In 1959, Dinah Washington won a Grammy for her rendition of this Rhythm and Blues favorite, and I remember my mother use to love listening to it…I was fourteen!!

While going through some old images I stumbled upon a couple that were taken while on an assignment in Oregon, and all of a sudden this song popped into my head and bingo, I had the basis for an interesting post.

I say interesting because what I’m talking about occasionally happens to some of my students that take my online classes with the BPSOP. I’ve also personally encountered this in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct arount the planet.

What I’m getting at is the fact that over that past fifty years of shooting, I have had to shoot whatever the weather and light brought me on any particular day…sometimes no matter what; but sometimes I could do something about it.

The students taking my online classes will have the opportunity to go back to a location and go for it again, and I encourage this all the time. If the location, time, and circumstances warrent during one of my workshops, we’ll go back either at the same time or if we were there in the morning we’ll go back in the afternoon if logistics dictates.

In the two photos that I’ve have submitted, the one at the top was shot on a very gray/blue overcast/foggy afternoon at a location somewhere on the Oregon coast. We had a man and his trained dog with us and we were looking for some great light; which we didn’t get… as you can obviously see.

I shot it anyway just to have something in the can and it came out pretty good , actually depicted Oregon’s coast as it usually looks; but I was determined to shoot in better light.

We came back the next day at the same time but on our way to the same location a little further down I was welcomed by this incredible sky, and what a difference a day made. Knowing how fleeting the light is we all jumped out of the car and shot this in less than a minute; which is about all the ‘powers that be’ intended to give me.

So my fellow photographers, never give up a potential ‘keeper’ if you possibly can. Go back the next day and try it again because as Eddie Adams once said, “When you get lucky, be ready”.

In case you’re interested, here’s Dinah singing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmBxVfQTuvI

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

This coming July 29th will be my 30th anniversary teaching at the Maine Media Workshop. I’ve always picked this time as it’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. This ofers a unique set of photo ops, different from the Maine Coast, fishing villages and lighthouses. The Lobster Festival is all about color, design, light, energy, people watchng and environmental portraits everywhere you look; some people are there in costumes and loved to be photographed.

In conjunction with The Santa Fe Workshops, on October 2nd I’ll be leading a group in San Miguel de Allende. A beautiful oasis and artist colony, and the entire city is a UNESCO site.

Come join me for a week of fun and photography…what could be better?

JoeB

 Minor White was an American photographer whose work I have followed since the beginning of my career. Most of his images are not my style or ways I look at subjects, but enough were to keep me interested.

In any event, he did say something that I do agree with and have “spread the word” to all of my students that have signed on for my online classes with the BPSOP, and those photographers that have joined me in one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our planet. Minor White once said, “One does not photograph something simply for what it is, but for what else it is.”

Think about that for a moment. What does that mean to each of you? What do you think about when composing your subjects or centers of interest? I would love to hear from you. If it’s simply a tree you’re about to take a picture of, do you merely look at it with the left side of your brain (the analytical side) or do you use the right side of the brain…the creative side?

The analytical side will see a tree of some species. Perhaps it’s an Aspen and you love the fact that the bark is white, and a reminder of the days of skiing through a stand of them. Maybe it’s a willow tree and when you were young you use to take the branches and make whips to beat your brother or sister with.

What if it’s a Sycamore and the huge leaves and fruit hanging down remind you of the well spent days of your youth when during the Autumn you use to throw the small round round fruit at your other brothers and sisters.

These are all good reasons to take pictures but I doubt they will stand the test of time as far as a photograph worthy of matting, framing, and hanging on a wall; unless you’re always going to be around to explain to people just why you took the photo in the first place.

When I look at a tree I’m about to photograph I look at it with the right side of my brain…the creative side. This is the side that will see patterns and texture in the bark and leaves. The shape of the leaves and the side that will notice anything that might be a little peculier, as in the direction of the light, i.e. front, side, or back, and the color of the tree. I will also notice how it works in the surrounding environment as far as how well it’s balanced between the negative and positive space in the composition; and the visual weight it projects.

To me these are the most important things I look for, and they all happen to be the elements of visual design that I show my fellow photographers how to incorporate them into their imagery.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2018 workshop schedueat the top of this post. Come shoot with me sometime.

This coming July 29th will be my 30th anniversary teaching at the Maine Media Workshop. I’ve always picked this time as it’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. This ofers a unique set of photo ops, different from the Maine Coast, fishing villages and lighthouses. The Lobster Festival is all about color, design, light, energy, people watchng and environmental portraits everywhere you look; some people are there in costumes and loved to be photographed.

In conjunction with The Santa Fe Workshops, on October 2nd I’ll be leading a group in San Miguel de Allende. A beautiful oasis and artist colony, and the entire city is a UNESCO site.

Come join me for a week of fun and photography…what could be better?

JoeB

Vincent Van Gogh is one of my favorite painters and I’ve studied and seen his work throughout my career, including during a workshop I conducted in Provence a few years ago; we actually shot at the asylum where he committed himself in Saint-R’emy de Provence.

Van Gogh one said, “I dream my painting then I paint my dream”.

For me this is all about pre-visualization. Having said this, I realize that a painter can paint anywhere so this (dreaming) comes naturally to the medium. The photographer must be in the presence of his subject, but pre-visualization is still possible and actually very important as far as making pictures is concerned.

I teach two classes with the BPSOP, and I conduct my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops all around our planet. In my online class I send to my students what I call my Did It Do It list for making strong photos; if you have the time to check out that category on my blog you’ll be that much ahead of the game.

One of them and perhaps the most important is “did you pre-visualize”. This is about seeing the image framed in your mind before bringing the camera up to your eye. Clicking the shutter is the easiest part of photography when you know ahead of time what it’s going to look like. For me this will often include moving things around, add or take away objects that either fit or don’t fit, or ask people to be in my shot. Bottom line is that I’m an artist whose medium is a camera instead of a paintbrush…I paint pictures with my camera.

As an advertising and corporate photographer for forty year the term pre-visualize referred to commercial photography. I would be given a rough layout by an art director or graphic designer and my assignment was to create the layout in either a natural outdoor environment or in my studio. After a brief discussion I would begin to visually assimilate some ideas in my mind and I always knew that if I could picture it in my mind I could replicate it on a piece of film.

In the above photo, I was shooting a brochure for a barge company on the Mississippi River. While sitting in this large office I saw the yellow slickers, the template, and several cans of spray paint. I immediately began conjuring up images in my mind and had this photo laid out in my imagination within a minute. After asking the powers that be if my idea was something that could happen, and getting a ‘yes’, I proceeded to transfer my idea to reality.

I found three men to wear the slickers, and spray painted them and the wall while having my camera on a tripod; it was just like painting my dream.

The term pre-visualization dates back to the photographer Edward Weston who first coined the phrase in 1921. He thought why limit yourself to what your eyes see when you have such an opportunity to extend your vision?” Weston spent a great deal of time in Mexico along with his son Brett who he took along to keep him out of trouble.

In Mexico he strengthen his practices and in so doing helped Brett  become a great photographer in his own right. Weston believed very strongly in the process of pre-visualization and by the way thought that cropping an image was tantamount to failure.

Another photographer in that era who became quite popular was Ansel Adams who had his own take, “The visualization of a photograph involves the intuitive search for meaning, shape, form, texture, and the projection of the image-format on the subject.”

This notion is exactly what I teach in my classes and workshops, that is, using the elements of visual design; Shape Form, and Texture mentioned by Adams are three of them along with Line, Balance, Pattern and Color.

Alfred Steiglitz, the most important photographer of his time also believed in the concept of pre-visualization. “ I see the photograph in my mind’s eye and I compose and expose the negative. I give you the print as the equivalent of what I saw and felt.”

So, my fellow photographers, pre-visualization has long been the cornerstone of creative thinking and there’s no question that it will absolutely enhance your images. The next time you go out shooting take some time to see the image in your mind before bringing the camera up to your eye.

Decide on what’s your message, and what reaction you want the viewer to feel. Then get the lighting and exposure correct and do as much as possible before the easy part comes…clicking the shutter.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

This coming July 29th will be my 30th anniversary teaching at the Maine Media Workshop. I’ve always picked this time as it’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. This ofers a unique set of photo ops, different from the Maine Coast, fishing villages and lighthouses. The Lobster Festival is all about color, design, light, energy, people watchng and environmental portraits everywhere you look; some people are there in costumes and loved to be photographed.

In conjunction with The Santa Fe Workshops, on October 2nd I’ll be leading a group in San Miguel de Allende. A beautiful oasis and artist colony, and the entire city is a UNESCO site.

Come join me for a week of fun and photography…what could be better?

JoeB