Photo Passion

I just got done watching the most amazing, reflective, introspective, self-analyzing video on photography. I could probably come up with a few more descriptive words but I think you get my point. It is no doubt the best two hours I have spent in the past couple of years in photography.

Scott Kelby (left) goes on a personal photo-walk/workshop with renowned New York photographer Jay Maisel (right). Jay is 79 years old and expounds the most concise, to-the-point nuggets of insightful information as to who, what, and why we are photographers.

Here are just a couple of the take-away points from the video that I would like to pass on. Jay talks about triggers to shoot, when to shoot is as important as what we shoot. Photos should have surprises, content, triggers, and passion. All of which will draw the viewer thoughts into the image.

Jay touched a number of times on the triggers of photography. What is it that made you take that shot. Subject, foreground, background... What? it’s the whole thing. This goes along with many photographers philosophy of shoot the whole frame.

One of the best quotes that I took away from this video was when Jay was reflecting on something someone asked him in the past. That was, “Does he know what he is doing?” To that his response was “I’m going to discover what I’m doing.” That was very interesting as earlier this week I heard another statement at a friends funeral. That was, “If you want to make God laugh, just tell Him your plans.” Life is happening all around us, we just need to stand back, take time to appreciate it and the images will come to us.

One of the things I see in the popular photographic instruction arena is the notion of do this and you will get that. This is a sound instructional tool but what is missed is the need to do it your way. We are all guilty of mimicking other photographic styles until we develop our own but Jay puts it very succinctly in that he says:

Don’t learn to shoot like someone else...

Learn to shoot like nobody else.

What words of wisdom.

In some final thoughts over lunch, Jay gave Scott these words.

• Have fun
• Be excited for what you shoot
• Don’t shoot unless it excites you.

WOW! There is so much information to be gleaned form this video that I will no doubt watch is a few more times. It is not often i will take notes while watching a video but I kept on saying to myself, “I gotta get that!”

I would encourage anyone to go to Kelby Training and sign up for at least the one month membership for $24.95 if only to watch this one video. As an attender of a number of seminars now on photography, all off them have been good, but none of them have offered so much for so little. I must caution you though, with that one month membership, you can watch any of the hundreds of videos Scott and his team have put together. You will want more!

I’ll close with a quote Jay made of Ernst Haas;

We don’t take pictures...

We are taken by pictures.

Take care all... Doug

P.S. I think the video series is available for free on KelbyTraining. Click here to try it out.

Gadgets, Geeks, and Art

I must admit I lean a little more on the side of the "next best thing". That being said, I thoroughly enjoy when I have moments of spontaneity in shooting some abstract thought or scene that strikes me. Over at Scott Kelby's blog, Laurie Excell dad a tremendous guest blog on the artist in each of us (click here). Personally my artistic eye sees the whole picture in it's final product before I take the shot. The camera comes to my eye and the image is verified before I squeeze the shutter. Not saying that each shot is a keeper, not by a long shot. What it is saying is the moment I squeeze the trigger my expectation is this could be a keeper. The image above for instance is one that I saw when I was walking back to the car. I needed a different lens for it to work and I knew that given the lighting, Photoshop would be employed in post production to reproduce the image that my eye saw at that moment.

My brother-in-law is a true digital artists. He slices and dices images to assemble them into some of the most bazare images that look so fantastic it blows you away. The image to the right is one that Bill won the Best of Year for Alteration of Reality category for the Chicago Area Camera Club Association. Clearly when he looks at the world, there is a very different thought process that goes on than that of myself.

Neither of us are machine gun shooters, but see something that our mind identifies as a possibility and we set, aim, and shoot for the best possible image we can get in camera.

So where is this all going. No where it hasn't been for years of artistic freedom. To allow the artist to capture, develop, process, and present there work is a cornerstone of expression. Many people would like to censor certain aspects of artistic expression but this is a very slippery slope to go down. I am convinced we are far better off as a people to maintain the freedoms, and perpetuate a stigma rather than having an all powerful government board decide what is proper or not. The first amendment is a two edged sword but its the "First" amendment for a reason.

Take care all, I get to go home tomorrow so I will be posting form home unless I really get distracted. It may end up being "No Blog Thursday".

Cya for now... Doug

Kelby Classic

Right now before you read any further, CLICK HERE. 

Was that too funny or what. In all seriousness we in this country are getting way too wrapped around the axel about security. Just about all the security the general public sees is just that. For our viewing pleasure and self satisfaction to know... or should I say think we know that we are safe at night from terrorism.

Here are my two thoughts on the subject and I will get off the soap box and enjoy the laughter I am still experiencing from Scott' post.

1. We are safe in this country not because of the security that we can see, but because of the security we can not see.
2. If someone is willing to give up their life to take another, it is going to be really hard to stop them. The best we can home for is to minimize the effect if they can not be taken out before they have a chance.

There it is, short and simple.

Till next time.

Doug