Paul Cezanne Quote

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.

On Balance III

I quoted Rudolf Arnheim a few posts back with his contention that our eyes have been reduced to instruments with which to identify and measure. And through a devoted study of his writing I have come to agree with him but the question remains, "How do we retrain our eye to find what we have been missing?" "How do we find the recognizable mental impression of something?"

My first indications in life that I had to retrain my eye was when I would come upon a scene that absolutely took my breath away and yet my photographic endeavors of such scenes were amateurish at best. My search for photographic methods to improve my photography helped but lacked a certain predictability and looked like everything else. I was looking in the wrong area for improvement.

On Balance II

Discussions on balance in regards to photographic composition seem to be superficial at best to me. There are good reasons for this among the vast majority of photographers but if you want to distinguish yourself you have to go the extra mile and get down into the nuanced details and understand composition at a whole new level.

Consider that painters sometimes take years to determine their compositions of which balance is an essential part. They'll make a sketch of the crucial elements and they'll contemplate it for a while and then develop another sketch and contemplate that one for a period and on and on and on until they come to a solid conclusion about the message they want to send. Granted, photography can be thought of as completely different in this respect but it's really only a different point of view of the same coin.

Upcoming Display

I will be showing seven of my pieces at the Riverwalk Art Center in Fond du Lac, WI this Friday 20 Jan, 2012 from 5 to 8PM. The pieces I will be showing are:

Heavenly Bodies, 24"x48" on aluminum
Bryce Canyon Amphitheatre, 24"x18" on aluminum
Moonlit Castle, 24"x16" framed and matted
Monument Valley Sunrise, 24"x16" framed and matted
Storm Over Zion, 24"x16" framed and matted
Arches Sunrise, 24"x12" framed and matted
Chapel in Autumn, 15"x20" framed

I hope to see you there.

Doug

Anonymous Quote

Before you compose your picture it's a good idea to ask your self why you're doing it!

Bryan Peterson Quote

There is no better time to crop a bad composition than just before you press the shutter release.
 

On Balance ... but Composition First

When I first started in photography, a lot of the essential qualities about composition confused me to no end. Regardless of who was explaining it to me, I just could not get the concepts of movement, tension, and balance. And without a solid understanding of these and other compositional qualities, how could I compose a picture with a clear message? I couldn't.

Except for the occasional accident my pictures lacked direction or originality. I could copy a technique, which I quickly found to be unsatisfying, but I couldn't get composition!

Composition is taught as a series of elements but it seems to me the most important part of composition is assumed to be understood. I believe the success or failure of a work rests upon the clarity with which we understand the message we want to convey and our understanding of how we see.

I remember back in the early 80's I was working on a composition of an old boat grounded along the shore. It had been there so long that it was visibly rotting and one of the things I really liked about the scene was the bright green moss growing on the stern of the boat.