SEE WITH YOUR IMAGINATION, NOT YOUR EYES

It has been a couple of years since I touched on this topic, but I get so many comments on it that I think it's time for a revisit. 

When it comes to photography, the eyes see too much. I don't photograph simply what my eyes see. To do so limits me. I don't try to just get the best photograph of what I see. Instead, I ask, "How can I make this look? What's my message? What made me stop?" I use the answers to those questions to help me with how I am going to translate that object or subject into something we call a photograph. I don't see with my eyes; I see with my imagination. My right brain shakes hands with my left brain and says, "I have an idea, and this is what I need from you." 

Let's start with this example. On the left is a photo of what my eyes saw. Beautiful flowers. Ugly background and surroundings. My right brain, my imagination, kicked in. I had an idea. The idea was to do a double exposure, but just of the flowers, isolated from that ugly background. When I visit botanical gardens, I always carry with me a large non-reflective piece of black flannel material.

The first step was to get the best composition of the flowers, and the appropriate f/stop setting to make sure I would cover the grouping of flowers. I set my camera's multiple exposure feature to give me two exposures. I set the delay self-timer to 10 seconds. Click! During those 10 seconds, I walked behind the flowers and held the black material behind the flowers. My camera was then ready for my second exposure. I took my standard 3 steps for this type of shot: 1) Change my f/stop to a shallow f/7.1, 2) Set my lens to manual focus and take the flowers slightly out of focus, 3) Underexpose the second exposure by a - 2/3. Click! The camera was still set for a 10-second delay. I walked behind the flowers and held the black material behind the flowers, like before. Done!

         

       
                              BEFORE                                                                         AFTER

I don't have a Before photo for this next example, but imagine this scenario: a duck in the water. On the surface (no pun intended), that thought doesn't convey a great, dramatic photo, does it? Let me take you inside my (right) mind.

The water on the lake reflected various-colored trees from the surrounding area. I saw whites, browns, and greens. Tall trees; long reflections. I also noticed the vibrating motion of the reflections. If I underexposed the scene, I could exaggerate the colors in the reflections--they would "pop." By doing that, I would also get a very fast shutter speed to freeze the motion in the water. But wait, there was one more element to add to my composition! I saw a duck to my right, moving to my left, toward the area I had chosen to photograph. I waited until the duck came into view in my viewfinder, and with my camera already set for fast continuous shooting: clickclickclickclick. Done!

                                 f/9     -2 stops underexposure!     1/800 shutter speed     

Next time you see a puddle of water, don't jump in it. Photograph it. 

It helps if we take the labels off. When I saw this, I didn't see a puddle; I saw art. This puddle was at an elevation of about 10,000.' Not a car in sight.

I watched an Aztec dance troupe for several minutes. Their costumes were historic and colorful. Their dance moves were fast. I took several photos, at high shutter speeds, which is a typical response when shooting fast-action dancing. However, I started thinking that I wanted to also capture the essence of the dance, and not simply the dancers frozen in time. For that idea, I switched to slower shutter speeds to capture the essence; the spirit of the dances. 

I took a walk in downtown Boulder, Colorado after a rain. As I walked under a bridge, I noticed this unique mural of a wolf on one of the bridge supports. I stared at the interesting mural, then looked to my right and noticed a puddle. A mural to my left; a puddle on my right. My imagination kicked in. I no longer just saw a wolf and a puddle, but a wolf in the puddle. The thought occurred to me that if I jumped across the puddle, then lowered myself closer to the ground, I might pick up a reflection of the wolf in the puddle. I was no longer seeing with my eyes, but with my imagination. Click. 

So, don't just photograph what your eyes see. Let your imagination do it for you.
I look with my eyes; see with my imagination. 

Have fun exercising your imagination. Don't limit yourself. Contact me if you want a 1-on-1 field lesson or a ZOOM lesson. 

www.elivega.net     Eli Vega Photography on Facebook.