Questions you ask about an image

I am curious about the questions that people ask themselves when they view an image.  I dislike answering the mundane, the how and the where, because I find far too often people focus on these anciliary issues.  I also am curious as to why many people go to such lengths to avoid discussing images, insecurity, lack of awareness... The first thing I usually ask is how the image makes me feel and from there I move to why does it make me feel this way.  Then I consider how the elements in the image work together to create this feeling.  Then I wonder why the photographer made that image in that manner.  I look at how unified the image is and then for other thngs like tension and balance.  I look for punctums and studiums, and I also listen for any sounds the image evokes.  Heavily detailed images or often noisy with restaurant chatter, where some images are so still they are utterly silent as though framed in sound absorbing boards.  I figure that once and image is presented that the photographer feels it is finished and it isn't my place to comment on areas for improvement.
Critiquing an image cna be a powerful learning tool, and often I will look what I can fold into my own work and vision.  I think I will critique images here as a learning experience.

Frequented Locale

Originally uploaded by PaulaRussell

I have really only been involved in the greater-than-aesthetics aspect of photography for about 3 years. I can still remember the feeling upon figuring out the interplay between aperture and shutter speed, or when I saw the first of one of my really blurry images, or when I exposed a wind-whipped shoreline for 30 seconds. And much of that figuring out, aside from the shoreline, has happened in the Guelph Arboretum. I love having a space that I return to regularly. It is the first place I go when I have any new piece of equipment, or a new idea, or a major change in the weather. Perhaps it functions as a baseline or a foundation, regardless it has been invaluable to follow my growth. It also forces me to try to make different images from a familiar subject, which I think is one of the most valuable tools. Here are a few images of the boardwalk in the arboretum that I have taken over the last few years.

Originally uploaded by PaulaRussell

Originally uploaded by PaulaRussell

Originally uploaded by PaulaRussell

Trophy Hunting v. Immersion approaches to photography

So Darwin Wiggitt in the recent issue of OPC wrote about these two different approaches for photographing.  I guess he has observed these in his own shooting as well as when he participates and/or leads workshops.  Trophy hunters go in hard to grab the big shot - I guess things like the first bits of light streaming beyond the horizon, or the hot highlights rolling off the snowcapped peaks.  These images tend to be assertively, if not aggressively, coloured, and are often authentic renderings of the physical aspects of a scene.  Shooters of this ilk march into a new environment, shoot quickly and often, and come out with the big pictures, or what I would rather call the pretty pictures.  Immersion shooters spend their time feeling an environment waiting for the interesting or compelling elements to rise above the visual clutter.  They often work more slowly, produce fewer images, and would rather linger in that environment than moving on to a new one.  Wiggitt suggests that the trophy hunters are more likely to produce the award winning cover images, while the immersion approach is more conducive to producing cohesive and engaging sets of images.  He also suggests, based on his experience, that men tend to gravitate towards trophy hunting while women tend to immerse themselves in their surroundings.

I am definitively and happily an immersion shooter.  Those pretty things, the first bits of winter dawn light that skates across a frozen lake, the glint of the setting sun off an ancient glacier, or the easy interactions of heavy shadows and rolling hills, well those things I would rather look at than photograph.  When a moment is time dependent, I would rather experience it than attempt to control and capture it with my camera.  I would rather find subjects wherever I am, in whatever light I find myself, and with whatever weather might happen to be there.  Sure there are areas I return to in certain types of light or weather, but usually I just go with what it is on the day I am going.  I would also rather feel an environment, wait until my eyes, mind, and heart adjust to the surroundings, which is when I find you notice the really important elements.  I also think photography is about what you are responding to, what the image means, and what you are trying to comment on, than it is about one off images.  

Anyway, it was an interesting read.  I do not think gender predisposes you to one approach or another.  I think too often we reward the big prize before we see the bigger picture.  Again, it does not make me as a photographer or the my photographs any better or worse than someone else, it just makes me working in a way that I know I prefer.

Gender and Photography

This is something I have really been thinking about lately.  I read two articles this weekend that fuelled the thinkings in this issue.  Both articles were in the recent issue of Outdoor Canada Photography, the first was a profile on Leslie Degner an Alberta-based landscape and wildlife photographer, and the second was on Trophy Hunting v. Immersion photographing styles (which I will save for another post).  Degner's work is amazing, in that big landscapes, big colours, big impacts, if you are impressed by the Rockies, you'll be impressed by her work.  She captures her environments authentically and accurately and easily translates the awe of watching the mist rise off an alpine lake to the awe of viewing the image.  But what struck me was that in the interview during which she and her work were featured, the first comment was a congratulatory announcement related to her being the first female photographer featured by OPC.   Really, an accomplished, published, award-winning, workshop-running, photographer and the first thing is congratulations, from a magazine with not one regular female contributor.  Maybe I should go back to the third issue to see if the opening statement was along the same lines, congratulations for being the third man OPC has featured.  This was the 10th issue for OPC, and no women featured until now?  Why?  Was it a conscious or unconscious screening issue?  Is that male photographers are more likely to produce the Trophy images that are often featured in the overly colourful issues?  Are female photographers not as aggressive as their male counterparts when it comes to advertising and promotion?   Is it that many women are not typically interested in swimming in the typically male banter of pixels and aperture blades that so often dominates photographic get togethers?  Is that women are not yet in many leadership positions at local and national spheres?  Or is it simply a matter of access?  

I belong to a wonderful print critique group where I do not notice that I am the only woman.  At these meetings we present images, final versions, work versions, pieces of larger projects, beginnings of visions, and we all over up critiques and suggestions.  At these meetings the focus is on the image, not on the how, but more so on the why.   Degner spoke of having long ago belonged to a women-only photography group, where they met to shoot, and talk, and support.  Maybe that is what I need?  I can hear certain people scoffing, why does it matter, work is work, and good work will prevail.  Sure, it should, but does it always? And it matters to me because I am a woman and I am a photographer.

Light

I went to a meeting last night of the Guelph Photograpers Guild (GPG) where we watched a DVD on Portrait Lighting, and I got to thinking about a number of things.  I am not a fan of non-commercial portraits, not interested in shooting them, sitting for them, or looking at them, and I really don't understand the draw of non-commercial portraiture.  I don't mind a contextualized portrait with the subject in an appropriate environment, but just sitting on a chair with a gaggle of lights seems so contrived.  Or sets of portraits, supported and united with a vision, something greater than the image, I enjoy that.  One-off images, or those without purpose, just seem flat and empty.   I just find that when you are photography a person you are asking them to make a contribution to your image, and having a purpose makes the process a little more respectful.  Often, people-shooters speak at great lengths about capturing an authentic quality of being associated with their subject.  They try to use their photography to present a greater Truth about the person.  I think you can capture and authentic quality of being to a moment, one where the image evokes the same response as when the subject was viewed, but I think far too often that moment is miscontrued as the subject's personality.  How can you attempt to tell someone's Truth when most someone's don't even know their own Truth? 

The DVD also talked about light, how it is the most important tool the photographer had.  Well, I scoffed openly because light is what it is, your eye, your brain, and your heart are the most important tools you have.  Maybe this is where some of gender differences surface in photography.   Men, I find are more interested in control lighting situation, and women, in my experience, aren't nearly as a constrained when it comes to making images with whatever light is at the scene.

I bought a magazine yesterday with an interesting article by Darwin Wiggit about Trophy Hunters v. Immersion Shooters which looks to be an interesting read.

Cabin Thoughts

Welcome to Cabin Thoughts.   It will likely having nothing to do with Cabins, and more to do with thoughts, just that being in a cabin, the warmth of a wood stove, winter piling up outside is particularly conducive to good thinking.  This is not necessarily what I think this space will be about, but perhaps it will serve to record some of those thoughts.  I am sure these thoughts will pass through photography, vision, process, team, growth, giving back, general development....  and hopefully it will improve my writing!