This is a funny story, right? Or, is it sad. The philosophers among us may ask, is it better to avoid Milton or to avoid being like Milton? They may further question, is it better to tell Milton that his pictures suck – in the name of preventing his future embarrassment – or to grin and bear it as did Milton’s neighbor?

Milton’s enthusiasm is clear. His pictures are his memories. His motive in taking them is to preserve and later relive those memories, those emotions. Photographs are tickets to an emotional memory. Of course they are valuable to us! Even a clumsy snapshot can be valuable to one who was close enough to the subject and/or moment. That doesn’t mean, however, that my clumsy snapshot is going to be of interest to you . . .

And, thus it is with Milton. Milton sees Aunt Stella’s joy during last summer’s holiday BBQ, not the clumsy framing with the distracting tree branch growing out of her left ear. He doesn’t notice the harsh, patchy shadows falling across her torso or that her face is in such deep shawdow that it’ difficult to see detail.

Milton sees his wife’s happy face, not the raccoon-eye shadows caused by harsh, overhead daylight.

Milton sees a cute night shot of his daughter pointing gleefully at the distant fire engine pulling from its garage. He fails to see his daughter is harshly lit by on-camera flash, and all else in the picture is varying shades of black. Instead, he tells of the wonder in her voice as she watched the fire house come to life and the truck pull off, sirens blaring. Milton’s images are full of emotion – to him . . .

Truthfully, isn’t this the reason we take pictures? Isn’t there some root emotion behind each click of the shutter? Like Milton, many of us take pictures to preserve special moments. Others take pictures to capture a slice of the wonderment around us. In either case, a common root is emotion. We take pictures for emotional reasons.

Cameras are machines, incapable of emotion, wonderment, or thought. They are capture devices designed to capture rough approximations of reality. They compress our reality into their own version of reality, a flat, two-dimensional image. It’s the photographer’s job to manipulate these capture devices to improve upon the camera’s rendering of reality. It’s the photographer who must inject technique to compensate for, and overcome, the limitations of the camera. The mind behind the camera is more significant in the creation of a successful image than is the camera.

We, as photographers, must own the capture process. Recognizing that emotion will make or break an image, we must task ourselves to look for the emotional impact in our subject and find the best way to artfully convey it. Although Milton may have been spot-on in recognizing the emotional aspect present in some of his captures, he failed to inject the technique necessary to overcome his camera’s limitations and present his subjects artfully. Milton’s images fail to evoke emotion in his viewers. So, that’s why Milton’s pictures suck. They are emotionally flat to all but those close to the moment the pictures were taken.

Some thoughts on improving the viewer friendliness of our images:
1) Recognize that our goal is to draw emotion from our viewers. This is the ultimate objective. If the viewer doesn’t feel something when viewing an image, the viewer will not linger.
2) Learn to recognize the inherent emotional character of each scene. What motivates you to take the picture? This is the foundation upon which that image should be built.
3) Learn to use compositional tools to artfully enhance the presentation of your image: to pleasingly tell a story about the emotion you found in the subject.
4) Use compositional techniques to return a sense of depth to the otherwise flat image the camera will create.
5) Recognize that not every image, no mater how you work to pack it with emotional charge, will speak to every viewer. We all come from different backgrounds and will be more motivated by one subject than another, based upon our cumulative life-experience. Respect that and let it go.
6) Show fewer images! Stop laying out multiple shots of the same subject with only slight variations – unless you are specifically asking for opinion on which is better. Identify and show only your best images from a given shoot.

Think of what Jon Luc Picard, Captain of the Starship Enterprise, may say: “Engage!” That’s it! Simply stated, that’s our goal! We should seek to engage our viewers, sharing emotionally charged moments with them through our photography.

Picture sharing is like good conversation. Good conversation requires both parties to contribute. A warm, heartfelt conversation is not static or one-sided. You engage one and other. Your images represent you in that conversation. If your images feel more like when you talk to yourself, treat them accordingly. Keep them to yourself.

To take our “good conversation” metaphor one step farther: think of someone you know who is a master at conversation. What is it that makes them so engaging? They appeal to our emotions — don’t they?  They help us laugh, cry, think, remember, or see things more clearly. In short, they help us feel something. They create engaging conversation and, in turn, we engage them. We commit our own mind and emotion to the exchange.

So it is in sharing our imagery. As we photograph, we should think in terms of appealing to our viewers’ emotions. Ask: how can I craft this image to help them smile, laugh, cry, think, remember, or to see things more clearly? The dialog between photograph and viewer begins before the shutter button is pressed.

As the eye behind the camera, it’s your job to craft a compelling image using every technique available in illustrating the emotional content of your subject. Succeed at this and it may surprise you to have people ask to see your latest pictures.

Success in Seeing!

The Art of Seeing: part I, Introduction
Photographic Evolution Series

This next set of essays will focus (excuse the pun) on what makes a good photograph, well . . . good.

We’ll discuss the new-age question of getting it right in camera as opposed to fixing it later, in your image-processing software. Also, we’ll consider a topic near and dear to the heart of photo-viewers everywhere: what makes a photograph interesting? We’ll explore several key methods to improve your photographs.

If you succeed in harnessing these techniques, your audience will thank you and may even ask to see more of your images. Imagine that! To be asked for more photos instead of having to pursue your audience with baying hounds until they submit.

As camera people, there are steps we can take to better facilitate the image-sharing process. Like so many things in life, most of these steps are mental exercises. Although not excruciating, they will require some commitment to master – to become reflex. Developing these reflexes is the single most important process to budding photographers. It will become their foundation, their grounding.

Photography is much more than point-and-shoot. When pointing our camera at a subject, the simple act of releasing the shutter doesn’t guarantee a captured slice of reality. Cameras compress three dimensional scenes into boxed, two dimensional images. Spatial relationships are altered and dynamic scenes can be rendered flat, with diminished perceived depth.

Cameras may be limited in what detail and perspective they can capture, but the human mind is not. Ansel Adams, a master image maker from the Black and White genre, recognized the shortfall of photographic capture equipment. He devised a regimented workflow from pre-capture visualization to post-capture processing. His entire workflow existed to infuse the image with a sense of energy that had originally attracted him to the scene. It was Adam’s mind that made his work stellar, not his equipment.

So, in the next several essays, let’s explore the art of seeing. We’ll talk about baby-steps to better photography, “Rules” of composition, and defining your subject. We’ll discuss why and how to simplify your subject. We’ll also blueprint a sure-fire way to draw a more favorable response from your viewing audience.

Not everybody raising a camera to their eye is an artist. This may be true; however, anyone who desires to take better pictures can do so. It requires only a commitment to learn and a little practice.

As always, I like to keep things light. I’m easily bored when material gets too dry, so be forewarned! I’ll likely take a jab-or-two at your funny bone as merrily we roll along.

Stay Tuned,
-Mike.