Instead of hopping out everywhere, I did a lot of thinking about the images I wanted to capture as I drove the length of the beach, especially how I could compose them and why I was drawn to them. And like the birdhouse, I came to realize - it's not the precise visual representation of what I'm seeing that draws me to photography. Further, it's my attempt to precisely capture what I see that frustrates me. I can take a picture of a fire hydrant and beach grasses - and it would leave me flat, even though it's exactly what I saw.
But if I were to compose the picture so that the weathered yellow paint and bright green grasses took over the frame, or put the hydrant on the right or left side, or blurred the hydrant and focused on the awesome fence behind it... I'd be looking at a photograph that moves me and captures the elements that drew me in - the contrast, the idiosyncrasy of a man made object on the natural beach.
For me, the goal of photography is no longer to capture what I see - it's to communicate the elements of the scene that attracted me, to find a way to evoke the feeling of the person behind the camera. That is probably obvious to everyone else. The weathered shingles on the beach homes lining a charming block, rather than the cluttered entire block. The end of the 18 wheeler as it zooms out of the frame, which is otherwise filled with natural, stationary elements. The planter, not necessarily the plant all the time.
Thanks to Kat Eye and to the BetterPhoto courses I was taking this last month, the world of photography is finally open to me, and finally realizing that the person behind the camera actually counts... I can't wait to get out there and capture the world.
15 comments:
Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. This is awesome. I think you have just made a huge leap forward, upward, onward in your photography. I also think you put something into words for me that I've been feeling about my photography but hadn't written down!! Thank you so much. I can't wait to see the images you capture next!
Hi Kat,
it was like learning that 2+2=4... of course it does!
I am excited to keep on the "journey" series with you - it has really been awesome.
Wow, JJ, there is nothing obvious about this at all. Here I am, thinking that if I can capture exactly what I *see*, it will express what I feel -- but that is so often NOT the case. I tend to be very literal in my thinking. You (as well as others in our Find Your Eye group) are making me realize that I need to be more imaginative, playful, creative, experimental -- until I figure out what it was that drew me in and capture THAT!
Thank you for relating and empathizing! This class and going on the journey with classmates has been so much better than trying to learn out of books, which I was doing, since I'm "book smart".. but this takes intuition and community!
JJ, thanks so much for sharing your insight and for expressing it so eloquently.
What a fabulous post!!!
You have said so much here, and you said it so clearly. This gives me so much to think about in my own journey. Your photos are wonderful!
Nicely put.
Yes - you have captured so eloquently that "aha" moment of what photography means to you - and I think you have found words that would apply to many of us. Thank you for such a wonderful post and for sharing your emotional journey with us.
Perfect! This is just so beautifully put! I am such a literal person that it does seem that I should be "recording what is there" but while that is a useful thing to do, it is not the fun part. Photography helps me see the world in a different way, and I want my photos to help others to do the same. Which means for me drawing out the beautiful in the otherwise ordinary. I had an urge to take a photo of a fire hydrant the other day and resisted it because I couldn't figure out why it fascinated me, but your explanation is why. Should have taken the pictures. This class really was very enlightening.
Thanks friends! Hope to continue the journey with each of you, I have in this short time learned so much!
Fabulous post, beautifully written.
I think Kat will want to quote some of your comment!
I'll be back to learn from your AH! HA! moment.
I have been enjoying reading all of the comments left on your writing. I so agree with everyone. You have written with a very clear voice, as someone who has really had a true "aha" moment as Oprah used to say. I am happy for you and happy for me to have read your words and absorbed them. smiles: sharon
Do you know, I haven't picked up a camera since I wrote this? Hm.
You have such a wonderful way with words!! What a wonderful post of discovery!! It hasn't been obvious to me until lately that it's not what we're photographying, but it's how we see the object! You're post has given me even more to think about!!
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