For some reason I like this image. It isn’t a blow-your-socks off kind of photograph by any stretch of the imagination but it just feels right to me. Ray and I were heading back up the coast along Hwy 101 and he decided that we should stop at the Drive Thru Tree at the junction of Hwy 101 and Coast Hwy 1. This image was made along the narrow road that runs down towards The Tree. I actually only made three images of this scene, two vertical and one horizontal. At the time I thought one of the vertical images would possibly work out and I had pretty much written this one off.
In all, I shot just over 200 images in eight days. Not a lot. Generally though I don’t shoot many images compared to what I think other people shoot. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t shoot more since it doesn’t cost me anything. I think I’m starting to figure out why. Part of it is that I need to feel something before I put the camera to my face. I don’t use the viewfinder to look around and find something to photograph. I’ve tried it and it doesn’t work for me and in fact I just get frustrated. I could probably fire off more frames and hope that at least one will work but generally that strategy is reserved for specific types of situations like when an object is moving.
I’m working on uncovering the other reasons why I don’t make many images. It’s important for me to figure out because it’s part of understanding my creative process. Most photographers I’ve studied have their own creative process and I’m beginning to see a strong link between who they are and how they make images. I’m curious, do you have a creative process? How much of “you” is in that process? Maybe you don’t have a specific process and you don’t think creatives have or need one. Am I barking up the wrong tree? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Over the past couple of years the number of images I shoot has declined. However, if I’m shooting a portrait session the count will go up. I’ve been know to shoot just one image and then move on. Not sure what that says or if it’s even suppose to say anything.
Interesting comment when talking about studying other photographers. I do not shoot with other photographers very often so watching them in their process does not happen. I do read their blogs about how they came up with an image and I also study their images, asking questions about lighting, cropping, DOF, etc.
It’s not very often that an apparition from a dream or vision sends me out to create an image, although it happens. I’m more apt to place myself someplace, always with camera in hand, and allow inspiration to lead me eye. As I write this it’s apparent I could use more self assignments. Now see what you’ve done, I’ve not thought much about my process, but will now study that and take on some assignments, thanks to you.
Great post and looking forward to the responses.
Thanks Monte. There are some very interesting points made in the comments today. I didn’t mean to create homework for anyone but…if you are going to do an assignment I hope you’ll come back and share what you’ve learnt with us.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Josh Bradley and Matt Connors, Ray Ketcham. Ray Ketcham said: Another great question and post by @SabrinaHenry http://tinyurl.com/2ufdv8g [...]
it’s interesting, isn’t it? ..the difference between images that we think are “good” and those we really like. I have an image like that too. No one else thinks it’s great. I think my husband even asked “why?”
It’s a photo of my husband and son in a football huddle. It’s taken from behind, so you can’t see their faces. My husband was coaching. He has his arm wrapped tightly around our son (who is allowing it!) and I can see his wedding ring. I love the colors and it draws me in every time I look at it. I’m especially glad I took it, because now our son is taller than his dad. It says a lot, ..to me.
I’m still shaping my creative process and I’m intrigued by what you wrote about the difficulty of seeing with the camera to your eye. I have a hard time with that too, especially when trying to photograph our children playing sports. Sometimes I end up with good shots, but I’ve missed “seeing” the play. I miss the action. It’s like having snippets of a story without the context. I tend to be a big-picture thinker, so maybe that’s part of it. Maybe I need to be able to see the big picture in order to appreciate the details. I don’t know, but you’ve really got me thinking about it! Thanks for writing about this, I’m also looking forward to the responses.
Funny Anita, I was thinking about you this morning and here you are! The way you’ve described your image I’m sure I’d look at it and think it’s good. There’s no way you can talk about it in that way and it not reflect all of the emotion of the moment.
I’m glad I’ve given you something to think about and I promise there’s more to come
“I don’t use the viewfinder to look around and find something to photograph” – same here Sabrina. Although i try this technique on occasion just to experience something different. On a typical day, when i’m photographing for myself, my creative process isn’t very complicated and frankly i don’t want it to be. I’m on location, i roam around, i enjoy my surroundings, i start noticing things (i think just having camera alongside makes you more aware of them). I’m not putting camera to my eye until i’m drawn to something that i know it would be worth all the hassle. Yeah i know, it’s all digital and as you said it doesn’t cost anything but that’s just works for some people. Different thing when i’m working on assignment or self assignment because it often involves some prethinked theme but as it’s not a regime i like to stray aside from it
Anita said one important thing for me and that is when you even manage to get some decent images it’s more often than not you missed “the play” yourself.
Well, that’s why i like to do the exact opposite – i want to experience people, places. simple stories or just beautiful landscapes FIRST, than photograph them. I found that this way i KNOW why i’m taking particular image, i recognize my subject better and i somehow end up with more photographs that resonates with me (but also, if i’m lucky, with others)
It may seem like no process at all, actually once i’ve been even told when sharing my “photophilosophosimplicity” that it’s not a creative process”
well that’s just me and i know that for now i like it that way. I’m pretty sure that with time it will change quite a bit, probably shape up or acquire some new found /shared wisdom
Thanks for bringing up this subject, always got me to rethink stuff
p.s one more thing regarding those cost-free frames (don’t know if you tend to do the same) … although i’m not shooting like crazy it is often that when i found the right subject i can catch up with the numbers easily
Thanks for sharing Radek. I am like you in that when I find something I want to photograph, I can shoot more frames but I tend not to increase the numbers that much. By the way, you’ve now inspired me to create a new word to describe my process whenever I figure it out
First of all, I really like this image, Sabrina. I love redwood groves but find them challenging to photograph. I like the play of light you achieved here. This post is a very interesting topic for me. I find that landscape work is becoming much harder for me because I want to create images that say something. I know what that looks like now. I want to create compelling images and sometimes it feels like I’m just repeating what’s been done so many times already. I still tend to take more photographs than you do, mainly because I like to analyze the “misses” to better understand why they don’t work and what I might have done differently to improve. And I am still fighting that “But I’m here now, and I might not get back here, and something is better than nothing” mindset that David talked about in Safari. However I am definitely slowing down and thinking more than I’m clicking, and I call that progress. I think that is why I’m drawn to photograph people. By definition, images that capture a person in a moment are specific and unique and that really interests me. Of course, those images can miss too. Sometimes spectacularly.
Photography is so complex. It is exciting to me to accept that challenge.
Hello Dorothy! I agree with you; I find landscapes a challenge because I want them to “be” more and I know they can but I’m just not there yet. There are some people who I feel can create landscape images in the same way that you and I like to create images with people. My friend Younes Bounhar was recently in Death Valley and the images he created fall into that category for me.
I take less images then I use to but I still feel I take a lot, especially when I’m reviewing them and see I’ve only managed to make a few of the many which seem to “count.” However, I’ve come to accept the other shots much as target practice…you’ve got to practice a lot before you’re able to hit that bullseye the majority of the time.
I’ll also apt to take more shots when I know there’s something there but I just can’t quite place what it is. Then my shooting becomes like a forensic investigator — collecting lots of visual evidence to analyze back at my “lab.”
Creative process? Heck, the whole of life is part of our creative process. Each moment, thought, emotion, experience, joy and pain we have even experienced or ever will experience. I’m to the point where my thinking is we do ourselves a terrible injustice if we try to treat photography as something separate then all else we are. Ok, a little deeper then I meant to go.
Earl, I just love what you’ve said here and you can go deep anytime on this blog. For me, you’ve hit the nail on the head. I think as creatives, no part of our lives are ever separate from the things we make. If our images are a form of expression, then how can they not be filled with our thoughts, emotions, joy and pain, and everything else that is uniquely us? I think all too often we put these aside in favour of other things because we want to create a “good” image. More to come on this!
I tend to take many images. 200 would be a pretty average day for me when I am travelling. Of these, there are not too many that I want to post on my blog, more would end up on Facebook, because even if not exactly what I think is a great image, it still gives ideas and impressions of places I’ve been to, or things I’ve done for friends to see.
This means I am shooting for probably a half a dozen reasons at a time. Some for articles I write for magazines, some for blogs, some for Facebook, some experiments, some just because.
Of course there are a whole bunch of images I delete, and I need to see why they didn’t work – technical or vision problems?
I don’t leave the house without at least one camera – there is always something that makes me want to shoot. So seeing comes first, taking the photo second. Although sometimes I will see something and then keep the viewfinder to my eye to see if it repeats and I can capture the shot. Doesn’t always happen, especially in cars or buses.
I’m curious, when you shoot, do you shoot with those half dozen reasons in mind? Does that affect your creative process at all?
If I know I need images for an article, then that will be in my mind. I need scene setting images, some that tell the story, some that show the action or portraits of my interviewees. The FB ones are more about place and action, the blog ones I want to take more creative images, or ones that express something I am feeling. So, I do have a fair bit in mind when I am shooting. Yesterday I went to a small village (I live in China) to visit some farmer friends, who also happen to be artists and musicians. I will write an article about this for an expat magazine, I’ll put some images on FB because some of my friends in Australia, Europe and US/Canada have been there with me and will be interested in the changes in the village and I hope I have one or two for my blog. I took 307 photos! (All in RAW so I have to really decide which ones to use, and which ones not to do much with.)
For me, it depends. Once I find a subject I am drawn too, I tend to over-photograph, especially in a place I’m not going back to. Looking for different angles and aspects, or shooting with different aperture/shutter speed combinations. (I also like shooting moving objects, which definitely lends itself to this style.) On the other hand, it has to be something I want to photograph – if I’m not drawn to it, I’m unlikely to pick up the camera in the first place.
On the other other hand, sometimes the only way for me to start seeing things I want to shoot is to start shooting – after a while, the inspiration starts to flow. I get some of my most interesting shots this way.
In conclusion, for me, it really does depend a lot on the situation and/or my mood (and I apparently have three hands. Oh well).
LOL..it took me a few seconds to figure out why you have three hands
Your first point just triggered something in my thinking. When I was in Kenya earlier this year, I felt exactly as you did. I thought “The chance of me coming back here are slim so I’d better shoot as much as I can.” I think if I went somewhere today and felt that way, I would just shoot the same as I do now i.e. less images and rather capture that feeling of perhaps never having that experience again. I think I would need the time not so much to shoot but to just “feel”.
With respect to your second point, I often do that too but have a bit of a trick. There are a couple of techniques I use just to get my creative juices going. They normally don’t produce good images unless I use them with creative intent. One is from my friend Mark Krajnak and that is to shoot without looking through the viewfinder and see what I get. The others is to use motion blur or abstracts. Once I look at the results of either of these techniques, I can usually get going.
Great points and thank you for sharing. They’ve certainly helped me!
Hi Sabrina! Thanks for another post that keeps me thinking. I feel I’ve gone through a few phases with regards to the number of pictures I take:
Phase 1: Shoot everything, and shoot a lot because you might get something good. To me, this also links to the above discussion on whether or not you’ll be returning to a location. When I was in Antarctica in 2009 – I took 13,000 photos (20+ hours of daylight – 2 bodies on hand – and sensory overload everywhere you looked)! I’m still digging through them years later. When I go back in a year – I’m sure I’ll take less – hopefully a lot less – but the average will be better.
Phase 2: Start to filter out subjects, but cover it from every possible angle – more photos per subject than Phase 1, but fewer subjects
Phase 3: Fewer subjects, fewer photos. I’m finally getting to the point where I”m asking myself (at least some of the time) a few questions: Why am I taking this photo? Do I really think it will work later, or am I being lazy and putting off the thinking until I reject the photo in Lightroom? I need to be doing even more of this – but at least I’ve started! David duChemin’s latest ebook touches on this (I’m only part way through – but for $5, worth picking up – http://www.pixelatedimage.com/blog/2010/11/new-ebook-the-vision-driven-photographer/).
And then for me there is also the ‘why’ behind the photo. Is it artistic / inspiring / creative – something that I’d be proud to share? Or is it a ‘I was there and I want to share the moment with family’ sort of thing?
As I’ve been traveling in New Zealand for the past month (hence being well behind on blog posts and reading the sites I follow) – I’ve done very little ‘great’ photography and lots of ‘share with family’ stuff. I don’t have a problem with that – but I’m more conscious about what I’m trying to do when clicking the shutter than I used to be. Just another of the many steps in my photographic journey.
As always – thanks for sharing!
[...] friend Sabrina Henry posted an entry about this very issue today. What do you do when, even though you are surrounded by [...]