Tag: mono

Rain soaked…

and searching for moments.

dsc_2282-editIt is not enough to photograph the obviously picturesque.

Dorothea Lange

This quote really resonated with me. I think we are inundated with beautiful images and while I can appreciate that beauty, it takes far more than saturation to make me want to look twice or even remember that image.

We have had one of the rainiest months on record and it has taken some doing to watch for moments that isolate themselves from utter grayscapes.

Even the clouds have not been cooperative deigning only to show solid overcoats of smooth gray until this morning…

I am reminded of a book I’m reading whose main character is a photographer. She goes out to shoot a sunrise and takes 400 images. Unless you’re doing a startrail, timelapse, or shooting a burst for an action shot I can’t imagine why a person would want to take that many images of a single subject and then have to search through those later for the image that captures it. I would feel like I wasn’t really being present in that moment and looking beyond the obviously picturesque.

My question is just because it’s digital does that mean that we should be less thoughtful about the shots that we take? Would your photography improve if you treated it more like film?

When I look at his expression…

it makes me smile.

20140726-DSC_9222-Edit

To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless march.

Susan Sontag

I think that one of the most challenging niches in photography would be that of the portrait photographer. There is an immediacy to the shots and certainly an extra layer of difficulty added simply by the challenge to produce shots that are pleasing and flattering to the subject. I much prefer the candid shots.

Those that know me know that if my camera is not already at hand, it is very, very close! That often gives me the opportunity to steal a quick, relaxed shot like this one of a friend’s husband when they came to visit.

I began thinking about this after a conversation with another photographer friend. While on a recent trip she opted to leave her DSLR out of the mix and use her phone camera because she felt that she was missing too much.

It was an interesting thought and one that I have considered from time to time but the anxiety of not having at least the bare minimum of gear with me fills me with dread. Also in my thoughts were as someone who photographs every day and uses multiple lenses, I am able to dial in a quick shot almost at the same time that I am raising the camera to my eye. How long would it take before those combinations of numbers did not come so easily to mind when going for that quick, in the moment shot?

I leave you with this thought…they say that we have five senses but like me, has your camera become an additional ‘sense’ for you?