ISO 200, 50mm, f/5.6, 1/640sec
Okay, I’m breaking my own rules. I just want you to know. I almost consider this not to be breaking the rules, as this is a holiday, so yeah… I’m not breaking the rules, I just decided.
This photo was taken this weekend. I shot 13 frames this weekend, five of which I adore. Normally in a situation like I found myself in I would snap hundreds of photos, hoping to pull out one or two good images. My practice is already paying off. I was able to really think through the process of taking a photograph, this resulted in a higher amount of good photos while lowering the amount of bad photos to weed through. I was then able to really spend some good time editing those five good frames.
After picking out 75 images out of say the 250 shot, I would always feel like I needed to race through the post processing in order to “get the job done”. This resulted in post-processing that was always a bit lack-luster, or at least not as good as it could be. So I am very glad to lower the amount of frames I shoot in any particular outing.
A New Approach
I heard an interesting discussion on a photography podcast that I listen to weekly (This Week In Photography). The hosts were talking about a study that MIT did on what makes a good photo. Now it doesn’t take a study from MIT to confirm what everyone is thinking, but this conversation got me thinking about my own photography. The study showed that the most meaningful photos are ones of people who are most important to you. A brilliant landscape just won’t hold up to a mediocre portrait of your wife. People are constantly changing, both inside and out, and if you are able to capture both natures at any single moment your photo will be priceless.
This makes me rethink taking photos other than those of the people I care about and the objects and places surrounding them. In order to snap a frame of anything other than something that has great intrinsic value to me it will have to be a thing that deeply moves me, or a series of images that voice a particular thought or idea that I feel needs expressed in this artistic medium. I am coming to realize that nothing else really matters in my photography. When I look back on a photo of a flower in twenty years, heck even a year, I won’t be moved by it. When I look at a photo of my child a year from now, I will be greatly moved.
Now, this story resonates with me as I am a family man. My family is the thing that is most important to me. I can understand that somebody like Ansel Adams would be more passionate about landscape, and thus be able to create moving landscapes that hold up over time. That was his passion, that is what he photographed.
To wrap this post up, I just want to tell you to shoot what you are passionate about. Don’t worry about trying to please everyone. Don’t over-think things, photograph what you love. Anything else is a waste of time.