Windows of Nature - A Pathway to Creativity

I find it useful at times to compare photography to playing a piano.  This may sound somewhat strange, but when you think about it, it actually makes sense.  You see there are a lot of people who can play a piano...they've learned how to read the notes and to mechanically reproduce them on the piano...they are technically competent.  The music sounds okay but lacks something.  Then there are those artists who are able to move beyond simply playing the notes, they have such an understanding of music they are able to impart a sense of emotion and feeling into their playing.  You know it when you hear it...it sounds different...with more depth and power.  Photography is the same way.  With the technology available today almost anyone can take a technically competent photograph where all the basic elements are present, but the image lacks in emotion and impact...they are able to play the notes, but lack understanding of how to generate that emotional response in a photograph.  The difference between the two is passion and vision.

Outdoor photography is 10 percent technical and 90 percent being able to see photographically.  It involves looking beyond the obvious and filtering through all the clutter to focus in on what is truly important.  It's understanding how to use composition to define your subject and combining it with color, shape, and form to generate an image with impact.  It is a concept that rarely reaches an end point, but one that is continually refined.  It is a blending of technique with artistic vision.  Together, combined with passion, the windows of nature become a pathway to creativity.

Jack Dykinga, a world class photographer, made a statement some years ago that changed the way I approach photography.  It transformed how I think and how I look for photographic solutions.  What he said was;

 "Camera's and Lenses are simply tools to place our unique vision on film...Concentrate on equipment and you'll take technically good photographs...Concentrate on seeing the light's magic colors and your images will stir the soul"..

Light's magic colors...nature is filled with it...our eyes observe it...our hearts feel it...our souls yearn for it.  Are you simply a note player...or do you have a vision for your photography that will carry you toward creating images that stir the soul?

Keith

Shooting Close to Home

The other day I pumped almost $30.00 worth of gas into my Jeep...for a half tank.  Every time my fuel bill arrives I choke and cough when I see the total...I could buy a new digital camera...just about every month...for what I'm forking over to the gas companies.  I remember and still long for the good old days when you could fill up you car for around $5.00 and have three uniformed attendants come out to check your oil, clean your windshield, and pump the gas.  When I first went off to college back in the dark ages my weekly spending money amounted to the huge sum of $10.00...from which I had to buy gas to get there and back...and use whatever was left for snacks and goodies or maybe even a movie.  But alas those days are long gone, and the cost of fuel now days sure puts a crimp in my ability to get out and about.  I must now plan carefully and the first thing I consider before making any kind of a photo trip is how much gas will it take and how much is it going to cost?  As a result I spend a lot more time photographing closer to home.

A few years ago I began a long term and continuing project called the Alvaton Collection...which consists of a series of photographs featuring the area around my home in Alvaton, Kentucky.  Most of the images in that collection were taken within a 15 to 20 minute drive from my home.

Shooting closer to home I've discovered has certain advantages. Travel costs are an obvious one but they also include things like getting to know the area more closely.  Doing so allows for quick travel to those special places.  Often I've left at daybreak and shot a series of images, then returned home before the rest of the family even knew I was gone.  One of the best reasons for shooting close to home is being able to return to a location over and over to take advantage of the changing light and seasons.

Over the years I've identified a number of locations that offer great photo potential all through the seasons.  They include places like old barns, fence rows, rustic farm country, abandoned homes, creeks and rivers, country roads, farming activity, small town charms, stately old trees, and beautiful rolling country.  All available within 20 minutes in any direction.  I can also step outside my back door, hike a short distance and be surrounded by cornfields, woods, wildflowers, and great skies.  Even so, I still look for that old country road that I've never driven down before...it's amazing what new discoveries are found by doing such things.  Oddly enough, the country roads around here twist and turn and converge back upon themselves and seem to have no rhyme or reason to where and why they were laid out that way.  I've never been completely lost...but I have been a might turned around a time or two.

I suppose it is human nature to want to get away from home thinking that the photographic opportunity is always better someplace else.  My take on it...it's not necessarily better, just different.  What's funny is on those rare occasions I can still get away and travel some distance and time, seems I end up showing the people I meet many of the photo's I took from home.

Back in 2008, on a lark I sent some proof sheets from the Alvaton Collection, plus a few others, to a number of magazine publishing companies...I promptly forgot about them.  Six months later I received an e-mail invitation to submit around 200 images from south central Kentucky for publishing consideration in the popular magazine 'Country'.  For several months I snapped away and finally compiled enough material to send to them...they were well received by the editor and he asked for a 1500 word essay to describe why this area is such a great place to live.  What materialized from all of this was a 10 page, 20 image spread inside their God's Country featured section published in the April/May issue 2009.

I suppose the moral of the story is this:  Take a closer look at what is nearest to home...explore its intricacies and become intimately familiar with the photographic potential in your home area...who knows, there just might be a treasure trove of opportunity just waiting for you to find.

Keith

Imagine The Extraordinary

If someone were to ask me what is the one thing they could do to improve their ability to see photographically I would tell them, "Take an Art Class".  In the world of art you begin to look at the world differently and learn about color, shape, form, perspective, subject, and how all those things work together to create an effective composition.  Artists by nature tend to have a creative intuition about them...that would also include photographers.  There are a number of reasons for that I would suppose, but there are two distinct characteristics that artists have that separates them from others:  They look at the world from a unique perspective, and they use their ability to 'Imagine The Extraordinary'.

Imagine the Extraordinary...just think about what that means.  Well...I suppose it would mean different things to different people based on their personal experiences and insights, but, to me, to Imagine the Extraordinary means to observe beyond the obvious...and to recognize the photographic potential of a moment of light.  It involves not only understanding the technical aspects of the photographic process, but understanding the effects light has on a subject.  It is being able to combine the two, to create a photograph that stirs the imagination.  How to accomplish this involves certain complexities and is open to individual interpretation.  It is a concept that rarely has an end point, but one that is continually improved upon and refined.

I try strive to make this concept the cornerstone of my photographic endeavors...and oddly enough, one in which I rarely feel successful.  I've heard it said that an artist begins with a blank canvas and adds the elements required to create his vision.  A photographer on the other hand, begins with a full canvas, and must remove those elements that interfere with the vision he has for that moment of light.  To accomplish this, a strong understanding of composition is necessary along with a good sixth sense of what to look for.

The most effective compositions are the ones with a built in simplicity...not necessarily a lack of complexity...but where all the elements work toward telling and showing the story you want to convey.  It moves well beyond simply capturing what you see...to being able to see what you want to capture.  The two are rarely the same.  The former infers a mechanical process where the technical quality may indeed be good, but lacks for aesthetic quality.  The latter stretches the photographic potential into a realm where the subject becomes less important, and light takes on greater importance to where it defines the image.

Take some time to visualize those Wow photographs, or even better those Whoa photographs you've seen.  What makes them so incredible?  Think about that for a moment.  Why is it some images powerfully stir our imaginations...when the vast majority of photographs appear...well...ordinary?  If you truly begin to explore that idea, you will find that incredible photographs are created with the emphasis placed less on location (or equipment) and more on the photographer's ability to capture his vision.

Capturing vision becomes more instinctive the more you practice.  Never settle for the ordinary...always seek out the extraordinary.  Look for ways to capture the ordinary in extraordinary ways.  Think of the camera like it is a sculptor's tool...even the finest and sharpest chisel has limited usefulness until it is placed into the hands of a skilled artist.  It is the skill of the sculptor that counts, not the tools he uses.  The artist must understand the tool's ability to carry out his desires.

Most of all...always look for the extraordinary.

Keith