If anyone has been following me recently, you know that I am now diving deeply into high profile black and white imagery. I am loving it, I find the absence of colour refreshing. Re-imagining reality.
2 Types of Photographers
I made this statement in a Facebook group and got flamed. I truly have come to the conclusion that there are two main types of photographers. There are creative ones and there are technical ones. Some argued that they are both but I tend to think they are not looking closely enough. Out of the photographers I know, if the person is super creative, they usually don’t bother themselves with the technical side of things. They can do what they do extremely well, but they have no idea about the how or the why.
The thing many creatives have in common is that they look at their gear as tools and care very little about the technical details of what they are using. Many of them know what they need to know to accomplish their particular work, but they just don’t care further than that. They don’t spend their time wondering if lens A is better than Lens B, they are too busy just creating.
I’m the nerd that researches every potential piece of gear to death before buying, making sure that I procure the best possible gear. I waste so much time learning and reading that I don’t even have time to shoot. How unproductive is that? I have made a few decisions lately that I am hoping will get me out shooting more and spending less time reading about it…..or watching YouTube videos as it were. I am making a real effort to spend much less time diving into technical mumbo jumbo and more creating some art.
The image below is actually a very old image but it has been my most popular image. It is Breakwater Park in Kingston long before the renovations that we see today. It isn’t a true monochrome but it’s close and I have decided to pursue this type of thing more. I really appreciate the idea of capturing images with little if any colour. It opens up so much for the viewer.
Foggy Morning
Photo of the Week #231
The way I see it, there are two types of people who are photographers. This is generalizing it and there are of course exceptions but there are technical people and creative people. The technical people spend more time researching and learning about gear than shooting. I place myself firmly in this group. The other group are the creatives, the people who couldn’t care less about technical matters, they just want to be making good photographs above all else.
I have no idea if creativity is something you’re born with or if can be learned but I”m trying to look in different directions and to “see” differently. This image is one that I created recently using a double exposure idea. It is done in Photoshop as I want to retain control over the post-processing. My camera will do double exposure but it creates a jpg. output file that has already been processed by the camera.
Before and After
When photographing live events such as concerts, we like to compose the perfect shot all the time yet the reality is we can’t. Live stages are usually cluttered with lots of stuff like mic stands, amps, lights, monitors and assorted other distractions. When we are learning composition in photography, we learn that items that don’t help the image hurt it. This is often the case in concert photography too.
A friend who also shoots live music recently posted some of her work with before and after shots to illustrate how some of her work is edited. It got me to thinking about my own work and I got looking around at some photos that might be better images if they had a bit of help. After all, photography is art, right?
Some people are purists and feel that photos should never be altered. That subject is often debated in photography circles but my personal feeling is that my work is my art and I can do whatever I wish to make it my own creation. Another factor that I hear a lot is that some people who don’t wish to spend time at a computer processing. I actually enjoy my time processing images, watching them take shape from raw data to art.
The above images are Max Kermen of Arkells with some simple edits that I feel makes it a much stronger image and really, the biggest change is just simply removing a mic stand and a person. Both of these items were a distraction in the frame. The smoke was added just for a bit of interest in the new negative space that I created.
I would love to hear any thoughts you may have. Feel free to leave a message.