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.
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Original digital capture
What I saw that I liked:Slowly, I'm learning to see in panorama format. What I don't like in the picture:My camera doesn't do panorama images. My phone does. What I learned:Curiously enough, the more panoramas I make with my phone and its internal stitching, the more I seem to be training my eye to see in that format. The instant I saw this hill and the cloud behind it, I knew this was destined for a panorama format image (left). I've bemoaned the challenges of framing panorama format images for the wall, but lately I've been doing so with a display device known as a "poster hanger." Very cool. |
