Every Picture Is a Compromise
Lessons from the Also-rans
Most photography websites show the photographer's very best work. Wonderful. But that's not the full story of a creative life. If we want to learn, we'd better pay attention to the images that aren't "greatest hits" and see what lessons they have to offer. Every picture is a compromise — the sum of its parts, optical, technical, visual, emotional, and even cosmic – well, maybe not cosmic, but sometimes spiritual. Success on all fronts is rare. It's ok to learn from those that are not our best.
This is a series about my also-rans, some of which I've been able to improve at bit (i.e., "best effort"), none of which I would consider my best. With each there are lessons worth sharing, so I will.
|
Original digital capture
Pictures Come from Pictures WeekAfter recently posting the 1,000th episode in this series, I took the week to scan back — way back — to my beginnings. I looked at a contact sheet (above) from my film archives and compare it to a more recent image of the same visual idea. It was fun, so I'm doing it again this week. There is nothing new under the sun, or as Carl Chiarenza says, "Pictures come from pictures." The Backstory:I first visited The Grotto in Portland, Oregon with my camera in April of 1998. From the contact sheet above, it's obvious that I was interested in the religious statues there. In fact, all the photographs from that trip were of the statues — fairly large, dominating the composition, and all dead-center of the frame. I've made this mistake 10,000 times in my photographic life — becoming so swept up in the subject that I forget I'm trying to make a piece of emotional artwork. I returned to The Grotto again in 2019 and found the much more emotional composition at left. The above is about a statue; the image at left is about a sense of humility before the Almighty. It doesn't hurt that the beam of sunlight was shining through the trees right at the statue. This illustrates two important principles: take all the lucky ones you can get, and going back to a place you've already photographed is a pretty good idea. You are not the same photographer you were back then. Hopefully, you are a more mature and sensitive photograph in those subsequent trips. |
