An Unusual question fro all of you - part II??

[qtluong]

I've been faced with this situation at times. For my National

Parks project, I often travel to a remote area for a relatively

short period of time, during which I want to bring back some

good (whatever it means) images. What I found help me the most was

<ul>

<li> Understand the location and the light, in order to

be able to select the right subject for any given conditions.

Previsualize the effect of changing light, and return later to

nail the image.

<li> Keep moving, watching, and exploring. The more you see, the

more you are likely to find something to your liking.

</ul>

[nicholas_f._jones]

Stephen,

 

<p>

 

Although there is clearly some difference of opinion regarding

specific approach, I am entirely in sympathy with your basic aim of

ensuring success and increasing productivity--if success and

productivity mean eventually creating images the photographer can be

proud of. Particularly for those of us who are amateurs who must

adjust their photographic work to a bunch of other overriding

obligations, it's esp. important to go about this complex business in

a methodical and premeditated way. While it's true that in our own

case some of our best images were the impromptu result of on-the-spot

inspiration, it's also true that on the average the harder we work,

the luckier we get. So here, in brief, are the stages of preparation

and execution we work through. They assume that the vision is in

place, that the photographer is animated by some artistic impulse,

that it's basically a question of acting on something that's already

in your head.

 

<p>

 

 

 

<p>

 

(1) Rehearsal. Many have said it in this forum before: practice,

practice, practice. We sometimes take the camera out without film

and go over the sequence of steps, esp. the movements. Important for

amateurs like us who don't shoot enough to retain what we've already

learned from outing to outing.

 

<p>

 

(2) Previsualization. Tuan just mentioned this. I picked it up from

the athletes. I mentally put myself in the field where we plan to

shoot (often a place we've been before) and visualize location,

position of sun, probable range of values, distance of subject from

camera, etc. etc.

 

<p>

 

(3) Check list. It's so easy to forget something, esp. if you've

come from a different format where you don't have to use a dark slide

as lens hood, or lift a sagging bellows, or have to worry about

excessively shallow depth of field. Our check list is in our heads,

but my wife and I are always catching something the other forgot.

 

<p>

 

(4) Take notes. One of us sets up the camera, meters, works with

movements, the other takes notes on everything. Let's face it, some

of our best shots were pure luck, but without notes we'd never be

able to recover what we did. Equally valuable for understanding and

hopefully eliminating mistakes.

 

<p>

 

(5) Follow through. I develop every sheet, even an unexposed 8x10

one time. I test print every developed sheet, no matter how awful.

We're still at the point (and probably always will be) where we can

learn something from every exposure, good and bad. It's in the post

mortem that the real progress is to be made, I think.

 

<p>

 

Photography at this level requires a lot of attention to mechanics,

so the practitioner is an easy target for the charge of excessive

preoccupation with technique. But all of us know that without

mastery of the craft, there will be no satisfactory results however

inspired the vision. I don't think you can have one without the

other. Nick and Marilyn.

[tom_gage]

great question...my response is a little late but since i just found

this place yesterday-4/10/02, what the hell..similar to another

response, i just decided to leave the 4x5 system at home and

now use a very simple, elegant 2x3 camera called the galvin view, that

i bought on ebay for $400.00...it uses horseman 120 roll film backs and

with a carbon gitzo tripod and small back pack i can go all day and

never feel over over loaded...i am my own llama...also, using roll film

uninhibits me...hand processing b&w sheet film is laborious and the

thought of "just more darkroom work" sometimes stops me in my

tracks...i give generous props to any one using an 8x10 or larger

format without an assistant but for me a lighter load in general seems

to be the answer for uninhibitted creativity in the field...not a

personnally imposed creative quota...tg.