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:
Do you know of the 180° rule? Whenever you find something interesting to photograph, when you are done and before you put the camera away, turn around 180° and see what's behind you. It's amazing how many times you will find another picture just waiting to be made.
The Possible Threads:
The image above is just that. I have finished photographing a scenic overview and turned around to walk back to the car. Looking up at that lovely cloud, I was surprised to find a very nice composition that included the moon. Aha!
The Project:
I'd be we all have lots of landscapes images that include the moon. What I needed was a thread to pull them all together. The "project" was not the photography, but the search for the thread. When the "planetary" idea took hold, I started thinking about how we are all living in the same space that includes our moon as well as our planet. Life in Space explores that idea that we are all on a speck of dust, floating in the emptiness of space, just like the moon.
Here is a link to the PDF with this project.
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