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:The perfect focal length lens when the buffalo looks directly at you. This was 200mm with my m4/3, so the equivalent full frame of 400mm. What I don't like in the picture:The above is an accurate rendition of the scene as it looked to my eye. That is not a statement of success. What I learned:Sometimes — in fact, often — the search while photographing is not for truthfulness or visual accuracy, but rather for emotional fidelity. The heavily cropped and processed image at left feels like, well, it just feels. It is less about the buffalo as a subject and more about the mood of the moment. You might never see a buffalo in the wild that looks like my photograph, but does that really matter when we are making artistic statements? At the time, I was feeling hot, dusty, slightly threatened, certainly menacingly observed, but ultimately safe as long as that guy was also hot, dusty, and lazy. |
