DID IT convey the month of July?
About seven years ago I wrote a series of posts around a phrase I talk about to both my online class with the BPSOP, and my “Stretching Yor Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet. I’m always handing out information on ways to take my students photos what I refer to as “Up a Notch”.
I’ve had some new interest lately so I thought I would bring back these posts to share once again over the next few weeks.
One of the first pieces of information I hand out is what I call my “Did It Do It” list for good composition. There are twelve of them I will to be discussing again with you, and the first one I want to talk about now is: “DID IT convey your idea or thoughts”.
One of the issues I’m always exploring with my students is whether or not their idea or train of thought is too esoteric for everyone to understand. This happens a lot because we tend to give way toooooooooooo credit to the viewer. One of the few perks in being my age (73) is knowing through experience NOT to give too much credit to anyone. This especially holds true for photography. Unless you’re representing your idea in an abstract form, be sure to always consider the scene, and it’s outcome. Make sure it says what you intended.
Remember that you won’t always be around to explain your thought. It needs to stand on its own without any help. One of my favorite photo quotes comes from an Anonymous writer who said, “I always thought good photos were like good jokes. If you have to explain it, it just isn’t that good”.
These are guidelines for good composition, not rules. A lot of my followers know that by now, I don’t like rules!!!!
In the above photo, I was shooting a calendar for Shell Oil and was given freedom to come up with an image for each month. They were to be portraits of the owners of these big rigs; this photo represented July.
Most of the time it’s important to convey your message so that it’s understood without any geographic boundaries. That said, there are times when it’s only important to a select group of people, and this photo was only suppose to reach out to people that were on Shell’s mailing list; they would understand my visual message.
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. I just announced my New York, New York Workshop beginning September 17th, 2019 and ending at noon on the 23rd. This will be my second workshop there and this time we’ll be shooting in all the five boroughs.
JoeB
I have the impression that we are both saying the same thing, just with very different words…