Something significant has changed in how I see photography

[West Coast Birder]

I debated whether to post this in the 2025 photographic goals thread but then decided that it doesn't quite fit there.

I wanted to share something very interesting that has happened over the last couple of months for me. In the past, my photography has very much been a goal unto itself. Whether it be taking the perfect shot of the bird or the mountain or scenery, I spent a lot of time trying to understand how to improve my technique to get the shot. I had no particular talent for it, and I didn't always come away with what I wanted to do but every time I picked up the camera, the focus was always on the photograph itself.

A couple of months ago, something changed. As some of you know (and others probably guessed from my location info), I live in Santa Barbara, fairly close to the UCSB campus. I was out on the campus a few weeks ago and came upon several sculptures and other objects of outdoor art and they piqued my curiosity. Who created them, and what were their motivations or vision for the piece? How long have these sculptures been on the campus and when where the created? The photograph merely became a conduit, an extension of my eyes and indeed, my memory, since the view in your mind's eye is fleeting, and the photograph retains the memory that fades with time. For every photograph I took, I took time to research the artist, the history of the object, the artistic vision of the creator, and so on. I found my own knowledge of art gravely lacking and a lot of my time, far more than the time I took walking around the campus and hunting down the objects, went into reading and understanding not just these specific pieces but art itself. The result of my expedition is captured, somewhat tersely, in a thread I created here. I merely provided links to the background of the art pieces, but I did the background reading on them personally. It was fascinating to me - as an engineer and left-brained to the n-th degree, I don't have an artistic bone in my body, but I was more than intrigued. I have become somewhat obsessed in trying to understand the mind of the artist. That has become the focus of my walks, not the photography itself.

As I sought to explore the Arts Museum on the UCSB campus, I came upon an exhibition of one of the works of the Japanese visual artist and writer Taeko Tomiyama. I have spent the last couple of weeks photographing the exhibition. Once again, I have felt drawn to the artist, her vision and motivation, and trying to understand how she imagined the thoughts that then traveled through her fingers into the canvas that was in front of me. I have had to do a lot of background reading, Japanese history and culture being something I am not very familiar with, leave alone the artistic elements from that part of the world. Of course, I am interested in executing the photography well - otherwise, I would have merely snapped cell phone photos, but once again, the photography has become merely an accessory, a tool, for me to delve into the art and the culture and the mind of the artist herself. I hope to share my findings with all of you in the next couple of weeks - I still have to delve deep into understanding some of the ideas and thoughts she has tried to convey through her work.

My thoughts have wandered to what my next project might be. I have wanted to visit the Santa Barbara mission for a while, and perhaps I would like to explore the history of the Spanish missions of Southern California. It is one of several ideas bouncing around in my head. The last two projects I have taken on have been immensely satisfying. I feel like a whole world has opened up on front of me - something that has been there all along but something that I am only now tentatively sticking my toes into and exploring. Picking a project, a unifying theme, and then understanding the art and culture and the history with my camera assisting, is exciting. With my retirement imminent, hopefully I will have a lot more time to pursue this.

I hope this makes sense. It has been a bit of a stream of consciousness, typing all this, and I hope it hasn't come across as rambling. Comments welcome. I hope this sparks some discussion.

 

[DavidWatts]

It all does make sense, absolutely. Before photography took ahold of my time, my mother loved to talk about lighthouses and covered bridges, among her other interests. After she died, I found myself wondering what she found alluring in those historical structures. I began to photograph some of those on vacations, but poorly. The more lighthouses and bridges I located, the more facts and history behind the scenes I wanted to know. I was photographing -- and learning. Understanding more of those times and the reasons these designs changed and matured over the decades drew me in further. When I shoot these now, I try to also capture some of the marvels of engineering and architectural significance as they sit in their landscape. Developing a deeper understanding of a subject can only enrich the results.

 

[West Coast Birder]

David, that sounds like a very interesting quest. We also have a lot of covered bridges here in the Pacific Northwest. I have always wondered what the history of those were, as they seem to be rather idiosyncratic things, perhaps cultural. It would be great if you share your findings on covered bridges. If you have time, of course.

 

[shinksma]

Ah yes, the old "I do this, and I try to improve, but why am I doing this?" question.

I don't have an artistic bone in my body

I would disagree - your photography is your art. Like all artists, you start out learning, developing a preference, then a style, then you maybe explore a different style or purposely "break" your technique. You aren't carving marble, or painting a canvas, or playing a guitar, but it is indeed art. And eventually you may ask yourself:

OK, I'm enjoying doing this, but why am I doing this? Is the photo the end product, and once I perfect the photo, I'm done? Or is there a "meta-purpose" to this activity, that ties it together in a "sum is greater than the component parts" way?

It sounds like you have made that second leap, to incorporating your art into something more than just a collection of photos.

I take photos for a variety of reasons that have varying degrees of meta-purposes:

Personal Memories: Visual reminders of where I've been, and with whom.
Factual Memories and satisfying curiosities that tell a larger story: ah yes, this old church in Nuremburg, and the history behind it (much like your journey)
Technical challenge: Trying to improve BIFs (and similar stuff like dragonflies in flight) - for some reason I really stink at those. Macro photography is technically challenging, and results in some pretty awesome / unusual photos.
Appreciation of wildlife: colorful birds, turtles laying eggs (and crows stealing them), otters or seals playing in water, etc

And of course sometimes you just want to get a nice photo of your cat or dog.

 

[West Coast Birder]

Ah yes, the old "I do this, and I try to improve, but why am I doing this?" question.


I would disagree - your photography is your art. Like all artists, you start out learning, developing a preference, then a style, then you maybe explore a different style or purposely "break" your technique. You aren't carving marble, or painting a canvas, or playing a guitar, but it is indeed art. And eventually you may ask yourself:

OK, I'm enjoying doing this, but why am I doing this? Is the photo the end product, and once I perfect the photo, I'm done? Or is there a "meta-purpose" to this activity, that ties it together in a "sum is greater than the component parts" way?

It sounds like you have made that second leap, to incorporating your art into something more than just a collection of photos.

I take photos for a variety of reasons that have varying degrees of meta-purposes:

Personal Memories: Visual reminders of where I've been, and with whom.
Factual Memories and satisfying curiosities that tell a larger story: ah yes, this old church in Nuremburg, and the history behind it (much like your journey)
Technical challenge: Trying to improve BIFs (and similar stuff like dragonflies in flight) - for some reason I really stink at those. Macro photography is technically challenging, and results in some pretty awesome / unusual photos.
Appreciation of wildlife: colorful birds, turtles laying eggs (and crows stealing them), otters or seals playing in water, etc

And of course sometimes you just want to get a nice photo of your cat or dog.

Good points! My journey has definitely taken me from the technical end of the photographic spectrum to where the focus, pun intended, is less on the technical stuff and more on the story. But it will always be a blend of the two. Otherwise, I would sell all my gear and just take crappy cell phone photos!

 

[Cliff Hilbert]

I shoot to capture the beauty on the scene before my eyes so that I can enjoy it again and again after I get home. I also see photos that others have taken in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, pictures that I really admire like Ray Redstone's, Stan's, Win's and others, and I try to capture those scenes next time I go to those areas. .

 

[Tronhard]

For me a photograph can be a statement in its own right - especially if it is abstract or intended as Art with that capital A. However, for many other types of photographic genre, having context adds to the image. For example, news or journalism cries out to tell a story, but more context can add to that significantly. For that reason, many of my images of animals come with some kind of commentary to add significance, especially for those animals that viewers may not be familiar with.

A series of photographs may in themselves have a contextual gravitas. For example, Bernd And Hilla Becher’s Industrial Photography incorporating a series of images taken from directly side on and presented in sets was a classical example of gestalt - the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. See: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/07/bernd-and-hilla-bechers-industrial.html
These are structures that, seen as individuals, could simply be dismissed as ugly pieces of infrastructure, when presented en masse, develop a life of their own.

 

[Pantry42]

I have always tried to find information on the subjects I take photos of, be it places, buildings or structures. The phrase 'Every picture tells a story' is something I can relate to whatever the scene or subject.

 

[Skygod44]

Sam,
This whole thread has been a thrilling read, better than many a novel, to be sure.
And it's only just starting out.

Your opening comments reminded me of so many facets of human life, and how we "adjust" them. Or simply discarded them, as we mature.

As a non-musician, I have no comprehension as to how my wife can look at a piece of paper covered in what seems to be the result of a team of drunken ants, with inked feet, walking over it...
...and then, seated at a piano, she takes that mess of footprints and makes music.

But she has no idea how I can take a photograph. Or shoot video. And then spend hours editing it into something I'm happy with. The technical side neither interests nor makes sense to her.

Music, photography, videography and editing are, I think, forms of art.
Music drifts off into the ether, whilst our preferred format, by its very nature must be pondered upon at leisure.

And digital has, in some ways, made photography more universal, while it has reduced the fidelity of music; have you ever simultaneously played a CD and vinyl LP of the same piece of music, and switched between the two?
The difference is like chalk and cheese

Back to photography though, and in my case, these days, I need to spot potential images, capture (and maybe share) them...and then throw them away.
I store almost nothing.
To me, capturing light needs to be as fleeting as light itself.
This is how I've changed.

Cheers,
Simon

 

[stevejack]

Great write up and I completely agree, and don't worry it makes perfect sense.

One of my favourite photography quotes is by David Hurn:
"The fundamental issue is one of emphasis: you are not a photographer because you are interested in photography...The reason is that photography is only a tool, a vehicle, for expressing or transmitting a passion in something else. It is not the end result."

Our camera is like a skeleton key. It gets us access to places and people that we otherwise wouldn't have a good excuse to approach. And if we can create a compelling picture while we're there - it might just encourage someone else to explore the same subject in greater detail as well.

Thanks for the post, I love reading about people who've gone through the same transition as you just have. It's one of the best things about photography.

 

[West Coast Birder]

Thank you all for your insightful comments. It has been and continues to be a journey for sure, going through life and seeing the world around you through evolving eyes. The photography has been both a tool and as Steve says, a “skeleton key” to open doors hitherto shut. Having used up two-thirds of my time at the crease, to borrow a cricket expression, in a relatively benighted state, hopefully I can do better with the remaining one-third.

 

[stevejack]

Thank you all for your insightful comments. It has been and continues to be a journey for sure, going through life and seeing the world around you through evolving eyes. The photography has been both a tool and as Steve says, a “skeleton key” to open doors hitherto shut. Having used up two-thirds of my time at the crease, to borrow a cricket expression, in a relatively benighted state, hopefully I can do better with the remaining one-third.

Well Salgado made his best work during his 40s and 50s and is still exploring new projects in his 80s. Never too late!

 

[great grandma Rosalie]

Sam I think you have ended up where I started out. My father was the real photographer in the family. He started taking 35 mm color slides in 1942. I never thought of myself as a photographer. I am just someone who takes pictures of what interests me because I want a record of what I saw. My focus was on taking the most interesting picture I could and I wasn't really into the technical part of it. I did take an adult education class where we were told how to load our own film and develop and print it, and I found it very interesting, but I didn't continue after the end of the course. (Anyone want an enlarger?)

I got into a discussion on a photo group on FB where we were encouraged not to use auto settings. And I tried that. But it was too boring and slow to be setting the f/stop and exposure each time. I just want to take pictures. And if they come out good - I'm happy. So my pictures are not the wonderful lovely ones I see that you guys are posting. I'm OK with that. My mother was also someone who took pictures -she started when she was about 9 years old.

In about 1963, my mother and I took the slides that my dad took and wrote down (on the slide and in a notebook) what the subject of the photo was, and rated it on a scale (E, VG,G,F,P), and made index cards for the subjects, cross referenced with the slide numbers. So if we wanted to find a slide of a stork or one of a rainbow, we could go to the Stork or the Rainbow card and find what slides there were with that subject. At that point I think my dad had taken about 3500 slides, and I had maybe 1500 (I started in 1958) When my dad died in 1973, he and my mom were up over 12K slides, and I stopped numbering mine after about 9K

What I really want to do is write about my pictures and explain them. So when I take a picture of a lighthouse, I want to tell the story of the lighthouse - in addition to the details that we can see. When I travel, I take lots of pictures, and I write up each day in an email - now with digital I can use my pictures to remind me what I did and saw. I started this when we started traveling south on our sailboat for the winter in 2000. I wrote emails to my mother who was 91 years old. When I get home, I make up a blog and insert appropriate pictures into the narrative. My mother died at almost 97, but I keep on writing my emails.

I feel a little tentative about posting my pictures here because I'm not really a photographer. If the exif data doesn't tell me what the settings were, I would have no clue. But I will post some if you guys don't mind that I have words with my pictures

 

[pegelli]

I feel a little tentative about posting my pictures here because I'm not really a photographer

Don't worry Rosalie, I tremendously enjoy seeing all the different places you have visited through your eyes. That was so on DGrin and now also here. In the end all the rest is just technical stuff, sometimes interesting but never essential.

I basically have three major motivations for my photography.
First is to try and take "nice pictures in good light and a pleasing composition", can be landscapes but also nature, architecture, street shots etc. I hope these photo's are also liked by others when posted here or on other fora.
Second is to remember where I have been, light/composition is not as important and these photo's are posted less on fora or shown to others, they're mostly just for me. This catagory also covers the family snaps of get togethers and travel we do.
Third is to photograph items I'm interested in and also spend a lot of time reading and learning about the background. Examples are vintage steam, railway transport, military heritage buildings, but also wildlife, birds, macro of flowers, bugs and fungi.

It's certainly possible that some of my photo's fit in two or all three of the catagories above, and you can see why I wrote in my introduction when joining the site that I am a "jack of all trades and master of none" since I never specialized in one photographic area but spread it very broadly and therefore I will have to accept that I will never be a true master in one specific area of photography, but so be it, it's the diversity that is most fun to me.

 

[West Coast Birder]

Sam I think you have ended up where I started out. My father was the real photographer in the family. He started taking 35 mm color slides in 1942. I never thought of myself as a photographer. I am just someone who takes pictures of what interests me because I want a record of what I saw. My focus was on taking the most interesting picture I could and I wasn't really into the technical part of it. I did take an adult education class where we were told how to load our own film and develop and print it, and I found it very interesting, but I didn't continue after the end of the course. (Anyone want an enlarger?)

I got into a discussion on a photo group on FB where we were encouraged not to use auto settings. And I tried that. But it was too boring and slow to be setting the f/stop and exposure each time. I just want to take pictures. And if they come out good - I'm happy. So my pictures are not the wonderful lovely ones I see that you guys are posting. I'm OK with that. My mother was also someone who took pictures -she started when she was about 9 years old.

In about 1963, my mother and I took the slides that my dad took and wrote down (on the slide and in a notebook) what the subject of the photo was, and rated it on a scale (E, VG,G,F,P), and made index cards for the subjects, cross referenced with the slide numbers. So if we wanted to find a slide of a stork or one of a rainbow, we could go to the Stork or the Rainbow card and find what slides there were with that subject. At that point I think my dad had taken about 3500 slides, and I had maybe 1500 (I started in 1958) When my dad died in 1973, he and my mom were up over 12K slides, and I stopped numbering mine after about 9K

What I really want to do is write about my pictures and explain them. So when I take a picture of a lighthouse, I want to tell the story of the lighthouse - in addition to the details that we can see. When I travel, I take lots of pictures, and I write up each day in an email - now with digital I can use my pictures to remind me what I did and saw. I started this when we started traveling south on our sailboat for the winter in 2000. I wrote emails to my mother who was 91 years old. When I get home, I make up a blog and insert appropriate pictures into the narrative. My mother died at almost 97, but I keep on writing my emails.

I feel a little tentative about posting my pictures here because I'm not really a photographer. If the exif data doesn't tell me what the settings were, I would have no clue. But I will post some if you guys don't mind that I have words with my pictures

This, this, and so much of this! I relate to everything you are saying, Rosalie! The story behind the picture - that is what I think I am drawn to more and more. The photo is part of the story.

Please don't feel tentative about sharing your photos (and your stories). One of the great things about a site like this is the wide range, both geographically and interest-wise, of the members. I have seen so many places and things that I might never see in my life in person. And learned so much about them. We are all so much the richer for the experience, even if they are often vicarious.

 

[great grandma Rosalie]

There are hazards with just taking a lot of pictures. For one - you don't really see what you are looking at. I was video taping my son's cross country and it wasn't until I looked at the tape afterward that I realized he had jumped the wrong jump, and should have been disqualified. Also if I am photographing an event where I have a significant emotional reason to want a good outcome, I sometimes photograph the ground instead of the action.

 

[Greyswan]

Good points! My journey has definitely taken me from the technical end of the photographic spectrum to where the focus, pun intended, is less on the technical stuff and more on the story. But it will always be a blend of the two. Otherwise, I would sell all my gear and just take crappy cell phone photos!

I agree with Shinksma - your photography IS art. I am a painter and sculptor as well, and the photography is simply a different tool. We explore the possibilities just as we do with painting or sculpture - we try different techniques and drill down into our own style. It's no less creative than any other art.

I do think, when we are younger, earning a living, we don't always take the time to explore our creative side, or sometimes are simply not encouraged to do so, and as we get older we have the time, and have seen enough art around us to develope an eye for what we like. Brushes are simply tools, as is the camera.

 

[tony-s]

I've been shooting my Fuji X-T4 with the EVF in B&W (Acros) to see if it changes anything about what/how I shoot. Too early to tell, though.