≡ Menu

Food for Digital Thought

Personal Pearls Of Wisdom: Make It Don’t Take It

Making pictures is a lot more fun than taking them.

Making pictures is a lot more fun than taking them.

The first workshop I ever taught was at the Maine Media Workshop in 1984, and up until the last few years I’ve been teaching while shooting advertising and corporate photography ever since. That’s thirty years of looking at my fellow photographer’s photos.

Thirty years later, I’m semi-retired and now teaching online with the BPSOP, and still conducting my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops around the planet.

If I were to pick out one thing that I’ve seen over the course of my teaching career, it would be the fact that the majority of all my students just go out with their camera and take pictures. I wrote a post about it called “I came, I shot, I left”, which somewhat touches on the subject at hand.

One of my favorite lines that I say to my students is, “I don’t photograph what I see because I never see what I want, so I photograph what I’d like to see”. What does that mean you say? It means that I’m in the business of making, not taking pictures. My background isn’t in photography. Truth be known, I didn’t hold a 35mm camera until I was twenty-one. I was an art student who loved painting and design. The day I picked up that camera was the day I changed my favorite medium, a paintbrush, to a 35mm Pentax Spotmatic with a 50mm lens.

I still consider myself an artist. Now, instead of a canvas on an easel where I was making works of art, I have a camera on a tripod, and I’m now making pictures.

If you’re out with a camera over your shoulder with the intent of coming back with your ‘work of art’, and you’ve taken my online class or my workshop, you have an ‘Artist Palette’ with you. You’re using the elements of visual design to help you see things you wouldn’t normally see and be able to make a picture from what you looking at by using one or all of these Elements.

Think about going out and making pictures, here’s what I mean: Before you click the shutter, take some time to walk around your subject, center of interest, or even the entire location your about to shoot in. Shoot it from different points of view. Before you even bring the camera up to your eye, look where the sun or light source is coming from. Position yourself to side light then backlight your subject. I’m not a fan of front light, but there’s time when it works so look for it as well. I wrote a post about looking at things in a new way. It’s also about making pictures.

Think about scouting the location ahead of time to check on the direction of the light. Maybe there’s some props you’d like to bring to help tell some kind of story. Being a storyteller is about making pictures. Maybe adding a person would help, so you drag one of your kids (you do have to pay them something if you want their undivided attention), or a spouse or friend. If you live in or close to a large city, Google up that cities Tourism Bureau or Film Commission for places to shoot; they love to help photographers. What about festivals (lots of photo ops) that come once a year? These are the kinds of things that change your thought process, and now you’re also in the business of making pictures.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my new workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Since humans rely on their perception of the environment that surrounds them, visual input is a part of everyday life. […] Read more

 In the pat few years I’ve written several posts that included, to some degree, directional and leading lines and have […] Read more

I realize that it sorta reminds one of a tongue teaser, but take it from me it isn’t. For those […] Read more

First of all, I still have a spot open for my next trip to Cuba. This time we’re going to […] Read more

Check out my new workshop on the six concepts in the Psychology of Gestalt: Gestalt Workshop link I recently had […] Read more

Check out my new workshop on the six concepts in the Psychology of Gestalt: Gestalt Workshop link Actually, the actual […] Read more

Check out my new workshop on the six concepts in the Psychology of Gestalt: Gestalt Workshop link What do you […] Read more

Check out my new workshop on the six concepts in the Psychology of Gestalt: Gestalt Workshop link It was during […] Read more

Check out my new workshop on the six concepts in the Psychology of Gestalt: Gestalt Workshop link Back in the […] Read more

A camera, handled correctly, is a passport to wonderful places and experience. You’ve noticed that I put ‘handled correctly’ in […] Read more

If it ain’t helping, get rid of it. Ok, now that I put the emphasis on what this post is […] Read more

I teach my fellow photographers how to incorporate the elements of Visual Design into their imagery both in my classes […] Read more

Unless you’re shooting strictly for yourself, the goal, at least for me, is to keep the viewer around for as […] Read more

In my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the […] Read more

Once again I want to start off by saying that there’s no set rule as to where to put that […] Read more

I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I conduct workshops all over the world. I have also written […] Read more

I get a lot of ideas for my posts from both my online students with the BPSOP, and from the […] Read more

In my online classes with the BPSOP, I give out assignments each Friday. These are specific ideas that I want […] Read more

I want to announce my next workshop “Autumn in France” to be next October 2nd. It will be in Bordeaux, […] Read more

I want to announce my next workshop “Autumn in France” to be next October 2nd. It will be in Bordeaux, […] Read more

I want to announce my next workshop “Autumn in France” to be next October 2nd. It will be in Bordeaux, […] Read more

I want to announce my next workshop “Autumn in France” to be next October 2nd. It will be in Bordeaux, […] Read more

I want to announce my next workshop “Autumn in France” to be next October 2nd. It will be in Bordeaux, […] Read more

To finish the thought, it would be “What could be instead of what is”. For those that have recently been […] Read more

I teach my fellow photographers how to incorporate the Elements of Visual Design into their photography. In my online classes […] Read more

This is what I talk about when I’m working with my online students with the BPSOP. During my “Stretching Your […] Read more

In my six month Mentoring program, I often work with photographers that feel that they have run out of ideas […] Read more

As I tell my fellow photographers that either take my online classes with the BPSOP, or participate in one of […] Read more

No, I’m not talking about the song Carly Simon sang in 1971…for those old enough to remember it. I’m talking […] Read more

For those new to my blog, I teach an online class with the PBSOP, and I conduct my “Stretching Your […] Read more

  It’s interesting to note that whenever you hear the word roaming in these days of rapidly changing technology, you […] Read more

To my fellow photographers that follow my blog, either those that have taken my online class with the BPSOP, or […] Read more

First of all, the expression “Don’t give it a second thought” is an idiom. So, to begin with, let me […] Read more

I teach my fellow photographers how to incorporate the elements of visual design and composition into their imagery. In my […] Read more

How many of you have ever written a letter, poem, story, e-mail, or perhaps an epic novel? If you did […] Read more

You bet it is…sometimes!!! I recently had a conversation with a fellow photographer that follows my blog about the statement […] Read more

I have been writing this blog since 2011 and have had a post come out every five days to six […] Read more

I teach fellow photographers how to incorporate the elements of Visual Design and composition into their photography. In my online […] Read more

Here’s a really good tip for those who shoot in a square format: It’s virtually impossible to create Tension (which […] Read more

Over the years, I’ve had countless people from the way to young to the not that old ( me for […] Read more

Photography is most definitely the love of my life, but right under it is fishing and then cooking. I love […] Read more

I would safely say that in my forty-five year career as an advertising and corporate photographer 90% of every photo […] Read more

I often have a conversation with my online classes with the BPSOP, and in the daily morning reviews during my […] Read more

As I’ve always said, Light is everything and should be considered first, even before your composition. When it interacts with […] Read more

When I’m walking down the street with some of the photographers that are in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” […] Read more

I don’t know about you, but when my four kids were young, I stressed upon them (just about every day) […] Read more

I don’t know about you, but when my four kids were young, I stressed upon them (just about every day) […] Read more

It always makes me wonder how in the world we were able to make photos when the film of choice […] Read more

If you were a race driver you would immediately know what the expression ’10’ and ‘2’ meant. That’s when your […] Read more

  Besides being an advertising, corporate, and editorial photographer for the past fifty-three years that has been a lifelong dream […] Read more

How do you decide to either keep a photo or delete it? First and most important, stay objective. Whatever you […] Read more

LIGHT IS EVERYTHING!!! That’s what I keep telling my online students with the BPSOP, and my “Stretching Your Frame of […] Read more

LIGHT IS EVERYTHING!!! That’s what I keep telling my online students with the BPSOP, and my “Stretching Your Frame of […] Read more

I don’t know about you, but I’m never totally satisfied with the way my photos turn out …what do I […] Read more

I teach fellow photographers how to incorporate the elements of visual design and composition into their imagery. In my part […] Read more

On pretty much a daily basis, I create video critiques for the students that take my online classes with the […] Read more

One of the most important areas I cover in my online class with the PPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your […] Read more

For those of you that follow this blog, you’ll know that I put a lot of time into writing about […] Read more

Before I go any farther, let me define the word Idiom. An idiom is: (1) An expression that cannot be […] Read more

In the psychology of Gestalt as it applies to photography, and the third class I teach at the BPSOP, the […] Read more