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:
This image is from the wooden boat yard in Port Townsend, Washington. I've been there several times to photograph and always found it a challenge. The curved and three-dimensional nature of boat hulls makes them a photographic difficulty. It has become easier with the introduction of focus stacking, but still a bit of a challenge..
The Possible Threads:
This project grew directly out of the photographic difficulty I was having. Failure after failure was caused by the curved hulls. At some point, it occurred to me that the difficulty I was having photographing them must be an even greater challenge for the boatwrights who have to replace these twisted and curved wooden boards that make up the boat..
The Project:
The title The Boatwright's Challenge for this project is obviously a growth from the photographic challenge I was facing to make the pictures. There was a simple transference from my frustrations to the boatwright. l see no reason why we can't use such identification as a way to develop the thread of a project idea.
Here is a link to the PDF with this project.
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