Postcards from the Creative Journey

924 “Rules of Art” Are Necessary First Published 11/5/2017

The concept of “rules of art” is old, respected and is a requirement for such art as the Haiku, the Sonnet, the Fugue and just for fun, the Limerick, or even the “one liner“ joke. Every one of these artistic forms of expression is governed by a strict adherence to form and rules. Yet, in spite of “restrictive rules of art,” artists continue to solve the problem of creative expression. The problem of creating within a framework places more responsibility on the creator, giving him (or her) the responsibility of constructing their art within a set of rules.

I do not advocate a slavish adherence to “rules of art.” One should learn what they are, how and when they can be used effectively and how they can help you create a coherent image. Learn the rules first. Demonstrate that you can abide by them.

Then, if the situation requires it, go out and smash them with impunity if it helps you deliver your message to your audience.

923 Scribbling Is Still Good

When I travel I bring a small notebook and a pencil with me. While I normally like to record my thoughts and blog ideas in electronic form, many great ideas hit me on either take off or final approach and my electronic devices are stored and my tray table and seat back are in the upright position. So, I scribble some thoughts down in my little notebook.

Then comes the fun part. Looking back over hand written notes and ideas that eventually became blog posts or introductions to folios is really kind of fun because I get a chance to see the original thought. The ignored fragments of thoughts also can be the first step in another direction or leave me puzzling over just what was I thinking of when I wrote THAT?

All ideas are worth something. It just takes time for me to figure out what they are worth, even if sometimes the only thing they are good for is an illustration of a bad example.

922 School Assignment First Published 2/10/2013

I am starting to figure out why my photographs have gained little traction in the rarified air of contemporary Fine Art Photography. A decided lack of personal and photographic marketing appears to be an insurmountable stumbling block that is delaying my ascendency to the pantheon of contemporary Fine Art Photographers. I am not a member of some easily categorized “school of photography.” I’m not a post-modernist, a crusading photojournalist, a celebrity portraitist or an adventure photographer. I think I really need to come up with some easily marketable school of photography that I can use to impress curators, gallery directors and MFA students.

I think some analysis is in order in an attempt to discern the characteristics of my photographs to allow me to classify and categorize my artwork. My photographs are:

small – this means you have to get close to the work and be involved with it on an intimate level. They don’t occupy huge areas of a gallery wall.

black and white – the world isn’t black and white any more. It’s color. Kind of a hazy, muted, pastel like world that’s wrapped in gauze. Unless, it’s a landscape photograph with saturation turned up to eleven. (The photo geeks, will completely misunderstand the “Spinal Tap” reference and maintain that a saturation of eleven is almost black and white. Sigh.)

organized – composed, one might say, as in a pleasing arrangement of objects within the frame. The center of attention will probably not be dead center in the photograph.

apolitical – they neither support nor criticize any known political agenda or social cause

polite – My photographs don’t shout “Hey, look at me!” from across the gallery. They would prefer a quiet personal conversation with you.

literal – looking at one of my photographs you know what you’re looking at. I am not a fan of ambiguity, vagueness or abstraction. There are no symbolic, inferential or secret messages (that I am aware of) in my photographs. If you discern a reference to an obscure artist, well, you are much smarter about those things than I am.

positive – There is enough ugliness, meanness, hardship and suffering in the world. We know it’s out there and we live with it every day. We don’t need to be reminded of it constantly.

beautiful - I see my photographs as constantly looking for the beauty in world around me.

wholesome – My photos do not tend to push propriety. Even when I was photographing nudes, the compositions were more about form and grace than a gratuitous display of pulchritude.

non therapeutic – My photos are not a form of therapy. I do not attempt to “work out” my deepest psychological problems and inner angst through my art. I am not a victim seeking sympathy through my art.

completely my own – Evidently, it’s acceptable to steal another photographer’s images and re-interpret the image to meet your photographic thesis. I don’t do that. If you see one of my photographs, you know I made the photograph, processed, and printed it. I also cut the mat and framed it. I guess I’m old fashioned that way.

After reviewing these characteristics, my own photographs and thinking a very long time about where my photographs fit in the contemporary photographic landscape, I have come to the conclusion that I am at least fifty to seventy years out of step with the contemporary zeitgeist. This thrills me. I feel I am on the cusp of having my big artistic breakthrough! I am so far out of synch with contemporary art I am primed for the revival of my aesthetic. Here is my chance to get in front of the curve and define this school of photography. My images are from the classic time of black and white photography, but I am bringing that style forward. Finally, I was able to create the term retro-classicist as my photographic type. I now am the premier retro-classicist photographer in the world and can now begin my self-promotion. Fame and fortune are imminent!

921 Ten Lessons Learned On Safari XXXVII

Photography is a constant learning process. We learn by making mistakes and then profit from these mistakes by changing our behavior in the future. This year’s Spring Safari is no exception. Here’s what I learned this year.

1. The camera is responsible for all failures, I take credit for all successes. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)
2. Random driving around is still an inefficient manner of finding locations. But you just might find someplace or something spectacular that everyone else has not found because it was really far off the beaten path. Then again you might come up empty. You won’t know unless you go out the door.
3. What happens when you are “cruisin’ fer snaps” is you will spend a lot of time not photographing, but when you find “that spot,” you will jump out and make a lot of good photographs.
4. Jumping out does not imply that you will accomplish your photographic tasks quickly. Taking time to observe the entire area, look around with a critical eye and just waiting a bit to absorb the ambience and get a feel for the location will help decide if the spot has the potential to become “the spot.”
5. Knowing when to jump out and photograph is a skill learned by making a lot of unsuccessful photographs from the wrong location.
6. Nothing stays the same, especially beaches. Changing tides change the beach. Storm tides make the changes even more pronounced. Never put off making photographs. Now is the best time to photograph. Memory cards in digital camera hold thousands of photographs. Don’t be afraid to use some of that capacity. Do you know of anyone that has filled up a memory card with an afternoon’s worth of image files?
7. Forecast rain does not mean it will rain everywhere all day. Especially on the Oregon Coast. Go out looking for photographs even if you have to put on a rainsuit. Sometimes it will rain all day and you’ll have to figure out something else to do. 
8. Stuff you used to do manually your camera can probably do automatically. Automatic focus stacking is quite amazing. Burst mode makes crashing surf photographs way too easy. Learn how to use these functions to improve the probability of capturing the decisive moment.
9. This is the second trip I have not taken a tripod with me. I wish I had brought one this time. It’s really inconvenient holding a camera for a long time for a video or waiting for a nice wave. Tripods also make using the video features and focus stacking much easier. Next trip I will bring a tripod.
10. Patience is rewarded. Even if you have burst mode or video, one still must wait for the “right” wave to show up for that decisive moment. A tripod makes waiting a bit easier because you don't have to hold that darn camera in the same spot all afternoon. 

 

920 Supporting the Arts First Published on 5/19/2013

I attended a photographic art exhibition recently. It was an event planned to “give back” in support of the local art community. As I elbowed my way through the throngs showing up for the opening night while avoiding the crowd three and four deep at the cheese plate, I thought about who was giving what back to the local photographic community. The folks that were attending the event were chowing down big time on the free wine and hors d'œuvres certainly didn’t seem to be giving back to the arts community. In fact it seemed quite the opposite. At an event such as this, wouldn’t giving back to the arts community be more clearly demonstrated by the purchase of art on display rather than vacuuming up the hors d’oeuvres? The real support of the arts community does not come from gallery owners and philanthropists sponsoring events, but from the local citizenry (including artists) supporting the community through the purchase of local, original art.

I will go back to the gallery later for a more sedate and less crowded look at the exhibit. I wager there will be few or no “red dots” by the photographs on the wall. It’s sad when support for artists runs out when the hors d’oeuvres do.

918 My Zeroth Rule of Photography

The Three Laws of Thermodynamics actually number four. Scientists decided that Thermodynamics could be described by Three Laws. Until another Law was discovered. Uh-oh. What to do? Three Laws sounds so nice so the Powers that Be decided the Fourth Law would actually become the Zeroth Law. There. We now have four real laws but we only have three numbers the Universe has been returned to equilibrium.

I find myself in the same situation. I have proclaimed my Two Laws of Photography (1. Standing at the right spot and 2. Knowing when to make the exposure) for decades. But my further cogitation on the matter indicates that there is a more basic law that must be met prior to invoking Laws One and Two.

My Zeroth Law of Photography is "You have to have a camera in your hand and be looking for photographs." Only then does it make sense to know where to stand and when to press the shutter.

The Universe has been restored to order.

917 Who Do You Want to Make Happy? First Published 1/12/2014

When you make a photograph who do you want to please? Nothing used to leave my darkroom unless it was suitable for the most critical eye – mine. Some prints made it out of the darkroom only to be trashed when the image was evaluated later in the cold light of day. I guess the answer is the first person to make happy is you. If you are not happy with the work, there’s no reason to think that others will like it either. So, you please yourself first. I think that’s mandatory. If you wish to please critics, curators, gallery owners and fellow photographers that’s optional. Here’s why: their expectations for your art are far different than your own. They are looking for adherence to an artist school, something to fit into their collection or something they can sell at a profit. If they can do what they want to do with your photographs they will like your work.

In short, their reasons for liking your photography are far different than your own. To thine own self be true. Then worry about making others happy.

916 It Only Matters To Photographers…Maybe.

Technical details only matter to those that really like technical details. The Gearheads, G.A.S.* addicts and the newbies really sweat the technical details because they all assume that the source of all photographic goodness is in the equipment. It is not. The source of photographic goodness is in the photographer and their vision.

It’s not the equipment, it’s the photographer that makes a photograph successful. It’s their vision, their creativity and dedication to communicating their ideas that make photographs successful.

People are interested in in the image, stories, feelings and memories created by an image. Only the photographers are concerned with the camera used to make the image.

 Remember this. There are many, many more non-photographers than photographers.

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*G.A.S. - Gear Acquisition Syndrome  - Thought process that afflicts its sufferer with the false knowledge that acquisition of the "perfect" gear will make their life perfect. While G.A.S. can be thought of in terms of photography, it is also quite prevalent in the world of fishermen, woodworkers, hunters and backpackers.

915 Day 11 Just One of Those Days

As we near the end of this Photo Safari, we’re starting to run out of steam. For a couple of old guys we’ve been hitting it pretty hard (photographically speaking) and we’re running out of ideas (and time) at about the same time. Just as well it was another heavy clouded rainy day that  didn’t bode well for photography. It was a day to rest and look over yesterday’s images. 

It’s supposed to be rainy on Saturday too, so I’ll have to think about what to do then. 

914 Day 10 Patience and Technology

One cannot escape domestic chores. Mornings of heavy, dull gray skies are great for leisurely breakfasts and laundry. The morning marine layer takes a while to burn off and there is that time between the exit of the marine layer and when the sun knocks out the clouds that make for some nice photography. At least that was our hope to start the day.

(The birds know which rocks are always above the waves.)

There are those photographers that want to wake up in the middle of the night to get to that “great location” for the sunrise photographs. Those places do not exist on the Oregon Coast. That’s why I like this place. It’s beautiful and you don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to drive to those “morning locations.” One can still sleep in, have a leisurely brunch and still have a lot of time for photography. That’s what we did. 

After a leisurely late brunch we took off to return to Seal Beach to see what it would look like in different weather. On my previous trip there I limited myself to the overlook because of weather conditions. This time I started at the beach south of Seal Rock. 

My “secret of photography” is that you need to be in the right place at the right time to press the shutter button. Today’s efforts put us in the right place at the right time with a trump card of advanced technology that can crack off up to 40 frames per second as a still camera. This technology replaces the skill and timing we used to need when we had a film camera with a manual film advance. Now, all that is required is what was always required; the patience and “stick-to-it-tiveness” that our parents and grandparents preached to us. We let technology do the hard part. 

I went back to the overlook to see what it looked like on a clear day. We came in about the exact time of high tide and the waves were spectacular. I couldn’t really figure out which of the almost 700 images I made today were the most dramatic because there were just too many to look at critically. I don’t know if these images will survive today’s infatuation to be long term winners but they are pretty darn good looking for starters.

Thanks again for stopping by to see these photographs. There are but a few more days here and there is a 90% plus chance of rain for the next two days. I hope we’re not done making images, but that just might be the case. Don't forget those links at the top of the page for my website and my other blog, The Daily Photograph.

Thanks again.

913 Sitting and Watching First Published 6/2/2017

I commend to you the practice of observing. Sitting (the most desirable position for observation, although there are those that favor the prone position with head supported by hands) while contemplating a scene will provide you a better photograph. Patience, of course, is a required prerequisite for this approach to photography. Minor White suggested you wait until the subject tells you it’s ready to be photographed. Seems like a reasonable approach to a contemplative manner of photography.

The initial impression (or maybe infatuation) with a scene is an indicator of photo-worthiness of the scene. Let the love blossom by developing a relationship with the scene. As we become acquainted with the scene our vision matures, deepens and becomes more nuanced. When our relationship with the scene reaches this level something of lasting value might be created.

912 Day 9 Patience Is Its Own Reward

We headed back to the Rocky Creek State Scenic Viewpoint today because Brooks wanted to complete a project he started. The day started out cloudy but improved dramatically as the day progressed. I had nothing special in mind because I thought I did it all yesterday. It just took a little bit of time to figure out what more I wanted to do. 

Today’s lesson was all about patience. Patience to wait and observe and think about what there is in front of me and how I could arrange it in the viewfinder. Patience to wait out the inhibition that says don’t take a risk on making a specific composition and finally trying something different. 

There were not a lot of different compositions made today, but they were important because of the time we took in making each image. 

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