Sensing that there might not be many days of mild temperatures and fall colors left to enjoy, I headed out to Morton Arboretum last Monday. I was solo, which was for the best as I know I’m becoming an annoying companion when I have my camera, walking in stutter-stops and spending undue amounts of time in places someone else would have moved on from long ago (just ask my friend Amy about the salmon run). As I hiked the trails and snapped my shots, snippets of advice gleaned from reading about and speaking with photographers floated through my mind.
To me, growing as a photographer means to learn, apply, and then make it mine. So I put the advice to use at the arboretum and explored how it influenced my photography. The citations that follow are a mixture of direct quotations, spliced excerpts from webinars and articles, and paraphrases from my memory.
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“Work the scene . . . and look for the total picture.”
Adam Barker’s guidance qualifies as great advice that I’m not yet following. His recent blog on working a scene to me basically meant to hold on, live in the moment, and be ready for everything. But I’m restless: I think that I’m chasing down photos instead of letting them develop around me. It’s something for me to work on.
At one point in his webinar for Bogen Café, Capturing the Brilliance of Fall, Barker discusses considering your photos in terms of a foreground, middle ground, and background, and to pay attention to the “total picture” when composing shots. It’s difficult for me, and the shot above is the closest I got.
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“. . . the key is to love what you see.”“How good the photos are is really secondary. Do what you love and love what you do and you will always have full access to the unlimited supply that is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
So I’m walking along the trail–the wrong trail–and the sun is descending. I’m on the complete opposite side of the arboretum from where I planned to be for sunset, and now I don’t know if I’ll make it there in time. My wrist is a bit spent from holding my camera all afternoon and I didn’t pack a snack or water, so I’m getting crabby. And then a twig falls on me, only when I go to brush it off my shirt it clings to my hand. It was a walking stick! Misdirection, hunger, and tardiness no longer mattered as I engaged the little fellow in what may have been his first ever photoshoot. When you love what you see, I think your photos reflect it.
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“I would begin more interpretive photography and evolve from ‘documenting’ your subjects. Now, show what the subject feels like, not looks like. I would shoot at wide apertures, blowing out the backgrounds, work on incorporating a more spontaneous feel. Let go of over-composing the frame, let things feel more random and loose. Sometimes by showing less of a subject in context to a situation allows the viewer to complete the picture with their imagination; don’t give it all away. Blur or move your camera, really think outside of the box, use perspectives you may not consider and lighting situations you are uncomfortable and unfamiliar with . . . go from there.”
Some time ago I departed from the art path for the science path. Now I’m retracing my steps. But that means tapping into a side of the brain that’s been brushed under the rug for quite a few years. When Jim Krantz first emailed me his critique of my work, I was bemused by his suggestion to photograph what the subject feels like; that’s something I can’t think my way through, and I like to think my way through things. But when I do let go, well, I see it in my photography.
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“Accept critique, but don’t apply it blindly. Just because someone said it does not make it so. Critiques are opinions, nothing more. Consider the advice, consider the perspective of the advice giver, consider your style and what you want to convey in your work. Implement only what makes sense to implement. That doesn’t not make you ungrateful, it makes you independent.”
Cheryl Jacobs began her blog (which was recently featured on A Photo Editor) with some sincere and relevant advice. The above suggestion was just one excerpt from a particularly helpful post. I recently had a photographer critique my work and point out that some of my shots were cluttered. He discussed that I should have in the frame only what belongs in the frame, and I started rethinking my photos as a result. But I like visual clutter sometimes. Although I’ve kept in mind what he said and will apply it where appropriate, I’m not ready to give up my messy photos. I love this shot, for the isolation of detail, the geometries of the stems, the colors, the bokeh, and the silhouettes. It’s not for everyone; it’s for me.
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“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
Words of wisdom from a cartoonist to highlight something many people have discovered: it’s important to make mistakes. Sometimes, after all, they work. This shot was completely blown out (too much light causing me to lose all the detail in the highlights), but converting it to black-and-white left me with something interesting.
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“You know, the best albums are the ones that include just some of the best photos.”-Fred Schenck
You might notice that this post doesn’t have many photos. One reason is that I decided to shoot in manual mode at the arboretum and a lot of my shots didn’t come out (a mistake maybe, but I’ve got to learn somehow). The second reason relates back to the above idea, which my high school English teacher shared with me. I had never thought about it before, but he was right. We’ve all sat through those endless slideshows: “Here’s Aunt Tilly at the lake. Here she is again. And again. Oops, my finger was in that shot.” Not only are they miserable to watch, but the few good photos get lost in the visual massacre. Why dilute quality with quantity? It’s like finding a Long Grove chocolate meltaway in a pack of m&ms. The meltaway’s absolutely divine, but it loses a bit of its impact being surrounded by all those m&ms.
Of course, when it comes to chocolate, I’ll take either. But when it comes to photos, wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t upload every picture that came off our cameras to our Facebook and Flikr albums?
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