Thoughts on Photography

Evolution of a Photograph

I earned a day off of work today, so I decided to reconnect with my love of photography and photo processing.  I spent the morning browsing through unprocessed images from a trip I took to South Africa last November.  One of them caught my eye as having potential to be a nice image.  But as with most RAW images, it's kind of hard to really see the whole potential of an image until the post processing begins. 

The image below shows the evolution of the post processing.  On the left is the RAW capture.  The middle image is what I first envisioned.  The image on the right is what evolved as I will discuss below. 

I decided I wanted to make this image a simple, colorful landscape. But when I was finished, I had the image in the middle and was pretty unsatisfied with the result.  I mean, who needs another colorful landscape shot.  How predictable and uninteresting.  It doesn't have a mood, it doesn't feel like art.  It feels like a nice vacation snapshot.

My thought process then turned to what I disliked most about the image...the predictable color.  It's just too pretty.  I liked the tonal range of the image and the composition, but the color was just too much.  Plus it was just to crisp and clean.  I decided it would be more interesting if it had the appearance of being an old photograph.  More importantly, I wanted it to look like an old photograph from a cheap camera.  This means manipulating the color to appear faded, and the sharpness to appear made from a cheap lens.  Finally, I found it irresistible to add some other elements of aging.  What I ended up with is something I feel is a complete blending of art and photography.  This is really where I want to be with my work. 

It wasn't immediately apparent to me as I began processing this image what I would end up with.  Experimentation yielded something I am very happy with.  Let me not forget, that most of my favorite images came from fairly uninspiring RAW files like this one.  It just takes a little vision and a little time, and most of all, a disgust for the predictable. 

Photo Snobs?...I think not

The comments from my last post about Photographic Angst were so darn good that I've decided to pull some of my favorite quotes.  Hard to believe someone actually considers Lost In Focus photographers and visitors to be snobs.  The comments I received were exactly what I would expect from people who are passionate about photography, yet completely clear about our place in the craft.  Here's what you had to say:

Jeff

I do strive to create significant work - I don't think there's anything wrong with that. By "significant" I mean good, interesting, high-quality. What's wrong with that?

Jude

...if one was complacent they would never progress and become even better. I also don't think it's wrong to expect "significant" work from yourself. The key, my friend, is finding work that is significant in your own eyes.

Craig

I'm not sure I agree with the assessment that the internet has caused new photographers to think that they need to always produce significant work...Any pressure one feels is, I think, self-imposed and not an intrinsic quality of the digital/internet photography community.

Kal (himself and quoting others)

...much of that self-imposed pressure may create angst, it is driven less by our need to create significant work as measured by our own standards, but by those of others..."photographs are the dead leaves of life"...after I am gone, they will tell my story.

David

You should be driven by the need to produce original work because you have a unique vision...Great photographs don’t come by that often you’ve just got to be ready when they do.

I consider myself lucky to have found a group of photographers so diverse, yet so passionate about photography.  Better yet...everyone has opinions!   Let me finish with what was my favorite comment from the post.  It is something that I think captures the spirit of the photographers and visitors to Lost In Focus:

Do I think I need more by way of experimentation, etc? hell yeah!

Do I think I need to improve in 100's of ways? um, duh .. of course!

Do I think I own the visual world? are you kidding? it's got my name all over it ;)

- Jude