John,
I would like to complement you on your oration. Very well put. As I read it,
I came to the realization that you were speaking, very powerfully, about a
subject that you know well.
How wonderful it would be, if we could have one of a week to carry us along
our way.
Bravo!
Dick Allen
----- Original Message -----
From: "John A. Lind" <jlind@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 10:40 PM
Subject: Re: [OM] To improve, take more photos.. but to improve, take fewer
photos?
> At 16:12 3/12/02, Dan Mitchell wrote:
> > A general photography question -- I've seen many many places
recommending
> >that the way to improve as a photographer is to take more photos, because
> >you only get better with practise. Sure, that makes sense -- but I've
also
> >seen a lot of recommendations to shoot _fewer_ shots and spend more time
> >thinking about each one rather than just rattling off thoughtless
snapshots.
>
> [rest snipped out]
>
> Dan,
> Been watching this thread . . .
>
> Visualization:
> The fundamental purpose with practice is learning visualization, and it
> must be done in an organized fashion. I critique every photograph; The
> Good, The Bad and The Ugly. My criteria is how well it achieves what I
> visualized, both technically (focus, exposure, etc.) and artistically
(does
> it convey what I want it to). What is "visualization?" It is being able
> to envision the desired photograph in the mind, definitely before opening
> the shutter, and eventually before picking up the camera and looking
> through its viewfinder! I now visualize some landscape photographs at
> locations with which I'm familiar before leaving home. Other times,
> regardless of location or familiarity with it, I look and a photograph
> instantly visualizes from the scene before me. If it's a location with
> which I'm unfamiliar, I often must spend some time becoming familiar with
> it. This doesn't need to take that long, but it's a very deliberate and
> conscious effort to "see" what's there and consider composition first
> (color, lines, shapes, vanishing points, significant object locations and
> relationships between them, etc.). Does this always mean a complete
mental
> image of a finished photograph? For some, maybe. Mor me, not always,
> especially when I'm not there, but somewhere else, usually at home. At
the
> least it contains all the elements and the underlying concept(s) essential
> to making the photograph "work" (its key characteristics). It is verified
> and "completed" when looking through the viewfinder when the photograph is
> made.
>
> First Principle #1:
> Photographs are made, not taken. This goes to the core of learning
> visualization. It is a deliberate process that takes control of
everything
> possible that can be controlled instead of blindly pushing a shutter
> release and grabbing whatever just happens to be there randomly or even
> semi-randomly. [Engineers call these "First Principles," Mathematicians
> call them "Axioms" and Physicists call them "Laws of Nature."]
>
> First Principle #2:
> Photography is about light and nothing but light. It's the only thing
that
> passes through a lens aperture and past an open shutter to the film. It's
> the only thing film was designed and intended to react to. When a
> photograph is made, it is not objects that are photographed, it's light
> radiated or reflected by the objects that is photographed. Someone will
> undoubtedly get sticky about this and cite how IR and UV films have
somehow
> been excluded. IR and UV are electromagnetic radiation just below and
just
> above the visible spectrum. Same First Principle; just change the
> phenomenon from "light" to "IR" or "UV" as appropriate.
>
> Learning Visualization:
> All photographs have a purpose defined by the photographer. How well they
> achieve that purpose depends entirely on the skill of the
> photographer. Learning how to visualize begins with deliberately thinking
> about two essential questions and using some tools to help think about
what
> the image will be.
>
> Essential Question #1: "Why am I making this photograph?"
> The answer need not be that complicated, or have some deep, mystical
> meaning (helps to impress some of *wannabe* Fine Art crowd though). Some
> of my landscapes are purely representational, but there is some aspect
> about the scene that *is* the purpose for making the representational
> photograph of it.
>
> Essential Question #2: "Who is the photograph for?"
> A still photograph is a static two-dimensional image that can only convey
> visual information to its viewer. The viewer's experiential frame of
> reference is the sole basis on which a two-dimensional image is
interpreted
> by the viewer. Although its title (if given one) can be a cue, it is to
> some extent a crutch. With the intended viewer(s), the very best
> photographs do not need one. If the photographer's purpose for the
> photograph is to succeed, it must convey its "message" in a manner the
> viewer will comprehend using the intended *viewer's* experiential frame of
> reference, which may or may not be the same (as comprehensive) as the
> photographer's.
>
> The answers to these two essential questions are used to define what's
> required of the visualization (its specifications) and helps create
> it. The visualization in turn defines the cameras, lenses, film, print
> materials, etc., necessary to bring that visualization to fruition with a
> photograph.
>
> Basic Tools to Aid in Answering the Essential Questions:
>
> Characteristics of Objects (a Taxonomy):
> Aristotle defined "causes" to describe fundamental characteristics of
> objects the universe around us. These can be used to help think about why
> the photograph is being made and decide what to "celebrate" about the
> subject material (with some examples of each).
> (a) Material: What something is made of; its texture usually defines
that
> visually.
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om81.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om97.html
> (b) Formal: Structure, shape and form.
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om17.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om103.html
> (c) Efficient: How something came to be; the reason it was created and
> "how" it was built (versus what it's made of).
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om72.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om136.html
> (d) Final: Purpose or goal. What it currently does or intends to
> do. How it interacts with its environment and how the environment
> interacts with it.
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om67.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om151.html
>
> Types of Imagery (a taxonomy):
> I often use another set of tools in conjuction with the above.
Aristotle's
> "causes" are usually considered first, but it's not always a serial
> process, and as the visualization develops, consideration of these often
> becomes intertwined with it, especially in determining how best to
> "celebrate" the desired "cause(es)" in a manner that will convey it to the
> intended viewer(s). I classify visual imagery into the following (with
> some examples of each):
> (a) Representational: Could also be called "documentary" but that seems
> ambiguous to me. Very straightforward and almost always static; what you
> see is what it is.
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om22.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om80.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/zi/gallery/contax22.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/mamiya/gallery/mamiya01.html
> (b) Romantic: In the same usage as for poetry or music, it tells a story
> about the subject material. Although not required, anything that is
> dynamic and conveys a sense of motion directly related to what the subject
> material is easily "romantic."
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om125.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om132.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/mamiya/gallery/mamiya02.html
> (c) Impressionistic: Conveys a feeling, emotion, or concept that need
not
> be directly related to the *specific* subject material.
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om73.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om103.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/mamiya/gallery/mamiya03.html
> (d) Abstract: An abstraction of some facet of the subject material in
> which what the subject material actually is does not matter (although that
> may not be completely obscured). Usually deals with characteristics such
> as shapes, colors, textures, and their relative positions/locations.
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om17.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om78.html
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/oly/gallery/om82.html
>
>
> Compositional Tools:
>
> First Principle #3:
> Unlike other graphic arts, composition in photography is primarily a
> "subtractive" process. It begins with all of reality and subtracts out
> that which does not enhance or contribute to the purpose of the
> photograph. One could argue that using a flash is "additive." I don't
> think that way. It's subtractive. What is it subtracting? By adding a
> light source, the visual *effects* of existing, ambient lighting is being
> overwhelmed (or at least modified) and therefore some or all of these
> effects are subtracted from the image, as if it didn't exist. The same
> with using a backdrop; it subtracts what would be in the background if the
> backdrop were not there.
>
> There are other compositional guidelines about how to arrange and position
> objects in a photograph to create a visually interesting image. Included
> are methods to draw viewer attention where it's desired and/or draw it
away
> from where it's not desired. Rather than try to list them all here, see
> the following:
> file:///G|/TripodWebSite/art/artframe.html
> These are not hard and fast "rules" but things that can be used
> individually and in combination to make a photograph visually
> interesting. Very few photographs will use *all* of them and one must
look
> to *see* what is present that can be easily employed. On more than one
> occasion, an potentially distracting object/element and been used simply
by
> shifting location and changing perspective to make it contribute to the
> purpose of the image.
>
> As you "practice," experiment with all these things, and most important,
> *use* them to reverse engineer photographs you like and photographs you
> dislike. Learn from not only what you do, but others have done as
> well. Make one step at a time and keep chipping away at adding additional
> techniques. Every photograph I make is considered "practice" as part of
> "continual improvement" in technique.
>
> -- John
>
>
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