Creating shots

Calina

Some time lately I was at an exhibition of photography in London which allowed me to discover an American photographer called Art Wolfe. I liked a lot of what he is doing and discovered he had a blog.

I found this on it today. It's actually a discussion on how he created one of his photographs...I thought it was interesting because one of the things which has been mentioned here before is how you need patience to create these things.

I'd be tempted to do a tour with him but I'm afraid 8000 dollars to go to Antarctica in 2010 is not happening at the moment.

oshead

I really like his work. About a year and a half ago I bought a DVD set called Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe. The locations he traveled to in making the series were amazing. If I had the money and time i'd definately be tempted go to Antarctica.

Valentia

Same here. One of the first things I would do if I came into some cash is head on one of those trips. Ah! It would be something!!

AnCatDubh

I think (or at least I have found) that as you progress along your personal photographic journey and where time permits you to think about your composition that you start to consider more what the end product you hope to get should be like. With that in mind you tend to manipulate your physical environment, your shooting position, and camera controls and options (lens etc) as best you can to match your composition aspiration.

This however obviously doesn't work for spontaneity. Where you simply need to shoot from the hip and it might work out right, and then again it mightn't.

Fionn

if anyone has €2 grand i'll take them on my trip around the isle of Man!

serious!!

Valentia

AnCatDubh wrote: »

This however obviously doesn't work for spontaneity.

I think it does. What happens is that a persons skills and technical ability improves to the point where they become second nature. The photographer does them without realising it. Thereby allowing spontaneity.

The video above shows what would be a typical scenario for most photographers. I think he may have known, instinctively, when he had the shot he wanted. The video tends to make the process sound more complicated than it was I think. As I've said many times before patience plays a big part in this type of photography but because something takes a bit of time to do doesn't necessarily exclude spontaneity........I think.

njburke

I enjoyed the video.

What I saw was critical iteration , Art reviewed his progressive attempts, he evaluated each shots/result and made corrective decisions based upon each exemplar, depending on the field this method has different names, to me the best fit is,trawling the soloution space, he had a particular goal in mind and when it appeared, he was there to close the shutter, but not just by chance.

This is what an ape does picking termites from a mound, by using a stalk as a tool, the technique is effective, it has delivered us to where we are today, on our hind legs where we belong.

What I found refreshing, was his demonstration of the fundamentals in particular ,the compromises made for the exposure, and of course the fact that he shares the details in the video. To me , Art is demonstrating trade craft, other practitioners wrap this up in a book/course/revenue stream.