All the Little Pieces.

The creation of images is more about pieces than the image as a whole. It is all the little pieces that come together to create an image that determine how good, or bad,or even if,that image will be and those pieces are copious. From the very first grain of an idea, to the final exposure calculation,it is all about pieces. Whether the image is a formal portrait or whether it is a seemingly spontaneous event in the course of one's day, there are pieces to be collected,assembled and considered. The photographer's frame of mind,health,emotions,schedule or anticipated plans can all influence the day's creative output. There are, of course, a myriad of things that influence the actual exposing of the image and an even greater phalanx of influencing pieces governing the final output. However, beyond the technical and the technological lies the heart of the matter,the photographer him,or her self.For after all, it is the indelible style and the determination of the individual photographer that ordains the impact and the legacy of any image.

For example, take some of the circumstances surrounding Moonrise Hernandez. Adams was probably not in a spectacularly good frame of mind, he had had a disappointing shooting day. He had only a few minutes to capture the image,so few, in fact, that only one negative was exposed, yet Adams was certain that he was seeing a unique photographic moment even before, he exposed his negative. Still later , in the darkroom, many manipulations were preformed to achieve the image we all know so well. Now look further at some of the completely random pieces that played a part. Had he driven slower, the shot would have been gone. Had he taken a different route,gone. Had he found his exposure meter, perhaps a different result and had he not remembered the moon's luminance,possibly another result or none at all.Had he been alone, could he have set up the camera in time? Pieces,all the little pieces. As it turned out, everything did come together and Ansel Adams, being who he was,perhaps his single most iconic image was created and is with us today, as tribute to the talent of a great photographer. The shot, incidentally, is gone forever, as many pieces of the whole no longer exist, including, the location of the road from which it was taken.

And so, you can see, that no image is simply a creation of a single shutter release. In every image be it good ,bad,or spectacular, are many, many pieces. To be a truly good photographer you must be alert to the pieces in your life that if fitted together, may well yield the images that will define your talent.

{ For further insights into Moonrise Hernandez, see www.hcc.commnet.edu/artmuseum
/anseladams/details/moonrise.html#B }

Digital Capture Options and Opinions

Lately, I had the opportunity to spend a few hours with two, sometimes local, photographers, who teach workshops near my farm. They are sometimes local, because one owns a get away home, just up the road and they use it as a base for their workshops. Most recently, they asked to use some of my horses, as subject matter, for one of their sessions and from that came the aforementioned sharing of time.Naturally, both of them are digital shooters, as are their students and both are much younger than I,but the chance to exchange ideas and war stories was good fun nevertheless.One, is a commercial photographer and a chess player,a game for which I hold a particular fondness, while the other, although shooting commercial and business subjects,has an affinity for and perhaps even a desire to entertain entering, photojournalism.Both of them derive a good portion of their income from teaching,something I did for several years, many years ago. Naturally enough, we had many areas of common interest to converse about and more than a few differences on a variety of subjects.

During the course of one such discussion, the subject of going digital entered the conversation and I found myself being strongly encouraged to re-enter the realm of photography full time once again. I must admit I was more than mildly interested, but sceptical about the probability,due in part to the costs and the learning curves. Learning the new technology would be no problem,but the time it would take to master them was and remains, a quite different matter,to my mind. My new found advocate however, felt differently. His take was that with my existing photography knowledge and expertise, I would have little,if any, problem and that the medium,digital capture, had evolved so greatly that even the expense would be minimal,compared to even a few years ago. He felt that anything over 12 MP was unnecessary for good quality results and that this would allow me to purchase less than top of the line camera bodies with which to begin shooting once more. Add to that my existing lenses and he could see no reason not to be able to proceed with minimal expenditures. Keeping in mind, that minimal is a relative term when talking about photo gear, it still sounded intriguing. I was far from sold and further still from deciding to do it, but it was food for thought.

What I found equally as interesting though, was the dialogue concerning what peripherals were really needed. By his evaluation, PhotoShop was preempted by Lightroom and computer time would be minimal to none except if one screwed up in the camera. He advocated use of an Ipad and we actually agreed on a laptop,because of the type of work I would do. In his opinion, 98% of my images should not require post production in PhotoShop,a statement that was strongly at odds with everything I had previously read or discussed. It was,without question, an interesting if not downright seductive premise, since one of my greatest arguments against digital capture was,in fact, the exorbitant amount of computer time required to finish the images, in post. I understand PhotoShop, but I am far from enamoured with using it. Although I still have many reservations, not to mention a colossal lack of investment capital, I feel that more discussion is warranted.

The Everyday and the Searching Eye

Photography for me has always been about the imagery and never really about the business of being a photographer. That I tended to leave to professionals, like my lawyer, accountant and business manager. All I really ever wanted to do was shoot. I knew how the rest worked and how to do it, but I chose not to involve myself in the day to day grind of running a business,except for the need to interrelate with people. That I enjoyed doing. As I look back now on 40 some years as a photographer, I realize that the people I met were equally as important to my career as the images I captured. They added a rich depth to my images and rewarded my efforts with lasting glimpses into another's perspective on life,living and humanity. Now, as I move from assignment work towards more rewarding efforts in documentary and fine art photography, I find I am looking forward as much to the interaction with potential subjects as to the imagery it will produce. I also am beginning to realize that great imagery and stories are no further away than your own front door! Not, that I would turn down any opportunity to go to the far ends of the earth for an image or story, but rather that great stories and images are right here at home in the meantime.

I think that many of us, tend to ignore the obvious, in favour of the exotic, when often the obvious is just as rewarding. Some of the greatest social historians amongst us realized that and accomplished some of their most memorable work right here at home. Bruce Davidson comes to mind ahead of most others, with his bodies of work shot throughout the United States. Works such as East 100th Street are magnificent examples of great works and stories found at home as opposed to halfway across the world. Now an octogenarian, Davidson is still shooting and publishing as well as being shown in the art world worldwide. Of course, photographers such as Elliot Erwitt, Diane Arbus , Eugene Smith and Robert Frank all fall into this same category and have produced some equally compelling work. I can not place myself in that company, by any means, but I do feel compelled to try and see the world around me from my kitchen window,rather than than the window of an airplane.