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.
|
Original digital capture
Pictures Come from Pictures WeekThis week will see the 1,000th post in this series, so it seems like a good time to scan back — way back — to my beginnings. Each day I'll look at a contact sheet (above) from my film archives and compare it to a more recent image of the same visual idea. There is nothing new under the sun, or as Carl Chiarenza says, "Pictures come from pictures." The contact sheets are all from the mid-1980s or 90s. The revisited images at left are all digital images after 2005. The Backstory:In 1995, I visited the Big Obsidian Flow in the Paulina Buttes in central Oregon. Using my view camera and b/w film, I shot images I knew I was going to be excited about. The sheen off the glass rocks was gorgeous. My images were not. "Someday, I'll have to get back there . . ." I did in 2018, this time with a Panasonic G9 digital camera, a perfect match to capture the reflected sky and surrounding rocks. We know we can't go back, but sometimes going back is moving forward. I love the color version of this subject and have no doubt I would not have photographed it if I hadn't been there in 1995 and failed. I call this one, Cosmic Jackrabbit Samurai Warrior. |
