The Perceptive Photographer

I am in the market for a new camera. After several years of shooting one of the most reliable cameras I have owned, I am ready to embrace some new technology. For those of you who don't know me, I was very much a gear hound in my earlier days. Having well paying jobs afforded me the luxury of upgrading all the time and buying as much gear as I wanted. Of course, none of that gear made me a better photographer. It was the practice and dedication to the craft that made me a better photographer.

When it comes to buying a camera, it is easy to read all the spec sheets and get excited about all the megapixels, dynamic range and frames per second. However, photography is more than spec sheets. Photography is a feeling behind the camera. It is an awareness of what is working and not working with the huge of metal and plastic in your hand. At the end of the day, we should be selecting a camera for how it works in our hand. How the camera is balanced? How are the buttons? Can you work with this camera without it being something you work through but rather work more in partnership with.

As you consider what really matters in your next camera, I think we should focus less on megapixels, mirrors and brands and more on what feels right in the hand.

This week Apple, Inc announced the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus to much fanfare and hype. By all accounts, the phone will be a runaway success toping the record-breaking sales of the iPhone 6/6 Plus.  From all the press and demos, the phone does appear to be an engineering marvel. As I read about the new phone decided if it was time to upgrade (it likely is), I got to really thinking about how Apple markets the iPhone.

From the opening phrase, the only thing that has changed is everything to the laundry list of new or improved features fans of the phone were sold. Apple talks about:

3D multitouch

12MP, 4K camera

A9 processors

TouchID improvements

Faster Wi-fi/LTE

the fact that it is an experience unlike any other on a phone unlike any other.

All that talk got me thinking about what would happen if we talked about our photographs that way. What would it look like if each year we took the same set of photos, reprocessed and printed them on new papers and printers and then sold them to the same people as something they couldn't live without. In pondering such an idea, it occurred to me that Apple doesn't really market the technology or the upgrade as it is still just an iPhone. What they market is the idea of the value that they phone can bring to our life. All the moments, memories, communication and relationships that can be held in the phone. It is that very idea of value that makes the marketing work.

As you think about your photography, how do you define value in your work. Is it by reach, money, impact or something else. If you were going to rent out a hall and report to the media about the value of your work, what would that message say.

In this podcast, we focus on the nature of content and form as the essential aspects of composition. In most great photography, composition acts as more of an intuitive process behind the camera rather than the direct application of a series of rules or guidelines that are normally taught in photographic classes. Idea such as rule of thirds, leading lines, mirrored objects are all ways to explain and understand works of art, but in photography they are concepts that should be discussed more in the analysis of the image rather than the creation.

By shifting our focus away from trying to implement these rules and instead focusing on when content and form collide in the pressing of the shutter, we are able to be more present behind the camera. During our review of our work, we can then apply these concepts to help us better understand why we might be more drawn to the strength of a given photography over another. Finally, we talk about how constantly making small adjustments with each shot can lead to more interesting work and strong photographs.

I had a career change that has resulted in me doing my photography full-time now. In talking about that process, I have always said that I am going to do full-time photography, but several of my friends have said something to the effective of "Oh, so you are about to become a professional photographer." That notion struck as nerve. As if to say that what I was doing before wasn't good enough, professional or valuable.

As I started to look at my own reaction to that word and what it means to me, I realized that a lot of the labels we put in front of our name, photographs, and projects can really have a huge impact on what we see as the value and meaning of the work. In this podcast, I explore what being professional means to me and how we might use this labels to create more significant meaning in our work, careers, and life as an artist.

I was recently asked by a listener about what makes a good critique session. While we have talked a lot on the podcast about language and critiques, in this episode we take a deeper look at the content that, in my own experience, makes critiques valuable. While some of the ideas might seem common place such as being honest and focusing on new insights about the work, the reality is that staying present in a critique is tough work.

You have to set aside you own ego and need to feel validated and focus on making the feedback you are giving really matter. You have to let go of right and wrong as well as good and bad to focus on moving a dialog for understanding forward. The ultimate goal of any feedback session to learn what is working and how to improve such that our work can be about what matters to us.

A recent trip to a conference had me packing up a lot of my camera gear. To keep my own sanity and make sure that I don't leave anything behind in the hotel room, I like to make a checklist of things to pack. This time I thought it might be helpful to look at some other packing list so I did a little search on google for top photo travel list and was amazed at the number of top ten list for photography that showed up in the results.

After playing for a few, there were list for everything from posing to gear to locations. It got me thinking that if everything can be distilled down to ten things or five things you need to know to really be successful, why are more of us not? As I continued to ponder, I got to thinking about making a list of the top ten things I do that keep me from my meaningful photograph.

Working with issues like confidence, fear, arrogance and a host of other emotions, I have begun to realize that my top ten list had little to do with gear, technique and content. It had a lot to do with the person behind the camera and in front of the screen.

I also realized how much time, effort and money I have spent on things that don't actually help my photography so I thought it might be fun to create a list of all the things that I thought would really make a difference that didn't, and use that list in the future when I think. "If I only had #6 on that list, I would be so great."

As I have been thinking a lot about my own work and how I want my work to matter, it occurred to me that often times I am chasing the wrong things. Photography isn't about finding the right style, being in the right magazine. It is about a story. The best stories are stories that you connect with. Stories that you love to tell. The photographer's work should reflect that. I think that is the reason the best wedding photographers love telling the story of a wedding. The best portrait photographers love connecting with people.

I was really reminded of this when I was looking over the website of Jacob Lucas a local Seattle photographer. In one of his post, he talks about being on the Oregon coast with his dad and how great it was to share his photography with his dad. It was reading this, that I realized that image means so much to Jacob not because of the subject, subject matter, frame or any other photographic concept. It is special because of what was put into photograph when it was made. It is about real people and real relationships.

In this podcast, I explore what it might mean to have photographic method that focuses on creating images founding in the love of the creating of the image, viewing of the image and leaving your mark not in a museum, cover of a magazine but rather within oneself.

Jacob Lucas Photography

I was thinking about a conversation I had with a mentor a number of years ago about how we feel when we are present in our work. I was spending way to much time on the technical and brain side of photography and not enough on the emotional. As I got sorted out what it feels like to take a photograph vs think about a photograph, it resulted in a leap forward in my work.

In this podcast, we take a look at how recognition of these moments of impact in photography are not just a function of living behind the camera but also present in editing and found in the inspiration that comes from looking at someone else's work.

It is important to keep yourself organized as a photographer. As I was cleaning up the darkroom, I found a pile of contact sheets from my film shooting. In looking at those contact sheets I remembered how important those sheets were to my photographic process. I have found that there is huge value in having those contact sheets to look at and review images when making editing and printing decisions.

Those sheets allowed me to look at images from the entire shoot, get a sense of the shoot, remove judgement of a image in isolation, see how I framed and experienced the location or subject over time and hopefully pick out the most interesting image. In working in a digital space, I think there is huge benefit from making contact sheets and then looking at those sheets on paper or in a computer program that doesn't allow you to immediately edit the shot like the grid view would in Lightroom. I have found that keeping organized in editing as distinct from developing makes for a more efficient and effective workflow.

Books

Magnum Contact Sheets

The Contact Sheet

Hollywood Frame by Frame: The Unseen Silver Screen in Contact Sheets, 1951-1997

Books are affiliate links from Amazon

I was recently watching the Incredibles from Pixar again. In the movie Syndrome talk about how how when everyone is special no one is special. This reminded me of a quote by Robert Frank about how if every moment is captured then nothing special is captured and that there are to many cameras and to many images now.

Those two quotes got me thinking about how we look at and view photographs and photography as art. I love that we have put so many cameras and images out there. I don't necessarily think that we have made better photographs that transcend time, but we have been able to capture more and more work. In this podcast, I spend some time thinking about what makes an image distinct from a photograph and what makes the photographer separate from everyone else with a camera.

Quotes

“There are too many images, too many cameras now. We’re all being watched. It gets sillier and sillier. As if all action is meaningful. Nothing is really all that special. It’s just life. If all moments are recorded, then nothing is beautiful and maybe photography isn’t an art anymore. Maybe it never was” -- Robert Frank

"Oh, I'm real. Real enough to defeat you! And I did it without your precious gifts, your oh-so-special powers. I'll give them heroics. I'll give them the most spectacular heroics the world has ever seen! And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can have powers. Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super...no one will be." -- Syndrome from the Incredibles