For the past several post, we have been taking a look at the wonderful world of composition. We have discussed the need for first having a reason to take the photo. It's hard to know how to get the shot or know when you've gotten it if you don't have a clue as what your reason for taking the shot and the story you want the shot to tell. And that has led us to the discussion on "how?" to take the shot and with our first glance into the "how" abyss we got just a small glimpse of how many different considerations there were to consider and we only saw the stuff on top. So I'm sure that the suspense is killing you. The tension is so thick you can cut it with a weed whacker. But before we hit the 10 meter diving platform we might want to cover another part of "Why".
Many years ago I heard one of my "friends" say, "The more I learn, the less I know." I really don't remember much about the circumstances surrounding the event with the exception that the statement made me stop and think for a minute to fully grasp it. Once I did, I realized how important this idea was and put it into my "life toolbox" and have tried to live by it as much as I can. Have you caught the meaning of those words yet? I am reminded virtually every day of this phrase but since I came back from Richard's Big Adventure out west where I started on my ponderings I have found a renewed appreciation for it. An ex-wife had a similar saying, "Ignorance is bliss". The Bible states that there's nothing new under the sun. I get a kick out of people who think they have created something or discovered something "new". I don't know how many times I've heard that a new species was discovered and make out like until they found it, well, it didn't exist. We all know that it in fact did exist, we just didn't know it. But if we didn't know it existed the day before it was found, then did it really exist. Ignorance is bliss! The fact is that everything exist, we just haven't discovered it yet. Does that make us stupid or just uninformed. I'm reminded of an incident that happened in a local trade school many years back. Several student were taking an electronics class and were about two weeks into the program. The instructor had just finished discussing how one type of circuit worked and immediately started discussing how another type of circuit worked. Instantly, one of the students became notably frustrated. When the instructor ask why, the student replied that he had signed up for the course to fix radios and was getting impatient to do so. The instructor put down his book, set down on the corner of his desk. He leaned over toward the student and ask these very simple but poignant questions. "How do you know something is broke when you don't know what it does? How do you fix something if you don't know how it works?" I saw a similar situation in the volunteer fire department. Everyone would show up to fight a fire but getting those same people to go to training to learn how to fight a fire was a whole different story.
We live in a microwave society where everyone wants what they want right now without making the effort to learn how to do it. We go to the store and purchase some frozen microwavable foods, throw them into the microwave until they're hot, take them out of the microwave and throw them on the table, and "voila", they're a chef. Gang, just because someone owns a Bible doesn't mean they practice what it teaches. Just because you own a hammer and a saw doesn't make you able to build a house. There is a lot of automatic settings in the world but that doesn't mean that they provide the best results.
As we dive further into photo composition, one of the things I'm sure you will notice sooner or later is that you may have not given any thought to some of the things that go into the composing of a photograph. Many might even question whether it's even important to take these many complicated thing into consideration when all we have to do is set our camera on auto and let it do the work for us. Yes, you will get a photo that is generally in focus and evenly exposed and would probably meet the "good enough" criteria, but is it really. How do you know that's the best photograph you can get if you don't know how to get a better photograph? An example of this happened just today at one of our theatre venues. I had noted the past few visits that I had made to that location that the photo seemed a little dark and grayish looking in some parts of the photo. They looked OK and guest were buying them but still I just wasn't happy with the look. Tonight when I stopped by I had the time and the equipment on board to try to improve the looks of the photos. I used the experience and knowledge I had to choose a setting and location for an additional flash and adjusted the angle and placed a diffuser on it and had my manager take a shot. The result was a vast improvement over what we were getting. The color and lighting was much better. Was it perfect? Are you kidding? It could have used more tweaking but perfection in the photo is not necessary as situation doesn't call for that. But it did call for better results than we were getting. My point is that if my experience and knowledge of photography stopped at the automatic setting, well the photos would still look like they did and who would have noticed cause there was nothing to compare them to.
As my experience and studies continues, I find that the more I learn, the less I know. It seems that as I learn something new it serves to open the door for two or more things I don't know. It's that three steps forward, two steps back thing. It seems in order to be better the trick is to get dumber not because I'm not learning but because as I learn I discover a bigger and more exciting world of photography has been there waiting for me to turn a corner and see it. I believe that as long as we continue to push the envelope there will always be something waiting for us to discover just around the next bend.
When I was take a training class there was a sign that had been hung over one of the blackboards in a class room that read, "When you're through learning, you're through!" We can't serve our clients to the degree they deserve if we remain satisfied with the just good enough thinking and the I just don't want to waist my time learning anything attitude. So as we continue on our quest remember that there really is a good reason to learn all these things. We do it to separate our work from the ho hum and mundane work that seems to be running amuck! So, do we want to get better and smarter at doing our work? If so, let's get dumber!
Well, we will continue looking at composition next post. Until then, have a great day everyone!
Richard
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