Seeing the image as an “Artist”
Living in this digital world, we are really spoiled with what we have available to us. We have the abundance of equipment. We have lenses, new equipment coming at least once a year from the manufactures. We have computers and software to help us fine tune our photos. We are equipped with a vast amount of equipment to make our photos near perfect. We especially have a vast amount of information from the web. This is so much different from the age of the film era.
OR IS IT?
Whatever our equipment—film or digital, professional quality or entry level. Whatever our experience. The key to photography is our vision of the world and how we decide to interpret it and to capture it with whatever equipment we have—film camera, cell phone, SLR, mirrorless, compact, whatever.
As photographers we tend to love technical details about equipment, about technique, about post-processing. However, without the vision to ‘see’ the image it can all be in vain, and we can land up with a multitude of pretty, boring images.
The digital age has brought the ability to mindlessly produce images of an acceptable quality. Photography has become a global flood of freeze-frames; millions of images are uploaded every minute.
We need to make sure that we enjoy the effort of adding our own vision and creativity.
Good pictures demand care—even with digital. And really good pictures are hard to make. The camera doesn’t do it all for you! You need your own personal vision.
“A camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” –Dorothea Lange
“Photography is an art of observation. It has very little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” –Elliot Erwitt
It also reminds me of another major thought: That we need to see the world like a child. A child sees things with fresh eyes. Everything with a sense of wonder. Have you ever noticed when you have a child, say at the zoo, that they notice things that you may not notice yourself.
It often reminds of a song from an old rock band: The Moody Blues. They wrote a song called “The Eyes of a Child”.
With the eyes of a child
You must come out and see
That your world’s spinning ’round
And through life you will beA small part of a hope
Of a love that exists
In the eyes of a child you will see
“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.” –Rachel Carson
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”–Pablo Picasso
Now let’s take a standard photographic debate:
DO WE WANT TO HAVE A PICTURE OF RUINS WITHOUT PEOPLE?
OR WITH PEOPLE:
BUT THE REAL QUESTION IS, OF ALL THAT IS GOING ON, DID ANYONE NOTICE THE BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS ALONG THE WALKWAY?
Photography should be an enjoyable life enhancing journey and not just a destination. Enjoy the journey, have a fresh outlook on this life of photography, maybe think a bit more like a child and look around at the details that are around you. Perhaps photography will be more joyful with every shot you take.
COMING SOON: IMAGINE WRITING ALL THESE BLOGS AND ALSO TEACHING THESE KIND OF PHOTO TRAINING COURSES. THESE IDEAS SHOULD BE PUT INTO A BOOK, DON’T YOU THINK? WELL THEY SOON WILL BE AND YOU WILL HAVE ACCESS TO THEM SOON. THIS WEBSITE WILL BE UPDATED AS WELL AS A BOOK ON KINDLE WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR SALE, AND ON THE NEW WEBSITE BY SEPTEMBER. LOOK TO THOSE GREAT NEW ADDITIONS. 123PHOTOGO WILL BE THERE TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY. ALL THE WAY.
