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
Images that led to projects
In my Here's a Thought … commentary #2530 Searching For the Thread That Binds, I proposed that a project can grow out of a single image. In fact, sometimes multiple project can grow from the same image. This week will be examples from my Kokoro publication of projects and the thread that binds them into a unified artistic expression.
What I saw that I liked:
The image above was photographed in rural Japan. I had no intentions nor any ideas how I might use this image. It just caught my eye, so I photographed it.
The Possible Threads:
At various times, I've considered this image for something about Japan, something about grave markers, or something about Japanese calligraphy — both as an aesthetic and as something one sees carved in stone.
The Project:
Strangely enough, this image fit perfectly a completely different project I called The Staccato of Life. This project is all about repeating patterns. The distant view of cows grazing in the dry lake bed in southeast Oregon has the same dotted patterns as the growth on the Japanese stone. What a strange thread! Once I caught onto this idea, I was surprised how many images I had in my Lightroom catalog that could be candidates for such a project. A great example of "mining your assets" for project ideas.
You can see the rest of this project in this PDF from Kokoro.
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