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:
I have lots and lots of images of tarps, coverings, closed doors and fences. As a photographer, access is one of the keys to success and every time I find access is denied to me, I wonder about the lost opportunities..
The Possible Threads:
That lack of access because the seed of this project idea. The project was pretty simple to assemble because I had so many photographic candidates. The one that gave the idea a jump start was the one above. Clearly those clothespins were a purposeful decision to deny a view to whatever was behind.
The Project:
Once that idea came to mind, I simply started a Collection in Lightroom and putting in any pictures I has of tarps, covers, or curtains. The only thing I was missing was a title. Once I had that, the project essentially completed itself.
Here is a link to the PDF with this project.
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