ESTABLISHED 2010 - Beyond The Campfire was created to encourage readers to explore the great outdoors and to observe it close up. Get out and take a hike, go fishing or canoeing, or simply stretch out on a blanket under a summer sky...and take your camera along. We'll talk about combining outdoor activities with photography. We'll look at everything from improving your understanding of the basics of photography to more advanced techniques including things like how to see photographically and capturing the light. We'll explore the night sky, location shoots, using off camera speedlights along with nature and landscape. Grab your camera...strap on your hiking boots...and join me. I think you will enjoy the adventure.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

On the Hunt: Searching for that One Great Photograph

I am always on the hunt...to find that one great photograph. I have not found it yet, but I am never deterred toward that endeavor. Searching for that one great photograph is an obsession where one seeks perfection as invisioned within the heart.


I try to see, I attempt to capture the world from the perspective of the camera. Even when I take time to study another photograph created by another photographer I find myself examining the image from the perspective of how did the photographer manage to capture such a fascinating print. I am always searching for ways to create an edge, to elevate what I see with my eyes into something that becomes a visually stunning image. It matters little what the subject might be, when the subject is illuminated by amazing light, even a single blade of grass can become a great photograph.


When a photographer begins to visualize the finished image before he ever releases the shutter, it is to step into a visual world filled with possibilities. It becomes an instinctive place where the mind begins to connect with and to think like a camera. To do so one must let go of preconceived prejudices and let your heart take control and allow your emotional self to lead you through what is there. Seeing the image means to look deeper, to look beyond the ordinary. It is to build the image from your imagination by collecting the visual components required for the composition and assembling them one piece at a time until nothing else is required.


Searching for that one great photograph becomes the driving force behind all great photographers. They develop an uncanny ability to see beyond the obvious to find the true deeper visual story in everything they attempt to capture photographically.

To become a photographic hunter, a searcher of great photographs, one must often experience discomfort and disappointment. But, like a hunter, the greater reward is not so much the final harvest, it is the process of persevering through the uncomfortable, to eventually reach a moment when the harvest stands presented in front of you ready for the taking, and you recognize something unique and exciting is about to happen.


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