One9Design

Nearly every respectable photographer that I follow online advocates shooting a lot to improve your photography. That idea was actually the original impetus of this blog. Much of this advice to shoot a lot comes from the experience of these photographers, but some have invoked the “10,000 hour rule.”

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell stated that to be great one has to put in 10,000 hours of practice. There is actually some scientific research behind this that goes a bit further. The research shows that greatness comes from accumulating “deliberate practice”. You need to practice with specific, measurable goals and on a regular basis. You also need to review your practice to see if you met your goals. If you walk around simply clicking the shutter without any specific goals in mind you are wasting your time. You cannot just keep shooting to get better; you need to shoot with intention.

What I did not realize is that with photography you need to shoot first in order to discover your intention or your photographic vision. I did not realize it until I took a ton of shots at a triathlon recently. As I was reviewing the shots I found that I was taking a photojournalistic approach to the race as opposed to trying to catch great moments. I started with the preparation in the transition area and followed the racers through the different phases of the race. I also was most fascinated by the determination, joy, and introspection apparent on the faces of the participants. I did not consciously make this my goal but in looking at the images it is easily a recurring theme in the images.

What I believe is the most neglected and elusive element of good photography is composition. There are easily thousand of photoshop tutorials and tons of information on lighting, but not a lot of good stuff on composition. I recently finished Michael Freeman’s The Photographer’s Eye. Great book on composition and design for photography. How do you have a specific goal to practice composition? I think that going through a good book or resource on composition and focusing on one element at a time may be a good way to structure practice. The elements and principles of design as outlined by Freeman in The Photographer’s Eye seem as good a place as any. Another may be to take David duChemin’s TEN or TEN more and work through one of those principles for a few sessions and see what comes of it.

The feedback part is a little tricky. You can of course compare your work to the concept and see where you fell short. The best feedback will probably come from external sources. The internet is a great tool but unless you can find credible folks to actually critique your work it may do more harm than good.

So the next race I shoot I will take that with me and hopefully have a lot more keepers.

This past weekend I was planing on shooting my friend Joel’s Jazz Quartet at our favorite wine bar, Tessora’s. I was thinking that they would set up inside and I would be able to get some good shots with my homemade mini softbox. This was not the case. The warm summer evening compelled them to set up outside by the patio. Once we got there the light was quickly fading. “No problem,” I said to myself, “I have my 50mm f1.4 in the bag.”

I didn’t. It was at home in my other camera bag.

So. I have my 28 – 70mm f3.5-4.5, my flash and my wits. I almost gave up. I decided to try somehting. I put my flash in wireless IR mode (no sync cable or radio triggers either) put on my stofen, attached an index card, and set the flash on the floor in front of Joel. I then started to play. In hindsight I should have upped my ISO to about 400 or 800, but I have a fear of noise (I don’t own Noise Ninja or even Photoshop for that matter). I only took a few shots as I was not really satisfied with the results from the back of my LCD.

f4.5, ISO 200, 1/100, 60mm

Once I got home and on the computer, I was able to salvage this in Lightroom. I am actually pretty happy with it.

Lessons Learned:

1. Don’t be afraid of noise from high ISO settings. Try it out before ditching the idea.
2. Make sure you have all the gear you want to have
3. Keep all decent exposures until you have at least reviewed them on the computer. The LCD can be misleading.

In the Marine Corps (at least when I was in) there are three levels of marksmanship: marksman, sharpshooter, and expert. When I first enlisted I was a marksman and for years I could not get over that hump to expert. It was not until I had a very different marksmanship instructor once I became an officer that I was able to get over the hump. I cannot remember this guys name but he was a character. The quote I remember from him most vividly: “This morning I gave myself a check up from the neck up and found myself OUTSTANDING!” He refused to call us “marksmen” and “sharpshooters” and instead told us to refer to ourselves as “frustrated experts.” How we talked about ourselves would influence our performance on qualification day. I have decided to apply this to my photography. I am going to refer to myself not as an amateur or hobbyist but instead as a “frustrated artisan.” I am not yet sure if I want to make a living with photography but I definitely want to become an artisan. Let me define what I am talking about: The ability to consistently and deliberately produce photographic images that have emotional impact beyond their own context. There are three elements to this definition:

1. Consistent & deliberate. Now when I get a great image it is usually rare. Most often it is accidental. Often I don’t even have a vision in my mind I am just hoping to get the exposure right and maybe apply the rule of thirds. Once I can get a great image on purpose and without 100 bad images along with it, I will be on my way.

2. Emotional impact. Does the picture make you feel something? How powerful is it? Does it take you somewhere you are not exactly comfortable being? Your kids school photos or maybe your wedding photos will have emotional impact for you. They may not have impact for me which leads me to…

3. Cross contextual. If I can look at your wedding photos and feel that impact, the image is cross contextual. When I look at the work of Avendon or Ansel Adams I feel that. The photos are powerful even though I have no direct attachment to the people or places in the images.

As I unpack “frustrated artisan”, my goal is to remember where I am on my photographic journey and keep myself motivated to keep improving.

Now stop reading this and go shoot something. That’s where I am going.