February 27, 2018

Here's a quote from one of my favorite books by Steve Simon:

“Finding great light and strong content, then figuring out the best camera angle and framing, capturing the decisive moment with the right lens, with the focus locked on, and with the best (and correct) shutter speed/aperture combination for that image is no easy task, particularly when many of these things are out of the photographer’s control. You don’t need them all to come together for every photo to be successful, but why settle? Aim high (The Passionate Photographer, 2012)”

This sums up my life perfectly. It's not uncommon for people, who are not familiar with the photographic process, to think that making a photograph is so easy, that all you have to do is click the shutter, but there's so much more that goes behind creating the photograph. You can create a technically perfect photograph but it doesn't have strong content or any feeling with it. You can create a photograph that evokes some kind of emotion but it's done with weak technical execution, which sometimes can still work if the content is strong enough but let's say, the lighting is poor and doesn't help to support the mood of the subject content, then it can also not work out. If either scenarios play out, you can at most, make a good photograph. However, if you want to create a photograph that is superb, then you should always strive to create a photograph that has great lighting, subject matter, feeling, framing, angle, composition, moment, the right lens, the right depth of field and correct shutter speed. It's not easy and it can take more than 20 shots to get all of that together. You just have to keep working the photo. It's something I always strive for and I am still learning to get there. Like Steve Simon says, aim high.

Leave a comment