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
Things vs Moments
Photographs can be of things or of moments. Over my five decades as a photographer, I've capture tens of thousands of things, but all of my better images have been of moments. This week I'll try to illustrate this with a few examples.
What I saw that I liked:
These two images were photographed moments apart. The primary difference is where I was standing and to what I was pointing.
What I don't like in the picture:
The above image has no sense of time whatsoever. It could be early in the morning or even at night.
What I learned:
The version at left was photographed in 2003 and is one of the first digital images I made with a digital camera. It was an incredibly foggy day. I shot this more or less as a test of the digital camera's ability capture that fog-hidden sun. I was amazed there was so little lens flare and I consider this one of my first successful digital images. The sense of moment in this image comes from the juxtaposition of the sun to the tree brranch. In truth, it was simply a matter of changing the camera position an inch or two in either direction. |
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