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Hi Gang,
Today’s image is a re-post from quite a long time ago. Its also one of my personal favorites for many reasons.
I want to use today’s image to talk about concepts in photography and using visual design elements to work with those concepts. I don’t always go out and shoot with clear concepts in mind. Sometimes I go out to shoot just to be out shooting. Sometimes I go out to shoot and I don’t shoot anything. There are no rules you must follow, but there are always opportunities. Having concepts in mind that you enjoy working with will allow you:
1) To recognize new opportunities where you might not have seen them previously;
2) Permission to begin shooting if you get stuck or feel uninspired;
3) To develop a style, or look, to your images that is all your own.
CALM; a concept I work with often on Lake Superior - Shooting a subject with multiple personalities, like Lake Superior, can take a long time to get to know. It has a reputation for being surly, but I’ve spent the last few years photographing it in very different moods. The mood I like the best is when its dead calm, which happens QUITE OFTEN. I have really grown to enjoy this quiet, gentle yet powerful personality of the lake and work with that personality as a CONCEPT for many of my shots.
The visual design elements I used in this image (and many I shoot) were: super-slow shutter speeds combined with BIG WAVE ACTION of Lake Superior, shooting FOR black and white conversion in Photoshop, and a very simple, dramatic line/subject.
Sit down, make a list of adjectives that describe subjects you enjoy shooting, then build on those “concepts” using visual design elements, lighting, etc. to bring the concept (s) forward in your image. Then the next time you’re out shooting and feel unsure about what it is you’re trying to accomplish, come back to the concepts that draw you to the subject matter in the first place.
I’d love to hear from others in the comment section about what subjects they enjoy shooting and what concepts they work with when shooting that subject.
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7 Comments
I like what you suggested about “sitting down and making a list of adjectives that describe subjects that you enjoy shooting”. My main joy is macro shooting but I never thought of what it is that draws me to this special area of photography. I will be making a list of adjectives for the next time I go out to shoot and see what happens to my inspiration, which leaves me some times. At the moment, my list would consists of:
color, detail, and, of course lighting. The real challenge, to me, is to get a decent DOF which requires shooting in different depths and then stacking in PS. I have a lot of work to do in this area.
Thanks for posting your views about shooting.
Wes
Hi Wes!
Its great to hear from you. I think one of the import points you make in your comment is, “…At the moment, my list includes…”. This is a changing process, dynamic not static. THANK YOU for drawing out that point.
Hope all is well and that spring is treating you kindly in D.C. Keep the rubber side down, Brotherman.
Alec
AJ,
Thank you again for encouraging me to explore the reasons I shoot.
One of the constants for me is the concepts of Play or Fun. they are the things I come back to when I get stuck. Doing something that makes me laugh seems to allow me the license to shoot whatever makes me smile.
Peace, energy, spirit…and to some extent tenacity are concepts that are driving me at the moment. I think I need to get to the mountains.
At the very least, get out on my bike.
KG
KG! Ride your bike over to my place and let's have a Guinness
I really appreciate your comment and wonder how YOU might capture the concepts of Play, Energy, Spirit along the north shore of Lake Superior. We should plan a trip soon and go shooting.
Be well, my friend.
alec
My overall theme seems to be exploration. See what there is to see. Subject is somewhat immaterial. I usually have vague ideas where I'm headed when I look around for photos, but I'm happy to be distracted along the way. There are places to which I return over and over, but they are usually more junky than grand. This may make it hard to form concepts and build from them as you suggest, not that I am arguing with the idea. Once I am at a location, I will throw on the lens I think is right for the place, light, mood, etc., so I guess I am working backhandedly at a concept.
Another even less meaningful concept I use is “take pics of things that look pretty”, regardless of the subject. Concept is formed (or dictated) more by visual input rather than anything preconceived. For me, the concept is affected by the subject, and vice-versa. This may be true of you as well. If you are trying to capture “dread” you might not go shoot pics of kids playing in surf in bright midday sun. Yet that might be the most significant subject at hand, thus concept changes radically.
But your point is not for concept to rule always, just that it is a tool to stimulate ideas. I'm with you on that. I wish sometimes that I had more overarching concepts under which to group photos. I admire clear purpose when seeing photos. Then again, I'm having fun, which seems to work for now.
Hey Jeff,
Love your comments. THANK YOU.
Yeah, exploration as a reason for shooting may be one of the most common reasons I hear people say they shoot, including myself. One might refer to it as PLAY; perhaps for you photography is an act of PLAY, the good old kind many of us did when we were little kids, but lost somewhere along the way.
I don't think your concept is backhanded; “pretty” is a concept, and ONLY YOU get to define it in the context of your photography. You know pretty when you see it. I think many people know a shot when they see it, but they may not know why. I was, and still am often, shooting that way. Going by gut and instinct, rather than intention.
And its also a great point to “shoot the subject at hand.” Most of my personal photography, and most of that is landscape work, is simply responding to what mother nature gives me at the moment. But, I still have a degree of freedom on HOW I want to shoot the image, what I want it to convey. Sometimes it's “pretty,” sometimes its something else. I actually get a charge from photography shooting this way. Its the way we shot in Kansas. Thrill of the chase, not given to rules of “twilight is the only light” for landscape photographers, or “image must be tack sharp” or so on and so on.
And absolutely, its a device and not a rule at all. I don't PLAY well surrounded by rules! Maybe that's why I like photography.
Thanks again for some provocative comments.
Cheers,
Alec
“Play” is a good term and covers a lot of ground, as you connected it to both going somewhere to take photos and experimenting with options when you get there. Many times for me the mood is not really set until it goes thru the editing process, where even more Play is involved. Does a pic look better in B&W or browntones? Many times I'm not really sure until I give it a try in PS. Occasionally I have the whole process in mind while taking the shot (square crop, dodge here, convert to B&W, then to quadtone), but often that doesn't work as expected, and I may have forgotten my plan by the time editing comes around. Or I may reedit something after a year has passed based on new techniques or ideas. Playing around is fun.
“Pretty” is a vague term. Can a rusty old saw be pretty? I'd say so, but many people don't. So be it. “Pretty” to me is almost a synonym for something interesting, something unique, or something hit by the right light.
Speaking of old saws, I like the one about knowing the rules in order to break them.