Break all the rules!
Before reading this post, for all of you that have taken my part I and II classes, the school is bringing back my Gestalt class for a month, starting the first week in May. Here’s the link: https://bpsop.com/courses-1/
Every so often, either during a conversation with one of my online students with the BPSOP or in one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all over the place, I’m told by one of my fellow photographers that they were, in turn, told to not do something while taking pictures. Well, it just happened again, so while it was still fresh in my mind I thought I would share it with you.
But first I’m going to digress a touch and give you the reason for this post. One of my all-time favorite painters was Pablo Picasso. Although I could go on and on about him, he was a painter that constantly re-invented himself. He was always bringing ‘something new to the art scene.
Picasso once said, ” Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
I suppose it’s (maybe) true that we must learn the rules of photography, which to me is a complete waste of time. Rules are a hindrance to our imagination and the shackles keeping us from any creative thought. But, far be it for me to dispute one of the most imaginative and creative painters to ever have lived.
Getting back to the photographer I’m referring to, this person was obsessed with the notion that you always wanted your subject facing into the composition; leaving lots of room for him or it to walk, drive, or fly into. After a time trying to de-program him, especially since his mentor and president of the local camera club told him so, it was an aha moment for me…president of the camera club…that started to make perfect sense.
When he followed it up with always put your subject in the Rule of Thirds, and make sure to check the Histogram before clicking the shutter, I knew I had a photographer that would always ‘color inside the lines’.
Showing him examples of images that broke all the rules just couldn’t pull him away…even though he really liked them he was just past the ‘point of no return’.
A retired civil engineer and a confirmed left-brain thinker, I realized that it was better to just let him be and continue on down the road well-traveled.
Well, you can’t win them all.
Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.
JoeB
