Every Picture Is a Compromise
Lessons from the Also-rans
Most photography websites show the photographer's very best work. Wonderful. But that's not the full story of a creative life. If we want to learn, we'd better pay attention to the images that aren't "greatest hits" and see what lessons they have to offer. Every picture is a compromise — the sum of its parts, optical, technical, visual, emotional, and even cosmic – well, maybe not cosmic, but sometimes spiritual. Success on all fronts is rare. It's ok to learn from those that are not our best.
This is a series about my also-rans, some of which I've been able to improve at bit (i.e., "best effort"), none of which I would consider my best. With each there are lessons worth sharing, so I will.
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Original digital capture
What I saw that I liked:Kelp chaos floating on gentle swells. Version #1:The above was photographed in 2004 and I liked it back then when I made it. I still do. But what I didn't know was that I wasn't done with this subject. Version #2:Carl Chiarenza did a wonderful little book titled, Pictures Come From Pictures. I love this observation of his and have found it to be so, so true. We live, we learn, we grow, we mature. And from our previous work, we sometimes progress and improve. The trick is to grow, not merely repeat ourselves. The image at left was photographed in 2019. In the intervening 15 years, I started to do more work in color. One evening on the Oregon coast, from our motel room overlooking the ocean, the setting sun provided an opportunity to revisit the floating kelp I'd photographed 15 years earlier in Washington. Pictures come from pictures. Thanks, Carl. |
