Postcards from the Creative Journey

505 Figure It Out in Post

Propellers, Dakota Creek Shipyard

This is not a post extolling the virtues of repairing poorly seen images via obscure digital editing techniques. It is something quite different. Once you are facing your lightroom database with your latest photographic efforts in front of you, you scratch your head and wonder out loud, “Just what the heck do I have here?” I rarely use a script or “shot list” of images I need to capture to make my photo session a success. I am more likely to head out into the world to a specific (or maybe not so specific) location with the thought of capturing whatever images I might find interesting.

When in “create mode” I am acting instinctively, responding to the conditions about me, concentrating on the source and quality of the ambient light, the details of composition, worrying about what’s in the viewfinder (and more importantly) what’s around the edges of the viewfinder. In complete creative mode everything else in the world beside me, my camera and the subject has disappeared. As an aside, the (almost) complete automation of exposure calculation and focusing has certainly removed those baseline technical tasks from creating an image. I do still have the opportunity to (and still do) mess up either focus or exposure, but those failures are few and far between. If the camera does make an error (see what I did there?) I can see it almost immediately and make a change to compensate. But I digress. 

Once I return home and the images begin to arrange themselves into folios I can finally figure out what I actually did. It’s this task where I have to extract the subconscious thoughts from the photographs and make sense of them. This is what I mean when I say you are Figuring It Out in Post.

504 Is There a Right Way to Learn?

Maynton House, Academy Street

At the two extremes, there are two particular ways to learn software. One is to learn the arcane transmutations of digital editing and then go out and look for ways to display your most recently acquired technical virtuosity. The other end of the spectrum is to learn specific skills only when they are required to realize your artistic vision. Both motivations to learn are equally valid and you probably know people that employ each method, sometimes on the same project.

Here’s the key issue that we need to identify, understand and deal with as we create art in the digital world. Purely technical achievement in this day and age is the most perishable of skills. If your artwork depends on the latest technical gimmickry, your advantage will indeed be short. Technology moves so fast that no matter which way you choose to learn, the current features, will be superseded by the next generation of technology.

The only lasting advantage is what you are creating, not how you create it. Original ideas are the only long term advantage in the world of art. That is really important. So important I will say it again. Original ideas are the only long term advantage in the world of art.

503 Wake up! I Have a Great Idea!

Number Ten Fairway

I get my great ideas at a consistent time. Zero dark thirty AM. I will wake up way before dawn with an absolutely great idea, a breakthrough on a current project or the seed of an idea for a new project. I know this happens because my subconscious works on these ideas while I am asleep. While half of my brain is sleeping, the other half is creating. When the creating half has solved the issue, it wakes everyone up with its great idea. That everyone includes me.

This is something that I have learned to live with as part of my creative life. I am really proud that I can actually remember the idea when I wake up later to face the day.

502 Not a Dearth, a Plethora

From "The Inevitability of Numbers" (Dakota Creek Shipyard)

For the past fifteen years or so, I have been creating photographic project folios of approximately ten to fifteen images. This size came about because it conveniently fit into the amount of time I had available to spend on my photography. I began to see projects in this particular size because I could complete them with the limited amount of time I had available to create my art. Because of the limited time I had for photography, I have a backlog of projects to do. 

Now that I have chosen to be permanently laid off, I can spend even more time on photography. One thing I have found already is I am having so many different and interesting ideas for projects I have a another new job of documenting the ideas (so I don’t forget them) and prioritizing among the existing backlog of projects. Did I mention that once planned, actually following through and finishing the projects is also becoming an issue? I can get so distracted by the next shiny object that I tend to put aside what I am working on and pursue that new, shiny object. The need to maintain some project discipline is required so I don't have a whole pile of half finished projects. 

The big question to be answered is should I be completing more of these smaller projects, or should I put more time into larger scale projects? Since the time I wrote the above, I have come to an interesting conclusion. It seems that the issue of how many images go in a project just might depend on how many images people can enjoy at one time. If you look at how we are being trained to look at pictures by the great provider of pictures (also known as the internet) we seem to be able only to consider a small number of images at any one time. If I had to make a judgement, I think that I have hit on a good number of images (ten to fifteen) if the project is going to be viewed online. People get tired of looking at pictures and so it makes sense to stop showing photographs before your audience gets bored.