Transcending the ordinary
I teach fellow photographers how to incorporate the elements of Visual Design and composition into their photography. In my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet people sometimes become complacent in their approach to their photos. They’re no longer interested in being the slightest bit critical of any of their images, and therefore are not putting any effort into the final results.
I once had a man taking my online class tell me that he wasn’t really interested in using these elements to take stronger photos. He told me, “I’m only interested in taking halfway decent pictures”.
My first thought was why in the world was he taking my class, so I asked him. He told me that he didn’t think it would require as much work as it turned out to be, and after the second week in my four-week class, he quit participating.
If your photographic goals are to take halfway decent pictures, then all I can say is go for it. Follow the same path you’ve been following and before too long you’ll be there. Odds are that you don’t have very far to go if you’re not already there.
If you’re determined to become better at your newfound love or passion or if you just want to improve on a twenty-year-old passion, then you’re going to have to commit to working at it. One of the ways is to “Transcend the Ordinary”.
Henry David Thoreau once said, “It’s not what you look at. it’s what you see”. I’ll add to that with one of my older “Personal Pearls of Wisdom” and tell you that “if you don’t like what you see, then photograph what you’d like to see”.
Don’t settle on walking up to a situation, stopping and bringing the camera up to your eyes, and snapping off a couple of frames. You might walk away with a good photo, but chances are that you could have taken a photo that no one else will find interesting but you. Now, if you only take pictures for yourself with absolutely no intention of sharing them, then proceed the way you are.
If you’re like most artists (and we are artists whose medium is a camera instead of a paintbrush), then think about ways to take an ordinary situation and take what I refer to as “Up a Notch”.
The next time you go out shooting, don’t look for the same ways to shoot the obvious, instead look for new ways; ways you conjure up in your imagination.
When you’re composing your shot, and it feels or looks like photos you’ve seen before, DON’T SNAP THE SHUTTER!!! Walk away because the best photo you’ve ever taken could be a photo you saw in your mind that was right around the corner.
In the photo above, I was shooting a leasing brochure for the apartments the man was living at. The client wanted a shot that conveyed the idea that when you came home from work, you could come by the office and get a free cocktail and go out by the pool.
I’m not sure how many times this idea has been photographed, but it could be up in the millions. One of the problems was that the pool area was surrounded by buildings so there wasn’t going to be any “Golden Light” to help. I had to shoot it when the sun was much higher than I liked.
I knew I was crossing into the “been there, done that” world and refuse to go without a fight. I walked around the iron fence and put the man where he would be backlit. The rim light around him and the glow of his gin and Tonic made the shot work. I had transcended the ordinary!!!!
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/barabanjoe/be sure to check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime, and it won’t be ordinary.
JoeB
