Albert Einstein And Photography
Wondrous patterns in the water off Prion Island, South Georgia.
Here’s a quote from Albert Einstein that I believe is of paramount importance to aspiring photographers.
“The rational mind is the servant and the intuitive mind is the gift. We honor the servant and have forgotten the gift.”
I’m convinced that most photographers place far too much importance on their camera kit and, as a consequence, fail to recognize and nurture their own unique, creative spirit.
What I believe Einstein is saying is that to be able to make use of science and the rational, logic seeking mind to quantify, understand and explain the beauty of existence you first need to learn to perceive it beyond the usual five sensory organs.
Sight
Smell
Touch
Taste
Hearing
Intuition should be trusted for I believe that to understand something, you first need to experience it.
I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to be in a zodiac inflatable boat off the coast of Prion Island in South Georgia when this image presented itself.
Elephant seals were popping their heads out of the water but I was fascinating by abstract patterns that formed on the surface of the water.
I had my camera ready and made the right decision, based as much on intuition as anything else, to point my camera and expose a single frame before this lovely moment disappeared.
Having my camera set and being alert to possibilities was important. But there were other photographers in the zodiac and being in the moment is really what made this photo possible.
Abstract image from the beautiful La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Your Camera Must Serve Your Needs
More and more technique seems to dominate our education and equipment our photographic practice.
Software companies release so-called major upgrades to their products on a regular basis.
Likewise, camera manufactures launch new feature heavy and megapixel laden cameras on a similar timeline.
Some folks barely get their head around these products before new ones are released onto the market.
Does that make last years model redundant? Hardly!
When it comes to cameras most folks are so overcome by complex interfaces and a plethora of options that they give up and set their camera to fully auto.
As a consequence they end up using their fancy pants, do almost anything camera pretty much like they use their phone: to go snap.
It’s so important to be able to control the feel as much as the look of your photos. Given that your camera doesn’t know what you’re actually photographing how could it possibly know what feeling or mood you want to explore?
Take a look at this scene from the beautiful La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Being able to control exactly which parts of the image were sharp and which parts rendered soft was crucial to creating a sense of mystery and transience in the image.
Now you either like it or you don’t, and it’s far from my favorite image from that particularly photo walk. But it’s an image that marks a significant departure from the kind of photo most folks would make at that location.
And it’s from such points of departure that your own unique creativity is best explored.
Photoshop is no easier for the novice to comprehend than was the case with previous versions.
Thank goodness for products like Adobe Lightroom which, unlike Photoshop, is designed primarily for photographers, professional and enthusiast alike.
After a little quality tuition the user is well on the way to producing excellent results without too much trouble.
There are so many ways that Lightroom can help you better organize and develop your photos.
Actually I wrote a post titled How To Rate Photos In Lightroom which, if you’re already a Lightroom user, I’m sure you’ll find worthwhile.
But is it necessary to buy new software, computers and cameras and, for that matter, mobile phones every 18-24 months?
The manufacturers want us to believe it is and their marketing programs use the old features/benefits approach to convince us that we’d be much better off with the new product.
Despite the obvious financial implications of buying into this philosophy, is it the right action to take?
Do You Really Need a New Mobile Phone?
I had my first mobile phone, an Ericsson, for around five years. It was a top of the line model and well built. I bought it to last and I looked after it accordingly.
I only upgraded, to an iPhone 3Gs, when the old Ericsson phone died.
That might seem like radical behavior in our contemporary throw away culture. You could never hold me up as being a slave to fashion.
Over the years I’ve upgraded my iPhone several times. I currently own an iPhone X and I’m quite happy with it.
In fact I’m not at all tempted to upgrade. I need to see a real and definite advantage in upgrading before I spend the cash. I’m sick of incremental changes from Apple, a company I still admire but no longer revere.
Over the years I’ve purchased phones on a plan and also bought them outright. I did expect to move to a plan that would allow me to upgrade every 12 months.
But right now I just don’t see a compelling reason to do so.
Do You Really Need a New Camera?
It’s true to say that, during my many years as a photographer, I've bought and sold cameras much more frequently than I should have.
In fact I wrote a post titled Cameras and Adventures - A Fantastic Life which, if you’re into cameras, you’ll love.
There’s lots of film based cameras in that list and I got a kick out of writing it as it brought back a lot of memories, though no cash.
There’s no world records or bragging rights associated with the long list of cameras and lenses I’ve purchased over the years.
I wrote the post, for the most part, in the hope that it might draw attention to the psychology behind your own purchasing habits.
Who knows it might even save you some money.
Beautiful, luminous flower in the Calcutta Botanical Garden in Howrah, India.
Balancing the Rational and the Intuitive Mind
The theme of this article underpins much of my own philosophy towards photography.
We photographers need to balance our rational mind which is associated with logic, technique and equipment with our intuitive mind which is free, creative and experience driven.
The most boring photographs are often well exposed, sharp and made with the latest equipment.
Conversely, the most beautiful photographs often have little to do with the equipment used to make them and may not display particularly masterful technique.
The most beautiful and emotionally compelling images are not about the subject photographed, but about the photographer’s response to the event as it unfolds.
Through the process of making or looking at interesting images new possibilities or realities are experienced.
I believe that notion is expressed quite well in this photo of a flower in the Calcutta Botanical Garden in Howrah, India.
I was attracted to the various shapes and textures in the flower and I also like yellow as it’s such a happy and positive color.
The light wasn’t particularly flattering, but with some ingenuity and some fancy pants post processing the result takes what would have been a very straightforward, documentary photo to another place.
It’s not long a documentary photo, nor is it really an abstract image. But it’s moving in that direction and it’s what I refer to as suggestion.
I wrote a post on what I consider to be the differences between documentary, suggestion and abstraction in photography titled Abstraction Photography - The Guide. I think it’s a really strong post and I hope you enjoy it.
This probably seems like nonsense to a lot of folks, though I hope not to you.
It’s a key point of difference that separates the act of photography, as a relatively poor way to document our three dimensional world, with photography as an art form.
One deals with the illusion of factual documentation, the other with experience, beauty and truth.
I decided, long ago, which one to hitch my wagon to.
