The Landscapist nails it
In response to my post about my frustration with my photography, Mark Hobson, a.k.a The Landscapist, neatly summed up my problem:
Creating Art is an emotional, not an intellectual, act.
And he provided a way to start working on it:
Get your hands on a point-and-shoot, set it on Auto, take it everywhere you go, and just take pictures of anything that catches your eye.
I’ve heard this advice, or variations on it, several times in the past, notably from Ben Lifson. But it never quite sunk in. People would say: just shoot anything you see that interests you. Carry a camera around all the time.
But when I filtered what they said through my brain, I added an assumption: that I should try to make good photos of whatever interests me. So I would dutifully carry a camera around and, seeing something, would stop, try to frame it, think about the light, think about the composition, think, and think, and think. And then I would go home and expect to see successful photos. And, of course, I would be disappointed.
But the key is to eliminate all that thinking mess. And eliminate any expectations that these photos should be “good” or presentable. The important thing, I realize, is to act: take photos of anything that interests me. There’s tremendous value in that alone. And then I can look at what I have shot and, in each photo, ask myself why I took the photo. I believe this act of photographing without thinking and without any expectations of the results, and then reviewing what I have shot, will be the start of something wonderful.
I’ve been doing that for a couple of days now. I have to admit that it’s a whole lot harder than I thought it would be. I almost had to grit my teeth to take those first few shots. But I’m already beginning to notice things about my visual interests that I had been vaguely aware of before — things that I like to look at and would like to photograph but resisted because I didn’t think it would be an interesting photograph. I hope to teach myself to take photos of things that actually interest me as opposed to those things that my intellect says ought to interest me, or those things that interest other people. And once I recognize what I’m interested in, and have convinced myself to take those pictures, I can go to work on making good pictures of those things, whatever “good” may mean.
Tommy, I think the point and shoot is a good idea. After a long time shooting with medium format mostly on tripod I hit a wall. I just felt that I was doing the same old, same old over and over. I bought a Holga. Now I felt that I had no control so I just shot. Almost immediately a series of work found me. But most of all I found fun in shooting again. BTW, do you realize how many photos you have of plays of light in your house? They are tiny vignettes, almost abstracts. You should print some of them as big as you can and line them up. They are evocative.
In the 7 months ago, I quit my job at MS and started travelling. In the course of all that travelling, I’ve taken a few thousand pictures. It’s been rewarding to see my pictures improving as all the fundamentals of composition become second nature. At first, I really had to think hard about each shot – did it look as good through the viewfinder as it did when I first noticed the scene, what did I need to change to make it look better, was the subject actually interesting to begin with, etc etc etc. Now, I lift the camera to my eye and that stuff happens much more easily. Far more of my shots actually work and are interesting. I still get plenty of duds and I still have to work at it, but I’m definitely improving. Of course, travelling with an art major who can offer great advice is very handy, too.
Get out there and take pictures. Think about what you’re doing. Look at the pictures the same day and try to figure out what you could have done better. Work with your shots to see if you can make them better compositionally. Then go out and shoot some more. Rinse and repeat.
The bit I meant to add is that when you’re shooting rarely, you have to do all that thinking. When you shoot more often, you get to have more fun because the thinking becomes less of a burden.
I think this sums me up in a nutshell. I think we are in the same boat in this regard.
On a side note, your dog is gorgeous. I have a 7 month old chocolate lab, and i could take photos of her all day!