smallness and it took my breath away.
Now all that some might have seen was the moon. Full moon. Big deal. We get one a month. Woohoo. But to see it like I did today was such a gift from God. Sometimes I feel like my world and work is the be all end all and I get very myopic.
This morning I was blessed. And even if it isn’t the kind of thing your’re speaking of or searching for her…well, it’s where I am and it sort of seemed to fit to me.
March 20, 2008 at 7:21 am
Eija, you talk all you want honey. I got all the space in the world.
You totally got the point of what I was trying to say. How can you value something that was totally due to luck? Oh sure, I chose the aperture and the shutter speed and all that but did I really choose the best one or the one that was easiest and most convenient to take the shot? Did I really get the best possible shot or just the shot that I got? Like you, I’d love to have some hands on training with someone that could grow me in Photography but never seem to have the $1,000 it takes to attend one of those trainings. Right now I’m thinking about joining the Kelby Training Center (online) but even that is more based on post production. Still, I think it comes down to reading about a new technique and then TRYING it over and over until we GET it…and that’s what I’m hoping to do soon. Learn new things in camera and learn new things in post production and just take it all up a notch.
Tina: Yes, I do occasionally come up with a good one…one that wasn’t just “luck” and you’re right, the series I did for Holy Week was thought out and put together purposefully and I am very proud of them. I just need to do that more consistently instead of rushing to throw something up and say “Look what I took!”
March 20, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Hmm… Post production… You mean photoshopping? Heh - I never liked doing it to my photos. And yet I’m finding myself doing it more and more. Usually to hide some errors I’ve done while taking the photo. But somehow, just somehow the pic doesn’t feel like a “photo” after I’ve manipulated it. I’m sort of fundamentalist when it comes to photos… And it makes my life difficult!
Courses - they’re really rare here. And totally unexixtent in my home town. I mean the ones that teach you something else than photoshopping or if you’re really lucky, maybe composition. But lights, technique and stuff… Nope. Of course then there’s the education for future professionals. Those take full time studying for something between one and four years! So no can do…
But, God is bigger than my shortcomings. So if He wants me to stick to it, I guess something will happen, one way or the other. And I’m talking about either suddenly understanding certain things better or a huge brick with a text “it’s like this you dumbass!” falling from the sky and landing at my head. *grin*
March 21, 2008 at 9:40 am
I have read this post with a lot of interest because I had these same feelings, I had no one to help me or to turn to when I began shooting.
Experimenting and the internet helped me tremendously
I joined and read every nature photography and how to site I could find. I would put images, that looked like a six year old shot, up on image critique sites only to get cut to shreds. Many offered great help in composition and technical aspects others offered nothing but negativity and artistic snobbery.
And it was the latter that fueled my soul and I began a journey to prove I could do this, I used what motivated me the best and thats competition, I wanted to be better than the people that down played my work and I absorbed everything I could about photography as fast as I could.
I haven’t nearly reached where I want to be, but I am getting there and I have silenced some people as well.
I guess what I am trying to say after that little rant is you don’t have to have formal training or spend big bucks on workshops to become a great photographer just keep shooting, learn the techs and good things will develop